A new prophet emerges in the North (I Kings 17)

King Ahab is the worst of the northern kings thus far. We find out more of personality later, he is a bit weak-willed and his wife Jezebel is an evil, vindictive queen. God does not want the northern kingdom to slip away any further. So, God sends an emissary with as much spiritual power and authority that rivals Moses, perhaps even more so. He will reappear along with Moses before Christ to the bewilderment of Peter and John.

He is Elijah.

Elijah emerges from the northern city of Tishbe in Gilead. The text is silent as to anything else about his origin. He goes to Ahab and tells him that it will not rain until Elijah says so. At this point, we have not seen any miracles by Elijah. We don't know if God has actually delegated the power of rain or drought to him. I wonder if Elijah thought, "yeah, this is not going to work. No one has ever shut off rain like this."

Elijah immediately goes into hiding to a brook where he survives by drinking the water from the brook and eating bread and meat brought by ravens. The brook eventually dries because there is no rain. These events are actually confirming the credibility of Elijah as prophet, both to himself and to others.

It is time for him to move on. God sends him to a city where he will be fed by a widow who has a child. He arrives and meets her, but she is preparing her last meal as she has only a little flour and olive oil left. Afterwards, she expects that she and her son will starve to death.

Elijah proclaims to her that she will always have flour and olive oil left during the drought. The text says that she had food for her "family". We already know she has a child, but it is impossible that she used the never-ending flour and oil to feed others in her family. I would.

Eventually the child dies from an illness. The woman blames Elijah for coming to punish her sins. Elijah takes the boy's body to the room he was staying in, stretched himself over it 3 times, then prayed for the life of the child to return. The child wakes up.

Elijah takes the living boy to the woman who now proclaims that Elijah is a prophet from God.

Most of Elijah's power miracles thus far have been private. He did proclaim that there would be no rain, but the drought could just be a natural coincidence. We have not seen any public recognition of Elijah's power yet. He is still in hiding, which implies that king Ahab wants to find him. So, Ahab could believe the drought was caused by Elijah or just simply that Ahab (or Jezebel) wants to kill anyone who denounces him regardless of actual spiritual authority.