Are we better than our ancestors?

At a time of crisis in his prophetic mission, the Old Testament prophet Elijah protested, “I am not better than my fathers” (I Kings 19:4). Up to this point, he had acted as God’s faithful spokesman, denouncing the pagan Baal worship practiced by Ahab, king of Israel, and his wife, Jezebel. 

While Ahab and his kingdom endured a terrible drought (symbolizing, perhaps, a drought of spirituality), God had furnished Elijah with nourishment, first in the wilderness and then in the home of a widow in Zarephath. Then, at God’s direction, Elijah had courageously challenged Ahab to a showdown, demanding that the children of Israel choose between Baal and the Lord Almighty based on a test of the respective deities’ powers. 

After 450 of Baal’s prophets had appealed to their god for fire to consume their offering and received no reply, God promptly answered Elijah’s prayers with a mighty fire that consumed not only his water-soaked sacrifice but even the stone altar itself. Having convinced the people that the Lord was indeed the true God, Elijah went on to predict the imminent end of the drought, and shortly a great rain fell (see I Kings 18:17–45).