It is finally the day the drought will end. But before the rains come, the people must repent and be forgiven. Elijah sets up this contest on Mt. Carmel to prove decisively that Yahweh alone is God and there is no other. Through this contest, God will win back the hearts of his people and release their grip on their pathetic idols. He will forgive and restore; then the rains will fall.  

Years into the drought and finally the time has come for it to end. God will bring forgiveness and rain. But how? First, Elijah initiates and seeks out Ahab. In his encounters with Obadiah and Ahab we learn about worship and loyalty and the God who is determined to show himself to his people in order to forgive them.  

As the drought continued and the brook dried up, God provided for his prophet, but in a very surprising way. He sends Elijah right into the heart of Baal’s land to find provision from a desperate and impoverished gentile widow. While Israel remains faithless, God chooses and shows grace to these foreigners, which anticipates the blessing of God going to the nations in the gospel.