God told Elijah to go meet with Ahab. Elijah sent a message that he would be on Mt. Carmel and that Ahab should bring all the priests of Baal and Ashera and the whole nation of Israel out to watch what was going to happen. Once there, he challenged all the priests of Baal and Ashera to light on fire a sacrifice that they had prepared.
They prayed and chanted and cut themselves for half the day before Elijah finally prepared his own sacrifice and set it up on a little altar that he repaired with some stones. Even after pouring a ton of water over his sacrifice, Elijah prayed to God and fire rained down from the sky and consumed his offering. Now that the crowd was won over, Elijah told them to grab all the priests of Baal and Ashera and kill them.
Elijah then told Ahab to hitch up his chariot so he could get home before the rains started. This is during a huge drought without a cloud in the sky, so that’s quite a warning. Then, just to make sure he’s got everyone’s attention, Elijah ran all the way back to the nearest city ahead of Ahab’s chariot.
Once she found out what happened, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she was going to have him killed for what he had done to all her favorite prophets, so Elijah ran away. After wandering the wilderness in despair for a long time, God spoke to him and told him to anoint new kings of Aram and Israel and a new prophet to succeed him. Among the three of them, they’re supposed to kill pretty much everyone in Israel except 7000 men who have never worshipped an idol.
A little later the current king of Aram starts stirring up trouble in Israel. He captures Samaria and demands Ahab give him treasure and his best wives and servants. Ahab agrees to this, but then refuses when the king of Aram further demands that he and his men get permission to loot the homes of Ahab’s officials. It’s pretty clear at this point that he’s just trying to pick a fight.
Ahab’s in luck though because God hates Aram at this time even more than He hates him, so a prophet comes to tell Ahab that God’s going to hand Aram’s army over to him. They beat Aram once, but the aramian advisors think that they only lost because the God of Israel is a god of the hills, so they can win if they go back next year and fight the same fight again, but in the plains this time. They were mistaken however, even though they had a way bigger army than Israel, they get routed in the next battle too. Rumor has it that kings in Israel are open to negotiation though so they try to reason with Ahab, which works just fine actually. Ahab lets them go after a treaty is formed with Aram.
If you’ve been following along this far, you know that God hates treaties. When God hands an army over to you in battle, it’s because he wants that army to not be an army anymore. You’re supposed to destroy them and eat their children and kick their puppies. So that same prophet confronts Ahab again on his ride home and tells him that God is going to take his life in exchange for the king of Aram’s life, which rightfully belongs to God.
Ahab sulks back to his castle.
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