1 Kings 18:16

ELIJAH AND AHAB MET FACE TO FACE; ELIJAH DEMANDED A COVENANT ASSEMBLY; AND AHAB ARRANGES IT

"So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah, and thou hast followed the Baalim. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's table."

The humbling of Ahab by the hardships of the disastrous drought is evident in this interview. It was Elijah who rebuked the king and issued the orders for a general assembly of the covenant people. Snaith believed that Ahab consented to this because, "He believed himself to be a true worshipper"[6] of the God of Israel. To this writer, it appears more likely that Ahab desperately needed rain to save those horses and mules, and that he was willing to do ANYTHING that Elijah requested, in the hopes of getting it. Matheney also credited Ahab with, "having nominal allegiance to Jehovah,"[7] on the basis that the names of two of his children were Jehovist. We can find no reason whatever to classify Ahab as anything other than an outright pagan! He might have accepted Elijah's demands for a contest on Mount Carmel in the secret hope that those 450 prophets of Baal would put Elijah to shame. After all, Ahab was feeding them!

"The prophets of the Asherah, four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's table" (1 Kings 18:19). "All that is meant here is that they were fed by her bounty."[8]