Lives of Scripture

Obadiah served as steward over Ahab's household, a position of real trust and authority in the royal court, and Scripture specifically notes he "feared the LORD greatly" (1 Kings 18:3). During Jezebel's campaign to exterminate the LORD's prophets, Obadiah secretly took a hundred of them, hid fifty at a time in two caves, and supplied them with bread and water at significant personal risk had Jezebel discovered it (18:4, 13). During the severe drought Elijah had pronounced, Ahab sent Obadiah out across the land searching for any remaining grass to keep the royal horses and mules alive, and along the way Obadiah unexpectedly encountered Elijah himself, whom Ahab had been hunting for three years (18:5-10). Obadiah was afraid to deliver word to Ahab that Elijah wished to meet him, worried the prophet might vanish again by the Spirit and leave Obadiah to bear Ahab's wrath for the false report, but Elijah swore he would keep his word, and Obadiah delivered the message that set up the Mount Carmel showdown (18:11-16). Obadiah's short account is a rare and valuable picture of quiet, costly faithfulness maintained inside a genuinely compromised and dangerous position -- proof that not everyone close to Ahab's throne had bowed the knee to Baal.