Let's get right to our study tonight in 1st Kings and it's going to be chapter 18, Lord

willing, chapter 19 next week on Thursday, but these two chapters are amongst the most exciting

chapters in all of the Bible. And I know I say that about a lot of the chapters in the

Bible but I've been really looking forward to chapter 18 this week and then next

week chapter 19 for a number of reasons not the least of which is for those of you

who went to Israel with us in the past we've been to the very place where this took place. And so

Mount Carmel where the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, that's what we're

going to see tonight. And so let's get right to it, but let's begin with a word of prayer

before we do.

Lord, thank you so much for your word and for this chapter that we have in your word.

Lord, there's just so much here and we don't want to miss any of it.

We, in fact that's why we're here tonight, Lord. We want to hear you speak

into our lives in and through your word very clearly and very specifically. And when you do,

Lord, we want to have ears to hear and hearts to receive. So Lord, please minister to us tonight we pray in Jesus

name. Amen. All right, let's jump in. Verse 1. And it came to pass, and this is after now Elijah has

been hiding from Ahab after telling him that there would be a famine

in the land. It says after many days that the Word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third

year saying, go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. So verse 2, Elijah went to present himself to Ahab and there was a severe famine in Samaria.

Now you have to understand, we're going to see this more here shortly, but for there to have been a famine in the land for what ends up being about three and a half years

was a smack in the face of the God Ba'al.

Because as we're going to see, he was the God of weather.

He was the God of rain.

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