Acting on Jezebel’s Urging Ahab, the king of Israel, wants a vineyard belonging to Naboth. It’s close to the palace and a perfect spot for Ahab to plant his vegetable garden. In exchange for Naboth’s vineyard, Ahab offers to give him an even better vineyard someplace else or to pay him what it is worth. […]
A Devout Believer Obadiah (4) is a devout believer of God. (He is not the prophet by the same name, who lives much later.) The Bible contains only one story about this Obadiah, who serves as palace administrator for the evil King Ahab. During the time of Ahab, king of Israel, there’s a three-year drought, […]
Our first encounter with Elijah in Scripture occurs when he goes to King Ahab to warn of a famine-producing drought; no dew or rain will fall until Elijah says so. During this famine, God provides for Elijah, first through ravens at a brook and later through a widow in Zarephath. After three years of no […]
After Solomon’s reign, the nation of Israel splits into two countries. David’s line continues to rule the nation of Judah, while other kings reign over the rest of Israel. Both nations have God as their legacy, but the kings of Israel are consistent in not following him. They rebel and do evil. One such king, […]
Ahab, perhaps Israel’s evilest king ever, marries Jezebel, daughter of a foreign ruler. Under her depraved influence, Ahab starts worshiping her gods, instead of the true God. Jezebel hunts down and kills God’s prophets, while she provides sanctuary for hundreds of the prophets of Baal and Asherah. God’s prophet Elijah has a public smackdown with […]