Elijah and the Priests of Baal The Lord’s prophet
versus false priests
The kingdom of Israel
continued to suffer from having no water.
King Ahab told the people to
follow a false god named Baal.
The Lord sent Elijah the prophet
to meet Ahab.
Elijah invited all the people to
the top of a mountain.
He invited the king and his
priests to a challenge to see whether the Lord or Baal was the
true God.
Elijah explained the challenge.
He and the priests would sacrifice
a bull on an altar, but they would not light a
fire themselves.
Instead, the priests would pray to
Baal to start a fire.
Then Elijah would pray to the Lord
to start a fire.
Elijah knew that only the true God
would start the fire.
The priests of Baal prayed to
their god from morning until noon, but nothing happened.
Elijah joked with them and said
their god Baal must be asleep.
The priests grew angry, jumped on
the altar, and shouted into the evening.
They hoped their god would answer,
but there was still no fire.
Then it was Elijah’s turn.
He built an altar to the Lord, dug
a trench around the altar, and prepared the
sacrifice.
Elijah asked the people to fill
four barrels of water and pour them onto the wood of his altar
three times.
Water soaked the wood and the
altar.
It filled the whole trench.
Elijah prayed to the Lord to show
the true God’s power.
The Lord’s fire came down and
consumed the sacrifice, wood, stones, and
water.
The people knew that Elijah’s God
was the true God.
Elijah prayed that the drought
would end, and the Lord sent rain.