You never forget a first impression. When you first meet Elijah, you notice his confidence in the Lord: “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word’” (1 Kgs. 17:1).
At this time, the nation of Israel was going from bad to worse. Each successive king led the people further away from God and deeper into sin. King Ahab was serving the idol Baal, and the Lord declared he was the worst king in Israel’s history. Yet to many people, Israel seemed to be thriving, enjoying a period of peace and security.
Then, out of nowhere, Elijah boldly appears and marches uninvited into King Ahab’s palace, makes his pronouncement, and just as quickly departs. Talk about making a first impression!
How could Elijah do this? We all wish we could possess such confidence. He seems like a remarkable man, so we might assume he was simply born confident. But notice what James says: “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” (Jam. 5:17). Elijah was just like any one of us. So where did his boldness come from? Three statements in 1 Kings 17:1 reveal the source of Elijah’s confidence.
Confidence in God’s Power
“As the LORD God of Israel lives”
When an electric circuit has power, we say it is live. Elijah proclaims that God is alive; He is not dead. Elijah believed that God was powerful and real. God was not an abstract religious idea to him, but a living and personal God. He reminded Ahab that Israel’s God is Jehovah, not lifeless idols like Baal. Peter later affirmed the same truth about the Lord Jesus: “Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).
Ahab and his wife Jezebel believed God was gone and forgotten, but Elijah was confident that God was living and powerful, even during those dark days. That leads us to his second statement.
Confidence in God’s Presence
“Before whom I stand”
Elijah was not only convinced that God was powerful, but he was also confident of God’s personal presence. He declared that he stood in the presence of God; he lived knowing God was truly with him. Paul also confidently said: “I charge you before God,” which means “in the face of God” (2 Tim. 4:1). As C.I. Scofield observed, “It was a small thing for Elijah to stand in the presence of Ahab, because he was used to standing in the presence of God.”
The ruthless reputation of King Ahab didn’t intimidate Elijah, standing before God was what truly mattered to him. When Elijah entered Ahab’s palace, he wasn’t merely standing before the king; he was standing before the Lord, with Ahab simply present in the same room. Elijah’s words reveal his confidence that God was omnipresent, with him wherever he went, even into the court of the worst king in Israel’s history.
Not only did Elijah stand before God, but he also stood for God. He was God’s representative and messenger, bringing the Word of the Lord. That brings us to his third statement.
Confidence in God’s Promises
“There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word”
Elijah took God at His word. He believed that God would fulfill His promises. But why did Elijah declare that it would not rain? Where did this conviction come from? To understand the full story, we must look at two other passages in the Bible. First, Elijah was familiar with God’s promises found in Deuteronomy 11.
I will shut off the rain
“Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you” (Deut. 11:16-17).
I will give you the rain
By contrast we read earlier in verse 13: “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil” (Deut. 11:13-14).
If the people served other gods, God would shut off the rain, but if they obeyed His words, He would send it. Elijah knew these warnings and promises, and more importantly, he believed them. In fact, he was so confident in them that he referred to them as “my word.” (1 Kgs. 17:1).
The second passage is from James in the New Testament: “…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (Jam. 5:16-18).
Elijah was acting on the truth of God’s Word. He stood firmly on the promises of God. His prayer to God and his words to King Ahab were the result of knowing and believing the promises found in Scripture.
Elijah prayed, even though 1 Kings 17 does not mention his prayer explicitly. To understand the full picture, we must consider all three passages together: Elijah’s proclamation (1 Kgs. 17), God’s promise (Deut. 11), and Elijah’s prayer (Jam. 5). God made the promise about stopping the rain. Elijah prayed, claiming God’s promise, and then God stopped the rain. Only after that did Elijah make his pronouncement to Ahab: “It is not going to rain except at my word.”
Elijah was a devoted man of prayer, but we know nothing about his prayer life until we read about it nearly a thousand years later in the book of James. Imagine him praying in his hometown of Tishbi, watching his community change as idols were set up in that remote village in the rugged hill country of Gilead.
But you might ask, “I am not Elijah, what can I do?” “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jam. 5:16). The prayer of a single righteous person is powerful and effective. One person prayed, and God answered.
The question is not only whether I know the promises of God, but whether I truly believe them. That is what faith is: believing what God has said. Elijah prayed in accordance with God’s promise that it would not rain, and when Israel returned to the Lord after Mount Carmel, Elijah prayed again, and the rain came (1 Kgs. 18). Fellow believer, the same resources are abundantly available to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. May others’ first impression of us be that we have confidence in the Lord’s power, the Lord’s presence, and the Lord’s promises.