1 Kings 18:1-16
The LORD, who three years earlier had said to Elijah, "Get thee hence . . . hide thyself" (1 Kings 17:3), now orders him, "Go, shew thyself unto Ahab". The prophet is just as ready to obey in this case as in the other — an example to us who would perhaps tend, according to our nature, to show ourselves or to hide ourselves when God asks from us just the opposite!
What was Ahab doing during the terrible drought? We see him taking more care of his horses and of his mules than of the wretched state of his people. Obadiah, the governor of his house, who fears the LORD greatly, does not have the courage to separate from his ungodly master. He would have had to renounce his earthly advantage and perhaps have risked his life. Alas! like Obadiah, many Christians are not ready to separate from the world so as to please the Lord, because such a choice would cost them too much!
Obadiah is filled with fear when he is called upon to tell Ahab that he has met Elijah. He willingly takes pride in what he has done for the hundred prophets, but when it is a matter of accomplishing the simple service Elijah has asked of him, poor Obadiah lacks that which shines out in the humble widow of Sarepta: simple confidence in the word of the LORD.