by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Sep. 2, 2026) — Who is your Ahab?
Not Herman Melville’s obstinate ship captain who chased Moby Dick, the great white whale.
I mean the obstinate king of Israel who knew what it would take to end the drought he instigated yet clung to his ways.
You know someone like that.
Stubborn. You’ve told them God’s ways. They know they need to change but don’t.
We meet Ahab in 1 Kings 16, and you instantly want to steer clear.
Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him (1 Kings 16:30).
His personal conduct aside, Ahab added a bad marriage. To this day we call diabolical characters after his wife’s name, Jezebel.
The Gospel is more than teachings to believe. The Gospel is to be obeyed.
Yet, God didn’t shy away. To get Ahab’s attention, He sent Elijah the prophet with news for the king.
As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word (17:1).
There it was: the forecast of an imminent, long-lasting drought and what it would take to end it—God saying, “Let it rain.”
Three years pass before we see Ahab again, and it’s another encounter with Elijah. The drought has sucked the life from the land, and Jezebel has busied herself slaughtering Elijah’s peers.
Ahab bristles when Elijah appears.
Is that you, O troubler of Israel? (18:17).
As someone has said, point a finger, and three point back at you.
Elijah replied, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals.”
God’s requirement was no secret.
Three years into a severe drought that his behavior precipitated, and knowing it would take a word from God to end it, Ahab was mired in stubbornness. He shunned the God of his own nation, devoted himself to foreign gods, and condoned his wife’s massacre of God’s prophets.
You would think, as the drought worsened, that Ahab would ask, “What will it take for God to give the word?”
He had to look no farther than recent history for the answer, to a prior king of Israel. The day he dedicated his magnificent temple, Solomon foresaw people like Ahab who would turn away from God and instigate droughts and other hardships.
Solomon prayed for their restoration, and God responded.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
There was Ahab’s answer.
Read the rest here.