1 Kings 17

1Ki 17:1-7.

ELIJAH,

PROPHESYING AGAINST

AHAB,

IS

SENT TO

CHERITH.

1. Elijah the Tishbite--This prophet is introduced as abruptly as

Melchisedek--his birth, parents, and call to the prophetic office being

alike unrecorded. He is supposed to be called the Tishbite from Tisbeh,

a place east of Jordan.

who was of the inhabitants of Gilead--or residents of Gilead, implying

that he was not an Israelite, but an Ishmaelite, as

MICHAELIS

conjectures, for there were many of that race on the confines of

Gilead. The employment of a Gentile as an extraordinary minister might

be to rebuke and shame the apostate people of Israel.

said unto Ahab--The prophet appears to have been warning this apostate

king how fatal both to himself and people would be the reckless course

he was pursuing. The failure of Elijah's efforts to make an impression

on the obstinate heart of Ahab is shown by the penal prediction uttered

at parting.

before whom I stand--that is, whom I serve

(De 18:5).

there shall not be dew nor rain these years--not absolutely; but the

dew and the rain would not fall in the usual and necessary quantities.

Such a suspension of moisture was sufficient to answer the corrective

purposes of God, while an absolute drought would have converted the

whole country into an uninhabitable waste.

but according to my word--not uttered in spite, vengeance, or caprice,

but as the minister of God. The impending calamity was in answer to his

earnest prayer, and a chastisement intended for the spiritual revival

of Israel. Drought was the threatened punishment of national idolatry

(De 11:16, 17; 28:23).

2, 3. the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and

turn thee eastward, &c.--At first the king may have spurned the

prediction as the utterance of a vain enthusiast; but when he found the

drought did last and increase in severity, he sought Elijah, who, as it

was necessary that he should be far removed from either the violence or

the importunities of the king, was divinely directed to repair to a

place of retreat, perhaps a cave on "the brook Cherith, that is, before

[east of] Jordan." Tradition points it out in a small winter torrent, a

little below the ford at Beth-shan.

6. the ravens brought him bread--The idea of such unclean and voracious

birds being employed to feed the prophet has appeared to many so

strange that they have labored to make out the Orebim, which in our

version has been rendered "ravens," to be as the word is used

(in

Eze 27:27)

"merchants"; or Arabians

(2Ch 21:16;

Ne 4:7);

or, the citizens of Arabah, near Beth-shan

(Jos 15:6; 18:18).

But the common rendering is, in our opinion, preferable to these

conjectures. And, if Elijah was miraculously fed by ravens, it is idle

to inquire where they found the bread and the flesh, for God would

direct them. After the lapse of a year, the brook dried up, and this

was a new trial to Elijah's faith.

1Ki 17:8-16.

HE

IS

SENT TO A

WIDOW OF

ZAREPHATH.

8-16. the word of the Lord came to him--Zarephath, Sarepta, now

Surafend, whither he was directed to go, was far away on the western

coast of Palestine, about nine miles south of Sidon, and within the

dominions of Jezebel's impious father, where the famine also prevailed.

Meeting, at his entrance into the town, the very woman who was

appointed by divine providence to support him, his faith was severely

tested by learning from her that her supplies were exhausted and that

she was preparing her last meal for herself and son. The Spirit of God

having prompted him to ask, and her to grant, some necessary succor,

she received a prophet's reward

(Mt 10:41, 42),

and for the one meal afforded to him, God, by a miraculous increase of

the little stock, afforded many to her.

1Ki 17:17-24.

HE

RAISES

HER

SON TO

LIFE.

17-24. the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick--A

severe domestic calamity seems to have led her to think that, as God

had shut up heaven upon a sinful land in consequence of the prophet,

she was suffering on a similar account. Without answering her bitter

upbraiding, the prophet takes the child, lays it on his bed, and after

a very earnest prayer, had the happiness of seeing its restoration, and

along with it, gladness to the widow's heart and home. The prophet was

sent to this widow, not merely for his own security, but on account of

her faith, to strengthen and promote which he was directed to go to her

rather than to many widows in Israel, who would have eagerly received

him on the same privileged terms of exception from the grinding famine.

The relief of her bodily necessities became the preparatory means of

supplying her spiritual wants, and bringing her and her son, through

the teachings of the prophet, to a clear knowledge of God, and a firm

faith in His word

(Lu 4:25).