Seven times Elijah directed his servant to go and look out to see while Elijah remained crouched down to the earth praying. Following the repentance of the people and their turning back to the one true God (the people helped Elijah seize and slaughter the prophets of Baal, and they proclaimed the Lord as their God), Elijah falls on his knees, beseeching God in earnest prayer to end the drought. And God did answer his prayers for on the seventh outing, his servant sighted a cloud forming on the skyline. It took the untiring intercession by the prophet for the people to realize once again that it is the Lord that waters the earth, filling its watercourses to the brim (Psalm 65:9, 10).
As a prophet, Elijah lived up to his call. He realized that it was his responsibility to plead for his people even as they were steeped in their erroneous ways and regarded him as their enemy (prophet of doom). He remained on his knees as he continued to plead with God to send rain onto the land. He never ceased praying after the first, second, third, or even the sixth time his servant reported no sighting of a cloud. He trusted in God answering his prayers.
A prophet’s task is a difficult one because he/she is expected to do his/her job in season and out of season, when it is favorable and when it is not favorable (cf. 2 Timothy 4:2). A prophet will always find him/herself caught in the middle from where he/she cannot escape for he/she cannot desert his/her duty: preaching the message of God to the people, and interceding on behalf of the people before God. Elijah certainly lived up to this call even if at times it came to almost costing him his life. But despite all the heartaches that he had to endure, he remained faithful to the end.