βAs the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I standβ¦β (I KingsΒ 18:15).
Is God dead? According to the above passage He certainly was not dead to Elijah, who knew Him intimately as the living God. The prophet had used similar phraseology on a previous occasion when he had declared to the wicked King Ahab:
βAs the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my wordβ (1 Kings 17:1).
Elijahβs prediction had come horribly true. For three years and six months there had been no rain nor even dew in Israel. Rivers and brooks were drying up. The land lay parched and cracked in the sun. There were no crops, nor any grazing land for the cattle and they had been dying like flies.
The king himself had been brought down from his throne to search for a bit of green grass along the remaining streams βto save the horses and mules alive,β lest they βlose all the beasts.β The kingβs humiliation had in turn enraged the haughty Queen Jezebel, so that she hated Elijah with a deep and bitter hatred.
Indeed, so intensely was the prophet hated by Ahab himself that the king had sent far and wide to find Elijah and had not given up until he had taken oaths from the heads of the surrounding nations that he was not to be found. It was under these circumstances that βthe word of the Lord came to Elijahβ¦saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahabβ¦β (1 Kings 18:1). God was about to use the prophet to publicly expose the sham and impotence of Jezebelβs god Baal.
As the prophet went to look for Ahab he met Obadiah, the governor of the kingβs house, and said: βGo tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is hereβ (1 Kings 18:8). Obadiah shuddered at these words and begged Elijah not to make him go. He knew the bitter hatred which the king harbored toward Elijah and he feared that while he went to convey the news the Spirit of God might take Elijah away to some other place.
It was now, when it meant far more than it had meant three and a half years before, that Elijah replied: βAs the Lord God of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him todayβ (1 KingsΒ 18:15). As we know, he kept his word.
Is all this now changed? Some say yes, that God died in Christ at Calvary and is now dead! They also deny, of course, that Christ rose from the dead. But if this be true, then the story of Elijah is but a stirring memory and the Christian today is actually an ambassador, a representative of no one! source
