1 Kings 18:16-46 - Battle of Mount Carmel

We now come to the most famous incident in Elijah's life, the battle on Mount Carmel. 

Obadiah went to see Ahab, despite his misgivings, and so Ahab went to meet Elijah. Ahab called Elijah that "troubler of Israel", when in fact the truth of the matter was that it was Ahab and his idol worship that was the source of the trouble. This is what Elijah tells Ahab. Disobedience to God is the source of a nation's problems, not the prophet who tells them to repent. 

Elijah now summons the prophets of the false gods to a confrontation on Mount Carmel, there were over eight hundred of these. This is an indication of how deep rooted the baal and asherah worship had become in the nation.

Ahab agreed. When they had all gathered Elijah laid down the challenge. This was to see who was really God. The reason for worshipping the Lord is not philosophical, but the simple fact that He is Lord, He is the creator of all things and the sustainer of all things. The challenge was to the people, they had to decide who they would follow. But the people remained silent. However, Elijah was not leaving them to make the decision without evidence. Faith is not, despite the claims of atheists, believing something without, or even despite, evidence.

The challenge would be to see who would send down fire on a sacrifice, the baals or God. The battle was, in superficial terms, uneven. For there were over eight hundred false prophets, though verse 22 seems to indicate it was only baals prophets who were being challenged at this point. That still made it 450-1. The people agreed to this.

So the prophets of baal tried to get their "god" to send down fire, without any success. Elijah taunted the prophets. They tried all the harder, but to no effect. 

Elijah then restored the Lord's altar. Then he poured water over the sacrifice, just to make it clear beyond all doubt that only the Lord could send fire. Fire duly fell. The  people then had to acknowledge that the Lord was God. Elijah commanded that the prophets of ball be seized and slaughtered. 

Elijah then gives the message to Ahab that rain is about to come. This is a statement of faith. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and told his servant to look for a cloud. Eventually a tiny cloud appeared. Elijah then knew that rain was about to come.