Bible story · 1 Kings 17–19
Elijah the Prophet
Fire from heaven, a still small voice, and a God who doesn't always show up the way we expect.
Your storyteller
Told by Curtis & family
Curtis and his family are telling the Bible story of Elijah the prophet to children all over the world, just like a parent reading to their kids at bedtime. Get cozy and listen along.
Fed by ravens
Elijah was a prophet in Israel during the reign of a wicked king named Ahab, who had turned the whole nation to worship a false god called Baal. Elijah told Ahab that, because of this, there would be no rain in the land, not even dew, until Elijah said so.
Then God sent Elijah out into the wilderness, to hide beside a little brook. Every morning and every evening, ravens flew in carrying bread and meat, and Elijah drank from the stream. God was feeding His prophet, one bird at a time, in the middle of nowhere.
The jar that never ran out
When the brook finally dried up, God sent Elijah to a poor widow in a town called Zarephath. She had almost nothing left, just a handful of flour and a little oil, enough for one last meal for herself and her son before she expected they would starve.
Elijah asked her to make him bread first, and trust God for the rest. She did, and something amazing happened.
For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not run dry, and the jug of oil will not run out, until the day the LORD sends rain on the face of the land.’
Day after day, the jar of flour and the jug of oil never ran out, not once, for as long as the drought lasted.
Fire on Mount Carmel
Later, Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to a very public contest on Mount Carmel, in front of a huge crowd. Each side built an altar and asked their god to send fire down from heaven to prove who was really God.
The prophets of Baal shouted and danced all day long, and nothing happened. Then Elijah, calm and unhurried, rebuilt God's altar, and even had it soaked with water three times over, just to make the answer unmistakable. Then he simply prayed.
Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water in the trench.
The whole crowd fell to the ground, shouting, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”
A still, small voice
You might think Elijah felt brave and unstoppable after a miracle like that. Instead, when the wicked queen Jezebel threatened his life, Elijah ran away into the wilderness, exhausted, afraid, and discouraged. He sat under a tree and told God he'd had enough.
God didn't scold him. He sent an angel with food and let him rest. Then God told Elijah to stand on the mountain, because the LORD was about to pass by. A powerful wind tore the mountains apart, but God wasn't in the wind. An earthquake shook the ground, but God wasn't in the earthquake. A fire blazed, but God wasn't in the fire either. Then came something else entirely.
And after the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
God met Elijah, not in the loud, dramatic fire like on Mount Carmel, but in a gentle whisper, when Elijah was tired and afraid and needed Him most.
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