Chap. 1Ki 19:1-8<\/span>. Elijah’s flight to Horeb (Not in Chronicles)<\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. And Ahab told Jezebel<\/em> ] The LXX. adds ‘his wife.’<\/p>\n and withal how<\/em> ] The construction in the original is here irregular. The words rendered ‘withal’ are omitted in nearly all the Versions. The expression translated ‘withal how’ is exactly the same as that which is rendered ‘all that’ in the previous clause, and does not suit the verb which follows. But it is not easy to explain the repetition with two different verbs, and no doubt the English translation gives the sense which was intended. He told his wife in general ‘all that’ Elijah had done and specially ‘all, how’ he had slain, &c.<\/p>\n CHAPTER XIX <\/P> Ahab tells Jezebel what Elijah had done; she is enraged, and<\/I><\/P> threatens to take away his life<\/I>, 1, 2.<\/P> He leaves Jezreel, and comes to Beer-sheba, and thence to the<\/I><\/P> wilderness, where he is fed and encouraged by an angel<\/I>, 3-9.<\/P> His complaint and the vision by which God instructs him<\/I>, 10-14.<\/P> He is sent to Damascus, in order to anoint Hazael king over<\/I><\/P> Syria, and Jehu king over Israel<\/I>, 15-18.<\/P> He meets with Elisha, who becomes his servant<\/I>, 19-21. <\/P> NOTES ON CHAP. XIX<\/P> <\/P> Verse 1<\/span>. Ahab told Jezebel<\/B><\/I>] Probably with no evil design against Elijah.<\/P> <\/p>\n Ahab told Jezebel<\/B> this for his vindication, and her satisfaction. All the prophets, <\/B>to wit, of Baal; not of the groves, who were not present, as may be gathered from 1Ki 18:19<\/span>,22<\/span>; 22:6<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done<\/strong>,…. What miracles he had wrought, how that not only fire came down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice, but even the stones and dust of the altar, and licked up great quantities of water in the trench around it; and that it was at his prayer that rain came down from heaven in such abundance, of which she was sensible; by all which he got the people on his side, so that it was not in his power to seize him and slay him; and this he said to clear himself, and make her easy:<\/p>\n and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword<\/strong>; the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal he had gathered to Carmel; the Targum calls them false prophets, but Ahab would scarcely use that epithet to Jezebel; as for the four hundred prophets of the grove, they were not present, and so not included. Jezebel knew they were safe, being with her, she not suffering them to go to Carmel.<\/p>\n The hope of completing his victory over the idolaters and overthrowing the worship of Baal, even in the capital of the kingdom, with which Elijah may have hastened to Jezreel, was frustrated by the malice of the queen, who was so far from discerning any revelation of the almighty God in the account given her by Ahab of what had occurred on Carmel, and bending before His mighty hand, that, on the contrary, she was so full of wrath at the slaying of the prophets of Baal as to send to the prophet Elijah to threaten him with death. This apparent failure of his ministry was the occasion of a severe inward conflict, in which Elijah was brought to a state of despondency and fled from the land. The Lord allowed His servant to pass through this conflict, that he might not exalt himself, but, being mindful of his own impotence, might rest content with the grace of his God, whose strength is mighty in the weak (2Co 12:8-9<\/span>), and who would refine and strengthen him for the further fulfilment of his calling.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:1-2<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> Elijah’s flight into the desert and guidance to Horeb<\/em>. – 1Ki 19:1<\/span>, 1Ki 19:2<\/span>. When “Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and all, how he had slain all the prophets (of Baal),” she sent a messenger to Elijah in her impotent wrath, with a threat, which she confirmed by an oath (see at 1Ki 2:23<\/span>), that in the morning she would have him slain like the prophets whom he had put to death. The early commentators detected in this threat the impotentia muliebris iracundiae <\/em>, and saw that all that Jezebel wanted was to get rid of the man who was so distressing and dangerous to her, because she felt herself unable to put him to death, partly on account of the people, who were enthusiastic in his favour, and partly on account of the king himself, upon whom the affair at Carmel had not remained without its salutary effect.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:3-4<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> But when Elijah saw ( ), sc. how things stood, or the audacity of Jezebel, from which the failure of his work was evident, he rose up and went to Beersheba in Judah, i.e., Bir-seba on the southern frontier of Canaan (see at Gen 21:31<\/span>). The expression , “which to Judah,” i.e., which belonged to the kingdom of Judah, for Beersheba was really allotted to the tribe of Simeon (Jos 19:2<\/span>), is appended not merely as a geographical indication that Elijah went outside the land, but to show that he meant to leave the kingdom of Israel, the scene of his previous labours, just as Jeremiah in a similar internal conflict gave utterance to the wish that he could leave his people, if he had but a lodging-place in the wilderness (Jer 9:2<\/span>). is not to be altered into , et timuit <\/em>, after the lxx and Vulg., notwithstanding the fact that some Codd. have this reading, which only rests upon an erroneous conjecture. For it is obvious that Elijah did not flee from any fear of the vain threat of Jezebel, from the fact that he did not merely withdrawn into the kingdom of Judah, where he would have been safe under Jehoshaphat from all the persecutions of Jezebel, but went to Beersheba, and thence onwards into the desert there to pour out before the Lord God his weariness of life (1Ki 19:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n , he went upon his soul, or his life, i.e., not to save his life (as I once thought, with many other commentators), for his wish to die (1Ki 19:4<\/span>) is opposed to this; but to care for his soul in the manner indicated in 1Ki 19:4<\/span>, i.e., to commit his soul or his life to the Lord his God in the solitude of the desert, and see what He would determine concerning him.<\/p>\n (Note: G. Menken ( christl. Homil. b. den Proph. Elias<\/em>, p. 231) has given the following admirable explanation of fo so far as the sense is concerned: “ For conscience sake, from conviction, out of obligation, not from fear. After all his former experience, and from the entire relation in which Elijah stood to God, it was impossible that he should be afraid, and not be firmly convinced that the God who had shut up heaven at his word, who had supplied him with bread and flesh for a whole year in the desert through the medium of ravens, who had supported him miraculously for years in a foreign land through the medium of a poor widow, who had concealed and rescued him for three years and a half from the search of the king, who had accredited and honoured him in the sight of all the people as His servant, who had given an immediate answer to his prayer for rain, could also defend him in this extremity, and rescue him from this danger, if such should be His will. ” ) <\/p>\n – He left his servant in Beersheba, while he himself went a day’s journey farther into the desert (Paran), not merely because he was so filled with weariness of life in his dark oppression, that he thought he should have no further need of his servant, and therefore left him behind in Beersheba, but that he might pour out his heart before God alone in the desert and yield himself up to His guidance. For however unquestionably his lamentation in 1Ki 19:4<\/span>, for example, expresses a weariness of life, this merely indicates the feeling which had taken possession of his soul after a day’s journey in the barren desert. And even there he lays his wish to die before God in prayer; so that this feeling is merely to be regarded as one result of the spiritual conflict, which is bodily exhaustion had now raised to a height that it cannot have reached when he was in Beersheba. If, therefore, he did not start with the intention of making a pilgrimage to Horeb, he had certainly gone into the desert for the purpose of seeing whether the Lord would manifest His mercy to him, as He had formerly done to His people under Moses, or whether He would withdraw His hand entirely from him. After a day’s journey he sat down under a (construed here as a feminine, in 1Ki 19:5<\/span> as a masculine), a species of broom ( genista Retem<\/em> in Forskl), which is the finest and most striking shrub of the Arabian desert, growing constantly in the beds of streams and in the valleys, where places of encampment are frequently selected for the sake of the shelter which they afford by night from the wind and by day from the sun (Rob. Pal<\/em>. i. 299). … : and wished that his soul might die (a kind of accusative with infinitive; see Ewald, 336, b<\/em>.), and said, , “Enough now; take, Lord, my soul, for I am not better than my fathers;” i.e., I have worked and endured enough, and deserve no longer life than my fathers. From this it appears that Elijah was already of a great age.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:5-6<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> In this disturbed state of mind he lay down and slept under a broom-tree. Then the Lord came with His power to the help of the despairing man. “An angel touched him (wakened him out of his sleep), and said to him: Arise, eat.” And behold he saw at his head , a bread cake baked over red-hot stones, a savoury article of food which is still a great favourite with the Bedouins (see at Gen 18:6<\/span>; Gen 19:3<\/span>), and a pitcher of water, and ate and drank, and lay down again.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:7<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> But the angel wakened him a second time, and called upon him to eat with these words: “for the way is too far for thee” ( , iter est majus quam pro viribus tuis <\/em> – Vat.).<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:8<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> “Then he arose, ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to the mount of God at Horeb.” As the angel did not tell him whither he was to go, and Elijah wandered to Horeb in consequence of this strengthening, it appears to have been his intention from the very beginning to go into the desert, and see whether the Lord would still further acknowledge him and his work; so that in the support and strength imparted by the angel he saw an indication that he was to follow the footsteps of the divine grace still farther into the desert, and make a pilgrimage to Horeb, with the hope that there perhaps the Lord would reveal to him His counsel concerning the further guidance of the people of His covenant, as He had formerly done to His servant Moses, and give him the necessary instruction for the continuance of his prophetic service. Horeb<\/em> is called the mount of God here, as it was proleptically in Exo 3:1<\/span>, as the place where the Lord confirmed the covenant, already made with the patriarchs, to their descendants, and adopted the tribes of Israel as His people and made them into a kingdom of God. The distance from Beersheba to Horeb is about 200 miles. Consequently Elijah would not have required forty days to travel there, if the intention of God had been nothing more than to cause him to reach the mountain, or “to help him on his say” (Thenius). But in the strength of the food provided by the angel Elijah was not only to perform the journey to Horeb, but to wander in the desert for forty days and forty nights, i.e., forty whole days, as Moses had formerly wandered with all Israel for forty years; that he might know that the Lord was still the same God who had nourished and sustained His whole nation in the desert with manna from heaven for forty years. And just as the forty years’ sojourn in the desert had been to Moses a time for the trial of faith and for exercise in humility and meekness (Num 12:3<\/span>), so was the strength of Elijah’s faith to be tried by the forty days’ wandering in the same desert, and to be purified from all carnal zeal for the further fulfilment of His calling, in accordance with the divine will. What follows shows very clearly that this was the object of the divine guidance of Elijah (cf. Hengstenberg, Diss. on the Pentateuch<\/em>, vol. i. 171,172).<\/p>\n Elijah’s Flight from Jezebel.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 906.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me,<\/I> and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. 3 And when he saw that,<\/I> he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth<\/I> to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD<\/B>, take away my life; for I am<\/I> not better than my fathers. 5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and<\/I> eat. 6 And he looked, and, behold, there was<\/I> a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD<\/B> came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and<\/I> eat; because the journey is<\/I> too great for thee. 8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.<\/P> One would have expected, after such a public and sensible manifestation of the glory of God and such a clear decision of the controversy depending between him and Baal, to the honour of Elijah, the confusion of Baal’s prophets, and the universal satisfaction of the people–after they had seen both fire and water come from heaven at the prayer of Elijah, and both in mercy to them, the one as it signified the acceptance of their offering, the other as it refreshed their inheritance, which was weary<\/I>–that now they would all, as one man, return to the worship of the God of Israel and take Elijah for their guide and oracle, that he would thenceforward be prime-minister of state, and his directions would be as laws both to king and kingdom. But it is quite otherwise; he is neglected whom God honoured; no respect is paid to him, nor care taken of him, nor any use made of him, but, on the contrary, the land of Israel, to which he had been, and might have been, so great a blessing, is now made too hot for him. 1. Ahab incensed Jezebel against him. That queen-consort, it seems, was in effect queen-regent, as she was afterwards when she was queen-dowager, an imperious woman that managed king and kingdom and did what she would. Ahab’s conscience would not let him persecute Elijah (some remains he had in him of the blood and spirit of an Israelite, which tied his hands), but he told Jezebel all that Elijah had done (v.<\/I><\/span> 1<\/span>), not to convince, but to exasperate her. It is not said he told her what God<\/I> had done, but what Elijah<\/I> had done, as if he, by some spell or charm, had brought fire from heaven, and the hand of the Lord had not been in it. Especially he represented to her, as that which would make her outrageous against him, that he had slain the prophets; the prophets of Baal he calls the prophets,<\/I> as if none but they were worthy of the name. His heart was set upon them, and he aggravated the slaying of them as Elijah’s crime, without taking notice that it was a just reprisal upon Jezebel for killing God’s prophets, ch.<\/I><\/span> xviii. 4<\/span>. Those who, when they cannot for shame or fear do mischief themselves, yet stir up others to do it, will have it laid to their charge as if they had themselves done it. 2. Jezebel sent him a threatening message (v.<\/I><\/span> 2<\/span>), that she had vowed and sworn to be the death of him within twenty-four hours. Something prevents her from doing it just now, but she resolves it shall not be long undone. Note, Carnal hearts are hardened and enraged against God by that which should convince and conquer them and bring them into subjection to him. She swears by her gods, and, raging like one distracted, curseth herself if she slay not him, without any proviso of a divine permission. Cruelty and confidence often meet in persecutors. I will pursue, I will overtake,<\/I> Exod. xv. 9<\/I><\/span>. But how came she to send him word of her design, and so to give him an opportunity of making his escape? Did she think him so daring that he would not flee, or herself so formidable that she could prevent him? Or was there a special providence in it, that she should be thus infatuated by her own fury? I am apt to think that though she desired nothing more than his blood, yet, at this time, she durst not meddle with him for fear of the people, all counting him a prophet,<\/I> a great prophet, and therefore sent this message to him merely to frighten him and get him out of the way. for the present, that he might not carry on what he had begun. The backing of her threats with an oath and imprecation does not at all prove that she really intended to slay him, but only that she intended to make him believe so. The gods she swore by could do her no harm. 3. Elijah, hereupon, in a great fright, fled for his life, it is likely by night, and came to Beer-sheba, v.<\/I><\/span> 3<\/span>. Shall we praise him for this? We praise him not. Where was the courage with which he had lately confronted Ahab and all the prophets of Baal? Nay, which kept him by his sacrifice when the fire of God fell upon it? He that stood undaunted in the midst of the terrors both of heaven and earth trembles at the impotent menaces of a proud passionate woman. Lord, what is man!<\/I> Great faith is not always alike strong. He could not but know that he might be very serviceable to Israel at this juncture, and had all the reason in the world to depend upon God’s protection while he was doing God’s work; yet he fled. In his former danger God had bidden him hide himself (ch.<\/I><\/span> xvii. 3<\/span>), therefore he supposed he might do so now. 4. From Beer-sheba he went forward into the wilderness, that vast howling wilderness in which the Israelites wandered. Beer-sheba was so far distant from Jezreel, and within the dominion of so good a king as Jehoshaphat, that he could not but be safe there; yet, as if his fears haunted him even when he was out of the reach of danger, he could not rest there, but went a day’s journey into the desert. Yet perhaps he retired thither not so much for his safety as that he might be wholly retired from the world, in order to a more free and intimate communion with God. He left his servant at Beer-sheba<\/I> that he might be private in the wilderness, as Abraham left his servants at the bottom of the hill when he went up into the mount to worship God, and as Christ in the garden was withdrawn from his disciples,<\/I> or perhaps it was because he would not expose his servant, who was young and tender, to the hardships of the wilderness, which would have been putting new wine into old bottles. We ought thus to consider the frame of those who are under our charge, for God considers ours. 5. Being wearied with his journey, he grew cross (like children when they are sleepy) and wished he might die,<\/I> v.<\/span> 4<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. He requested for his life<\/I> (so it is in the margin), that he might die;<\/I> for death is life to a good man; the death of the body is the life of the soul. Yet that was not the reason why he wished to die; it was not the deliberate desire of grace, as Paul’s, to depart and be with Christ,<\/I> but the passionate wish of his corruption, as Job’s. Those that are, in this manner, forward to die are not in the fittest frame for dying. Jezebel has sworn his death, and therefore he, in a fret, prays for it, runs from death to death, yet with this difference, he wishes to die by the hand of the Lord, whose tender mercies are great, and not to fall into the hands of man, whose tender mercies are cruel. He would rather die in the wilderness than as Baal’s prophet died, according to Jezebel’s threatening (v.<\/I><\/span> 2<\/span>), lest the worshippers of Baal should triumph and blaspheme the God of Israel, whom they will think themselves too hard for, if they can run down his advocate. He pleads, “It is enough. I have done enough, and suffered enough. I am weary of living.” Those that have secured a happiness in the other world will soon have enough of this world. He pleads, “I am not better than my fathers,<\/I> not better able to bear those fatigues, and therefore why should I be longer burdened with them than they were?” But is this that my lord Elijah?<\/I> Can that great and gallant spirit shrink thus? God thus left him to himself, to show that when he was bold and strong it was in the Lord and the power of his might,<\/I> but of himself he was no better than his fathers<\/I> or brethren. 6. God, by an angel, fed him in that wilderness, into the wants and perils of which he had wilfully thrown himself, and in which, if God had not graciously succoured him, he would have perished. How much better does God deal with his froward children than they deserve! Elijah, in a pet, wished to die; God needed him not, yet he designed further to employ and honour him, and therefore sent an angel to keep him alive.<\/I> Our case would be bad sometimes if God should take us at our word and grant us our foolish passionate requests. Having prayed that he might die, he laid down and slept<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 5<\/span>), wishing it may be to die in his sleep, and not to awake again; but he is awakened out of his sleep, and finds himself not only well provided for with bread and water (v.<\/I><\/span> 6<\/span>), but, which was more, attended by an angle, who guarded him when he slept, and twice called him to his food when it was ready for him, 1Ki 19:5<\/span>; 1Ki 19:7<\/span>. He needed not to complain of the unkindness of men when it was thus made up by the ministration of angels. Thus provided for, he had reason to think he had fared better than the prophets of the groves,<\/I> that did eat at Jezebel’s table.<\/I> Wherever God’s children are, as they are still upon their Father’s ground, so they are still under their Father’s eye and care. They may lose themselves in a wilderness, but God has not lost them; there they may look at him that lives and sees them, as Hagar,<\/I> Gen. xvi. 13<\/I><\/span>. 7. He was carried, in the strength of this meat, to Horeb, the mount of God,<\/I> v.<\/span> 8<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. Thither the Spirit of the Lord led him, probably beyond his own intention, that he might have communion with God in the same place where Moses had, the law that was given by Moses being revived by him. The angel bade him eat the second time, because of the greatness of the journey<\/I> that was before him,<\/I> v.<\/span> 7<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. Note God knows what he designs us for, though we do not, what service, what trials, and will take care for us when we, for want of foresight, cannot for ourselves, that we be furnished for them with grace sufficient.<\/I> He that appoints what the voyage shall be will victual the ship accordingly. See how many different ways God took to keep Elijah alive; he fed him by ravens, with multiplied meals–then by an angel–and now, to show that man lives not by bread alone,<\/I> he kept him alive forty days without meat, not resting and sleeping, which might make him the less to crave sustenance, but continually traversing the mazes of the desert, a day for a year of Israel’s wanderings; yet he neither needs food nor desires it. The place, no doubt, reminds him of the manna, and encourages him to hope that God will sustain him here, and in due time bring him hence, as he did Israel, though, like him, fretful and distrustful.<\/P> <\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n First Kings – Chapter 19<\/p>\n Elijah Runs Away, Verses 1-8<\/p>\n Why did the faith of Elijah suddenly falter? It seems almost inexplicable in light of his great faith through the long, hard years of the famine, and after the spectacular manifestation of the power of God on Mount Carmel. The clue may be in the words of verse one. Ahab went in, when he arrived at Jezreel, and informed Jezebel what had occurred concerning Elijah and her prophets. What was Ahab’s feeling concerning what he had witnessed? It is apparent that he was much impressed, and it would seem may have been ready to call a halt to the Baal worship. He had made no move to stop the execution of the prophets, nor to apprehend Elijah. But he was totally under the control of his “witch-wife,” and she made all the calls. If Elijah wanted a fight she was ready to give it to him.<\/p>\n No doubt Elijah had been encouraged. The assembled people on Carmel had fallen on their faces and acclaimed the Lord as the true God. Here, certainly, was the seed germ of revival. The king is on the verge of conversion, but one cunning ploy of the Devil through his high priestess, Jezebel, and the king’s good intentions (assuming he had such) were brought to naught. Jezebel speedily sent a message to Elijah, with her solemn oath by her gods, that she would have the life of Elijah by the same hour of the next day. This squelched the rival, and in despondency and disappointed, Elijah decided to call it quits and run away.<\/p>\n The prophet, in cringing fear for his life, fled into the kingdom of Judah and did not pause until he had reached the southernmost city of that country, Beer-sheba. Even here he did not linger, but left his servant and pressed on into the desert a whole day’s journey. Only then did he feel far enough from Jezebel to risk a rest stop. He sat down under a juniper tree. Bible students have determined that this is not the cedar-type tree known today as the juniper, but a small desert shrub which affords very little shelter from the sun.<\/p>\n Here Elijah prayed that the Lord would let him die, He felt he was in a lost cause and was no longer ready to face the trials continuance in it required. He needed the admonition the Lord left His children in this age, “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal 6:9<\/span>). Elijah’s fathers in the ministry, the older prophets, had been murdered by Jezebel, and he felt himself no better to live than they. But he fell asleep, and was awakened by the touch of an angel. He saw a cake of bread on coals and a cruse of water at his head, and was told to eat and drink.<\/p>\n Elijah complied with the angel’s command and promptly fell asleep again. He was awakened the second time, and told to eat and drink more, for there was a long journey ahead of him and he lacked the strength for d. After his second meal, Elijah arose and continued on his way to Mount Horeb, and did not have food again for forty days and nights (cf. Jesus’ temptation, Mat 4:1-11<\/span>). Horeb is called the mount of God, because it was here that the Lord came down to Israel during the exodus and gave the law ( Exodus, chapters 19ff). the place is known as either Horeb or Sinai, and scholars today are uncertain which is the designation of the mountain range and which the peak.<\/p>\n <\/span>THE DIVIDED KINGDOM<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Kings 12-22.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/span>JEROBOAM VS. REHOBOAM<\/strong><\/p>\n 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,<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n Men, particularly inexperienced men, commonly accept the counsels that fit with their own plans and desires, and Rehoboam was no exception.<\/p>\n 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 <\/em>also Rehoboam refused wise counsel and accepted the false, that the word which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Menace of mistaken counsels! <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n But to pass on to another and kindred point, involving chapter 13:<\/p>\n The immorality of compromise with false ministers.<\/strong> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n 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<\/em> (2Jn 1:10-11<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n Moving on to chapters 14 to 16, we find another fundamental truth waiting to be apprehended and emphasized, namely,<\/p>\n The folly of attempting to purchase acceptable prophecy. <\/strong>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<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Then follows the long list of the kings on either side, conflicts, divisions, disasters and judgments (chaps. 15;<\/em> 16).<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But to turn afresh to our text and study another subject.<\/p>\n ELIJAH VS. AHAB<\/strong><\/p>\n Read 1 Kings 17-21.<\/p>\n 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,<\/p>\n A pessimistic pronouncement does not disprove the prophet of God. <\/strong>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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>). 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n The 18th chapter has a further suggestionThe Prophets faith and speech is his sufficient self-defense. <\/strong>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?<\/em> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> 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?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The endangered prophet has the assurance of Divine care and provision.<\/strong> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But to conclude our study with the consideration of,<\/p>\n MICAIAH VS. FALSE PROPHETS<\/strong><\/p>\n and to learn from these three remaining chapters, 20 to 22, three important lessons:<\/p>\n Ahab wages successful war when he has Gods Word for his warrant.<\/strong> 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<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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?<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n But to the 21st chapter and learn another lesson Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n