Between the lines, of course, Elijah is saying, "Let's get this straight right here and now, Ahab! You are not the most powerful person in the land. That position is reserved for the living God of heaven, Jehovah, who is the sovereign Ruler over all. Can you stop the rain? No way. But He can. He can lock up those rain clouds for as long as He chooses." In fact, the prophet holds nothing back as he announces, "There will be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."

As I try to put myself in Ahab's sandals, the word that grabs my attention in Elijah's statement is "years." The people of Israel could withstand a drought for a few weeks, perhaps even a few months. The wells would not dry up immediately, and the natural cisterns in the rocks, storing up rainwater and runoff, would tide them over during normal dry spells. Lack of rainfall in that arid region would not have been unusual. But we're not talking about weeks or months. We're talking about years. "There will be no dew or rain for these years," said Elijah. "Not until the Lord God directs me to give the word will relief come."

There's no getting around it. This is a life-threatening pronouncement.

Now at this point I have to think that Elijah wanted to hit the streets running, declaring doom from house to house, warning the people: "God is trying to get your attention! Listen to the word of God! There is going to be a lengthy, devastating drought!" But God didn't tell him to do that. Instead, God sent His prophet to spend some time in isolation at boot camp.

In doing so, God moved Elijah from the palace to His personally chosen hideaway, from the public forum to the private haven, from the sunlight of activity to the shadows of obscurity.

Into the Shadows

Any recruit who has been through boot camp can tell you that every hour of the day someone is ordering you where to go, when to be there, what to do, and how to survive. That's a vital part of basic training. And God did the same for His prophet. He told Elijah exactly where he was to go, what he was to do when he got there, and how he would manage to survive. How strange the plan must have seemed to Elijah.

The first thing he was to do was hide.

"Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan" (1 Kings 17:3).

"Hide myself? I'm a prophet! I'm a palace man. I'm out there in public proclaiming your Word. You seem to forget, Lord, I'm called to preach."

No, God told Elijah. Not this time. "Hide yourself," God said.

The Hebrew word here suggests the idea of concealment, of being absent on purpose. "Conceal yourself, Elijah," God said. "Absent yourself in secrecy."

One of the most difficult commands to hear, and one of the hardest commands to obey is the command to hide. The admonition to go off and be alone, to get away from the public spotlight, to drop back and deliberately remain hidden, this is especially true if you are comfortable in the limelight, an up-front kind of person, one who is obviously gifted with leadership abilities. It's also true if you are a doer. A get-the-job-done kind of person.