1 Kings 18

1Ki 18:1-16.

ELIJAH

MEETS

OBADIAH.

1. the third year--In the New Testament, it is said there was no rain

"for the space of three years and six months"

[Jas 5:17].

The early rain fell in our March, the latter rain in our October.

Though Ahab might have at first ridiculed Elijah's announcement, yet

when neither of these rains fell in their season, he was incensed

against the prophet as the cause of the national judgment, and

compelled him, with God's direction, to consult his safety in flight.

This was six months after the king was told there would be neither dew

nor rain, and from this period the three years in this passage are

computed.

Go, show thyself unto Ahab--The king had remained obdurate and

impenitent. Another opportunity was to be given him of repentance, and

Elijah was sent in order to declare to him the cause of the national

judgment, and to promise him, on condition of his removing it, the

immediate blessing of rain.

2. Elijah went--a marvellous proof of the natural intrepidity of this

prophet, of his moral courage, and his unfaltering confidence in the

protecting care of God, that he ventured to approach the presence of

the raging lion.

there was a sore famine in Samaria--Elijah found that the famine was

pressing with intense severity in the capital. Corn must have been

obtained for the people from Egypt or the adjoining countries, else

life could not have been sustained for three years; but Ahab, with the

chamberlain of his royal household, is represented as giving a personal

search for pasture to his cattle. On the banks of the rivulets, grass,

tender shoots of grass, might naturally be expected; but the water

being dried up, the verdure would disappear. In the pastoral districts

of the East it would be reckoned a most suitable occupation still for a

king or chief to go at the head of such an expedition. Ranging over a

large tract of country, Ahab had gone through one district, Obadiah

through another.

3. Obadiah feared the Lord greatly--Although he did not follow the

course taken by the Levites and the majority of pious Israelites at

that time of emigration into Judah

(2Ch 11:13-16),

he was a secret and sincere worshipper. He probably considered the

violent character of the government, and his power of doing some good

to the persecuted people of God as a sufficient excuse for his not

going to worship in Jerusalem.

4. an hundred prophets--not men endowed with the extraordinary gifts

of the prophetic office, but who were devoted to the service of God,

preaching, praying, praising, &c.

(1Sa 10:10-12).

fed them with bread and water--These articles are often used to include

sustenance of any kind. As this succor must have been given them at the

hazard, not only of his place, but his life, it was a strong proof of

his attachment to the true religion.

7-16. Obadiah was in the way . . . Elijah met him--Deeming it imprudent

to rush without previous intimation into Ahab's presence, the prophet

solicited Obadiah to announce his return to Ahab. The commission, with

a delicate allusion to the perils he had already encountered in

securing others of God's servants, was, in very touching terms,

declined, as unkind and peculiarly hazardous. But Elijah having

dispelled all the apprehensions entertained about the Spirit's carrying

him away, Obadiah undertook to convey the prophet's message to Ahab and

solicit an interview. But Ahab, bent on revenge, or impatient for the

appearance of rain, went himself to meet Elijah.

17, 18. Art thou he that troubleth Israel--A violent altercation took

place. Ahab thought to awe him into submission, but the prophet boldly

and undisguisedly told the king that the national calamity was

traceable chiefly to his own and his family's patronage and practice of

idolatry. But, while rebuking the sins, Elijah paid all due respect to

the high rank of the offender. He urged the king to convene, by virtue

of his royal mandate, a public assembly, in whose presence it might be

solemnly decided which was the troubler of Israel. The appeal could not

well be resisted, and Ahab, from whatever motives, consented to the

proposal. God directed and overruled the issue.

19. gather . . . the prophets of Baal . . . the prophets of the

groves--From the sequel it appears that the former only came. The

latter, anticipating some evil, evaded the king's command.

which eat at Jezebel's table--that is, not at the royal table where she

herself dined, but they were maintained from her kitchen establishment

(see on

1Sa 20:25

and

1Ki 4:22).

They were the priests of Astarte, the Zidonian goddess.

20. mount Carmel--is a bold, bluff promontory, which extends from the

western coast of Palestine, at the bay of Acre, for many miles

eastward, to the central hills of Samaria. It is a long range,

presenting many summits, and intersected by a number of small ravines.

The spot where the contest took place is situated at the eastern

extremity, which is also the highest point of the whole ridge. It is

called El-Mohhraka, "the Burning," or "the Burnt Place." No spot could

have been better adapted for the thousands of Israel to have stood

drawn up on those gentle slopes. The rock shoots up in an almost

perpendicular wall of more than two hundred feet in height, on the side

of the vale of Esdraelon. This wall made it visible over the whole

plain, and from all the surrounding heights, where gazing multitudes

would be stationed.

21-40. Elijah said unto all the people, How long halt ye?--They had

long been attempting to conjoin the service of God with that of Baal.

It was an impracticable union and the people were so struck with a

sense of their own folly, or dread of the king's displeasure, that they

"answered not a word." Elijah proposed to decide for them the

controversy between God and Baal by an appeal, not to the authority of

the law, for that would have no weight, but by a visible token from

Heaven. As fire was the element over which Baal was supposed to

preside, Elijah proposed that two bullocks should be slain and placed

on separate altars of wood, the one for Baal, and the other for God. On

whichever the fire should descend to consume it, the event should

determine the true God, whom it was their duty to serve. The proposal,

appearing every way reasonable, was received by the people with

unanimous approval. The priests of Baal commenced the ceremony by

calling on their god. In vain did they continue invoking their

senseless deity from morning till noon, and from noon till evening,

uttering the most piercing cries, using the most frantic

gesticulations, and mingling their blood with the sacrifice. No

response was heard. No fire descended. Elijah exposed their folly and

imposture with the severest irony and, as the day was far advanced,

commenced his operations. Inviting the people to approach and see the

entire proceeding, he first repaired an old altar of God, which Jezebel

had demolished. Then, having arranged the cut pieces of the bullock, he

caused four barrels or jars of water to be dashed all over the altar

and round in the trench. Once, twice, a third time this precaution was

taken, and then, when he had offered an earnest prayer, the miraculous

fire descended

(Le 9:24;

Jud 6:21; 13:20;

1Ch 21:26;

2Ch 7:1),

and consumed not only the sacrifice, but the very stones of the altar.

The impression on the minds of the people was that of admiration

mingled with awe; and with one voice they acknowledged the supremacy of

Jehovah as the true God. Taking advantage of their excited feelings,

Elijah called on them to seize the priestly impostors, and by their

blood fill the channel of the river (Kishon), which, in consequence of

their idolatries, the drought had dried up--a direction, which, severe

and relentless as it seems, it was his duty as God's minister to give

(De 15:5; 18:20).

The natural features of the mount exactly correspond with the details

of this narrative. The conspicuous summit, 1635 feet above the sea, on

which the altars were placed, 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 stones 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 fifty feet beneath the altar plateau, there is a perennial

fountain, which, being close to the altar of the Lord, might not have

been accessible to the people; and whence, therefore, even in that

season of severe drought, Elijah could procure those copious 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 would have

been impossible once in an afternoon to fetch water from the sea

[VAN DE VELDE]. 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 El-Mohhraka; so that the priests of Baal could, in a few

minutes, be taken down to the brook (torrent), and slain there.

1Ki 18:41-46.

ELIJAH, BY

PRAYER,

OBTAINS

RAIN.

42. Ahab went up to eat and to drink--Ahab, kept in painful excitement

recommended to refresh himself without a moment's delay; and, while the

king was thus occupied, the prophet, far from taking rest, was absorbed

in prayer for the fulfilment of the promise

(1Ki 18:1).

put his face between his knees--a posture of earnest supplication

still used.

43. Go up now, look toward the sea--From the place of worship there

is a small eminence, which, on the west and northwest side,

intercepts the view of the sea

[STANLEY;

VAN

DE

VELDE]. It can be

ascended in a few minutes, and presents a wide prospect of the

Mediterranean. Six times the servant went up, but the sky was

clear--the sea tranquil. On the seventh he described the sign of

approaching rain

[1Ki 18:44].

44. Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's

hand--The clearness of the sky renders the smallest speck distinctly

visible; and this is in Palestine the uniform precursor of rain. It

rises higher and higher, and becomes larger and larger with astonishing

celerity, till the whole heaven is black, and the cloud bursts in a

deluge of rain.

Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee

not--either by the river Kishon being suddenly so swollen as to be

impassable, or from the deep layer of dust in the arid plain being

turned into thick mud, so as to impede the wheels.

45. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel--now Zerin, a distance of about

ten miles. This race was performed in the midst of a tempest of rain.

But all rejoiced at it, as diffusing a sudden refreshment over all the

land of Jezreel.

46. Elijah . . . girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab--It was

anciently, and still is in some countries of the East, customary for

kings and nobles to have runners before their chariots, who are tightly

girt for the purpose. The prophet, like the Bedouins of his native

Gilead, had been trained to run; and, as the Lord was with him, he

continued with unabated agility and strength. It was, in the

circumstances, a most proper service for Elijah to render. It tended

to strengthen the favorable impression made on the heart of Ahab and

furnished an answer to the cavils of Jezebel for it showed that he who

was so zealous in the service of God, was, at the same time, devotedly

loyal to his king. The result of this solemn and decisive contest was a

heavy blow and great discouragement to the cause of idolatry. But

subsequent events seem to prove that the impressions, though deep, were

but partial and temporary.