1 Kings 18:1

TERMINATION OF THE THREE-AND-ONE-HALF-YEARS DROUGHT;

ELIJAH WAS COMMANDED BY THE LORD TO GO TO AHAB

"And it came to pass after many days that the word of Jehovah came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab. And the famine was sore in Samaria."

"In the third year" (1 Kings 18:1). It is shameful the way some irresponsible writers strive to make these words a contradiction of the N.T. references to this drought. This passage does not say, "in the third year of the drought"; and only by wresting the Scriptures can it be made to say that. Keil tells us exactly what is meant here:

"The time given here, the third year, is not to be reckoned from the commencement of the drought, but from the event last mentioned, namely, the sojourn of Elijah with the widow of Zarephath, and this reckoning is shown to be true by Luke 4:25 and James 5:17, where Christ and James both say, that in the time of Ahab it did not rain for three years and six months."[1] LaSor[2] and Gates[3] alike find no fault with Keil's reason on this. The fact that his position is confirmed by no less an authority than that of Christ himself is decisive. The false critical allegation that denies the integrity of the N.T. was stated thus by Matheney, "The third year was expanded by later tradition to three and one half years Luke 4:25 and James 5:17."[4] Both the gospel of Luke and the Epistle of James are historical in the ultimate sense; and for any writer to make the words of Jesus Christ no more than a "later tradition" is a denial of the Word of God that no Christian should accept!