Discovery Box1 Kings 18:27
Context18:27 At noon Elijah mocked them, “Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.” 1
1 Kings 18:1
Context18:1 Some time later, in the third year of the famine, the Lord told Elijah, 2 “Go, make an appearance before Ahab, so I may send rain on the surface of the ground.”
[18:27] 1 sn Elijah’s sarcastic proposals would have been especially offensive and irritating to Baal’s prophets, for they believed Baal was imprisoned in the underworld as death’s captive during this time of drought. Elijah’s apparent ignorance of their theology is probably designed for dramatic effect; indeed the suggestion that Baal is away on a trip or deep in sleep comes precariously close to the truth as viewed by the prophets.
