What happened with Elijah and the priests of Baal? CQ Kids

Our story begins with wicked Ahab, the 8th king of Israel. Instead of worshiping Jehovah, the one true God, he worshiped a fake god named Baal!

1 Kings (16:30, NLT) says, “...Ahab…did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him.”

By contrast, Elijah was a faithful prophet of God. A prophet was a person God chose to deliver His message. It was time for Israel to turn their hearts back to God and give up their false idol worship. The practice of worshiping false idols was disobedient to the very first commandment God gave to Moses, which said, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3, NASB)

Elijah proposed a test for Ahab, the 450 false priests of Baal, and the people of Israel. (see 1 Kings 18:22)

The test took place on Mount Carmel and would demonstrate - without a doubt - who the TRUE God was.

This was the test: the priests of Baal were to prepare a sacrifice, lay it on their altar, and then call upon Baal. Elijah was to do the same on an altar built for God. Whichever god answered by setting fire to the sacrifice was the one, true God.

The priests called upon Baal all morning, shouting and dancing wildly around the altar. Of course there was no reply because their god didn’t exist!

Around noon, Elijah began to tease them, because obviously their behavior was silly. Elijah mocked them, suggesting they shout louder - maybe Baal was asleep or on vacation! (see 1 Kings 18:27) (Of course Elijah knew Baal was NEVER going to answer them no matter what they did!)

Finally, around 3pm, it was clear there would be no response.

Now it was Elijah’s turn.

Elijah repaired an altar of Jehovah that had been torn down. He