Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 17:1
And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, [As] the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Chap. 1Ki 17:1-7. Elijah the Tishbite. His prophecy of a drought and its fulfilment (Not in Chronicles)
1. And Elijah the Tishbite ] Elijah comes suddenly upon the scene and throughout the history his appearances are rare, sudden and brief. His history is most probably drawn from some independent narrative of the work of the prophets, and introduced here abruptly as soon as it begins to touch upon the reign of Ahab. The schools of the prophets seem to have had their origin in Samuel’s day, and were founded in various parts of the land, and in connexion with them Elijah appears in Israel. He is called the Tishbite because he was born at Thisbe in the tribe of Naphtali, a place known afterwards as the birthplace of Tobit ( Tob 1:2 ). Josephus ( Ant. viii. 13, 2) says he was , as if his birthplace had been in Gilead. For the connected history of Elijah, the student would do well to consult Mr (now Sir Geo.) Grove’s Article, Elijah, in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible.
who was of the inhabitants [R.V. sojourners ] of Gilead ] The Hebrew noun is found frequently in the phrase ‘a stranger and sojourner,’ cf. Gen 23:4; Lev 25:35; Lev 25:47; and does not imply that the person spoken of was a native of the place mentioned thus. Hence there is no difficulty in understanding that Elijah, a native of the tribe of Naphtali, was a dweller for a time in Gilead. Such a man was likely to retire from the world and dwell alone among the mountain fastnesses. The Fathers (Epiphanius, Dorotheus, Isidore) represent Elijah as of a priestly family, but there is no warrant for the statement.
As the Lord God of Israel liveth ] Elijah prefaces his message with his authority. He does not come in his own name, nor will the drought be of his bringing. He is but sent as the bearer of Jehovah’s word, the word of Him whom Israel had forsaken, but who alone was worthy to be called the Living God.
but according to my word ] i.e. As God shall proclaim through me; cf. 1Ki 18:41 ; 1Ki 18:44. Josephus, having in mind the disappearance of Elijah after this message and his reappearance to Ahab before the coming of the rain, makes the prophet say that there should be no rain ‘except on his appearance’ . He also states that this drought is mentioned by Menander in his history of Ethbaal, the king of the Tyrians. It endured, he says, for a whole year, but after that time, on the king’s earnest prayer, there came down abundant thunder showers. In Luk 4:25 and Jas 5:17, the duration of the drought in Israel is said to have been three years and six months. By such long-continued want of rain there the neighbouring countries must also have been affected.
The LXX. rendering , is a literal translation of the Hebrew.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The name Elijah means Yahweh is my God. It is expressive of the truth which his whole life preached.
The two words rendered Tishbite and inhabitant are in the original (setting aside the vowel points) exactly alike. The meaning consequently must either be Elijah the stranger, of the strangers of Gilead, or (more probably) Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbi of Gilead. Of Tishbi in Gilead there is no further trace in Scripture; it is to be distinguished from another Tishbi in Galilee. In forming to ourselves a conception of the great Israelite prophet, we must always bear in mind that the wild and mountainous Gilead, which bordered on Arabia, and was half Arab in customs, was the country wherein he grew up.
His abrupt appearance may be compared with the similar appearances of Ahijah 1Ki 11:29, Jehu 1Ki 16:1, Shemaiah 2Ch 11:2, Azariah 2Ch 15:1, and others. It is clear that a succession of prophets was raised up by God, both in faithful Judah and in idolatrous Israel, to witness of Him before the people of both countries, and leave them without excuse if they forsook His worship. At this time, when a grosser and more deadly idolatry than had been practiced before was introduced into Israel by the authority of Ahab, and the total apostasy of the ten tribes was consequently imminent, two prophets of unusual vigour and force of character, endowed with miraculous powers of an extraordinary kind, were successively raised up, that the wickedness of the kings might be boldly met and combated, and, if possible, a remnant of faithful men preserved in the land. The unusual efflux of miraculous energy at this time, is suitable to the unusual emergency, and in very evident proportion to the spiritual necessities of the people.
As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand – This solemn formula, here first used, was well adapted to impress the king with the sacred character of the messenger, and the certain truth of his message. Elisha adopted the phrase with very slight modifications 2Ki 3:14; 2Ki 5:16.
Drought was one of the punishments threatened by the Law, if Israel forsook Yahweh and turned after other gods (Deu 11:17; Deu 28:23; Lev 26:19, etc.).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ki 17:1
As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.
The source of Elijahs strength
This chapter begins with the conjunction And: it is, therefore, an addition to what has gone before; and it is Gods addition. When we have read to the end of the previous chapter–which tells the melancholy story of the rapid spread, and universal prevalence, of idolatry, in the favoured land of the Ten Tribes–we might suppose that that was the end of all; and that the worship of Jehovah would never again acquire its lost prestige and power. And, no doubt, the principal actors in the story thought so too. But they had made an unfortunate omission in their calculations–they had left out Jehovah Himself. He must have something to say at such a crisis. When men have done their worst, and finished, it is the time for God to begin. The whole land seemed apostate. Of all the thousands of Israel, only seven thousand remained Who had not bowed the knee or kissed the hand to Baal. But they were paralysed with fear; and kept so still, that their very existence was unknown by Elijah in the hour of his greatest loneliness. Such times have often come, fraught with woe: false religions have gained the upper hand; iniquity has abounded; and the love of many has waxed cold. So was it when the Turk swept over the Christian communities of Asia Minor, and replaced the Cross by the crescent. So was it when, over Europe, Roman Catholicism spread as a pall of darkness that grew denser as the dawn of the Reformation was on the point of breaking. So was it in the last century, when Moderatism reigned in Scotland, and apathy in England. But God is never at a loss. The land may be overrun with sin; the lamps of witness may seem all extinguished; the whole force of the popular current may run counter to His truth; and the plot may threaten to be within a hair s breadth of entire success; but, all the time, He will be preparing a weak man in some obscure highland village; and in the moment of greatest need will send him forth, as His all-sufficient answer to the worst plottings of His foes. Elijah grew up like the other lads of his age. In his early years he would probably do the work of a shepherd on those wild hills. As he grew in years, he became characterised by an intense religious earnestness. He was very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. But the question was, How should he act? What could he do, a wild, untutored child of the desert? There was only one thing he could do–the resource of all much-tried souls–he could pray; and he did: he prayed earnestly (Jam 5:17). He prayed earnestly that it might not rain. A terrible prayer indeed! Granted; and yet, was it not more terrible for the people to forget and ignore the God of their fathers, and to give themselves up to the licentious orgies of Baal and Astarte? Physical suffering is a smaller calamity than moral delinquency. And the love of God does not shrink from inflicting such suffering, if, as a result, the plague of sin may be cut out as a cancer, and stayed. Elijah gives us three indications of the source of his strength.
1. As Jehovah liveth. To all beside, Jehovah might seem dead; but to him, He was the one supreme reality of life.
2. Before whom I stand. He was standing in the presence of Ahab; but he was conscious of the presence of a greater than any earthly monarch, even the presence of Jehovah, before whom angels bow in lowly worship, hearkening to the voice of His word. Gabriel himself could not employ a loftier designation (Luk 1:19). Let us cultivate this habitual recognition of the presence of God; it will lift us above all other fear.
3. The word Elijah may be rendered, Jehovah is my God; but there is another possible translation, Jehovah is my strength. This gives the key to his life. God was the strength of his life; of whom should he be afraid? (F. B. Meyer, M. A.)
Elijah before Ahab
Elijah the Tishbite said unto Ahab. All revelations seem to us to be sudden. Look at the suddenness of the appearance of Ahijah to Jeroboam, and look at the instance before us. No mild man would have been equal to the occasion. God adapts His ministry to circumstances. He sends a nurse to the sick-room; a soldier to the battlefield. The son of consolation and the son of thunder cannot change places. You are right when you say that the dew and the light and the soft breeze are Gods; but you must not therefore suppose that the thunder and the hurricane and the floods belong to a meaner lord. As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. Imagine the two men standing face to face. This is not a combat between two men. Mark that very closely. It is Right against Wrong, Faithfulness against Treachery, Purity against Corruption. As we look at the scene, not wanting in the elements of the highest tragedy, we see
(1) The value of one noble witness in the midst of public corruption and decay, and
(2) The grandeur as well as necessity of a distinct personal profession of godliness. It is not enough to be godly, we must avow it in open conduct and articulate confession. Let us now observe how Elijah proceeds to deal with Ahab. There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. Here is physical punishment for moral transgression. So it is; and that is exactly what a parent does when he uses the rod upon his child for falsehood. You can only punish people according to their nature. Physical punishment for moral transgression is the law of society. So the liar is thrown out of his situation; the ill-tempered child is whipped; the dishonourable man is expelled from social confidence. With regard to the particular punishment denounced against Ahab, it is to be remembered that drought is one of the punishments threatened by the law if Israel forsook Jehovah (Deu 11:17; Lev 26:18). (J. Parker, D. D.)
Elijah standing before the Lord
This solemn and remarkable adjuration seems to have been habitual upon Elijahs lips in the great crises of his life. We never find it used by any but himself, and his scholar and successor, Elisha.
I. Life a constant vision of Gods presence. How distinct and abiding must the vision of God have been, which burned before the inward eye of the man that struck out that phrase! Wherever I am, whatever I do, I am before Him. No excitement of work, no strain of effort, no distraction of circumstances, no glitter of gold, or dazzle of earthly brightness, dimmed that vision for these prophets. In some measure, it was with them as it shall be perfectly with all one day, His servants serve Him, and see His face,–action not interrupting the vision, nor the vision weakening action. It is hard to set the Lord always before us; but it is possible, and in the measure in which we do it we shall not be moved. How small Ahab and his court must have looked to eyes that were full of the undazzling brightness of the true King of Israel, and the ordered ranks of His attendants! How little the greatness! how tawdry the pomp! how impotent the power, and how toothless the threats!
II. Life was echoing with the voice of the Divine command. He stands before the Lord, not only feeling in his thrilling spirit that God is ever near him, but also that His word is ever coming forth to him, with imperative authority. That is the prophets conception of life. Wherever he is, he hears a voice saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. People talk about the consciousness of a mission. The important point, on the settling of which depends the whole character of our lives, is–Who do you suppose gave you your mission? Was it any person at all? or have you any consciousness that any will but your own has anything to say about your life? These prophets had found One whom it was worth while to obey, whatever came of it, and whosoever stood in the way.
III. Life full of conscious obedience. No man could say such a thing of himself who did not feel that he was rendering a real, earnest, though imperfect obedience to God. So, though in one view the words express a very lowly sense of absolute submission before God, in another view they make a lofty claim for the utterer. He professes that he stands before the Lord, girt for His service, watching to be guided by His eye, and ready to run when He bids. We may well shrink to make such a claim for ourselves when we think of the poor, perfunctory service and partial consecration which our lives show. But let us rejoice that even we may venture to say, Truly I am Thy servant. Such a life is necessarily a happy life. The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield them up to God is rest and peace. And is there not a broad general truth involved there, namely, that such a life as we have been describing will find its sole reward where it finds its inspiration and its law? The Masters approval is the servants best wages. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Elijah before the king
Elijah was a mountaineer. He was a big man, with broad shoulders and a tall and striking appearance. He had a massive frame and muscles that had grown strong with climbing the mountains and wresting his daily bread from hard circumstances. But he was, above all, a man of prayer, and the knowledge of what was going on in Israel stirred his soul to its profoundest depths; yet he could not act unless God sent him. With his hand lifted above his head this strange creature of the desert and the mountains exclaims, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. Note his description of his relation to God, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. There was the secret of Elijahs power. As another has well said: Every man stands before something which is his judge. The child stands before the father, not in a single act, making report of what he has been doing on a special day, but in the whole posture of his life, almost as if the father were a mirror in whom he saw himself reflected, and from whose reflection of himself he got at once a judgment as to what he was, and suggestions as to what he ought to be. The poet stands before nature. She is his judge. A certain felt harmony or discord between his nature and her ideal is the test and directing power of his life. The philosopher stands before the unseen, majestic presence of the abstract truth. The philanthropist stands before humanity The artist stands before beauty. The legislator stands before justice. The politician stands before that vague but awful embodiment of average character, the people. The scholar stands before knowledge, and gets the satisfaction or disappointments of his life from the approvals or disapprovals of her serene and gracious lips. Every soul that counts itself capable of judgment and responsibility stands in some presence by which the nature of its judgment is decried. The higher the presence, the loftier and greater the life. And so Elijah, standing before God, was in the highest and most splendid presence that any man can know, and it was this that gave him his lofty courage and his noble power. This was Luthers power. He dared to face the emperor and to face the worldly, sensual church of his time, when from every human outlook it seemed sure that his life must pay the penalty, because he stood in the presence of God. He knew that God was with him, and that knowledge gave him a tremendous power over men. Wesley stood in the presence of God, and a man who is conscious of that presence fears no mob. Finney was a man like that, and God gave him wonderful fruits to his ministry. (L. A. Banks, D. D.)
Elijah, the model reformer
I. Elijah was, in the first place, a model of–promptness. Whatever God told him to do, he went to work at once, and did it.
II. Elijah was a model of–patience–as well as of promptness. When God wanted Elijah to work, he was, as we have seen, prompt to do whatever he was bidden to do. And when he was told to wait for the further manifestation of Gods will, he waited patiently. When the long three years drought came on the land, God told him to go and hide himself by the brook Cherith, near Jordan. He went and remained there in patience till he was ordered to leave.
III. But, in carrying on his work of reformation, Elijah was, in the third place, a model of–confidence; and we should try to follow his example in this respect.
IV. Elijah was a model of–courage. (R. Newton, D. D.)
The hero prophet
I. The principle of Divine selection. Elijah comes suddenly and unexpectedly upon the scene. What has been his previous career we cannot say, all we know about him is that he was rudely and scantily clothed, with shaggy hair, a conspicuous personality among the people. However strange it may seem that such a man should be chosen for such a work, it is nevertheless in keeping with the Divine procedure. God makes His own selection of men to meet the demands of every crisis. For every crisis in the worlds history God has taken a leader from very unlikely quarters. A German monk for a great Reformation; a Wesley for a much needed revival; Abraham Lincoln to guide our ship of state, in terrible times, amid stormy seas; and a William Taylor, rough and ready, to become the flaming evangel of Darkest Africa. God is always ready with a man to stand in the gap. So it was in the time when the sin of Ahab and his people had become abominable, He had in reserve a man already trained and willing to assert the sovereignty of God to that crooked and perverse nation. This chosen Tishbite, this prophet hero, recognises that he is–
II. Gods representative, hence he manifests the utmost fidelity and loyalty.
III. Providential provisions meet human exigencies. Elijah proved this fully. Delivering mercy is not only timely, but also comes through unexpected means. It was a very strange method God pursued with Elijah.
IV. No unreasonable demand upon human resources. God is merciful. God is just. He may have given us but little of this worlds good, but of that little He demands a portion. We may possess but one talent, but we must not be selfish in the use of that. He gives grace that we may use grace. We may further learn from this narrative the duty of–
V. Unquestioning obedience to God. Elijah did not speak complainingly of living alone by the side of the brook Cherith and trusting to the ravens for his food; nor did he say it was improper to go to the house of a widow and ask of her food to eat. No, he trusted in the wisdom of God and obeyed His command. (G. Adams.)
The preacher-an ambassador
We send an ambassador to England; there is a difference of opinion between our government and that of England. The ambassador is in a circle in society, but he does not take his opinions from the English people; he cares nothing what they think on national subjects; the crowd around him may be indignant against this country, but the ambassador listens not to the voice of the populace around him. He bends a listening ear for the telegraphic communication from Washington, and whatever words he hears these he utters, no matter how they may be received, no matter what the people or the Crown may think. He stands an American in the midst of English society; he thinks the thoughts and has the feelings of the government at Washington; he dares to say words, however unpleasant, to the English Crown because the power that sustains him, though it is invisible, he knows to be real. Well, now, so it is with a man, principally the true minister of Christ. (Bishop Simpson.)
Standing alone
Thank God for the many instances in which one glowing soul, all aflame with love of God, has sufficed to kindle a whole heap of dead matter, and send it leaping skyward in ruddy brightness. Alas! for the many instances in which the wet, green wood has been too strong for the little spark, and has not only obstinately resisted, but has ignominiously quenched its ineffectual fire. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XVII
Elijah’s message to Ahab concerning the three years’ drought, 1.
He is commanded to go to the brook Cherith; where he is fed by
ravens, 2-7.
He afterwards goes to a widow’s house at Zarephath, and
miraculously multiplies her meal and oil, 8-16.
Her son dies, and Elijah restores him to life, 17-24.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVII
Verse 1. Elijah the Tishbite] The history of this great man is introduced very abruptly; his origin is enveloped in perfect obscurity. He is here said to be a Tishbite. Tishbeh, says Calmet, is a city beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead. Who was his father, or from what tribe he sprang, is not intimated; he seems to have been the prophet of Israel peculiarly, as we never find him prophesying in Judah. A number of apocryphal writers have trifled at large about his parentage, miraculous birth, of his continual celibacy, his academy of the prophets, c., c., all equally worthy of credit. One opinion, which at first view appears strange, bears more resemblance to truth than any of the above, viz., that he had no earthly parentage known to any man that he was an angel of God, united for a time to a human body, in order to call men back to perfect purity, both in doctrine and manners, from which they had totally swerved. His Hebrew name, which we have corrupted into Elijah and Elias, is Alihu, or, according to the vowel points, Eliyahu and signifies he is my God. Does this give countenance to the supposition that this great personage was a manifestation in the flesh of the Supreme Being? He could not be the Messiah; for we find him with Moses on the mount of transfiguration with Christ. The conjecture that he was an angel seems countenanced by the manner of his departure from this world; yet, in Jas 5:17, he is said to be a man , of like passions, or rather with real human propensities: this, however, is irreconcilable with the conjecture.
There shall not be dew nor rain these years] In order to remove the abruptness of this address, R. S. Jarchi dreams thus: – “Elijah and Ahab went to comfort Hiel in his grief, concerning his sons. And Ahab said to Elijah, Is it possible that the curse of Joshua, the son of Nun, who was only the servant of Moses, should be fulfilled; and the curse of Moses, our teacher, not be fulfilled; who said, De 11:16-17: If ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them, then the Lord’s wrath shall be kindled against you; and he will shut up the heaven that there be no rain? Now all the Israelites serve other gods, and yet the rain is not withheld. Then Elijah said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” This same mode of connecting this and the preceding chapter, is followed by the Jerusalem and Babylonish Talmuds, Sedar Olam, Abarbanel, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Elijah was the most eminent of the prophets, Mat 17:3, who is here brought in, like Melchisedek, Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3, without any mention of his father, or mother, or beginning of his days; like a man dropped out of the clouds, and raised by Gods special providence as a witness for himself in this most degenerate time and state of things; that by his zeal, and courage, and power of miracles, he might give some check to their various and abominable idolatries, and some reviving to that small number of the Lords prophets and people who yet remained in Israel, as we shall see.
The Tishbite; so called, either from the place of his birth or habitation, or for some other reason not now known.
Of the inhabitants of Gilead; which was the land beyond Jordan. See Gen 31:21.
Said unto Ahab; having doubtless admonished him of his sin and danger before this; and now, upon his obstinacy in his wicked courses, he proceeds to declare and execute the judgment of God upon him.
As the Lord God of Israel liveth: I swear by the God of Israel, who, is the only true and living God; when the gods whom thou hast joined with him, or preferred before him, are dead and senseless idols.
Before whom I stand; either,
1. Whose minister I am, (as this phrase is oft used, as Num 3:6; Deu 10:8; 17:12; 18:5) not only in general, but especially in this threatening, which I now deliver in his name and authority, and not from my own imagination or passion. Or,
2. Who is now present with me, and a witness of what I say; and let him punish me severely, if I speak not the truth. There shall not be dew nor rain: this was a prediction, but was seconded with his prayer, that God would verify it, as it is recorded, Jam 5:17. And this prayer of his was not voluntary and malicious, but necessary, and (all things considered) truly charitable; that by this sharp and long affliction Gods honour, and the truth of his word and threatenings, (which was now so horribly and universally contemned,) might be vindicated, and the Israelites (whom their present impunity and prosperity had hardened in their idolatry) might hereby be awakened to see their own wickedness, and the vanity of their calves and other idols, and their dependence upon God, and the necessity of returning to the true religion. These years, i.e. these following years, which were three and a half, Luk 4:25; Jam 5:17. But according to my word, i.e. until I shall declare that this judgment shall cease, and shall pray to God for the removal of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Elijah the TishbiteThisprophet is introduced as abruptly as Melchisedekhis birth,parents, and call to the prophetic office being alike unrecorded. Heis supposed to be called the Tishbite from Tisbeh, a place east ofJordan.
who was of the inhabitants ofGileador residents of Gilead, implying that he was not anIsraelite, but an Ishmaelite, as MICHAELISconjectures, for there were many of that race on the confines ofGilead. The employment of a Gentile as an extraordinary ministermight be to rebuke and shame the apostate people of Israel.
said unto AhabTheprophet appears to have been warning this apostate king how fatalboth to himself and people would be the reckless course he waspursuing. The failure of Elijah’s efforts to make an impression onthe obstinate heart of Ahab is shown by the penal prediction utteredat parting.
before whom I standthatis, whom I serve (De 18:5).
there shall not be dew norrain these yearsnot absolutely; but the dew and the rain wouldnot fall in the usual and necessary quantities. Such a suspension ofmoisture was sufficient to answer the corrective purposes of God,while an absolute drought would have converted the whole country intoan uninhabitable waste.
but according to my wordnotuttered in spite, vengeance, or caprice, but as the minister of God.The impending calamity was in answer to his earnest prayer, and achastisement intended for the spiritual revival of Israel. Droughtwas the threatened punishment of national idolatry (Deu 11:16;Deu 11:17; Deu 28:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Elijah the Tishbite, [who] was of the inhabitants of Gilead,…. Which belonged partly to the Reubenites and Gadites, and partly to the half-tribe of Manasseh on the other side Jordan, where this prophet dwelt; but why he is called the Tishbite is not easy to say; what Kimchi observes seems right, that he was at first of a city called Toshab, and afterward’s dwelt at Gilead; which city perhaps is the same with Thisbe, in the tribe of Naphtali, the native place of Tobit,
“Who in the time of Enemessar king of the Assyrians was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is called properly Nephthali in Galilee above Aser.” (Tobit 1:2)
and, if so, is an instance of a prophet, even the prince of prophets, as Abarbinel calls him, coming out of Galilee, contrary to the suggestions of the Jews, Joh 7:52. R. Elias Levita l observes, that after the affair of Gibeah an order was given to smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, Jud 21:8, and that as it is reasonable to suppose some might escape, he thinks Elijah was one of them; and that when this began to be inhabited again, they that returned were called the inhabitants of Gilead, of whom Elijah was, who lived in those times, being, as the Jews suppose, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, see Jud 20:28, but that he should be Elijah, and live to the times of Ahab, is beyond belief. By Origen m he is said to be in Thesbon of Gilead; and by Epiphanius n to be of Thesbis, of the land of the Arabians, Gilead bordering upon it: the same
said unto Ahab; who perhaps had been with him before, and reproved him for idolatry, warned him of the evil consequences of it, but to no purpose, and therefore now threatened in a very solemn manner:
as the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand; he swears by the living God, in whose presence he was, and to whom he appeals as the omniscient God, whose minister and prophet he was, and in whose name he came and spoke, and to whom he prayed; for standing was a prayer gesture, and sometimes put for it, [See comments on Mt 6:5] and it was at the prayer of Elijah that rain was withheld, as follows, see Jas 5:17
there shall not be dew nor rain these years; for some years to come, even three years and a half:
but according to my word; in prayer, or as he should predict, in the name of the Lord.
l In Tishbi, p. 275. Vid. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 1. & David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 235. 4. m Comment. in Matth. p. 224. Ed. Huet. n De Prophet. Vit. c. 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Elijah the Tishbite is introduced without the formula “The word of the Lord came to …,” with which the appearance of the prophets is generally announced, proclaiming to king Ahab in the name of the Lord the punitive miracle of a drought that will last for years. This abrupt appearance of Elijah cannot be satisfactorily explained from the fact that we have not the real commencement of his history here; it is rather a part of the character of this mightiest of all the prophets, and indicates that in him the divine power of the Spirit appeared as it were personified, and his life and acts were the direct effluence of the higher power by which he was impelled. His origin is also uncertain. The epithet is generally derived from a place called Tishbeh, since, according to Tobit 1:2, there existed in Upper Galilee a , “on the right, i.e., to the south of Kydios,” probably Kedesh in the tribe of Naphtali, from which the elder Tobias was carried away captive, although this description of the place is omitted in the Hebrew version of the book of Tobit issued by Fagius and Mnster, and in the Vulgate. And to this we must adhere, and as no other Thisbe occurs, must accept this Galilean town as the birthplace of Elijah; in which case the expression “of the settlers of Gilead” indicates that Elijah did not live in his birthplace, but dwelt as a foreigner in Gilead. For in itself by no means denotes a non-Israelite, but, like , simply one who lived away from his home and tribe relations in the territory of a different tribe, without having been enrolled as a member of it, as is clearly shown by Lev 25:40, and still more clearly by Jdg 17:7, where a Levite who was born in Bethlehem is described as in the tribe of Ephraim.
(Note: The supposition of Seb. Schmidt, with which I formerly agreed, namely, that Elijah was a foreigner, a Gentile by birth, after further examination I can no longer uphold, though not from the priori objection raised against it by Kurtz (in Herzog ‘ s Cycl.), namely, that it would show a complete misapprehension of the significance of Israel in relation to sacred history and the history of the world, and that neither at this nor any other time in the Old Testament history could a prophet for Israel be called from among the Gentiles, – an assertion of which it would be difficult to find any proof, – but because we are not forced to this conclusion by either or . For even if the Thisbeh in Tob. 1:2 should not be Elijah ‘ s birthplace, it would not follow that there was no other place named Thisbeh in existence. How many places in Canaan are there that are never mentioned in the Old Testament! And such cases as that described in Jdg 7:7, where the Levite is said to have left his birthplace and to have lived in another tribe as a foreigner or settler, may not have been of rare occurrence, since the Mosaic law itself refers to it in Lev 25:41. – Again, the lxx were unable to explain , and have paraphrased these words in an arbitrary manner by , from which Thenius and Ewald conjecture that there was a Thisbeh in Gilead, and that it was probably the Tisieh ( tsh) mentioned by Robinson ( Pal. iii. 153) to the south of Busra = Bostra. The five arguments by which Kurtz has attempted to establish the probability of this conjecture are very weak. For (1) the defective writing by no means proves that the word which is written plene ( ) in every other case must necessarily have been so written in the stat. constr. plur.; and this is the only passage in the whole of the Old Testament in which it occurs in the stat. constr. plur.; – (2) the precise description of the place given in Tobit 1:2 does not at all lead “ to the assumption that the Galilean Thisbeh was not the only place of that name, ” but may be fully explained from the fact that Thisbeh was a small and insignificant place, the situation of which is defined by a reference to a larger town and one better known; – (3) there is no doubt that “ Gilead very frequently denotes the whole of the country to the east of the Jordan, ” but this does not in the least degree prove that there was a Thisbeh in the country to the east of the Jordan; – (4) “ that the distinction and difference between a birthplace and a place of abode are improbable in themselves, and not to be expected in this connection, ” is a perfectly unfounded assumption, and has first of all to be proved; – (5) the Tisieh mentioned by Robinson cannot be taken into consideration, for the simple reason that the assumption of a copyist ‘ s error, the confusion of (Arabic) b with y ( Tsieh instead of Thisbeh), founders on the long i of the first syllable in Tsieh; moreover the Arabic t corresponds to the Hebrew E and not to t.)
The expression “as truly as Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand (i.e., whom I serve; see at 1Ki 1:2), there shall not fall dew and rain these years, except at my word,” was a special application of the threats of the law in Deu 11:16-17; Deu 28:23-24, and Lev 26:19, to the idolatrous kingdom. , “these (ensuing) years,” does not fix any definite terminus. In there is involved an emphatic antithesis to others, and more especially to the prophets of Baal. “When I shall say this by divine authority and might, let others prate and lie as they may please” ( Berleb. Bibel). Elijah thereby describes himself as one into whose power the God of Israel has given up the idolatrous king and his people. In Jam 5:17-18, this act of Elijah is ascribed to the power of his prayers, since Elijah “was also a man such as we are,” inasmuch as the prophets received their power to work solely through faith and intercourse with God in prayer, and faith gives power to remove mountains.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Elijah’s First Prophecy; Elijah Fed by Ravens. | B. C. 910. |
1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
The history of Elijah begins somewhat abruptly. Usually, when a prophet enters, we have some account of his parentage, are told whose son he was and of what tribe; but Elijah drops (so to speak) out of the clouds, as if, like Melchisedek, he were without father, without mother, and without descent, which made some of the Jews fancy that he was an angel sent from heaven; but the apostle has assured us that he was a man subject to like passions as we are (James v. 17), which perhaps intimates, not only that he was liable to the common infirmities of human nature, but that, by his natural temper, he was a man of strong passions, more hot and eager than most men, and therefore the more fit to deal with the daring sinners of the age he lived in: so wonderfully does God suit men to the work he designs them for. Rough spirits are called to rough services. The reformation needed such a man as Luther to break the ice. Observe, 1. The prophet’s name: Elijahu–“My God Jehovah is he” (so it signifies), “is he who sends me and will own me and bear me out, is he to whom I would bring Israel back and who alone can effect that great work.” 2. His country: He was of the inhabitants of Gilead, on the other side Jordan, either of the tribe of Gad or the half of Manasseh, for Gilead was divided between them; but whether a native of either of those tribes is uncertain. The obscurity of his parentage was no prejudice to his eminency afterwards. We need not enquire whence men are, but what they are: if it be a good thing, no matter though it come out of Nazareth. Israel was sorely wounded when God sent them this balm from Gilead and this physician thence. He is called a Tishbite from Thisbe, a town in that country. Two things we have an account of here in the beginning of his story:–
I. How he foretold a famine, a long and grievous famine, with which Israel should be punished for their sins. That fruitful land, for want of rain, should be turned into barrenness, for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein. He went and told Ahab this; did not whisper it to the people, to make them disaffected to the government, but proclaimed it to the king, in whose power it was to reform the land, and so to prevent the judgment. It is probable that he reproved Ahab for his idolatry and other wickedness, and told him that unless he repented and reformed this judgment would be brought upon his land. There should be neither dew nor rain for some years, none but according to my word, that is, “Expect none till you hear from me again.” The apostle teaches us to understand this, not only of the word of prophecy, but the word of prayer, which turned the key of the clouds, Jas 5:17; Jas 5:18. He prayed earnestly (in a holy indignation at Israel’s apostasy, and a holy zeal for the glory of God, whose judgments were defied) that it might not rain; and, according to his prayers, the heavens became as brass, till he prayed again that it might rain. In allusion to this story it is said of God’s witnesses (Rev. xi. 6), These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy. Elijah lets Ahab know, 1. That the Lord Jehovah is the God of Israel, whom he had forsaken. 2. That he is a living God, and not like the gods he worshipped, which were dead dumb idols. 3. That he himself was God’s servant in office, and a messenger sent from him: “It is he before whom I stand, to minister to him,” or “whom I now represent, in whose stead I stand, and in whose name I speak, in defiance of the prophets of Baal and the groves.” 4. That, notwithstanding the present peace and prosperity of the kingdom of Israel, God was displeased with them for their idolatry and would chastise them for it by the want of rain (which, when he withheld it, it was not in the power of the gods they served to bestow; for are there any of the vanities of the heathen that can give rain? Jer. xiv. 22), which would effectually prove their impotency, and the folly of those who left the living God, to make their court to such as could do neither good nor evil; and this he confirms with a solemn oath–As the Lord God of Israel liveth, that Ahab might stand the more in awe of the threatening, the divine life being engaged for the accomplishment of it. 5. He lets Ahab know what interest he had in heaven: It shall be according to my word. With what dignity does he speak when he speaks in God’s name, as one who well understood that commission of a prophet (Jer. i. 10), I have set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms. See the power of prayer and the truth of God’s word; for he performeth the counsel of his messengers.
II. How he was himself taken care of in that famine. 1. How he was hidden. God bade him go and hide himself by the brook Cherith, v. 3. This was intended, not so much for his preservation, for it does not appear that Ahab immediately sought his life, but as a judgment to the people, to whom, if he had publicly appeared, he might have been a blessing both by his instructions and his intercession, and so have shortened the days of their calamity; but God had determined it should last three years and a half, and therefore, so long, appointed Elijah to abscond, that he might not be solicited to revoke the sentence, the execution of which he had said should be according to his word. When God speaks concerning a nation, to pluck up and destroy, he finds some way or other to remove those that would stand in the gap to turn away his wrath. It bodes ill to a people when good men and good ministers are ordered to hide themselves. When God intended to send rain upon the earth then he bade Elijah go and show himself to Ahab, ch. xviii. 1. For the present, in obedience to the divine command, he went and dwelt all alone in some obscure unfrequented place, where he was not discovered, probably among the reeds of the brook. If Providence calls us to solitude and retirement, it becomes us to acquiesce; when we cannot be useful we must be patient, and when we cannot work for God we must sit still quietly for him. 2. How he was fed. Though he could not work there, having nothing to do but to meditate and pray (which would help to prepare him for his usefulness afterwards), yet he shall eat, for he is in the way of his duty, and verily he shall be fed, in the day of famine he shall be satisfied. When the woman, the church, is driven into the wilderness, care it taken that she be fed and nourished there, time, times, and half a time, that is, three years and a half, which was just the time of Elijah’s concealment. See Rev 12:6; Rev 12:14. Elijah must drink of the brook, and the ravens were appointed to bring him meat (v. 4) and did so, v. 6. Here, (1.) The provision was plentiful, and good, and constant, bread and flesh twice a day, daily bread and food convenient. We may suppose that he fared not so sumptuously as the prophets of the groves, who did eat at Jezebel’s table (ch. xviii. 19), and yet better than the rest of the Lord’s prophets, whom Obadiah fed with bread and water, ch. xviii. 4. It ill becomes God’s servants, especially his servants the prophets, to be nice and curious about their food and to affect dainties and varieties; if nature be sustained, no matter though the palate be not pleased; instead of envying those who have daintier fare, we should think how many there are, better than we, who live comfortably upon coarser fare and would be glad of our leavings. Elijah had but one meal brought him at a time, every morning and every evening, to teach him not to take thought for the morrow. Let those who have but from hand to mouth learn to live upon Providence, and trust it for the bread of the day in the day; thank God for bread this day, and let to-morrow bring bread with it. (2.) The caterers were very unlikely; the ravens brought it to him. Obadiah, and others in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal, would gladly have entertained Elijah; but he was a man by himself, and must be red in an extraordinary way. He was a figure of John the baptist, whose meat was locusts and wild honey. God could have sent angels to minister to him, as he did afterwards (ch. xix. 5) and as he did to our Saviour (Matt. iv. 11), but he chose to send by winged messengers of another nature, to show that when he pleases he can serve his own purposes by the meanest creatures as effectually as by the mightiest. If it be asked whence the ravens had this provision, how and where it was cooked, and whether they came honestly by it, we must answer, as Jacob did (Gen. xxvii. 20), The Lord our God brought it to them, whose the earth is and the fulness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein. But why ravens? [1.] They are birds of prey, ravenous devouring creatures, more likely to have taken his meat from him, or to have picked out his eyes (Prov. xxx. 17); but thus Samson’s riddle is again unriddled, Out of the eater comes forth meat. [2.] They are unclean creatures.Every raven after his kind was, by the law, forbidden to be eaten (Lev. xi. 15), yet Elijah did not think the meat they brought ever the worse for that, but ate and gave thanks, asking no question for conscience’ sake. Noah’s dove was to him a more faithful messenger than his raven; yet here the ravens are faithful and constant to Elijah. [3.] Ravens feed on insects and carrion themselves, yet they brought the prophet man’s meat and wholesome food. It is a pity that those who bring the bread of life to others should themselves take up with that which is not bread. [4.] Ravens could bring but a little, and broken meat, yet Elijah was content with such things as he had, and thankful that the was fed, though not feasted. [5.] Ravens neglect their own young ones, and do not feed them; yet when God pleases they shall feed his prophet. Young lions and young ravens may lack, and suffer hunger, but not those that fear the Lord, Ps. xxxiv. 10. [6.] Ravens are themselves fed by special providence (Job 38:41; Psa 147:9), and now they fed the prophet. Have we experienced God’s special goodness to us and ours? Let us reckon ourselves obliged thereby to be kind to those that are his, for his sake. Let us learn hence, First, To acknowledge the sovereignty and power of God over all the creatures; he can make what use he pleases of them, either for judgment or mercy. Secondly, To encourage ourselves in God in the greatest straits, and never to distrust him. He that could furnish a table in the wilderness, and make ravens purveyors, cooks, and servitors to his prophet, is able to supply all our need according to his riches in glory.
Thus does Elijah, for a great while, eat his morsels alone, and his provision of water, which he has in an ordinary way from the brook, fails him before that which he has by miracle. The powers of nature are limited, but not the powers of the God of nature. Elijah’s brook dried up (v. 7) because there was no rain. If the heavens fail, earth fails of course; such are all our creature-comforts; we lose them when we most need them, like the brooks in summer, Job vi. 15. But there is a river which makes glad the city of God and which never runs dry (Ps. xlvi. 4), a well of water that springs up to eternal life. Lord, give us that living water!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
First Kings – Chapter 17
Elijah Appears, Verses 1-7
At this point in the history of Israel comes on the scene one of the most prominent characters in all the pages of the Old Testament. He is introduced as Elijah the Tishbite, meaning that he was probably a native of Thisbe, in the tribe of Naphtali. Some think there was another place called Tishbe in the tribe of Gad, the land of Gilead, east of the Jordan River. From some things which appear later in the account of Elijah’s deeds, it is suggested that Elijah was a fugitive from the eradication program of Jezebel, and had possibly crossed over to Gilead, and was living there in attempt to escape her wicked deeds (read 1Ki 18:7-14).
But Elijah was bold under the power of the Lord. He suddenly appears unannounced in the palace of Ahab with a message of judgment for the king. Notice the important emphases in his pronouncement to the king; 1) the Lord God of Israel is a living God in contrast to the false gods of Ahab and Jezebel; 2) Elijah recognized that he stood always before the face of God, who knew who and what he was, and by whom he lived and served; 3) there would be neither dew nor rain in Israel in judgment for the sinful deeds of Israel and her kings; 4) this condition would continue until Elijah returned to announce its cessation, and that would be dependent on God’s leadership of him.
The immediate reaction of King Ahab to this dire prediction of the old prophet is not known. From his later feeling of desperation, however, it is known that he was repentant, but rather blamed Elijah with the whole affair. Elijah must have departed Ahab’s presence immediately, much as he had appeared there a few moments before. Ahab may have been too astounded to do anything to apprehend him at the moment.
The Lord spoke to Elijah again and directed him to cross over the Jordan to Gilead, to the brook Cherith, and hide himself there from the murderous hand of Jezebel and her weak-spitted husband, AHab Cherith is believed to be the small stream rising in the east of Gilead and flowing westward, through the city of Jabesh-gilead, and emptying into the Jordan about one-third of its distance from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Elijah would drink water from the brook, and the Lord would command the ravens to bring his food. the raven was much like the crow, and though it eats fruit and seeds, also loves to eat carrion, for which it is included among the unclean fowl in Israel’s law. To a scrupulous Israelite it would have been very distasteful to eat anything associated with these birds. Yet these creatures brought bread for Elijah every morning and brought him meat in the evening. Elijah was centuries ahead of the Apostle Peter in accepting all things God commanded as clean and permissible (cf. Act 10:15).
Elijah continued in this place for some time. Every day he must have witnessed his prediction coming to pass, as the brook ran down to a trickle and finally dried up altogether: Elijah did not become frantic as many do when it might appear the Lord has forgotten about them, and begin running off here and there hunting a new water-hole. He simply relied on the Lord to care for him and does not seem to have worried about the drying brook. God’s servants in all ages need to learn to have such confidence in Him (Heb 13:5-6).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM
1 Kings 12-22.
IN resuming our study of I Kings, in this 12th chapter we confront a sudden turn in history. The falling of such a man as Solomon is a shock to history itself; a stop so sudden in its impetuous rush, that all society is shaken in consequence, and wonder as to what next? takes possession of the people. The text of Scripture does not always take account of time. How many days elapsed between the emptying of Davids throne by Solomons death, and the accession to the same on the part of Rehoboam, we are not told; but the pivotal points in this adjustment are made plain, and in the study of them one fact shines clearly forth, namely, that God, the true King of Israel, lived and reigned.
Men make their plans and attempt their executions, but history records how the Divine will overrules them all. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord (Pro 16:33).
Teachers have called attention to the fitness of renaming the fifth Book of the New Testament, and instead of calling it, The Acts of the Apostles, declare it, The Acts of the Holy Ghost. So in this Old Testament history we seem to be studying the acts of the kings of Judah and Israel, but they are necessarily interpreted in the light of the will of the King of kings, the Lord of Glory. Whosoever sitteth upon the throne, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Keeping that fact before us, we find these eleven chapters are as full of spiritual suggestions as they are replete with historic incidents, and in the interest of time as it relates itself to the most important truths, I ask your attention to the great opposing personalities that are herein discovered; to Jeroboam vs. Rehoboam; to Elijah vs. Ahab, and to Micaiah vs. false prophets.
JEROBOAM VS. REHOBOAM
Coming events cast their shadows before! We had not finished the 11th chapter when Jeroboam, the son of Neb at, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomons servant, the son of a widow, was lifting his hand against the king, and Ahijah, the prophet, was kindling his ambitions by telling him that the God of Israel would rend the kingdom out of Solomons hands and give ten tribes to him. The path, therefore, of Rehoboam, Solomons son, was not clear. If he came to the kingdom he must both put down his opponent and placate his people. This dual task requires wisdom, and the subject of the complaint was one with which the counsellors of the old king were alone familiar. When Rehoboam consulted them, they advised moderation in speech and conduct.
That is a hard word for ambitious youth. It is a consent to place a leash on passionate strength. The impetuous prince straightway made appeal to young men and secured from them the counsel his inexperienced spirit craved, namely the counsel of rigor, expressed in. the threat, my little finger shall be thicker than my fathers loins (1Ki 12:10).
Men, particularly inexperienced men, commonly accept the counsels that fit with their own plans and desires, and Rehoboam was no exception.
But even then, history is not made apart from the will and plan of God. The very decision of Rehoboam is a part of the prophecy of Ahijah as much so as the perfidy of Judas was prophecy converted into history. Whether God rules in all things may be a question! That God is familiar with all contingencies before they come to pass is not even debatable, and that He presides over history is a settled truth. If Judas betrayed Jesus that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, so also Rehoboam refused wise counsel and accepted the false, that the word which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite should stand. Foreknowledge of human conduct does not render God morally responsible in any measure for what men may do, but it does enable Him to administer all history, and in the end to work out His own will.
In the remaining portion of this chapter and running through the 16th of the same book, there are at least three outstanding lessons to be learned by the observant student.
The Menace of mistaken counsels! Modern science is proving that all space is a unity, and transmission of sound by the radio is demonstrating that the speech made in America can actually be heard on every continent of the world; and yet more certain still is it that single events influence and affect history more positively and permanently than a spoken word affects the element of ether.
If it had been the rule of Rehoboam alone, the result of this consultation with the old men first and with the young men later must still have been important, but with limitations, both in time and effect. When it is remembered, however, that all human history, to the end of the age, would take color from the decision reached by this young king, then who can measure the importance of wise counsel?
The cheapest commodity is advice; that is to say, it is everywhere on exhibit and offered for nothing, but in the end it comes at the greatest conceivable cost or proves itself to have been a most invaluable contribution. In other words, counsel makes or mars. The world to this hour is suffering from Rehoboams mistake, not alone in the division of the sons of Abraham, but since that day, every Gentile nation has felt the evil influence of the same.
There is a philosophy, popular at this time, to the effect that it does not make much difference what you tell youth; whether you counsel them concerning the true God in heaven, or tell them that the only God there is is a one-celled animal; whether you lead them to believe that the inspired record of Genesis is true, or scoff their minds into an utter skepticism; whether you impress them with the notion that they are apesbetter developed, or the true creatures of Gods own thought, plan and power. There seems to be an impression that the counsel of youth finds no expression in the character of mature men and womena philosophy as false as the devil who fathers it.
I tell you that the counsels of youth determine everything! America, one hundred years from now, will be reaping the harvest of what is sown in the minds of the young men at this moment. If they are taught the truth, they will bless the world. If they are taught a lie, they will curse it! A correct counsel for the young is of too infinite moment to be banished from society through the specious plea of skeptics who cry Academic freedom. Rehoboam was not a beardless boy when they counselled him falsely. He was forty-one years of age, and yet, with even such maturity of years, he succumbed, and the nations have suffered in consequence. How vastly more deleterious is the effect of false counsel upon the ten and fifteen and twenty year old youth! To teach him falsehoods in the name of academic freedom is to flout all sound philosophy, fly in the face of all mans experience and seek to cover rotting skepticism with a wholesome sounding phrase!
But to pass on to another and kindred point, involving chapter 13:
The immorality of compromise with false ministers. When in the study of the week we came to a careful consideration of this 13th chapter, we felt exactly as though we were listening to an address in the Convention of the Christian Fundamentalists. Here is a true prophet of God with a Divinely given message, and a commission, and on his way. He is overtaken by a false prophet, a new theologian, a man with a social message, and is asked to sit at meat with him and prove himself a good fellow, and is even told that this is the will of the Lord. So the true prophet went back with the false prophet and did eat bread and drink water and the consequence was his repudiation by the false prophet first and a speedy judgment upon his disobedience, executed by his death at the paw of a lion (1Ki 13:11-32). The false prophet mourned him, buried and built a tomb to him, and requested of his own sons that he be let to lie beside him when his days are done.
How modern it all sounds! The greatest single plea presented by the new theologian of the present is that of good fellowship. They want us to sit at the same table with them; they want us to be silent about our differences; they want us to believe in their human and natural philosophies; that they are as true prophets of God as are the men who come with the revealed Word; and if we yield to their persuasions, compromise with them on the great matters in dispute between us. Deep in their own souls they despise us for our failure to stand for what we knew to be the inspired Word, and yet when we are dead, they will build tombs to us, and ask to be buried at our sides!
Meantime, every true minister of the Gospel must determine whether he will yield to such social and philosophic enticements or whether he will take his place with John and in obedience to the revelation made to that prophet, receive him not into your house, neither hid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds (2Jn 1:10-11).
Moving on to chapters 14 to 16, we find another fundamental truth waiting to be apprehended and emphasized, namely,
The folly of attempting to purchase acceptable prophecy. Here again the Old Testament times are being duplicated in the New Testament day. The son of Jeroboam fell sick. Ahijah the prophet was consulted by the queen mother, who came in disguise, with gifts and flatteries. The old mans vision had failed; his eyes were set by reason of age, he could not see; but age does not dim the vision of the Lord, and He revealed her personality to Ahijah and told him both her plan and purpose. So at the sound of her feet at the door, the old prophet said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings (1Ki 14:6), and he pronounced judgment upon the king and his house and plainly declared that God would raise up another king over Israel who should cut off the whole house of Jeroboam in justice against the kings sin; and the prophecy came to pass, and Jeroboam, who had reigned twenty-two years, slept with his fathers, and Rehoboam, son of Solomon, who reigned in Judah, went also to his grave. Singularly enough, the death of these kings is recorded in the same chapter.
Then follows the long list of the kings on either side, conflicts, divisions, disasters and judgments (chaps. 15; 16). There are plenty of people who would like to purchase acceptable prophecy. There are plenty of women who, like Jeroboams wife, do not want the truth of God. They want smooth words; they want the prophet to say there is no sickness; they want him to affirm there is no death; they want him even to deny the reality of the same. Such people are perfectly willing to pay a price. They go to the healers, with ten loaves and cracknels and a cruse of honey. False philosophy is a profitable business, but it never yet exempted anybody from peril, never saved a single scientist from sin or sickness or death. It never kept a solitary throne upon a stable foundation and it never will.
It is interesting to watch these thrones rock, totter and fall one after another, and to find in every instance a fulfilment of the prophetic word of the Lord. Though heaven and earth shall pass away, not one jot or tittle of all that God has spoken shall fail.
But to turn afresh to our text and study another subject.
ELIJAH VS. AHAB
Read 1 Kings 17-21.
The histories of potentates and prophets run parallel in the Books of the Kings. Their views of life are divergent. Elijah and Ahab have little in common beyond the fact that they are contemporaneous, and dwell in the same empire. Elijahs character so far outshines that of Ahab that we consider the latter only as his conduct is seen in the light of the former. Let us learn again,
A pessimistic pronouncement does not disprove the prophet of God. When Elijah the Tishbite comes upon the scene, his first speech is, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years (1Ki 17:1). No! wonder he was non-acceptable! Unpalatable truths make unpopular preachers. The men who dont want to believe in the prophecies concerning the Second Coming of Christ, denounce as pessimists those who faithfully quote and believe Gods word upon that subject, and feel that by the very name they have discredited and discountenanced them. But Revelation pays little regard to what men want. It never consults public opinion that it may suit its speech to the same. It gives out the truth, knowing that in the end the knowledge of the truth is the worlds sorest need. If a famine is coming, it is foolish to shut ones ears against its prediction and be overtaken by starvation; and, if Christ is coming, it is foolish to repudiate the prophecy, to be shamed by His sudden appearance.
When will men learn that the prophet of God is not appointed to repeat the nonsensical platitudes of a Coue, or the filched and false aphorisms of a Mary Baker Eddy? The test of the prophets has not changed one whit in thirty centuries. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them (Isa 8:20). When a prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken (Deu 18:22). Only a few years ago the post millenarians of America were telling us that war was forever over; that in the evolution of the race we had developed a better wisdom and adopted a more righteous way, and they held to scorn those who believed that in the last days wars would rend the world; and that famines, and pestilences would follow in the wake of them. But the words of Jeremiah the Prophet are the test of all such opponents of the truth, The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him (Jer 28:9).
The 18th chapter has a further suggestionThe Prophets faith and speech is his sufficient self-defense. In this chapter, Elijah suddenly appears and sends, by the mouth of the Prophet Obadiah, word to Ahab, Elijah is here! He had no fear! He dared to face Ahab, the professed king of Israel, confident in the Potentate of Heaven, Israels true King. In answer to Ahabs question, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? he set up his defense, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy fathers house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord (1Ki 18:17-18), and by faith he proposed a challenge, involving the entire company of Baal prophets, The God that answereth by fire, let Him be God (1Ki 18:24). We know the result; Jehovah revealed Himself as a God that heareth and answereth prayer, and it was made manifest that Baal was no god at all, and the consequence is the slaughter of the false prophets and the justification of Elijah. What other defense does the true prophet need for his person than he has in the King of kings, the Lord of Glory? And what other defense for his message than that he brings the Word of the Lord?
It doesnt concern me that certain of my brethren write, We wont accept the article on the Second Coming of Christ to be found in the Confession of Faith of the Fundamentalists of America. My concern is in another subject. Are these articles justified by the Word, and fortified in the sacred sentences thereof? The Lord is the defense of the true minister, and the Word the one and only justification of his message.
The endangered prophet has the assurance of Divine care and provision. The execution of the false prophets stirred Jezebel to desperate decision. The life of Elijah is threatened. A womans rage holds nothing in reverence. The fury of Jezebel was a thousandfold more dangerous than the anger of Ahab, and from it Elijah fled; before it, Elijah fainted; in the face of it, Elijah requested for himself that he might die (1 Kings 19).
And yet it is impossible to believe that Elijahs fear and discouragement were the fruits of cowardice. Instead they were the natural reactions of an overstrained spirit; doubtless in part, the result of having slain the false prophets in keeping with the customs of the day, when he had no command from the Lord, and also the protest of an overtaxed mind and body.
How grateful readers should be that the whole story is recorded, for with it is also written the story of Gods tenderness and the repeated instances of Gods care. Two visits from an angel, food and drink; a still, small voice; a gracious declaration of the 7,000 fraternal souls. What refreshing for body, mind and spirit! God truly cares for the whole man, and concerns Himself for him who ministers in His Word.
But to conclude our study with the consideration of,
MICAIAH VS. FALSE PROPHETS
and to learn from these three remaining chapters, 20 to 22, three important lessons:
Ahab wages successful war when he has Gods Word for his warrant. In his battle against Benhadad the king of Syria, he had Gods promise against Syria, Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord (1Ki 20:13). The battle was won when that word was spoken. Ahab is no saint. His life and conduct are not acceptable to Jehovah, but he is king of Israel, the ruler over Gods people, and God cares for His own, and when they are at war with sinners, men who do not so much as name God, Jehovah is likely to be on their side.
Even poor leadership is not likely to doom a good cause. God does not lose His interest in right, when the evil rule. A thousandfold better to fight for a just cause with weak leadership than for an unjust cause, superbly led. The boasted scholarship of modernism fills me with no fear in trying to stand before it. Intellectual superiority, when it sets itself against God, is insanity; and even the great Gladstone of England had no objection to being found in fellowship with the plain people. He was that countrys Commoner indeed, and Americas great Commoner, William Jennings Bryan, was brainy enough to know that battles will finally be won upon the basis of right and wrong, which is only another way of saying, If God be for us, who can be against us? Where God is, there is victory! In the last analysis, the success of an enterprise does not depend upon its human leadership but rests with the Divine favor instead.
But to the 21st chapter and learn another lesson The covetousness of a king may be indulged at the cost of a kingdom. Here we have the record of Naboths vineyard, desired by Ahab and refused by its rightful owner. People may be disposed to condemn Naboth for not selling out when his superior proffered him a fair price, but only such as are ignorant of the Word would so speak. Naboth was more anxious to be loyal to the King of kings than to this petty potentate. He could not forget the Word of the Lord written in Num 36:7, So shall not the inheritance of the Children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the Children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers; and if Ahab had known the Word of the Lord, he would have been reminded of Eze 46:18, Moreover the prince shall not take of the peoples inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession.
Some men have sought to justify Ahab here by saying this was not covetousness, since he offered Naboth a proper price for it, but the defense is insufficient. The man who so far covets his neighbors possessions as to secure his death in order to appropriate the same is an enemy alike of God and of man, and cannot escape the judgment of the Lord. Hence it is written, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine (1Ki 21:19).
Truly, as Joseph Parker says, When Ahab went down to take possession of that vineyard, a death warrant was awaiting him. Yea, all the world does move under the hand of God and there are righteous results everywhere operative, and justice is a thousand fold more often meted out than men ever imagine.
A defenseless boy may be picked off a train in Florida and a purchasable judge may fine him an amount that he knows the lad does not have, and under the pretense of justice fling him into prison to die at the hands of a flogging brute in the form of a man, and months may pass; no mention of the matter reach the public, and in consequence the criminal chuckles to himself, My deeds are covered! Justice, if it sleep, is not dead, and in an unexpected moment it will arouse itself to speak in thunder tones, quickening the whole nation into a united jury that shall pass sentence and demand judgment. God lives!
Finally, The temporal interests of Gods Kingdom rest between true and false prophets. The last chapter tells the story of Micaiah, Gods true Prophet, and of a company of men who profess to be prophets, but who are possessed by a lying spirit. There were about 400 of these. Majorities do not settle questions of revelation, not even when they are 400 to 1! The more false prophets you have, the less dependable is their counsel. For the first time since Solomons death, the two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, have a prospect of being united. The lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets did promise the project and assure the united forces of a final victory against the enemy.
Alas for the faith of men who follow those who have no sure word of prophecy! Micaiah, the true prophet, may be smitten on the cheek; may be thrust into prison; may be fed with the bread of affliction and the water of shame, but His word will not fail on that account. Throughout the length and breadth of the land, on this beautiful Sunday morning, there are hundreds of true prophets of God whom certain ecclesiastical potentates are seeking to silence. In the Methodist denomination, bishops are refusing them appointments. In the Baptist and Congregational denominations, State Secretaries are setting their faces against them, and are seeking to influence leading church officials to reject them, and cast them out.
Suffering is the true prophets experience, but better a Micaiah in prison with scant bread and unslaked thirst, than a deceived king marching forth to a battle that shall leave him dead on the field. The after-history of the prophet we do not know. God for His own reasons left that in obscurity. What matters it? If, as a free man he breathed his last as Moses did, on Nebos heights; if as a martyr he yielded up his spirit as did Stephen in Jerusalem; if as Paul he perished in prison, what matters it? An angel came to claim Moses body; Heaven opened to receive Stephens spirit; and Paul quit the earth with a triumphant shout! The kingdom is suffering; its king and subjects are still evil in the sight of the Lord; Baal, the false god of worship is an insult to the most High, but the prophets spirit is safe!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF ELIJAH THE TISHBITE
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
1Ki. 17:1. Elijah the TishbiteThis is the first mention of him in Scripture; an abrupt introduction, which seems to imply that already he was known as a prophet; or the startling development of national apostasy under Ahab may have called out Elijah into sudden protestation. TishbiteNot an Israelite, therefore, but a Gentile, whose employment in the prophetic ministry was itself a rebuke to the nation. Was there none in all Israel to speak for Jehovah? The name Elijah, signifies, My God is Jehovah. Israel was rejecting HIM for idols, but this Gentile had rejected idols for HIM. Tishbite, from Tisbe, a place east of Jordan. Tob. 1:2 refers to as being at the right hand of the city properly called Naphtali, in Galilee above Aser. Said unto AhabIt is suggested that this penal prediction proved the closing application of an unrecorded speech. All reasoning being ineffective, the prophet leaves the king with this prophetic sentence. Yet Elijahs manner was to accost the guilty with few, yet significant words, and then depart.
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki. 17:1
THE TRUE PROPHET AND HIS SIGNIFICANT MESSAGE
ISRAEL had gone from bad to worse, and the cup of her iniquity was fast filling to the brim. Religion was little more than a name. Jehovah was no longer worshipped as a living person, but was only thought of as a far distant and but dimly comprehended being. Faith darkened into a grim unbelief, and virtue wallowed in the filth of a royalty-sanctioned sensuality, or hid itself in solitude with fear and trembling. The nation had revolted from the beneficent sway of Jehovah, and rushed with reckless haste into the embrace of a she-fiend, who held it as with a grip of iron, while she tantalized it with her voluptuous wiles, and goaded it to despair with her heartless cruelties. Surely the spell of the vile enchantress could not last for ever. The end must be at hand: the iniquity of the land cried to heaven for vengeance. A sense of approaching doom took possession of many minds; and it seemed as if a strange, mysterious stillness, like that which sometimes precedes the terrific tempest, settled on the nationa stillness broken only now and then by the murmur of the idolatrous worshippers in the groves, or the loud, coarse laughter of the licentious priests as they feasted at Jezebels table. Suddenlylike a meteor newly kindled in the heavens, or like a thunderbolt hurled from the clouds by the hand of the AlmightyElijah bursts upon the scene. The revellers tremble and the king grows pale, as the bold and fearless prophet denounces their wickedness, and warns them of the sufferings which their sins would inevitably bring. Thus the dankest night of Israels spiritual declension was broken by the appearance of that bright luminary Elijah, the greatest of all the prophets since Moses, and the type of that great preacher of repentance who was the forerunner of Christ.
I. That the true prophet is often called to his work out of comparative obscurity. Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead. It seemed very unlikely that a reformer would spring from the midst of the rough, uncouth inhabitants of Gilead. It was a wild, rocky, mountainous region, a country of chase, and the favourite haunt of robberssomething like what some parts of Palestine are rendered by the Bedouins of the present day; or, in relation to the rival kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan, very much what the Highlands were to the Lowlands of Scotland in the days of chieftain feud and foray (vide Macaulays England). And yet it was just the place where the very qualities that were so essential in a prophet who would successfully contend with an Ahab and a Jezebel would be likely to be nurturedthe capacity of endurance, the fleet action, the intrepid boldness, the sternness of reproof amounting almost to fierceness. How true is it that God is not limited to locality in the choice of His servants! There was an Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, a Moses in the land of Midian, a Nicodemus in the Sanhedrim, a Joseph of Arimathea among the aristocracy of Jerusalem, a Cornelius in the Roman camp; there were saints in Csars household, and in half-heathen Gilead there was found an Elijah.
II. That the true prophet hears unmistakable testimony as to the character of the only True God. As the Lord God of Israel liveth. Jehovah is the living God. This truth was uttered by the fearless prophet with an abruptness, a solemnity, and a ringing vehemency that must have startled the guilty Ahab, and have reminded him that the dumb, dead idols to which he was yielding homage were incomparable with the All-powerful and Ever-living Jehovah whom he and his people had so wickedly forsaken. Elijah means God-Jehovah, so that even in his name the great reformer carries a rebuke to the Baal-serving king. The great need of Israel at this time was a revival among them of just ideas concerning God. Notwithstanding the special privileges they had enjoyed in becoming acquainted with the True God, they were now in danger of losing all faith in Him, and of sinking down into a worse state of heathenism than that of the idolatrous nations by which they were surrounded. All true reform must begin by restoring to the mind clear and exalted conceptions of the character of God. This Elijah did, not so much by eloquence of speech, as by picturesqueness and significance of action. He was the prophet of actionthe great heroprophet of the kingdom of the ten tribes: the grandest and most romantic character that Israel ever produced. His whole career was one of intense activity, during which he wrote, as if in fiery hieroglyphics, the awful character of the God he so diligently served. His mission was to proclaim the living God in opposition to Ahabs dead, senseless idols.
III. That the true prophet receives his commission from the Highest Authority. Before whom I stand. How honourable, how sublime, how awful the position of him who stands to minister in the presence of God as His servant and ambassador! He receives his commission direct from the throne, he speeds on his errand with ready obedience, he is oppressed with the responsibility of his office, he utters his message as if standing in the presence of God. Elijah was the loftiest, sternest spirit of the True Faith raised up face to face with the proudest and fiercest spirit of the old Asiatic paganism, against Jezebel rose up Elijah the Tishbite. Whenever the powers of darkness appear incarnate in some such ruling personage as Jezebel, with her hosts of Baal and Asherah prophets, then God provides an incarnation of his Divine Spirit and power, with suitable signs and wonders to confuse and confound the ministers of Satan. Such an incarnation was Elijah. The power that may be exerted by an individual life is something appalling, especially when it derives its inspiration direct from heaven. Lord Rochester fled from Fenelon, crying, If I stay here any longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself. The greatest power over humanity to-day is spiritual power.
IV. That the true prophet is commissioned to announce the judgments of God against prevalent iniquity. There shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word.
1. Jehovah has absolute control over all the elements of nature. The worshippers of Baalim invested their deities with the lordship over the processes of nature; and the time had come when they must be undeceived. The prophet demonstrates that the dew and rain-clouds are not of Baals giving, but are wholly in the hands of God, who can bestow or withhold their blessings according to His will.
2. Jehovah can make the elements of nature the instruments of a nations punishment which have been the means of its sin. Israel had ignored God in nature and ascribed all power to Baal: nature is now to wield the rod which is to punish them for their apostasy and sin. It is to be shown how utterly fictitious is the control of their deities over the dew and the rain, and how terrible is the judgment which Jehovah can impose by drying up the moisture of earth and sky. Drought was a punishment threatened against idolatry (Deu. 11:16-17); and in this particular instance the obstinacy of Ahab continued it for three years and a half. To Eastern and Southern nations the withholding of rain is the withholding of pleasure, of sustenance, of life itself. It is only in abject distress and suffering that man can see the falseness and vanity of the idols in which he has so blindly trusted.
LESSONS:
1. In the worst times God can raise up faithful men to do the most difficult and most needed work.
2. They who dare to be bold for God may safely trust to him for protection.
3. We learn how great may be the power of an individual life.
THE LIFE AND LESSONS OF THE GREAT HEBREW REFORMER
No story so bewitches us as the story of Elijahs life. His meteoric appearances, his lonely life spent hermit-like for the most part in caves and deserts, his fearlessness in the presence of Ahab and hostile priests, his sublime translation, his appearing 900 years after with our Lord; these and other circumstances invest his memory with a romantic interest such as belongs to no other prophet. He is a prophet, and some of the events in his life can only occur in a prophets; but he is also a man, a man struggling against weaknesses like our own. His life will touch ours in many parts. Consider
I. The abruptness of his appearance on the arena of action. Where does the wild, stern-looking being come from? Who knows anything of his parents? What is his trade? But we wait in vain for an answer. This throws such a weirdness over him. There was design in sending the prophet with such abruptness into the presence of the king. Ahab had become hardened in sin. For a long time the prophets had been silent; Jehovah dumb. No stern protest had been lifted up; and, his conscience drugged, the man a mere puppet of his imperious queen and her fawning priests, Ahab can be aroused only by shattering peals of thunder, or a bursting volcano. Into his palace rushes the wild solemn man of the desert, and at the drowsy idolatrous king flings his stern threat. Thus God has to act still. To many a man the tenderest utterances of the Gospel have become as opiating drugs. A fire-brand, a thunderbolt, only will wake him up. Fingers of forked lightning must write fiery words of doom on his chamber walls. Ahab needed an Elijah.
II. The words suggested some idea of his previous training. Gilead must have had much to do with the character of the man. When he stood amid the crags of Mount Sinai unappalled by the bursts of thunder that shook the foundation of the hills, and shrunk not when the sheets of flame lit up the ravines, it was because he had been accustomed to similar impressive scenes in his own rugged land. It was a fitting cradle for such a spirit. The Highlands of Scotland have produced a race of men stern, hardy, daring; quite a contrast to the Lowlanders. The wide prairies of America tend to produce a race of Indians swift of foot, passionate in the chase, stealthy, and spurning settled abodes. Jehovah has found His Elijah in the right country. Very little is said about his personal aspects, but we shall always recognise him when he appearsthe tawny, shaggy-haired man; around his shoulder the loose cape or mantle of sheep-skin, fastened at his breast with a leathern girdle. The appearance of the hitherto unknown prophet suggests
III. How God had been steadily preparing an instrument for His work. His eye rested upon the nations sin, and away in the solitude of Gilead He was shaping the man who would be as a sweeping tornado in the land, who would be the Regenerator of His people, the mighty Reformer in Israel. The worlds history illustrates the principle. Israel needs to be led out of Egypt. In the very palace of the Pharaohs is young Moses being prepared as the future leader of Israel. God looks with holy anger upon the corruption of the Church of Rome, but in secret He is fitting the brave, heroic miners son to shatter the huge fabric of superstition. To turn this principle round, and look on the other side, it conveys encouragement to Gods people. To them, when in trouble, an Elijah of deliverance shall appear. A soldier whipped for a trifle, leaped from his ship into the heavy sea. A large albatross swooped like magic down at the man. In his death struggle, he seized the monstrous bird, and was thus kept afloat until aid arrived. Overwhelmed in the water, there may be an albatross overhead to help the Christian. God may be preparing in secret an Elijah, not to speak words of fire as to Ahab, but to be a deliverer. This mention of Thisbe and Gilead suggests
IV. From what obscurity the Lord brought the mighty prophet. No rabbi or learned doctor does God produce as the great instrument to effect His purpose, but a Lay Preacher from the Highlands of Gilead. One likes to think how God employs the lowly, and works out his plans through the obscure. He is constantly rebuking us for thinking a place must be so many miles square, a man must have such an amount of brain, or wealth, before he can work. A rock in mid ocean may prove a cage large enough to contain the proud eagle of France. A small smithy in Micklefield can produce a Sammy Hick, whose name shall be known and influence felt to the extremities of the land. Bethlehem is large enough for the Redeemer of a world to be horn in. A fishermans craft is respectable enough to produce a Peter. Even an insignificant obliterated Thisbe can send forth an Elijah!(The Lay Preacher for 1874).
GERM NOTES ON 1Ki. 17:1
A strange speech, certainly, to be reported of a man of whom as yet we have heard nothing. What had been passing in his mind up to that day, what he had to do with Ahab, how he came to think that dew or rain would obey his Commands, we are not told. We are to judge of these things as we can. Our only help for judging of them lies in the words themselves. And there is the secretAs the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand. Here we have the key to the education and faith of Elijah, as well as to his relation with the king of Israel. I have learnt that there is a Lord God of Israel, and that He lives, and that I am in His presence. I am sure that He is my Guide, and Teacher, and Judge; I am sure that He is the Guide, and Teacher, and Judge of this land and of its king. And this, Ahab, is just what thou dost not believe, just what thou, by thine acts, art denying. Thou believest in a Lord, or in many lords, far off from thee, exercising no government over thy actions, enforcing no duties upon thee towards thy subjects; a lord seated somewhere in the clouds, or on the summit of some hill; a cloud-compeller, a giver of dew or rain when your offerings please him, or when of mere sovereignty he chooses to do it. And I tell you that it is not this lord or these lords who send rain and dew; but that it is the God of you and of your fathers, the God who has ordained the course of seasons, who has appointed summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; who has appointed you to till the land upon which His rain descends and His sun shines; who claims first of all your trust and your obedience, since though you stand, as I stand, before Him, it is not your eyes that will tell you of Him; you must believe in Him if you would know Him. And as a sign and witness that it is even so, I declare to you, that the rain and the dew shall not come except at the word of me, a poor, insignificant, unknown man, by whom it pleases God to declare what He is, and what the being whom He has formed in His image is meant to be. Herein consists the force of this audacious sentence. It at once proclaims that relation between the unseen God and the spirit of man which Jezebels priests by their services, and Ahab by his tyrannical acts, were alike setting at nought.Maurice.
Men in general have never been willing to recognize, and are still unwilling to recognize the fact, that need and misery upon earth stand in the closest relation to their conduct towards God; that through their need they may be called back to Him whom they have forsaken, and feel what it is when God withdraws His hand, when they are left to themselves, when the Almighty withholds His gifts and blessings, and sends His punishments and plagues. The God of Israel is the living God, because He has spoken to Israel and has, through His Word, revealed Himself to them (Psa. 147:19-20). God has spoken unto us by His son, the image of His being, and has revealed Himself in Him much more gloriously to us; therefore Christendom knows no other living God than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can venture to say that he stands before God? He who, like Elijah, has firm faith, is unconditionally obedient to the Word of God, and fearlessly and courageously pursues the path God has prescribed for him.Menken.
National apostasy and national chastisement. Far away among the craggy glens of Gilead the prophet has become acquainted with the wickedness of the court and the people. Ah! there was one faithful heart who mourned over a nations sin, and took it, where we ought to take our countrys sins, into the presence of God. I. National chastisement following upon national apostasy. Does this surprise us? If an individual commit an infamous crime and escape punishment here, there awaits him a stern avenger among the shadows of the world to come. But there cannot be a wholesale retribution dealt out to a nation or tribe in that future state. Prosperity attends upon a virtuous nation, or fell-ruin overwhelms a degenerate one here. No kingdom ever perished through its high-toned morality.
1. This punishment was not arbitrary and prejudiced. The law pronounced it ages before this threat, if the people forsook God (Lev. 26:19; Deu. 11:16). No calamity came from spite or caprice. Jehovah knows nothing of the despicable venom of some human hearts when He deals in severity with men.
2. The punishment threatened was adapted to the special character of the nations sin. Baal was worshipped as the source of fruitful harvest. Now there is to be a test of strength between God and His rival Baal. If drought and barrenness succeed the prophets words, that will be a tangible proof of the impotence of their favourite idol. This is Gods method still. The punishment sent often suits with terrible appropriateness the sin committed. II. These words reveal the source of the prophets holy boldness. As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand. He has a deep conviction that he is the servant of Jehovah. He is powerfully conscious of the continual presence of the Divine Being. Every Christian should have a conviction of being summoned to his particular work in the church. Here was the prophets incentive to faithfulness. Moving about in the presence of the Holy One would have a salutary effect upon him. To one conscious of standing, living before the Holy God, as if he were always in the Holy of Holies, irreverence, unfaithfulness, would be exceptionally aggravated. Let the thought of standing before God, in the home, behind the counter, and in the exchange, be an incentive to faithfulness.
LESSONS:
1. The influence of a man in position. Ahabs idolatry had led the nation astray.
2. Learn to identify yourself with the nations conditions, and make it a subject for prayer.The Lay Preacher.
The unusual efflux of miraculous energy at this time is suitable to the unusual energy andmay we not say, evoked by it?God mercifully adapting His gifts to mens needs. It is not here as in legendary histories. There the supernatural diminishes as the writer descends the stream of time and comes nearer to his own day. Here miracles are abundant or scanty without any reference to time; but in very evident proportion to the spiritual necessities of the people.Speakers Comm.
Suddenly Elijah appears before us in the narrative as he appeared in his lifetime before Ahab and the children of Israel. Suddenly he appears, like Melchizedec, and suddenly he disappears, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life. Not unnaturally did the ancient rabbis believe him to be the fiery Phincas returned to earth, or an angel hovering on the outskirts of the world. Not unnaturally have the Mussulman traditions confounded him with the mysterious being, the Immortal one, the Eternal Wanderer, who appears ever and anon to set right the wrongs of earth and repeat the experience of ages past. Not unnaturally did the mediaeval alchemists and magicians strive to trace up their dark arts to Elijah the Tishbite, the Father of Alchemy. The other prophetsMoses, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiahwere constantly before the eyes of their countrymen. But Elijah they saw only by partial and momentary glimpses.Stanley.
Peculiar and hopeless as the exigency in Israel appeared, the Lord found a man fit for ita man fitted beyond all others, by the force of his character, his grasp of faith, and his fearless spirit, to stem the torrent of a faithless age. This man was Elijah the Tishbite. He was one of the most extraordinary characters mentioned in the Bible. Great evils require great remedies; extraordinary diseases, extraordinary physicians; gigantic corruptions, gigantic reformers. And such was Elijah, who in his gifts and qualities assumes a figure scarcely human from its gigantic proportions, and towers aloft like one of the sons of Anak among common men. He was such stuff as the heathen made their gods of; and had he appeared in a heathen country he would have come down to us as scarcely less than a god, side by side, perhaps, with Hercules, instead of being only something more than a prophet. There are two sorts of prophetsprophets of deeds, prophets of words. Of the latter the greatest is doubtless Isaiah; of the former, there has not been among men born of women any greater than Elijah.Kitto.
Israel had never such a king as Ahab for impiety; never so miraculous a prophet as Elijah. He comes in like a tempest, who went out in a whirl wind. I do not so much wonder at the boldness of Elijah as at his power. Yea, who so sees his power, can no whit wonder at his boldness: how could he but be bold to the face of a man, who was thus powerful with God? While he knows himself a prophet, he remembers to be a man. He doth not therefore arrogate his power as his own, but published it as his masters. This restraint must be according to his word, and that word was from a higher mouth than his. Man only can denounce what God will execute, which, when it is once revealed, can no more fail than the Almighty Himself.Bp. Hall.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
I. THE GREAT DROUGHT IN ISRAEL 17:124
The Ahab-Elijah clash was the epitome of the conflict which had been going on in Israel between king and prophet since the founding of the monarchy. The king had as his primary goals military security, economic expansion and a higher standard of living for his people. The prophets, on the other hand, were concerned first and foremost about fidelity to the Lord. They viewed with suspicion the foreign treaties negotiated by the crown. The indomitable Elijah thundered forth against the flagrant violations of the principles of Sinaiagainst the new mores imported from prosperous Phoenicia. The process of Phoenicianization threatened to destroy the foundations of Israelite society. The crown promoted the process; the prophets opposed it. These antithetical ideals prompted the struggle that is so graphically portrayed in 1 Kings 17 –2 Kings 10.
Ahabs Phoenician queen Jezebel was chief promoter of Phoenicianization in Israel. She could not understand the hesitancy on the part of her husband to deal decisively with his prophetic adversaries. Taking matters into her own hands, this wicked woman launched an all out attack against the prophets. Less stalwart men were forced into hiding. But Elijah would not be intimidated and continued to preach and teach in defiance of the queen. His relentless, vehement, flaming indignation bolstered the courage of the faint-hearted and sent chills up the spine of those who hated him.
In chapter 17 the author traces the movements of Elijah in connection with a great drought which came upon Israel. He presents (1) Elijah before the king (1Ki. 17:1); (2) Elijah at the brook Cherith (1Ki. 17:2-7); and (3) Elijah in the village of Zarephath (1Ki. 17:8-24).
A. ELIJAH BEFORE THE KING 17:1
TRANSLATION
(1) And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives before whom I stand, surely there shall not be dew or rain these years except at my word.
COMMENTS
Whether the name Elijah was the prophets given name, or whether it was an assumed name, it is most appropriate for this man of God. The very name embodies the credo of this prophet for it means my God is Yahweh.
Elijah hailed from the town of Tishbe[409] in the rugged region of Gilead. Like his great predecessor Moses, the character of Elijah was forged in an unsettled and half-civilized region. Throughout the narrative he is referred to in Kings by his name only, or as the Tishbite. Only once is he called prophet (1Ki. 18:36). Perhaps his reputation was so well established that the designation prophet was regarded as redundant and unnecessary.
[409] Since Byzantine times Tishbe has been identified with al-Istib, eight miles north of the Jabbock. A shrine, mar Elias, (St. Elijah) marks the approximate spot today.
The abrupt way in which Elijah appears on the scene without a word of introduction or explanation is certainly remarkable. Not a word is said about his past relations with the king or the people. Such suddenness is appropriate to the character of this prophet whose comings and goings were unexpected and startling. Someone has said, Elijah comes in with a tempest, and goes out with a whirlwind. His sudden appearances and disappearances gave birth to the belief of some in that age that he was borne hither and you by the Spirit of God (cf. 1Ki. 18:12).
The ministry of Elijah began with a pronouncement of judgment upon wayward Israel. This pronouncement is introduced with an oath formula which is altogether appropriate for that age: As the Lord God of Israel lives. By these words Elijah was asserting that Yahweh, not Baal, was the God of Israel. Furthermore, Yahweh was a living God and not a figment of vain imagination as was Baal. This was the God that Elijah served. Slaves normally stood to wait upon their masters and, therefore, the words before whom I stand serve to identify Elijah as the ambassador or spokesman of the Lord.
The judgment announced by Elijah is one that was threatened by Moses if the people should fall into idolatry (cf. Deu. 11:16-17): Neither dew nor rain would fall in Israel. The two main sources of moisture in Palestine are noted, the regular rains from November to March and the dew which condenses on the mountains of Palestine in the hot season. The latter may be almost as heavy as a drizzle of rain in the higher regions. This penalty would last these years, i.e., an indefinite period. The duration of the drought would depend upon Elijahs word, and Elijahs word depended, of course, upon the repentance of the people (1Ki. 17:1). It was because of the obduracy of the king and the people that the drought[410] lasted so long. The prophets of Baal would not be able to remove the curse though they claimed that their god controlled the elements of nature. Their inability to remove the ban would prove the impotency of their god. Thus the announcement of the drought served a polemical, as well as a judicial function.
[410] Josephus (Ant. VIII, 13.2) quotes Menander as referring to this drought in his account of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, the father-in-law of Ahab.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead.The most probable rendering of this disputed passage is that of the LXX., and virtually of Josephus, Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead, the last words being added to distinguish the place from a Tishbe (or Thisbe) in Naphtali, referred to, though the reading is rather doubtful, in Tob. 1:2. The word here rendered inhabitants (properly sojourners) is evidently of the same derivation as the word rendered Tishbite. The only alternative would be to render the stranger of the strangers of Gilead, which has been adopted by some, as suggesting a startling and impressive origin of the great prophet. But it is doubtful whether the Hebrew will bear it.
Gileadproperly the rocky region that lay on the east of Jordan, between the Hieromax and the valley of Heshbon (although the name is often more widely used). Open to the desert on the east, and itself comparatively wild, with but few cities scattered through it, it suited well the recluse dweller in the wilderness.
The Lord God of Israel before whom I stand.This adjuration (repeated in 18:15, and with some alteration by Elisha in 2Ki. 3:14; 2Ki. 5:16) is characteristic. Elijah is the servant of God standing to be sent whither He wills.
This is evidently not the first appearance of Elijah. In Jas. 5:17, the withholding of rain, foretold again and again as a penalty on apostasy (see Lev. 26:19, Deu. 11:17; and comp. 1Ki. 8:35), is noted as an answer to the prophets prayer, calling down judgment on the land. Evidently there had been a struggle against the Baal-worship of the time, and, no doubt, previous warnings from Elijah or from some one of the murdered prophets. This chapter introduces us suddenly to the catastrophe.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ELIJAH THE TISHBITE, 1Ki 17:1-24.
1. Elijah the Tishbite “This wonder-working prophet,” says Doran, (in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia,) “is introduced to our notice like another Melchizedek, (Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3,) without any mention of his father or mother, or of the beginning of his days as if he had dropped out of that cloudy chariot which, after his work was done on earth, conveyed him back to heaven.” Or, as Krummacher says, his sudden appearance is like lightning falling from the clouds, or a firebrand hurled by the hand of Jehovah. In the weird grandeur of his desert life, in the fiery spirit of his words, and the power of his public acts, he stands alone among the old prophets, and finds a compeer only as his spirit and power are reproduced in that greatest of the prophets, the herald of Messiah, who came crying in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mat 3:2. The miraculous element in the history of Elijah is noticeably large, and in this Rationalism can, of course, see nothing but the colored legends of a superstitious age. But there are obvious reasons why a prophet of Jehovah, appearing at that time, and having to oppose an almost triumphant idolatry that had usurped the kingdom of Israel, should be supported everywhere with extraordinary evidences of his divine mission. Whenever the powers of darkness appear incarnate in some such ruling personage as Jezebel, with her hosts of Baal and Asherah prophets, then our God provides an incarnation of his Divine Spirit and power, with suitable signs and wonders to confuse and confound the ministers of Satan. Such an incarnation was Elijah. Such, too, was Moses, in opposition to Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. Such, indeed, was Jesus the Christ, appearing in that “fulness of the time” (Gal 4:4) when such an incarnation as his alone could be was most opportune, inasmuch as legions of devils had actually taken possession of multitudes, and no power but that of his Divine voice and name could cast them out. And so it will be in the last times, when the good and the evil come to their final struggle, and that lawless one shall be revealed, “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2Th 2:8. Extraordinary manifestations of wickedness demand extraordinary manifestations of the power of God.
Of the inhabitants of Gilead By a slight change in the Masoretic punctuation we may read, Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbi of Gilead; and this is the reading of the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Josephus. Some have thought this place identical with the Thisbe mentioned in Tob 1:2 ; but that was a town in Naphtali, while this was in Gilead. The most natural supposition, therefore, is, that Elijah was called the Tishbite from being a native or resident of a place in Gilead called Tishbi or Tishbeh, of which no other trace or mention is now known. The wild, irregular, Bedouin-like character of much of Elijah’s life is in noticeable keeping with his Gileadite origin. The tribes on the east of the Jordan soon fell into the habits of the original Bedouin inhabitants, whose wandering tent life and almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses made them in ancient times what they are now a people of wild, unsettled habits.
As the Lord God of Israel liveth A suggestive and significant formula, and somewhat peculiar to Elijah himself. His mission was to proclaim the living God in opposition to Ahab’s dead, senseless idols.
Before whom I stand Words expressive of a sacred ministry and office, and used of the Levites who bore the ark. Deu 10:8. Solemn and sublime is the position of him who stands to minister before Jehovah, the living God.
Not be dew nor rain This was a punishment which Jehovah had threatened in case of idolatry. Deu 11:16-17. St. James says, that Elijah “prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” Jas 5:17. So Divine judgments may come in answer to prayer; and the spirit of such prayer is the Elijah-spirit, which also breathes in the vindictive Psalms. The manner of Elijah’s praying for rain to come again is told at 1Ki 18:42.
These years No definite time is specified, but all is made dependent on the word of the Lord as uttered by the prophet. Ahab’s obstinacy continued the drought for three years and a half. See 1Ki 18:1.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Reign Of Ahab King Of Israel c. 872-851 BC ( 1Ki 16:29 to 1Ki 22:40 ).
The reigns of the previous seven kings of Judah and Israel have been covered in a short space (1Ki 15:1 to 1Ki 16:28). The reign of Ahab will now take up almost the whole of the remainder of 1 Kings (from 1Ki 16:29 to 1Ki 22:40). This, however, was not due to the importance of Ahab politically, but occurs because he was in continual conflict with the prophets of YHWH. It was these conflicts which were considered important by the prophetic writer. His initial prolonged encounter was with Elijah the prophet (chapters 17-19, 21), he had dealings with an unnamed prophet (chapter 20) and he had dealings with Jehoshaphat, a righteous king of Judah, who caused him to have dealings with Micaiah, a third prophet. He was thus of note because of YHWH’s dealings with him, and especially because his wife Jezebel, sought to establish Baalism in the face of the efforts of Elijah and the other prophets to maintain the truth of pure Yahwism. It is describing a conflict for the soul of Israel.
The whole section can be summarised as follows:
a 1). Initial summary of the reign of Ahab (1Ki 16:29-34).
b 2). WARNING OF FAMINE. Elijah Warns Of The Coming Famine Which Duly Occurs. The First Flight Of Elijah (1Ki 17:1 to 1Ki 18:2 a).
A. Elijah flees and is fed by ravens indicating YHWH’s control of the living creation in the midst of famine (1Ki 17:2-7).
B. Elijah is sustained by the miraculous provision of meal and oil indicating YHWH’s control over the inanimate creation in the midst of famine (1Ki 17:8-16). |
C. Elijah raises the dead son of the widow to life indicating YHWH’s control over life and death in the midst of famine and death (1Ki 17:17-24).
c 3). AHAB’S FIRST REPENTANCE. The Contest on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah indicating YHWH’s power over storm and lightning (purportedly Baal’s forte) (1Ki 18:2-40). This leads to Ahab’s first change of heart (although not repentance).
d 4). Elijah flees from Jezebel and meets God at Horeb leading on to the command to anoint of Hazael, Jehu and Elisha as symbols of YHWH’s judgment and mercy on Israel through war, assassination and ministry (1Ki 19:1-21).
d 5). Two wars with Benhadad of Aram (Syria) before each of which a prophet of YHWH promises that YHWH will give him victory, and which results in YHWH’s final declaration of judgment on Ahab through a third prophet for failing to execute the captured king who had been ‘devoted to YHWH’ (1Ki 20:1-43).
c 6). AHAB’S SECOND REPENTANCE Naboth is falsely accused and murdered in order that Ahab might take possession of his vineyard, an incident that brings home how YHWH’s covenant is being torn to shreds and results in Elijah’s sentence of judgment on Ahab’s house, which is delayed (but only delayed) because of his repentance (1Ki 21:1-28).
b 7). WARNING OF DEATH. Micaiah warns Ahab of his coming death. War over Ramoth-gilead results in Ahab’s death as warned by Micaiah the prophet of YHWH and the humiliation of his blood by contact with scavenger dogs and common prostitutes (1Ki 22:1-38).
a 8). Ahab’s Obituary (1Ki 22:39-40).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Elijah’s Prophecy Concerning a Drought In 1Ki 17:1-6 we have the story of Elijah the prophet proclaiming a drought unto King Ahab over the land and fleeing to the brook Cherith. This drought would last three and a half years as a form of divine judgment upon the wicked kingdom of northern Israel.
1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1Ki 17:1
1Ki 17:1 Word Study on “the Tishbite” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “Tishbite” ( ) (H8664) refers to a town of Naphtali. He concludes this from the reference to this town in the Apocrypha writing of Tobit, who was also from the town of “Thisbe” ( ) ( Tob 1:1-2 ). However, James Montgomery believes Elijah was from a town called “Tishbe” in Gilead, east of Jordan, rather than from Naphtali in the region of northern Israel west of Jordan. [35]
[35] James A. Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Kings, in The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, eds. Charles A. Briggs, Samuel R. Driver, and Alfred Plummer, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), 294.
Tob 1:1-2 , “The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephthali; Who in the time of Enemessar king of the Assyrians was led captive out of Thisbe , which is at the right hand of that city, which is called properly Nephthali in Galilee above Aser.”
Strong tells us it refers to Tishbeh (in Gilead), and it literally means, “recourse.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 6 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “Tishbite 6.” It is only used in the phrase “Elijah the Tishbite” (1Ki 17:1; 1Ki 21:17 ; 1Ki 21:28; 2Ki 1:3; 2Ki 1:8; 2Ki 9:36).
1Ki 17:1 Comments We might ask the question as to what provoked the Lord to send a famine upon the land of Israel at this time in their history. The answer can be found in the preceding verses, which describes King Ahab as most wicked king that had yet ruled over His people Israel (1Ki 16:29-34). Thus, God’s anger had been provoked to action in the form of a famine.
1Ki 17:3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
1Ki 17:3
1Ki 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
1Ki 17:6
1Ki 17:6 Comments – When we are obedient to the Lord and put His Word first in our lives, He always meets our needs (Mat 6:33), as He did with Elijah.
Mat 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
1Ki 17:1 – 2Ki 9:37 – The Ministry of Elijah and Elisha the Prophets – 1Ki 17:1 to 2Ki 9:37 records the ministries of Elijah and Elisha the prophets, who ministered under the Israeli kings Ahab (874-853 B.C.), Ahaziah (853-852 B.C.), and Jehoram (852-841 B.C.), which reflects a thirty-year period. It is important to note that the primary prophetic ministries of all of the prophets discussed in the books of 1 and 2 Kings were directed towards the kings (Nathan under King David, Ahijah the Shilonite and a man of God from Judah under King Jeroboam, Jehu the son of Hanani under King Baasha, Elijah and Elisha under Ahab, Ahaziah, and Jehoram, an unnamed prophet under King Ahab, Micaiah the son of Imlah under King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab, Isaiah under King Hezekiah). However, Elijah and Elisha occasionally ministered to individuals, such as the widow of Zarephath, the widow of a prophet, and the noble woman of Shunem.
Of these prophets, Elijah was clearly given a divine commission to anoint new kings over Syria and Israel (1Ki 19:15-17), of which his successor Elisha fulfilled. These two prophets fulfilled their ministries by anointing kings and prophesying into their lives, which is evident by the fact that the narrative material for these two prophets ends when Elisha completes this commission by predicting the rise of Hazael as king over Syria, whom Elijah had anointed (2 Kings 8), and anointing Jehu as king over Israel (2 Kings 9). The following outline reveals the fact that Elijah’s divine commission was given to him close to the beginning of his ministry and finds its fulfilment at the close of Elisha’s ministry.
The Ministry of Elijah
1Ki 17:1-7 Elijah Prophesies a 3 Year Drought
1Ki 17:8-16 Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath
1Ki 17:17-24 Elijah Raises the Widow’s Son
1Ki 18:1-46 Elijah Confronts Prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel
1Ki 19:1-21 Elijah’s Divine Commission on Mount Horeb
1Ki 20:1-35 Israel Defeats the Syrians
1Ki 20:36-43 A Prophet Judges King Ahab
1Ki 21:1-29 King Ahab Murders Naboth for His Vineyard
1Ki 22:1-40 King Ahab Killed in Battle
1Ki 22:41-50 Jehoshaphat Reigns Over Judah
1Ki 22:51 –2Ki 1:18 The Reign of Ahaziah Over Israel
2Ki 2:1-18 Elijah’s Rapture
The Ministry of Elisha
2Ki 2:19-22 The Healing of the Water
2Ki 2:23-25 The Bears Maul the Youths
2Ki 3:1-27 The Rebellion of the Moabites
2Ki 4:1-7 The Widow’s Multiplication of Oil
2Ki 4:8-37 The Resurrection of the Shunammite’s Son
2Ki 4:38-41 The Healing of the Pot of Stew
2Ki 4:42-44 The Feeding of One Hundred Prophets
2Ki 5:1-27 The Healing of Naaman’s Leprosy
2Ki 6:1-7 The Floating Axe Head
2Ki 6:8-23 The Blinding of the Syrian Army
2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:20 The Besiege of Samaria by Syria
2Ki 8:1-6 The Widow of Shunammite’s Land Restored
2Ki 8:7-15 The Prediction of Hazael’s Reign over Syria
2Ki 8:16-24 The Reign of Jehoram Over Judah
2Ki 8:25 to 2Ki 9:37 Ahaziah’s Reign Over Judah & Jehu Over Israel
This outline reveals that Elisha, having received a double anointing from Elijah, performed approximately doubled the number of miracles performed by Elijah. Although both prophets worked numerous miracles among the Israelites, their primary role was to speak God’s Word to anoint new kings to reign over Syria and Israel.
The Ministries of Elijah and Elisha Reflected in the New Testament We find a number of references to the ministry of Elijah in the New Testament. Luke refers to the famine prophesied by Elijah and the healing of Naaman by Elisha (Luk 4:25-27), and to Elijah calling fire down from heaven (Luk 9:54); and the epistle of James refers to Elijah’s earnest prayer (Jas 5:17-18). In addition, because of his rapture, the first-century Jews believed Elijah would return again and restore the kingdom of Israel. Therefore, Jesus Christ taught in the Gospels that Elijah served as a type and figure of John the Baptist (Mat 17:11-13), and the angel Gabriel told Zacharias that John the Baptist would go forth in the power and spirit of Elijah (Luk 1:17). Those who stood at the Cross believed Jesus was calling for Elijah to deliver Him (Mat 27:47-49).
Luk 9:54, “And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”
Mat 17:11-13, “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”
Luk 1:17, “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Elijah’s prayer to God on Mount Horeb regarding Israel’s backsliding and God’s reply that He has a remnant is mentioned within the context of Israel’s future redemption (Rom 11:3-4), where Paul explains that there is a remnant of Jews who believe in the Messiah just as there was a remnant during the time of Elijah (Rom 11:5).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Famine
v. 1. And Elijah v. 2. And the word of the Lord came unto him, v. 3. Get thee hence and turn thee eastward, v. 4. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there, v. 5. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord; for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
v. 6. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, v. 7. And it came to pass after a while,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
ELIJAH AND THE GREAT DROUGHT.The picture which the historian has just drawn of the shameless idolatry and the gross degeneracy of the earlier part of Ahab’s reign forms a fit prelude to an account of the ministry of the great prophet Elijah, which occupies this and several succeeding chapters; for the two stand together in the closest connexion. It was only the unprecedented corruption of that age which necessitated such a mission, and a mission armed with such credentials as his. It will be obvious to the most cursory reader that the narratives comprised in the remaining portion of this book and the earlier part of 2 Kings are of a very different character from those which have so far been before us. The ministry of Elijah and Elisha alike is little more than a series of miracles. Of their words comparatively few are recorded; we hear of little but the signs and wonders that they wrought. And on this groundbecause it is miraculousthis portion of our history is summarily discarded by many recent writers, not as wholly unhistorical, but as mythical; as containing, indeed, many germs of truth, and as having a basis of fact, which, however, has been distorted into its present legendary shape by the credulity and fancy of a later age, or by the half-unconscious exaggeration of some poetico-prephetic writer. But without entering upon the question of miracles generally, for which this is not the place, two remarks may be hazarded here. First, that the narrative is so sober, so circumstantial, so full of touches which have every appearance of having been painted from the life, that were it not for its supernatural element, the most destructive critic would never have thought of questioning its veracity. Secondly, that if miracles are ever allowable or conceivable, if there ever have been occasions in the history of our race when we might concede to the Necessary Being the liberty which we ourselves possess, of varying the so-called order of nature, or of impressing a visible purpose upon its forces, then assuredly the time at which we have now arrived, the beginning of Ahab’s reign, was such an occasion. It is quite true that no new revelation was then given to the world. Neither Elijah nor Elisha, as Ewald has observed, “originated anything essentially new,” but the task assigned them was one which needed supernatural support and attestation, no less than the promulgation of a new law or gospel. It was their work, at the very darkest hour in the spiritual history of Israel, when a determined effort was being made to stamp out the faith of God’s elect, when the nation chosen of God to be the depositary of His truth was fast lapsing into heathenism, and more, into unutterable abominations, it was their work to witness for God and truth and purity. If God’s purposes of grace to our world, which had been ripening from age to age, were not now to be frustrated; if the one lamp which cast a ray on the world’s thick darkness was not to be utterly extinguished, then, as far as we can see, God must send special messengers, and arm them, in token of their mission and authority, with superhuman powers. The age demanded the messenger; the messenger must have credentials; the credentials could only be miraculous. If it is objected, therefore, against our history that it contains a mass of miracles, our answer is that the crisis necessitated them, and that only miracles would have availed to accomplish the moral and religious reformation which Elijah is allowed on all hands (see, e.g; Ewald, “Hist. Israel,” 4.68) to have wrought; that only signs such as he was commissioned to show would have sufficed, in that age, to counteract the influences of such a princess as Jezebel and of such a propaganda as her eight hundred and fifty priests; to rescue the world from corruption, and to preserve to distant generations the treasury of truth and hope with which the Jewish people had been entrusted by the Most High. “The times,” says Bishop Hall, were fit for Elijah, and Elijah for the times. The greatest prophet is reserved for the worst age. Israel had never such an impious king as Ahab, nor such a miraculous prophet as Elijah.” “The profusion of God’s miraculous working in Elijah was due to the exorbitant wickedness of the rulers of Israel at that time, which required an extraordinary maul-festation of God’s Divine power, in order to recover His people from the ruin and misery into which they had fallen” (Bishop Wordsworth).
The grandeur of the character of Elijah, however, has been universally recognized, and not least by those who have disputed his miracles. Indeed, it may well be questioned whether the intellect and conceptions of that or a much later age were adequate to create such a character and personality as his, a character which has profoundly impressed men of all ages and of all creeds. The glowing panegyric of the son of Sirach (Ecclus. 48.) need only be hinted at here. The colossal proportions he assumes in the traditions and belief of the Mohammedans is well known. “Omnium suae aetatis prophetarum facile princeps; et si a Mose discesseris, nulii secundus,” is the testimony of an illustrious Jew (Abravanel). “The grandest and most romantic character that Israel ever produced “is the verdict of a brilliant writer amongst ourselves (Stanley). His highest praise, however, is that “in the New Testament no prophet is mentioned and extolled so frequently as Elijah” (Bhr). Nor must it be forgotten here that he it was who was chosen to appear with Moses in glory at our Lord’s transfiguration, and to speak of the exodus He should accomplish in Jerusalem (Luk 9:31).
The chapter divides itself into four parts. In ver. I we see Elijah standing before Ahab and denouncing the drought; in verses 2-7 we find him hiding in the Wady Cherith and fed by the “Orebim;” in verses 8-19 he is resident at Zarephath, feeding the widow and her house; in verses 17-24 he restores the widow’s son to life and health.
1Ki 17:1
And Elijah [This name, which appears both as , and, less frequently, , means my God is Jehovah. It is so singularly appropriate to the man who bore it, and so exactly expresses the idea of his life and the chapter of his work (see especially 1Ki 18:39), that it is difficult to resist the belief that it was assumed by him. This is certainly more probable than that it was due to the prescience of his parents. It may, however, mark their piety and hopes, and may have influenced the life of their son. Cf. 1Ch 4:10], the Tishbite [So he is called without any further designation in 1Ki 21:17; 2Ki 1:8, 2Ki 1:8, etc. The presumption is altogether in favour of being the name of his birthplace. (Cf. 1Ki 11:29], who was of the inhabitants of Gilead [The interpretation of these words is much disputed. The Heb. stands It will be the first and second words have the same radicals, and it hits been inferred that they cannot mean “two entirely distinct things” (Rawlinson cf.) and that either the Masoretic pointing must be set aside, when the words would yield the meaning, “Elijah, the Tishbite of Tishbe of Gilead” or they must be interpreted “Elijah the stranger of the strangers of Gilead.” But it is by no certain that the current interpretation not the best. Such a play upon words as it involves is not at all uncommon in Hebrew. The meaning would then be that Elijah , who was, if not by birth, by domicile, of Tishbe, was one of the strangers is found in the sense of , inquilinus, in Gen 23:4; Exo 12:45; Le Exo 22:10; Exo 25:35, 47, etc.or immigrants who had settled in Gilead. The only objection to this renderingapart from the identity of radicals just mentionedis that we should have expected to find written plene, as the word always is elsewhere. It is alleged by Keil, Bhr, al; however, that the stat. constr. plur. may well be an exception to the rule, and in support of this view it may be mentioned that the cognate word, , is constantly found in the constr, plural as . It is clear, then, that the usual interpretation is by no means to be lightly set aside. It is certainly preferable to the rendering, “Elijah the stranger,” etc; for we have no proof that can bear this meaning. In favour of the alternative rendering “the Tishbite of Tishbe,” it may be said that it has the support of the LXX; , and of Josephus (Ant. 8.13. 2), . Nor is it any weighty objection to this view that we now here read of a Tishbe in Gilead: as for the matter of that, we have no undoubted traces of any such place west of the Jordan; the passage in Tobit (ch. 1:2, LXX.), which is often alleged as proving that there was a Tishbe in Galilee, and from which Gesenius, Bhr, Keil, etc; conclude that this must be the Tishbi here referred to, being too uncertain to permit us to build any positive conclusions thereupon. See Dict. Bib. 3. pp. 1489, 1516. In any caseand it is perhaps impossible to decide positively between this and the rendering of the A.V.it is clear that Elijah, even if born in Galilee (but see Joh 7:52, for the belief of the Jews), was trained for his work in Gilead. It was, therefore, a rugged, unsettled, half-civilized, trans-Jordanic region gave to the world the greatest of its prophets. In this respect he was like Moses (Exo 3:1), and his antitype the Baptist (Luk 1:80). “The fact that this mission was entrusted not to a dweller in royal city or prophetic school, but to a genuine child of the deserts and forests of Gilead, is in exact accordance with the dispensations of Providence in other times” (Stanley)] said unto Ahab [The abrupt way in which Elijah appears upon the scene without a word of introduction or explanation is certainly remarkable. Ewald observes that “his first entry within the province of the history seems almost as unique and inexplicable as his final disappearance.” “Elijah comes in with a tempest, and goes out with a whirlwind” (Hall). But there is no sufficient ground for believing (Thenius, al.) that a part of our history which described some of his antecedents has been lost to us, or that our text merely recites the issue of a long conference which Elijah had held with Ahab, for other prophets of this period, Ahijah, Shemaiah, Jehu, are introduced to us in a similar manner, though it must be allowed that their respective ministries were of very different proportions and importance from Elijah’s. This sudden appearance, however, is thoroughly characteristic of the man. He presently disappears just as suddenly (verse 5. Cf. 19:3; 2Ki 1:8). It was thought by some in that age that he was borne hither and thither by the Spirit of God! 1Ki 18:12), and men of a later time caught this as one of his prominent characteristics (Ecclus. 48:1-12). Hence, too, the traditions of a still later period, according to which he was “the fiery Phinehas returned to earth, or an angel hovering on the outskirts of the world,” Stanley], As the Lord God of Israel liveth [This formula here occurs for the first time, and it is full of meaning. It asserts first that Jehovah, not Baal, is the God of Israel, and it suggests, in the second place, that he is the living God, such as Baal was not, and that though ordinarily He keeps silence, He is one who can make His power felt], before whom I stand [i.e; “Whose I am and whom I serve” (Act 27:23). Cf. 1Ki 18:15. The slaves of the East stood before their masters. See note on 1Ki 1:28, and cf. 1Sa 3:1; Luk 1:19. Elijah claims to speak in God’s name, and as His ambassador], there shall not be dew nor rain [Observe the order of the words. Dew is perhaps put first as more essential to vegetable life. Elijah only denounces a plague already threatened in the law as the punishment of idolatry (Deu 11:16, Deu 11:17; Deu 28:23; Le Deu 26:19). He came forward as the vindicator and restorer of the law] these years [An indefinite period. Its duration depended on Elijah’s word, and that again on the penitence, etc; of the people. It was because of the obduracy of king and people that it lasted so long] but according to my word. [The idolatrous priests no doubt claimed for Baal the dominion over nature and absolute control over the clouds and raina power which, it may be worth observing, the monks of the convent of St. Katherine at Sinai, where Elijah was, are thought to possess by the Arabs of the Sinaitic peninsula. Elijah directly challenges them to a trial of strength. It was as if he had said, “The God that answereth by rain, let him be God.” On the fitness of this miracle, both as a sign and as a punishment, see “Homil. Quart.” 5:100,101. “To Eastern and Southern nations, where life and water go always together, where vegetation gathers round the slightest particle of moisture and dies the moment it is withdrawnthe withholding of rain is the withholding of pleasure, of sustenance, of life itself ” (Stanley). “My word” is somewhat emphatic, “Nisi ego, et non alius vir dixero“ (Seb. Schmidt). No doubt there is a special reference to the prophets of Baal. Their inability to remove the ban would prove the impotency of their god. Elijah had asked for the supernatural powers which he here claims (Jas 5:17, Jas 5:18).]
1Ki 17:2
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying [cf. 1Ki 17:8; 1Ki 18:1; 1Ki 21:17; 2Ki 1:3],
1Ki 17:3
Get thee hence, and turn thee [for the construction (dat. commodi) cf. Gen 12:2; Gen 22:2; Son 2:11] eastward [This he must do, whichever side of the Jordan, east or west, the brook Cherith was, for his interview with Ahab had probably taken place at Samaria. But the word would be specially appropriate, if the Cherith was beyond Jordan. Ewald, indeed, holds that our text is decisive on this point], and hide thyself [Heb. be hid, i.e; lie hid, Niphal. It does not seem to have occurred to the prophet that such a calamity as he had denounced against the country almost made his disappearance from the scene a necessity, or if it did, he still waited for instructions. Cf. verse 9; 1Ki 18:1, etc. Not merely was his flight necessary in order to escape persecution or punishmentthe search which Ahab instituted for him in part explains his disappearancebut to avoid importunity. It would have been morally impossible for him, though a man of inflexible will (Bhr) to dwell among the people, while the land groaned under the terrible burden which he had laid upon it, and which he alone was able to remove. His life would not have been safesee 1Ki 18:4and the ordeal would have been intolerable. And 1Ki 19:2 shows that the prophet’s nature had its weaker side. Wordsworth observes that Elijah’s escapes and departures into unknown places are “faint resemblances of the mysterious vanishings of our blessed Lord, after He had delivered some of His Divine messages which excited the anger of the people;” Luk 4:29; Joh 8:59; Joh 10:39] by [Heb. in] the brook [Heb. ; i.e; watercourse, wady. This word has two meanings. Its primary meaning is torrent; its secondary and, from the fact that the torrents of the East are for the most part dried up during the greater part of the year, its common meaning is torrent-bed, or ravine, valley. Both meanings are brought out here. Elijah should dwell in and drink of the . Cf. 1Ki 15:3] Cherith [The word means separation, a name which may possibly indicate that it was extremely secluded, or it may have been a boundary line of some sort. Tradition identifies the brook Cherith with the Wady-et-kelt, i.e; the great valley, west of the Jordan, which debouches into the Ghor, half a mile south of Jericho, and Robinson and Porter pronounce in its favour. Van de Velde suggests the Wady Fasael, a few miles to the north. But it is much more probable that it is to be sought in the region east of the Jordan, where, indeed, Eusebius and Jerome place it. It is extremely doubtful whether the Wady-el-kelt, or any Cis-Jordanic ravine, would afford sufficient privacy. Probably Jericho was already rebuilt. As we cannot decide with certainty, we may reasonably conjecture that it is to be sought in Elijah’s own country of Gilead, and probably in the Waddy Alias, i.e; at no great distance from ‘Abara, the Jordan ford nearly opposite Bethshan, where, indeed, an old tradition places it] that is before [Nothing positive can be concluded from . In Gen 16:12; Gen 23:19; Gen 25:18; Jos 18:14, etc; it means eastward. But this meaning is gathered from the context] Jordan. [The Cherith was clearly one of the lateral valleys which run into the Ghor. It is just possible that the name may be recovered by the survey of the country east of the Jordan, which is now being organized.]
1Ki 17:4
And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook [There was clearly nothing miraculous about the supply of water. No miracle was wrought even to continue the supply, 1Ki 17:7]; and I have commanded [of. 1Ki 17:9; Isa 5:1-30; Isa 6:1-13; Amo 9:3, etc.] the ravens to feed thee there. [Despite the general agreement of scholars that by we must understand “ravens,” I think probability favours the meaning Orbites, i.e; inhabitants of Orbo. In support of the received rendering is the very powerful consideration, that it is the interpretation of all the versions (except the Arabic) and of Josephus, who, beyond all question, represented the belief current in his own time (Ant. 8.13. 2). It is also certain that elsewhere in Scripture we find some of the inferior animals supernaturally constrained to effect God’s purposes, both of mercy and of judgment (1Ki 13:24; 2Ki 2:24; Dan 6:22; 2Pe 2:16), though never it must be said, in so rational and methodical a way. Nor can it rightly be contended that the words “I have commanded,” , imply human agency, for elsewhere we find the Almighty commanding (same word) the serpent (Amo 9:3) and the clouds (Isa 5:6; Psa 78:23). It is not, however, a sufficient account of this narrative to say that the prophet merely helped himself to the food which the ravens, whose habitat was in the Wady Cherith, brought, day by day, to their nests and their young. For, not to insist on the words, , bringing to him (Amo 9:6), the expressions ‘” bread (or food, ) and flesh,” and “morning and evening” certainly point to something more than such a fortuitous supply. Whether the Orebim were “ravens” or not, they certainly acted in an intelligent and rational way: they brought food, that is to say, to the prophet, and they brought it for months together with unfailing regularity. But against this view the following considerations may be urged.
1. It is hardly in accord with God’s usual way of working, that he should employ birds of the air and those unclean (Le 11:15; Deu 14:14) and ravenous birds, to feed and succour His saints, rather than men or angels. Of course, no one who does not altogether repudiate the supernatural will deny for a moment that the Almighty could, had it seemed good to Him, have sustained His prophet by the instrumentality of ravens, just as easily as by any other means. But it appears to be almost a fixed principle of His dealings with men, not to resort to miracles when ordinary means will suffice; or if He does employ miracles, they are never bizarre or fantastic; they are not such as to suggest the idea of fable or legend; they are invariably the simplest and directest means to the end. And it is submitted that this prolonged and methodical ministry of ravens is altogether unlike God’s method of procedure on other occasions. It was an angel succoured Hagar and Ishmael in their need (Gen 16:7). It was an angel fed Elijah himself, a few years later (1Ki 19:5, 1Ki 19:6). They were angels who ministered to our blessed Lord after His long fast (Mat 4:11). But God’s,’ chief means,” it is always to be remembered, “is man.” And it is to be carefully observed that when, about this very time, not one, but one hundred prophets were threatened, just as Elijah was, with death, no miracle was wrought to save their lives or to supply their wants, but they were fed by human agency, with bread and water (1Ki 18:13). But it is still more significant that elsewhere in this narrative, which is characterized by the profoundest sobriety and reticence, there is what we may almost call a studied absence of the miraculous element. No miracle is wrought to protect Elijah against Jezebel, but he must consult for his own safety by flight. He is sent to the brook Cherith, because there is water there; in other words, God chose that hiding place in order to obviate the necessity for a miracle. And when the water of the brook dries up, no miracle is wrought to prolong the supply, but the prophet, at the risk of detection, must go forth and seek it elsewhere. And at Zarephath he is fed, not by ravens, but by human agencyby a widow woman. It is true a miracle appears to have been wrought, but the narrative has so little idea of effect and gives so little prominence to the supernatural that even that is doubted. To put the interpretation of “ravens,” consequently, on the word , provided it will yield any other meaning, appears to be to do violence to the spirit of the context, and to the tenour of Scripture generally.
2. It is somewhat difficult to believe that such a prodigy as this, so altogether unique and irregular, would not have been mentioned, had it really happened, elsewhere in Scripture. The absence of all reference thereto is remarkable, when we consider how constantly the ministry of Elijah and its lessons (Luk 4:25, Luk 4:26; Luk 9:54; Jas 5:17; Rev 11:5, Rev 11:6) are referred to in the New Testament; but when we observe what an admirable and unequalled illustration of God’s providential care this incident would have supplied to some of our Lord’s discourses, and notably to that of Luk 12:22 sqq; this silence becomes almost suspicious.
3. Despite the practical unanimity of the versions, the interpretation “ravens” has been disputed from very early times. St. Jerome among Christians, Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh and Kimchi amongst Jewsthese are but some of those who have repudiated this rendering.
4. A very slight change in the vowel points instead of yields the meaning “Arabians.” That a fugitive would readily find, not only shelter but sustenance among the Bedouin, whose generous hospitality and loyalty to strangers is proverbial, is obvious, and we knew that about this time some Arab tribes had dealings with the Jews (2Ch 17:11); but without any change at all, a sufficient meaning may be extracted from the word. For we find that somewhere in the Ciccar, or plain of the Jordan, off which the Wady Cherith lay, was a rock Oreb (, Jdg 7:25), apparently east of the Jordan (Jdg 8:1), but in any case, at no great distance from Bethabara (Joh 1:28). Now Beth-abara has been identified, almost to a certainty with the modern ‘Abarah (i.e; passage or ferry), “one of the main fords of the Jordan just above the place where the Jalud river flowing down the valley of Jezreel and by Beisan, debouches into Jordan.” But we learn from an ancient and independent source, the Bereshith Rabba, that in the neighbourhood of Beisan, i.e; Bethshean, there was anciently a town named Orbo, a word, it is to be observed, which preserves the radicals of transposed. We may safely assume that these two places, Orbo and Oreb, were identical; that the former was the representative at a later day of the latter, or was the shape which the name assumed when bestowed on the hamlet, as distinct from the rock. The inhabitants of this place would, of course, be called , just as the in. habitants of Ziph were known as Ziphim (1Sa 26:1), or the men of Zidon as Zidonim (1Ki 5:6). We find, consequently, that this word, which means “ravens,” also designates the inhabitants of a village near Bethshean, and probably east of the Jordan; that is to say, in or near Elijah’s native country of Gilead. And with this agree the testimonies of Rabbi Judah and Jerome already referred to. The former held that the Orebim were not ravens at all, but inhabitants of Orbo or the rock Oreb, while the latter says, with equal positiveness, Orbim, accolae villae in fini-bus Arabum, Eliae dederunt alimenta. It only remains for us to notice the perfect naturalness and consistency of the narrative thus interpreted. Elijah is bidden to go eastward; to hide in the Wady Cherith, where he would be among tribesmen or friends. For water, there is the brook; for food, the Orbites, whose name would be familiar to him, and whom he may have known, are commanded to feed him. He goes; he is received with Arab hospitality; the Eastern law of Dakheel, by which any man at any time is entitled to throw himself upon the mercy and protection of another, ensures his safety. The Orebim minister assiduously to his wants. Every morning before the dawn, every evening after dark, they bring him bread and flesh.]
1Ki 17:5
So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for [Heb. and] he went and dwelt by [Heb. in] the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
1Ki 17:6
And the ravens brought [Heb. bringing] him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening [the Vat. LXX. has” bread in the morning and flesh in the evening.” It has been objected that this verse is fatal to the view advanced abovethat the were not birds but menthat no men would have “come regularly twice a day,; thus giving themselves needless trouble and increasing the chance of detection, when they might easily have left him a supply for several days” (Rawlinson). But if we may believe that the prophet was, if not among kinsmen or friends, yet among the pastoral, semi-nomadic people of Gilead, a people, that is to say, like the Bedawin in their instincts and customs, it is easy to understand that having taken him under their protection, they would make a point of visiting him regularly, not only to show him all possible honour, as a person endued with supernatural powers (cf. 1Ki 18:7, 1Ki 18:13), but to afford him some measure of sympathy and companionship. And we can then see a reason for the morning and evening being mentioned. Their visits would be made in the twilight, which is really longer in the East than is generally supposed]; and he drank [Hebrew drinks. The Heb. future often has the force of an imperfect, and expresses continued or repeated action] of the brook.
1Ki 17:7
and it came to pass after awhile, [Heb. at the end of days. Not necessarily post annum. The words no doubt have this force elsewhere, Le 25:29; Jdg 11:40; Jdg 17:10; 1Sa 27:7, etc.; but in all these cases, the meaning is not resident in the words themselves, but in the context. It is impossible to say how long Elijah remained in the Wady. All we can be sure of is that he must have been more than two rears, out of the three and a haft, at Zare-phath. See on 1Ki 18:1] that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. [, imber, signifies heavy rain. The word used in 1Ki 18:1 is , rain of any kind.]
1Ki 17:8
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
1Ki 17:9
Arise, get thee to Zarephath [Cf. Oba 1:20. The name points to furnaces or workshops for the refining of metals, , liquavit. LXX. ; cf. Luk 4:26. It is now represented by an insignificant village, Surafend, which, however, preserves the original name. It lies still, as no doubt it did then, on the high road between Tyre and Sidon, and on the shore. The prophet would thus be in the lion’s den, in the very heart of the dominions of Ethbaal. See Porter, 2:397. Stanley shows how the memory of this visit still lingers in the traditions of the neighbourhood], which belongeth to Zidon [Sidon is visible from a spot a quarter of an hour distant. “The dependence of Sarepta on Sidon is indicated in the inscriptions of Sennacherib, where it is mentioned as belonging to Luliya, king of Sidon,” Rawlinson], and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee [In considering these words the generally destitute condition of the widow of the East should be borne in mind (Act 6:1; 1Ti 5:3-5, etc.) We gather from Luk 4:25, Luk 4:26, that it was for her sake as well as his that the prophet was sent thither. Mat 15:21-28 tells of another Syro-Phoenician woman.]
1Ki 17:10
So he arose and went to Zarephath [It does not follow that his route lay over the “White Promontory,” or Ladder of Tyre, the way our Lord took when He “departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon” (Mat 15:21). If his place of concealment was anywhere near ‘Abara, or Bethshean, it is probable he would keep east of the Jordan, as far as Banias or Dan, where the river is fordable, and whence a road leads direct to Sidon. He would thus avoid Tyro]. And when he came to the gate of the city [the ruins of Surafend are still very considerable (see Thomson,”Land and Book,” 1:235) and prove it to have been a place of importance, a town with gates and walls. “Gate,” however, is used somewhat loosely in the O.T.of the entrance to a village, or even of the place of concourse and of judgment], behold, the [Heb. a. He did not yet know that this was the widow to whom he was sent. Her replies to his requests first informed him that this was the object of his search] widow woman was there [Heb. behold there, a widow woman] gathering of sticks [This was not a promising sign. It only proved her poverty]: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel [Heb. the vessel. Bhr understands the drinking-cup that Elijah had brought with him from the Wady Cherith; but surely it is extremely improbable that he would carry either cup or bottle with him. “The vessel” probably imports the ordinary vessel used for the purposethe “potter’s earthen bottle” Jer 19:1). That this was used for fetching water, we know from Isa 30:14], that I may drink.
1Ki 17:11
And as she was going to fetch it [The gift of water to the thirsty is always regarded as a sacred duty in the East. “Never yet during many years’ residence in Syria and many a long day’s travel, have I been refused a draught of water by a single individual of any sect or race. The Bedawy in the desert has shared with me the last drop in his waterskin” (Porter). It is clear that the water supply of Phoenicia had not entirely failed. “The fresh streams of Lebanon would retain their life giving power long after the scantier springs of Palestine had been dried up,” Stanley] he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread [The request for food will soon reveal to him whether this is the widow woman who is to sustain him] in thine hand. [Bhr would understand here, “Give me a morsel of the bread which thou hast in thine hand”einen Bissen des Brodes das du besitzestand he has the LXX; , to support him. But it is fatal to this view
(1) that the verb is the same as already used in the request for water (1Ki 17:10), and
(2) that there is no article before bread. “The bread in thine hand” would have been clear, but the words as they stand can only mean, “Bring me, together with the water in the vessel, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” Besides, “in thy possession” would probably have been expressed by “under thine hand,” as in 1Sa 21:3, 1Sa 21:4, 1Sa 21:8, though “in the hand” is found in Ecc 5:13; Ezr 7:25, in a somewhat similar sense.]
1Ki 17:12
And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth [Bhr, Keil, al. conclude from this formula that the woman was a worshipper of the God of Israel. Bhr is extremely positive on this point, affirming that, had she been a heathen, the words would have been positively hypocritical, and more, that Elijah would never have been sent (Luk 4:26) to an idolater. He further suggests that possibly she was an Israelite by birth, who had been married to a Phoenician. But all this is extremely doubtful. In the first place, it is noteworthy that the words are, “Jehovah thy God,” words which show that she recognized Elijah, perhaps by his Jewish face, probably by his prophetic dress (2Ki 1:8) as a worshipper of Jehovah. But had she also been the same, it is probable that she would have said “my God,” for that form would not only have given greater force to her obtestation, but would have established a bond of sympathysuch as Jews in a foreign land were only too glad to recognizebetween them. And the remark that it is hypocrisy to swear by a god in whom one does not believe is disposed of by the consideration that she may well have believed in the Lord as well as in Baal. See note on 1Ki 5:7. The Tyrians knew nothing of monotheism], I have not a cake [, the synonym of (1Ki 5:13), the smallest kind of bread. It was baked in the ashes; hence the LXX. . We gather from this pitiful disclosure that the famine had already extended to Phoenicia, as it naturally would do, considering how dependent that country was on Israel for its breadstuffs; see note on 1Ki 5:9,1Ki 5:11. Josephus (Ant. 8.13, 2) cites Menander as attesting to a year’s drought in the reign of Ethbaal], but an handful of meal in a [Heb. the] barrel [, probably connected with cadus, cadeau, etc.; bucket, pail], and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks [i.e; a few sticks (Gesenius). We may compare the German idiom ein Paar and our “two or three.” But “two” in this sense occurs nowhere else in the Bible”two or three” is found in 2Ki 9:32; Isa 17:6; Amo 4:8. According to Roberts, the word is constantly used for “few” by the natives of India. This widow was evidently reduced to the greatest extremities], that I may go in and dress it for me and my son [The LXX. has here and in Amo 4:13, and in verse 15. Bhr contends that Elijah first learnt from these wordsthe mention of a son and the absence of any mention of her husbandthat he was addressing a “widow woman.” But we read Gen 38:14, Gen 38:19, of “garments of widowhood” (cf. Deu 24:17), and Gen 38:10, “a widow woman,” etc; almost implies that Elijah from the first recognized her as such], that we may eat it, and die.
1Ki 17:13
And Elijah said unto her [This looks at first like a further test. But it is pretty clear that the prophet now knew that the widow of whom God had spoken was before him], Fear not; go and do as thou hast said [Heb. according to thy word] but [Heb. only, however]: make me thereof [Heb. thence, i.e; of the oil as well as the meal. The former took the place of butter. Bread was sometimes baked in oil] a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son. [The “first” and “afterwards” are emphatic by position. When Bhr says that Elijah would never have made this demand, and that still less would the widow have paid any attention to it, had she been a heathen, he appears to forget the words that followed (verse 14). When one in the garb of a prophet swore, as this man did, by the sacred name, a heathen, with the belief of the heathen in miracles, might well be persuaded that the word was truth. Elijah’s manner alone would carry conviction with it.]
1Ki 17:14
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel [The words, “God of Israel,” if anything, favour the supposition that he was speaking to one who was not of Israel. See on 1Ki 17:1. There the words were addressed to one who was denying the God of Israel] The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fall, until the day that the Lord sendeth [Heb. giveth. For see note on 1Ki 6:19] rain upon the earth. [Heb. on the face of the ground. Like expression 1Ki 18:1; Gen 2:5. It has been said that there is not a syllable here to imply a miracle, and it has been contended that this Sareptan household was sustained for over two years simply by the blessing of God on the use of natural means. But clearly, if there was nothing else, there was supernatural knowledge on Elijah’s part. And it cannot be denied that the literal construction of the words points to a “supernatural and inexplicable multiplication of food” (Rawlinson), similar to those of which the Gospels tell. It is just possible that this was a figure of speech, which practically meant no more than the necessaries of life should somehow be provided, directly or indirectly, by God. Nor is this view effectually negatived, as Bhr contends, by Luk 4:26; but, in view of 2Ki 4:44, Mat 14:15-21, Mat 15:32-38, it is extremely improbable. It is curious how many miracles of Elijah and Elisha foreshadowed those of our blessed Lord.
1Ki 17:15
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah [the echo of 1Ki 17:13, “Go and do according to thy saying“]: and she, and he, [or he and she, according to Chethib] and her house [probably her friends or poor relatives who came to partake of her plenty (Bhr)], did eat many days. [Heb. days, i.e; an indefinite period. See note on verse 7. The word does not refer to the first baking (verse 13), but it is to be explained by the next verse.
1Ki 17:16
And [Omit. This verse is explicative, not additional] the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fall, according to the word of the Lord, which He spake by [Heb. by the hand of] Elijah. [Having received a prophet in the name of a prophet, she received a prophet’s reward. (Mat 10:41, Mat 10:42). Stanley suggests that our Lord, when He spoke of the “cup of cold water,” may have had this incident in his mind.
1Ki 17:17
And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. [Does this mean that he was dead? Keil thinks it perfectly clear that it does. Bhr is as firmly persuaded that it does not. He justly remarks
(1) that the same expression occurs in Dan 10:17 (cf. 1Ki 10:5) where it does not imply death.
(2) That as the text does not say, “and he died,“ we must conclude that it did not mean to say it.
(3) Dan 10:18, Dan 10:20 do not necessitate the belief that he was dead (see below).
(4) Josephus, who was not afraid of the miraculous, has interpreted the words thus: . To this it may be added that simply means breath, and that where it is desired to convey the idea of rife, additional words are used (as in Gen 2:7, “the breath of life; Gen 7:22, “the breath of the spirit of life.” Cf. Job 27:3, Pro 20:27 (where the intelligence or reason appears to be meant), Ecc 3:21. It must be confessed also that the statement, “his sickness was so sore,” etc; is quite apropos and intelligible, if we may understand that he lay in a state of coma, but would be an extremely roundabout way of affirming that he was dead.
1Ki 17:18
And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee [Heb. what to me and thee. Same formula, Jdg 11:12; 2Sa 16:10; 2Ki 3:13; Mat 8:29; Joh 2:4. It means, “What is there between us?” or practically, “What have I done?” “Is this the result of my association with thee? Must such sorrow befal me because thou art with me?” Bhr], O thou man of God? [This woman, if a Phoenician, was evidently familiar with the titles borne by the Hebrew prophets (1Ki 12:22; 1Ki 13:1-34. passim; Jdg 13:6, Jdg 13:8). Nor is this to be wondered at. The intercourse between the two nations had been very considerable] art thou come unto me to call my sin [not necessarily any “special sin in her past life,”] to remembrance [her idea evidently is that the prophet by residing with her, seeing her life, etc; had become acquainted with her sinfulness, and had called it to the remembrance of the Almighty. She does not mean that he had recalled it to her mind, but that he had been the or remembrancer of God. Cf. Gen 40:14; Eze 21:28; Jer 4:16] and to slay my son? [Observe, she does not speak of him as slain.]
1Ki 17:19
And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out Of her bosom, [the age of the child may hence be roughly inferred] and carried him up into a loft [Heb. the upper chamber. LXX. . Loft is most misleading. The upper room, was often [rather, always] the best apartment in an Eastern house” (Rawlinson). It was sometimes the guest chamber (Luk 22:11, Luk 22:12), and, from the uses to which it was put, must have been large (Act 1:13; Act 9:39; Act 20:8; 2Ki 1:2). Thomson (L. & B. 1:235) infers from the fact that the widow’s house had an upper room, “that the mode of building in Elijah’s time and the custom of giving the ‘alliyeh to the guest were the same as now; also that this poor widow was not originally among the poorest classes (who bare no ‘alliyeh), but that her extreme destitution was owing to the famine”], and laid him upon his own bed. [It may be doubted whether the verb lit; made him to lie down, would be used of a corpse.]
1Ki 17:20
And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast Thou also [i.e. in addition to the misery and suffering brought through me upon my country] brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying [Heb. to slay. Words. worth partly bases his conclusion that the child was dead on the inexact translation of the A.V.] her son?
1Ki 17:21
And he stretched himself [marg. measured himself, but Gesenius holds that stretch out is the primary meaning of the root] upon the child [cf. 2Ki 4:34. The commentators are again at variance as to whether these words imply the use of natural means or not. Those who hold that the child was dead naturally adopt the negative, and some (Keil, Rawlinson, al.) compare with it the action of our Lord in the case of the blind, deaf and dumb (Mat 9:35; Luk 7:14; Joh 9:6, Joh 9:7). But surely the circumstances and the purpose alike, in these latter eases, were entirely different. The object of the touch, of anointing the eyes, etc; in these cases of healing, appears to have been to awaken a sufficient faithwithout which “He could do no miracle” (Mat 13:58)in men whose infirmities of blindness, deafness, etc; prevented their attaining faith through the ordinary channels of seeing and hearing the merciful and gracious Son of man. But here the child, if not dead, was senseless. We are driven, therefore, to the belief that the prophet “used rational means for warming and revivifying” the child, “not with the hope that of themselves they would prove effectual, but in the sure confidence that God, in answer to his weeping supplication, would impart supernatural force to the natural human agencies,” Bhr] three times [Not only in his prayer but also in this triple repetition do we recognize Elijah’s profound conviction that only by the Almighty power of God could the child be restored, and that whatever means were used, God alone could make them effectual. For three is the number and signature of the Godheads” die eigentlieh gottliche Zahl, die Signatur des gottlichen Wesens” (Bhr, Symb. 1:143). Hence it is, inter alia, that “the calling upon the name of Jehovah in the old covenant”he might have added, “and in the new;” cf. Mar 14:39, Mar 14:41; 2Co 12:8“was a threefold act:” Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10, Dan 6:13; Num 6:24-26; Isa 6:3 (Bhr). The correspondence with 2Co 12:8 is very striking] and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee [Heb. now] let this child’s soul come into him [Heb. upon his inside is here, as elsewhere, used for ] again. [Though , here translated “soul,” constantly means “life,” yet it by no means settles the question whether the child was really living or dead. For,
(1) the, primary meaning of the word is breath (Gesen; Thesaurus, s.v.), and
(2) the words might with perfect propriety, even if we interpret “life” or “soul,” be used of one who lay in a lifeless and inanimate condition. Massillon’s graphic language, showing the contrast between Elijah’s procedure and that of our blessed Lord (Luk 7:14; Luk 8:54; Joh 11:43), is worth citing here: “Elie ressuscite des morts, il est vrai; mais il est oblige de se coucher plusieurs fois sur le corps de l’enfant qu’il ressuscite; il souffle, il se retrecit, it s’agite; on voit bien qu’il invoque une puissance etrangere; qu’il rappelle de l’empire de ta mort une ame qui n’est pas soumise a savoix, et qu’il n’est pas lui-meme le maitre de la mort et de la vie: Jesus-Christ ressuscite les morts comme il fait les actions les plus communes; il parle en maitre a ceux qui dorment d’un sommeil eternel, et l’on sent bien qu’il est le Dieu des morts comme des vivants, jamais plus tranquille que lorsqu’il opere les plus grandes choses.”]
1Ki 17:22
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived [or recovered. Cf. 2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 8:8].
1Ki 17:23
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house [Probably the . was reached by an outside staircase, and did not directly communicate with the lower rooms. Cf. Mat 24:17; Mar 2:4; 2Ki 9:13] and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
1Ki 17:24
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this [Heb. this. Gesenius interprets just now. Similarly Bhr, nunmehr] I know that thou art a man of God [not that she had doubted it before. See verse 18. In the face of what Elijah had done for her, she could not doubt it. All that she means is that this is a great fresh proof of his mission], and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. [This last word from which Amittai (Jon 1:1) is formed, perhaps gave rise to the tradition that this boy was afterwards known as the prophet Jonah. Amiitai was held to have been this widow’s husband.
HOMILETICS
1Ki 17:1
The Mission and Ministry of Elijah.
The appearance on the arena of Israel’s history of such a champion as Elijah, armed with such high credentials, wielding such supernatural powers, marks a crisis in the history of God’s ancient Church. We have but to see him, to hear him for one moment, to know that a great struggle is impending. God, like Nature, which is but a name for God, “does nothing in vain.” Such high powers as his foreshadow great issues. Four points consequently may well engage our attention, viz; the man, his mission, his message, his ministry.
I. THE MAN.
1. He was a wild man (Gen 16:12; Heb. a wild ass man). Abraham has been called an “Arab sheykh.” We have in Elijah a veritable Bedawy, if not by birth or tribe, by training and in character. The rough sheepskin (1Ki 19:13), the shaggy hair (2Ki 1:18), the marvellous bodily endurance (1Ki 18:46), the careful avoidance of the city, the flight into the desert (1Ki 19:4), the whole bearing of the man suggests to us the child of the wilderness. He, the greatest of the prophets, one of the “first three” of those born of women, has the exterior, the instincts, the heart of an Ishmaelite. He was thus a fit successor of Moses, the shepherd of Horeb, who in the very haunt and home of the Bedawin, was trained for his high vocation; he was meet to be the forerunner and pattern of the Baptist who was bred in the desert, clad in Arab dress, and fed with Arab food (Mat 3:1, Mat 3:4). It is impossible to understand the man and his work unless this be borne in mind. The gaunt dervish who one day strode into the presence of the king and lifted up his sinewy arm and denounced the great drought; the shaggy, long haired sheykh, who single-handed faced the hierarchy of Baal, and knew no fear, his were the asperities, the privations, the scant fare, the primitive, semi-nomadic life of a Gileadite. The sweet uses of adversity had moulded this man for the crisis. Our great chancellors, it has been said, come to us from the garret: the desert has ever been the school of the greatest prophets. The rugged, unsettled pasturages of Bashan were a meet nurse for a prophetic child. This champion was cast “in the clay ground”.
2. He was a man of like passions with ourselves (Jas 5:17). An “earthen vessel” (2Co 4:7). “In all points tempted like as we are,” and not “without sin” (Hebrew 1Ki 3:15). The Bible never pictures men as perfect. The phronema Sarkos remains even in the regenerate.
II. HIS MISSION. Consider
1. Whence it was derived. He was not taught of men (Gal 1:12, Gal 1:17). He was . The God who separated him from his mother’s womb called him by His grace (Gal 5:15). He was an extraordinary messenger for a great emergency. But observe; when God employs such messengers, men whose mission is derived directly from on high, the “signs of an apostle” are wrought by them. We are not to listen to an angel from heaven, unless he shows us his credentials. We have a right to ask of those who run without being sent to show us a sign. When the missionary Dr. Wolff told one of the Eastern bishops that the “Lord had sent him,” the prelate not unreasonably asked him for a display of his powers. If God should send us an Elias again, He will give us at the same time a sign from heaven.
2. When it was conferred. It was
(1) When iniquity abounded. When Hiel had built Jericho; when Ahab had raised a temple for Baal; when Jezebel had gathered round her an army of false prophets; when the faith of God’s elect was in jeopardy. The darkest hour is ever before the dawn. Cum duplicantur lateres, venit Moses. “Man’s extremity is,” etc. “Israel was sore wounded when God sent them this balm from Gilead“ (Henry).
(2) When ordinary means were insufficient. There were “sons of the prophets,” it is probable, in Bethel and Samaria; There were seven thousand faithful ones in Israel; but what were these against such a queen as Jezebel, against such a propaganda and such a system as hers? It was then no longer a question of heresy or schism, of calves or cherubim, of Jeroboam’s or Jehovah’s priests; the very existence of the Church was at stake. Elijah was summoned to the court; he was armed with “power to shut heaven that it rained not in the days of his prophecy “(Rev 11:6), with power to call down fire to devour his enemies, and the like, because only thus could the elect people be stayed from throwing themselves into the arms of an organized prostitution; from yielding themselves, body and soul, to the whoredoms and witchcrafts of “that woman Jezebel;” because only thus could the light of truth, the one lamp which illumined the world’s darkness, be preserved from utter extinction.
III. HIS MESSAGE. It was a denunciation of immediate drought, one of the most terrible calamities that can befal an Eastern land. In Palestine, animal as well as vegetable life is directly dependent on the rain. Not only do the showers which irrigate the laud feed the springs, but they are carefully stored up in cisterns for daily use. It is only as compared with the arid wastes of Egypt that the Holy Land could be called “a land of brooks and waters, of fountains and depths,” etc. (Deu 8:7). And it is also described by the same writer as a land that “drinketh water of the rain of heaven” (Deu 9:11). Consequently rain, everywhere a prime necessity of existence, is doubly indispensable in Palestine. The rainfall of Jerusalem is on the average three times as great as that of London. It is clear, consequently, that this message threatened a terrible plague, that it portended long and protracted suffering. There are some who will not hear of the “terrors of the Lord,” who would never have them mentioned in the pulpit. Yet pain and privation are among the first sanctions of God’s law, and we have the authority of many eminent divines for saying that more men are won to God and right by fear than by love. It sounds fine and philosophic to speak of fear as an unworthy motive, but men forget what an unworthy animal is man. Besides, this drought was a part of the punishment, and was admirably adapted to serve as a punishment for apostasy. It was meet that men who practically denied the living God should be practically reminded of their dependence on Him. It was well that those who held Baal to be lord of nature, should be left to discover his impotence (cf. Jdg 10:14; Jer 14:22). “Are there any of the vanities of the heathen that can give rain?” And it was a punishment this, which penitence might avert. Moreover it was the penalty foretold in the law (Deu 28:23). Elijah was not left to scatter plagues at his pleasure. Like an earlier prophet, he could not “go beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more” (Num 22:18). Of himself, he could do nothing (Num 5:1-31 :33). His message was, “As the Lord liveth.” If the rain should only come “according to his word,” it was because his word was God’s word. If his prayer for the drought had been answered (Jas 5:17), it had first been inspired. He speaks here as the minister, not the master. He is the willing, patient slave of Jehovah. “Before whom I stand.”
IV. His MINISTRY. From this initial message let us turn to his ministry as whole. And it presents to our view these broad features
1. It was exercised in silence. How few are Elijah’s recorded words, and those few are the utterances of but five or six occasions. He was not “mighty in word.” He had no sooner delivered his first brief message than he disappears, and for three years and a half Israel hears him no more. He speaks for a moment: he is dumb for a triennium. And when he reappears, it is but for a day. That one day’s ministry ended, he is again hidden from our view. Thrice more he reappears in the history, but each time it is but for a day, and then he goes into the silent heavens, and save on the night of transfiguration, speaks to men no more. How like to the revelations of God to man. He “keepeth silence (Psa 1:3). He too hideth Himself. “He spake and it was done.” How unlike the everlasting chatter of some of our later prophets. “Ministers,” it is sometimes said, “are mere talkers.” Elijah proclaims the dignity, if not “the eternal duty, of silence.'” “All real work,” some one has said, “is quiet work.” How many of our sermons, full of sound and fury, leave not a trace behind them. But the silent Elias accomplished the regeneration of his country.
2. It was a ministry of deed. There was no need for him to speak. The works that he did bore witness of him. Declamation, argument, remonstrance, would have been absurd. The time for that was past. And he had actions to speak for him. Surely there is a lesson for Christ’s ministers here. It is true they cannot work wonders like Elijah; and it is also true that they are sent to “preach the Word,” to reprove, rebuke, exhort, etc.; but we are reminded here that a fruitful ministry must be one of action. Words, however eloquent, in the long turn count for less than a holy life. The age, however it may hanker after sensationalism, is nevertheless suspicious of all talk. Why is it that our holy religion has but such an indifferent hold on the masses of our countrymen? One reason is that while we “point to heaven,” we do not always “lead the way.” “Cujus vita contemnitur, ejus praedicatio despicitur.” The life of their parish priest is the only Bible many Englishmen ever read, and alas, what a smeared and blotted page that sometimes is. And those who do hear our sermons have learned to discount them. They know full well that words are cheap, and that emotion, and even unction, can be simulated. They often wonder how much of our discourse we really believe and practise ourselves, and they turn to our lives for an answer. That familiar paradox, consequently, is full of truth and meaning, that, “in preaching, the thing of least importance is the sermon.’ It was well said that actioaction in the truest sense of the word, not gesture or manner, but conductis the first, second, and third great essential of eloquence A French ecclesiastic, the Abbe Mullois, has laid it down, as one of the canons if preaching, that “to address men successfully, they must be loved much.” “Nothing influences others so much as character. Few people are capable of reasoning, and fewer still like the trouble of it; and besides, men have hearts as well as heads. Hence, consistency, reality, everpresent principle, shining through the person in whom they dwell, and making themselves perceptible, have more weight than many arguments, than much preaching” (Heygate, “Ember Hours”). It is Baxter who speaks of clergymen who “cut the throats of their sermons by their lives;” but there are many who, without doing this, invalidate their words by their actions. It is well for us to remember that personal character is the best preparation for the pulpit. “Facta, non verba;” this is, and will be increasingly, the demand of the age upon the prophetic order. “Non magna eloquimur sed vivimus.” This must be more and more the response of the ministry.
3. It was brave and fearless. On three occasions this court preacher took his life in his hand (1Ki 17:1; 1Ki 18:2; 1Ki 21:19). On one occasion he seems to have quailed (1Ki 19:3), but even then it does not appear that he fled from any present duty, or, like Jonah, declined any commission. His ministry as a whole was boldly discharged as in the presence of the Eternal, “Before whom I stand.” He saw none other than his Master. Like another preacher before royalty, Massillon, he spoke as if he saw Death standing at his elbow. Like Daniel, he knew that his God could deliver him. The fear of man is cast out when we realize the presence of God (Isa 51:12, Isa 51:13).
4. It was seemingly a failure. If others did not think so, he did. We know that no work, really and truly done for God, can be wasted (Isa 55:11); but we are often tempted to think it is. But it must be such work as will stand the trial by fire (1Co 3:13). It has been strikingly said, “If any man’s work is a failure, the probability is that it is because he is a failure himself.” Still, it is for our comfort to remember, in times of depression, that the greatest of the prophets saw little or no fruit of his labours. He was persuaded that even the unexampled miracles that he wrought were of little or no avail (1Ki 19:10). We find that when there were seven thousand secret followers of the Lord God, Elijah thought himself left alone. And indeed the state of Israel, even after the ordeal of Carmel, might well lead him to take the gloomiest and most despairing view of the situation. Jezebel pursues her infamous way. The son of Ahab sends to consult a foreign oracle, and ignores the God of Israel. The fire must come down a second time and burn up the idolaters instead of the bullock and the altar. But all the same, we know that his work was not in vain. Nor can ours be, if done like his. We have nothing to do with immediate successes. “One man soweth, another reapeth.” Nor is success in any shape mentioned in our instructions. That is God’s part, not ours. We have but to sow the seed, He must make it grow. The world worships successor what it calls successand the greatest of ministriesElijah’s, Jeremiah’s, Ezekiel’s, our blessed Lord’swere all failures from a worldly point of view.
1Ki 17:3-7
The Solitary Place.
We have just seen that it was from the wilderness that Elijah went forth into the busy, wicked world, and to the anxious, dangerous work of a prophet. He, like his antitype, was in the desert “until the time of his showing unto Israel” (Luk 1:80). There, in secret communion with God, he had gained strength for the encounter; there he had meditated over the grievous apostasy of his people, and had “vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their evil deeds” (2Pe 2:8). And there, as he “prayed earnestly that it might not rain,” the word of the Lord came to him and burned in his bones (Jer 20:9), and bore him into the presence of the king (Amo 3:8). But it is now for us to observe that no sooner had he entered upon his ministry, and delivered his first brief message, than he was sent into the desertit may be, the same desertagain. The word of the Lord straightway bids him turn eastward and hide in the brook Cherith. Now the word Cherith means separation. This section consequently may fittingly speak to us of the need of separation, of the uses of solitude and retirement in the discipline of the saints. From Elijah’s separation from his work and the world we may glean some lessons as to our own. Observe
1. Solitude was necessary to Elijah’s safety. He must hide or lose his head. When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord (1Ki 18:18), we may be sure he would not be spared. Was it not because of him indeed that the others were attacked? Had his dwelling been with men, the messengers of Ahab would assuredly have found him and slain him (1Ki 18:10). So it is sometimes necessary, for the life of our souls, that we should flee into the desert. It is at our peril that we stay in Sodom. We must “escape to the mountain.” It may be from some enchantress, whose whoredoms and witchcrafts are as cruel as Jezebel’s; it may be from companions whose snares are more perilous than Ahab’s sword; it may be from a society hardly less pestilent than that of Israel. There are times when our only safety is in flight. Those hermits who buried themselves in the Thebaid, or who burrowed in the rocks of the Wady Feiran, the world has only a smile for their folly, and it is no doubt true that God wound have us leaven the world, not leave it, But it would have been well if some had, for a time at least, followed their example. How many souls have perished because they would not enter into their chambers and shut their doors and hide themselves until the indignation be overpast (Isa 26:20); because they had not the courage to disappear for a while, if only into their closets. “He that wilfully stands still to catch dangers, tempteth God instead of trusting him.”
2. Solitude was necessary to his soul’s health. It is remarkable how God’s elect messengers, each in his turn, have been sent “apart into a desert place to rest awhile” (Mar 6:31). Moses must spend forty years in the great and terrible wilderness; must spend forty days and forty nights in Horeb, the Mount of God. Elijah himself only emerges from the Cherith to go to another hiding place at Zarephath, and from Zarephath he passes almost directly to the same wilderness and the same mount where Moses was. The Baptist’s life was almost divided between the desert and the prison. St. Paul must learn his gospel in Arabia. And our Holy Lord, He must begin File ministry by a forty days’ fast, and from time to time must seek a quiet place to rest and pray. All men who are much before the world need their times of retirement. In the “loud stunning tide of human care and crime” it is difficult to hear the whispers of God in the soul. Now the voices of nature, such as men hear in solitude, are among the voices of God. Nature has been called “God’s great green book.”
“One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.”
“There are two books,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “from whence I collect my divinity. Besides that written one of God, another of his servant nature, that universal and public manuscript that lies expensed unto the eyes of all.” And is not every tree, every leaf, in its way a mute witness for God and purity? It is remarkable that the greatest crimes and brutalities are committed in those districts of this country where men can have neither nature nor solitudein the dens of Liverpool, amid the cinder heaps of the Black Country, in the dingy pit villages of Durham It is only in quiet, under the silent stars, amid the purple heather, by the murmuring brook, or in the inner chamber, that we can know ourselves and our God. The “Ancient Mariner’s” conception of his “wide, wide sea”
“So lonely ’twas, that God Himself
Scarce seemed there to be,”
fine though it is, contradicts the experience of the saints, who have found that it is precisely the profoundest solitude that is instinct with His presence.
And now let us consider how God calls us all in turn to a brook Cherith.
(1) He calls us to separation from sin. The Church is a Cherith. Baptism is a “water of separation,” the token and pledge of our renunciation of world and flesh and devil, of our admission into the family of God. While in the world, we may not be of it. Our calling is to holiness (1Pe 1:15; 1Th 4:7; 2Ti 1:9). We are to be sacrifices (Rom 12:1), and the root idea both of holiness and of sacrifice is a separation to God.
(2) Sometimes He calls us to a chamber of sickness, sometimes to the very “valley of the shadow of death.” How often is bodily sickness for the soul’s health! That vale of separation becomes a vale of blessing; the Cherith leads to a Berachah (2Ch 20:26; cf. Psa 84:6). What a school of the heart has that enforced solitude often proved! See Homiletics, p. 13.
(3) Nor must we forget here the Retreatthose opportunities for meditation and prayer, happily revived amongst us of late years. The name may possibly be Romish, but the thing is sensible and scriptural enougha voluntary retirement for a short period from the world that we may hear and think only of the things which make for our peace. The saying still holds good, “He goeth before you into Galilee”a retired mountain place it was (Mat 28:16)”there shall ye see him.”
3. Elijah’s retirement was for the ultimate welfare of Israel. So long as he remained amongst them, the people would have looked to him as the author of their calamities, or would have cried to him to avert them. His disappearance afforded them leisure to examine themselves and face their sins, and left them only God or Baal to cry to. It is sometimes well that the prophet should keep silence. Deus habet suas moras. It is not always that He stretches out his hands all clay long to the disobedient and gainsaying. Having spoken by Elijah to Ahab and Israel, now He and His prophet must withdraw into the darkness, and the drought must do its silent work. And there are times, too, when Christ’s ministers must he silent. When the Gadarenes besought our Lord to depart out of their coasts, He straightway took them st their word (Mat 8:34; Mat 9:1; cf. Mat 23:38, Mat 23:39). The apostles were to shake off the dust of their feet against the city that received them not, and to depart from it (Mat 10:14), and they did so (Act 13:51). When the Jews counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles (Act 13:46). When the churches of Asia fell and repented not, their candlestick was removed out of its place (Rev 2:5). Their loss is our gain. “These things were written for our admonition.”
1Ki 17:4-7
The Food of the Saints.
We have just seen the prophet in his solitude. Let us now consider the manner in which he was sustained there. His needs were supplied in two ways, partly by natural, partly by supernatural means. No miracle was wrought to give him water. He must make his home in the wady and drink of the rivulet that flowed past his feet. It was there, and he must help himself to it. But with his food it was quite different. He could not find that, and so it was brought to him; it was provided him by God. For even if it was not laid at his feet morning and evening by ravensand we have seen reason to think that it was noteven flit was furnished him by the villagers of Orbo, his tribesmen and friends, or by the loyal and hospitable Arabs who roamed over the adjoining region, still it was supplied by the ordering and special Providence of God. For it is as much a supernatural work to control, by an unseen Power, the minds of men as the instincts or habits of birds. If we get rid of the ravens we do not get rid of the miracle. It is clear, consequently, that he was sustained in part by natural, in part by superhuman agency. Now our food, like his, is, though in a different way, natural and supernatural. We use the terms in the popular sense, for who shall say that all food is not supernatural. True, it comes to us by what we call “natural processes,” in what we call the “order of Nature;” but it is obvious that the so called “laws of Nature” are only “statements of the observed course of Nature, or the uniform results of known physical causes ending in some prime cause or causes not merely physical” (Sir E. Beckett, “Origin of the Laws of Nature”). Nature only means what is fixed, settled, uniform (Bp. Butler). But, using the words as they are used in common parlance, part of our sustenance, the supply of our bodily wants is, for the most part natural; and another part, the satisfaction of our spiritual necessities, is for the most part supernatural. Our needs, that is to say, are supplied something like Elijah’s were. Let us trace the resemblance a little more in detail, and let us see first how it holds good of our
I. BODILY SUSTENANCE. We learn from this history
1. That we must use the means within our reacts. Not even for His elect messenger, the greatest of the prophets, does God work an unnecessary miracle. “Dieu n’agit pas par des volontes particulieres” (Malebranche). No doubt God could have supplied his drink just as easily as his daily bread, in an extraordinary way, but He would not. No; in a valley debouching into the Jordan was a stream, fed from some hidden source, such as the snows of Hermon, or springing from the roots of the hills of Gilead, and the prophet must seek it, and take up his abode near it. What do we learn from this but that God “will have our endeavours concur to our preservation,” a truth somewhat roughly, but strikingly, put in the Puritan mot d’ordre, “Trust in God, and keep your powder dry.” It is no real kindness to do for Elijah what he can do for himself. There are lands where daily bread is to be had without care or labour; where a man has but to put forth his hand and take the bread-tree fruit and eat and be satisfied, but that is said to be a doubtful boon. It is found that the natives of those lands will not work, and their life, which should be full of high endeavour, which should aim, if at nothing more, at “making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before,” is wasted in basking in the eternal sunshine. The primaeval law, “In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread,” though we call it a curse, is really a blessing. “Six days shalt thou labour” is as much a Divine command as the command to rest on the seventh. It is God decrees, “If any man will not work, neither shall he eat” (2Th 3:10). The imperious necessity to provide our daily bread is one of the springs which keeps the world in motion: it is the salt which keeps our life from stagnation and corruption. It is in vain we cry to Jupiter for help. God has given us fields and seed. He gives us rain and sunshine; it is for our good that we should do the rest.
2. That then God will supply what is lacking. When we have done our best we may justly look to Him to give what we cannot get. And this He will do. “Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy waters shall be sure” (Isa 33:16). “Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread” (Psa 37:25). In the barren wilderness, He gave bread from heaven. “In the days of famine, they shall be satisfied” (Psa 37:19). What a commentary on these words does this history furnish l Elijah had “called for a famine on the land” (1Ki 18:2; Luk 4:25), and had “broken the whole staff of bread” (Psa 105:16); but he himself had enough and to spare. God spreads for him “a table in the wilderness” (Psa 78:16), and almost “in the presence of his enemies” (Psa 2:5). The stars shall fall from their courses, but he shall have enough. It has been thought by some that the ravens brought him bread and flesh from Ahab’s own table. It would have been so, had it been necessary. If he was with food by human instrumentality, it was none the less by God’s command. And this is God’s ordinary way of hearing “the prayer of the poor destitute;” he puts it into the hearts of others to help. “God works by means, and the chief means is man” (Bossuet).
3. That God gives us our bread daily. Elijah only received a small supply of food at once. Though he had no lack, he had no profusion. He had “daily bread”for “morning and evening are one day” (Gen 1:5)and no more. Even he must walk by faith and learn to “take no thought for the morrow.” And daily bread is all that is promised us; all that we are taught to pray for (Mat 6:11). And that, perhaps, because a day is a life in miniature; each day is rounded by dawn and dusk, by sleep and darkness, into a perfect little life. Whether the birds brought him food or not, he and they received it alike, , the bread of a day in its day. The lesson of the manna (Exo 16:20) is taught us again by the brook Cherith.
4. That God guarantees us necessaries, not luxuries. Elijah’s fare was frugal. “Water, bread, and flesh” (cf. Isa 33:16). As a rule, He gives us food “exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.” How prodigious is the variety of our food, how lavish its supply! What rich provision has the Eternal Goodness made for the gratification of our tastes. Fish, flesh, fowl, fruits,the list is endless. And of the flesh or fruits, again, how many genera, and in the genera how many species, and in the species what countless varieties. Lavish profusion marks His gifts. But all the same he covenants to give us less than the fare of Cherith, even bread and water. “God gives order for competency, not for wantonness” (Hall).
II. SPIRITUAL FOOD. But we are now to consider that “man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word,” etc. (Deu 8:3; Mat 4:4). The saints have meat to eat of which the world knows nothing (Joh 4:1-54 :84). Elijah had other food than that which the ravens brought him. In giving” daily bread,” God does not forget man’s spiritual part, even if he forgets it in his prayer for bread. And God supplies the soul’s needs by laws not unlike those which govern the supply of material food.
1. We must use the means of grace. The treasury of the Church contains an abundant provision. There are” living waters,” there is” super substantial bread,” there is word and sacrament, prayer and psalm But we must come to the waters and drink (Joh 7:37; Rev 22:17). Our faith needs something to feed upon, and it is in vain we ask for miracles, so long as we do not use means. If we want to love God more, we must seek to know God, through His word and works, better. If we want to be more like Christ, we must be more with Christ, in His word and ordinances, for it is “association produces assimilation.” There is a tendency to decry the means of grace. There is a religion which is wholly subjective, which seeks its growth and expansion in everlasting self-introspection or mystical contemplation of the Divine perfections. But “Thou shalt drink of the brook.” True, the channel is nothingAnnus non ager, facit fructum,but a channel. It is God must fill it, but if God has dug it, it is presumption to discard it. “The means that Heaven yields must be embraced, And not neglected; else if Heaven would And we will not, Heaven’s offers we refuse.”
2. If we are debarred from the means of grace, God will give grace without means. It is a blessed truth, gratis non ligatur mediis. We may not dispense with them, but God can, and does. He did so in the oft-cited instance of the dying thief. He was saved without sacraments, but St. Paul was not (Act 22:16). And how often have the saints and martyrs, cut off, Amid fierce persecutions, from the communion of the saints, found their deserts or their cells glorified by direct communion with God. Matthew Henry quaintly says that “if we cannot go to the house of the Lord, we can go to the Lord of the house.” The Church of England proclaims that there may be a true Eucharist without the elements (vide The Communion of the Sick, 3rd Rubric). But it is only when we are deprived of the means that we can justly expect God to dispense with them. He has commanded His ministers to feed His Church (Act 20:28; 1Pe 5:2); He has given them word and sacrament, bread and wine, wherewith to nourish it; but He is independent both of means and ministers.
3. Supplies of grace are granted day by day. Our soul’s bread is a daily bread. Every day we ask for forgiveness, for grace (Mat 6:11); and as our days, so our strength shall be (Deu 33:25). If we have not morning and evening prayer in the Church, we may have it in the house. And morning and evening may be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, in private. Each may find a Cherith in the closet; each receive there his portion of meat in due season.
4. Grace is given without measure. God does not promise luxuries, because they are often hurtful. But there is no over indulgence here. It is significant how excess in wine is contrasted with being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). One cannot drink too deep of the living waters (Joh 7:38). They are given freely (Rev 22:17).
1Ki 17:8-16
The Furnace of Trial.
The village of Zarephath appears to have borrowed its name from the furnace or furnaces created there for the smelting of metals. See note on 1Ki 17:9. A great lexicographer interprets the word to mean, a “workshop for the melting and refining of metals.” But that name might with scarcely less propriety have been bestowed upon it from the circumstances recorded in this section. It was a veritable furnace for men; a place of assay and refining both for the prophet and the widow with whom he lodged. “Surely there is a place for gold where they fine it” (Job 28:1).
I. IT WAS A PLACE OF TRIAL FOR ELIJAH. In connexion with it he was subjected to the following trials of his faith and courage
1. He had to leave his hiding place. For months he had dwelt safely in the deep, sequestered, peaceful wady. That he must hide there, and bide so long, showed how great was the danger to which he was exposed. But now he is commanded to quit his asylum, to go forth into the world, to run the risk of recognition, of betrayal, of death; and to do so, we cannot doubt, would cost him a struggle, and put his faith in God to the proof.
2. He had to seek a home in Zidon. How those words would strike upon his ears, “Which belongeth unto Zidon”! Zidon was the capital of Ethbaal. The father of Jezebel, his implacable enemy, held sway there. It was like going into the lion’s den. His feeling would be something like that of David’s men, “Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah” (1Sa 23:3). Of all hiding places, that would seem to him to be the most to be dreaded. How can he escape detection there! He might well have taken fright, as at a later period, and have fled further into the desert. Or he might have petitioned, like Lot (Gen 19:20), to be allowed to find some other refuge. But he did neither. “He arose and went to Zarephath.” He was “strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom 4:20).
3. He had to be sustained by a widow woman. The position and circumstances of the Eastern widow are to be remembered here. The seclusion in which Oriental women live makes its difficult for a widow to find a livelihood, even if there were work for her to do. And we have only to consider what the position of widows amongst ourselves would be, if there were no such things as investments, no means of putting out money to usury (Deu 23:19). Hence the repeated injunctions to remember the widow (Deu 14:29; Deu 16:11, Deu 16:14; Deu 24:17, Deu 24:19-21; Job 24:21; Job 29:18; Psa 146:9). Hence the special provision for widows in the early Church (Act 6:1; 1Ti 5:4-9). The widow was an object for charity, and needed sustenance. And now Elijah learns that by a widow he is to be sheltered and sustained. And this widow a foreigner, probably an idolateran alien both in race and religion. Surely there was a trial both of his faith and of his obedience here.
4. He finds the widow in the extremest poverty. He encounters her “gathering of sticks.” That in itself was not an encouraging sign. Next he hears from her lips that her cupboard is empty. She has not food for herself, much less for a stranger. “A handful of meal,” a “little oil,“ this is all her store. She who was to sustain his life is herself ready to die. But he knows in whom he has believed. He “argued not against Heaven’s will.” He did not “bate a jot of heart or hope.” “Make me a little cake first.” He is assured that “they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied” (Psa 37:9). He knows that “God will not suffer his word to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips” (Psa 89:1-52 :84).
5. He is immured in her house for two years. Those two years were years of banishment from his country and his work. Three years and a half had he to wait, and most of the time in a strange land, ere his recal; cut off, “not from life, yet from usefulness, which is the end and comfort of life.” Which of us would not have been impatient, or, like the Baptist in his fortress-prison, tempted to think God had forgotten us? And he knew that all this time his people were suffering. We think it strange if a servant of God is laid aside for a few months from his ministry. But the greatest of the prophets was silenced, was buried alive, for the mystical period of forty and two months, for “time and times and half a time” (Rev 11:2, Rev 11:8; Rev 12:6, Rev 12:14). “When we cannot work for God we must sit still quietly for him” (Henry). “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
6. His presence there is no protection against sickness. Of the three inmates of the cottage home, one sickens and droops to his grave. This sickness causes us no surprise, but it did Elijah (1Ki 17:20); and that because he lived under the dispensation of temporal rewards. Sickness was then regarded as, and it often was, the scourge of the Almighty (Deu 7:15; Deu 28:61; cf. 1Co 11:30). It was a trial, consequently, of Elijah’s faith. It looked as if the hand of the Lord was gone out against him. It seemed as if he was to be always the author of misfortune (“Hast thou also,” etc.); as if the widow by whom he had been housed, and who had hidden him at the risk of her life, was to be requited with cruel punishment for her good deed. But let us now see in Zarephath
II. A FURNACE OF TRIAL FOR THE WIDOW. It was this in two ways
1. A stranger demands a share of her last meal. Or, rather, he demands the first share. “Make me a little cake first.” Now consider her position. She is reduced to her last morsel So sore is the famine that she and her son, after they have eaten this meal together, are about to lie down and wait for death. They must have suffered hunger enough already; they must have dreaded the hunger even unto death which awaited them. At this moment a stranger suddenly appears before her, and says he must eat first. It is true that he wears the aspect el a prophet, and appeals to the Lord God of Israel, but prophets were often deceivers (1Ki 13:18; 1Ki 22:12), and foreign gods could be expected to show her no favour. And at home, her own flesh and blood, the son of her womb, stretches out his skinny fingers, attenuated by famine, and cries for all she has to give. Moreover if this prophet could multiply food, as he professed to be able to do, why should he ask her for bread? Was it reasonable that she should part with her last morsel on the strength of such a promise? “Charity begins at home.” “Let the children first be filled.” “Shall I take my bread and my water and give it to one that I know not whence he is” (1Sa 25:11) ? Thus she might justly have argued. We could not have wondered had the ordeal been too great for her; had she kept fast hold of her children’s bread and denied it to “dogs.” But, like that other Syro-Phoenician woman (Mat 15:21 sqq.), her faith was equal to the test; she “went and did according to the saying of Elijah.” And, therefore, of her also it might justly be said, “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.”
2. Her son falls sick and lies apparently lifeless. The tie between a mother and an only son is, perhaps, the closest and tenderest of all blood relationships; and it has been remarked that it is peculiarly strong and sacred in the East. “The only son of his mother and she was a widow” (Luk 7:12): who does not feel the pathos of these words? And the tie would be all the stronger in this case because they had suffered together; because he had been given back to her from the jaws of death (1Ki 17:12). It is said by some that we value things in proportion to what they have cost us, and on this principle they would explain the deep love of the mother for her offspring. Goethe’s mother used to say that “she and her Wolfgang had always clung to each other, because they had been young together;” but to have hungered together, to have, hand in hand, looked Death in the face, to have seen the spectre retreating, surely this communion in suffering, this , this compassio, would beget a much profounder sympathy. And now this boy, whose life had been miraculously preserved, is so sick that there is no breath left in him. What could this fond and anxious mother think? Was the prophet who had given them bread unable to defend them from sickness? Or was this God’s recompense for her hospitality? She might have had hard thoughts of God, or unworthy thoughts of the prophet. It is a wonder she held fast her integrity. But she only thought hardly of herself. It must be, she argued, a judgment for her sin. The man of God had read her life; had brought her sin to the remembrance of his Master (1Ki 17:18). It never occurs to her, strong as was the temptation, to arraign God’s providence. But her faith and patience must have been sorely tried.
It now remains for us to consider how these assays of faith, which have given to this Phoenician workshop its tame and immortality, were “more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire” (1Pe 1:7). In that workshop God Himself sat “as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
It is said that when the crucible, the fining pot for silver (Pro 17:8), is put into the furnace, the chymist has a sure and ready test of its purity; a means of knowing when his long processes have accomplished their object. When he sees his face reflected in the glowing and untarnished metal, he knows that the purification is complete.
It was that Elijah and his hostess might learn to know God, might be transformed into the image of God, that they experienced this two years’ purgation in the furnace. It was that the dross might be purely purged, and the tin taken away (Isa 1:25); that they might be changed into the image of their Creator (Col 3:10; 2Co 3:18).
Now the historian does not record the results of this assay, except incidentally. But we can clearly see that the faith of Elijah and the widow alike grew stronger by the exercise. How much Elijah gained; how the discipline told on his subsequent career; how the trying of his faith wrought patience (Act 1:8), we cannot now discover. But we can see that it resulted in the widow’s conversion, or in the confirmation of her faith, and in the glory and praise of God (1Ki 17:24). And that is not all. Its issues are in eternity. The cross was the forerunner of the crown (Jas 1:12).
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD
1Ki 17:1
Elijah.
In this sudden manner the Tishbite is introduced, upon which Bishop Hall remarks, “He comes in with a tempest who went out with a whirlwind.” And Lamartine says, “Recalling his life and his terrible vengeance, it seems as if this man had the thunder of the Lord for a soul, and that the element in which he was borne to heaven was that in which he was brought forth.” Let us consider
I. HIS PRESENCE.
1. It is awful in its vagueness.
(1) It was of the inhabitants of Gilead”The hard, stony region,” south of the river Jabbok. This was one of the wildest parts of the Holy Land. The awful scenery of that district harmonized well with the ruggedness of the spirit of this prophet. John the Baptist first appeared in a wilderness. Out of a wilderness Jesus came up when He entered upon His public ministry (Mat 3:1; Luk 4:1, Luk 4:14, Luk 4:15).
(2) He is distinguished as the Tishbite. Calmer says Tishbe was a city beyond Jordan in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead. Gesenius, from Relandi, mentions Tishbe as “a town of Napthali.” Could there have been two Tishbes; and were the words “Of the inhabitants of Gilead” added to distinguish?
(3) “The Tishbite,” we incline to think, was a name of office or commission. It designates Elijah as the Converter ( from to turn). In this he resembled John the Baptist, whose commission also was to preach repentance. (See Mat 11:13, Mat 11:14; Mat 17:12; Luk 1:17.) When Elijah comes again “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,” it will be in his character of Tishbite or Converter, viz; “to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” (See Mat 4:5, Mat 4:6),
2. It is awful also in its intensity,
(1) His name () some interpret to be, “My God Jehovah is he,” others, “God is my strength.” In either case it reminds us of God, and God is the very centre of all reality.
(2) Elijah brings us into the very presence of God also by the manner in which he announces himself. “As Jehovah liveth, before whom I stand.” In this way also the angel Gabriel announced himself to Zacharias, and that too when he revealed the coming of the Baptist. (See Luk 1:19.) It is probable Elijah, like John the Baptist, also was a priest, and the expression under review may intimate this. (Compare Deu 10:8.) About 940 years after this, Elijah, with Moses, in a remarkable manner stood, in the presence of Jehovah, in the mount of transfiguration (Mat 17:1-3).
(3) This declaration of the living God was appropriately timed. For the calves or young bulls of Jeroboam, and the bulls and goats of Sidon established through the influence of Jezebel, had so occupied public attention that He was forgotten. Lamentable is the substitution of death for life!
HIS FAITH.
1. It is bold in its assertion.
(1) “There shall be neither dew nor rain.” The material elements which mechanically produce dew and lain were worshipped by the Phoenicians, and now by the Israelites, while the God that made them was forgotten. Is not this the very error of modern atheistic physicists? They worship Baal, Ashtoreth, and Ashere under other names, and ridicule faith and prayer. But Elijah asserts the living God as superior to nature, who will restrain both dew and rain, and so make the gods to worship him. (See Deu 11:16, Deu 11:17; Jer 14:22.)
(2) “There shall be neither dew nor rain these years.” Dew and rain, according to the course of nature, may be withholden for days, for weeks, even, in rare cases, for months; but not for years. When therefore for “three years and six months” these meteors were awanting, the phenomenon was supernatural.
2. The qualification is no less remarkable“But according to my word.”
(1) Unless divinely authorized to say this, such a declaration would be most presumptuous. And the inevitable failure of the prediction would cover the pseudo-prophet with ridicule and confusion.
(2) But Elijah was a genuine man. He spoke under the inspiration of Jehovah before whom he stood. Such inspiration makes all the difference between presumption and faith. This is just the distinction made by James, who describes Elijah’s faith as () inwrought persuasion of a righteous man (Jas 5:16). Faith is the gift of God.
3. The directness is admirable.
(1) This address is to Ahab. It comes not to him as a hearsay, but with the highest authenticity. The inspired messenger of God is above kings. (See Jer 1:10.)
(2) It is fearlessly delivered. When a man is conscious that he stands before Jehovah he may use great freedom of speech. The courage of the lion is in the heart of faith. Elijah was a man of faith because he was a man of prayer. It is an encouragement to our faith to know that “Elias was a man of like passions as we are” (Jas 5:17).J.A.M.
1Ki 17:2-6
Resources of Providence.
When the heavens are shut up by the word of the Lord, what will become of the prophet who declared that word? Will he not suffer from the drought in common with the sinners on whose account the dew and rain are restrained? Will he not be exposed to the rage of an idolatrous king and queen whose humbled gods cannot, in this crisis, vindicate themselves? Will not a demoralized populace resent their sufferings upon the man of God? God knows all, and is equal to all, emergencies.
I. HE HAS RESOURCES FOR THE PROTECTION OF HIS SERVANTS.
1. He could defend Elijah in the midst of his enemies.
(1) The power that had shut up the heavens could surely do this. The elemental fire which now scorched the earth, He could cause to fall upon the heads of any who would threaten his servant. (See 2Ki 1:10-15.)
(2) Without recourse to violence, he could dispose the hearts of men to respect His messenger, as afterwards He did. (See 1Ki 18:1-46.) But this was not now His way.
2. He has also places of refuge for His servants.
(1) If there be a valley secluded from human intrusion God knows it. In the courses traversed by the brook Cherith Elijah may safely hide. These recesses lay “eastward” from Samaria, where probably the prophet had encountered the king; and eastward from the Jordan, for this is the import of the phrase “before Jordan.” Probably this seclusion was in his own wild district of Gilead.
(2) Ahab will not suspect that Elijah is here; for how could he possibly subsist in such a desolate region. Water he might find in the streams of the mountains; but where can he get bread from bald rocks in time of drought? (Mat 13:5, Mat 13:6.)
3. Into such asylums He can guide His saints.
(1) “The word of the Lord” came to Elijah. Christ is that Word (Joh 1:1-14). He was the MEMRA of the Targumsthat personal Word, who “appeared” to patriarchs and prophets. See Gen 15:1.; Gen 28:20.) He will be ever with his people guiding them into safety.
(2) “The word of the Lord came unto him saying.,“ or expressing His wisdom in human vocables. To Elijah the direction was, “Get thee hence,” etc. To all He comes in the promises and precepts of holy Scripture.
(3) Those who believe and obey God’s Word, as Elijah did, are in safe keeping. They need never fear the combinations of wickedness against them.
II. HE HAS RESOURCES ALSO FOR THEIR SUPPORT.
1. Their water is sure. “Thou shalt drink of the brook.”
(1) There was refreshment for the body. The stream of that brook continued to flow for a whole year. Such is supposed to be the import of () days, when there is nothing to limit it.
(2) His soul meanwhile was refreshed, as, by faith, he realized the wells of salvation which flow from the Word of the Lord, (See Psa 46:4; Joh 4:14; Joh 7:37-39; Rev 22:17.)
2. Their bread shall be given. “I have commanded ravens to feed thee there.
(1) What an unlikely thing! Ravens were unclean creatures (Le Gen 11:15). They are insect-feeding, carrion-eating birds, themselves fed by special providence of God. (See Job 38:41; Psa 147:9.)
(2) Yet God could do it; for the instincts of all creatures are in His hands. He restrained hungry lions from harming Daniel; instructed a fish how to behave to Jonah; and another to lift a piece of silver from the bottom of a lake and then fasten upon a hook. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
(3) But would He do it? Would He employ an unclean creature to feed His servant? He might have His own reasons even for this. Elijah sustained for three years and a half in the wilderness was a type of the Christian Church nourished by the word of God for three and a half prophetic years (Rev 12:6, Rev 12:14). Babylon the great, from whose face the Church had to fly, was the mystical Jezebel, as the true Church was the mystical Elijah. But in this Church the destruction of clean and unclean creatures had no place. (See Act 10:15, Act 10:28; Act 15:7-11.) Might not this gospel have been foreshadowed in the manner in which Elijah was fed?
3. But is it certain that ravens were employed?
(1) He might have been fed by Arabians! For the word () translated “ravens” also denotes Arabians. (See it so used in the singular, Isa 13:1-22 :30; Jer 3:2; Neh 2:19; and in the plural as here, 2Ch 21:16 : 2Ch 22:1.) And Gilead bordered upon that tract of country more especially described in Scripture as Arabia.
(2) Or he might have been fed by merchants. For this word also designates merchants. (See Eze 27:9, Eze 27:27.) If Israelitish merchants supplied the prophet’s needs, then probably would they be of the seven thousand who scorned to bow the knee to Baal (1Ki 19:18), and so would not discover his hiding place to Ahab.
(3) Or he might have been sustained by certain inhabitants of Oreb, a rocky place beyond Jordan. (See Jdg 7:22; Isa 10:26.) This opinion is favoured by Jerome, who says, “The Orbim, inhabitants of a town on the confines of the Arabs, gave nourishment to Elijah.” (See more in A. Clarke.)
(4) Whether by ravens, Arabians, merchants, or people of Oreb or Orbo, matters little; God can spread a table in the wilderness. He can give us the bread of the day in the day”bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.” Necessary things are sure; luxuries we may dispense with. The greatest luxury to the wise and good is the feast upon the spiritual food which accompanies faithful obedience to God (Joh 4:32-34)J.A.M.
1Ki 17:7-9
The Widow of Zidon.
Towards the close of Elijah’s year of seclusion, to use the words of Dr. Macduff, “the brook began to sing less cheerily; once a full rill or cascade, which, night by night, was wont to lull the prophet of Israel to sleep, it becomes gradually attenuated into a silver thread. In s few days it seems to trickle drop by drop from the barren rock, until, where pools of refreshing water were before, there is nothing now left but sand and stones.” It is time for the prophet to look to God for further direction; and in response to his prayer, “the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise,” etc. How different are the resources of the believer from those of the worldling! When the Cherith of the worlding fails he has nothing further to look to, but when from the believer one comfort is withdrawn another is at hand (Psa 37:19). Let us meditate upon
I. THE COMMAND OF GOD TO THE WIDOW.
1. She is to sustain the prophet of the Lord.
(1) What an honour is this! For two years and a half to entertain the man that “stands before Jehovah,” at whose word the clouds are sealed or the windows of heaven opened! (See 1Ki 17:1 and 1Ki 18:41.) The man whose prayer was to bring fire down upon the sacrifice on Carmel to the confusion of idolatry! (1Ki 18:38.) Who was to bring the same element down upon the soldiers of Ahaziah I (2Ki 1:10-12). Who was destined to ride alive into the heavens in a chariot of fire! (2Ki 2:11). Who was destined, many centuries later, to appear in glory with Messiah on the mount of transfiguration! (Mat 17:8). And who is yet to come before the great day of judgment to gather back the children of Israel from their dispersion! (Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6).
(2) How could she hope for such distinction? A poor widow, so poor that she has no servant and no fuel in her house! A widow with her son, both at the point of death! A stranger, and a stranger of Zidon toothe land of Baaland the land of the wicked Jezebel! Note: God’s ways are not as our ways. He brings unlikely things to pass. How little do we know what may be the thoughts of His heart concerning us!
2. But how is she to accomplish this?
(1) Unbelief might murmur at such a requisition. It might charge God foolishly as a tyrant requiring brick where he had not supplied straw. Those who shrink from Church work because of fancied incompetence fall into this error, neglecting to trust God.
(2) It is enough that God has commanded. His commands are promises. (See Exo 3:10-12; Jdg 6:14.) See how the meal and oil are multiplied in the hands of the widow. The more difficult (humanly considered) the undertaking, the more gloriously will the excellency of the power of God appear. (See 2Co 12:9.) Attempt great things for God. Expect great things from God.
II. THE REASONS OF THE COMMAND.
1. Elijah needed succour.
(1) The brook is dried up. Now is the time to test the prophet’s faith. But he is a man of prayer, so is familiar with God. Those who best know God have most confidence in Him. Let us be much in prayer.
(2) Then “the word of the Lord came.” Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. In no strait let us despair of help while we keep a single heart. God knows all things. He can do whatever He will
2. The woman needed succour.
(1) She too had come to extremityto the last handful of meal. What a touching spectacle is that widow at the gate of Zarephath gathering a few sticks to prepare the last meal for herself and her son!
(2) Had she not prayed? No doubt; and most sincerely. She was evidently a believer in the God of Israel. Jehovah was not unknown in the land of that Hiram who “was ever a lover of David,” and so materially aided Solomon in building the temple (1Ki 5:1-18.)
(3) But then she was not an Israelite to whom “were the promises.” So in addressing Elijah her words are, “As the Lord thy God liveth.” She believes in the “living God,” but cannot presume to call Him her God. (See Rom 9:4.) What right had a poor stranger of Zidon to lock for any special consideration from the Lord?
(4) “He giveth grace unto the humble.” He that reads the heart saw that she would believe if only she had a promise to authorize her faith. He accordingly gave her the opportunity which she seized and improved. (See Act 10:1-6.) Let us act up to our light, and God will guide us into all the truth.
3. But were thee no widows in Israel?
(1) Upon the best authority we know that there were “many,” and as needy as this Zidonian. In the severity of such a famine deaths from starvation were no rare occurrence.
(2) But the same authority informs us that there were none so worthy as this widow of Sarepta (Le 1Ki 4:24-26). No widow in Israel would have received the prophet as this widow received him. The moral is that if we would have special favour of God we must have special faith to receive it. Let us ever be in that attitude of wholehearted consecration to God which will make us eligible for any service he may be pleased to promote us to. To be permitted to do anything for God is an unspeakable honour.J.A.M.
1Ki 17:10-16
The Barrel of Meal.
In the East the people kept their corn in earthen jars to protect it from insects which swarm in the heat of the sun. What in our translation is called a “barrel” () was one of these vessels. The store in this case was run low; there was but a “handful” left; yet this was so multiplied by the power of God that three persons found at least in it sufficient provision for two and a half years. Let us inquire
I. HOW ITS CONDITION BECAME KNOWN.
1. Elijah came to Zarephath in quest of the widow.
(1) Such were his instructions (1Ki 17:8, 1Ki 17:9). But was there only one widow in this city of “smelting furnaces”, this hive of industry, this centre of population? How, then, is he to discover the right one?
(2) God knows her, and that is enough for the prophet. The Word of the Lord who came to him at Samaria and at Cherith will now guide him. (See Isa 42:16.)
(3) Let us follow the light we have and God will give us more. So was Abraham’s faithful servant guided to Rebecca (Gen 24:1-67.)
2. He found her at the gate of the city.
(1) She was there on an errand of her own, viz; to gather a few dry sticks to kindle a fire to cook her last meal in this world.
(2) She was there also, though unknown to herself, on an errand from God. She was commanded to sustain the prophet of Israel
(3) Yet these two errands harmonize. God uses man’s purposes to work out His own. Man proposeth; God disposeth.
3. He readily identified her.
(1) He asked her for water, which, with admirable promptitude, she went to fetch. This was the sign by which Abraham’s servant identified Rebecca (Gen 24:14). The cup of cold water has its promise of reward (Mat 10:42).
(2) Then he asked for bread, which further request opened the way for the whole truth, “As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but,” etc. (1Ki 17:12). From these words it is evident that she recognized Elijah, at least as an Israelite, and probably as the prophet of Israel; for he was a person of pronounced individuality. His profusion of hair, probably, placed Elisha in such contrast to him that Elisha was mocked as a “bald head.”
II. HOW ITS RESOURCES WERE MAINTAINED.
1. By the miracle-working power of God.
(1) “The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah.” This supplied not only the guest but the widow and her son for two years and a half. As Bp. Hall remarks, “Never did corn or olive so increase in the growing as these did in the using.”
(2) This miracle was similar to that of the manna. The off was used as butter for the meal, and the taste of the manna was like fresh oil (Num 11:8). Also to Christ’s miracles of the loaves.
(3) The lessons are the same. The miracles all teach that “man lives not by bread alone, but by the word of God.” That this spiritual food is the gift of God. That it differs essentially from the bread that perishes. Not only is it imperishable, but it multiplies in the using, grows as it is dispensed. How delightful were the spiritual feasts of that two years and a half in the widow’s dwelling [(See Rev 3:20.)
2. Through the faith of the widow.
(1) She was predisposed to believe. God saw this, else He had not honoured her with His command to sustain his prophet. (See Luk 4:24-26.) Let us ever live in that moral fitness to be employed by God.
(2) This disposition was encouraged. She waited for something to justify her faith in God, and she got it: “And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said,” &c. (1Ki 17:13, 1Ki 17:14). She knew that the word of the Lord was with Elijah And this instruction to make first a little cake for the prophet was according to God’s order. (See Num 15:20, Num 15:21.)
(3) She proved the genuineness of her faith by her works. “She did according to the saying of Elijah.” By works faith is perfected, And God justified the faith that justified him.J.A.M.
1Ki 17:17, 1Ki 17:18
The Reproaches of Death.
In 1Ki 17:15 we read that the widow and her household did eat of the multiplied meal “days” (), a term which is by some Hebraists understood, when used without qualification, to denote a year. So the phrase with which the text opens, “And it came to pass after these things,” imports that the miracle of raising the widow’s son occurred “after” Elijah had been one year in her house. The “things” to which this miracle succeeded were the earlier signs of the presence of God with the prophet, meanwhile the widow read the bereavement her own way.
I. SHE SAW THE HAND OF GOD IN IT.
1. She attributed it to Elijah. “Art thou come unto me, to slay my son.”
(1) Not, however, under any notion of unkind. ness to her in the heart of the prophet. For
(a) had she not, and her son with her, been saved from death by famine in connexion with his sojourn in her house?
(b) The heavenly conversation they must have had during the year would preclude such an idea.
(2) Yet here is the fact; and it is written for our learning. The incidents in Scripture, given under Divine inspiration, are therefore to be very particularly noted. They cannot be too carefully or too prayerfully studied.
2. She attributed it to him as a “man of God.”
(1) This was not, in her estimation, an ordinary case of death. The circumstances surrounding it were all extraordinary,
(2) At least she saw that it was intended by God for some high purpose. She was right. We should not be wrong so to regard ordinary providences. All God’s purposes are high. All His providences are important. His providence is in everything. Life therefore is no stale thing
II. SHE READ HIS REPROACHES IN IT. “Art thou come to call my sin to my remembrance?”
1. We should newer forget that we are sinners.
(1) Whatever reminds us of God should remind us of sin. For all sin is, directly or indirectly, against Him; and this is the gravest side of the offence (Psa 51:4; Luk 15:21).
(2) Death especially should remind us of God, before whose tribunal it conducts us. So it should especially remind us of sin, for it is its wages appointed by God.
2. The remembrance, however, will affect us variously according to our moral state.
(1) Sin, in the first instance, is called to the remembrance of all that they may hate it and forsake it.
(2) To those who have endeavoured to do this, it is still called to remembrance, that they may trust in Christ for forgiveness and salvation.
(3) To the justified it is called to remembrance that they may praise God for His mercy. In this sense sin will be remembered even in heaven. (See Rev 5:9; Rev 7:9, Rev 7:17.)
III. SHE CONNECTED THESE REPROACHES WITH THE PRESENCE OF ELIJAH. “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?” etc.
1. Why did she do this?
(1) Prophets were sent usually to reprove, and denounce judgments. Hence the coming of Samuel to Bethlehem inspired the magistrates and people with alarm. (See 1Sa 16:4.) This bereavement, therefore, might suggest to the widow her sin in general, or some particular sin, though not clearly defined to her as yet.
(2) Or it might have brought home to her some imperfection in the service of God which she had not previously sufficiently considered. Had she adequately appreciated the great privilege of having such a guest?
(3) Was there not in this a confession that she was unworthy of such an honour, and a desire implied that she should be made worthy, lest otherwise his continued presence must become an occasion of judgments? Was not the expression of Peter, with whom Jesus lodged, of similar import when the divinity of the Master was brought vividly before him by the miraculous draught of fishes, and he exclaimed, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord?” (Luk 5:8).
2. Did she not here recognize a great truth?
(1) What sanctifications and consecrations Levites, and more especially sons of Aaron, needed, who had to draw near to God; and how perilous to them, even then, were their approaches to that sacred presence! (Exo 28:43; Le 8:35; 15:31; Exo 16:2, Exo 16:18; Exo 22:9; Num 4:15; Num 17:1-13 :18).
(2) How clean should they be who bear now the vessels of the Lord! How careful unsanctified persons should be not to tamper with holy things! Witness the judgments upon Uzzah and Uzziah. (See 1Sa 6:19; 2Sa 6:7; 2Ch 26:19, 2Ch 26:20.) The sanctification now required is moral, of which the ceremonial was the type.
(3) All shall have to appear in the very presence of the Judge. How shall we stand then? Let us now prepare for that solemnity.J.A.M.
1Ki 17:19-24
The Sign of the Widow’s Son.
Here is a touching scenea poor widow pressing to her bosom the corpse of her only child, while in the agony of her bereaved soul, addressing Elijah, she says, “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come to call my sin to my remembrance, and to slay my son?” Now note the words of the text: “And he said unto her, Give me thy son,“ etc. In this history we have
I. AN EXAMPLE OF THE POWER OF FAITH. Behold here
1. The spirit of faith.
(1) He had confidence in God before he prayed. This is evident from the manner in which he asked the widow for the corpse. He did not tell her what he intended; but, on the other hand, neither did he express any hesitation as in the comfort she might expect.
(2) This confidence must have been divinely authorized, else it would have been presumption which, instead of conciliating the favour, would have awakened the displeasure of God
(3) This was what Elisha and the sons of the prophets called “the Spirit of Elijah,” i.e; the. Spirit of God abiding with him. (See 2Ki 2:9, 2Ki 2:15.)
2. The prayer of faith.
(1) He recognized the hand of God in the bereavement: “Hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son?” He calls it “evil,” yet attributes it to God. Moral evil God cannot perpetrate, but evil which comes in the form of affliction or punishment is a very different thing. (See Job 2:10; Isa 45:7; Amo 3:6; Joh 9:1-8.)
(2) He entreated God to restore the child’s life. “He cried unto the Lord.” Here is the “fervency” which characterizes “effectual” prayer.
(3) He entreated Him confidingly: “O Lord my God.” This appealing to God in the possessive expresses a loving trust in a Covenant Friend. (See Le 26:12; Jer 31:33; 2Co 6:16; Heb 11:16; Rev 21:3.)
(4) Hence his success. “The Lord heard the voice of Elijah.” He saw in Elijah those moral qualifications which make it fitting that He should answer prayer. So the prophet was able to restore the child alive to his mother.
3. But what example is this for us?
(1) Elijah’s success in prayer was not because he was a prophet. James replies to this objection when he assures us that “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are.” For this is the ground on which he proceeds to lay down the broad principle, viz; that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas 5:16; see also Act 11:24).
(2) Therefore we also may be moved by the Holy Ghost; and we must be so moved if we would pray effectually. True faith is “of the operation of God” (Luther’s prayer for the recovery of Myconius instanced in Krummacher).
(3) But how may we know that we are so influenced? God will make it plain as one of the secrets of holy communion with Him (Psa 25:14; Joh 7:17; Joh 15:15). When we are free from selfish desire, and above all things seek God’s glory, there is little danger of being led astray.
(4) The widow was no prophetess, but she also was an example of faith. (See Heb 11:35.) Witness her recognition of God, and the readiness with which she gave her son from her bosom at the prophet’s request. Her faith was honoured as well as his.
II. A PROPHETIC SIGN.
1. So the widow interpreted it (verse 24).
(1) It authenticated Elijah as a “man of God.” Not only that he was a good man, but that he was a prophet of the Lord.
(2) Consequently “that the word of the Lord in his mouth” was no sham. (Comp. ch. 22.) Spurious prophets could not give miraculous signs.
2. Such signs were parables. The question, then, is, what did this parable teach?
(1) Could it be a sign that the drought would be removed which had now lasted two years, working fearful ravages, and must, if continued long, destroy the nations visited? For the “word of the Lord in the mouth of Elijah” did encourage the hope that rain should come upon the earth (verse 14). The coming of rain would be a national resurrection.
(2) Could it be a pledge of the resurrection of the dead at the last day? The gospel has thrown floods of illustration upon this subject, but in old times it was obscure. This miracle taught the separate existence of the soul. Also that the disembodied spirit may and shall be reunited to its organic companion.
(3) Why did Elijah stretch himself upon the child? He was a type of Christ. So he made himself like the dead to foreshow that Christ by dying in our room should give us life. This He does morally. Also physically, viz; in the resurrection of the body. Is there any correspondence between the “three times” mentioned in the text and the “three times” in which our Lord prayed for the removal of the cup of His suffering? (Mat 26:44).J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND
1Ki 17:1
The Messenger of Jehovah.
Stanley is justified in describing Elijah as “the grandest and moss romantic character that Israel ever produced”. He appears suddenly, and disappears miraculously. Hence imagination has had scope. Some Rabbins believed that he was Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, and others that he was an angel from heaven. The impression his ministry made upon the mind of the people reappeared again and again after the lapse of centuries. When, for example, the miracles of our Lord aroused the wonder of the people, many said, “It is Elias.” Such a character and work as were his deserve careful study. Describe the social and religious condition of the kingdom of Israel after Ahab’s accession and marriage with the dauntless, fanatical, idolatrous Jezebel. Never was reformation more called for, and never were supernatural works more necessary as the credentials of a Heaven-sent ambassador. Our text presents for our consideration
I. A messenger from a forsaken God, and
II. A message for an apostate people.
I. A MESSENGER FROM A FORSAKEN GOD. Ahab was congratulating himself on the success of his policy. It had been greater than he could have expected. The old faith and fervour of the people had died out so completely that they were quiet under the bold introduction of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Sidonians were linked with the kingdom of Israel against Syria. Scarcely a protest had been heard against these political and religious movements. Suddenly there appeared before the king and queen, perhaps as they were enthroned in their ivory palace, Elijah the Tishbite; rough in appearance, as he was bold in utterance. Above the ordinary height, of great physical strength, a girdle round his loins, and a sheepskin cloak over his brawny shoulders, his long thick hair streaming down his back, he was even in appearance a memorable man; and there was something very startling in this his sudden dash into the royal presence, to thunder out his curse, and the rebuke which no doubt preceded it. His appearance may be compared to the flash of lightning that for a moment makes everything which was before in darkness vividly distinct. Some points are worthy of note.
1. The obscurity of his origin. The Tishbite means the “converter,” and would fitly describe his work. The endeavour to discover a town of such name in Palestine appears to have failed. The phrase, “from the residents of Gilead,” does not necessarily imply that he was an Israelite. He may have been an Ishmaelite or a heathen by birth. It was designed that obscurity should thus hang over his origin. To the people he would seem to come all the more directly from God. The human element was overshadowed by the Divine. Show the mightiness of secret forces in nature, in thought, and in the kingdom of God.
2. The signs of his fitness. A rough man was needed to do rough work. The settler in the backwoods wants the strong sharp are to effect a clearing, before more delicate implements are required. Elijah had his constitutional strength and courage fostered by his surroundings. Gilead was a wild, unsettled country compared with Ephraim and Judah. Instead of stately palaces and flourishing towns, it boasted tent villages and mountain castles; and desperate and frequent were the fights with surrounding freebooters. (See 1Ch 5:10, 1Ch 5:19-22. Compare with it “Rob Roy,” 1Ch 19:1-19.) The Gileadites were to Israel what the Highlanders, a century back, were to the Lowlands. Amid scenes of conflict, of loneliness, probably of poverty, this strong character was moulded. Compare with Moses in Midian, with John the Baptist in the wilderness. God gives each servant the right training for the service appointed for him both on earth and in heaven.
3. The secret of his strength? His name, Elijah, and his formula, “as the Lord God of Israel liveth,” indicate it. An overpowering conviction that Jehovah lived, that He was near, that He was the God of this people, and that He would assert His supremacy over all false gods is implied in the verse. This is the secret of spiritual strength in all ages. The disciples were weak when Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration, strong when He returned; they were despondent after the crucifixion, exultant at Pentecost. The revelation of God’s presence and power is what all Churches now need.
4. The completeness of his consecration. “Before whom I stand.” This he said, not with a sense of God’s nearness only, nor of His favour, but to express that he was the Lord’s consecrated servant, through whom and by whom he might do what He willed. Standing is an attitude of attention, expectancy, readiness. So in ancient Scripture servants are represented as all standing looking towards the king, with loins girded, eyes intent, ready to do his will. Note: We cannot stand before the Lord until we have knelt before Him in penitence and humility and prayer. This Elijah had done in Gilead.
II. A MESSAGE FOR AN APOSTATE PEOPLE, “There shall not be rain nor dew these years, but according to my word.” We assume here the credibility of miracles and content ourselves with indicating the suitability of this to its purpose.
1. This was revealed in prayer. Elijah had “prayed earnestly that it might not rain” (Jas 5:1-20.) He felt that such a chastisement would move the hearts of the people, and turn their thoughts towards God, as it ultimately did. The prayer was the offspring of God’s Spirit. The human utterance was the echo of the Divine will. The mystery of prayer is revealed (1Jn 5:14, 1Jn 5:16).
2. This was a response to the challenge of Baal-worship. The productive powers of nature were adored under the idolatrous symbol. Here they were shown to be dependent on the unseen God. All natural laws are. They are the expressions of the Divine will. It was in vain to cry, “O Baal, hear us!”
3. This man would affect all classes of the people. They had shared the sin, and therefore must share the penalty. The loftiest are not beyond God’s reach, the lowliest are not hidden from God’s notice. The tiny garden of the peasant was cursed, as well as the splendid park of the king. National sin brings national calamities. The message, not to some, but to all, is, “Repent, and be converted.”
4. This was associated with estrangement from God. It was to be “according to the word” of His servant. The change would be foreseen and foretold, not by the false priests, but by the praying prophet. The curse came because of sin, as had been proclaimed by the law. (See Le 26:19; Deu 11:16; Deu 28:23.) It was removed on repentance (1Ki 18:1-46.) Listen to the message God still sends to men, bidding them root out idolatry from every nation and from every heart. May the God of Israel, before whom they stand, prosper all His messengers!A.R.
1Ki 17:2-4
Strange Provision in a Sad Necessity.
The miracles associated with the ministry of Elijah and Elisha have led some to deny the historical credibility of the Books of Kings. It should be remembered that great miracles were rendered necessary by a great and general apostasy. It was essential to the survival of true faith that Jehovah should indicate His unseen sovereignty. In Israel such attestation was more required than in Judah, where the sanctuary and the priesthood, in the worst times, testified for God. This passage sets before us
I. Silent suffering.
II. Divine deliverance.
III. Restful retreat.
Each of which points we will consider.
I. SILENT SUFFERING is implied by all that we know of the prophet’s circumstances. The famine he had foretold had come; and he shared the privations of the people. Others might have kindness shown them, but there was none for this man. Regarded as the cause of the calamity, he was an accursed outcast. Upon such a temperament the steady persistent pressure of hunger and hatred would tell severely. He would feel pity for othersfor the poor dumb beasts, for the innocent childrenand would be tempted to ask, “Was I right in praying for this, and bringing this woe on the people?” Meantime he was himself suffering the rigours of famine, and no chariot of fire came to bear him away from the desolated land. Like Samson, it seemed as if he had shaken the house, and was bringing destruction on himself as well as on the idolaters. Yet not a word of complaint. He was sustained by the conviction that he had done fright, and that God would see to the issues. Apply the teaching from this to occasions on which men are still called upon to do God’s will, to utter God’s truth, regardless of consequences. Sometimes we are able to “count the cost,” and then we should do so. But often this is impossible. The love of Christ may constrain us to do, or to say, something which will place us in unexpected difficulties. Illustrate by Peter’s zeal, which prompted him to step out of the boat upon the sea. He was terrified at a result he had not taken into calculation; but he was perfectly safe, for he was going towards Christ. Exemplify by instances from ordinary lifee.g; an assistant in business refuses to tell a lie, or to act one, and loses his situation. A daughter confesses her love to Christ, and finds her home a place of torment, etc. The one thing that can support us in such circumstances is the humble, yet confident, conviction that we have done what God willed, And often from those straits He delivers us in the most unexpected way, before we ask Him, as He delivered Elijah.
II. DIVER DELIVERANCE.
1. It was unexpected. No one would have imagined, and some cannot now credit the means adopted. The ravens have been a sore offence to critics. Discuss some of their theoriesthat they were merchants, Arabians, etc. The difficulties are not removed by the interpretations suggested, nor do they seem warranted by the text. Had men brought food to the hidden prophet, Ahab would soon have discovered his whereabouts; nor would they be likely to bring food twice daily, when a store might have been conveyed with only one risk. The supernatural is always startling, but to those who reject materialism it is not incredible. If God notices a sparrow fall, and if diseases obey Him, as soldiers obey their general (Mat 8:8-10), this feeding by the ravens might well be. God often uses strange instruments to effect His purposes. Give examples from Scripture and history. Even the plans and the deeds of the wicked are under His control. All things work His will.
2. It was revealed. “The word of the Lord came to him.” It comes to us. Sometimes the inward impulse after prayer impels us to take God’s way; and sometimes all other paths are closed, and of the one left open Providence says, “This is the way, walk in it.” Are we seeking to know God’s will about ourselves? Are we concerned that our way should be His choice, and not our own? “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
III. RESTFUL RETREAT. Describe the wild ravine of the Kelt, which Robinson and Stanley identify, with some probability, as the Cherith. The precipitous rocks, in places 500 feet high, the caverns in the limestone, in one of which the prophet hid, etc. Such a man needed quiet. He had it afforded to him again in Horeb. No great activity for God can be worthily sustained without much waiting on Him. In this retreat Elijah had two sorts of provision.
1. Daily bread. It is only that which we are taught to expect, and pray for. The daily reception of blessing teaches us our constant dependence. The manna fell every morning, and could not be hoarded for the future. Daily strength, too, is given for daily duties.
2. Quiet communion. All nature would speak to Elijah of his God. The brook would whisper of the water of life; the birds would celebrate the care of God, etc. In the world around him, in secret converse with his own heart, and in earnest prayer to the God of Israel, before whom he stood, Elijah would get refreshment and strength for coming conflict and conquest. Refer to the invalid, to the aged, to the little children, as those to whom God gives a time of quiet, to prepare them for the future service.
1. Expect God’s deliverance whenever you are in the path of duty.
2. Be content that God should work in His own way.
3. Seek to have a spirit of contentment, and a heart that is “quiet from the fear of evil.”A.R.
1Ki 17:16
The Widow’s Cruse.
Describe this incident in the life of Elijah. Show some of the ADVANTAGES which arose from his visit to Zarephath; e.g.,
1. It was a means of blessing to himself. He found a true worshipper of Jehovah even in the coasts of Tyre, where, under the rule of Jezebel’s father, one was least to be expected. This would strengthen his faith, and it would keep alive his hope that his work in Israel would “not be in vain in the Lord.” We may sometimes assure ourselves of the vitality of Christianity by witnessing its effects among the heathen. A visit to the South Sea islands would prove a tonic to debilitated faith.
2. It was a means of blessing to the widow. Not only was she kept alive in famine for the prophet’s sake, but she received spiritual blessing. Christ refers to Elijah’s visit as a sign of the care God had, even under the old dispensation, for the heathen peoples, where He left not Himself without witness. (Compare Luk 4:25.) Show that as Elijah turned from Israel to Zidon, so the apostles turned to the Gentiles (Act 18:6). Learn from the story the following general lessons:
I. THAT GOD PROVIDES FOR THE NECESSITIES OF HIS SERVANTS. In the famine He had already made provision for Elijah at Cherith, and now that the supply there had failed, other resources were opened. Not always in our way, but in some way, He answers the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He does not promise luxuries or wealth, but our “bread shall be given to us, and our water shall be sure.” We are not to be anxious about our future, but are to remember that it is in the hands of God. It is said of our food and raiment, that our “heavenly father knoweth that we have need of these things.” When a child is at home he learns his lessons, obeys the rules of his parents, etc; but he has no care about the food he will want on the morrow. He never dreams but that it will be provided. Such should be our spirit, whatever may be our powers of productive work. We are diligently and earnestly to do whatsoever our hands find to do, feeling certain that “they who seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” The Israelites followed the cloud, though it led them into the wilderness, with the conviction that God was leading them; and when it was necessary He provided manna in proportion to their wants. If God does not ignore our temporal necessities, He will certainly not fail to supply our spiritual wants. In the Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare. This we may prove on earth, but its highest fulfilment will be seen in heaven, where the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed us.
II. THAT GOD USES WHAT MEN WOULD DESPISE. With limitless resources, we should have imagined that God would miraculously create what was required, disregarding “the handful of meal” and the little oil left in a cruse. Not so, however. There is no waste in the Divine economy. The breath of men, the exhalations of plants, the refuse cast into the field, or into the sea, the rising mist, the falling shower, are all accounted for, and have a purpose to fulfil, a work to do. There is no physical force which becomes utterly extinct, though it passes from one form of manifestation to another. Motion passes into heat, heat into electricity, etc; in an endless cycle. The economy of force asserts itself everywhere under the rule of God. This, which is proclaimed by science, is constantly illustrated in Scripture. It is the same God who worketh all in all. If manna is given to the Israelites, it ceases directly the people can eat of the corn of the country. The supernatural rises out of the natural. The miraculous provision for Elijah was not a new creation, but an increase of what already existed; and in the use of this there was no prodigality or waste. Compare with Christ’s miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. After showing that He had infinite resources, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”
III. THAT GOD REVEALS OUR WAY STEP BY STEP. Picture Elijah sitting by the brook Cherith, watching its waters becoming shallower day by day under the drought. He knew not what he should do next, but he waited, and trusted, and prayed; and when the brook was dried up, “the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath,” etc. God does not reveal the future to us, but draws across it an impenetrable, or at most a semi-transparent veil. We know not with absolute certainty what a day may bring forth. The advantages of this are evident
1. It saves us from sorrow and from sin.
(1) From sorrow, because if we foresaw all that we should have to endure, if we knew the day of our death, the extent of our losses, etc; our burden would be greater than we could bear. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
(2) From sin, because we should grow absorbed in worldly occupations it we were certain life would be long; or become despondent and spiritless in work if we knew it would be short.
2. It fosters in us the graces of trust and prayer. If we know nothing of the future ourselves, and cannot feel confident about our own plans, we are led to confide in Him who foresees what is before us, and to ask Him in prayer for daily guidance and support.
IV. THAT GOD REWARDS OUR CONSECRATION OF WHAT WE HAVE TO HIM. It was a generous act towards a stranger, a pious act towards a servant of Jehovah, to fetch for Elijah the water which was now so costly, and to be willing to share with him what appeared to be her last meal. “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.” Even in temporal affairs this is true. Hoard seed in the springtime, and you cannot be enriched; scatter it, and the harvest will come. Give to the poor in the name of their Lord, and you will not fail of rewardeither here or hereafter. We are to give, however, not for the sake of applause or recompense, but “as unto the Lord,” to whom we owe all that we have. This woman not only gave to the prophet, but gave to him in the name of a prophet, and therefore “received a prophet’s reward” (Mat 10:40-42). May He who commended the widow when she gave her two mites so accept our gifts and services, and so approve our motives, as at last to say, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me!” (Mat 25:40.)A.R.
1Ki 17:21
Prayer for the Dead.
The portrait of the widow of Zarephath is remarkably natural. Her calmness in speaking of the trouble that was only threatened (1Ki 17:12), is contrasted with her agony when trouble actually comes (1Ki 17:18). She believed in Jehovah though in a heathen kingdom; yet there was a blending of superstition with her faith. She supposed that God might have overlooked her sin, had it not been that He was present with His prophet in her home; and she confounded discipline with retribution. The latter was the mistake of the barbarians at Melita. (Compare Act 28:4.) See also our Lord’s teaching, Luk 13:4. The death of this child is to be explained on the principle which asserted itself in the blindness of the man whom Jesus cured (Joh 9:3), or in the illness of Lazarus, concerning which our Lord said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for glory of God” (Joh 11:4). Rembrandt has depicted the scene brought before us in this chapter. In a roughly built upper room the dead child lies upon the bed; one hand rests upon his breast, while the other has fallen heavily at his side, giving a wonderful idea of the weight of death. Elijah stands on the further side of the bed with his rugged, earnest face upturned towards heaven and his hands clasped in an agony of supplication as he says, “O Lord my God, I pray thee let this child’s soul come into him again!” This event was not intended to be wondered at as a prodigy, nor was it merely to benefit the widow, but for all time has spiritual significance. With this belief we see in it
I. AN EMBLEM OF SPIRITUAL DEATH. The child had died suddenly, Or Elijah would have been told of his illness. His death was real, and was more than the insensibility of Eutychus (Act 20:10). We say that a thing, susceptible of life, is dead when it cannot receive what is essential to its growth and well being; e.g; a tree is dead when it is no longer able to absorb the nutriment without which it must fade, and ultimately fall. An animal is dead which can no longer breath air or assimilate food. The mind is deadas is that of an idiotwhen it receives no true mental impressions. The soul is dead which is insensible to spiritual influence. As it is possible to have physical without mental life, so it is possible to have mental without spiritual life. “Spiritual death” is not a mere figure of speech. It may be illustrated by the condition of this child. The food provided for him was useless now, the tenderest words of his mother were unheeded, and the voice that so lately was musical with laughter was silent. Similarly the spiritually dead are indifferent to God’s provision, unconscious of their own possibilities, irresponsive to the Father’s voice. “Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” “He that hath not the Son hath not life.” “Dead in trespasses and sins.” “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.”
II. AN EXAMPLE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER. A man of Elijah’s strong nature would have strong affections, and we can imagine how intensely he had come to love this child. On hearing of his death he could only say to the distracted mother, “Give me thy son,” and then carried him up to his own room, and cried to God in an agony of prayer.
1. It was offered in solitude. Not even the mother was there. Such intense crises in life must be met alone. Jesus Christ was wont to “depart into a solitary place” to pray. Understanding our needs He said, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut to the door, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret.” “Jacob was left alone” when he wrestled with the angel. Compare Elijah’s miracle with that of the Lord, who, when He went into the room where Jairus’ daughter lay dead, “suffered no man to go in,” beyond those who were one with Him in sympathy and prayer.
2. It was peculiarly definite. There was one want in his heart, one cry on his lips. Our prayers too often are meditations on the Divine attributes, or general confessions, and thanksgivings. If our King asked “What is thy petition?” we should sometimes be at a logs for an answer. Pray for one grace, for one unbelieving friend, etc.
3. It was intensely earnest. Elijah could not be denied. His was not a speech, but a cry. He looked for the awakening, and flung himself on the dead in an agony of earnestness as if he would infuse his own warmth and life. The touch was similar to that of Peter, when he took the cripple by the hand (Act 3:7)not the cause of blessing, but the medium of blessing. The Divine power works through the human agency.
III. AN EARNEST OF TRUE RESURRECTION. Elijah could not give life, but he could ask God for it. Nor can we arouse to new life by preaching, though God can do so through preaching. Our words are only the media through which the Holy Spirit works. The Atlantic cable is useless except as the message is flashed forth by mysterious unseen power. This distinguishes the miracles of our Lord Jesus from those of His servants. (Compare Luk 7:14 with Act 3:12-16.) There is a resurrection wherein saints shall be raised by the power of God to a life of immortality, the promise and pledge of which we have in the resurrection of Christ, who is the “firstfruits of them that sleep.” There is also a spiritual resurrection, to which Paul refers when he appeals to Christians as those “risen with Christ; and of this, as well as of that, is there an illustration in our text. Raised to newness of life we, like the child Elijah prayed for, have to live for awhile in the old sphere. The prophet gave the child to his mother. Jesus restored Lazarus to his sisters, the young man at Nain to his mother, and the ruler’s daughter to her parents; and so to us, who have “passed from death unto life,” He says, “Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done for thee.” This miracle constrained the widow to accept as God’s truth the declaration of His servant (Luk 13:24). How much more reason have we, who believe in the supernatural works of His Son, to say, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him!”A.R.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
1Ki 17:1-6
Elijah the Tishbite.
One of the noblest of the noble figures that cross the stage of Old Testament history appears before us here. Few names have such a halo of glorious associations surrounding them as that of Elijah. The mystery of his origin, the grandeur of his mission, his physical and moral characteristics, the peculiar nature of his miracles, his wonderful translation and reappearance with Moses at the time of our Lord’s transfiguration, together with the place that he occupies in the last utterances of inspired prophecy, and in the anticipations of the Jewish peopleall combine to invest the person of this great prophet with a peculiar and romantic interest. This opening chapter in the story of his prophetic ministry is full of instruction. Note
I. HIS ABRUPT APPEARANCE. There is nothing actually unique in this. Other prophets of the age are introduced thus suddenly (Ahijah, Jehu, Shemaiah, etc.) But considering the circumstances of the time it is remarkable.
1. It proclaims God’s continued interest in, and sovereignty over Israel as well as Judah. The revolt of the ten tribes had not broken the bond between Him and them, or altered the fact of His supremacy, Nor had their religious defection nullified His purpose of mercy.
2. It is called forth by a dread moral crisis. The seed sown by Jeroboam was fast developing its most deadly fruits. The Baal worship brought in by Ahab and Jezebel was a far worse “abomination” than the worship of the calves. A cruel persecution was raging, the prophets of the Lord were being slain, and it seemed as if the true religion would perish out of the land.
3. It was a revelation of irresistible power. The worship of Baal was essentially the worship of power; probably the productive power of nature. Here is the messenger of Him “to whom all power belongeth,” that great unseen Power that can arrest the order of nature, seal up the fountains of heaven, wither those resources of earth on which the life alike of man and beast depends. We are reminded of the various ways in which God may see fit to fulfil His sovereign purposes. All powers, human and material, are at His command. “All things serve his might.” In the darkest hour in the history of church or nation, let us believe that still “the Lord reigneth.” Let us trust Him to “plead his own cause,” and vindicate the claims of truth and righteousness.
II. HIS PERSONAL DIGNITY. It is the dignity of one who sustains a special relation towards “the living God.” His name implies this: “Jehovah is my God.” And this solemn asseveration, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,“ is suggestive of the dignity
(1) of personal fellowship;
(2) face to face vision; and
(3) Divine proprietorship;
(4) consecrated servitude.
One would think the old Jewish tradition were true. It sounds like the voice of an angel. But lofty as this utterance is. majestic as is the relation towards the Divine Being which it indicates, it has its Christian counterpart. Think of St. Paul’s words: “There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve” (Act 27:23). This is not an exclusive, exceptional dignity. We may all in our measure share it. And as no earthly position sheds any real glory upon a man except so far as he recognizes a Divine element in it, fills it as before God with holy fear; so there is no work or office of common life which may not be ennobled by this feeling. We stand there before God as His servants to do that very thing. “Such honour have all his saints.”
III. HIS COURAGE. It is the courage of one who knows that God is with him, that he is the messenger of the Divine will, the instrument of a Divine purpose, the channel of Divine strength. He boldly confronts Ahab, “not fearing the wrath of the king,” bearding the lion in his den. Does not mingle with the people, antedating their sufferings by spreading among them the evil tidings, but goes straight to him who is the fountainhead of the mischief and can avert the calamity by his repentance. Such is the brave spirit with which God fills his heroes. Whether in the defiance of danger, or the endurance of suffering, it is the sense of Goda Divine inspiration, Divine supportthat has ever been the spring of the noblest form of courage. “Greater is he that is in you,” etc. “If God be for us,” etc. “Be not afraid of their terror, but sanctify the Lord God in your heart,” etc. This is the principlethe solemn fear of God taking possession of a man casts out all other fear; in the sense of the sovereignty of a Divine claim, he fears nothing but the dread of being unfaithful to it. Now this brave spirit was not kindled in the breast of Elijah all at once. Such a moral phenomenon is not the birth of an hour or a day. We may believe that it was developed in him gradually among the mountains of Gileada fitting scene for the nurture of such a moral constitution as his. The fire burned within him as he mused on the degradation of his country. St. James speaks of the fervency of Elijah’s prayer: “He prayed earnestly that it might not rain,” etc. (Jas 5:17). No doubt the withholding of the rain was given as a “sign” in answer to his prayer; but after all, may we not regard his prayer most as the means of preparing him to be the prophet and minister of this great “sign”? Not that the order of nature was placed at the caprice of a poor, frail mortal; but that he, “a man of like passions with us,” was able in the fervour of his faith and prayer to rise up and lay hold on the strength of God, to read the purpose of God, reckoned worthy to become the agent in the execution of that purpose. The historic incident is not so far removed as it may seem to be from the range and level of our common life. Heaven gives back its answer to suppliant faith. As regards the fellowship of the human soul with the mind and with the power of God, it must ever be true that “the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much.”
IV. HIS EXTRAORDINARY PRESERVATION. A type of the providential care that God will ever exercise over those who are faithful to Him in the path of duty and of trial. Whether “ravens” or “wandering Arabians were the instruments in his preservation, it little signifies, so that we recognize the positive Divine interposition. And what is the supply of our daily wants but the fruit of a perpetual Divine interposition? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Walk uprightly before God, be true to Him in all the sacred responsibilities of life, and trust in Him to provide (Mat 6:33).W.
1Ki 17:16
Entertaining a Stranger.
We naturally ask why Elijah should have been sent at this crisis to Zarephath. The fact that it lay so near to the birthplace of Jezebel, and in the very home of the Baal worship, may have had something to do with this. It might be a safer place of retreat for the prophet than it seemed to be, for Ahab would scarcely dream of following him there. But other reasons are suggested by the use our Lord makes of this incident (Luk 4:25, Luk 4:26). The prophet was not “accepted in his own country,” but found a confiding welcome and generous hospitality at the hands of an alien. God rebuked the proud unbelief of His own people by making this poor lone widow, in the midst of her idolatrous associations, the instrument of His purposes. And thus that early age had its foreshadowings of the grace that should hereafter be bestowed on the Gentiles. The lessons of the narrative lie upon the surface.
I. GOD‘S SURE GUARDIANSHIP OVER HIS SERVANTS. Elijah is perfectly safe under the shield of Divine protection, as safe in the region of Sidon as he was by the brook Cherith. He who commanded the ravens to feed him can put it into the heart and into the power of the Phoenician woman to do the same. When one resort fails He can provide another. He causes one and another to fail that He may show how boundless His resources are. There is absolutely no limit to the possibilities of God’s sustaining and protective power. “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” The angels of God are many and various. There is nothing which He cannot make to be the instrument of His purpose, the vehicle of His power. And He causes them to wait in duteous ministry on those whom He has called to high and holy service in His kingdom. God has a grand mission for Elijah to accomplish in Israel and will take care that he shall be able to fulfil it. “Man is immortal till his work be done.”
II. THE HONOUR GOD PUTS ON THE LOWLY. We see here not only the Divine preservation of Elijah, but a special act of grace towards the woman of Zarephath. It was a signal honour to have been thus singled out from the crowd for such a Divine visitation, to be used as an important link in the chain of great public events, to have her name handed down to future ages as the “woman of Sarepta,” whose glory it was to “entertain a prophet in the name of a prophet and receive a prophet’s reward.” And in this there was not merely a providential arrangement of outward circumstances, but a gracious influence exerted on her own soul; for God lays His sovereign hand not only on the course of external events, but on the secret springs of moral life. Her readiness to respond to the prophet’s appeal was from Him. Poor and humble as she was His eye was upon her for good. “He regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.” Thus has God often put distinction upon those who might least have expected it. Let none think themselves beneath His notice, or too insignificant to be made by Him the instrument of some high and holy purpose. “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly” (Psa 138:6).
“He hears the uncomplaining moan
Of those who sit and weep alone.”
The forlorn and desolate, if only they walk humbly and reverently before Him, are the objects of His tenderest regard. He is nearer to them than He seems to be, and often has surprising grace in store for them. The poor widow casts her two mites unnoticed into the treasury, but He to whom the secrets of all hearts are open clothes her with honour above all the rich pretentious people who only gave what they so well could spare. The sinful woman, in self forgetting devotion, pours her rich ointment on the head of the incarnate Love; captious onlookers see no glory in her deed, but a word from Him crowns it with an everlasting halo of worldwide fame.
III. THE REWARD OF TRUSTFUL AND OBEDIENT FAITH. The poor widow “showed her faith by her works, and by works was her faith made perfect.” At the prophet’s word she drew freely from her scanty store, and “the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail.” The reward of her faith came in the form of a miracle similar to that of Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the hungry multitude. It surpasses our comprehension, but is not more wonderful than the mysterious process that is ever going on in the building up of the tissue of plants and of the animal frame. Shall not the Power that is perpetually changing the elements of earth and air and water into nourishing food for man and beast be able to increase “the meal and the oil” as it pleases? The true life of faith is one of patient continuance in well doing, coupled with calm dependence on that ever active power. Of the righteous God says, “Bread shall be given him,” etc. (Isa 33:16). “In the day of famine they shall be satisfied” (Psa 37:19). Christ. did not mock us when He taught us to pray to our Father in heaven, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Tread faithfully the path of duty, and “He that ministereth seed to the sower will both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (2Co 9:10).W.
1Ki 17:17-24
Life from the Dead.
The miracles wrought by Elijah or associated with his name were for the most part of the nacre of severe judgments, and present the person of the lowly prophet in a stern and terrible light before us. But the two miracles that mark the opening of his career were miracles of mercy, and show that there was another side to his character, one that was tenderly sympathetic and humane. Having at first brought hope and a new lease of life to the starving mother and her child, he now lifts the dark shadow of death from off the desolated home and turns its sorrow into joy. This narrative has a peculiarly pathetic interest, and is suggestive of lessons that touch the deepest realities of human life. It naturally divides itself into two parts, in which we see
(1) the sadness of death and
(2) the joy of restoration.
I. THE SADNESS OF DEATH. That the child was really dead we cannot doubt. “There was no breath left in him.” The gleam of hope in the poor widow’s condition was suddenly beclouded, and a strange, yet not altogether unnatural, revulsion of feeling took possession of her breast. Thus does an unexpected calamity, especially perhaps when it takes the form of personal bereavement, often work for a while a sad change in the attitude of the soul
1. It darkens the whole horizon of lifequenches the light of other joys. The abundance of meal and oil, and the honour of the prophet’s presence are as nothing while the child lies dead in the house. There are sorrows which seem utterly to blot out the sunshine of one’s existence, and to be aggravated rather than relieved by the joys that accompany them.
2. It creates resentment against the supposed, or perhaps the real, author of it. “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?” The prophet, who had proved himself so beneficent a friend, is regarded as an enemy.
3. It’s a severe test of one’s faith in God. This woman, it may be, was in an intermediate state of mind between blind devotion to the old idolatries and the full acceptance of the faith of Israel How rude a check did this event seem to give to her progress into clearer light! Thus is the faith of men often sorely tried by the adversities of life. This is part of their Divine purpose. The “fiery trial” seems “strange at first, but the meaning and reason of it are revealed afterwards.” Happy they whose faith, in spite of the severe strain put upon it, holds fast to the living Godtoo deeply rooted in the soul to be torn up by any sudden sweeping blast.
4. It awakens the sense of sin. “Art thou come to me to bring my sin to remembrance?” It is significant that the thought of her own sin should be her first thought. The calamity brought this to her remembrance because it seemed to her a sign of God’s remembrance of it. Learn that though particular afflictions are not always to be connected with any particular transgression as their cause (Joh 9:2, Joh 9:8), yet all sorrow must be traced ultimately to its source in moral evil. It is a true instinct that leads us to think of our sins in times of adversity. Whenever affliction comes to us it should produce tenderness of conscience and call forth the prayer, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me,” in order that if there be any secret wrong in ourselves that demands this severe discipline we may have grace to fight against it and cast it out.
II. THE JOY OF RESTORATION. The behaviour of Elijah is beautifully expressive of his deep human sympathy, and also of the intimacy of the relation between himself and God as a man of prayer and the instrument of the Divine energy. Having special regard to the nature and effect of this miracle of restoration, observe that
1. It is typical of the beneficent ministry of Christ. In Him the power of God came, as it never had before, into healing contact with the flame of our diseased and dying humanity. He took our nature upon Him that He might effectually cure its infirmities and sicknesses. “Virtue” continually went forth from Him. He was the great health-restorer and life giver; and as all the healing ministries of former ages had anticipated His coming, so all true philanthropy since has caught its highest inspiration from the constraint of His love and the force of His example.
2. It is prophetic of the future glorious resurrection. We see here one of the many witnesses that gleam out amid the obscurity of the olden times to the truth that God would surely one day “bring life and immortality to Light,” while it points us on to the time when, “at the voice of the son of God, all that are in their graves shall come forth.” “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (Isa 25:8; 1Co 15:54).
3. It illustrates the joy of a soul that for the first time is made fully conscious of the gracious presence and power of God. “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God,” etc. There is a tone of deep satisfaction in these words. It is the satisfaction that springs from the discovery of Divine truth and the vivid sense of God. There is no satisfaction of which the soul of man is capable that can be compared with this. The end of all forms of Divine manifestationprophetic visitations, miracles, providences, etc.is this. We reach the highest joy possible to us upon earth when we can say with St. John, “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is tame, and we are in him that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1Jn 4:20).W.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
1Ki 17:1-6
Elijah’s Advent and Service.
I. THE GREAT PROPHET.
1. His name: Elijah, my God (is) Jehovah. It was a symbol of his spirit. It expressed his judgment of Israel’s idolatry and the choice which with his soul’s whole strength he had made of God. Light and fidelity are the only foundations of any true work for God or man.
2. His origin. The words (“of the inhabitants,” etc.) seemed to indicate that he belonged to none of the tribes of Israel
(1) His mission was prophetic of that of the Gentiles. Israel, forsaking God, were to feel that God was also forsaking them (Gen 10:19). The very meanness of the origin of God’s faithful ones lends power to their testimony.
(2) It proved the infinitude of God’s resources. Ahab and Jezebel might slay His prophets; they could not arrest the progress of His work. From the most unthought-of quarter there arises a mightier than all whose lives had been taken. The power of a devoted life to make the world feel the impossibility of its prevailing in its contest with God.
3. His attitude toward God. “Before whom I stand.” He was the Lord’s servant. He lived for Him. His eye rested on Him. The whole man stood girded for prompt, unquestioning obedience. This is the spirit of all true service. Is God as real to us? Do we thus stand before Him?
II. HIS MESSAGE.
1. The judger. It was that predicted from of old as the chastisement of Israel’s idolatry (Deu 11:17). The land was to be consumed by drought. The blessings which God withholds from the soul that forsakes Him are imaged in those withheld from the land. There is “neither dew nor rain.” The refreshment, the rich consolation, once imparted by the word or found in prayer, are no longer known. The stimulating of loving zeal meter what is nobler and purer has ceased.
2. Through whom it fell: “According to my word.” Those who reject God will be judged by man. God will still confront them in their fellows. God is magnified in His servants. The kingly power and priesthood of believers in their relation to the world.
III. HIS RETIREMENT.
1. It served God. Ahab and Israel were left face to face with Him. Man disappeared that the eye might rest on God alone. There are times when He is best served by silence. Many words often undo the effect of the homethrust dealt by a few.
2. It was his safety. He was shielded from Ahab’s anger. We may be hid by affliction from the power of our great foe. Temptation and danger may have been darkening the path that lay before us when God led us aside and made us rest awhile with Him.
3. It prepared him for after service. He was taught God’s unfailing power and care. His wants were provided for though no man knew of his dwelling place; and that by the most unlikely instruments. He learned how fully he might trust God. He to whom God is thus revealed will not fear the face of man.U.
1Ki 17:7-16
Divine Care.
I. THE ENDLESSNESS OF GOD‘S RESOURCES.
1. The brook failed; and one essential of life could no more be had there. But it was only that this wondrous provision might give place to greater marvels. When means are threatened, the heart sinks; but He who has provided these for a season knows of the failure; and He who sent go Cherith can send elsewhere. One channel of help fails only that the soul may be quickened by a fresh revelation of God’s kindness.
2. He was sent to what seemed to be the most dangerous of all placesto the territory of Jezebel’s father. And yet the very unlikelihood of his seeking shelter there increased his safety. God’s path can only be trod by faith, but that faith is soon changed to praise.
3. He was sent to a most unlikely quarter. The hostess whom the Lord had chosen was a widow and one who possessed sufficient to furnish only one more meal for herself and her child. But here again faith was to break forth into praise. God’s power is infinite, and the meanest as well as the mightiest may be used to glorify Him.
II. THE REWARD OF OBEDIENT FAITH.
1. For Elijah. He went undoubting; he sought the city, and lo, at the gate (1Ki 17:10) he met his hostess. Those who act on God’s promises will meet with the revelation of His truth and graciousness.
2. For the woman (1Ki 17:11-16). It was her last meal Love of her child and her own hunger must have made it hard to obey, but the seed she sowed in faith yielded a thousandfold. God’s call to sacrifice for His service, for honesty and truth, is the path to plenty not to loss.
3. For both. The woman entered a new world. The unseen was unveiled; she knew God. Elijah found in a heathen land a home which God had sanctified. The communion of faith glorifies all human relationship.U.
1Ki 17:17-24
Affliction and its Fruits.
I. THE DISCIPLINE OF TRIAL.
1. It is no proof of God’s anger. Sorrow darkens the homes of God’s beloved. This was a home of faith and ministering love. Affliction is no more proof of wrath than is the farmer’s ploughing of his field. To him, with his eye upon the future harvest, it is only the needful preparation of the soil. And the great Husbandman, with His eye upon the eternal glory, must open up a bed within the soul’s depths for the seed of life.
2. God’s blow may be very heavy. Her son, her only child, is taken. God’s plough sinks deep that His work may be rightly done. The very greatness of our anguish is a measure by which we may gauge the greatness of the Lord’s purpose and of the love which will not suffer us to miss the blessing.
II. THE FRUITS IT YIELDS.
1. It reveals our need. She may have been conscious daily of the goodness of God and yet been blind to the fact that she needed more than she had yet received. God now awakens her
(1) to the sense of her unworthiness: “What have I to do with thee?”
(2) to the remembrance of her transgressions: “Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance?” The darkness of trouble is the shadow of guilt. There is discipline because there is need of salvation. Sins may be pardoned, but God must open up a gulf between the soul and them. The time of trouble is meant to be a time of heart searching and of confession.
2. It stirs up to prayer. Elijah’s heart was poured out in bold expostulation and earnest entreaty (1Ki 17:20, 1Ki 17:21). In the sharpness of our need our cry gains strength; we press, in our urgency, into the Divine presence. These times open up a way to God by which we find ready access ever after.
3. It leads to the vision of God’s glory. “And the Lord heard,” etc. (1Ki 17:22). The prayer was followed by a revelation of God’s power such as till then man had never seen: the dead was raised. “Ask and ye shall receive.” The soul that asks will see God’s salvation and be filled with the light of the Divine glory.
4. It deepens trust. “Now by this I know,” etc. (1Ki 17:24). When man’s need meets God’s help, the soul is bound to Him by the strongest ties.U.
HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE
1Ki 17:1-7
First Preparation of Elijah for his great Mission.
After Elijah’s first appearance before Ahab to announce to him the Divine visitation of sterility and dearth which was to come upon the land as the chastisement of his sin, the prophet was sent away into a solitary place to prepare himself for his great and solemn mission, which was to overthrow idolatry and vindicate the worship of the true God. This work of preparation was divided into two great periods.
1. The preparation of the desert.
2. The lonely life of the prophet in the house of the widow of Sarepta.
The Desert was, from the time of Moses to the days of John the Baptist, the great school of the prophets. These men of God were trained for their work:
1. By being brought face to face with their sacred mission in all its greatness, and free from the prejudices and petty influences of human society. There they could steadfastly contemplate the Divine ideal, undistracted by the rude realities of man’s fallen condition.
2. There they were also cut off from all human aid, left to test their own strength, or rather to prove their own utter wetness, and, overwhelmed with the sense of it, to cast themselves wholly on Divine strength. Thus they received directly from God, as did Elijah, the supplies by which they lived, and realized the conditions of absolute and immediate trust in Him. Coming forth from this discipline of the desert, they were enabled to say with Paul, “When I am weak, then am I strong” (2Co 12:10).
3. This loving converse of the prophets with their God brought them into closer fellowship, more intimate union, with Him. Thus they came forth from the desert, like Moses from the Mount of Sinai, bearing unconsciously upon them the reflection of His glory. As St. Paul says,” We, beholding as with open face the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Co 3:18). Considerations like these have a fit application to the pastor, who ought to be much in solitary communion with God, in order to be raised above the compromises of principle so common in society, and to get his whole nature permeated with Divine strength. Every Christian soul has in like manner a prophet’s mission, and ought therefore often to seek the desert solitude, in which the Invisible is brought near, and to frequent those sacred mountain tops of prayer, where the disciple, like the Master, renews his strength (Luk 5:16).E. de P.
1Ki 17:7-24
Second Preparation of Elijah.
Elijah passed through his second phase of preparation under the humble roof of the widow of Sarepta. He is in the right attitude for gaining a holy preparedness for his work, for he has placed himself absolutely and directly under the guidance of God. When the word of God comes to him, he is ready to arise and go whithersoever it bids. Thus was Christ “led of the Spirit” to commence His public ministry (Mat 4:1); and throughout His whole course He recognized the same unfailing guidance. The purpose of God in sending Elijah to the poor widow was to show him, before he entered on the great conflict with idolatry, that he had at his disposal a Divine power which nothing would be able to resist. Elijah was, so to speak, to prove his arms, far from human observation, BY A PASSAGE OF DEEP PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Hence the double miracle of the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil always full. Hence, yet more distinctly, that glorious miracle of the raising of the widow’s son by the prophet. This miracle had no witnesses; nor must we marvel at this. God does not perform miracles to fascinate onlookers; He does not make a spectacle of His marvellous working. His glory is sufficiently magnified in the deliverance of a humble believer like the widow of Sarepta, and in the qualification of the prophet for his mission. Jesus Christ refused to work any miracles for show, and the power were reserved for humble hearts and lowly dwellings. Elijah has learnt to know the strength of God which is in him; he has proved it in the secresy of his soul. He has a full assurance that it will be manifested in him when he stands before Ahab, no less mightily than in the obscurity of the widow’s house. This intimate personal experience of the grace of God is of incomparable value to His servants. If we would have Divine strength to use in the great conflict with sin around us, we must prove its miraculous energy in our private life. And let us remember also that our homes may be the scene of the mightiest manifestations of the grace of God, and of the most signal providential deliverances, if only our hearts be open to Him in humility and love, like the heart of the widow of Sarepta.E. de P.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Ki 17:1. Elijah the Tishbite Elijah the Tishbite, of Thezbeh in Gilead. Houbigant. Elijah, who in the New Testament is commonly called Elias, was of Thezbeh, a town on the other side of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead. The Scriptures making no mention either of the quality of his parents, the manner of his education, or his call to the prophetic office, some Jewish rabbis have been of opinion, that he was an angel, sent from heaven, amidst the general corruption of the world, to preserve the true worship of God. Others pretend, that he was a priest descended from the tribe of Aaron; that his father’s name was Sabaca, and his birth altogether miraculous; whilst others, again, will have it that he was Phinehas, the son of Aaron, who, after having lived a long while concealed, appeared again in the world under the name of Elijah: but all particulars of this kind, where the Scripture is silent, are of small authority. This, however, may with safety be said of him, that he was the prince of the prophets of his age; a man of a great and elevated mind, of a generous and undaunted spirit, a zealous defender of the laws of God, and a just avenger of the violations of his honour. Calmet. See on the next chapter, 1Ki 17:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
SECOND EPOCH
FROM AHAB TO JEHU
FIRST SECTION
The Prophet Elijah During Ahabs Reign
1 Kings 17, 18, 19
A.Elijah before Ahab, at the brook Cherith, and in Zarephath
1Ki 17:1-24
1And Elijah1 the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants2 of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.3
2And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, 3and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before4 Jordan. 4And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens5 to feed thee there. 5So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord [Jehovah]: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening6; and he drank of the brook.
7And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there hadbeen no rain7 in the land. 8And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto him saying, 9Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 10So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said,Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morselof bread in thine hand. 12And she said, As the Lord [Jehovah] thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and,behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my Song of Solomon , 8 that we may eat it, and die. 13And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14For thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord [Jehovah] sendeth9 rain upon the earth. 15And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and Hebrews , 10 and her 16house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake by Elijah.
17And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 19And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft11, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20And he cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], and said, O Lord [Jehovah] my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? 21And he stretched himself12 upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], and said, O Lord [Jehovah] my God, I pray thee, let this childs soul come into him again. 22And the Lord [Jehovah] heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.23And Elijah took the child,13 and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.24And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord [Jehovah] in thy mouth is truth.
Preliminary
The history of the prophet Elijah, which begins with the chapter now before us, is continued in chapters 18, 19, 21, 2 Kings 1, and is brought to a conclusion in 2 Kings 2, belongs, as is known, not only to the weightiest portions of our own, but of the Old Testament historical books generally. Hence it has been the object frequently, both of special theological inquiry and also of devotional consideration. In this respect we name here: Eichhorn: Ueber die Prophetensagen aus dem Reiche Israel (in der allgem. Bibliothek der bibl. Literatur iv. 2 s. 193 sq.). Niemeyer: Charakteristik der Bibel V. s. 257 sq. Knobel: Der Prophetismus der Hebrer ii. s. 73 sq. Rdiger: In der Hall. Encyclopdie Bd. 33 s. 320. Kster: Die Propheten des Alten und Neuen Testaments, s. 70 sq. Winer: R.- W.-B. I. s. 317 sq. Ewald: Geschichte Israels iii. s. 485 sq. und 533 sq. Kurtz, in Herzogs R.-E. iii. s. 754 sq. Sartorius: Elias und Elisa, 3. Heft der Vortrge ber die Propheten, Basel, 1862. Menken: Christliche Homilien ber die Geschichte des Propheten Elias, 2 Bd. der gesammelten Schriften, Bremen, 1858. (These 1798 homilies are, as the preface rightly remarks, a complete ascetic commentary. They are to this day unsurpassed, and belong to what is best that has ever been said and written upon Elijah.) Fr. W. Krummacher: Elias der Thisbiter, 4. Ausg. Elberf., 1851. K. M. Wirth: Das Leben des Propheten Elias, Predigten, Bern, 1863. F. Bender: Alttestamentliche Lebensbilder in Predigten, 3. Bndchen: Die Propheten Elias und Elisa, Stuttgart, 1858. [See also Dean Stanley: Jewish Church, Lecture 30. F. D. Maurice: Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, Sermon viii. Bp. Hall: Contemplations, &c., Book 1Kings 17:6, 7, 8. F. W. Robertson: Sermons, Second Series, vi.E. H.]
Besides the sections in our books just referred to, we have no further accounts of the history of Elijah. As his activity was limited to the kingdom of Israel, the Chronicles, which are occupied specially with the kingdom of Judah, furnish no parallel accounts. They make no mention of Elijah, except that he wrote a letter to king Joram (2Ch 21:12 sq.), of which, however, we find nothing in our books. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, Elijah is mentioned but once (Mal 4:5). How high he stood in the estimation of the later Jews may be learned from the praise of him in the Wisdom of Solomon (1Kings 48:112). In the New Testament no prophet is mentioned and extolled so frequently as Elijah: whence certainly it follows that in the time of Christ and of the Apostles generally, a high significance was attached to him in the sphere of the history of redemption. Rabbinical tradition supplements indeed the history of the prophets, but its statements are so marvellous, and in part so absurd (Cf. Schttgen, Hor. heb. II., p. 533; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum II. s. 401 sq.), that not the slightest historical value can be conceded to them. They certainly show, however, the extraordinary estimation in which then and always Elijah stood amongst the Jews. Origen, Jerome, and Eusebius mention apocryphal accounts of Elijah, and even the Mohammedans have their fables about him (See Winer s. 320 and Ewald s. 548).
In respect now of the narrations in our books, as to form and contents, they are so unmistakably distinguishable from the chapters which precede, and which are inserted amongst them (15, 16, 20, and 22), as to place it beyond doubt that they belong to another documentary source, the work assuredly of some prophet, and probably incorporated into the great historical collection in the hands of our author (see Introd. 2). Lately, distinctions between the different accounts have been made; and it has been maintained that they are the product of different periods. According to Ewald, chap. 21. is the most ancient, and 2 Kings 1Ki 1:2-17 the latest section (so Thenius also in respect of the latter); but that the main portion, (chaps, 17, 18, 19, 2Ki 2:1-18) was written by one person, who lived at the close of the eighth or the beginning of the seventh century, i.e., some two hundred years after Elijah. This view rests, however, upon a completely unjustifiable perversion of the history, by virtue of which the punishment of Naboth (chap, 21) decided the whole turn of affairs in Israel. When the author of the main portion of the narrative lived cannot be determined. That he cannot have lived before the end of the eighth or the first half of the seventh century, is an assumption which rests only upon the undemonstrated opinion of the unhistorical character of the story of Elijah in general, but which does not necessarily follow from this. Who in that period, far from being an insignificant one, could have been the author?
Recent criticism, on account of the accumulation of the miraculous in the expositions of the life and work of Elijah contained in our books, pronounces it more or less unhistorical. At first the attempt was made to explain this miraculous element away by giving to the events concerned a merely natural coloring (cf. Exeget. Handbuch des Alt. Testaments, 8 and 9; St. Bauer, Hebr. Mythologie II. s. 156 sq. and Gesch. der hebr. Nation II. s. 406 sq.; Ausfhrliche Erklrung der Wunder II. s. 148), but, as Winer mildly expresses it, not with a very felicitous result, examples of which shall be cited below. Subsequently this was entirely abandoned. The view now current takes this form: we have before us here, not history strictly speaking, but a tradition-sketch; the entire delineation wears often a wholly fabulous character (Thenius), and is hence full of the marvellous (Winer), and yet the fabulous is so closely connected with the historical that it is scarcely possible to separate the one from the other in all particulars (Rdiger, Knobel). The latest way of looking at the matter goes still farther, claiming that the documentary source employed by our author is a poetico-prophetic work of a later age, in which the image of such an extraordinary phenomenon as Elijah had gradually become stronger and more colossal, that in this work, still further, older narratives and treatises were manifestly made use of, only the author, conceiving of everything with poetic loftiness, lifted up the reader even to a height often dizzy, has formed anew the whole history of Elijah and of his time. It is a wonderful, creative representation of the sublimest prophetic truths, and is freed besides of every fetter of prosaic historical material (Ewald, l.c., s. 534 sq., whose words Eisenlohr, as usual, repeats). Bunsen has expressed this view in the sharpest way (Bibelwerk fr die Gemeinde V. 2, s. 540. sq.): The whole narration of the life of Elijah is a firmly welded popular epic in its execution, from the beginning to end for the wonderful power of this spirit and for his astonishing manifestations our poem serves better than a dry narration of the actual occurrences. It is the fruit of an inspiration which he, like some superhuman being as it were, awakened in his disciples. Nothing but boundless ignorance, or, where historical criticism has not died out, only an hierarchical-dilettanti reaction, foolhardy hypocrisy or weak-headed fanaticism, would wish to demand the faith of the Christian community in the historic truth of these miracles as if they had actually taken place. Reserving details for the particular statements, we remark as follows, in a general way, upon these various modes of view of the new criticism.
(a) In respect of the accumulation of the miraculous, from which the new criticism generally, in disputing the historical character of the account about Elijah, proceeds, Kurtz saysIt must be confessed that these miracles, partly at least, are surprising through their outwardness, and that, were we justified in supposing that mythical embellishments entered into the biblical history at all, here (and in Elishas story) more than anywhere else would they be found. If indeed it be presupposed that a miracle is an impossibility, and is to be relegated, consequently, to the sphere of legend or of fiction, the history of Elijah must appear certainly as legendary and unhistorical. But if this be not presupposed, the frequent manifestation of the miraculous in this history cannot surprise us. The entire history (Heilsgeschichte) of the Old and New Testament, as the actual revelation of the living, holy God, who is infinitely above all natural, finite being, is a great continuous miracle, and is likewise the soil in which all miracles, in particular, are rooted. But as it has, like every other history, its main epochs, which form the gathering-points of its development, so it is agreeable to its nature, that just at these very points the miraculous should appear stronger, more distinctly and more frequently, and the appearance of any person who stands at the apex of a new epoch should be accompanied by miracles. The concentration of revelation leads, in the nature of the case, to a concentration of the miraculous, and moreover, in a way which corresponds with the steps in the development of the people, and the position of the person who leads them. Such was the case with Moses, the founder of the Covenant, and with Christ its finisher, and it would be surprising if in the case of Elijah, the restorer of the Covenant (see below, Historical and Ethical), miracle should not be present. Ewald confesses this when (s. 510) he says: The sphere of religion is always that of wonder, while that of strong faith in the being and agency of heavenly powers is in action as well as experience; where also there is the strongest intensity of true religion, there will such wonders in part actually take place through the activity of the believing spirit, and in part will be experienced, at least, by believing hearts In so far were the days of Elijah and of Elisha, then, when the true religion was compelled to maintain itself most stringently against its internal foes, as rich in wonders as of old the days of Moses and of Joshua had been. Sartorius also justly remarks: The activity of these prophets of an older time did not consist in testimonies simply by word of mouth, in long speeches and extended discourses, like those of the later prophets, but in deeds laid upon them by God, wrought by them in the strength of God, which they taught people rightly to understand only, in brief statement, as a sign from the Lord.Especially was the falling away at that time at such a pass that the conversion of souls could not be accomplished by words simply, but by demonstrations of the power of the living God, and these we see now in the miracles of Elijah. What Christ says in Joh 5:36 of His works, is true, mutatis mutandis, of Elijah. They were signs and witnesses, and there can be no discussion here of a surprising outwardness in any particular. They have all a spiritual kernel, and often speak deeper and louder than words. The proof of this devolves upon the exegesis. If the legendary be so cemented with the historical, as the new criticism confesses, that it is impossible to separate them, the accounts generally can have no historic worth, and it would be more consistent, critically, to explain them as fiction. For the rest, supposing that tradition has added this or that, it by no means follows, as has been assumed, that all the miraculous belongs to the legendary only, and is unhistorical. The miraculous which the Jewish tradition has grafted upon the biblical accounts is of the sort which can be readily distinguished from that which in the Bible itself is explained away as legendary. But never would a tradition, running out into what is irregular and extraordinary, have been formed, had Elijahs appearing been without any miracle.
(b) The notion that the accounts of Elijah are portions of a larger poetical work, in fact a national epic, does away readily with many difficulties, but at the same time is involved in irreconcilable contradictions. No one can deny that the author of our books wished to write an historical work. Had he regarded the history of Elijah, as contained in his documentary sources, not as history but as fiction, he would not have incorporated it into his work, and have placed it side by side with the other documents to which he appealed. Least of all would he have done this in a main portion, in the history of the prophet who makes an epoch in the history of the monarchy, yea, of the theocracy of the Old Covenant. Of course, if he held that to be history which he incorporated into his own work he would have claimed in its behalf acceptance upon the part of his readers. If, finally, it were fiction, that objection of unlimited ignorance, absence of historic sense, foolhardy hypocrisy, or weak-headed fanaticism would before all strike him, and he would, at the same time, disclaim for his whole history all trustworthiness and credibility. If the documentary source belonged to the end of the eighth or the beginning of the seventh century, then for the space of two hundred years, down to the days of our author, no one remarked that it did not contain history, but was only a fiction. The history of Israel was likewise the history of the divine revelation, and consequently a matter not for the poets but for the prophets (see Introd. 2), and nothing can be more certain than that the prophet who composed the documentary source, did not mean to write a popular epic, but history. But apart from every other consideration, the narratives about Elijah, notwithstanding their peculiar coloring, are not related to the remaining portions of our books as poetry to prose. The extreme simplicity and directness of the narratives (cf. Thenius, Comment. s. 218), the pregnancy of expression, the frequent designation of places, the many individual characteristico-psychological traits impart to the whole an historical impress so unmistakable, that the events narrated cannot possibly be regarded as a poetic costume and representation of the sublimest prophetic truths and general religious ideas. Ewalds view, that the author of the documentary source had gathered together everything with poetic elevation, and has lifted his readers up to a height which is often giddy, contradicts flatly his own previous assertion: How grand everything said of him (Elijah) may be, still all accounts can be but a feeble image of the original grandeur, and the all-conquering might of this great prophetic hero of the ten tribes. If the appearing of Elijah were originally so grandand there can be no doubt actually of the marvellousness of his prophetic activityif he achieved the incredible miracle of a complete alteration in the condition of the ten tribes at that time, we see no reason why the author of the documentary source could or would have been moved to form anew the whole history of Elijah and of his time, to make an entire new thing, and to get rid of every fetter in the way of a lower historical material. When Bunsen says, we have legends, not myths, but adds, the historical character of the life and of the personality is not at all imperilled thereby, this is simply a contradiction. For legends are no history, and in the way of history all that remains is that once an Elijah lived and did great things; all besides is insecure and uncertain, is in fact legend presented in a poetic garment.
Exegetical and Critical
1Ki 17:1. And Elijah the Tishhite. When under Ahab the falling away from Jehovah in Israel reached a degree never hitherto known (1Ki 16:30-34), then the prophet Elijah appeared and announced to the king, &c. Thenius is of the opinion that the proper opening of the history of Elijah here is missing, and that the manner of his appearance presupposes an activity in the past. Von Gerlach also says, the history has a great gap here, at its beginning, for Elijah appears as one in connection with whom extraordinary occurrences were known for a long time. But this view is not necessary. It is in the highest degree probable that Elijah lived, up to that moment, in retirement, that his prophetic activity first began with his encounter with Ahab, and that then his history, strictly speaking, began, like that of Mark and Matthew, and of John the Baptist his copy. This sudden coming forth corresponds well with the peculiarity of his appearing, hence also Jesus Sirach (Sir 48:1-12) begins his eulogy upon Elijah with the words: Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire, and his word burned like a lamp. He brought a sore famine upon them, &c. The name or (2Ki 1:3 sq.), i.e., not, according to the old interpreters: My strength is Jehovah, but: My God is Jehovah, refers to the lifes calling of the prophet, which was to bear witness against Jehovah as the one true God over against Baal. It is not at all likely that he gave this significant name to himself (Thenius). In 1Ki 21:17 he is called the Tishbite without any addition. In Tob 1:2 only, is , a place, mentioned, which is at the right hand of that city which is called properly Naphtali, in Galilee above Aser. As there is no mention anywhere of a place of that name, this must be the Thisbe. The addition says that Elijah of Thisbe was born in Galilee, but was living in Gilead, in the land lying over against Ephraim, on the other side of Jordan. Instead of Ewald, Thenius, and Kurtz wish, after the Sept. ( ), to read , so that the sense would be, the Tishbite, namely, of the Thisbe which is in Gilead, but which is not the Thisbe in Galilee, mentioned in Tob 1:2. But there is no proof that there was a Thisbe in Gilead. Even does not force us to this reading: for it does not designate a stranger, i.e., a non-Israelite, but one who had wandered off into another tribe, and was dwelling there, like the still stronger in Jdg 17:7 of the Levite who was of Bethlehem in Judah, and had settled himself in Ephraim. That the generally plene written stands here without makes nothing against the Masoretic punctuation (Keil on the place). Whether Elijah came from the unknown Thisbe in Galilee, or from the equally unknown Thisbe in Gilead, is a matter of no moment, but it is certain that he came over into Samaria from the country east of the Jordan.
Said unto Ahab, &c. It is often maintained that the words of Elijah are the conclusion of a longer conference with Ahab, and the Talmud (Sanhed. 1Kings 22:1) states the occasion and the contents of the same, but most arbitrarily. The prophet surely entered into no dispute with Ahab. According to his constantly observed plan, he appeared before the backslider with a short but incisive word, which he understood well enough without any extended reasoning. As the Lord God of Israel liveth is the usual form of an oath, which here at the same time places Jehovah, the only living God, in contrast with Baal, the dead idol. The addition also, the God of Israel, stands out in its full meaning: the true living God is He also who had chosen Israel and made a covenant with them, which was now shamefully broken by idolatry. With the words, before whom I stand (1Ki 1:2; 1Ki 10:5; 1Ki 10:8), Elijah designates himself to the king as the servant and ambassador of Jehovah, and that as such he stands before him and announces the impending punishment. This punishment, that there should be no dew nor rain, was not arbitrary and prejudiced, but was threatened in the law for the sin of falling away, and suited the especial circumstances. The fruitful land of Canaan was promised to the people, after their exodus from Egypt, on the condition that they would keep the covenant of Jehovah, and not serve other gods. But in the event of a falling away it was threatened that the heavens should become brass, and the earth iron, i.e., that it should become unfruitful; and this, for an agricultural people, was the direst evil (Lev 26:19 sq.;Deu 11:16 sq.;1Kings 28:23 sq.; cf.1 Kings 1Kings 8:35; Amo 4:7 sq.). Never hitherto had the covenant been broken, and idolatry been formally introduced, as under Ahab; if ever at all, now must the threatening be carried into execution. Such a punishment was at the same time an evidence against the Baal-worship; for since Baal was worshipped conspicuously as the generating Nature-power, so was the impending drought and barrenness a tangible proof of the impotence and nullity of this idol. It is not to be overlooked that Elijah, while he announces the coming of the punishment threatened by Moses, and in a certain degree executes it, places himself, at the outset, in the direct position of a mediator and founder of the covenant, as another Moses, i. e., as the restorer of the covenant. The prophet announces the continuance of the drought only in a general way, because it would depend upon the conduct of the king and of the people. He therefore adds, but according to my word, perhaps in opposition to others, particularly the prophets of Baal (Keil), certainly for the humiliation of the haughty king, who had set himself up above Jehovah and his commandment, and now must feel himself dependent upon the word of a man whom he despised, one of his subjects, but who, nevertheless, was standing before Jehovah.
1Ki 17:2-3. And the word of the Lord came unto him, &c. How Ahab received the announcement of the prophet, whether angrily or indifferently, is not stated. Certainly he did not lay hands upon him, who seems to have disappeared as unexpectedly as he came. From the more general direction eastward, which is followed by the more especial of Jordan, Thenius justly concludes that the brook Cherith flowed easterly from Jordan (Gen 16:12; Gen 23:19; Jos 18:14), in opposition to the tradition which locates it this side the same river (see Keil). What recent writers deliver in respect of its situation are, after all, uncertain guesses, and nothing can be gathered concerning it from its name , i.e., separation. The assertion that the brook was called Cherith, i. e., drying up, because it used to dry up (Krummacher) much sooner than all others, is a sort of lucus a non lucendo. For it seems, on the other hand, to have belonged to the class of perennial fountains, and upon that account to have been pointed out to the prophet in the time of drought. Certainly the prophet was not concealed in order to get out of the way of importunate prayers for the removal of the punishment (Keil), for a man of such inflexible will would not find it necessary to get out of the way of such prayers. We surmise rather that his design was to be safe from the persecution of Ahab and Jezebel; for he would be able the more readily to fly into the neighboring kingdom of Judah. It was also requisite, after that great declaration, that he should again retire into the obscurity from which he had emerged, and not appear again until men were convinced of the truth of his word by the results thereof, and would feel their need of him and of his God, and he could labor mightily and decisively against the idol-worship (Menken). Since God had appointed him to an extraordinary task, it was necessary, after he had begun it with the announcement of the judicial punishment, to retire into obscurity, in order to prepare for all that his calling brought with it, both great and grievous. The sojourn in the desert was the time when he grappled and wrestled in prayer for his people, and was himself purified and strengthened for his future deeds (Von Gerlach). Most of the saints and great men lived, before their entrance upon their public career, in profound obscurity: so Moses, so Jesus himself, so Paul, who spent three years in Arabia after his conversion. God receives His people first in silence in his school, until He can use them openly (Calwer Bib.). The second Elijah, John the Baptist (Mat 11:14; Mat 17:12), was in the wilderness when the command of God came to him to appear openly (Luk 1:80; Luk 3:2).
1Ki 17:4-6. I have commanded the ravens, &c. To command means as much as to make use of them in the execution of his purposes (Berleb. Bibel). As the God who hath made heaven and earth and all that therein is, hath commanded the serpents (Amo 9:3), and the clouds (Isa 5:6; Psa 78:23), the sea also (Job 38:11), so likewise the ravens. By means of these the supply of the prophet with food is promised, not against their own voracity, because subject to the will of God (Thenius), but because they have their habitat, and are found in wild and desolate places (Isa 34:11; Zep 2:14). As the raven, according to Lev 11:15; Deu 14:14, belongs to the unclean class of birds, Kimchi and other rabbins, referring to Eze 27:27, explain as merchants. But apart from the consideration that by itself never means merchant, Elijah was not to eat the ravens, and the eating only of unclean creatures was forbidden. It is even still worse to read , i.e., Arabians (1Ch 21:16), or to suppose that the inhabitants of the unknown city Orbo, or of the rock Oreb (Jdg 7:25), are meant (cf. on the other hand Bochart, Hieroz. II. i. 2). Gumpach is altogether out of the way when he translates 1Ki 17:6,and the ravens coming to him were bread and meat; for then Elijah would have, been compelled to eat, in order to be nourished, unclean creatures forbidden by the law.
1Ki 17:7-12. And it came to pass after a while, &c. Not after the course of a year, but after some time; for can only be understood of the space of a year when the connection necessarily requires it, as in Jdg 11:40; Jdg 17:10; Lev 25:29. Luthers translation: after several days, is also incorrect. Zarephath lay between Tyre and Sidon, also in the native land of Jezebel. There is still extant a village named Surafend with remains of an ancient date (Robinsons Palestine, vol. II. p. 474475). The commanding here is the same as in 1Ki 17:4.The widow woman, &c., 1Ki 17:10. From the fact that she was gathering sticks it is evident that the woman was poor and forsaken. To test whether she were the person who was to provide for him, wearied by his journey in the heat of the sun, he begs her first of all for a drink of water (by a drinking-cup which he had brought from the brook Cherith is to be understood). As she readily complied with his request he went further, and asked for a mouthful of bread, and observes from her reply, in which she speaks only of her son, and not of her husband, that she was a widow, and also that she knew Jehovah, the God of Israel. Then he was no longer in doubt that she was the person who was to care for him. at the conclusion of 1Ki 17:11 is not to be connected with but with : a bit of bread which thou hast (Sep. ). From the oath by Jehovah, and the addition thy God it is obvious that the woman recognized in the man thus asking of her an Israelitish prophet, which, indeed, his dress proclaimed (2Ki 1:8), and likewise that she also knew of Jehovah the God of Israel. The supposition that she knew only the name of this God, and then, so much the more to secure confidence (Thenius), swore not by her own, but by the God of Elijah, makes her simply a hypocrite; for no one swears by a God whom he does not honor and recognize as a God. She indeed names Jehovah the God of the prophet, but while she swears by this God she gives it to be understood that the God of the prophet is also her God. In any event she was not a worshipper of the Phnician Baal and Astarte, otherwise an Elijah would not have been directed to her. How and where she learned to know the God of Israel, we do not ascertain. But it is certain that she knew him. It is not impossible that she was an Israelite by birth, who had been married to a Phnician. To dwell in a foreign land, with an Israelitish widow, seems entirely suitable to the prophets situation. The passage in Luk 4:25 does not suggest that she was a heathen and worshipper of idols, but that she was not in the native land of the prophet. By the smallest-sized bread in the form of cake is to be understood (Thenius). It is baked in hot ashes; the Sept. has (cf.Ps. 1Kings 35:16). is a little vessel for holding meal. Oil was used in baking. The woman was collecting the wood to have her last baking, for she saw before her death from starvation.
1Ki 17:13-16. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, &c. The prophet attaches to his word of consolation a demand which was, for the woman, a severe test of her faith. Never would he have made the demand, and still less would she have paid any attention to it (1Ki 17:15), had she been a heathen and worshipped idols. That at the word of Jehovah, the God of Israel (1Ki 17:14), she did what the prophet bade her, certainly shows a faith which could scarcely be found in Israel. is the infinitive with the syllable repeated as in 1Ki 6:19. The addition, and her house, 1Ki 17:15, while in 1Ki 17:12-13 her son only is mentioned, means that there was so much meat and oil that even her poor relations came to partake thereof. The Sept. in 1Ki 17:12-13, without any authority, has , and in 1Ki 17:15, , and Thenius would like to make the text to conform to this. The same author, without reason, wishes, with the Vulgate (et ex illa die), to refer to the following verse: and from that time the barrel wasted not. It means simply a long while, like Gen 40:4; Num 9:22.
1Ki 17:17-18. And it came to pass after these things, &c. It went so far with the sick son that there was no breath left in him. The same expression occurs also in Dan 10:17 (cf.1 Kings 1Kings 10:5), but where it does not, however, at all describe death (i.e., being in a state of death). It would be a mistake to maintain that these words can mean only that he died. We must rather conclude, that as the text does not say it did not mean to say it. 1Ki 17:18; 1Ki 17:20 likewise do not compel us to think of a being in a state of death, and Josephus, who certainly was not afraid of the miraculous, gives our words thus . The illness was certainly mortal, and the boy would have remained in a breathless and lifeless condition, had not Elijah rescued him from death. The action of the prophet is hence miraculous, which he did not perform by his own human power, but which the God who doeth wonders achieved through him. The formula (cf.2 Sam. 1Kings 16:10; Jdg 11:12; 2Ki 3:13; Mat 8:29; Joh 2:4) has, according to the connection, a somewhat different sense. Here it expresses, as the respectful form of address, Man of God, shows, not strong dislike, or the breaking up of outward fellowship and a demand for his departure (Thenius), but distress and lamentation: Is this the result of my association with thee? Must such sorrow befall me because thou art with me? The words immediately following are to be connected therewith; , &c., which do not convey a positive accusation or objection, but, with the Sept., Vulgate, Thenius, and others, are to be understood interrogatively: Was it necessary for thee to come to me, &c. As mothers, at the loss of a beloved child, often seek for the reason of it in some definite occasion, so here the troubled woman has the thought that the death of her son is a punishment for her sin, which first becomes known properly before God through the man of God, who, as such, is in a special intercourse with God. We can scarcely find the presumption in this thought, that the appearance of a higher being brings undoubtedly death to the person to whom it happens (Menken after Hess), but rather the erroneous supposition that by intercourse with the holy man of God, and in contrast with him, her sinful nature first becomes clear and known to the holy God. As in contrast with the holy will of God revealed in the law, man in his sinfulness knows himself, the same is true also in contrast with such men as walk before the holy God, and within whom His holy will lives and works (Luk 5:8). The error lay in thisthat the woman supposed that in the degree in which she had come to the knowledge and the feeling of her sin, God also was then taking cognizance of it, and punishing her. Folly indeed in the thought, but in this folly what truth of feeling and humility (Krummacher). This error the prophet sets aside, not by means of a long didactic reply, but by a rescuing action which must have convinced her that the distress did not overtake her on account of her special sin, but , and that the works of God might be manifest thereby (Joh 9:3; Joh 11:4).
1Ki 17:19-23. And he took him out of her bosom, &c. He goes into his lonely chamber in order to be alone with his God, and to be able to pray all the more freely. Here he pours out his heart, inwardly moved by sympathy at the grief of the mother, and much distressed at the incomprehensibleness and unexpectedness of this divine providence, in humble trustfulness before his God (Menken). Cf.Acts 1Kings 9:40; 2Ki 4:33. In the question to God (1Ki 17:20) there is no cavil; it is rather the expression of a man wrestling in prayer with God, who does not doubt that God will hear him (Jam 1:6).And he laid him, &c. How this was done is more fully stated in 2Ki 4:34. Like Christ, the prophet of all prophets, when he healed the dumb, and the blind, and the blind from his birth (Mar 7:33; Mar 8:23; Joh 9:6-7), so Elijah proceeded in this case. He employs rational means for warming and re-vivifying, not with the hope that of themselves they would prove effectual, but in the sure confidence that God, in answer to his weeping supplication, would impart supernatural, divine, i.e., life-giving, force to the natural human instruments, and this happened.Three times Elijah stretched himself upon the child, calling upon God, not so much because everything to be thoroughly and completely done must be done thrice (three are the true unit), as rather because the calling upon the name of Jehovah in the old covenant was a threefold act (Psa 55:18; Dan 6:10); thrice in the high-priestly benediction was the name of Jehovah laid upon Israel (Num 6:22); thrice did the seraphim before the throne of Jehovah cry out holy (Isa 6:3).
1Ki 17:24. And the woman said, &c. The sense of her words is not that she had doubted hitherto whether Elijah were actually a man of God, but that now she knew it; for she names him such in 1Ki 17:18, and as such regards him as the cause of her grievous visitation. Rather she explains, now ( Rth 2:7; 2Ki 5:22), she is convinced anew and most assuredly about it. at the end is not to be taken adverbially: that thou art truly a prophet and speakest the word of Jehovah, but as a substantive: that which thou, in the name of Jehovah, speakest as His word is truth, upon which one can entirely repose. The experience in 1Ki 17:14 is confirmed here to its fullest extent. Menken is incorrect here in understanding by the whole announcement of the truth, all taken together, which Elijah had said and taught during his stay in her house, concerning truth and error, the worship of idols and the worship of God, &c. The expression never means this, but always simply the word of Jehovah which He Himself speaks or has spoken.
Historical and Ethical
1. The first coming forth of Elijah is in the highest degree characteristic, and, as it were, the superscription, in the way of action, to his entire appearing; for it throws light, at the outset, upon the peculiarity both of his personality and of his public activity. Living until then in the greatest obscurity and entirely unknown, he stands suddenly there like one fallen from the clouds, to be compared with the lightning of God, like a lighted fire-brand hurled by the hand of Jehovah (Krummacher), and after he had spoken his word, which burned like a torch (Ecclesiast. 1Kings 48:1), he again disappears, and no one knew whither he had gone (1Ki 18:10; cf. 2Ki 2:16-18; 1Ki 9:3; 1Ki 9:8). Wholly alone, without any power or influence behind him, he encountered the mighty king fearlessly and courageously, not like a suppliant, but threatening and punishing (cf. chap, 1Kings 18:15; 1Kings 21:20; 2Ki 2:15 sq.). His speech is brief and pithy, firm and definite. He delivers no elaborated address; the word he speaks is like a deed. There is something great, majestic, divine, in the coming forth of this prophet (Menken). No less striking is the substance of his first utterance. He announces to the chief of the kingdom of the ten tribes, carried over into formal idolatry by the sin of Jeroboam, and now completely cut loose from the covenant (1Ki 19:10), the punishment which was threatened in the covenant (=law), that he may forsake his evil ways and turn unto the God of his fathers. But in this he does not bring to light merely one side of his prophetic calling, but the core and heart thereof. The peculiar, specific place which he occupied in the economy of grace was to raise up and restore the covenant which had been communicated and established by Moses, but had become violated. As restorer and reformer he stands in immediate relation to Moses, the founder of this covenant. Hence we shall see, not only in the course of his history is there much that is analogous with the history of Moses, but he appears also together with Moses at the transfiguration of the Lord (Luk 9:28-35), and both speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. They both represent the Old-Testament economy in contrast with Him who, by his decease, carries it to its end and fulfilment. As another, second Moses, Elijahs entire personality and work in his calling bears also supremely an historical character. And as the restoring and rehabilitation of the covenant demanded, necessarily, an overthrowing and removal of the idol-worship, already deeply rooted and powerful, not only must glowing zeal and impartial strictness be combined in this character so devoted to the law, but also a judicial activity itself. Hence his acts often have the appearance of hardness and violence. The period of his appearing was, for the covenant-breaking, idolatrous generation, a day of divine judgment, a time of visitation and chastening. But in so far as the restoration of the covenant did not concern outward, political relations, but the ethico-religious relation to Jehovah, the Holy One, and aimed to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers (Mal 4:6), Elijah was properly the prophet of repentance. This, indeed, he announced by his dress (2Ki 1:8), which thereafter was the official dress of the prophets and preachers of repentance (1Ki 19:19; 2Ki 2:13; Zec 13:4), and in which he appeared, of whom the Lord said, and if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come (Mat 3:4; Mat 11:14; Mat 17:11). And what was his first word but a call to repentance? Kurtz is somewhat one-sided in his judgment on Elijahs position in the divine economy. He says: In his official position the absolute one-sidedness of the exhibition of law, and the limit of his vision and of his activity to the present, which is therewith connected, characterizes him.for the understanding of this, his one-sided position as prophet, having to deal neither with hopes nor with promises, we should not lose sight of the fact that he wrought and lived in the kingdom of Israel, not in the kingdom of Judah. Only there, not here, is the coming of a prophet like Elijah comprehensible. In the kingdom of Judah a prophet like Elijah would certainly have taken a different course. there, all would have worked upon him and would have made something else out of him. If this were so, it is not easy to explain why he, in preference to all other prophets, should have appeared, along with Moses, at the transfiguration of Christ, and why the Lord, in the passages already cited, should attribute to him such high significance for the Messianic age, just as the prophet Malachi had already done (1Kings 4:5, 6). It was not Elijahs calling to refer to the Messiah in words and discourses, he had to do only with the rehabilitation of the broken covenant, and Messianic predictions could follow only upon this. Under existing circumstances, this could be brought about only by great, mighty actions. Elijah, hence, was, as we have already remarked, a prophet of action, the great hero-prophet of the kingdom of the ten tribes (Ewald). His whole career was active. His person was a living prophecy of him who appeared before the day of the Lord, the day of judgment, so also of grace (cf. Hengstenberg, Christologie III. s. 441 sq.)
2. The three wonderful occurrences which follow upon the first coming forth of Elijah are in immediate relation to the time in which they took place, and which was a period of general distress in consequence of the drought, and it was also a time of preparation for the coming activity of the prophet. And the transactions here brought together lose in this way the appearance of being only accidental and arbitrary, which might have happened just as suitably at any other time. Far from being mere miracles, and from calling up and favoring an unworthy representation of the nature (being) of God, they are signs and witnesses of the living, personal God over against the apotheosis of Nature, and the dead idols which have mouths and speak not, eyes and see not, ears and hear not, hands and handle not (Psa 115:4-7). All that is grand and glorious about this God, which the Scripture teaches, stands here before us in deeds. The God who has made heaven and earth and all that therein is, and given to the world its laws, does not stand beneath but above it, so that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, and all things, do not come to us hap-hazard, but from His fatherly hand (Heidel. Katech.). He does not lack the means to deliver out of all distress and even death itself (Psa 68:21): He is near unto all who call upon Him. He does for all who call upon Him earnestly what they who fear God desire. He hears their cry and helps them (Psa 145:18 sq.). He often leads them by dark paths, but they are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies (Psa 25:10). For Elijah, indeed, the necessary experiences of this period of preparation for his great career, were both a trial and a strengthening of his faith. When in the most fruitful district itself, where there was scarcity, he is remanded first to a desert in which there is an absence of all food, and only a brook which at any moment might dry up, and then in a foreign land to a widow almost at deaths door from starvation. But here a calamity befell, out of which no deliverance seemed possible. He acts, nevertheless, in firm faith and asks no question, like the people in the wilderness (Psa 78:19 sq.), and the more his faith is proved and exercised, so much the more is it strengthened, so much the more gloriously is the power and fidelity of the living God verified unto him. Thus disciplined and strengthened, he first properly becomes an instrument to destroy the heathen abominations and to bear the name of his God before the Gentiles and before the kings and before the children of Israel (chap. 18).
3. Elijahs subsistence in the desert is and remains, according to the simple, clear sense of the narrative, miraculous. It is almost laughable, as Winer rightly says, when many ancient and recent expositors, even Rabbins, make the ravens to be Arabs or merchants; but it is not much better when J. D. Michaelis supposes that Elijah had a hunting-ground for ravens, as well also as young hares, rats, and mice, which they would carry to their nests, or had trained them as hawks for the hunt. Others, like Knobel, perceiving the preposterousness of such explanations, have referred to the like cases amongst profane writers: Semiramis, exposed as a newly-born infant, was nourished by doves; a bitch gave suck to Cyrus, a shewolf to Romulus and Remus; the same is narrated by lian, v. 12, 42, of hinds, mares, bears, goats (Prophet. der Hebr. II. s. 84; cf. Rdiger, Allg. Encyklop. Bd. 33, s. 322). All these myths of children-nursing animals have grown up upon the soil of nature-religion, and are consequently specifically heathen. Their sense is that the power of nature, revealing itself in the suckling animals, is transferred to the child, or they explain how this or that person, remarkable by a special power, has obtained it by the same being the distinguishing trait of some animal (). What has this remote resemblance to do with the fact that the God who holds in His hand all creatures, provided the necessary nourishment for his prophet in the wilderness by the occupants of this wilderness, the ravens. Quite apart from their sense and meaning, not even in their outward form do these myths allow of a comparison with our narrative. That which has been adduced in the way of parallel is equally inappropriate. When Jerome (Opp. i. p. 239) states that the hermit Paul was fed daily by a raven provided with a half loaf for the period of sixty years, this obviously is but an exaggerated imitation of our story. Hess (Gesch. der Kn. Isr. I. s. 99) refers to the credible accounts that exposed children, exiles, fugitives have been sustained for a long time by animals, and remarks thereupon: Such narrations are rarely questioned, except when they are adduced by the writers of the Bible, as proofs of a special divine providence; but he adds, that in the case before us much remains that is inexplicable.
4. The sojourn of Elijah with the widow of Sarepta, considered quite apart from the fact that it served as a preparation for his public activity, constitutes a weighty moment in his history, because it shows us one side of the prophet which is thrown into the back-ground in his public career, but which, nevertheless, belongs essentially to a complete portraiture of the great man of God. While over against the fallen, covenant-breaking, idol-serving generation he was inexorable and uncomprising, denouncing and judging, threatening and punishing, to the poor widow he was sympathizing and friendly only, full of fellow-feeling and compassion, comforting, blessing, and helping. He there, for the first time, appears great and wonderful, for it is manifest that that harshness and severity was not characteristic, not inborn, but was founded in the special place which he was destined to occupy in the economy of grace. Never would he have; fulfilled his calling to put an end to the crime of a ruinous idolatry, and to be a second Moses, if he had shown the same traits to Ahab and Jezebel which he did to the widow of Sarepta. Elijah had to make good, first of all, obedience and resignation to the will of God at the brook Cherith, compassion and love at Sarepta, then it was that he appeared in the sight of God furnished with iron-severity to judge and to punish. Now since thou hast learned sympathy, go hence and preach, and speak to the people: these are the words to him which Chrysostom puts into the mouth of God (Opp. vi. p. 109).
5. The narrative represents the fact, that the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse did not fail, to have been quite as much an extraordinary act of God as the previous support by means of the ravens. The grossest prejudice alone can say: Here there is not a syllable that this was done by miracle: God gave his blessing so, that by the labor of her hands, assisted perhaps by the prophet, she secured for herself the necessaries of life (Dinter, Schull. Bib. on the place). In that case Elijahs promise, 1Ki 17:14, was nothing more than an exhortation to industry, but no prophet was needed for this. Knobel is equally unsatisfactory (as above s. 81), when in the whole narrative he finds nothing more than the view that the blessing of God rests where men of God are. The words of the Lord, in Luk 4:25, do not at all authorize us to think that this was simply an ordinary act of divine providence. Hess (as above s. 104) says: As for myself, I find the narrative so beautiful and as suitable to God as anything, and place confidence in the old author, when, without fear of any wisdom, whether of that time or of to-day, he continues, She went and did as Elijah bade her, &c. Menken: This whole history glorifies God, whom the Scripture teaches us to know in His unapproachable greatness and in His affable mercy and condescension. A God such as the human heart in the needs of this present life needs always and desires; the all-governing Ruler, the alone-independent, the free master over all nature, who gives dew and rain, and punishing lands and peoples, withholds and takes away bread and water. But the individual man is not forgotten of Him; no, not even the beggar on the highways. He beholds not only the whole, but the single parts: He looks not only into the palace of kings, but into the huts of poverty. The need and misery of a poor widow are not too insignificant for Him; he observes her sighs and tears, and her silent desolate cabin is for Him a place worthy of the revelation of His glory and goodness (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:1 sq.).
6. The revivifying of the child, on account of the prophets mode of procedure, has been explained as a physicians act. The narrative has, so Knobel supposes, its foundation in the circumstance that the prophets exercised also the function of physicians. The boy, in consequence of frequent convulsions, suffered a severe fainting-fit, and was brought back again to life by pressure, animal warmth, and applied restoratives (Meyer in Bertholds Theol. Journal iv. 230). According to Ennemoser (Magnetism. s. 422) this was a case of animal magnetism (Winer, R.- W.- B. I. s. 319). But nothing is more certain than that the text adduces no proof of the medical skill of the prophet, nor says anything of a human medical act of healing: it sets forth an act of God done by means of the prophet. Before he stretches himself upon the boy the prophet calls once and again imploringly upon Him who can both kill and make alive (Deu 32:29; 1Sa 2:6; 2Ki 5:7): Let the soul of this child come to it again! and Jehovah hearkened to the voice of Elijah. The revivifying is like an answer to prayer. It is not the prophet, as a thaumaturgist or as a physician employing natural means, but Jehovah who hears the prayer of His servant and delivers from death. If in addition to praying he stretches himself upon the child, he did this after the genuine prophetic way; the visible human deed served as substratum for the divine, and this divine deed is affirmed and attested in the prophets. The deeds of the prophets are signs () which represent what God does or will do by means of them, and are more or less symbolical actions (see above). The outward action was, in the case, the sign of that which God alone could do; it is not the delivering, quickening might and power, but only the medium denoting it.
Homiletical and Practical
1Ki 17:1. The first appearing of the prophet Elijah. (a) The time when; (b) the message with which he appeared. The prophet Elijah, (a) his namemy God is Jehovah; (b) his origin: Thisbe, an insignificant, unknown place, like Bethlehem and Nazareth; (c) his condition and calling: he stands before the Lord, the God of Israel. General distresses, like hunger and famine, sicknesses and epidemics, are not mere natural events, but they are the judgments of God upon the godless and the God-forgetting; they are the trials of the pious, and to all they cry: repent and be converted!Menken: Men in general have never been willing to recognize, and are still unwilling to recognize, the fact that need and misery upon earth stand in the closest relation to their conduct towards God; that through their need they may be called back to Him whom they have forsaken, and feel what it is when God withdraws His hand, when they are left to themselves, when the Almighty withholds His gifts and blessings, and sends His punishments and plagues. The God of Israel is the living God because He has spoken to Israel and has, through His word, revealed Himself to them (Psa 147:19-20). God has spoken to us by His Son, the image of His Being (Heb 1:2), and has revealed Himself in Him much more gloriously to us; therefore Christendom knows no other living God than the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can venture to say that he stands before God? He who, like Elijah, has firm faith, is unconditionally obedient to the word of God, and fearlessly and courageously pursues the path God has prescribed for him (Isa 41:10).Krummacher: It is the way of our God from of old that he takes people, by whom He will accomplish something great, from the dust rather than from thrones, so that it may be manifest how all things happen according to His purpose, how that flesh and blood have not done this and that, but that to him alone belongs the glory.
1Ki 17:2-9. Bender: Elijah at the brook in the wilderness. (a) How his faith was tried, and (b) how it was crowned.Wirth: Elijah at the brook Cherith. How the Lord protects and conceals him; how He leads him into the wilderness; and how He cares for him. Elijah in the wilderness. (a) Why the Lord sends him thither; (b) what he suffered him to experience there.
1Ki 17:3. Go away and hide thyself. (a) Go away. A hard word for a heroic man like Elijah, who has threatened the king and the whole people, and must now flee and expose himself to scorn and contempt. Going away often requires more self-denial than remaining. For the testimony to the truth, the command at one time is, remain and fear not (Act 18:9 sq.), at another, go from that city, &c. (Mat 10:14; Mat 10:23 sq.); they must, like their Lord, often appear in the form of a servant, and can wear upon earth no other crown than a crown of thorns, and if at any time their power is so great that they can give or take away dew and rain upon earth, and can punish kings and peoples, at another time they must bow and bend, suffer and be silent, and in the eye of the world appear weak and powerless, so that they and others may thereby know all the more profoundly, that the superabundant might is of God, and not of themselves (Menken). But to every true Christian also the command often comes, go hence, remain not where men are serving the world and Baal, where the word of the Lord is despised, and the fear of the holy and righteous Lord has disappeared. [See The Hermits of the Rev. Charles Kingsley.E. H.] (b) Hide thyself. In order to be able to achieve his great, severe, and holy task and to be fitted for it, Elijah had to go into retirement, where he was alone with his God and learned to say, Lord whom have I, &c. (Psa 73:25 sq.). Every man who has done anything great in the kingdom of God has passed a long time in retirement and solitude. But to every faithful Christian also the command has come, hide thyself, go into the stillness and solitude. The hidden man of the heart, with soft, still spirit (1Pe 3:4), does not thrive in the perpetual tumult and babbling noise of the world. There is no man who has not felt the need of some time and place to collect his thoughts and to be alone with his God; they who avoid such are not fit for the kingdom of God.
1Ki 17:4. Krummacher: Every way appointed for us by the Lord has His promise, and we need not fear when once we are assured that God has directed our way.
1Ki 17:5. Might it be said of us all, in every situation of life and under all relations, he went thither and did according to the word of the Lord.Menken: He went in faith along the hard, dark path into the wilderness, as a genuine son of Abraham the father of all the faithful, who knew that without faith it is impossible to please God, and that man can offer to God no higher and nobler homage than to believe in his promises. Who so chooses the dear God, and always hopes in Him, him will He sustain wonderfully in all need and affliction (Psa 4:4; Psa 147:5). Go whithersoever thou wilt, means shall not fail thee, thy deed is pure blessing, thy course pure light. To Elijah the promise was, I have commanded the ravens to care for thee; but we all have a still more glorious promise: He hath given his angels charge concerning thee, that they shall watch over thee in all thy ways, &c. (Psa 91:10-12).Menken: Just under these circumstances in which most men forsake the word of God, it shows itself most gloriously to the few who hold to it. When the world despises it, and ridicules the observance of it as weakness of mind, then is it mightiest, and it justifies the keeping of it by means of the richest experiences, which are the assurance, to those who honor it, of its truth and of the power of God. The ravens, which are not accustomed to care for their own young, must, at the command of God, nourish the prophet, as an evidence that even the unreasoning creature cannot move without His will, and that even the most insignificant must contribute to the glory of the Creator, who has promised, I will not leave nor forsake thee (Heb 13:5).Starke: In the case of His servants and children, God sometimes makes use of the ravens, i. e., of abandoned and godless men.
1Ki 17:7-16. Wirth: Elijah with the widow at Sarepta. (a) The dried up brook; (b) The new place of refuge; (c) The meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse.Krummacher: The departure for Zarephath. Elijahs need, Elijahs departure, his grand deliverance.Bender (1Ki 17:10-24): Elijah with the widow at Sarepta. Our history confirms the Psalm-word (Psa 68:21); (1) we have a God who helps, and (2) a Lord of lords who delivers from death. The widow at Zarephath. (a) Her lot (widowed, poor, without influence before the world, but chosen by God, Luk 4:26). (b) Her self-denial and her faith (although on the verge of death from starvation, she will share what she can, and believe the word of the prophet as a word from God). (c) Her reward, Mat 10:41 sq. (she is not only delivered from death by hunger, Psa 33:19; but she receives continuously what she and her whole household needed, Psa 37:19; Psa 112:3).
1Ki 17:7-9. Elijahs second trial of faith. (a) Depart (one trial follows another, so that the gold of his faith may become more free from all dross). (b) To Zarephath in Sidon (from thy fatherland into a spiritual waste and desert, in the land of idolatry, where Jezebels father ruled, and where the danger seemed greater than at the brook Cherith; but, courage, it will not be so serious, &c.). (c) To a widow (who herself needed protection, and not to a rich, powerful man. The Lord will care for thee, rest assured of that, and do not ask how it shall come to pass. Despise no instrumentality which He points out to thee, no condition and no man He makes use of, for it is not difficult to the Lord to send help by means either of little or of much, 1Sa 14:6. Things are small before God, and to the Highest all things are alike [There is no great and no small, to the Lord that maketh all.] He is the true wonder-worker, who can now exalt and now overturn).
1Ki 17:7. When without thy fault the brook, from which thou dost quench thy thirst, is dried, and the spring whence thy life was supported has failed, let the word spoken come to thee: Wait upon the Lord, who will help thee (Pro 20:22); for they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, &c. (Isa 40:31). The words of Elijah to the widow. (a) The request (1Ki 17:10-11); (b) The consolation (1Ki 17:13); (c) The promise (1Ki 17:14). Requests made to a man are often the key which opens to us his most hidden being. They who have but little usually give more than they who have much (Luk 21:1 sq.). To the weeping widows and orphans the Lord always calls, Fear not! 1Pe 5:7; Mat 6:25 sq.; Psa 37:25.
1Ki 17:12. In a heathen, idolatrous land Elijah finds in a poor widow what he had sought in vain in Israel: faith in the living God of Israel.Krummacher: He who has experienced it knows how precious it is, when one is far away in a strange country, where the roads toward Zion lie waste, and sees ones self thrown into the circle of the children of this world, and by the streams of Babylon, to meet unexpectedly in the wilderness somebody from Galilee, or a brother or sister in the Lord.
1Ki 17:13. Berleb. Bib.: Fear not! Ah! How often has a child of God bemoaned, Now all is lost! I have nothing more and know nothing more. The operations of the Spirit of God have ceased for me: the meal and oil are gone! And yet, where there is nothing more amid the night and the darkness, the morning brings something, upon which one can live and find nourishment for the soul, although the time be miserable.
1Ki 17:14-15. When the need is greatest, then is God nearest. On the very day when the poor widow, with her son, will eat the last supplies, her distress comes to an end, and she has thenceforth her daily bread. He helps us before we expect, and permits us to enjoy much good.
1Ki 17:16. The same God who spoke by means of Elijah: The meal in the barrel shall not be wasted, and the oil in the cruse shall not fail, has also promised, as the earth lasts, seed-time and harvest, frost and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease (Gen 8:22). We are astonished at the little miracle in the cabin at Sarepta, but we pass over with indifference, and without attention, the large miracle.
1Ki 17:17-24. Wirth: The great deed of God in the case of the son of the widow of Sarepta. (a) The lamentation of the mother over the dead body of the son; (b) the praying prophet and the answering God; (c) the joyous message, Behold, thy son liveth!Krummacher: The resuscitation at Zarephath. (a) The divine stroke; (b) the victorious battle; (c) the rest after the storm. The school of suffering at Zarephath. (a) The suffering with which the widow and the prophet were visited; (b) how each behaved under it; (c) what both experienced.
1Ki 17:17. Great manifestations of divine grace follow also great trials, so that our faith may be made more precious (1Pe 1:7).Menken: God willed that the good work begun in her should not be unfinished, and without suffering this could not be, any more than it is in our case and in that of all men. It is pure goodness and fatherly fidelity when the infinitely good, heavenly Father sends to His children sorrow upon sorrow, lays upon them burden upon burden, and leads them from one distress and trouble into others. In eternity, He will be heartily thanked for nothing more than for this paternal goodness and fidelity.
1Ki 17:18. The first thing which the cross and suffering must do in a man, is to bring about an humble sense of his sin; it is the beginning of all true knowledge of God, the foundation of all true piety. Much that is erroneous respecting God and divine things may adhere to a man, but if he have a living knowledge of his sin, and a living feeling of his unworthiness before the holy God, he is on the pathway to a deepening and higher knowledge of God.Menken: She does not complain of unrighteousness upon the part of God, she does not accuse God: she acquits God and condemns herself. That was the true bearing in her trouble, and so sorrow wrought good within this soul: it led her within herself, and humbled her in the deeper knowledge of herself. And God giveth grace to the humble. A man does not so readily humble himself too much. The more strictly a man judges and condemns himself, so much the which is repeated year by year for the whole world.Starke: The way to wealth is cheerful giving (Luk 6:38), and God crowns beneficence with a blest store (Pro 19:17). God can bless even a little store so that it will suffice for a longwhile. more readily is he acquitted, justified, and pardoned before the divine tribunal (Luk 18:13 sq.). Intercourse and association with a true man of God become a blessing to us when we are thereby led more deeply into ourselves, and are made genuinely conscious of our sinfulness before God (Luk 5:8; Mat 8:8).
1Ki 17:19-22. The prayer of Elijah, (a) The contents; (b) the answer to it. Those are genuine and true friends who do not show sympathy and commiseration simply when we are in distress and trouble, but who give us a helping hand, and from their heart call upon Him who can help us. Wrestling with God in prayer is a matter which belongs to the lonely chamber (Mat 6:6). He who prays only in public, in the church, has never yet prayed truly.
1Ki 17:20. In our prayer we may express indeed how dark and incomprehensible the providences of God are to us, only when we do so with submission to His will without complaint or murmur, and humbly committing entirely to His will how and when He will save us, in our hour of need.
1Ki 17:21. In sickness, we must leave no natural means towards recovery untried, however much we may long for a miracle of God, whilst at the same time we implore God to grant power to these means and bless their application.
1Ki 17:22. Menken: Even if the Lord do no miracle, there are still a thousand ways and means by which he sends comfort and strength, or help and salvation, in answer to the believing prayer of His faithful servants. Each granting of prayer is indeed a miracle, and never is one humble, believing prayer of a righteous soul uttered in vainno, not even when it is refused.
1Ki 17:23. For the father and mother heart, which moan and lament over a lost son, what could be a gladder message than this: This, thy son, was dead and is alive again. (Luk 15:24.) The miracles in the kingdom of grace are as worthy of adoration as those in the kingdom of nature.
1Ki 17:24. We must pass through much grief and humiliation before with joyful assurance we can say to Him, who is greater than Elijah: Now know I that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Only by means of individual experience does each man come to the blessed confession, that the word of the Lord is truth. He only is a servant of God in whose mouth the word of the Lord is truth, not mere appearance and sham (phrase).
Footnotes:
[1]1Ki 17:1.[The Sept. adds his office, Elijah the prophet, the Tishbite.
[2]1Ki 17:1.[The Sept. has mistaken the Heb. participle , and by a slight change of the pointing has read , who was of Thesbe. The Alex. Sept. also omits the word . It has been much questioned whether Elijah was of the Thesbe in Galilee mentioned Tob 1:2 (see Exeg. Com.). Against this supposition is the fact that the Jews of our Lords time believed that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet (Joh 7:52).
[3]1Ki 17:1.[ is strongly emphatic: nisi ego et non alius vir, etiamsi propheta sit vel prophetam mentiatur, dixero, Seb. Schm.
[4]1Ki 17:3.[The phrase , the ambiguity of which is exactly rendered in the English before, allows either the opinion that the brook was on the east of the Jordan (Euseb., Jerome, v. Raumer, &c., with whom our author), or that it was on the west (Reland, Robinson, &c.)
[5]1Ki 17:4.[ is translated ravens in all the VV. except the Arab.; yet so important a commentator as S. Jerome says: Orbim accol vill in finibus Arabum, Eli dederunt alimenta. But see Exeg. Com.
[6]1Ki 17:6.[The Vat. Sept. says the ravens brought bread in the morning and flesh in the evening.
[7]1Ki 17:7.[The Heb. word here used for rain, , is the same as in 1Ki 17:14 and in 1Kings 18:41, but different from coupled with dew, in 1Ki 17:1. It denotes heavy rain.
[8]1Ki 17:12.[The Sept. curiously has here and in 1Ki 17:13 in the plural.
[9]1Ki 17:14.[The form in the text is pointed by the Masorets and marked in the kri as to be understood . It may, however, he considered as the infin. with reduplicated syllable and read . See Ewald Krit. Gramm. 238 c.F. G.]
[10]1Ki 17:15.The kri in Place of the ktib is unnecessary. Maurer: Accentus major voci adponendus, post vero cogitatione repetendum est edebat s. edebant. According to Keil, the feminine form is to be taken as an indefinite neuter: and it, he and she, ate. [The reading of the kri, however, is sustained by many MSS.
[11]1Ki 17:19.[ = , the upper chamber which is often built upon the roof of Oriental houses, and to which there was access without passing through the house.
[12]1Ki 17:21.[ lit. he measured himself, i.e. stretched himself.
[13]1Ki 17:23.[The Vat. Sept. omits the greater part of 1Ki 17:22 and the first clause of 1Ki 17:23. F. G.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have in this chapter, for the first time, introduced to us, that eminent prophet and servant of God, Elijah. He comes to Israel, prophesying of a long season of drought. He is hidden of God, and fed by ravens. Afterwards he sojourneth with a widow, at Zarephath: works a miracle to supply her and household with food: and raiseth the widow’s son, when dead.
1Ki 17:1
(1) And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
This eminent prophet of Jehovah, whose history forms so considerable a figure in the Bible, demands our attention the more closely. His name is most striking – Elijah; which is a compound word, doubly significant, and means, Eli, my God; Jail, Jehovah; most probably, so called because implying in whose name, and by whose authority he came. It is remarkable that he differs from all other prophets, in that no account is given of his genealogy. The Jews, in high veneration of Elijah, had a tradition that he came from heaven. But we have an authority to know better. The Holy Ghost, by his servant James, the apostle, tells the church that he was a man subject to like passions as we are. Jas 5:17 . But what I would beg the Reader particularly to observe concerning Elijah, is his faithfulness, and boldness in the cause of God. Shutting up the heavens was considered as one of God’s sore judgments. Therefore for Elijah to go boldly to the court of Israel and tell the impious monarch to his face, that this judgment should take place, was faithfulness indeed! The apostle James, under the blessed Spirit, carries the commendation of Elijah even a step higher than mere faithfulness. For he expressly saith, that his prayer of faith both shut and opened heaven. With an holy indignation against Israel’s sin, he prayed that it might not rain. And when he found the Lord softening the hearts of the Israelites by repentance, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain. See Reader! the preciousness of faith in Jesus. Jas 5:17-18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ki 17:1
This miracle of the drought is one of the few which have received the countersign and imprimatur of our Blessed Lord. The statement that ‘The heaven was shut up three years and six months’ ‘in the days of Elias’ (St. Luk 4:25 ) does not rest on the unsupported authority of the compiler of the books of Kings, or the unknown writer from whom he derived it. We are told that this history is largely fabulous, but this part of the ‘fable’ at any rate has been accepted by Him who is ‘the Truth’. Of course this fact will count for nothing with the infidel or the Agnostic, but surely it should have some weight with the Christian. We cannot have ‘Christianity without miracles’.
I. Man’s Extremity is God’s Opportunity. It was in the fullness of time, when the Egyptian oppression had reached its very worst, that Moses, the founder of the Law, appeared. It was also in the fullness of time, when an altar was reared to Baal and an image to Astarte, and when the nation was rapidly drifting into idolatry, that Elijah, the restorer of the Law, came upon the scene. The darkness is greatest just before the dawn. ‘The greatest prophet is reserved for the worst age. Israel had never such an impious king as Ahab, nor such a miraculous prophet as Elijah. The God of the spirits of all flesh knows how to proportion men to the occasion’ ( Bp. Hall ).
II. The Weak Confound the Strong. ‘ God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty’ (1Co 1:27 ). ‘ Elijah the Tishbite… of Gilead.’ ‘Can any good thing come out of Gilead?’ the men of Israel might contemptuously ask. To the dwellers in courts and cities Gilead represented a rugged, unsettled uncivilized region, inhabited by an uncouth nomadic, unlettered people. Yet it was from those wild uplands, not from the Holy City, not from the schools of the prophets, that the greatest of the prophets came. How often are we taught this lesson, ‘that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty are called!’ The vessels of God are cast ‘in the clay ground’ (1Ki 8:46 ). He took David from the sheepfolds, Amos from the farm, the Apostles from their ships, and the Lord Christ Himself went forth from Nazareth, from the carpenter’s shop, to bless the world.
III. Those who Honour God, He will Honour. For why is he, the Gileadite peasant, chosen to this high distinction? Was it not because he had chosen the Lord to be his God? Surely the name ‘Elijahu,’ ‘ My God, Jehovah is He,’ is not without significance. His choice was made (cf. chap. 18:21). The cry he would wring from Israel, ‘The Lord, He is the God’ (v. 39) was the echo of his own heart’s cry.
IV. The Dominion over Nature belongs to God. It was claimed for Him by Elijah; it is everywhere claimed for Him in Scripture (see e.g. Lev 26:4 ; Deu 11:17 ; Psa 147:8 ; Jer 5:24 ; Act 14:17 ). But there are those who tell us otherwise. Their science leaves no room for His working in the world. If they concede that He made it, they will not allow Him to interfere with it. ‘No room for Him in the inn.’
The Brook That Dried Up
1Ki 17:2-3
There is no stranger story in the lips of men than the story of God’s providence. Sometimes very manifest in its workings, sometimes very obscure, always full of love, always working out the best, always right in the end. It is one thing to be in God’s hands as we all most surely are; it is another thing to know this is so. The sense of dependence is easily lost. God does not stamp all His gifts with the broad seal of heaven. The one Divine touch that testifies to the other-world origin of life’s commonest bounty is sometimes like the hall-mark on precious metal-work put where you won’t see it unless you look for it. God is ever helping us to help ourselves, and ever weaving His ministries of help through and around our human efforts, till we cannot say where the one begins and the other ends. And often we say, ‘I alone did it’.
I. ‘The brook dried up.’ This is an aspect of the Divine providence that sorely perplexes our minds and tries our faith. We can more easily recognize the love that gives than the love that takes away. ‘How providential!’ When do we say that? It is when Cherith is singing and babbling in our ears. We say it when a life is spared, a wish is granted, an undertaking is completed, a need is met. With some people providence is another word for getting what they ask for, and being able to complete their own plans. The education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of fading things, a gift of emptiness.
A desperate situation may prove a great and notable blessing. Before a man can say to the deep satisfaction of his soul, ‘God is true,’ he may have to find a good many things false. It is easier to trust the gift than the giver, easier to believe in Cherith than to believe in Jehovah.
II. Providence is a progressive thing. It is a development. There is nothing final in it. That dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each one of us. ‘It came to pass that the brook dried up’ that is a history of our yesterdays, and a prophecy for our morrows. I do not mean that these words tell the whole story of life, or even a very large part of it, for any one of us; but in some way or other we all have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love. The abiding thing in life is that word of the Lord that comes afresh into our hearts day by day.
III. The providence of God leads us into some hard places, but it never leaves us there. Cherith is only a halting-place, it is not our destination. We need tomorrow to explain today. We must get to the end before we can interpret the beginning. The explanation of the hard words of life lies in the context. Elijah looked into the eyes of famine, and then upward into the face of God. And then was he brought from the brook that failed to the meal that failed not.
The ministry of all that passeth away is meant to beget in our hearts a growing confidence in all that endureth for ever. The lesson of all fading things is not the brevity of life, but the eternity of love. When the pleasant and comforting babble of some Cherith falls on silence, it is but that we may hear the low deep murmur of the river of God that is full of water. It is the note of uncertainty in the voices of time that sets our heart listening for the unfaltering message of the eternal.
P. Ainsworth, The Pilgrim Church, p. 176.
References. XVII. 1-7. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx. p. 376. XVII. 2-4. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 15. XVII. 2-6. W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 20. XVII. 4-5. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 77. XVII. 6. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. p. 9.
The Failure of the Brook
1Ki 17:7
Elijah was sent to the Brook Cherith by the express commandment of his God, and it must have been a strange and staggering thing for him when the waters of the brook began to fail. It was enough to crush an ordinary faith; but then the faith of Elijah was not ordinary. And I want to show you how that faith was justified. And how there was deep meaning in that discipline that so you and I may be a little stronger in those dark seasons when the brook dries up.
I. First, then, the failure of the waters was meant to deepen the prophet’s sense of brotherhood. You must remember it was a time of drought. Everywhere drought and cruel pangs of thirst, and men and women entreating God for water and all the time in the little vale of Cherith, the coolness and the murmuring of the stream. And so, that he might be a brother among brothers, and feel his kinship with his suffering nation, it came to pass that after a while the brook dried. In a thousand lives that is still the secret of the failing brook. It is not because God is angry that it fails, it is because our Father wants us to be brothers. There is no sympathy so deep and strong as that which springs out of common suffering. Exclude a man from what others have to bear, and you exclude him from his heritage of brotherhood.
II. Again Elijah was taught by this event that in certain matters God makes no exceptions. God has his chosen and peculiar people, but He never spares the rod to spoil His child. And one of the hardest lessons we must learn is that the name and nature of our God is love. Yet for the man who trusts and serves Him best there is to be no exception from the scourge.
III. The deepest lesson in our story is that the ceasing of the prophet’s brook was the beginning of larger views of God. And as it was with Elijah long ago so I believe it often is today. There are the blessings we enjoy our health, our prosperity, the love of those who love us. There are many people who never lose these blessings, moving beside still waters to the end. But there are others with whom it is not so. They have suffered terribly, or had sharp and sore remorse. I ask them, Has not God been nearer has not religion been more to them since then? And if it has taken the failing of the stream to cast them utterly upon the arm of God; if they have risen from an empty brook to drink of an ocean that is ever full perhaps it was not in anger, but in love that the waters ceased to be musical at Cherith.
G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, p. 108.
References. XVII. 12. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 69. XVII. 13. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. p. 24. Readings for the Aged (4th Series), p. 184. XVII. 14. J. Keble, Sermons for Lent to Passiontide, p. 159; Sermons for Sunday after Trinity, part i. p. 363. XVII. 16. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 26. Bishop Bickersteth, Sermons, p. 219. XVII. 17. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, pp. 7 and 51.
A Personalized Conscience
1Ki 17:18
Elijah must have been surprised. He had come into this woman’s home when she was in the direst misery and poverty. When he first saw her she was picking up sticks with which to kindle her fire for a meal preparatory to death. Nevertheless, she shares her scanty meal and oil with him, and he is her guest for many days. And all the while the miraculous is about her. The meal is never finished, the oil never fails. Then, as if to demonstrate that troubles never come singly, her son, her only child, sickened and died. A very anguish of despair possessed her. Then an extraordinary thing occurred. Her heart let out its secret. The sin she had guarded with vigilance and terror leaps to her lips. Elijah was a conscience to her. Remorse and terror held her in their sway. Elijah’s presence was doomsday. In his presence she was conscious of sin.
I. The Tragedy of Sin is the callousness it produces. This woman had almost forgotten her sin. She had grown accustomed to its thought. That is the tragedy of guilt. It corrodes the heart. All the subtle and tender sensibilities are hardened. What a callous world we live in! We live on day by day hardly conscious, seldom seeing the evils that are, the shame of human life. We are callous to the liquor traffic. We pass the public-houses, we smell the odious fumes, we hear the ribald laughter, we see debased men, wretched women, pinched and shivering children. It is hateful, terrible, loathsome. But we have grown accustomed to it. We are callous to the miseries of the poor. We have seen the slums and hovels in which they herd. We admit that society, the great abstraction, is at fault, but familiarity has wrought callousness. We are callous to the pains and wrongs of children. We know that thousands are starved, famished, thrashed, exposed. We applaud the work of men like Dr. Barnardo, George Mller, and Dr. Stephenson, but we are really callous to it all. It is part of English life as we have always known it.
II. A Personalized Conscience is the Divine Exposure and rebuke of sin. History is the illustration of this. The prophets of Israel were consciences incarnate. God was in them. Luther was a conscience. Papal Europe crouched before him. The priests gnashed their teeth and hissed in wrath, but the people saw God in him and heard the word of Eternal Life. John Wesley was a conscience. He convicted the State Church of supineness, ineptitude, and throughout the length and breadth of the land he convicted tens of thousands of sin. A conscience personalized has ever been and always will be an exposure and condemnation of sin. No matter how callous men may be, their hearts will be pierced by the living God in a great man’s conscience.
III. Godliness is the secret of this Ethical Authority. Godliness is the greatest power in human life. It is influence, authority, sovereignty. Every Church should be a conscience. The Church is a community of godly men and women, and their united influence should reflect the God they love and serve. Every Christian should be a conscience. We should be so full of God that everywhere our ethical influence should be felt. This is the need of the times. Better Christians, the best Christians. Let us go to God, let us keep near Him, and we will be consciences to others. The callous and the cynical will be shamed and saved.
J. G. Bowran, The Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXIV. 1908, p. 131.
References. XVII. 18. J. Keble, Sermons Preached in St. Saviour’s, Leeds, p. 69. XVII. 19, 20. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, pp. 23, 35, 60, 69, 104. C. O. Bell, Hills that Bring Peace, p. 203. XVII. 23, 24. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. p. 31; Readings for the Aged, (4th Series), p. 195. XVII. 24. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 69. J. O. Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii. p. 269. XVII. 40. H. Banks, Thirty-one Revival Sermons, p. 69. XVII. 44. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches, p. 222.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Elijah
1Ki 17
Elijah means “Jehovah is my God.” There is often much in a name. It is a history, sometimes, the summing up of generations; it is sometimes an inspiration, recalling memories that stir the soul to high daring. In Christ we are called to a new name. Have you yet received it? Behold, what manner of love hath the Father bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
“Tishbite.” There are two places called Tishbi, one in Gilead and the other in Galilee. Elijah belonged to the former. Sometimes character is mysteriously and very deeply affected by country. Gilead was a wild and mountainous district, bordering on Arabia, and consequently half Arab in its customs. There was a wonderful similarity between the man and the region; stern, bleak, grand, majestic, and awful, were they both. John the Baptist seemed to bring the wilderness with him when he came into the city. Children born in luxury are apt to be themselves luxurious. Children born in slavery will hardly ever be free, though slavery has been abolished. To the end of life we carry the colour which first impressed itself on our vision.
“Elijah the Tishbite said unto Ahab.” All revelations seem to us to be sudden. Look at the suddenness of the appearance of Ahijah to Jeroboam, and look at the instance before us. The total apostasy of the ten tribes (Israel) was now almost accomplished, yet a faithful prophet of the Lord stands up in the degenerate land, and declares that Jehovah is his God, and in sacred solitariness protests against the abominations of Israel and her king. No mild man would have been equal to the occasion. God adapts his ministry to circumstances. He sends a nurse to the sick room; a soldier to the battlefield. The son of consolation and the son of thunder cannot change places. You are right when you say that the dew and the light and the soft breeze are God’s; but you must not therefore suppose that the thunder and the hurricane and the floods belong to a meaner lord.
“As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.” We must realise very clearly the circumstances of the case before we can set a proper value on these words. To us they are but part of a general music. Our land is full of churches, and the wind of Christendom is charged with psalms. But in Ahab’s wicked day Ahab who did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him ( 1Ki 16:33 ) the words meant something which it is hardly possible for us to realise.
Imagine the two men standing face to face: Ahab the dissolute king and Elijah the faithful prophet, and probably there is no finer picture in ancient history. Terrible indeed is the national crisis when king and prophet come into collision. There is not a combat between two men. Mark that very closely. It is Right against Wrong, Faithfulness against Treachery, Purity against Corruption. Look at them, Ahab and Elijah, as they face one another! Consider the boldness of the prophet. Religion is never to be ashamed of its own testimony. As we look at the scene, not wanting in the elements of the highest tragedy, we see (1) The value of one noble witness in the midst of public corruption and decay, and (2) The grandeur as well as necessity of a distinct personal profession of godliness. It is not enough to be godly, we must avow it in open conduct and articulate confession.
Let us now observe how Elijah proceeds to deal with Ahab.
“There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” Here is physical punishment for moral transgression. So it is; and that is exactly what a parent does when he uses the rod upon his child for falsehood. You can only punish people according to their nature. The garrotter can submit to any number of censures and lectures, but he dreads the cat-o’-ninetails. Physical punishment for moral transgression is the law of society. So the liar is thrown out of his situation; the ill-tempered child is whipped.; the dishonourable man is expelled from social confidence. With regard to the particular punishment denounced against Ahab it is to be remembered that drought is one of the punishments threatened by the law if Israel forsook Jehovah and turned after other gods (Deu 11:17 ; Lev 26:18 ). The law would apply to England were there no praying men within our borders. Ten righteous men still save a city. Paul still saves the ship. The interceding husbandman saves the barren tree.
This, then, was the brief communication which the prophet addressed to the king. God’s threatenings are terrible in their conciseness. He leaves no room in a multitude of words for ambiguity and verbal wriggling: “the soul that sinneth it shall die;” “the wages of sin is death;” “there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” And as he can be concise in threatening, so he can be concise in promise, “I will give you rest;” “I will give you living water;” “he that believeth shall be saved;” “ask, and it shall be given you.” Thus great things can be said in few words “God is light;” “God is love;” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”;” “Ye must be born again.”
“I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” At the bidding of the word of the Lord, Elijah turned eastward and hid himself by the brook Cherith, a place nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, and “no name like it has as yet been discovered in Palestine.” It was a torrent-course facing the Jordan; “but whether it was one of those which seam Mount Ephraim, or of those on the opposite side of Jordan, in the prophet’s own country, is uncertain.” But what is the meaning of the extraordinary expression “I have commanded the ravens to feed thee”? By omitting the points, which are generally allowed to have no authority, the Hebrew letters may signify Arabians; then the passage would read, “I have commanded the Arabians to feed thee.” Or, if we retain the present pointing the word may be translated “merchants,” according to “The Speaker’s Commentary.” But it is better to allow the word “ravens” to stand. It implies a miracle; but the whole Bible is a miracle, and so is our own daily life, could we but see the inner movement and look beyond all symbols to the spiritual reality.
But Elijah’s brook dried up. Prophets may be overtaken by the operation of their own prophecies. The great laws are impartial, yet wonderful is the scope within which exceptions may be established. This incident gives an instance in point.
“Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” This place is called Sarepta in the New Testament ( Luk 4:26 ). It lay upon the great public road which connected the two towns. A little village called Sarafend now occupies the situation. But how did it come about that Elijah was sent to a place so near the city of Jezebel’s father? It has been suggested that it would be the last place that he would be suspected of having chosen as a retreat. When Elijah came to the gate of the city the widow woman was there gathering sticks, and he asked her for a little water in a vessel that he might drink; and as she was going to fetch it, he asked her to bring also a morsel of bread in her hand. But she had no bread! Not so much as a cake, only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse. She was just going to dress this little food for herself and her son, “that we may eat it and die.” But Elijah claimed it in the name of the Lord, and gave her in return the gracious promise, “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” We may here admire (imitate!) one of the finest instances of ancient faith. The woman was asked for all she had, and she gave it! But mark, she was put in possession of a promise. This is God’s law; he gives the promise first, and then asks for the faith of man. It was so in the case of Abraham. It is so with ourselves today.
“And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail.” This is the continual miracle of nature. This is the security of life. We are puzzled by it; but what of that? Are possibilities to be determined by our weakness or by God’s strength? We could have increased the flour had we sown the seed, reaped the grain, and called in the aid of the miller; now let us venture upon the supposition that Almighty God is able to do just a little more than we can do, and the whole difficulty is gone! The air wastes not, nor the light, nor the force of nature; what if God can touch points which happen to lie beyond the range of our short fingers? We must allow something for Deity.
And now sorrow fell upon the poor woman’s house; her only child died, and her heart was lacerated even to torment and agony. But the Lord was merciful. Elijah took the dead child away into a loft the upper chamber, which was often the best part of an eastern house and cried unto the Lord, and stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried again and again unto the Lord, and the child’s life returned. Then the glad mother hailed Elijah as a man, and one in whose mouth was the word of the Lord. It is thus that Christianity proves itself, even by its miracles and its ever-growing, ever-blessing wonders. It finds the lost, and gives life to the dead, and makes the wilderness blossom as the rose, and thus it constrains men to hail it as the great power of God. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me.”
Elijah had put himself beyond the reach of Ahab, not because he feared him or distrusted the power of God in critical circumstances, but because God’s providence or government is a great scheme with innumerable sides, and requires time for its full disclosure and accomplishment. We are not to hasten the march of God. To everything there is a season. Everywhere we see this idea of time observed and honoured. Though there is famine in the land we cannot urge the seasons forward. The child, too, must have years of growth, though his father be disabled and there be none to earn the household bread but himself. So in the case before us. Ahab must be wearied out with searching for Elijah. He must be made to see how fruitless may be the efforts even of a king. And at last when success does come, it must come not from his side at all.
Mark this as a real law in life. It is thus that God baffles and humbles men. He gives them to feel that all searching is useless when he has determined that they shall not succeed in their search. The thing they want may lie within their own shadow, but they cannot find it! It may be under their foot, yet practically it may be miles away! Is not this our own experience? And when success does come, it comes after pursuit has been given up; after we have done our utmost and have failed, then there is the very thing we wanted standing before us as if it had sprung up out of our path! There is quite a mocking spirit in the world. A spirit that watches us working and failing, and then says, What you have been seeking for is here! And in this very mockery there is often solid and useful teaching. It says, He that would save his life shall lose it, and he that would lose his life shall find it. We toil all night and take nothing, and then the Spirit says, Let down the net here, and lo! it is filled with fish. Thus God is always breaking our straight lines into curves, showing us that our arm is just an inch too short to reach the ripest fruits, and that we cannot run backwards except with humbling ungainliness and to the great risk of our limbs. Ahab searched everywhere for Elijah, and though he was a king he could not find the poor prophet who lodged with the still poorer widow. Whom God conceals are well hidden!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VIII
ELIJAH ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD
1Ki 17:1-21:29
Elijah the Tishbite is the most dramatic personage in all history. He has left an ineffaceable impress on the imagination of the men of all times. He appears on the stage of action suddenly, rarely, startlingly, and disappears as suddenly and dramatically for long intervals of time, in which he is completely hidden from public sight. The ordinary life of the man never becomes commonplace because never familiar by association with the people. His successor lived much in a city, and never in seclusion, so that his everyday life was in the full glare of publicity. This intensely dramatic way of appearing, when coupled with his strange garb, stern manners and ascetic life, naturally impresses the imagination. We are not disappointed in the reasonable expectation that such a career would breed many traditions. Long after he passed away we find the Jews continually expecting his return. At the observance of the passover the door is left open that Elijah may enter if he should suddenly come, and a vacant chair is reserved for him at the circumcision of a child. When lost goods are discovered and the owner cannot be found, they are set aside until Elijah comes to identify the owner. In New Testament times, the Jews, unable to account for Jesus of Nazareth, supposed that he was Elijah, and when Christ cried out in the extreme agony of his crucifixion they supposed he was crying for Elijah.
In harmony with his marvelous career, we find the biblical period of his history the richest in homiletical value of all the scriptures. All the great preachers in the world have found thrilling themes in the incidents of Elijah’s life, and not only the great preachers, but the preachers generally throughout the ages have gone into this deep rich mine for sermon themes. Perhaps no man in all the ministry’ and throughout all the ages entirely omitted the life of Elijah in selecting topics for pulpit discussions. It would be quite easy to name at least fifty texts for sermons in this part of the Bible. The Scripture books which treat of this remarkable man are 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans and James. The intense interest in his career is just as fresh and strong in our own time as in previous ages. Such long continued interest cannot wholly arise from the dramatic setting of his life. There must be some profounder reason for his unshaken hold on the imagination and thought of the religious world. We find that interest arising from the great world crisis of his time and his method of meeting it. Once only before, and never since, has true religion been in such danger of utter extinction as in Elijah’s time. We may therefore properly inquire: What were the elements of this crisis and what effective measures employed by him in meeting its necessities?
Briefly stated, the elements of this crisis were:
1. Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess.
2. The marriage of Jezebel’s daughter with Jehoram, prince royal of Judah.
3. The consequent unhallowed alliance between Judah and Israel.
4. The consequent establishment of Baal worship in both kingdoms.
5. The consequent and extraordinary persecution of the true religion and its prophets in both kingdoms.
6. The same murderous extinction of the seed royal of David by Athaliah’s husband, the daughter of Jezebel until one child alone is left of all the male progeny of David.
7. The consequent eminent hazard of the extinction of the true religion in the world.
Elijah himself thus expresses the situation: “The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” It is true, in the great depression of his mind following his flight from Jezebel, while under the juniper tree he prayed that he might die, feeling that his life had been a failure, that he exaggerated through ignorance his extreme loneliness. Some of the prophets had been saved alive by Obadiah, and the Almighty whose omniscience can read the hearts of the people in the most secret hiding places, assured him that there was a remnant according to grace of 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But he knew nothing of this secret following of Jehovah. His voice was the only voice in the whole wide world lifted up in favor of Jehovah, so that with some measure of truth he might well say: “Alone, alone, alone, one man against the world.” In the days of Noah the remnant was even smaller than in the days of Elijah, but there has never been a period since his time when the true religion was reduced to as few flickering sparks.
After the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and the establishment of the dynasty of Omri and the marriage of Ahab, Omri’s son, with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess, and the adoption of her Baal worship in the place of the worship of Jehovah, the doom of the ten tribes was fixed, and all the) voices of the prophets could only briefly delay the swiftly coming ruin. One weak woman brought about the fall of the race, and this strong, cruel woman, Jezebel, could nearly bring about a second destruction. And when she had succeeded through her daughter, Athaliah, in establishing the Baal worship in Judah as well as in Israel, both streams of the national life became intensely corrupt. We are accustomed to admire the heroism of any sixteenth century reformer, who dared to lift his voice against the prevailing religious corruption of Romanism, but in no period of either pagan or papal persecution have the Christians been reduced to such small numbers and such scanty influence as in the days of Elijah. Neither Savonarola, nor Huss, nor Jerome, nor Prague, nor the Waldenses, nor Luther, nor Calvin, nor John Knox nor the Dissenters in the days of the Stuarts nor John Bunyan, nor Spurgeon was ever subjected to the extreme loneliness that afflicted the heart of Elijah. It is easy to go with the multitude, or even stand against the multitude if only a few stalwart friends unflinchingly support us, but when one man has to put himself against the whole world, the swelling tide of public opinion, the inquisition of hate, the devouring power of persecution with no reserve to fall back on except his own unconquerable spirit; then when such a man stands like a rock against which the billows dash themselves in vain, he is a hero indeed. No man can make such a stand apart from the divine call and support. In his case, as in the case of all trials of religious heroes, the Scripture is fulfilled: “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against him.” In our admiration of this man’s greatness and in our gratitude for the redemption wrought through his heroic courage and fidelity, we should not lose sight of the God-prompted measures employed by him to effectively stem the encroaching tide of evil.
THE EFFECTIVE MEASURES EMPLOYED BY ELIJAH Briefly speaking, these were:
1. In his meeting with Ahab he startles the irreligious world with the announcement of a drought of three and a half years, which should not be broken except at his word, and then as suddenly as the drop of the curtain hides the arena of a theater from the sight of the people, he disappears and is lost to public view until the time comes for the breaking up of the drought. His name is unknown to history up to this sudden appearance with this awful denunciation. We know nothing of his father or his mother, or his kindred, or any of the early stages of his life. He emerges from total obscurity to stand as the mouthpiece of Jehovah, and then to be swallowed up into that obscurity for three and a half years more. The ravens knew the place of his retirement and furnished him food in his solitude, and a widow in the borders of Jezebel’s home country sheltered him from human sight. He had said that at his word only the drought should be broken; he was gone and no one knew where, and the consuming drought kept up its burning logic of opposition to idolatry. No soothsayer, no diviner, no rainmaker, no god of the heathen could even fleck the burning sky with a spot of cloud. While the ground parched and the water courses dried up, and all vegetation withered, and even kings spent their time in finding enough water to support the cattle of the royal household, well might the world wonder when this dramatic man would reappear and speak the word for rain to come. May we not account for Ahab’s worldwide search for him, by the desire that he would come and break up the drought by a word, before the nation perished? This measure was exceedingly effective in stemming the tide of irreligion, and in destroying public confidence in the powerless heathen gods.
The method of his own nourishment during the famine of the drought adds much to the character of the test between opposing deities. Jehovah miraculously provides for his prophet. There is nothing too hard for him. He may employ ravens or widows as instruments. We may not attempt to shut out a miracle by different vowel pointing of the word “raven.” The word is “ravens” and not angels, nor merchants, nor Arabs. These birds probably nested in the caves where Elijah went, and may have brought the food for their young. But that conjecture could not meet the Septuagint rendering: “They brought him bread in the morning and flesh in the evening.” The God whose spirit assembled the animals in the ark could influence ravens. Elijah is called the first apostle to the Gentiles because of his saving sojourn with the widow of Zarephath. The fact that Jezebel’s own country nourished the prophet adds emphasis to the test between opposing deities and as history counts it this widow is higher than Jezebel. The saving of the widow’s son led to her own salvation: many widows in Israel perished, but electing love reached out its saving hand to this widow in Jezebel’s country, as it did again in our Lord’s day. Jewish tradition represents this restored boy as becoming a follower of Elijah and identifies him with the prophet Jonah, the second foreign missionary.
Toward the end of this drought period, when its lessons of preparation have been well learned, and when messengers had vainly sought for Elijah throughout the habitable world, he reappears with all the dramatic power of his first appearance, and his second meeting with Ahab introduces his next effective measure of opposition to the irreligious life of his time.
2. He openly challenges Ahab to bring all the prophets of Baal together to put themselves against him alone in order to determine which god had the power to break this drought. The earth had never before seen such a single public test of the power of opposing deities. Elijah thus puts the case: “And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. But the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them, therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bullock and lay it on wood and put no fire under, and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.” Thousands of sermons have been preached on these thrilling words of Elijah. The first one my own boyish mind can recall was by my own father upon this theme. The demonstration of Elijah was complete, and all the people said, “Jehovah, he is God.” In spite of their wickedness they found it impossible to blot out from their memories and from the memories of the race this great demonstration of divine power. And while the great reformation thus introduced seemed to be short-lived for these people, yet we, nearly 3,000 years later, feel the impress of the triumph of that day. Very rarely in a Bible story does a man of God indulge in sarcasm. The literature of the world cannot surpass this mockery of the false prophets of a false god: “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked.” Certain heathen authors have imitated Elijah’s mockery of false gods; for example:
“Jove went yesterday across the ocean to banquet with the Ethiopians.” HOMER. Jove on his couch reclined his awful head, And Juno slumbered on the golden bed.
“It is no wonder that the temple of Diana was burned; since she was absent at the time, employed in bringing Alexander into the world.” PLUTARCH.
” ‘Tis plain that the gods are not at home, and probably have taken a voyage to attend the feasts of Ethiopia’s blameless race, for they are in the habit of inviting themselves as guests to those honest folks.” (Lucian, Testimony of the Ages, p. 307.) Fire from heaven having attested the truth of Elijah and demonstrated the falsehood of Baal, the lying prophets were all slain at the word of Elijah and in the presence of the panic-stricken Ahab, Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, overlooking the sea, and prayed seven times for rain. What a lesson on the importunity of prayer, and what a text for another sermon on the little cloud no larger than a man’s head at first, but rapidly darkening the heavens, and oh, the rain, the blessed rain that followed! At the word of Elijah the drought was broken. Though a man of like passions with ourselves, so great was his power of prayer, his pleadings attracted and condensed the clouds of the heavens, and the rain fell in torrents. The parched earth rejoiced under its downpour, the dying roots of vegetation revived, and burst forth in blade and bloom and fruit, and even men were not unmindful in at least their temporary gratitude for the relief that came to assuage their burning thirst. In every subsequent drought and thirst men remember Elijah and pray as Elijah prayed that God might relieve the suffering world. The lesson is titanic and far-reaching in its influence. It demonstrates that man’s extreme need is God’s opportunity. It uncovered to all human sight a throne of grace approached by human and suffering suppliants. Hundreds of thousands in the passing ages have Carmel to look on the sight of those great happenings. They put their feet where the old altar of Jehovah stood, which Jezebel destroyed, and Elijah here reconstructed. Even Tacitus, the Roman historian, ages afterward speaks of Garmel’s strange altar. These same thousands have climbed Carmel’s crest, and marked the crest where Elijah, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea, by importunate prayer, called up the cloud.
It is true that at this high tide of this reformation, the daring and cruel Jezebel affrighted Elijah, and shook for the first and only time in his history his self-reliant spirit, and drove him in abject fear to another and distant retirement. But not even Jezebel could blot out the lesson. The wilderness has swallowed Elijah like the brook Cherith once hid him from sight. Under the juniper tree he may wish to die. In the cave of Horeb he would hear the howling of the storm, feel the shock of the earthquake, see the devouring fire, and listen again to the still small voice of God. Men may say that Elijah was defeated, that he was thoroughly panic-stricken. He is gone, but he will come again out of the silence of the desert, and the opposition will hear his voice again.
The record of this disappearance of Elijah is more marvel-ous than the first. That despair under the juniper tree; that voice of God: “What doest thou here, Elijah?” that deep sleep; that angel food in the strength of which he fasted forty days, like Moses before him and his Lord after him all in that same desert, the visit to Sinai, and the voice again: “What doest thou here, Elijah?” the theme of so many sermons. Spurgeon says of himself that when a boy, seeing a deacon in a questionable place, put his finger on his shoulder and startled him with, “What doest thou here, Elijah?”
3. Just as suddenly as on the previous occasion he appears before Ahab in Naboth’s vineyard, and evokes from the trembling lips of the startled king: “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” How grim is his response: “I have found you.” And then comes the next measure to stem the tide of irreligion. As an oracle of God he denounced the doom of the house of Ahab. It shall perish root and branch; man, woman, nor child shall be left, and Jezebel) though she may array herself in royal apparel and paint her face and attire her head, yet shall the dogs eat her flesh. The word that had shut up the heavens, the word that had opened the heavens; that word now pronounces the downfall of this entire iniquitous house as certain and irrevocable. There is not space to rehearse the details of the execution of this doom. The records show that not a word of Elijah failed. The whole house of Ahab is blotted out and that lesson has power today. Even men who mock at God and deny the supernatural, and wade through blood to attain the goal of a tyrant’s ambition, yet tremble when they read the record of the fall of the house of Ahab. The miser, the covetous man who is an idolater, the individual land grabber, and the corporation thief of national territory may well cherish the experience of Elijah when in the vineyard of Naboth. The quiver of Elijah is not yet empty; another shaft is fitted to his bow of Death.
4. The son of Ahab is on the throne, and he is sick unto death. He had not forgotten the power of the word of Elijah. Let all sons of tyrants remember it. There is ever some weak or broken lattice to cause a fall that brings on the sickness unto death. And this man would inquire of Baal whether he would recover, but from out of his obscurity Elijah intercepts the messenger of inquiry and sends him back with the message of death. The affrighted man inquires of the messenger the appearance of the man who sends him this awful message: “What manner of man was he that came up to meet you and told you these words?” And they answered him: “He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about the loins, and he said, ‘It is Elijah the Tishbite.'” The message was more impressive than the garb of the one who sent it and both are always recognizable by tyrants. The unhappy king seeks to arrest the prophet, but when two companies of fifty men have been consumed by fire, the man of God appears before the dying tyrant: “Thus saith Jehovah, forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore, thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.” So he died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken. How significant this terrible lesson! Not even the sick and dying shall inquire of another God but Jehovah! It was a lesson worthy of association with the lessons of the drought and the rain, and the fire from heaven, and of the vineyard of Naboth. Some men for a time, may forget this lesson, but mankind as a rule never forgets it. The oracles of the heathen have been abandoned to the moles and bats. The lesson of Elijah falls from many lips since his time, and we hear it thus from the lips of Isaiah: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards that chirp and mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” But the effective measures of Elijah have not reached their climax. The leaven of the Baal worship had spread through Jezebel’s daughter to the neighboring kingdom of Judah, and while Elijah’s mission was to Israel, or to the ten tribes, yet he has a measure for the kindred nations.
5. And this is his letter to Jehoram, king of Judah, the husband of Jezebel’s daughter. We have known Elijah as a man of deeds and of mighty words. We have not known him as a writer, but we do know that in this one case where he could not appear in person before the king of Judah, he wrote a letter, which, though not delivered until after his going away, yet found its object and was a posthumous bolt of lightning. This is the letter: “And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah; but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab; and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house, which were better than thyself: behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of the bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day.” This word was as much a missive of death as the word to Ahaziah, and is a demonstration that Elijah, though alone against the world, is still triumphant in the great war against the house of Ahab and the Baal worship. Ahab, Jezebel, Ahaziah, and Jehoram, are gone. Jezebel’s daughter and all the other offenders will follow later.
6. The sixth measure, God-prompted, which Elijah employed was even more powerful than the preceding ones. It is the measure of perpetuity. He is already informed that the time is at hand when he must leave the earth, and before leaving he must take steps to provide for the full prosecution of his work. This measure consists of a triple anointment. He anoints Elisha to be his own successor. He anoints Hazael, king of Syria, to afflict the idolatrous Israelites, and he anoints Jehu, king of Israel, to be his executor of all the remnants of the house of Ahab, so that his translation from this world to the one above does not put a stop to the effectiveness of the redemption of his race, and to the growth of the true religion. It seems to me however great things one may achieve in the short time of his earthly life, they cannot possibly be equal in effectiveness to those measures which provide for the successors and the perpetuity of the good work when one is gone. Only those who can leave behind them others to take up the work where they left it and who, through organizing power, can provide for an endless succession of workers only these are the great men of the world. It matters little if Christ is crucified if he left apostles and if these were empowered to institute a larger ministry, so that Paul might commit his work to Timothy, and Timothy in turn to faithful men after him, and thus secure a perpetuity of ministers. Whitefield was a great orator in his day, but his day passed. Wesley was a great organizer, and through his organization he lived long after Whitefield passed away.
7. Elijah has yet one arrow in his quiver; he will not die at all; God will translate him. Not even the sons of the prophets can find him when they search for him. No spot on earth holds his remains; no tombstone marks his resting place, and thus we come to his last effective measure.
He so went away as to create an expectation of his return. The expectation is voiced in these words of Malachi, which is the closing paragraph of the Old Testament: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
When we come to the New Testament, the angel thus carries on the closing thought of the Old Testament to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist: “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” The words of our Lord give the interpretation of Malachi’s prophecy and of the angelic message to Zacharias. Concerning John the Baptist, Jesus said, “And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah which was to come.” “And they asked him saying, Why say the Scribes that Elijah must first come? And he answered and told them, Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things, and how it is written of the son of man, that he must suffer many things and be set at naught. But I say unto you, that Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.”
We have thus found the elements of the crisis in Elijah’s time to be:
(1) Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess.
(2) The marriage of Jezebel’s daughter with Jehoram, prince royal of Judah.
(3) The consequent unhallowed alliance between Israel and Judah.
(4) The consequent establishment of Baal worship in both kingdoms.
(5) The consequent and extraordinary persecution of the true religion and its prophets in both kingdoms.
(6) The murderous extinction of the seed royal of David by Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, until one child alone is left of all the male progeny of David.
(7) The consequent imminent hazard of the true religion and its prophets in the world.
And we have found Elijah’s effective measures of resistance to be:
(1) The sending of the drought at his first meeting with Ahab.
(2) The triumph over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and the breaking of the drought.
(3) His confronting Ahab in the stolen vineyard of Naboth and denouncing the doom of all his house.
(4) His interception of the message of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, and his denunciation of the doom of the wicked king.
(5) His letter to Jehoram, king of Judah.
(6) His appointment of successors to carry on his work.
(7) His departure from the earth in such a way as to create an expectation of his return in any similar crisis in the world’s history.
Such a man not only left his impress in Jewish traditions, but supplied some of the most important New Testament lessons. The most notable of these are the following:
Christ’s lesson from Elijah’s time in his sermon at Nazareth: “And he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land) but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city near Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” This important lesson itself has been the theme of many a timely sermon. The lesson is one of extreme sadness. It carries back the mind to that awful drought when the stock were suffering, and the poor widows suffering most of all. It establishes the truth that any starving, dying woman of Israel could have found relief in an appeal to God’s prophet, but only a far-off stranger in Jezebel’s country had the faith to make the appeal and be saved from distress.
The next great lesson is the reappearance of Elijah at Christ’s transfiguration, where, with Moses, he appears in glory, and communes with the great Redeemer concerning his approaching death at Jerusalem (Mat 17:3 ). So that Elijah not only fulfilled the public expectation in coming again in the person of John the Baptist, who had his spirit and his power, but he comes in his own person from the high courts of heaven to confer with our Lord concerning his expiatory death. What a lesson is this when the living apostles are protesting against his death; when the murderers are expecting his death to cut off his influence and stop the progress of his principles I From the realms of the invisible world, the great law giver and the great prophet appear to find in that death the world’s only hope of salvation.
Another important New Testament lesson is Paul’s use of the remnant of 7,000 in Elijah’s day in discussing the great doctrine of “Election” (Rom 11:2 ). And what a lesson of comfort this is when we feel our isolation and loneliness; when the reformers in the ages of corruption become discouraged, to look back to Elijah, and see him under the juniper tree wishing he might die in the thought that his life was a failure, and hear the words of God: “I have reserved for myself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the times of great moral and spiritual corruption we know that there is hidden away, known only to the omniscient sight, many men and women true to what is right, though the great centers of influence become corrupt and though the great leaders turn away from the simple truth as it is in Jesus.
Another important lesson is given by James the brother of our Lord: “Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” What a lesson is here for human feebleness and doubt as to the power of prayer, and how much does the world need this lesson! Particularly is it helpful just now when it has become fashionable among the literary great to decry the power of prayer, when unsanctified science, falsely so-called, rebukes the helpless when they sink down on bended knee in dire extremities, saying, “It is vain to pray: all things move according to natural law. It is useless to cry unto God. What profit shall we have if we pray unto him?”
One other New Testament lesson which I refer to Elijah’s time, is very sweet. We find the record of it in Mat 10:41-42 . Jesus had been saying that whosoever giveth even a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall receive a disciple’s reward, or whosoever shall receive a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. There seems to be allusion to the words of Elijah addressed to the widow of Sarepta, words spoken in times of famine and drought and thirst: “And give me, I pray thee, a cup of cold water.” This lesson speaks to the lowliest and the poorest, those who have the least, and shows the mercy and grace of God in permitting the children of poverty even to find a blessing in helping somewhat the cause of the blessed God.
So that whether we consider the crisis of this man’s time or the effective measures adopted by him to stem the tide of religious corruption, or the New Testament lessons borrowed from the record of his life, or consider his period as an inexhaustible mine for digging up precious themes of pulpit power, we find Elijah and his times as supremely worthy of human study in any age. Such are some of the lessons to be learned from the man who stood alone against the world.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the theme and text of this lesson?
2. How do you account for the ineffaceable impress on the imagination of succeeding generations made by the life of Elijah?
3. Cite some of the traditions suggested by his life.
4. What is the relation of this life to homiletics and what books of Scripture furnish the material for the life of Elijah?
5. What proves that the abiding interest in Elijah is not due exclusively to the dramatic character of that life appealing to the imagination?
6. Give briefly the elements of the world crisis in his time,
7. How does Elijah himself express the situation?
8. How does Jehovah correct the exaggeration of this statement due to ignorance and morbid depression of mind?
9. Cite instances, apart from Jezebel’s case, of great harm coming from a woman’s influence, and then cite instances of great good resulting from a woman’s influence.
10. “There is a Jewish proverb: “When the tale of brick is doubled, then cornea Moses.” What scripture embodies the thought?
11. What was Elijah’s first measure of meeting the world crisis and how did it fairly test the opposing religions and deities?
12. Why did Ahab send all over the world to find Elijah?
13. How and where did Elijah hide himself during the three and a half years of the drought and how was he nourished?
14. Was his food supply at the brook Cherith brought by angels, Arabs, or birds?
15. What poor woman of this story eclipses Jezebel, and how did this incident add emphasis to the test between opposing deities?
16. Why is Elijah called the first apostle to the Gentiles?
17. What is the proof that this heathen woman was saved by Elijah’s ministry?
18. What is the Jewish traditions about this woman’s son?
19. What was Elijah’s second test?
20. What is the meaning of the word “bait” in “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
21. What heathen authors have imitated Elijah’s sarcasm and mockery of a false god?
22. How did Jezebel turn the tables on Elijah?
23. Have you read Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon on this panic of Elijah?
24. What great lesson of the juniper tree and the cave in Horeb?
25. What was the third measure of Elijah?
26. What were the great lessons from it?
27. What was the fourth measure?
28. And what was its lesson?
29. What was the fifth measure and its lesson?
30. What was the sixth?
31. What was the seventh and last?
32. Restate the seven elements of the crisis and the seven measures opposing.
33. Cite five New Testament lessons from his life.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, [As] the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Ver. 1. And Elijah the Tishbite. ] So he is called of his country. The Hebrews tell us a of another name that he had before that acclamation drawn by him from the people, “The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God.” 1Ki 18:39 Elijah signifieth, “My God, he is the Lord.” This wonder working prophet – who comes to our knowledge as, another Melchizedek, “without father or mother, or descent” Heb 7:3 Gen 14:18 – observing Ahab’s and Hiel’s height of wickedness, and desperate obdurateness, denounceth with great boldness the ensuing judgment upon the whole land of drought and famine.
Said unto Ahab.
Before whom I stand.
There shall not be dew nor rain.
But according to my word,
a In Genesi, magn. cap. 37.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Kings
A PROPHET’ S STRANGE PROVIDERS
ELIJAH STANDING BEFORE THE LORD
1Ki 17:1
This solemn and remarkable adjuration seems to have been habitual upon Elijah’s lips in the great crises of his life. We never find it used by any but himself, and his scholar and successor, Elisha. Both of them employ it under similar circumstances, as if unveiling the very secret of their lives, the reason for their strength, and for their undaunted bearing and bold fronting of all antagonism. We find four instances in their two lives of the use of the phrase. Elijah bursts abruptly on the stage and opens his mouth for the first time to Ahab, to proclaim the coming of that terrible and protracted drought; and he bases his prophecy on that great oath, ‘As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand.’ And again, when he is sent to confront Ahab once more at the close of the period, the same mighty word comes, ‘As the Lord of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him this day.’ And then again, Elisha, when he is brought before the three confederate kings, who taunt, and threaten, and flatter, to try to draw smooth things from his lips, and get his sanction to their mad warfare, turns upon the poor creature that called himself the King of Israel with a superb contempt that stayed itself on that same great name and tells him, ‘As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, were it not that I had regard for the King of Judah, I would not look toward you or see you,’ And lastly, when the grateful Naaman seeks to change the whole character of Elisha’s miracle, and to turn it into the coarseness of a thing done for reward, once again the temptation is brushed aside with that solemn word, ‘As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none.’
So at every crisis where these prophets were brought full front with hostile power; where a tremendous message was laid upon their hearts and lips to utter; where natural strength would fail; where they were likely to be daunted or dazzled by temptations, by either the sweetness or the terrors of material things, these two great heroes of the Old Covenant, out of sight the strongest men in the old Jewish history, steady themselves by one thought,-God lives, and I am His servant.
For that phrase, ‘before whom I stand,’ obviously means chiefly ‘whom I serve.’ It is found, for instance, in Deuteronomy, where the priest’s office is thus defined: ‘The sons of Levi shall stand before the Lord to minister unto Him.’ And in the same way, it is used in the Queen of Sheba’s wondering exclamation to Solomon, ‘Blessed are thy servants, and blessed are the men that stand before thy face continually.’
So that the consciousness that they were servants of the living God was the very secret of the power of these men. This expression, which thus started to their lips in moments of strain and trial, lets us see into the very inmost heart of their strength. These two great lives, which fill so large a apace in the records of the past, and will be remembered for ever, were braced and ennobled thus. The same grand thought is available to brace and ennoble our little lives, that will soon be forgotten but by a loving heart or two, and yet may be as full of God and of God’s service as those of any of the great of old. We too may use this secret of power, ‘The Lord liveth, before whom I stand.’
What thoughts then, which may tend to lift and invigorate our days, are included in these words? The first is surely this-Life a constant vision of God’s presence.
How distinct and abiding must the vision of God have been, which burned before the inward eye of the man that struck out that phrase! ‘Wherever I am, whatever I do, I am before Him. To my purged eye, there is the Apocalypse of heaven, and I behold the great throne, and the solemn ranks of ministering spirits, my fellow-servants, hearkening to the voice of His word.’ No excitement of work, no strain of effort, no distraction of circumstances, no glitter of gold, no dazzle of earthly brightness, dimmed that vision for these prophets. In some measure, it was with them as it shall be perfectly with all one day, ‘His servants serve Him, and see His face,’-action not interrupting vision, nor vision weakening action. To preserve thus fresh and unimpaired, amidst strenuous work and many temptations, the clear consciousness of being ‘ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye,’ needs resolute effort and much self-restraint. It is hard to set the Lord always before us; but it is possible, and in the measure in which we do it, we shall not be moved.
How nobly the steadfastness and superiority to all temptations which such a vision gives, are illustrated by the occasions, in these prophets’ lives, in which this expression came to their lips! The servant of the Heavenly King speaks from his present intuition. As he speaks, he sees the throne in the heavens, and the Sovereign Ruler there, and the sight bears him up from quailing before the earthly monarchs whom he had to beard, and in connection with whom three out of the four instances of the use of the phrase occur. How small Ahab and his court must have looked to eyes that were full of the undazzling brightness of the true King of Israel, and the ordered ranks of His attendants! How little the greatness! How tawdry the pomp! How impotent the power, and how toothless the threats! The poor show of the earthly king paled before that awful vision, as a dim candle will show black against the sun. ‘I stand before the living God, and thou, O Ahab! art but a shadow and a noise.’ Just as we may have looked upon some mountain scene, where all the highest summits were wrapt in mist, and the lower hills looked mighty and majestic, until some puff of wind came and rolled up the curtain that had shrined and hidden the icy pinnacles and peaks that were higher up. And as that solemn white apocalypse rose and towered to the heavens, we forgot all about the green hills below, because our eyes beheld the mighty summits that live amongst the stars, and sparkle white through eternity.
My brethren, here is our defence against being led away by the gauds and shows of earth’s vulgar attractions, or being terrified by the poor terrors of its enmity. Go with that talisman in your hand, ‘The Lord liveth, before whom I stand,’ and everything else dwindles down into nothingness, and you are a free man, master and lord of all things, because you are God’s servants, seeing all things aright, because you see them all in God, and God in them all.
Still further, we may say that this phrase is the utterance and expression of a consciousness that life was echoing with the voice of the divine command. Elijah stands before the Lord, not only feeling in his thrilling spirit that God is ever near him, but also that His word is ever coming forth to him, with imperative authority. That is the prophet’s conception of life. Wherever he is, he hears a voice saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’ Every place where he stands is as the very holy place of the oracles of the Most High, the spot in the innermost shrine where the voice of God is audible, All circumstances are the voice of God, commanding or restraining. He is evermore pursued, nay, rather upheld and guided, by an all-embracing law. That law is no mere utterance of cold impersonal duty,-a thought which may make men slaves, but never makes them good. But it is the voice of the living God, loving and beloved, whose tender care for His children modulates His tone, while He commands them for their good. He speaks because He loves; His law is life. The heart that hears Him speak is filled with music.
Ahab and Jehoram, and all the kings of the earth, may thunder and lighten, may threaten and flatter, may command and forbid, as they list. They and their words are nought to him whose trembling ears have heard, and whose obedient heart has received, a higher command, and to whom, ‘across the storm,’ comes the deeper voice of the one true Commander, whom alone it is a glory absolutely to obey, even ‘the Lord, before whom I stand.’ People talk about the consciousness of ‘a mission.’ The important point, on the settling of which depends the whole character of our lives, is-Who do you suppose gave you your ‘mission’? Was it any person at all? or have you any consciousness that any will but your own has anything to say about your life? These prophets had found One whom it was worth while to obey, whatever came of it, and whoever stood in the way. May it be so with you and me, my friend! Let us try always to feel that in the commonest things we may hear the command of God; that the trifles of each day-trifles though they be-vibrate and sound with the reverberation of His great voice; that in all the outward circumstances of our lives, as in all the deep recesses of our hearts, we may trace the indications and rudiments of His will concerning us, which He has perfectly given us in that Gospel which is ‘the law of liberty,’ and in Him who is the Gospel and the perfect Law. Then quietly, without bluster or mock-heroics, or making a fuss about our independence, we can put all other commands and commanders in their right place, with the old words, ‘With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you, or of man’s judgment; He that judgeth me,’ and He that commandeth me, ‘is the Lord,’ In answer to all the noise about us we can face round like Elijah, and say, ‘As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand.’ He is my ‘Imperator,’ the Autocrat and Commander of my life; and Him, and Him only, must I serve. What calmness, what dignity that would put into our lives! The never-ceasing boom of the great ocean, as it breaks on the beach, drowns all smaller sounds. Those lives are noble and great in which that deep voice is ever dominant, sounding on through all lesser voices, and day and night filling the soul with command and awe.
Then, still further, we may take another view of these words. They are the utterance of a man to whom his life was not only bright with the radiance of a divine presence, and musical with the voice of a divine command, but was also, on his part, full of conscious obedience. No man could say such a thing of himself who did not feel that he was rendering a real, earnest, though imperfect obedience to God. So, though in one view the words express a very lowly sense of absolute submission before God, in another view they make a lofty claim for the utterer. He professes that he stands before the Lord, girt for His service, watching to be guided by His eye, and ready to run when He bids. It is the same lofty sense of communion and consecration, issuing in authority over others, which Elijah’s true brother in later days, Paul the Apostle, put forth when he made known to his companions in shipwreck the will of ‘the God, whose I am, and whom I serve.’ We may well shrink from making that claim for ourselves, when we think of the poor, perfunctory service and partial consecration which our lives show. But let us rejoice that even we may venture to say, ‘Truly I am Thy servant’; if only we, like the Psalmist, rest the confession on the perfectness of what He has done for us, rather than on the imperfection of what we have done for Him; and lay, as its foundation, ‘Thou hast loosed my bonds.’ Then, though we must ever feel how poor our service, and how unprofitable ourselves, how little we deserve the honour, and how impossible that we should ever earn the least mite of wages; yet we may, in all lowliness, think of ourselves as set free that we may serve, and lift our eyes, as the eyes of a servant turn towards his master, to ‘the living Lord, before whom we stand.
Such a life is necessarily a happy life. The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield them up to God is rest and peace. If we ‘stand before God,’ then that means that our wills are brought into harmony with His. And that means that the one poison drop is squeezed out of our lives, and that sweetness and joy are infused into them. For what disturbs us in this world is not ‘trouble’ but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by external things. I suppose that we shall never here bring these wills of ours into perfect correspondence with His, any more than we shall ever, with our shaking hands and blunt pencils, draw a perfectly straight line. But if will and heart are brought even to a rude approach to parallelism with His, if we accept His voice when He takes away, and obey it when He commands, we shall be quiet and peaceful. We shall be strong and unwearied, freed from corroding cares and exhausting rebellions, which take far more out of a man than any work does. ‘Thy word was found, and I did eat it.’ When we thus take God’s command into our spirits, and feed upon it with will and understanding, it becomes, as the Psalmist found it, the ‘joy and rejoicing of our hearts.’ Elijah-like, we shall ‘go in the strength of that meat many days.’ The secret of power and of calm is-yield your will to the loving Lord, and stand ever before Him with, ‘Here am I, send me!’
We may add one more remark to these various views of the significance of this expression, to which the last instance of its use may help us. Here it is: ‘And Naaman said, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none.’
The thought, which made all Elisha’s life bright with the light of God’s presence, which filled his ear with the unremitting voice of a Divine Law, which swayed and bowed his will to joyful obedience, chilled and deadened his desires for all earthly rewards. ‘I am not thy servant. I am God’s servant. It is not your business to pay my wages. I cannot dishonour my Master by taking payment from thee for doing His work. I look for everything from Him, for nothing from thee.’
And is there not a broad general truth involved there, namely, that such a life as we have been describing will find its sole reward where it finds its inspiration and its law? The Master’s approval is the servant’s best wages. If we truly feel that ‘the Lord liveth , before whom we stand, ‘we shall want nothing else for our work but His smile, and we shall feel that the light of His face is all that we need. That thought should deaden our love for outward things. How little we need to care about any payment that the world can give for anything we do! If we feel, as we ought, that we are God’s servants, that will lift us clear above the low aims and desires which meet us. How little we shall care for money, for men’s praise, for getting on in the world! How the things that we fever our souls by pursuing, and fret our hearts when we lose, will cease to attract! How small and vulgar the ‘prizes’ of life, as people call them, will appear! ‘The Lord liveth, before whom I stand,’ should be enough for us, and instead of all these motives to action drawn from the rewards of this world, we ought to ‘labour that, whether present or absent, we may be well-pleasing to Him.’
Not the fading leaves of the victor’s wreath, laurel though they be, nor the corruptible things as silver and gold, whereof earth’s diadems and rewards are fashioned, but the incorruptible crown that fadeth not away, which His hand will give, should fire our hope, and shine before our faith. Not Naaman’s gifts but God’s approval is Elisha’s reward. Not the praise from lips that will perish, or the ‘hollow wraith of dying fame,’ but Christ’s ‘Well done! good and faithful servant,’ should be a Christian’s aim.
May we, brethren, possess the ‘spirit and the power of Elias’;-the spirit, in that we know ourselves to be the servants of the living God; and then we shall have some measure of his dauntless power and heroic unworldliness!
Still better, may we have the Spirit of Him who was ‘ the Servant of the Lord,’ diviner in His gentle meekness than the fiery prophet in his lonely strength! Make yours the mind that was in Christ, that you too may say, ‘Lo, I come! in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, yea, Thy law is within my heart.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Elijah. First mention = GOD (El) is JAH (or Jehovah). See App-4.
Tishbite = sojourner. Probably a priest.
inhabitants = sojourners.
before, &c. Probably a priest. See note above.
dew = night-mist. Compare Deu 32:2. 2Sa 1:21. Job 38:28.
these years (not three years). No definite period stated. “Years” is plural, not dual. In Luk 4:25 and Jam 5:17 = “three years and six months”. These six months must be reckoned before the three years, not added to the end because of “the third year” (1Ki 18:1): i.e. the third full year.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
By Chuck Smith
Let’s turn to the First Kings, chapter seventeen.
The seventeenth chapter of First Kings introduces us now to a very interesting character, Elijah the Tishbite, whatever Tishbite means. Now Elijah came from the area of Gilead, which you’d call today TransJordan if you were in Israel; it was across Jordan in the area of Gad. And so he came from the area of Gilead. It is thought that it is possible that Tishbite means that he was not really an Israelite, that he was some other nationality. But that is only a conjecture, we don’t know for sure. But he certainly had a very interesting career. And he comes to the apostate northern tribe at really sort of its lowest point when Ahab is the king with his wicked wife Jezebel. And they have just about eliminated the worship of Jehovah.
They have introduced Baal worship to Israel. They have broken down the altars of God. They have slain the prophets of God and they have just about eliminated the worship of God from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And so at this dark period of history, Elijah comes on the scene with the message of God and the warning of God for the people, and so he’s a very interesting character indeed. It is prophesied in Malachi that before Jesus comes again, that Elijah will come and will be turning the hearts of the children to their fathers. And God is going to send Elijah back to the nation Israel to really bring a great revival to Israel before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Now when Zechariah the priest, recorded in Luke chapter one, was in the temple fulfilling his course of ministry, the angel Gabriel stood beside the altar and informed Zechariah that his wife Elisabeth in her old age was to bear a son.
And he said, “And he shall go forth in the spirit and in the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the children unto their fathers.” The key there, I think, is the spirit and the power of Elijah.
We then follow when in the first chapter of John when John the Baptist was fulfilling his ministry, they came to John and they said unto him, “Who gave you the authority to do these things? Are you Elijah?”
And he said, “No.”
Are you that other prophet? “No.”
Then who are you?
He said, “I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness saying, Make straight the path of the Lord.”
Now John denied that he was Elijah. However, after the death of John the Baptist, Jesus was talking about John and He said, “Of all men born of women there is not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist: yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” ( Mat 11:11 ).
The disciples then said to the Lord, how is it then, He’s giving John the Baptist this credit for being one of the greatest prophets? He said, “How is it then that the Bible says Elijah must first come?”
And Jesus said, “Elijah shall first come.” In other words, the prophecy of Malachi will be fulfilled. Before Jesus comes again, Elijah will first come. But He said, “if you are able to receive it, this is Elijah,” referring to John the Baptist.
Now we realize that there are two aspects of the coming of Jesus Christ. His first coming was to give Himself as God planned as a sacrifice for our sins. His Second Coming is to reign and to establish God’s kingdom upon the earth. But there are two aspects to the coming of Christ; and thus, there are two aspects to the prophecy of Elijah being the forerunner. And thus John the Baptist in the spirit and in the power of Elijah was the forerunner at the first coming; but Elijah will return to be the forerunner before Jesus comes again.
John the Baptist was in the spirit and in the power of Elijah. Now Elijah did appear with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. When Jesus went up into the high mountain with His disciples, Peter, James and John, He was transfigured before them, Elijah appeared there on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord. No doubt in Revelation, chapter eleven, verse two where it speaks of the Lord sending the two witnesses, His two witnesses unto the nation Israel, that one of the two witnesses will indeed be Elijah and the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi.
So Elijah is a very interesting character because he is interwoven. This is the beginning of his career but he showed up on the Mount of Transfiguration and he’s going to show up once more before Jesus comes again. Now because of the prophecy that Elijah will first come, that is why the Jews at every Passover when they celebrate Passover they always set the empty chair and leave the door open. They’re waiting for Elijah to come. The door is open. He’s welcome and they’ve got the chair set for him at the table and it is a sign of their anticipation of the Messiah’s return. But they know before He returns, or their anticipation of the Messiah, they are not really looking for Him to return, but their anticipation of the Messiah and the chair set for Elijah before the return.
So very interesting character and now we get into the study of this fellow Elijah who came into Israel at this dark period of their history when there is such a great spiritual decline.
And he comes in very dramatically, with a dramatic announcement and then he disappears. He came to Ahab, the wicked king and he said,
As the LORD God lives, before whom I stand, there is not going to be dew or rain for these years, until I say so ( 1Ki 17:1 ).
And then he took off. And he was gone for three-and-a-half years. And for three-and-a-half years, there was a drought, not a drop of rain, no dew from heaven until the land became very dry and parch.
Now he took off first of all over to the brook Cherith, which is back towards Gilead, from which he had come. And the Lord instructed him to go to the brook and drink of its water and the Lord said, “I’ll feed you there.” And God commissioned a couple of ravens to bring him food to eat every day, actually in the morning and in the evening. They brought him bread and they brought him meat. And so he was there by the brook Cherith, morning and evening the ravens would show up with this food and he was just staying there until the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.
And so the Lord then commanded him to get to Zarephath, over near Zidon. So it would be in the area of the Lebanon today. Zidon is about ten miles north from Accho. And there is a widow woman there, the Lord said, “And she will take care of you.”
So he went and he came to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, he saw this widow woman and she was gathering sticks ( 1Ki 17:10 ):
Now in the more primitive cultures, the ladies go out and gather sticks for their fires. You can go down to Guatemala and see the ladies today out gathering sticks for their fires and all. And over in Israel in the primitive culture, and it still does exist in many areas there, the ladies out gathering sticks and they of course, cook over the open fires and it’s quite interesting.
And so she was gathering these sticks and he said to her, “Would you bring me a drink of water?”
And so while she was going to get him a drink of water, he said, “Oh, while you’re bringing me the water, how about bringing me some bread, too?”
And so she poured out her heart. She said, “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t have any bread. In fact, I’m gathering a couple sticks now to build a fire and I have just a little oil and a little flour left, enough to make a couple of pieces of bread for my son and we’re going to eat those and then we’re just going to die. I’m just- we’re depleted. We have no flour, no oil.”
So Elijah said, “First make me some bread. And then make it for you and your son. And according to the Lord and the word of the Lord, the flour shall not cease nor the oil until this whole drought is over.”
And so the widow lady went in and she made Elijah some bread and she found out that there was still flour left in the barrel, still oil. And she kept feeding him. And during this whole period of the drought, the flour did not fail, nor the oil, it was always enough to make just one more.
It’s really a miracle indeed and there is no taking away from the miraculous aspect of it, how that God supplied miraculously. But it is interesting the prophet said, “Make it for me first, and then for yourself.” There is sort of a spiritual kind of a thing here, as far as giving to God the firstfruits of our lives. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these other things will be added unto you” ( Mat 6:33 ).
Now if I twist this priority, and I start seeking first other things, then my life will be so involved in seeking other things that I don’t have time for God. But if I seek first my relationship with God, then all of my other relationships come into balance. They all just work on in. You see, my life exists on two plains-the vertical axis upon which my life revolves, and the horizontal plain, this outer area, my relationship with other people. Now if the vertical axis of my life is correct, if my relationship with God is what it should be, then the horizontal plain of my life is in balance. My relationship with those around me is in balance and I am living a well-balanced life if the vertical axis is correct, if my relationship with God is all that it should be.
However, if the vertical axis of my life is not correct, if my relationship with God isn’t all that it should be, then the horizontal plain of my life is also going to be out of kilter. And I find myself on this crazy topsy-turvy kind of an experience, where I’m always trying to balance my life. And I’m spending all my time trying to get my life into balance and things in the proper focus. And I just never can seem to quite make it. Just about the time I get up here to try and balance this side, then I come overboard this way, you know. And I’m constantly working to get my life into balance, never seeming to be able to do it. My relationships are all messed up.
Now if I spend my time in just trying to balance my life, I am only treating the symptoms. It’s like trying to treat a brain tumor with aspirin. You know, just to sort of deaden the pain so you don’t feel it so bad and you don’t feel these headaches quite so severely. But you’re only treating symptoms; you’re not getting to the heart of the problem. Now any doctor who only treats symptoms is a quack. Stay away from him. You want a doctor that’s going to find out what the cause is that’s creating the symptoms. “Why are you getting dizzy? Why do you have this severe pressure in the head?” You want something more than aspirin. Now people are so often treating only the symptoms, the relationship, and trying to get this relationship to work. “No, I’ve got to work on this and I’ve got to work on that. And oh, this is all messed up now, you know.” And we’re so busy in the horizontal plain trying to get it in balance when in reality the solution is very simple. Get the vertical axis correct. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
Elijah said, “Make me first the cake.” Now had she gone in to make first of all the cake for herself and her son, that’d have been it. The barrel would have been empty of flour, the oil would have been gone; they would have died. “Make me first the cake and then for you and your son.” Put the Lord first. Get your priorities correct and God will take care of you. God will take care of the other aspects of your life. So the most important relationship that I have in all this world is my relationship with God and nothing should get before it. And if I’m going to work on any relationship at all, I should be working on this relationship with God above every other relationship, because if this gets correct, then the others are all going to fall into balance. If this relationship with God is out of kilter, then there is no way I’m going to be able to balance my life. It will always be in this crazy topsy-turvy way. There is no way you can have a well-balanced life until your life is centered in God. And that is the vertical axis upon which your life is rotating. And until then it’s always going to be out of balance, out of kilter.
So Elijah set forth really a principle for this gal for God to work. Put God first and God will take care of you. He’ll take care of the seconds and the thirds and the fourths. But it’s priority and it’s simple and it’s basic, and yet it’s one of the most important truths that you need to learn in your whole experience of life, is that your relationship with God must supersede every other relationship. Make sure that you have a right relationship with God because that will see you through everything else.
So the little woman did what Elijah said and God took care.
Verse sixteen,
The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah. Now it came to pass, that the son of this woman became very sick; and actually he was so sick, he quit breathing. And so she said to Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Are you come to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son ( 1Ki 17:16-18 )?
Now it is interesting that she was sort of thinking that the death of her son was somehow related to her own sin.
And Elijah said unto her, Give me your son. And he took him out of her bosom, and he carried him up into a loft, [where he stayed in a loft there next to her house,] and he laid him on his own bed. And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, have you brought this evil upon this woman that I’m staying with in slaying her son? And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul or consciousness come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came to him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down to his mother and presented him to her: and he said, Look, your son is living. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the LORD is in your mouth in truth ( 1Ki 17:19-24 ).
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Ki 17:1. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
How abruptly this man breaks in upon the scene! He leaps like a lion from the thicket. There is no previous announcement of his coming; but here he stands, Gods own man ordained to bear witness in evil times, to stand like a brazen pillar when everything around him seems to be moving from its place. Ahab had not been accustomed to be spoken to in this fashion. Mark how personal is Elijahs message; he does not begin even by saying, as the prophets usually did, Thus saith the Lord. There is something that at first seems almost audacious about his expression: There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. A man may sometimes seem self-assertive when, really, he has so completely lost himself in God that he does not care what people think about him, whether they regard him as an egotist or not. Some men appear to be modest because they are proud, while others seem to be proud because they have sunk themselves, and only speak so boldly because they have their Masters authority at the back of their words Bravely did Elijah say, There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1Ki 17:2-3. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
Of course, the prophet would have had to share in the general want unless God had provided for him, and therefore the Lord took care that his servant should be hidden away where a brooklet would continue to run after the moisture had departed from other places.
1Ki 17:4. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
Perhaps someone says, Ravens were more likely to rob the prophet than to feed him; and so they were. Some have objected that these ravens were unclean; what if they were? Things are not made unclean because they are carried by unclean creatures. Did not Abigail bring to David food upon asses which were unclean? There is no sense in that objection. Oh, but! somebody else asks, how should ravens bring food? How should they not, if God commanded them? All creatures are under his control. A God, and a miracle is simple enough. If God does not feed his people by any other means, he will command ravenous beasts and unclean birds to feed them.
1Ki 17:5. So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
It is the glory of Elijah that he does whatever God bids him, asking no questions. He simply, like a child, goes to the brook just as, like a hero, he had previously stood before the king.
1Ki 17:6-7. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
Brooks will dry up, even if godly men are being sustained by them. Is there anyone here whose brook is drying up? Has it quite dried up? Still trust you in God; for, if the ravens are put out of commission, God will employ some other agency.
1Ki 17:8-9. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
It was a time of famine, yet God sent him to a widow woman! She is sure to need sustaining herself; yes, and she shall get it, too, through sustaining the prophet, he that could command the ravens to feed his servant could command a widow woman to do the same thing; and he did so. This woman does not appear to have been originally a worshipper of Jehovah. She lived in a heathen country, and probably was herself a heathen; but she reverenced the servant of Jehovah, and she did his bidding, and doubtless became a true follower of the living God.
1Ki 17:10. So he arose and went to Zarephath.
There is the same unreasoning faith: So he arose; just as, in the 5th verse, it is written: So he went; that is, with all alacrity, he did his Lords bidding without any question.
1Ki 17:10. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there-
There she was, the woman who was to sustain him. She had come, no doubt, with a carriage and pair, to take him home, to her mansion. Oh, no! The widow woman was there
1Ki 17:10. Gathering of sticks:
She was a poor woman to sustain him, but there she was: gathering of sticks.
1Ki 17:10. And he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
Water was scarce then; every drop was very precious; it was therefore a large request that Elijah made to her.
1Ki 17:11. And as she was going to fetch it,-
For she saw, by his garment, and by his majestic bearing, that he was a messenger of God: As she was going to fetch it,
1Ki 17:11-12. He called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
It was such a little quantity, that two sticks would be quite enough; yet this is the woman who is to sustain Elijah! Poor creature, she needs someone to sustain her and her son! How often does God use very strange means for the accomplishment of his blessed purposes
1Ki 17:13. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
What a trial for her faith! This stranger must have the first portion of her last meal; yet she had faith enough to obey his word.
1Ki 17:14-15. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the Saying of Elijah:
Faith is blessedly contagious. God, by his Spirit can make the faith of one to beget faith in others. This woman learns, from the very boldness of Elijah, to believe in God; and she does as he tells her.
1Ki 17:15-18. And she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah. And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
Poor creature, having lost her husband, her heart was wrapped up in her son! Under this sharp trial, she condemned herself; but she also began to have hard thoughts of the man of God. We none of us know what we may say when we are overwhelmed with a great trouble. It is easy to find fault with the utterance of a poor distracted spirit, and to say, That is improper language. Hast thou never spoken so in the hour of thy grief? Blessed is that man from whose lips there has never escaped a wrong word in the time of his anguish. This widow woman was a mother with a dead child in the house; do not find fault with her, but tenderly pity her, and all who are in a like case.
1Ki 17:19-20. And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son!
The words of the woman had touched his heart, and perhaps he also spoke unadvisedly; but who are we that we should judge? He seemed to feel that, wherever he went, he was bringing trouble upon people. All Israel was afflicted with drought because of his prophecy, and now this poor woman had lost her darling child. Yet even in this desperate case he did not give up hope, and prayer, and effort.
1Ki 17:21. And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this childs soul come into him again.
This was splendid faith on the part of the prophet. Nobody had ever prayed before for the restoration of one who was dead; no one had ever attempted to work such a miracle as this; but Elijahs faith was strung up to a wonderful pitch. Here was faith ready to receive the blessing, so the blessing would surely come. Here was the faith that could move mountains, and stir the very gates of death. Elijah treads an unaccustomed road, and asks for what had never been given before.
1Ki 17:22-23. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
Elijah was never a man of many words; he was a prophet mighty in deeds; he said little, but what he did spoke loudly.
1Ki 17:24. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.
Did she not know this before? Yes, or else she would not have given him the first portion of her meal. She must have known it, for she had been living for a long time upon the meal and the oil which he had multiplied. But now she said that she knew it, as if she had never known it before. God has a way of bringing truth home to the heart with such vividness that, though we have been perfectly acquainted with it for years, yet we are compelled to cry, Now I know it; now I have it as I never had it before; now I grasp it and embrace it with my very soul! May we all know the truth of God in this grand fashion! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Here began a new order, the prophetic. Of course there had been prophets before, but with the coming of Elijah the office was elevated to national importance. From this point onwards, in the economy of the divine government, the prophet is superior to the king. Presently we shall find kings whose hearts were set upon reform, but even their work will be due to the inspiration of some prophet of God through whom His will is made known to men.
The sudden appearance of Elijah was startling and dramatic. To this day there are doubts as to his nationality and parentage. In the midst of the prevailing darkness, he flamed like a lightning flash upon history. His first words declared his authority. He affirmed that Jehovah, the God of Israel, lived, and announced that in the message he was about to deliver he was speaking for the enthroned Jehovah. The divine action in sending Elijah, and in the method adopted with regard to him, is very remarkable. All earthly authority and protection were swept aside as being unnecessary. In simplest ways God protected His messenger by the brook and at Zarephath. His first appearance was to pronounce judgment. The nation had become wholly materialized, and the first stroke fell on material things. The heavens were to give no rain. The judgment thus announced fell immediately, while the prophet passed out of sight of court and people to the divine care, which was simple and perfect.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Sins Climax Summons Jehovahs Prophet
1Ki 16:29-34; 1Ki 17:1-7
From the beginning of his reign Ahab set aside both the First and the Second Commandment. His marriage with Jezebel, the young and beautiful Sidonian princess, plunged him and his kingdom into yet deeper darkness. In addition to Jeroboams calves, the worship of Baal, the sun-god, was shamelessly introduced, and his temple was served by hundreds of priests. The inspired artist does not hesitate to paint with Rembrandt colors, and the illustrious glory of Elijah shows clearly against the dark background. The darkest hour precedes the dawn; the keenest pain ushers in birth. First Ahab and Jezebel, then Elijah.
Gilead was far from court or temple-God trains His workers in His own school. The prophets name-Jehovah is my strength-suggests where he abode and whence he derived his power. He stood before God for the uniting and the uplifting of a divided people. The drought was the result of prayer. Elijah felt that nothing less could arrest king and people, Jam 5:17. The man who stands before God is not afraid to stand before Ahab. Now and again God bids His servants hide themselves toward the sunrise, but in these periods of enforced seclusion He makes Himself responsible for their supplies.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
1Ki 17:1
I. There is no finer witness to the marvellous spirit and quenchless “power” of the prophet Elijah than the fact that the impression he made upon his contemporaries retained its clearness and shone as a star of hope on Jewish thought and life after the long period of nearly nine hundred years (see Luk 1:17; Joh 1:24; Mat 16:14).
II. Nor was this incalculable influence due in any degree to the creative fancy of the age, suffering from the deliriums of oppression, hungering for conquering heroes, and impatient to see its Redeemer. It grew out of the actual man. Elijah is a mighty man of valour, one of the heroes of God. If Luther’s words were half-battles, Elijah’s were whole ones, and still carry the force of an unspent ball. Not more surely is “electricity” the key-word of our century, than spiritual energy is the key-word to the place and function of Elijah.
III. What are the sources of this clear-seeing and victory-winning courage? One bright, brief sentence tells all: “As the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand” This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith in the living God, in whose immediate presence we speak, and stand, and work. Jeremy Taylor specifies three things as the chief instruments of holy living: (1) the care of our time, (2) purity of intention, and (3) the practice of the presence of God. Elijah found, as indeed we all may, that the third includes the first and second. The fact of the real presence of the living God, the idea of an irresistible mandate from God for a specific work, and the enormous power God infuses into solitary souls for His work, carry us to the secret sources of the courageous and powerful ministry of this sturdy, grandly independent, and brave man.
J. Clifford, Daily Strength for Daily Living, p. 223.
From these words we see: (1) that the life of Elijah was a constant vision of God’s presence; (2) that his life was echoing with the voice of the Divine command; (3) that his life was full of conscious obedience.
Such a life will find its sole reward where it finds its inspiration and its law. The Master’s approval is the servant’s best wages.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 1.
References: 1Ki 17:1.-W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 1; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 96; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 16; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., pp. 9 and 17; J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, pp. 3, 17. 1Ki 17:1-7.-W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 376. 1Ki 17:1-17.-J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 49. 1Ki 17:2-6.-W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 20; J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 35. 1Ki 17:7-16.-W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 38. 1Ki 17:8, 1Ki 17:9.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 817. 1Ki 17:8-24.-W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 393. 1Ki 17:9.-T. Guthrie, Speaking to the Heart, p. 143. 1Ki 17:13.-G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 120; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 24. 1Ki 17:14.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 363; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 185. 1Ki 17:16.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 59; Ibid., Sermons, vol. vi., No. 290; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 238. 1Ki 17:17-24.-W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 55; J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 71. 1Ki 17:18.-J. Keble, Sermons Preached in St. Saviour’s, Leeds, 1845, p. 59; R. J. Wilberforce, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 327. 1Ki 17:23, 1Ki 17:24.-J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 31. 1Ki 17:24.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 526; J. O. Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 296. 1Ki 18:1-6.-Parker, Fountain, Feb. 1st, 1877; J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 85. 1Ki 18:1-19.-W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 75. 1Ki 18:1-46.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 20. 1Ki 18:3.-J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 1.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
IV. THE PROPHET ELIJAH AND KING AHAB
1. Elijahs Prediction and Miracles
CHAPTER 17
1. Elijahs message to Ahab (1Ki 17:1)
2. At the brook Cherith (1Ki 17:2-7)
3. With the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17:8-16)
4. The widows son restored to life (1Ki 17:17-24)
Upon this scene of complete departure of God, when Ahab and his heathen wife worshipped Baal and all the vileness connected with that cult flourished in Israel, there appeared suddenly one of the greatest of Gods prophets, Elijah (my God is Jehovah) the Tishbite. A grander figure never stood out even against the Old Testament sky than that of Elijah. As Israels apostasy had reached its highest point in the time of Ahab, so the Old Testament antagonism to it in the person and mission of Elijah.–He was the impersonation of the Old Testament in one of its aspects: that of grandeur and judgment (A. Edersheim). His miracles, like those of Moses, have a judicial character. Heaven is shut in answer to his prayer and fire falls from heaven at his word. The last promise in the Old Testament is concerning Elijah the prophet who is to appear before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers (Mal 4:5-6). See also the Lords words concerning the coming of Elijah (Mat 17:10-13). He appeared with Moses on the transfiguration mountain. In the book of Revelation two witnesses are mentioned who witness among Israel before the great day of the Lord comes. Though their names are not given, the miracles they perform clearly show that these witnesses will be like Moses and Elijah. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy (Elijah), and have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will (Moses). And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies (Elijah) Rev 11:5-6. James speaks of Elijah also and tells us he was a great man of prayer.
He appeared suddenly upon the scene and said to wicked Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. He had, no doubt, like other great servants of God, his training in secret.
The passage in James gives us the key: Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain (Jam 5:17). It was in secret that he sought Gods presence and wrestled in prayer till the Lord sent him forth with the message of judgment. Prayer, persevering prayer, is the one great need in the days of declension and departure from God, and it is the one resource of Gods faithful ones. And how little true and continued waiting upon God there is in the days of apostasy! When Elijah delivered the message to Ahab and said according to my word he did not speak presumptuously, but as standing in the Lords own presence as his mouthpiece he had a perfect right to speak thus with divine authority.
As soon as he had delivered the message the Lord told him to hide himself by the brook Cherith. There he was miraculously fed by the ravens. He was in the appointed place and the Lord took care of him in His own way. Rationalistic critics have made the absurd statement that the word orebim–ravens–should be arabim, which means Arabs. (Thus Canon Farrar in the Expositors Bible: The word (orebim) may equally well mean people of the city Oreb, or of the rock Oreb; or merchants as in Eze 27:27; or Arabians.) But the Lord had commanded the birds, so shy in their nature, to supply His servant with the needed food. Twice every day they ministered to his wants. How this shows the omnipotence of the Lord. There is nothing too hard for Him. If we are in the right place, the place He assigns to us, we shall find that He still provides for those who trust and obey. The brook dried up. Surely his faith was being tested. Then he was sent to a destitute Gentile widow, who faced starvation. And concerning her the Lord said: I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. The Lord who commanded the ravens, commanded the widow. The Lord delights to take the weak things and use them for His glory. And how did Elijah find her? Preparing the last meal for herself and her child. Her faith was tested. She was to make first a little cake for Elijah and bring it unto him and afterwards to do the same for herself and her son. She obeyed and the barrel of meal wasted not neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the Word of the LORD. Here was greater faith than in Israel. See also Luk 4:26. The story foreshadows the bringing in of the Gentiles to know the Lord. And when the widows son fell ill and died and was restored by Elijah and he delivered him to the mother saying: See, thy son liveth–she made the blessed confession: Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the Word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth. The truth of resurrection both physical and spiritual is here foreshadowed.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Elijah Heb. “Elijahu,” Luk 1:17; Luk 4:25 called Elias.
Ahab It was a small thing for a man whose life was passed in Jehovah’s presence to stand before Ahab.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am 3094, bc 910
Elijah: Heb. Elijahu, Mat 11:14, Mat 16:14, Mat 27:47, Mat 27:49, Luk 1:17, Luk 4:25, Luk 4:26, Luk 9:30, Luk 9:33, Luk 9:54, Joh 1:21, Joh 1:25, Rom 11:2, Elias
As the Lord God: 1Ki 22:14, 2Ki 3:14, 2Ki 5:16, Isa 49:18, Mat 7:29, Luk 1:17
before whom: Deu 10:8, Jer 15:19, Luk 1:19, Luk 21:36, Act 27:23
dew nor rain: Luk 4:25, Jam 5:17, Rev 11:6
Reciprocal: Gen 12:10 – was a Gen 27:28 – of the dew Gen 31:21 – Gilead Gen 41:30 – seven years Lev 26:4 – Then I Lev 26:19 – make Deu 11:17 – shut up Deu 28:16 – in the field Deu 28:23 – General Rth 1:1 – a famine 2Sa 21:1 – a famine 2Sa 24:13 – seven 1Ki 1:29 – As the 1Ki 8:35 – heaven 1Ki 17:12 – As the Lord 1Ki 18:1 – in the third year 1Ki 18:10 – the Lord 1Ki 18:15 – before whom I 1Ki 18:41 – a sound 2Ki 1:3 – Elijah 2Ki 8:1 – the Lord 1Ch 5:9 – Gilead 1Ch 21:12 – three years’ famine 2Ch 6:26 – the heaven Job 6:17 – when it is hot they are consumed Job 12:15 – Behold Job 27:2 – God liveth Job 38:28 – dew Psa 107:33 – turneth Pro 29:1 – General Jer 1:10 – I have Jer 5:24 – that giveth Jer 14:22 – vanities Jer 28:8 – prophesied Dan 1:19 – therefore Hos 6:5 – have I Hos 9:8 – with Hos 12:10 – have also Hos 12:11 – iniquity Amo 2:11 – I raised Amo 4:6 – and want Hag 1:10 – General Hag 1:11 – I called Zec 4:14 – that Zec 8:12 – the heavens Zec 10:1 – rain in Zec 14:17 – even Mat 17:3 – Elias Luk 12:24 – the ravens Act 11:28 – great Rev 11:4 – standing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A STERN MESSAGE
And Elijah said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1Ki 17:1
This miracle of the drought is one of the few which have received the countersign and imprimatur of our Blessed Lord. The statement that the heaven was shut up three years and six months in the days of Elias (St. Luk 4:25) does not rest on the unsupported authority of the compiler of the Books of Kings, or the unknown writer from whom he derived it. We are told that this history is largely fabulous, but this part of the fable at any rate has been accepted by Him Who is the Truth. What are the uses of this narrative?
I. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity.It was in the fullness of time that Moses, the founder of the Law, appeared. It was also in the fullness of time that Elijah, the restorer of the Law, came upon the scene. The darkness is greatest just before the dawn. The greatest prophet is reserved for the worst age. Israel had never such an impious king as Ahab, nor such a miraculous prophet as Elijah. The God of the spirits of all flesh knows how to proportion men to the occasion.
II. The weak confound the strong.God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty (1Co 1:27). Elijah the Tishbite of Gilead. Can any good thing come out of Gilead? the men of Israel might contemptuously ask. It was from the wild uplands, not from the Holy City, not from the schools of the prophets, that the greatest of the prophets came. How often are we taught this lesson, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty are called! The vessels of God are cast in the clay ground (1Ki 8:46).
III. Those who honour God, He will honour.For why is he, the Gileadite peasant, chosen to this high distinction? Was it not because he had chosen the Lord to be his God? Surely the name Elijahu, My God, Jehovah is He, is not without significance. His choice was made (cf. 1Ki 18:21). The cry he would wring from Israel, The Lord, He is the God (v. 39) was the echo of his own hearts cry. He had avouched the Lord to be his God, and the Lord had avouched him to be His prophet.
IV. The dominion over nature belongs to God.It was claimed for Him by Elijah; it is everywhere claimed for Him in scripture (see e.g. Lev 26:4; Deu 11:17; Psa 147:8; Jer 5:24; Act 14:17).
V. National sins are punished by national calamities.Nations, as such, have no existence except in this world. In the life to come nationalities will be fused into one great brotherhood. Consequently, if national sins are to be punished at all, they must be punished now. And so they are, by famine, and sword, and pestilence (Eze 14:21). Witness the United States in 1860. Witness France in 1870. Witness Turkey in 1880, and in more recent times, witness Russiathe nation which has persecuted Gods ancient people.
Rev. Joseph Hammond.
Illustrations
(1) The R.V. suggests that Elijah was of a pilgrim race, and certainly he learnt to stand by himself in fellowship with the living God. He was ever standing in His presence chamber, like the archangel Gabriel, who uses the same words of himself in his address to the mother of our Lord. Oh, that we might always stand in the presence of the living God! The God of an undivided Israel, the ideal Israel.
(2) I must not be all sternness. The wild north-easter is one of the winds of God, and it has its necessary and beneficent uses. But garden and field would be blighted if it blew from the outset of January to the close of December. I must allow the sweet south to breathe through my heart, my speech, my behaviour. Yet neither must I be all gentleness. Temper, sir, said Edmund Burke, once in the House of Commons to Lord Grey, is the state of mind suited to the occasion. There are times when I do well to be angry and I must not forget that I read even of the wrath of the Lamb.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jehovah-Jireh
Selections from 1Ki 17:1-24
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Our God is the God who is enough. There is no good thing which He withholds from them who walk uprightly. Our God is able to make all grace abound unto us, so that we, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good word and work.
Let us spend a few moments in observing some particular places in which our God supplies our need.
1. God meets our physical needs. Before ever God created man, He created the beasts and the birds and all vegetation to provide food and raiment for man. In each separate creation for man’s welfare, God said, “It was good.”
God also placed in the heavens above, two great lights to give light upon the earth; He stored the physical earth, itself, with minerals such as coal, and wood, oil, iron, brass, silver, gold, and all things to meet man’s need.
When David wrote, he said, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
The Lord Jesus plainly said, Be not anxious, saying, “What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” For, said He,-“Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”
2. God supplies our spiritual needs. These needs are many. First of all, man needed salvation from sin. This was fully provided in Christ, in His vicarious death upon the Cross.
Man needed strength with which to combat the enemy, and with which to meet the demands for holy living. This also was fully provided in the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Man needed spiritual understanding. The natural man could not receive the things of God, nor could he understand them. The Holy Spirit came to be our Teacher and to reveal these very things unto us.
Man needed wisdom with which to meet the issues of life. This is also freely given us of God. To those who ask, nothing doubting, God giveth liberally and upbraideth not.
3. God supplies our eternal need. Man is not created for the period that spans the cradle to the grave. He is created for all eternity. God has therefore provided in Christ Jesus that this eternity may be spent with Him above.
God has builded mansions beyond the skies. He has prepared a city, of which He is “Builder and Maker.” He has fashioned a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. These things are proclaimed in the Word of God; and, if they were not so, God would not have told us of them.
God not only supplies our eternal abiding places, but He provides redemption by the Blood of His Cross, by which we may enter in through the gates into the City.
Let us take courage. He who watches over the sparrow, watches over us. He who clothes the grass of the field and the lily of the valley, will clothe us. In every need our God is our Jehovah-Jireh.
“Tenderly guide us, O Shepherd of love,
To the green pastures and waters above,
Guarding us ever by night and by day,
Never from Thee would we stray.
What though the heavens with clouds be o’ercast!-
Fearful the tempest, and bitter the blast!
Still with the light of Thy Word on the way,
Never from Thee would we stray.”
I. A CURSE PRONOUNCED (1Ki 17:1)
Ahab had grievously sinned against the Lord. He did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. He married Jezebel, a godless Zidonian. He served Baal and worshiped him. He even reared an altar unto him and made a grove in his honor.
As a result of Ahab’s sin, Elijah the Tishbite was commanded to announce unto Ahab: “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to My Word.”
We are living in a world reeking with immorality; we are dwelling in the midst of a religious condition reeking with apostasy. The result is plain-the curse of God has fallen upon men.
The same famine which consumed Ahab and his godless court, fell with a like severity upon Elijah, and upon all of the true and faithful. Have we not read that no man liveth unto himself.
When God sent a storm upon Jonah, the innocent suffered with the guilty: and, the mariners were afraid for their lives. There were doubtless, also, other storm-tossed boats, due to Jonah’s running away from the face of the Lord.
God visits the sins of the father upon the children, to the third and the fourth generation.
Where the curse of rum prevails, the righteous, who never drink intoxicating liquors, suffer many dangers of drink-crazed men, along with those who drink.
Let us mark the solemnity of all of this, and seek to so live that our life may prove a blessing and not a bane to those whom we touch, and with whom we mingle.
God’s curse is upon all present-day Ahabs. Famines and pestilences come still as judgments from a wrathful God. As sin increases these judgments increase. They will, indeed, mark the curses of God, in the end times.
II. A SPECIAL PROVISION PROVIDED (1Ki 17:4; 1Ki 17:6; 1Ki 17:9)
When the curse was pronounced upon the earth because of Ahab, God command Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith, saying, “Thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” Thus it was that every morning bread and flesh were brought unto Elijah; and every evening bread and flesh were again his: and he drank of the brook.
After a while as the rain ceased, the brook dried up. Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, * * and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
There are some things which need emphasis.
1. In the midst of darkness God giveth light. We have noticed how the righteous suffer with the wicked, the inconveniences and deprivation which sin entails. Now, however, we come to see that God will make a special provision for those who trust Him. This is grace superabounding over the natural results of the curse. It is accomplished only by the miraculous. The famine that affected Ahab would have also affected Elijah, if God had not wrought the supernatural in Elijah’s behalf. Therefore, God stretched forth His hand, and the unusual occurred. God will move Heaven and earth to care for the faithful. He has even said, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
2. God gives help from most unexpected sources. First of all, He commanded the ravens to feed His Prophet. Secondly, He commanded a widow to sustain him. Neither of these aids followed natural law. Ravens are unclean birds, caring commonly for none but themselves. The widow was poor and had nothing to give. Yet, both did their part in sustaining the Prophet. “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” He does the unexpected, and the humanly inexplicable, to care for his own.
III. GIVING GOD WHAT WE HAVE, AND TRUSTING GOD FOR WHAT WE HAVE NOT (1Ki 17:10-12)
1. Giving what we have. When Elijah first beheld the widow of Zarephath, she was gathering sticks to make a fire to bake her last cake for herself and her son. Elijah cried, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.” The widow did not hesitate. She immediately started to get the water. She was willing to give what she had, and to serve God’s Prophet in the giving.
How precious is that promise of our Lord, “Whosoever shall give to drink * * a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, * * shall in no wise lose his reward.” Our God judges our gifts and rewards us not according to that we have not, but according to that we have.
The little lad, who had the barley loaves and fishes, gladly gave them, even though they were as nothing, seemingly, for the feeding of the multitude. We believe that lad will have a great reward for his deed.
The widow who cast in but two mites cast in more than they all; because, out of her penury, she gave all her living. Her gift was indeed meager, but it was reckoned as larger than the much which was given by the rich.
2. Trusting God for what we have not. As the widow went to fetch the water, Elijah called to her and said, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” The woman willing to share the water, at first held back the bread saying: “As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
We shall see how the woman was finally willing to share even her last meal with the Prophet of God, and to trust God for the future. This will be developed under our next heading.
“On the parched and desert way,
Where I tread, where I tread,
With the scorching noontide ray
O’er my head, o’er my head;
Let me find a welcome shade,
Cool and still, cool and still
And my weary steps be stayed,
While I will.”
IV. PLACING GOD FIRST IN OUR GIFTS (1Ki 17:12-13)
1. The natural thing was that which this woman desired to do. She had but enough meal and oil to furnish one last supply of food for herself and son. She thought, within herself, that they two would eat it and die. We doubt not that if she had followed her first thought, and eaten as she said, that she and her son would both have died, for the famine was sore in the land.
We remember a little saying that was upon the wall of our Alma Mater. This is the way it read: “This first of all to thine own self be true; and it shall follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” There is a sense in which this is a worthy saying; however, if it is forced to mean, “Take care of yourself, shield yourself, feed yourself first of all,”-then, it becomes false.
2. The Divine thing was that which Elijah commanded the widow to do. “Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.” In putting God, and God’s Prophet first, the woman, in reality, enriched herself and her son. Elijah said, “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”
Has not God said as much unto us. “Give and it shall be given unto you.” And again, “There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty”; and there is that which scattereth abroad, and increaseth.
Is not God able to make all grace abound toward us; so that we, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work?
Let us determine to follow the example of the Macedonians. In a deep trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Whatever we do let us put God first in all things.
“And I have brought to thee,
Down from My Home above,
Salvation full and free,
My pardon and My love.
Great gifts I brought to thee:
What hast thou brought to Me?”
V. THE SOURCE OF UNLIMITED SUPPLY (1Ki 17:16)
How soul-stirring are the words “The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail”!
1. The Lord is able to make all grace abound. In the days of privation and of testing we need to remember that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God. He has said, “Thy silver and thy gold is Mine.” “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Can we not say with the lone little violet:
“I feel as weak as a violet,
Alone neath the deep blue sky,
As weak, yet as trustful also,
For the whole year long I see
All the wonders of faithful nature
Still work for the like of me,
Winds wander and dew drips earthward,
Rain falls, suns rise and set,
Earth whirls, and all but to prosper
A poor little violet.”
Shall we then not trust the Lord and cease to worry and fret. He can make our barrel of meal to waste not, and He can cause our cruse of oil not to fail.
2. The Lord will keep His promises. Our key verse says that the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail according to the Word of the Lord. What God hath spoken He is not only able, but He is willing to perform.
When Joshua entered the land of Canaan, the people confessed, that there had not failed one good thing of all that was spoken by the Lord.
We may run through the promises of God, and confidently place our feet upon them knowing that we are standing on solid ground. Christ said, “Verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.”
“What though clouds are hovering o’er me,
And I seem to walk alone-
Longing, ‘mid my cares and crosses,
For the joys that now are flown!
If I’ve Jesus, ‘Jesus only,’
Then my sky will have a gem;
He’s the Sun of brightest splendor,
And the Star of Bethlehem.”
VI. THE GOD WHO IS ENOUGH (1Ki 17:17-23)
A test awaited the widow of Zarephath, that was more severe than the test of the famine which had prevailed in the land. The son of the woman fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that “there was no breath left in him.” Then the woman cried unto Elijah, “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” Then Elijah took her son and laid him upon his own bed, and cried unto the Lord. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.”
We find that the God who caused the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil not to fail; that the God who was enough in that matter, was also enough in the hour of this greatest sorrow. Elijah took up the child and delivered him unto his mother; saying, “See, thy son liveth.”
We may not use this as a claim upon God to immediately give back unto us our dead. However, we do praise God that the hour is coming when the “Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them.”
Our God carries the keys of death and of hell. Our God, the Son, and, Son of God, is the resurrection and the life.
The resurrection of this son was a resurrection, only to die again. The resurrection of our dead in Christ will be a resurrection unto life, never to die.
We wonder if this special blessing from Heaven was not granted unto the woman of Zarephath, because she had trusted God in the matter of the meal and the oil; and had obediently provided for His servant? This certainly was true in the case of Dorcas. They brought before Peter all the garments which she had made for the poor. Then it was that Peter said, “I say unto thee arise,” and she was restored to them all.
VII. THE TEST OF THE GENUINE (1Ki 17:24)
When the woman received her son alive, from the hands of Elijah, she said, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.”
It is not what we say that establishes our verity. It is what we do. Jesus Christ said unto the Pharisees, “Whether is easier to say unto the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (He saith to the sick of the palsy.) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”
“We live in deeds not words,
In facts, not in figures on a dial.”
The Gospel which we preach must be backed and enforced by the life which we live, and the works which we do.
“We are the only Bible the careless world will read,
We are the sinner’s Bible, we are the scoffer’s creed,
We are the Lord’s last message, given in deed or word.
What if the type is crooked, what if the type is blurred?
What if our hands are busy with other work than His?
What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?
What if our lips are speaking words that His heart would spurn
How can we hope to help Him and hasten His Return?”
AN ILLUSTRATION
“BUT YOU WILL NEED THIS”
Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph 3:20). A young bride was going to entertain some friends, and lacking a few necessary things, went to a neighbor to borrow. “Is that all you want?” asked the generous neighbor. “Yes, I think so,” replied the bride. “But you will need this, and that, and the other,” said the experienced woman, naming the articles. “I was so thankful,” said the young hostess afterward, “that I went to some one who knew just exactly what I needed better than I did myself, and was willing to supply it.” Our Heavenly Father knows our needs better than we do, and in the richness of His love He supplies our known and unknown lack.-From the C. E. World.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
ELIJAH AND AHAB
ELIJAH IN HIDING (1Ki 17:1-24)
Nothing is known of Elijahs previous history, not even why he is called the Tishbite (1Ki 17:1) except, as suggested in the Septuagint translation, that the town of Tishbeh is meant, which was in the Gilead region east of the Jordan. A comparison of Deu 11:16-17 shows that the judgment he announces (1Ki 17:1) was threatened by Jehovah for such iniquity as that now prevailing; but of course the divine impulse must have come upon him to apply it in this instance.
His hiding by the brook Cherith (1Ki 17:3) was necessary to preserve him from the wrath of Ahab when his words were fulfilled. His being fed by the ravens (1Ki 17:4) will raise no question in the minds of any who accept the supernatural in the Bible, and for those who do not this commentary can have little value. The theory of some that the Hebrew word translated ravens might be rendered Arabians, and that he was normally provided for by passing merchants of that region, is not generally accepted by evangelical scholars and would be only less a miracle than the accepted text.
Zarephath, or Sarepta, was in the country whence Jezebel had come, and which was visited by the famine also. The cause for Elijahs removal there is stated in 1Ki 17:7-9, but there was a deeper reason in the new testings that were to come to him for the strengthening of his faith in view of the climax later on. Nevertheless, we are not to forget the lesson God had to teach the widow also, and to us through her. See Christs testimony in Luk 4:25-26.
MEETING WITH AHAB (1Ki 18:1-46)
The third year is spoken of here, while Jam 5:17 says three years and six months, a discrepancy which may be explained by saying that the drought had been experienced six months (the time between the early and latter rains in March and October respectively) before Ahab realized the situation and became incensed against the prophet.
Fire was the element over which Baal was supposed to preside, which explains 1Ki 18:24. Observe the simplicity and faith of Elijahs prayer (1Ki 18:36-37). His command (1Ki 18:40) was justified as a magistrate of God (Deu 13:5; Deu 18:20).
Description of MOUNT Carmel
The natural features of Mount Carmel exactly correspond with the details of this narrative. The conspicuous summit, 1,635 feet above the sea, presents an esplanade spacious enough for the king and the priests of Baal to stand on the one side, and Elijah on the other.
It is a rocky soil, on which there is abundance of loose stones to furnish the twelve of which the altar was built a bed of thick earth in which a trench could be dug; and yet the earth not so loose that the water poured into it would be absorbed.
Two hundred and fifty feet beneath the plateau there is a perennial fountain which might not have been accessible to the people, and whence, therefore, even in that season of drought, Elijah could procure those supplies of water which he poured over the altar.
The distance between this spring and the site of the altar is so short as to make it perfectly possible to go thrice thither and back again: whereas, it must have been impossible once in an afternoon, to fetch water from the sea.
The summit is one thousand feet above the Kishon, which nowhere runs from the sea so close to the base of the mount as just beneath EI- Mohhraka; so that the priests of Baal could, in a few minutes, be taken down to the brook and slain there. Jamieson, Faussett and Brown.
THE RESULTS FOLLOWING (1Ki 19:1-21)
There seems to be no explanation of Elijahs flight (1Ki 19:1-4) except the natural one of great depression following great spiritual exaltation. God could have preserved him from this had He so willed, but it is good for all of us to know that we are but flesh (Jam 5:17) and that we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Co 4:7).
We are impressed with the condescension of God in the supernatural provision for Elijahs physical needs of which he himself had thought nothing (1Ki 19:5-8); and the no less condescension in instructing and continuing to use him as indicated in the subsequent verses.
The exhibition of divine power (1Ki 19:11-13) had the effect of restoring the prophet to a spiritual equilibrium where he could listen to further commands (1Ki 19:15-17) and receive the rebuke his conduct merited (1Ki 19:18). It is notable that the three persons he is to anoint are all to be employed, though in different ways, as Gods instruments of judgment upon idolatrous Israel. The seven thousand mentioned is not to be taken literally, but as meaning a certain complete number of faithful ones of whom God was cognizant though the prophet was not.
Elisha was one of these (1Ki 19:19) who had doubtless been educated in the schools of the prophets of which we shall hear more, and who recognized the falling of his masters mantle upon him as his divine call.
When Elijah says, What have I done to thee (1Ki 19:20), he seems to mean: Do not disregard it. Bid thy loved ones farewell, but remain faithful to thy call.
QUESTIONS
1. Have you read Deu 11:16-17?
2. Have you located Zarephath?
3. Can you give the context of Luk 4:25-26?
4. Can you quote Elijahs prayer on Matthew Carmel?
5. Name seven particulars in which the natural features of Matthew Carmel correspond with this narrative.
6. How shall we explain Gods actings towards Elijah at Horeb?
7. How do you explain the remnant of seven thousand?
8. How does 1Ki 19:15 show Gods power over heathen nations as well as Israel?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
1Ki 17:1. And Elijah the Tishbite, &c. So bad was the character, both of the Israelites and their princes, as represented in the foregoing chapter, that one would have expected God should have cast off a people that had so cast him off; but as an evidence to the contrary, never was Israel so blessed with a good prophet as when it was so plagued with a bad king. Never was a king so bold to sin as Ahab, never was a prophet so bold to reprove and threaten as Elijah, whose story begins in this chapter, and is full of wonders. Scarce any part of the Old Testament history shines brighter than this, concerning the spirit and power of Elias; he only, of all the prophets, had the honour of Enoch, the first prophet, to be translated that he should not see death; and the honour of Moses, the great prophet, to attend our Saviour in his transfiguration. Other prophets prophesied and wrote, he prophesied and acted, but wrote nothing; and his actings cast more lustre on his name than their writings on theirs.
Now this most eminent of the prophets under the Old Testament dispensation, is here brought in like Melchisedec, the most eminent of the priests, without any mention of his father or mother, or the beginning of his days, like a man dropped down from the clouds. All that we learn concerning his origin or country is that he was a Tishbite, and of the inhabitants of Gilead. Probably he had dwelt at Thishbe or Thesbeh, a town or region on the other side Jordan, either of the tribe of Gad, or that half tribe of Manasseh which inhabited Gilead, but whether he was a native of either of those tribes is uncertain. He was doubtless raised up by Gods special providence, to be a witness for him in this most degenerate time and state of things, that by his zeal, and courage, and miracles, he might give some check to their various and abominable idolatries, and some encouragement and reviving to that small number of the Lords prophets and people who yet remained in Israel. And the obscurity of his parentage and birth was no prejudice to his eminent usefulness. We need not inquire, says Henry, whence men are, but what they are: if it be a good thing, no matter though it come out of Nazareth. Elijah seems to have been naturally of a rough spirit, and certainly he was called to rough services. But, as his name signifies, My God Jehovah is he; he that sends me, and will own me, and bear me out; so his faith and confidence in God supported and carried him through all his arduous labours, and the violent persecutions to which he was exposed.
He said unto Ahab Having doubtless admonished him of his sin and danger before, he now, upon his obstinacy in his wicked courses, proceeds to declare and execute the judgment of God upon him; As the Lord God of Israel liveth, &c. I swear by the God of Israel, who is the only true and living God; whereas the gods whom thou hast joined with him, or preferred before him, are dead and senseless idols; before whom I stand Whose minister I am, not only in general, but especially in this threatening, which I now deliver in his name and authority; There shall not be dew nor rain This was a prediction, but was seconded with his prayer that God would verily it, Jas 5:17. And this prayer was truly charitable; that by this sharp affliction, Gods honour, and the truth of his word, (which was now so horribly and universally contemned,) might be vindicated; and the Israelites (whom impunity had hardened in their idolatry) might be awakened to see their own wickedness, and the necessity of returning to the true religion. These years That is, these following years, which were three and a half; Luk 4:25; Jas 5:17. My word Until I shall declare that this judgment shall cease, and shall pray to God for the removal of it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 17:1. Elijah the Tishbite. His parentage is not named, but the Jews call him a levite or a priest. He swore to Ahab in the name, not of Baal, but of Jehovah. As the Lord had promised covenant-blessings with an oath, it was just, under these circumstances, to withhold rain and dew by the most solemn asseveration. Elijah had before this travelled as a prophet, and was well known; the Spirit of God having taken him from evil: 1Ki 18:12.There shall not be dew nor rain but according to my word. In confirmation of this prophecy, Josephus quotes Menander, a Greek writer, as saying, In the Acts of Ithobalus there is a record that there was no rain from the month of October, to the month of October in the following year. Antiq. Judeorum, lib. 8. c. 7.
1Ki 17:4. I have commanded the ravens. Birds in hot climates seek their prey in the evening, and in the morning. Ezekiel once uses the Hebrew word for merchants, but as they always rest in the evening, they could not feed the prophet twice a day in a secret glen of Galilee. Abulensis, a good Hebrew writer, goes so far as to say that the ravens brought the best cooked meat from Ahabs kitchen.
1Ki 17:21. Elijah stretched himself upon the child, using natural means to convey renimating warmth to the child, as well as divine fervour in prayer, that the immortal spirit might return. When we ask divine aid we must employ all the requisite means.
REFLECTIONS.
Public and national apostasy from God is of the most serious consequence to posterity. There is no medium between repentance and punishment; yea, between repentance and ultimate destruction. In the remaining history of the ten tribes, we are called to contemplate, on the one hand, a nation in the highest stage of apostasy and vice; and on the other, the efforts which heaven made to reclaim them by the glorious ministry of the prophets, and by an awful series of chastisements, till they were ultimately so cut off by sickness and the sword that but a few remained. Hence, almost every circumstance in this history, trivial in itself, is pregnant with moral events.
Ahab having fully gratified his idolatrous queen in the erection of a temple and altar to Baal, and consecrated a vast train of priests, was about to taste the pleasure of all his work; for four hundred prophets of the grove vied one with another in predictions of peace and prosperity. But all at once his hopes were troubled, and all his joys blasted by the appearance of a stranger. Elijah, father of the Hebrew prophets, whose ministry had hitherto been obscure, crossed the Jordan, and obtruded himself on the royal notice. This bold and holy man, after faithfully delivering his message, swore by JEHOVAH, the everliving God, that there should be neither dew nor rain upon the land for an unlimited number of years, until he should return and give it by his word. What power have faithful men when inspired of God! They are invested with the keys, and at the divine pleasure can shut and open heaven, with regard both to temporal and spiritual blessings. James 5. This fact was notorious; the drought and consequent famine are related by Menander, the Phnician historian, as quoted by Josephus.
The sign followed the ministry, and as the pagan prophets would not fail to say that the drought was wholly occasioned by Elijahs curse, the Lord ever watchful of his servants, safely sent Elijah to hide in the glens and caverns by the brook Cherith, and he promised that the ravens should feed him; for in extraordinary times the Lord supports the faith of his people by extraordinary interpositions. And how much preferable are deserts, solitude and exile, to apostasy. So Elijah was hid in the cleft of the rock, while all Israel, and the neighbouring nations were examined on oath that they found him not. And Christ the rock cleft for man, can hide us from every storm.
When the brook dried up, in the course of the summer, God not willing to entrust his faithful servant among apostates, sent him to Zarephath among the gentiles. On approaching the gate he found a meagre woman gathering a few sticks, that she might eat her last cake with her son and then die. He begged a little water, an article both scarce and dear. Seeing her ready to do this favour, for charity should distinguish the poorest believer, he asked for a little bread also; but on opening her sad case he promised her in the name of the Lord, that her barrel of meal should not waste, nor her cruse of oil fail, till the day that the Lord should send rain on the earth. She believed the word of the Lord, and obeyed his servant. She risked her last bread in time of famine to shelter this prophet; and according to our Saviours intimation, Luke 4., she is a striking figure that the gentiles should embrace the gospel and cherish its ministers, while both were rejected of the Jews. Happy family, still living by faith; for reason saw nothing but food which might every day be exhausted. It seems however an invariable maxim of providence, that most of those who are greatly honoured should be greatly tried. The son, the only son of this widow, so miraculously saved from famine, suddenly sickened and died, even while Elijah was yet concealed in her house. Perhaps the continued miracle had elated this widows soul, and now it was requisite that affliction should sanctify it; for God is jealous of our affections. In her anguish she expostulates with the man of God for having suffered her son to die, and because of her past offences. In all our afflictions it is wise to draw a parallel between our sins and our punishments, and to examine both the nature and the fruits of our repentance; and it is well to consult with aged ministers in our grief. The Lord had compassion on his prophet and on this faithful woman, and restored her son to life again. So Jesus has stooped to our humanity, and prayed over us, and raised our souls to a heavenly and divine life.
Elijahs peculiar situation in this widows house may teach ministers what duties are due to those families who show them kindness because of their work. We should endeavour to feed them with the bread that cometh down from heaven; to raise their children from a spiritual death in trespasses and in sins, so far as God shall bless our word and hear our prayers; and to comfort and encourage them to the utmost of our power in all their troubles and afflictions; for God has promised that they, as well as we, shall receive a prophets reward.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 17:1-24. Elijah is Fed by Ravens, and Raises the Widows Son.Elijah appeared suddenly: we hear nothing of his birth or parentage. He simply announced to Ahab, in the name of Yahweh, before whom I stand (cf. Jer 35:19), that there should be no rain for three years. Elijah is described as one of the sojourners of Gilead. Probably the LXX is correct in saying that he came from Tishbe (mg.), said to be in Gilead to distinguish it from another Tishbe in Galilee (Tob 1:2). He then retired (1Ki 17:3-7) to the brook Cherith, E. of Jordan, where he was fed by ravens. In the valley of the Jordan was the rock of Orebthe raven (Jdg 7:25, Isa 10:26), and this may have suggested the legend. By Divine guidance he next went into the heart of the country whose worship he denouncednamely, Zidon (1Ki 17:9). At Zarephath (Sarepta, LXX and Luk 4:26) he was received by a widow whose oil and wheat he miraculously multiplied and raised her son (1Ki 17:17). Josephus (Ant. viii. 133) says the child only appeared to be dead. Elijah raised him in the same way as Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite (2Ki 4:34). and Paul Eutychus (Act 20:10).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
ELIJAH PROPHESIES A DROUGHT
(vs.1-7)
Ahab was suddenly confronted by a prophet who had never been mentioned before, Elijah the Tishbite, the first prophet of God spoken of as arising from among the ten tribes. He came from Gilead and in God’s name announced that for some years there would be neither dew nor rain in Israel until Elijah gave the word. Jam 5:17 tells us that Elijah had prayed earnestly that it might not rain. Why? Because of the gross evil of Ahab that infected all Israel. Elijah evidently realized it would require drastic measures to turn Israel back to the Lord.
But the prophet himself must suffer on account of the drought, as well as the people. The Lord told him to leave and hide himself by the Brook Cherith. He was not to remain to boast in the fact that his prophecy came true. God knows how to teach the messenger that the messenger is not important, but his message is. He provided for Elijah, however, with water from the brook and food brought by ravens. Israel was in no condition to care for a prophet of God, and God used the unclean birds for this. Ravens, as their name suggests, are ravenous, so that it was a miracle of God that they would bring food to the prophet, both in the morning and the evening. Thus Elijah learned literally not to worry about his life as to what to eat and drink (Mat 6:25).
Yet Elijah’s time there was limited, for the brook dried up because of the drought. God sees fit to change our circumstances that we might learn in various ways our dependence on Him.
CARED FOR BY A WIDOW
(vs.8-16)
The Lord then sent Elijah a long distance from the area of the Jordan River to Zarephath in Sidon, outside the borders of Israel (vs.8-9). Elijah would be puzzled to think that God had commanded a widow in that place to care for him. But this was because of the low spiritual state of Israel. Though there were many widows in Israel at the time (Luk 4:25), yet God sent Elijah outside of Israel to be cared for by a Gentile widow.
When Elijah came to the gate of Zarephath he saw a widow gathering sticks and asked her to get him a drink of water (v.10). She willingly went to get it and he called after her to also bring him a little bread to eat (v.11). But this was too much for the poor woman. She told him she had no bread, but only a little flour and a little oil from which she planned to make a small meal for herself and her son, before expecting to die from famine.
But God was not only caring for Elijah. He also intended to care for the widow and her son. It may sound selfish on Elijah’s part that he should tell her to first make him a small cake, and afterward make this for herself and her son. But this was a test of her faith. Elijah is a type of Christ, and if we put Him first, we will have all our needs supplied. Elijah promised the widow that her store of flour would not diminish nor the jar of oil run dry until the day that the Lord would send rain.
Though the widow was a Gentile, she believed the word of an Israelite who spoke in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and her faith was fully rewarded. She and her son and Elijah were all supplied with food for many days. Thus Elijah was kept in seclusion until the Lord later sent him to announce the restoration of rain to Israel.
THE WIDOW’S SON RAISED FROM DEATH
(vs.17-24)
The widow had experienced the grace of God in saving her and her son from a dreadful end. But God had another vitally important lesson to teach her, which could only come through pain and sorrow. Her child became seriously ill and was taken by death (v.17). For some reason she connected his death with Elijah and felt that God was punishing her for her sins. But God was seeking the pure blessing of her soul.
Elijah took the boy and laid him on his own bed. Then he prayed earnestly to the Lord and stretched himself on the child three times. Direct contact with the one who had life resulted in life coming back to the child. The three times speaks of resurrection. Thus it is only by direct contact with the Lord Jesus raised from the dead that we find the blessing of resurrection life. The Lord answered the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned. Thus the widow learned that God was able, not only to save from dying, but to restore life after death. Mary and Martha learned this lesson in Joh 11:1-57. They had only thought of hoping the Lord would come to them in time to preserve Lazarus from dying. Both of them told the Lord, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (Joh 11:21; Joh 11:32). But the Lord had a more important lesson to teach them, that He can bring life out of death.
Elijah restored the boy to his mother, saying, “See, your son lives” (v.23). How appropriate was the widow’s response, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (v.24). Similarly, when we have learned that the Lord Jesus has the power of resurrection life, we know He is not only a man of God, but the eternal Son of God, whose resurrection takes from us the fear of death.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, [As] the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I {a} stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but {b} according to my word.
(a) That is, whom I serve.
(b) But as I will declare it by God’s revelation.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Elijah’s announcement of God’s judgment 17:1-7
Again God raised up a prophet to announce what He would do. Evidently Ahab’s apostasy had been going on for 14 years before God raised up His prophetic challenge. [Note: Merrill, Kingdom of . . ., p. 346.] Normally God gives sinners an opportunity to judge themselves and repent before He sends judgment on them (cf. 1Co 11:31; 2Pe 3:9-10).
The three scenes in the Elijah narrative (chs. 17-19) form one story in which we can see the rising powers of the prophet. In each succeeding episode of the story he confronted an increasingly difficult problem. In this way God developed his faith and taught the reader the importance of trust and obedience. [Note: For five helpful, popular messages on incidents in these chapters, see Howard G. Hendricks, Taking a Stand: What God Can Do through Ordinary You.]
". . . cutting across the linear story are parallel patterns which unify the narrative in another way. Specifically, if the narrative is divided into its three major divisions, corresponding basically to the present chapter divisions, one can discern the same sequence of events in each. The corresponding events in each chapter are linked by verbal, thematic, and structural repetitions which create a texture of foreshadows and echoes, of balances and contrasts, of rising and falling action. This parallel patterning gives the narrative a dimension of depth which supports and enriches its linear logic. The following chart outlines the phenomena which we shall proceed to interpret.
|
"A. Announcement |
||
|
by Elijah (1Ki 17:1) |
by God (1Ki 18:1) |
by Jezebel (1Ki 19:2) |
|
B. Journey |
||
|
from Israel (1Ki 17:2-5) |
to Israel (1Ki 18:2) |
from Israel (1Ki 19:3-4) |
|
C. Two encounters |
||
|
ravens (1Ki 17:6-7) |
Obadiah (1Ki 18:7-16) |
an angel (1Ki 19:5-6) |
|
widow (1Ki 17:8-16) |
Ahab (1Ki 18:17-20) |
the angel of the Lord (1Ki 19:7) |
|
D. Miracle |
||
|
resuscitation (1Ki 17:17-23) |
fire (1Ki 18:21-38) |
theophany (1Ki 19:9-18) |
|
E. Conversion |
||
|
widow (1Ki 17:24) |
Israel (1Ki 18:39-40) |
Elisha (1Ki 19:19-21) |
|
Ahab (1Ki 18:41 to 1Ki 19:1) |
"The parallel elements may be briefly summarized. Each act in the narrative begins with an announcement (A) which initiates the action and, thereby, precipitates a crisis. The announcement propels Elijah to a new locale (B). In the new setting he has two successive encounters or confrontations (C). The second encounter results in a challenge which requires Yahweh’s intervention to resolve (D). Finally, in response to this intervention, individuals are ’converted’ and declare or exhibit their loyalty to Yahweh (E)." [Note: Robert L. Cohn, "The Literary Logic of 1 Kings 17-19," Journal of Biblical Literature 101:3 (September 1982):343-44. This article has several good insights into the major motifs and structure of these chapters.]
This dramatic story opens with Elijah bursting onto the scene in Ahab’s palace.
"’Before whom I stand’ (1Ki 17:1) is his claim to authority: it is a technical phrase used of a king’s first or ’prime’ minister-his confidant and chief executive." [Note: Auld, pp. 109-10.]
Elijah’s name means "Yahweh is my God." He could promise severe drought because God had said this is what He would bring on the land if His people forsook Him (Lev 26:18-19; Deu 11:16-17; Deu 28:23-24; Deu 33:28). This would have been a challenge to Baal since Baal’s devotees credited him with providing rain and fertility. Some representations of Baal that archaeologists have discovered picture him holding a thunderbolt in his hand.
"Why choose a drought? Why emphasize that Yahweh lives? Elijah determines to attack Baalism at its theological center. Baal worshipers believed that their storm god made rain, unless, of course, it was the dry season and he needed to be brought back from the dead. To refute this belief Elijah states that Yahweh is the one who determines when rain falls, that Yahweh lives at all times, and that Yahweh is not afraid to challenge Baal on what his worshipers consider his home ground." [Note: House, p. 213.]
God sent Elijah to Cherith (exact site unknown) to provide for his needs, to hide him from Ahab, and to teach him a lesson (cf. 1Ki 18:10). [Note: See the map "Elijah’s Travels" in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 523.] Ravens do not even feed their own young (cf. Job 38:41). God provided miraculously for Elijah to build the prophet’s faith in view of the conflicts he would face. "Bread" (1Ki 17:6) is literally "food" (Heb. lehem) and could include berries, fruit, nuts, eggs, etc. Elijah was learning experientially that Yahweh was the only source of food, fertility, and blessing. As God had promised, drought soon began to grip the nation (1Ki 17:7).
"It is only our ignorance and neglect of Amos and Hosea that keep us from sensing the heart-shattering tragedy of 2Ki 15:8-31; 2Ki 17:1-6 in its true proportions. In just under forty years Israel, which had seemed to reach almost Solomonic glory under Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:25; 2Ki 14:28), collapsed into nothingness, like the wooden house whose vitals have been devoured by termites." [Note: H. L. Ellison, The Prophets of Israel, pp. 44-45.]
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Miracles Involving Elijah [Note: Adapted from The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 541.] |
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Miracle |
Reference |
Elements |
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Elijah fed by ravens |
1Ki 17:6 |
Water and food |
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Widow’s food multiplied |
1Ki 17:15 |
Flour and oil |
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Widow’s dead son raised to life |
1Ki 17:22 |
Life |
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Elijah’s altar and sacrifice consumed |
1Ki 18:38 |
Water and fire |
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Ahaziah’s 102 soldiers consumed |
2Ki 1:10-12 |
Fire |
|
Jordan River parted |
2Ki 2:8 |
Water |
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Elijah’s transport to heaven |
2Ki 2:11 |
Fire and wind |
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
ELIJAH
1Ki 17:1-7
“And Elias the prophet stood up as fire, and his word was burning as a torch.”
– Sir 48:1
“But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.”
-LYCIDAS
MANY chapters are now occupied with narratives of the deeds of two great prophets, Elijah and Elisha, remarkable for the blaze and profusion of miracles and for similarity in many details. For thirty-four years we hear but little of Judah, and the kings of Israel are overshadowed by the “men of God.” Both narratives, of which the later in sequence seems to be the earlier in date, originated in the Schools of the Prophets. Both are evidently drawn from documentary sources apart from the ordinary annals of the Kings.
Doubtless something of their fragmentariness is due to the abbreviation of the prophetic annals by the historians.
Suddenly, with abrupt impetuosity, the mighty figure of Elijah the Prophet bursts upon the scene like lightning on the midnight. So far as the sacred page is concerned, he, like Melchizedek, is “without father, without mother, without descent.” He appears before us unannounced as “Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead.” Such a phenomenon as Jezebel explains and necessitates such a phenomenon as Elijah. “The loftiest and sternest spirit of the true faith is raised up,” says Dean Stanley, “face to face with the proudest and fiercest spirit of the old Asiatic Paganism.”
The name Elijah, or, in its fuller and more sonorous Hebrew form, Elijahu, means “Jehovah is my God.” Who he was is entirely unknown. So completely is all previous trace of him lost in mystery that Talmudic legends confounded him with Phinehas, the son of Aaron, the avenging and fiercely zealous priest; and even identified him with the angel or messenger of Jehovah who appeared to Gideon and ascended in the altar flame.
The name “Tishbite” tells us nothing. No town of Tishbi occurs in Scripture, and though a Thisbe in the tribe of Naphtali is mentioned as the birthplace of Tobit, the existence of such a place is as doubtful as that of “Thesbon of the Gileadite district” to which Josephus assigns his birth. The Hebrew may mean “the Tishbite from Tishbi of Gilead,” or “The sojourner from the sojourners of Gilead”; and we know no more. Elijahs grandeur is in himself alone. Perhaps he was by birth an Ishmaelite. When the wild Highlander in Rob Roy says of himself “I am a man,” “A man!” repeated Frank Osbaldistone; “that is a very brief description.” “It will serve,” answered the outlaw, “for one who has no other to give. He who is without name, without friends, without coin, without country, is still at least a man: and he that has all these is no more.” So Elijah stands alone in the towering height of his fearless manhood.
Some clue to the swift mysterious movements, the rough asceticism, the sheepskin robe, the unbending sternness of the Prophet may lie in the notice that he was a Gileadite, or at any rate among the sojourners of Gilead, and therefore akin to them. It might even be conjectured that he was of Kenite origin, like Jonadab, the son of Rechab, in the days of Jehu. {1Ch 2:55} The Gileadites were the Highlanders of Palestine, and the name of their land implies its barren ruggedness. They, like the modern Druses, were
“Fierce, hardy, proud, in conscious freedom hold.”
We catch a glimpse of these characteristics in the notice of the four hundred Gadites who swam the Jordan in Palestine to join the freebooters of David in the cave of Adullam, “whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.” Though of Israelitish origin they were closely akin to the Bedawin, swift, strong, temperate, fond of the great solitudes of nature, haters of cities, scorners of the softnesses of civilization. Elijah shared these characteristics. Like the forerunner of Christ, in whom his spirit reappeared nine centuries later, he had lived alone with God in the glowing deserts and the mountain fastnesses. He found Jehovahs presence, not in the
“Gay religions, full of pomp and gold,”
which he misdoubted and despised, but in the barren hills and wild ravines and bleak uplands where only here and there roamed a shepherd with his flock. In such hallowed loneliness he had learnt to fear man little, because he feared God much, and to dwell familiarly on the sterner aspects of religion and morality. The one conscious fact of his mission, the sufficient authentication of his most imperious mandates, was that “he stood before Jehovah.” So unexpected were his appearances and disappearances, that in the popular view he only seemed to flash to and fro, or to be swept hither and thither, by the Spirit of the Lord. We may say of him as was said of John the Baptist, that “in his manifestation and agency he was like a burning torch; his public life was quite an earthquake; the whole man was a sermon, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” And, like the Baptist, he had been “in the deserts, till the day of his showing unto Israel.”
Somewhere-perhaps at Samaria, perhaps in the lovely summer palace at Jezreel-he suddenly strode into the presence of Ahab. Coming to him as the messenger of the King of kings he does not deign to approach him with the genuflections and sounding titles which Nathan used to the aged David. With scanted courtesy to one whom he does not respect or dread-knowing that he is in Gods hands, and has no time to waste over courtly periphrases or personal fears-he comes before Ahab unknown, unintroduced. What manner of man was it by whom the king in his crown and Tyrian purple was thus rudely confronted? He was, tradition tells us, a man of short stature, of rugged countenance. He was “a lord of hair”-the thick black locks of the Nazarite (for such he probably was) streamed over his shoulders like a lions mane, giving him a fierce and unkempt aspect. They that wear soft clothing are in kings houses, and doubtless under a queen who, even in old age, painted her face and tired her head, and was given to Sidonian luxuries, Ahab was accustomed to see men about him in bright apparel. But Elijah had not stooped to alter his ordinary dress, which was the dress of the desert by which he was always known. His brown limbs, otherwise bare, were covered with a heavy mantle, the skin of a camel or a sheep worn with the rough wool outside, and tightened round his loins by a leathern girdle. So unusual was his aspect in the cities east of Jordan, accustomed since the days of Solomon to all the refinements of Egyptian and Phoenician culture, that it impressed and haunted the imagination of his own and of subsequent ages. The dress of Elijah became so normally the dress of prophets who would fain have assumed his authority without one spark of his inspiration, that the later Zechariah has to warn his people against sham prophets who appeared with hairy garments, and who wounded their own hands for no other purpose than to deceive. {Zec 13:4} The robe of skin, after the long interspace of centuries, was still the natural garb of “the glorious eremite,” who in his spirit and power made straight in the deserts a highway for our God.
Such was the man who delivered to Ahab in one sentence his tremendous message: “As Jehovah, God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand”-such was the introductory formula, which became proverbial, and which authenticated the prophecy-“There shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word.” The phrase “to stand before Jehovah” was used of priests: it was applicable to a prophet in a far deeper and less external sense. {Lev 26:19; Psa 134:1; Heb 10:11} Drought was one of the recognized Divine punishments for idolatrous apostasy. If Israel should fall into disobedience, we read in Deuteronomy, “the Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed”; and in Leviticus we read, “If ye will not hearken, I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass.” The threat was too significant to need any explanation. The conscience of Ahab could interpret only too readily that prophetic menace.
The message of Elijah marked the beginning of a three, or three and a half years famine. This historic drought is also mentioned by Menander of Tyre, who says that after a year, at the prayer of Ethbaal, the priest and king, there came abundant thunder showers. St. James represents the famine as well as its termination as having been caused by Elijahs prayer. But the expression of the historian is general. Elijah might pray for rain, but no prophet could proprio motu, have offered up a prayer for so awful a curse upon an entire country as a famine, in which thousands of the innocent would suffer no less severely than the guilty. Three years famine was a recognized penalty for apostasy. It was one of the sore plagues of God. It had befallen Judah “because of Saul and his bloody house,” {2Sa 21:1} and had been offered to guilty David as an alternative for three days, pestilence, or three years flight before his enemies. We are not here told that Elijah prayed for it, but that he announced its commencement, and declared that only in accordance with his announcement should it close.
He delivered his message, and what followed we do not know. Ahabs tolerance was great; and, however fierce may have been his displeasure, he seems in most cases to have personally respected the sacredness and dignity of the prophets. The kings wrath might provoke an outburst of sullenness, but he contented himself with menacing and reproachful words. It was otherwise with Jezebel. A genuine idolatress, she hated the servants of Jehovah with implacable hatred, and did her utmost to suppress them by violence. It was probably to save Elijah from her fury that he was bidden to fly into safe hiding, while her foiled rage expended itself in the endeavor to extirpate the whole body of the prophets of the, Lord. But, just as the child Christ was saved when Herod massacred the infants of Bethlehem, so Elijah, at whom Jezebels blow was chiefly aimed, had escaped beyond her reach. A hundred other imperiled prophets were hidden in a cave by the faithfulness of Obadiah, the kings vizier.
The word of the Lord bade Elijah to fly eastward and hide himself “in the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” The site of this ravine-which Josephus only calls “a certain torrent bed”-has not been identified. It was doubtless one of the many wadies which run into the deep Ghor or cleft of the Jordan on its eastern side. If it belonged to his native Gilead, Elijah would be in little fear of being discovered by the emissaries whom Ahab sent in every direction to seek for him. Whether it was the Wady Kelt, or the Wady el Jabis, or the Ain Fusail, we know the exact characteristics of the scene. On either side, deep, winding and precipitous, rise the steep walls of rock, full of tropic foliage, among which are conspicuous the small dark green leaves and stiff thorns of the nubk. Far below the summit of the ravine, marking its almost imperceptible thread of water by the brighter green of the herbage, and protected by masses of dewy leaves from the fierce power of evaporation, the hidden torrent preserves its life in all but the most long-continued periods of drought. In such a scene Elijah was absolutely safe. Whenever danger approached he could hide himself in some fissure or cavern of the beetling crags where the wild birds have their nest, or sit motionless under the dense screen of interlacing boughs. The wildness and almost terror of his surroundings harmonized with his stern and fearless spirit. A spirit like his would rejoice in the unapproachable solitude, communing with God alike when the sun flamed in the zenith and when the midnight hung over him with all its stars.
The needs of an Oriental-particularly of an ascetic Bedawy prophet-are small as those of the simplest hermit. Water and a few dates often suffice him for days together. Elijah drank of the brook, and God “had commanded the ravens to feed him there.” The shy, wild, unclean birds “brought him”-so the old prophetic narrative tells us-“bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.” We may remark in passing, that flesh twice a day or even once a day, if with Josephus we read “bread in the morning and flesh in the evening,” is no part of an Arabs ordinary food. It is regarded by him as wholly needless, and indeed as an exceptional indulgence. The double meal of flesh does not resemble the simple diet of bread and water on which the Prophet lived afterwards at Sarepta. Are we or are we not to take this as a literal fact? Here we are face to face with a plain question to which I should deem it infamous to give a false or a prevaricating answer.
Before giving it, let us clear the ground. First of all, it is a question which can only be answered by serious criticism. Assertion can add nothing to it, and is not worth the breath with which it is uttered. The anathemas of obsolete and a priori dogmatism against those who cannot take the statement as simple fact do not weigh so much as a dead autumn leaf in the minds of any thoughtful men.
Some holy but uninstructed soul may say, “It stands on the sacred page: why should you not understand it literally?” It. might be sufficient to answer, Because there are many utterances on the sacred page which are purely poetic or metaphorical. “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the brook shall pick it out, and the young vultures shall eat it.” {Pro 30:17} The statement looks prosaic and positive enough, but what human being ever took it literally? “Curse not the king for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.” Who does not see at once that the words are poetic and metaphorical? “Where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.” How many educated Christians can assert that they believe that the unredeemed will be eaten forever by literal worms in endless flames? The man who pretends that he is obliged to understand literally the countless Scriptural metaphors involved in an Eastern language of which nearly every word is a pictorial metaphor, only shows himself incompetent to pronounce an opinion on subjects connected with history., literature, or religious criticism.
Is it then out of dislike to the supernatural, or disbelief in its occurrence, that the best critics decline to take the statement literally?
Not at all. Most Christians have not the smallest difficulty in accepting the supernatural. If they believe in the stupendous miracles of the Incarnation and the Resurrection, what possible difficulty could they have in accepting any other event merely on the ground that it is miraculous? To many Christians all life seems to be one incessant miracle. Disbelieving that any force less than the fiat of God could have thrilled into inorganic matter the germs of vegetable and still more of animal life; believing that their own life is supernatural, and that they are preserved as they were created by endless cycles of ever-recurrent miracles; believing that the whole spiritual life is supernatural in its every characteristic; they have not the slightest unwillingness to believe a miracle when any real evidence can be adduced for it. They accept, without the smallest misgiving, the miracles of Jesus Christ our Lord, radiating as ordinary works from His Divine nature, performed in the full blaze of history, attested by hundredfold contemporary evidence, leading to results of world-wide and eternal significance-miracles which were, so to speak, natural, normal, and necessary, and of which each revealed some deep moral or spiritual truth. But if miracles can only rest on evidence, the dullest and least instructed mind can see that the evidence for this and for some other miracles in this narrative stands on a wholly different footing. Taken apart from dogmatic assertions which are themselves unproven or disproved, the evidence that ravens daily fed Elijah is wholly inadequate to sustain the burden laid upon it.
In the first place, the story occurs in a book compiled some centuries after the event which it attests; in a book solemn indeed and sacred, but composite, and in some of its details not exempt from the accidents which have always affected all human literature.
And this incident is unattested by any other evidence. It is, so to speak, isolated. It is quite separable from the historic features of the narrative, and is out of accordance with what is truly called the Divine economy of miracles. No miracle was wrought to supply Elijah with water; and if a miracle was needed to supply him with bread and flesh, it is easy to imagine hundreds of forms of such direct interposition which would be more normal and more in accordance with all other Scripture miracles than the continuous overruling of the natural instincts of ravenous birds. It has been said that this particular form of miracle was needed for its evidential value; but there is nothing in the narrative to imply that it had the smallest evidential value for any one of Elijahs contemporaries, or even that they knew of it at all.
Further, we find it, not in a plain prose narrative, but in a narrative differing entirely from the prosaic setting in which it occurs-a narrative which rises in many parts to the height of poetic and imaginative splendor. There is nothing to show that it was not intended to be a touch of imaginative poetry and nothing more. Part of the greatness of Hebrew literature lies in its power of conveying eternal truth, as, for instance, in the Book of Job and in many passages of the prophets, in the form of imaginative narration. The stories of Elijah and Elisha come from the Schools of the Prophets. If room was left in them for the touch of poetic fiction, or for the embellishment of history with moral truth, conveyed in the form of parable or apologue, we can at once account for the sudden multitude of miracles. They were founded no doubt in many instances on actual events, but in the form into which the narrative is thrown they were recorded to enhance the greatness of the heroic chiefs of the Schools of the Prophets. It is therefore uncertain whether the original narrator believed, or meant his readers literally to believe, such a statement as that Elijah was fed morning and evening by actual ravens. It cannot be proved that he intended more than a touch of poetry, by which he could convey the lesson that the prophet was maintained by marked interventions of that providence of God which is itself in all its workings supernatural. Gods feeding of the ravens in their nest was often alluded to in Hebrew poetry; and if the marvelous support of the Prophet in his lonely hiding-place was to be represented in an imaginative form, this way of representing it would naturally occur to the writers thoughts. Similarly, when Jerome wrote the purely fictitious life of Paul the Hermit, which was taken for fact even by his contemporaries, he thinks it quite natural to say that Paul and Antony saw a raven sitting on a tree who flew gently down to them and placed a loaf on the table before them. Ravens haunt the lonely, inaccessible cliffs among which Elijah found his place of refuge. It needed but a touch of metaphor to transform them into ministers of Heavens beneficence.
But besides all this, the word rendered ravens (Orebim) only has that meaning if it be written with the vowel points. But the vowel points are confessedly not “inspired” in any sense, but are a late Masoretic invention. Without the change of a letter the word may equally well mean people of the city Orbo, or of the rock Oreb (as was suggested even in the Bereshith Rabba by Rabbi Judah); or “merchants,” as in Eze 27:27; or Arabians. No doubt difficulties might be suggested about any of these interpretations; but which would be most reasonable, the acceptance of such small difficulties, or the literal acceptance of a stupendous miracle, unlike any other in the Bible, by which we are to believe on the isolated authority of a nameless and long subsequent writer, that, for months or weeks together, voracious and unclean birds brought bread and flesh to the Prophet twice a day? The old naturalistic attempts to explain the miracle are on the face of them absurd; but it is as perfectly open to any one who chooses to say that “Arabians,” or “Orbites,” or “merchants,” or “people of the rock Oreb” fed Elijah, as to say that the “ravens” did so. The explanation now universally accepted by the Higher Criticism is different. It is to accept the meaning “ravens,” but not with wooden literalness to interpret didactic and poetic symbolism as though it were bald and matter of-fact prose. The imagery of a grand religious Haggada is not to be understood, nor was it ever meant to be understood, like the page of a dull annalist. Analogous stories are found abundantly alike in early pagan and early Christian literature and in mediaeval hagiology. They are true in essence though not in fact, and the intention of them is often analogous to this; but no story is found so noble as this in its pure and quiet simplicity.
Let this then suffice and render it needless to recur to similar discussions. If any think themselves bound to interpret this and all the other facts in these narratives in their most literal sense; if they hold that the mere mention of such things by unknown writers in unknown time-possibly centuries afterwards, when the event may have become magnified by the refraction of tradition-is sufficient to substantiate them, let them hold their own opinion as long as it can satisfy them. But proof of such an opinion they neither have nor can have; and let them beware of priding themselves on the vaunt of their “faith,” when such “faith” may haply prove to be no more than a distortion of the truer faith which proves all things and only holds fast that which will stand the test. A belief based on some a priori opinion about “verbal dictation” is not necessarily meritorious. It may be quite the reverse.
Such a dogma has never been laid down by the Church in general. It has very rarely been insisted upon by any branch of the Church in any age. A belief which prides itself on ignorance of the vast horizon opened to us by the study of many forms of literature, by the advance of criticism, by the science of comparative religion-so far from being religious or spiritual may only be a sign of ignorance, or of a defective love of truth. A dogmatism which heaps upon intelligent faith burdens at once needless and intolerable may spring from sources which should tend to self-humiliation rather than to spiritual pride. Abundet quisque in sensu sue. But such beliefs have not the smallest connection with true faith or sincere Christianity. God is a God of truth, and he who tries to force himself into a view which history and literature, no less than the faithful following of the Divine light within him, convince him to be untenable, does not rise into faith, but sins and does mischief by feebleness and lack of faith.