There's a story that made the rounds a couple of years ago about a PGA Tour caddy who collapsed mid-round during the Canadian Open, leaving his golfer, C.T. Pan, without anyone on the bag. A spectator named Paul Emerson was standing just beyond the ropes, a regular guy, a dad enjoying a Saturday afternoon round of golf. When the caddy went down, Pan needed someone. Emerson stepped up, crossed the rope, and finished the round with him. He dropped things. He wasn't smooth about it. But he was there, and he was willing, and C.T. Pan actually golfed better with Paul Emerson on the bag than he had with the professional caddy.
What struck me about that story wasn't that Emerson was exceptional. It was that he was close enough to act when the moment came.
That's the kind of readiness God calls fathers to. And it's exactly what we see playing out in I Kings 18.
The Context of I Kings 18
Israel was in a dark season. King Ahab, described in Scripture as the most wickedly corrupt king Israel had ever seen, worse than every king before him, ruled alongside his wife Jezebel. Even to this day, that name carries weight. They were a power couple, just in entirely the wrong direction. Together they had led the nation into Baal worship. You can actually see Baal idols in the Louvre in Paris that date back to this era, small statues, some originally holding a thunderbolt in one hand. Small idols with a massive grip on the hearts of people. And because of it, God's judgment was unmistakable: three and a half years of drought and famine. No rain. Dwindling resources. A nation at a breaking point.
Into this moment, God moves. Not through a committee. Not through a program. He moves through two ordinary men, Elijah and Obadiah, each shaped and ready for the moment they were given.
Neither man chose his circumstances. But both were prepared for them.
Dads, that's the thread worth pulling. In a day like today, our families need us to be at the ready. Here are five challenges from 1 Kings 18.
First: Show Up
God tells Elijah in verse one to "go, show thyself." Verse two: Elijah went. It wasn't a warm welcome waiting for him. Ahab had been hunting him for three years. But Elijah showed up anyway because God said go.
The number one law of leadership is simply to be there. And dads, don't underestimate what that means for your family. Your presence matters more than you know, and your absence leaves a gap nothing else fills.
Some dads won't miss a ball game, and that's great, but they miss the small, weightier moments in a child's life. Showing up to coach a little league team is one thing. Showing up to actually be a dad is another. Show up to give guidance. Show up to be an influence. Show up even when there's no crowd watching.
And if your kids are grown, keep showing up. There are younger fathers sitting near you right now who need your example. They're putting in job applications, figuring out how to lead a young family, and quietly hoping someone who's been through it will invest in them. Don't retire from that.
John Maxwell said, "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." For a Christian dad, that means your life and your presence say, without you having to announce it, "Follow me as I follow Christ."
Second: Be a Shield
Then there's Obadiah. His name literally means "servant of Yahweh." And against the backdrop of one of the most wicked administrations in Israel's history, here's what Scripture says about this man: he feared the Lord greatly. That's his summary verse. Spurgeon put it well, as horrible as it is to find a Judas among the apostles, it is grand to discover an Obadiah among Ahab's court.
While Jezebel was running a campaign to eliminate the prophets of God, Obadiah was quietly working inside the palace, taking a hundred of God's men and hiding them by fifties in caves, feeding them bread and water at the risk of his own life. There are thousands of caves in that region. You can picture it. This man, surrounded by wickedness every day, doing what he could in the space he had.
He protected what mattered. That's what shields do.
Dads, the world is not neutral toward your children. The voices that want to silence the truth about God, about family, about what's right are not being subtle about it anymore. They've said the quiet part out loud. Your kids need you to be a shield. Not a perfect man, but a present one. Not a man who hangs a picture of spiritual warfare on the hallway wall, but a man who actually fights it in his home every day.
That means making real decisions about what comes through your door. What you watch. What you talk about at the table. What philosophies and worldviews you let speak into your kids' lives without a word of correction.
A word on the culture while we're here. Sports leagues and entertainment companies are not your friends, dads. There are real role models within them, and sports can teach kids genuinely important life lessons. But the organizations themselves? Be aware of where they stand and what they're promoting. You're the filter in your home. Act like it.
Frederick Douglass said it well: "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." The window you have with your kids is shorter than it feels. Use it.
Third: Settle Your Priorities
The contrast in this passage is almost quiet, but it lands hard. While Obadiah is spending his energy feeding and protecting God's prophets, Ahab is worried about his horses. He sends Obadiah across a drought-ravaged land to find grass for the livestock. That's what's on Ahab's mind. That's what keeps him up at night.
Two men. Two completely different sets of priorities. The text doesn't editorialize, it just shows you what each man does with his time and energy. The contrast speaks for itself.
Jesus said it plainly: where your treasure is, your heart follows. Your schedule, your budget, and your attention tell a true story about what you actually value, regardless of what you say you value.
Dads, what does your calendar say about your priorities? What does your Friday night say? What does your Sunday morning say? Don't let convenience or comfort or even a construction project at the church building be the reason you're not where God's people are gathering. Make the house of God a consistent priority, and your kids will grow up knowing, without being told, that it matters.
Fourth: Be Strategic
Obadiah wasn't just courageous. He was a thinker. When Elijah tells him to go announce his arrival to Ahab, Obadiah pushes back, and it's worth reading slowly. He walks Elijah through the risk: "I've already gone all over this kingdom telling Ahab you're nowhere to be found. If I go back now and say you're here, and then the Spirit of God moves you before Ahab arrives, I'm a dead man. I've already put my life on the line. I just need to know this is going somewhere."
He's counting the cost, like Jesus describes in Luke 14. He's willing to go. He just wants assurance that the risk means something. I think what Obadiah is really saying is: "I'll die for this. I'm just not willing to die for nothing."
Then he says something we should all stop and notice: "Thy servant feared the Lord from my youth."
We don't know who Obadiah's father was. But that one line tells you everything. Obadiah could stand for God in Ahab's palace because someone, somewhere, in some home, taught him how to fear God before the world got to him. He was influential because someone else was intentional. He was ready for a hard moment because someone prepared him before the moment arrived.
Dads, we don't know where our kids will end up. What city. What workplace. What pressures. What moments God is going to place them in. We've got a short window. Let's give them big truths they can grow up into, not small ones they'll grow out of.
Fifth: Amplify the Truth
When Ahab finally faces Elijah after three years, his opening line is: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" It's a classic move, take the truth-teller and label him the problem. Reframe the whole thing.
Elijah doesn't absorb it. He corrects it immediately: "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord."
Isaiah 5 says, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil." What Ahab is doing here is ancient, but it's also very current. Lies get repeated until they feel like consensus. Truth gets labeled as intolerance. Courage gets called cruelty.
There's a recent example worth mentioning. A pitcher named Landon Rapp was told that if he was going to take the mound, he had to wear a hat with a pride flag on it. He took a Sharpie and wrote Genesis 9:12-19 on the cap, the passage about the rainbow as God's covenant promise. He wasn't hateful about it. He just corrected the narrative. He said afterward, "The rainbow was a Christian symbol and the message was meant to point people to God, God's covenant, and the promise he'll make to all of us. There's no hate at all. I just believe what I stand for." He's being investigated by the MLB for it. That's where we are.
Dads, don't let lies stand unchallenged in your home. When a false narrative comes through the television, the phone, the culture, name it. Correct it. You don't have to be harsh. You don't have to be angry. But Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" Don't let that fear of being labeled stop you from telling your kids what's actually true.
The Preparation Happens Before the Moment
After the Miracle on the Hudson, Captain Sully Sullenberger reflected on how it was possible. He said: "For 42 years, I had been making small, regular deposits into a bank of education, training, and experience. On January 15, 2009, the balance was sufficient to make a sudden, large withdrawal."
God doesn't prepare us for the moment in the moment. He prepares us for the moment long before it arrives. Elijah's boldness on Carmel didn't come out of thin air. Obadiah's courage in the palace was built over a lifetime of choosing to fear God more than man, over and over again, in small moments no one saw. Neither man knew what was coming. They were just faithful in the season before it arrived.
Dads, we don't know what our kids will face. We don't know what our families will be called to navigate, what the culture will look like in ten years, what tests are ahead. But the preparation is available right now, in the word of God, in faithfulness in small things, in showing up day after day in the unglamorous work of raising a family and leading a home.
A Final Word
Whatever moment God has placed you in right now, whatever your home looks like, whatever your kids are facing, whatever your workplace is asking of you, the call is the same.
Show up. Be a shield. Settle your priorities. Be strategic. Amplify the truth.
You were made for this moment, Dad. Don't waste it.
