ABSTRACT
Such idolatrous practice was encouraged by Jezebel who wanted Baal to become the God of Israel. To combat this threat, the prophet Elijah was determined to prove the God of Israel was supreme. Thus he challenged 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah to a contest on Mt Carmel, near Phoenician territory. This had once been the site of an altar to the Israelite God, but it had been displaced by a shrine to Baal. There he and the Canaanite prophets prepared sacrifices and prayed to their respective gods to send fire from Heaven to ignite the offerings. Although the prophets of Baal and Asherah cried aloud in ecstatic frenzy and cut themselves with swords, no answer was forthcoming. But Elijah’s supplication was successful: ‘the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood and the stones, and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God”’ (1 Kings 18:38-39). Despite Elijah’s victory, Jezebel encouraged Ahab to follow Phoenician customs. She regarded the life and property of every subject as belonging to the king, and so had no hesitation in having the Israelite Naboth killed in order that Ahab
875-842 BCE Dynasty of Omri. Religious conflict during reign of Ahab, or of Omri, involving Elisha and Elijah
873-849 BCE Jehosaphat, king of Judah, allied with Israel and Tyre
842 BCE Jehu overthrows Omri dynasty
836 BCE Overthrow of Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. Restoration of Davidic dynasty
THE KINGDOMS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH
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could take possession of his property. But Elijah denounced the foreign queen, just as Nathan had previously rebuked David for similar unscrupulousness. For these early prophets, religion was bound up with life and politics, and not even the royal couple were above God’s law.
