“I dare not do that,” says Obadiah, “for just as soon as I tell him you are here, the Spirit will catch you away and take you off somewhere else, and then the king will be very angry, and maybe he will kill me.”
“No,” says Elijah. “As the Lord liveth, I will meet Ahab face to face this day.”
So Obadiah hurries off to find Ahab, and tells him he has seen the prophet.
“What! Elijah?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you bring him along?”
“He would not come. He says he wants you to come to him.”
Ahab was not used to have people talk that way to him, but he was anxious to see the prophet, so he went. And when he sees Elijah he is very angry, and asks:
“Art thou he that troubleth Israel?”
“Not at all,” says Elijah. “You are the man that is troubling Israel—going off after Baal, and leading ever so many of the people with you. Now, we have had enough of this sort of thing. Some people are praying to God and some are praying to Baal, and we must have this question settled. You just bring all your prophets and all the priests of Baal up to Mount Carmel, and I also will come. We will make us each an altar, and offer sacrifice on it; and the god that answereth by fire, let Him be God.”