“He went before the Lord, and with his soul wrung with anguish, pleaded for Him to save His people if it must be by judgments. He pleaded with God to withhold from His ungrateful people dew and rain, the treasures of heaven, that apostate Israel might look in vain to their gods, their idols of gold, wood, and stone, the sun, moon, and stars, to water and enrich the earth, and cause it to bring forth plentifully.”—Ibid. AGP 92.4
This was no doubt the prayer of Elijah to which James refers: “He prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” James 5:17. AGP 92.5
Having given Elijah full assurance that his prayer had been heard, and that it would surely be answered, the Lord sent him as a prophet to deliver a message of woe and doom to Ahab. He met the king, gave him the message, and was gone as suddenly as he had appeared. He “had locked heaven with his word, and had taken the key with him, and he could not be found.” Testimonies for the Church 3:276. From that day on for more than three long years there was no dew and no rain in Ahab’s kingdom, and as a result “there was a sore famine in Samaria.” 1 Kings 18:2. AGP 92.6
In his dire extremity, Ahab called Obadiah, who was the governor of his house, and said to him, “Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts. So they divided the land between them to pass through it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.” Verses 5, 6. AGP 93.1