1 Kings 18:4
For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
This verse belongs to the time of Ahab's apostasy, when Ahab married Jezebel and, under her power, turned from God into idolatry and led the people with him. God sent Elijah with messages of warning, but king and people rejected him as a messenger of evil, and then God sent drought upon the land. That persecution of the Lord's prophets took place during the prolonged drought and famine that God sent because of the nation's sins, for forsaking His commandments and following Baal. In that drought Ahab and Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's household, divided the land to search for water and pasture for the starving flocks and herds.
Ahab and Jezebel answered the suffering with anger against God's messengers rather than repentance, for Ahab wrongly blamed Elijah for troubling Israel, though the trouble came from his own forsaking of God's commandments and following Baal. Jezebel blamed the calamity on the prophets of Jehovah, saying Israel was suffering because of their reproofs and that there would be no rest or prosperity until they were put to death, and so anger was aroused against the men God had sent to call the people to repentance. Baal's priests and nearly all Israel wrongly believed that killing the Lord's prophets would end the drought and famine. Jezebel then tried to cut off and destroy the Lord's prophets in order to uproot Israel's religion, striking at them because she could not reach Elijah, and many holy men died for their testimony.
Obadiah remained faithful to God while serving in Ahab's household, though Ahab worshiped Baal. At the risk of his own life he secretly saved one hundred of the Lord's prophets by hiding them by fifty in a cave and keeping them alive with bread and water. At the same time God preserved Elijah by a miracle of divine power to proclaim God's warnings and threatenings before the king and queen. That preservation culminated in his public stand for God against national idolatry on Mount Carmel and the rain that followed. Elijah's example in this history shows that God did not forget His people when Jezebel threatened them.