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The Baal Apostasy of the Omride Dynasty and Elijah’s Challenge

The story of the rise and fall of Baal worship and kingship prophets in Israel

makes up the “center” of the books of 1 and 2 Kings (1 Kings 16:23—2 Kings 12; cf.

ABD IV:76). This apostasy is promoted by the Israelite dynasty founded by Omri (kings

Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, 842 BC-747 BC), and by Jezebel, the Baal-worshiping wife

of king Ahab. This Baal apostasy is defeated almost singlehandedly by the prophet

Elijah, assisted at the end by his disciple Elisha and an unnamed member of his prophetic

school (2 Kings 9). After fleeing before the martial power of king Ahab and Jezebel,

Elijah returns to Israel to call together the traditional covenant-making assembly of all

Israel to contest the dominance of the Baal prophets (1 Kings 18; cf. Josh. 24;

Deut. 31:9-13).

It is noteworthy that Elijah chooses for this contest, not an ancient traditional

center of Israel like Shechem, but the frontier region ofMount Carmel. Though

beleaguered and driven by Ahab and Jezebel both to the East and to the North, Elijah

adopts no retreating, citadel strategy. He challenges royal apostasy on the frontier, where

Baalism is likely the strongest and where Yahweh assemblies are without precedent.

There, Elijah defeats the Baal prophets in an ordeal by fire, and the assembly chooses

Yahweh as their God. To seal the success of this contest, Elijah says to the people, “Seize

the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.”Then they seized them; and Elijah

brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there(1 Kings 18:40). The Baal

prophets violate the first commandment; and Elijah administers the retribution prescribed

in technique law (cf. Exod. 22:20).

Elijah’s Pilgrimage to Sinai/Horeb

But Elijah discovers that the death of these prophets does not end the conflict.

When Jezebel is told of their massacre, she threatens him with death (1 Kings 19). Again,

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Elijah runs for his life, this time to the south. The flight becomes a pilgrimage of forty

days and forty nights, linking this personal event with the experience of Moses on

Sinai/Horeb (cf. Exod. 24:17; 33:17-23; 1 Kings19:12, 9-13).

On the mountain, God puts the question, and Elijah responds with his complaint:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”He answered, “I have been very zealous for

Yahweh, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown

down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and

they are seeking my life, to take it” (1 Kings 19:9-10; 13-14).

In this text, God’s question and Elijah’s complaint are stated word for word at

both beginning and end of Elijah’s experience with Yahweh on the mountain (19:9-10

[11-12]13-14; cf. above, Exod. 19:4-6; 24:3-8). Literarily, this repetition forms an

“inclusion” or envelope, here indicating the concern which the encounter at the center is

meant to answer. Elijah’s complaint is directed against Yahweh because of divine

inaction to support the prophet, whose life, because of past zeal for Yahweh is now

threatened: “... the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,

killedyour prophets. And,” he continues, “Ialone am left, and they are seeking mylife

(cf. 18:.13, 18, 22, 30).

By forsaking covenant and breaking down Yahweh’s altars, Israel is no longer

accepting law within the context of Yahweh’s covenant relationship and worship, but

instead, is substituting Baal’s kingship power context for law (cf. discussion of Exod. 19-

24). And as for the prophets, guardians of Israel’s covenant law, Israel’s kings having

killed them, now threaten Elijah. King, rather than prophet, is in process of becoming the

central “guardian” of law, like kingship law in other cultures of the ancient NE (cf. 1

Kings 21, esp. vv. 2, 3). It is noteworthy that our modern state law compares not with

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Israelite covenant law, but with power law of the other ancient NE states! Only

synagogue and church can provide a prophetic covenant context for law.

And what has Elijah been doing? As guardian of Yahweh’s law, he has been very

zealous for Yahweh God of hosts; he has killed 350 of Baal’s prophets (1 Kings 18:40).

“In the biblical tradition, human acts of zeal punished idolatrous violations of God’s right

to exclusive allegiance from Israel. As expressed in the First Commandment, God is a

jealous/zealous God who requires the allegiance of the people. Because God’s holiness

will not tolerate idolatry or other violations against the covenant (Exod 20:5; Deut. 5:9),

God will punish the whole nation for such offenses, unless someone acts on behalf of

God—zealous with God’s jealous anger—to kill or root out the offenders”

(ABD VI: 1044).

Elijah’s complaint is against God:“You ask, ‘What am I doing here, Almighty

One?’I have been very zealousfor you (cf. Exod. 22:20). But where have you been,

Yahweh God of hosts?”The biblical scholar F.M. Cross says that this title, Yahweh of

hosts wasoriginally “the epithet par excellence of the divine warrior in Israel” (reported

by Seow, ABD III:306). In a later narrative, this Warrior God responds to Elijah’s prayer

by raining down fire from heaven to consume the troops of Athaliah, son of king Ahab (2

Kings 1:9-12; cf. Luke 9:54). “I was very zealouson mount Carmel,” Elijah complains;

“but where were you, O Zealous One—Yahweh God of hosts (cf. Exod. 20:5)?

What Elijah Learned at Sinai/Horeb

The Warrior God, Yahweh (cf. Exod. 15:4), responds to Elijah’s complaint by

reminding him what Sinai law is like in its covenant context. Although Sinai is like other

NE appearances of divinity—when God had appeared at Sinai the people witnessed the

thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking

(Exod.20:18)—prophet Elijah is not to confuse the character of the Warrior God Yahweh