James 5:17

Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.

Elijah ... a man of like passions ... The argument is that Elijah, despite the fact of his being a noted prophet, was nevertheless a fallible and sinful man like the Christians of all generations; but that, in spite of his mortality, sin and imperfections, God mightily answers his prayers, and he will do the same for us.

Three years and six months ... The event in view in these words is recorded in 1 Kings 17:1-18:lff, where the exact duration of the drought is nowhere mentioned. Despite this, the Old Testament expression "in the third year" in that passage is sometimes construed as a "contradiction" of the "three years and six months" of this passage and the one in Luke 4:25. Of course, this is another well-known "pseudocon." As Haley said, "We may reckon `the third year' of the Old Testament, not as indicating the length of the drought, but a reference to the sojourn of Elijah with the widow of Zarephath."[57] In other words, the drought began six months before the famine did, the Old Testament "third year" having reference to the duration of the famine, and the New Testament "three years and six months" referring to the duration of the drought itself. Jesus himself endorsed this calculation (Luke 4:25).