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Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”
When he saw that, he arose, and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
1 Kings 19:1-3 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”
When he saw that, he arose, and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”
When he saw that, he arose, and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying: 'So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time.'
And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–3 To wit, of Baal.
To wit, of Baal.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1Ki 19:1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah…
1Ki 19:1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
Ver. 1. And Ahab told Jezebel] As being in no small care how to satisfy this imperious whorish woman, how to stop the mouth of this hen that crowed so loud at court, and ruled all.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Ahab told Jezebel this for his vindication, and her…
Ahab told Jezebel this for his vindication, and her satisfaction. All the prophets, to wit, of Baal; not of the groves, who were not present, as may be gathered from 1Ki 18:19,22; 22:6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 One would have expected, after such a public and…
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 - 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 (Kg1 19:1), not ton convince, but to exasperate her. It is not said he told her what God had done, but what Elijah 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, 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, Kg1 18:4. 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 (Kg1 19:2), 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, Exo 15:9. 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, 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, Kg1 19:3. 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! 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 (Kg1 17:3), 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 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, 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, Kg1 19:4. He requested for his life (so it is ion the margin), that he might die; 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, 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 (Kg1 19:2), 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, 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? 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, but of himself he was no better than his fathers 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. 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 (Kg1 19:5), 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 (Kg1 19:6), but, which was more, attended by an angel, who guarded him when he slept, and twice called him to his food when it was ready for him, Kg1 19:5, Kg1 19:7. 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, that did eat at Jezebel's table. 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, Gen 16:13. 7. He was carried, in the strength of this meat, to Horeb, the mount of God, Kg1 19:8. 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 that was before him, Kg1 19:7. 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. 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, 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done,....…
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done,.... 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:
and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword; 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Elijah flees from Jezebel, ver. 1-3. Is fed by…
Elijah flees from Jezebel, ver. 1-3. Is fed by an angel, ver. 4- 8. God manifests himself and directs him, ver. 9-18. He calls Elisha, ver. 19-21.
All the prophets - Of Baal.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Ahab tells Jezebel what Elijah had done; she is…
CHAPTER XIX
Ahab tells Jezebel what Elijah had done; she is enraged, and
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threatens to take away his life, 1, 2.
He leaves Jezreel, and comes to Beer-sheba, and thence to the
wilderness, where he is fed and encouraged by an angel, 3-9.
His complaint and the vision by which God instructs him, 10-14.
He is sent to Damascus, in order to anoint Hazael king over
Syria, and Jehu king over Israel, 15-18.
He meets with Elisha, who becomes his servant, 19-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIX
Verse 1. Ahab told Jezebel] Probably with no evil design against Elijah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1Ki 19:1. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had…
1Ki 19:1. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done — Not to convince her that Jehovah was the true God, and Baal a mere imaginary being, or a senseless idol, but to exasperate her against both Jehovah and his prophet. His conscience, it seems, would not let him persecute Elijah himself, having in him some remains of the spirit of an Israelite, which tied his hands; but he wished to excite her to do it. Hence it is not said he told her what God had done, but what Elijah 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. How he had slain all the prophets — This he especially represented to her, as that which he knew would make her quite outrageous against him. The prophets of Baal he calls the prophets, as if they only were worthy of the name: and he aggravates the slaying of them as Elijah’s crime, without taking any notice that their lives were justly forfeited to the law of God. 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–3 The prophet had not long to wait before learning…
The prophet had not long to wait before learning the intentions of the queen. A priest’s daughter herself, she would avenge the slaughtered priests; a king’s wife and a king’s child, she would not quail before a subject. That very night a messenger declared her determination to compass the prophet’s death within the space of a day.
So let the gods ... - A common oath about this time (marginal references). The Greek Version prefixes to this another clause, which makes the oath even more forcible, “As surely as thou art Elijah and I am Jezebel, so let the gods,” etc.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v3 Afraid. Hebrew, "he saw, arose, and went for his…
Afraid. Hebrew, "he saw, arose, and went for his life." (Haydock) --- He was aware of a woman’s anger, Ecclesiasticus xxv. 23. Though he goes intrepidly to meet Achab, he flees before a woman, God being desirous that he should exercise humility, (Theodoret, q. 57, &c.) though some think that he had given way to a secret fault; (Calmet) which is a groundless assertion. (Haydock) --- He must confess that all his strength is from above. (Tirinus) --- Mind, to escape notice. (Menochius) --- Bersabee, at the southern extremity of the kingdom of Juda, perhaps fifty leagues from Samaria, and five more from Jezrahel. (Calmet) --- Servant, the boy whom he had raised to life. (Abulensis)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 C.—Elijah in the Wilderness and upon Horeb; his Successor
C.—Elijah in the Wilderness and upon Horeb; his Successor
1Ki_19:1-21
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1And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal1 how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods2 do to me,3 and more also, if4 I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. 3And when he saw5 that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree [broom plant]: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord 5[Jehovah], take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper-tree [broom plant], behold, then an angel6 touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. 6And he looked, and behold,7 there was 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. 7And the angel of the Lord [Jehovah] came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too8 great for thee. 8And 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. 9And he came thither unto a [the9] cave, and lodged10 there; and behold, the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? 10And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord [Jehovah] God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 11And he said, Go forth,11 and stand upon the mount before the Lord [Jehovah]. And behold, the Lord [Jehovah] passed by, and a great and strong wind12 rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord [Jehovah]; but the Lord [Jehovah] was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord [Jehovah] was not in the earthquake: 12and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord [Jehovah] was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? 14And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord [Jehovah] God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 15And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus13: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: 16and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah 17shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shalt come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. 18Yet I have14 left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
19So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijahpassed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 20And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what haveI done to thee?15 21And he returned back from him, and took a yoke16 of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.
Exegetical and Critical
Vers.1–2. Then Jezebel sent, &c. She could hardly have done this without the knowledge of her husband, who was too weak-minded to prevent it, and so drew upon himself new guilt. Older commentators held that Jezebel was so lost to all discretion that, instead of keeping her purpose secret, or carrying it out at once, she made it known to the prophet, without considering that he might in the mean time escape. But the sense of the message is evidently this: “If thou art still here to-morrow at this time and hast not betaken thyself out of the kingdom, the same thing shall be done to thee as thou hast done to my priests.” To have him killed without further ceremony did not seem to her advisable, for the impression which he had made on the people was still too fresh in their minds; but she was determined to have him out of the way as soon as possible, in order at least to prevent all further influence on the people and the king, and so, under cover of a threat of death, she gave him time for flight. For the expression, So let the gods do to me, cf. on 1Ki_2:23.
1Ki_19:3. And when he saw that, he arose,&c. The Sept. translates וַיַּרְא by καὶ ἐφοβήθη; the Vulgate, timuit ergo; they read therefore וַיִּירָא, which Thenius explains as undoubtedly correct, because ראה is used of mental vision only when a simple conclusion from outward circumstances is referred to. But this is exactly the case here, as the Targum also renders it by חזא. From the (outward) circumstance of the message, Elijah saw clearly how matters stood; he perceived that he could no longer remain here, as he had wished and hoped, and that he could not carry his work of reformation through to the end. Since he did not as on a former occasion (chap, 1Ki_18:1) receive a divine command to hazard his life, i. e., to remain in spite of the threat, he arose and left the kingdom, as he had done once before. רָאָה is therefore used here just as in 2Ki_5:7; if וָיִּרָא were the true expression, the person of whom he was afraid would have to stand in connection with it, as in 1Sa_18:12; 1Sa_21:13. Moreover, how should the man who had just been standing all alone over against the whole people, the king, and 450 priests of Baal (chap, 1Ki_18:22), who especially appears as an unequalled prophetic hero in the history of Israel, have become all at once afraid of a bad woman?—אֶל־נַפְשׁוֹ is used here just as in 2Ki_7:7, and can only mean: in consideration of his soul, i. e., for the preservation of his (threatened) life; this meaning, moreover, is demanded by the connection with 1Ki_5:2, and we can hardly find expressed here the thought: “in order to care for his soul in the way indicated in 1Ki_5:4, i. e., to commend his soul or his life in the loneliness of the desert to God the Lord, as he should determine concerning him” (Keil). Decidedly incorrect is the translation of the Vulgate (quocumque eum ferebat voluntas), which Luther follows: “Whithersoever he would,” which has led to the erroneous conception that Elijah tied in his own will and strength, without awaiting an intimation from the Lord. Equally incorrect is the explanation of Gerlach: without end or aim, and certainly that of Krummacher: He was only travelling off haphazard.—Beer-sheba lay on the border of the wilderness. Since it belonged to the tribe of Simeon (Jos_19:2), the clause: which לִיהוּדָה, must mean that he betook himself out of the kingdom of Israel into the kingdom of Judah, to which at that time the tribe of Simeon also belonged.—His servant he left behind in Beer-sheba, not perchance through fear of being betrayed by him, nor because “he expected to have no further need of him” (Thenius), nor because the wilderness afforded no sustenance, but: “he wished now to be entirely alone, as men often do in times of sorrow or discouragement; therefore he sought the wilderness.” (Calw. B.)
1Ki_19:4. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, namely, the Arabian, through which the people had once been compelled to wander. רֹתֶם is not juniper-tree (Luther), but “a kind of broom plant, that is the most longed-for and most welcome bush of the desert, abundant in beds of streams, and valleys where spots for camping are selected, and men sit down and sleep, in order to be protected against wind and sun” (Robinson, Palestine I. p. 203). The words: It is enough, &c, do not mean: “I must, as a human being, fall a victim to death some time, and I wish to die now” (Thenius), nor: “I have already endured tribulations enough here below” (Keil), but: I have now lived long enough. This is imperatively demanded by the sentence: for I am not better than my fathers, which forms the ground of his request: Jehovah, take away my soul (life). Long life, old age, is looked on, under the old covenant, as a special gift of God (Psa_61:7; Psa_102:25; Pro_3:2; Pro_4:10; Pro_9:11; Pro_10:27); Elijah, therefore, means to say: for I do not deserve nor desire to be distinguished and favored above my fathers by a specially long life. It is an entirely mistaken view which supposes that Elijah made this request “from a weak-minded weariness of life” (Thenius), or “with a murmuring heart” (Krummacher). In that case he would have deserved a reproof or a correction; but instead of this the Lord sends a heavenly messenger, who strengthens and refreshes him, and speaks to him only animating, encouraging words. Elijah’s whole life and labor had no other aim than to bring Israel back to their God; to this end were directed all the toils and privations to which he subjected himself. When he believed himself to have finally reached this end on Carmel, suddenly there came an incomprehensible turn of events; he saw himself deceived in his holiest and most blessed hopes, king and people abandoned him, the labor and struggle of a lifetime appeared to him fruitless and vain; the deepest, most bitter sorrow pervaded his soul. In this frame of mind he began the journey into the wilderness, and as he now sits down there wearied and exhausted by the journey, bowed down by sorrow and grief, what was more natural and human than for this man, who besides was already well-stricken in years, to pray his Lord and God to take from him the heavy burden and let him come to the longed-for rest; “it was a holy sorrow and sadness, such as no common man is capable of, which filled him at that time and brought to his lips the prayer: It is enough,” &c. (Menken.)
1Ki_19:5-9. An angel touched him. Although מַלְאָךְ in verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jezebel, yet here it denotes no human messenger, but a messenger of Jehovah (1Ki_5:7). The Sept. has in all three places ἄγγελος.—עֻגָּה is a thin cake baked on a stone plate by means of hot ashes laid over it (chap, 1Ki_18:13. Winer, R.-W.-B. 1, p. 95).—After the first awakening Elijah had eaten only a very little, on account of his great weariness, and had fallen asleep again.—The closing words of verse 7 Keil explains, after Vatablus: iter est majus, quam pro viribus tuis; but since מִמְּךָ (cf. 1Sa_20:21) is not = לךָ, we may better follow the Sept.: ὂτιπολλὴ ἀπὸ σοῦ ἡ ὁδὸς, or the Vulgate: grandis enim tibi restat via. This moreover presupposes that Elijah had already determined to go to Horeb: for that he is not to be considered “as in a manner summoned thither” (Thenius) is shown by the question of verse 1 Kings 9 : What doest thou here?—Horeb (=Sinai) is here designated as “the mount of God,” because God declared, and revealed himself upon it in a special manner as the God of Israel; it was here that he appeared to Moses in the fiery bush and called him to bring forth Israel out of Egypt (Exo_3:1-15); it was here also that he made the covenant with the chosen people, “talked” with them, and gave them through Moses the law, the testimony of the covenant, the foundation on which all further divine revelations rest. Horeb is the place of the loftiest and weightiest revelation for Israel (Deu_1:6; Deu_4:10-15; Deu_5:2; 1Ki_8:9; Mal_4:4). Elijah wished to go thither in the hope that in that spot Jehovah would grant a disclosure to him also, as he had once to his servant Moses, and make known to him what further he had to do.—The cave into which Elijah went was, according to most commentators, that in which Moses once tarried while the Lord passed by (Exo_33:22); this view is favored also by the definite article. According to Ewald it must have been the cave “in which at that time wanderers to Sinai commonly rested.”
1Ki_19:8. Forty days and forty nights. Since Horeb is not more than 40 geographical miles from Beer-sheba (according to Deu_1:2. there are only eleven days journey from Kadesh Barnea, situated somewhat to the south, to Horeb), older commentators have assumed that Elijah, because old and weak, spent 19 or 20 days on this journey, remained 1 day on Horeb, and accomplished the journey back again in 19 or 20 days. But the text says very plainly that he went 40 days and 40 nights “unto Horeb.” According to Thenius, “the legend” leaves the actual relations of space out of sight here, for by this reckoning Elijah would have accomplished in each 24 hours’ time only 2 hours’ distance. But even the legend could not arbitrarily make a distance which every one knew and had before his eyes, three or four times too great; in any case the actual distance was not unknown to the author of our books. The text is not intended to make prominent the idea that Elijah kept on 40 days and 40 nights uninterruptedly, in order to reach Horeb, but that he was wonderfully preserved during this time which he spent in the wilderness before his arrival at Horeb. We must not overlook in this connection the reference to the 40 days and nights during which Moses was on Sinai without eating bread or drinking water (Exo_34:28; cf. Exo_24:18; Deu_9:9; Deu_9:18; Deu_9:25; Deu_10:10), and the indirect reference to the 40 years which Israel spent in the wilderness, where the Lord fed the people, when they had no bread, with manna, to make it known that man does not live by bread alone.
1Ki_19:9. And behold, the word of the Lord, &c. These words do not, as is commonly supposed, begin a new paragraph, but are rather to be connected with the immediately preceding portion of the same verse, “while he was spending the night in that spot, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him.” It cannot be maintained from 1Ki_19:13 that לוּנ here means not: to spend the night, but: to remain, as the Vulgate has it: cumque illuc venisset, mansit in spelunca. The question מַה־לְךָ פֹה is, after the example of Josephus (τί παρεὶη, καταλελοιπὼς τήν πόλιν, ἐκεῖσε): often taken as implying a censure, quasi Deus diceret, nihil esse Eliœ negotii in solitudine, sed potius in locis habitatis, ut illic homines ad veri Dei cultum adduceret (Le Clerc); also Thenius considers it intended “to remind Elijah how he, a prophet whom God would everywhere protect, and who in the service of God must endure everything, had not waited for a divine intimation, but from fear of man had fled to save his life, and then, in weak-minded weariness of life, had been able to wish himself dead.” This conception is radically false, and leads to an erroneous understanding of the entire passage. For, if a censure were to be inflicted on Elijah, it would not have been delayed until now, but would have been given when he had fled a day’s journey into the wilderness (1Ki_19:4), and longed to die; but instead of this he was even tenderly encouraged by an angel and wonderfully strengthened, in order to be able to continue the journey still farther. Why does not the angel say to him there, what does not follow till 1Ki_19:15? Elijah had indeed no divine command to flee into the wilderness, but still less had he any command to remain in Jezreel and bid defiance to Jezebel, as formerly (chap. 18) he had the command to show himself to the irritated king. When now during his journey, weary in body and soul, bowed down with grief and sorrow, he prayed that his end might come, but this prayer was not listened to, he longed so much the more “for a revelation and disclosure of what might be God’s will now, whither he should turn, what begin, whether and how God would employ him yet further in the service of Israel” (Menken). This drove him to the “mount of God,” i. e., to the place where, once before, his prototype Moses, the founder of the covenant, beheld the Lord and received comfort and strength; to the place where the Lord had spoken to his people and made with them the now broken covenant. If now he is asked: What doest thou here? What desire has driven thee hither? this was “a question of tender kindness, to relieve the full, burdened heart of the prophet, that he, to whom the great privilege of being able to complain of his sorrow had so long been denied, might be moved to reveal his desire, to pour out his whole heart before the Lord. So the Lord, after his resurrection, asked Mary, as she stood at the grave and wept: Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou, that thou mayst change thy sorrow into joy” (Menken). So also this is connected with the question Rev_7:13.
1Ki_19:10. I have been very jealous, &c. As the question is not to be considered a censure or rebuke as against Elijah, so also his answer is not to be considered a justification or a reproach as against Jehovah; entirely mistaken is the assertion that there is expressed in tins answer “only the greatest despondency concerning his fate” (Thenius), and “a carnal zeal that would at once call down the vengeance of the Almighty on all idolaters” (Keil), or that it bears witness to an “internal strife and murmuring” (Krummacher); it is rather, as the Apostle expressly declares, an indictment of Israel (Rom_11:2 : ἐντυγχάνει τῷ θεῷκατὰ τοῦ ’Ισραήλ). “The prophet lays the facts, whose weight had fallen upon him with such fearful power, before the Lord, that He might see how they appear, and he leaves the riddle which is therein presented to Him, for Him to explain” (Gerlach). He brings forward for weighty accusations; (1) they have fallen away from the covenant relation; (2) they have thrown down the altars still remaining here and there, dedicated to thee; (3) instead of listening to thy servants who admonished and warned them, they have slain them; (4) as for myself, the last one who has openly appeared and been zealous for thee, they are seeking my life. The words: I have been very jealous, form the introduction to this fourfold accusation: I have used every means, but all in vain; what then is now to be done, what will and should be brought about? The complaint of the prophet was at the same time again a question to the Lord, to which he then receives a twofold answer (with signs, 1Ki_19:11-12, and with words, 1Ki_19:14-18). He speaks of his zeal, moreover, not in order to boast or bother himself about his fate: “God’s honor and Israel’s welfare were of far greater value to him than his own honor or welfare; he mentions his own person and his own need only in so far as they stood in necessary and most intimate connection with the cause of God and the truth, and so his complaint was a holy one, as all his sorrow and sadness were holy” (Menken). He mentions his zeal in order thereby to confirm and strengthen his accusation against Israel.
1Ki_19:11. And he said, Go forth, &c. It is common to translate with Luther: “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind … before the Lord.” According to this Elijah must have gone out of the cave before the wind, &c. But according to 1Ki_19:13 he did not go forth till he heard the gentle breeze; it is therefore absolutely necessary to consider the words וְהִנֵּה יְהוָֹה עֹבֵר as connected with the address to Elijah, and to begin the narrative portion withוְרוַּח. That is, the participle עֹבֵר is not preterit, but, as usual when it stands for the verbum finitum, present: Jehovah passes by, i. e., he is on the point of doing it; cf. Isa_5:5; Isa_7:14; Isa_10:23 (Gesenius, Gram. (Conant) p. 240). The Sept. translates: ’Εξελεύσῃ αὔριον καὶ στήσῃ ἐνώπιον κυρίου ἐν τῷ ὄρει· ίδοὺ παρελεύσεται κύριος. Καὶ ἰδοὺ πνεῡμα μέγα κ. τ. λ. This division of the sentences is entirely correct, only αὔριον, which is not found in a single manuscript, is an unauthorized addition borrowed from Exo_34:2. The narrative in that place, moreover, serves in several ways to explain the one before us: especially the expression יְהוָֹה עֹבֵר gives clear and definite evidence. Moses desires to see the glory (כָּבוֹד, see above p. 76) of Jehovah, whereupon he receives the answer: “I will make all my goodness (טוּבִי) pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah” (i. e., what he is), and farther: “while my glory passeth by … I will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by;” then follows “And Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but that will by no means clear,” &c. (Exo_33:18-19; Exo_33:22; Exo_34:6). The expression עבר is nowhere else used of Jehovah, and doubtless marks this highest revelation as one that is possible only for a moment, in distinction from a permanent, abiding revelation, for which (שְׁכִינָה) שָׁכַןis used. When now Elijah complains here of Israel that they have broken the covenant, as they did once in the wilderness through the golden calf, and desires a disclosure concerning the dealings of Jehovah, which are dark and incomprehensible to him, the answer thereupon imparted to him: Behold! יְהוֹהָ עֹבֵר, is designed to express the idea: Jehovah will reveal himself to thee as he did once to Moses, and show thee what he is in his essence, and with this thou shalt receive the desired disclosure.
1Ki_19:11. And a great and strong wind, &c. Tempest, earthquake, and fire, as awe-inspiring natural phenomena, are in the Old Testament especially signs and attestations not only of the absolute power of God, but particularly of His anger, i. e., of His penal justice against His enemies, the ungodly. Thus they appear in connection with one another Isa_29:5 sq. and Psa_18:8-18, and they have the same significance here also. But since they occur here separately, one after the other in regular succession, they plainly indicate a succession of punishments differing in degree and kind. The tempest points to the rending, scattering, and turning to dust (Isa_17:13; Isa_40:24; Isa_57:13), the earthquake to the shaking of the foundations and the falling down (Isa_24:18 sq.;Psa_18:8; Psa_18:16; Jer_10:10), the fire to the complete consuming (Isa_66:15 sq.;Psa_18:9; Psa_97:3). In none of these three now was Jehovah, only out of the gentle whispering does He speak, i. e., the punishments come indeed from Him, pass before Him and bear witness of Him; but He Himself, that which he is, his essence (name) is not to be discerned in them; to this corresponds, rather in contrast with those destructive phenomena of nature, the gentle, soothing, refreshing, revivifying breeze after the storm. The word דְּמָמָה from דָּמַם to be silent, in Poel to silence (Psa_131:2), means properly stilling, and is used in both the other places where it appears, of the rest and refreshing which have followed pain, distress, and terror (Psa_107:29; Job_4:16). When now Jehovah “passes by” here in this, the same thing is expressed symbolically which Moses there heard in words, as Jehovah passed by; Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, &c. The significance of the whole phenomenon is accordingly this: Jehovah, the God of Israel, will indeed display His punishing, destroying might to His despisers and enemies, but His own true and innermost essence is grace, rescuing, preserving, and quickening love, and though the people have broken the covenant of grace, yet He maintains this covenant, and remains faithful and gracious as He promised. For the bowed down and accusing prophet this was the well-attested divine answer, which contained comfort and consolation as well as incitement to carry on His begun work, and not to despair of Israel, nor allow Himself to be wearied out or led into error by the apparent fruitlessness of His efforts thus far. According to Ewald (loc. cit. p. 542) the words before us can “in the first place be rightly conceived of only as describing how Jahve will here appear to Elijah, and how He will talk to him. His passing by announces itself first in the most distant way by the fiercest storm; but that is not He Himself; then more subtle and near by thunder and earthquake; but this also is not He Himself; then in the most, subtle way by fire (as in the tempest, according to Psa_18:18 (16), Hab_3:4); but this is not He Himself; only in the soft whispering that then follows, in the most subtile spiritual voice does He reveal Himself, and to this attention is to be given (as Job_4:16; Job_26:4 in like manner)!” Also Thenius says: “It is the most incorporeal object possible for the illustration of the presence of the divine being, such as Job has selected, 1Ki_4:16.” This conception is in itself very unnatural: for why should thunder and earthquakes be regarded as “more subtile” (i. e., more immaterial) than a stormy wind, and the all-consuming tire “more subtile” than an earthquake? The gradation is rather just the reverse, from the weaker destroying element to the most powerful, and not from the grossly material to the most immaterial possible. But in general, the entire context is adverse to this conception; for by no means is the revelation to be made here to Elijah, that God’s essence is spiritual and that He is incorporeal (Elijah needed no revelation for that), but that Jehovah in His own innermost being is not a destroying, annihilating God, who only punishes, but rather a quickening, saving and preserving, a gracious and faithful God.
1Ki_19:13. When Elijah heard it, &c. During the storm of wind, the earthquake, and the fire, then Elijah was still in the cave, and he came out of it only at the soft whispering, in obedience to the command, 1Ki_19:11.—He wrapped his face in his mantle, although Jehovah did not pass by in visible shape, “from awe before the unapproachable one” (Then.), as Moses did once when the Lord appeared to him in the fiery bush, “for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exo_3:6; cf. Exo_33:20; cf. Exo_33:22). Even the Seraphim stand with covered faces before the throne of the Holy One (Isa_6:2). The question already addressed to Elijah before the significant phenomenon and now repeated after it; מה־לְּךָ פח, has this sense: Hast thou now any further reason for lingering here? Elijah’s repetition of his complaint expressed in 1Ki_19:10 can have only this reason, that he does not yet feel satisfied with what has happened to him (1Ki_19:11-13), because it is not clear to him what this is intended to signify. He therefore receives now a reply in definite words (1Ki_19:15-18); and it appears from other cases also that revelations are made to the prophets first in sensible signs (symbols) and then in definite words (cf. Jer_19:1-13; Jer_24:1-10; Eze_5:1-12; Eze_12:1-12; Eze_15:1-8; Eze_37:1-14). But in this case the verbal revelation is constantly not merely an explanation or interpretation of the symbolical revelation, but it carries the latter out still further by showing how that which the phenomenon attested rather in a general way concerning the being of Jehovah, is to be historically verified in the special case under consideration.
1Ki_19:15-18. And Jehovah said unto him, &c. This address has always been a source of great trouble to commentators, because in respect to that which is here laid upon Elijah and predicted of him the succeeding history makes known nothing or something entirely different. Elijah anointed neither Hazael nor Jehu; the former was not anointed at all. not even by Elisha (2Ki_8:11 sq.), the latter was anointed long after the departure of Elijah by a disciple of the prophets, and therefore certainly not by Elisha, and Elisha himself was indeed summoned to be the successor of Elijah, yet not by being anointed, but by being covered with the prophet’s mantle (1Ki_19:19). Still less does the history know anything of the fact that Elisha, whose life and work are nevertheless related so minutely, ever slew any one, to say nothing of an equal number with Hazael and Jehu. The older, ordinary solution of the difficulties is best presented by Gerlach, who says: “Still it is to be supposed that Elijah executed literally what the Lord commanded him, since he was expressly told to go to Damascus for the purpose of anointing Hazael. For reasons which are not known to us, this anointing may have been kept secret, as was the first anointing of David by Samuel (1 Samuel 16), and, just as in the case of this king, the anointing of Jehu may have been repeated at a later date by Elisha, when the moment for Joram’s downfall had come. That prophets were anointed appears, apart from this passage, only figuratively in the prophecy Isa_61:1; the more this office now became the mightiest in the falling kingdom of Israel, the more natural was it to bring it, by means of the symbolical consecration, into conformity with the royal and priestly officers.” This forced artificial explanation is seen at once to be a makeshift and to rest on untenable assumptions. The more recent criticism has made easy work of it: this affirms: Out of the whole of Elijah’s history, as contained in the original manuscript, the author of the books before us has everywhere taken only so much as served his purpose; here now, after 1Ki_19:18, he has left out the account of the execution of the commission which had been received in regard to Hazael and Jehu, because the other original manuscripts, from which he composed the history of Hazael and Jehu, cannot be reconciled with it (Thenius, followed by Menzel). But how can we attribute to our author the carelessness or unskilfulness of having wholly failed to observe the inconsistency between 1Ki_19:15-18, and his own reports concerning Hazael and Jehu (2 Kings 8, 9)? If he had considered them irreconcilable, he would not have stopped with the pretended omission of the account concerning the execution of the commission, but would naturally also have omitted either the verses before us, 15–18, or the reports concerning Hazael and Jehu which cannot be harmonized with these. In order to remove the difficulty we must take a wholly different course. In the beginning it is well to observe that the address of Jehovah, 1Ki_19:15-18, is a reply to Elijah’s repeated severe accusation of Israel, and therefore already bears the character of a divine judicial sentence, which at once contains a prophecy, and is in the fullest sense a divine oracle. As now is generally the case with such oracular sayings, so also here the tone is evidently lofty and solemn, and the form is sententious, axiomatic; what Ewald (The Prophets of the O. T. I. p. 49) observes in reference to the strophic rhythm of the prophetic oracles, that the triple rhythm comes in with great force, especially when the language possesses a certain stately elevation, fits the present case completely. The tripartite character of the whole passage is sharply defined; 1Ki_19:15-16 are the first strophe, 1Ki_19:17 the second, 1Ki_19:18 the third; and each of these three strophes has in turn three members. But in such an oracle a strictly literal understanding of the individual expressions is the less necessary, when, as is here the case, it stands opposed to plain statements that follow. This is eminently true of the expression “anoint,” which is not to be taken literally, because then the immediately succeeding 1Ki_19:19, according to which Elisha is not really anointed, would contradict it. To “anoint” a person or thing means simply to bring them into the service of God. Thus not only kings and priests, but also implements of worship (Exo_29:36; Exo_30:26 sq.), yes, even stones (Gen_28:18) were anointed, because they were to serve for the fulfilment of the divine will. Here too the word is used in this sense; it signifies not the actual outward anointing, but what the anointing means, just as in Jdg_9:8. All three, Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, are to serve for the execution of God’s will and counsel, and each, indeed, in a different way. By Hazael, the foreign Syrian king, Israel was continually hard pressed from without (2Ki_8:12; 2Ki_8:29; 2Ki_10:32; 2Ki_13:3; 2Ki_13:7); he was the rod of correction in the hand of Jehovah, the instrument of his anger, i. e., of his punishment (cf. Isa_10:5). By Jehu the kingdom of Israel was shaken within; he put an end to the house of Ahab, from which the idolatry proceeded and was kept up (2Ki_9:24; 2Ki_9:33; 2Ki_10:1-28), and was the divine rod of correction for the idolatrous within Israel. By Elisha, as successor of Elijah, who strove with fiery zeal against all idolatry, the reformatory work of the latter was to be continued, and he also served as God’s instrument in correcting and punishing Israel, if not by means of the sword, yet through his whole prophetic activity. Since now Elijah, immediately after receiving his commission to anoint, still did not anoint Elisha, easily as he might have done this, but summoned him to be his successor, by covering him with the prophet’s mantle, we have here the clearest evidence that he did not understand the anointing literally in the case of Hazael and Jehu, any more than in that of Elisha. He took the whole oracle in general as a divine revelation of what was soon to happen in Israel. In connection with the words: Go and anoint, it is to be remembered that in other cases also of oracular sayings the prophets are commanded to do something (symbolically), which (in reality) is to be brought to pass by the Lord (cf. Jer_19:1 sq.; Jer_27:2; Jer_28:10 sq.;Eze_5:1-12; Eze_12:3 sq.). The disciple of the prophets, who anointed Jehu under the direction of Elisha, was obliged to begin this action with the words: “Thus saith Jehovah: I have anointed thee king over Israel” (2Ki_9:3); the real anointing was performed, therefore, by Jehovah himself.
1Ki_19:15-17. Go, return on thy way, &c. The words מִדְבַּרָהדַמֶּשֶׂק are not to be translated, per desertum in Damascum (Vulgate, Luther), nor hardly “into the wilderness of Damascus” (Keil after Le Clerc), but “to the wilderness (through which he had come after 1Ki_19:4) to Damascus” (Thenius). This command cannot be taken literally with any more safety than the following: Anoint; it merely indicates whence the divine punishment is to break in upon Israel. For details concerning Hazael and Jehu, vide on 2Ki_8:9-10. Of the expression “slay,” used of Elisha 1Ki_19:17. the same thing is true as of “anoint;” for that Elisha did not actually slay, our author knew as well as we do now, and indeed our knowledge comes only from his own reports concerning him. He cannot possibly, therefore, have understood the word literally, but only in the prophetic sense in which it is used of the Messiah in the oracle Isa_11:4; “he shall smite the earth (the land) with the rod (i. e., the rod of correction) of his mouth and with the breath (יָמִית) of his lips shall he slay (רוּחַ as in the passage before us) the godless.” Cf. Isa_49:2; where the month of the prophet is called “a sharp sword,” into which the Lord has made it; just so Rev_1:16; Rev_2:16; Rev_19:15. The fundamental and main thought of the oracle is in general this, that the judgment of Jehovah will come, but the judging and dividing will be brought about by the sword, now with the actual sword, now with the sword of the רוּחַ of God (Job_4:9); so far could Elisha very well be joined with Hazael and Jehu in the otherwise very much contracted oracle.
1Ki_19:18. Yet I have left, &c. In the three strophes of this passage also the symbolical mode of expression is continued. For the number seven thousand is no more to be taken arithmetically than the number an hundred and forty and four thousand (twelve times 12,000) in the Apocalypse (Rev_7:4; Rev_14:1-5). Seven is the symbolical numeral sign of holiness, the covenant and ceremonial number (cf. Symbol des Mos. Kult. I. s. 193); and it marks those who are left as a holy company, faithful to the covenant, as the “holy seed” of the covenant people (Isa_6:13; cf. Isa_4:2; Rom_11:7). In like manner the expressions, all the knees, etc., and every mouth, etc., are a figurative rhetorical description of those faithful to Jehovah. The kissing is not to be understood of kisses thrown with the hand (Gesenius), but of kissing the feet of the image which stands on a pedestal (Hos_13:2; Cicero in Verr. 4, 1Kings 43: Quod in precious et gratulationibus non solum id sc. simulacrum venerari, verum etiam osculari solent). Menken has a striking observation on 1Ki_19:18 : “Now the prophet understood why the still, small voice was preceded by the desolating storm, the devouring earthquake, and the consuming fire; and beyond all, the anxiety, terror, bloodshed, destruction which were contained therein for Israel. His heart received abundant consolation from the further revelation of the Lord; for this gave him now, in addition to the still, small voice of the Spirit of Life, a disclosure touching the mercy of the Lord to Israel, that infinitely surpassed all his hopes and expectations: and if the revelation of the wants and plagues which were to come upon Israel produced in him the same feeling as the destruction and ruin of threatening storms, still by this disclosure he felt himself encouraged and quickened, as in the refreshing blessed coolness after the storm.” In the Return (1Ki_5:15) there is contained therefore anything rather than a rebuke for the prophet; but it is the expression of comfort and encouragement.
1Ki_19:19. So he departed thence, &c. The city Abel Meholah, where, according to 1Ki_19:16, Elisha lived, lay in the valley of the Jordan, about three German miles from Beth Shean, in the tribe of Manasseh (Jdg_7:22; 1Ki_4:12). Though he may indeed have been already known to Elijah, yet he hardly belongs with the “sons of the prophets,” among whom Ewald wrongly places him; adding, at the same time, “He had just ploughed round his twelve yoke of land, being at work on the twelfth and last.” But צֶמֶּד, as appears from 1Ki_19:21, and as לְכָּנָיו also demands, is not a yoke of land, but a yoke (pair) of oxen. One ploughman belonged with each yoke. Elisha was with the last, the others all “before him.” The conjecture that the “twelve yoke of cattle represented the twelve tribes” (Hengstenberg, von Gerlach), like the twelve stones of the altar on Carmel (1Ki_18:31), has very little in its favor. The number appears to be mentioned only to show that Elisha was a man in good circumstances, who, nevertheless, left his property in order to follow the call of Elijah. אַדֶּרֶת is here the prophetic official garment (Bech. 1Ki_13:4; 2Ki_1:8; 2Ki_2:13). The throwing it over Elisha was a symbolical act, which denoted the summons to become a prophet (the investiture); and was intelligible to Elisha, even without any words. Elijah seems to have withdrawn at once; he wished, indeed, to leave the doubtless astonished Elisha some time for making up his mind; yet the latter did not meditate long, but hastened (יָרָץ, he ran; not he followed) after him, and declared his purpose to accept the summons, only he wished first to take leave of his father and mother (cf. Gen_31:28). Elijah’s answer, לֵךְ שׁוּב, is not to be translated with Luther: Go (to thy parents) and come (then) again; but just as in 1Ki_19:15, where both words together express only one conception—Return, namely, to thy parents, as thou wishest. The following sentence, For what have I done to thee? should, according to Keil, have the meaning, “I have not wished to coerce thee, but I leave the decision concerning the prophetic call to thy free will.” In a similar manner Ewald: “As if indignant at this reawakening of desire for the world, Elijah gave him permission to return altogether if he wished.” This does not agree with the fact that, according to the Divine will (cf. 1Ki_19:16), Elisha was destined to be the successor of Elijah, and Elijah, therefore, certainly did not leave the acceptance of the summons wholly to his free will. Had he given over to him the decision of the matter he would not have first thrown the prophetic mantle over him, but would have waited till Elisha decided. When Elisha prays that he may be permitted to take leave of his parents, his idea is that he is ready to follow Elijah, and he only wishes first to satisfy a natural filial obligation, not that he prefers to remain with his parents. That Elijah was unwilling for him to fulfil this filial duty is therefore not to be imagined. Thenius translates: “Go, return! yet! what have I done to thee?” and observes: “He gives the permission, but recalls the lofty meaning of the symbolical action which had just been performed on him, by which he had been devoted to the service of the Lord.” This gives indeed a good meaning, only it is very questionable whether כִּי can have here, where no contrast is expressed, the signification, yet! The fundamental idea: for, is never entirely lost: Go, take leave of thy parents, for what have I done to thee? I have summoned thee to the prophetic service; thine abode is henceforth no more with thy parents: thou art to follow me.
1Ki_19:21. And he returned back from him, &c. Elisha had run after him (יָרָץ, 1Ki_19:20), and now returned to take a formal leave of his people. He took (not “a” yoke, as Luther has it, but) the yoke of cattle, viz., that with which he himself had been ploughing (1Ki_19:19), which was his in an especial sense. These he slew for a farewell feast (זבָחַ, as in Chron. 1Ki_18:2; 1Sa_28:24; Eze_39:17), not, he offered it (as a thank-offering), for the whole context shows that the reference is not to a religious, priestly act, for which also an altar would have been necessary. To offer is here the equivalent of to dispense, to give up (Keil), and is not to be understood in its strict sense. The instruments of the oxen, i. e., the yoke and the frame of the plough, he applied not forsooth as would necessarily be expected, if a sacrifice were the matter in hand, to the burning of them up, but to the boiling of the flesh; certainly not because there was no other wood at hand (1Sa_6:14; 2Sa_24:22), but rather in order to indicate that he gave up for ever his previous calling. The people that took part in the feast can hardly be “the inhabitants of his place” (Thenius), but those who up to this point were laboring in common with him in the field, and of them he now took leave as of his parents. The conjecture that this farewell feast occurred immediately in the field where Elijah met him, and that he withdrew from it to take leave of his parents (Calw. B.), is as groundless as it is unnecessary. So far as the words are concerned, the Lord, in Luk_9:61, may very likely have been thinking of this passage, but the sense and meaning are very different. “Elisha did not wish first to bury his father and mother, i. e., wait until they were dead, but only to take leave of them; moreover, when he wished this, he had not already put his hand to the plough, like the man in Luk_9:61-62, for he had not presented himself to succeed Elijah (Calw. B.). There the Lord is expressing censure, whereas what is here related should not prove a reproach to Elisha, but rather an honor and praise. There can, accordingly, be no talk of a “close affinity” between the two places (Thenius). Krummacher represents the matter thus: Elisha gave the feast to his parents at once, became thereby their “host,” and appeared “here already as a prophet, supplying and blessing,” &c. This is pure fancy, and has an incorrect explanation of the text for its basis.
Historical and Ethical
1. With Elijah’s arrival in Jezreel the life of the great prophet enters upon a new stage. From the height of the victory which he had won, with God’s wonderful help, on Carmel, he is led down now into the dark depths of temptation, in order to come forth from them with only the greater glory. “The smelter of Israel must be content to go down now himself into the crucible” (Krummacher). As the “servant of God,” which he was in a special sense (1Ki_18:36; 2Ki_9:36; 2Ki_10:10), he is led the way which, in accordance with the Divine economy, is the way of all true servants of God. For in the great historical idea of the “servant of God,” which is actually realized under the old dispensation only in disjectis membris, but under the new dispensation, in its complete fulness in Christ, there is contained the thought that every servant of God is made perfect through trial and temptation, through suffering and tribulation, and in that which he suffers he learns obedience (Heb_2:10; Heb_5:8; Luk_24:26; Isaiah 53; Act_2:23-24; Act_3:13; Act_4:27). All the great men who, as servants of God, occupy an integrant position in the history of salvation, have had to go through this experience; and the life even of an Elijah or a Moses would lack an essential element of that which belongs to a “servant of God,” if he had remained untempted and untried, free from suffering and tribulation. From this standpoint, must be contemplated and estimated what the section before us announces concerning him. He stands now, not as before, acting and giving, commanding and judging, but enduring, suffering, and receiving. It is the Lord who is purifying him through suffering; the temptation becomes for him the way to the most glorious revelation of God.
2. The removal from Jezreel into the wilderness should not, as is so often done, be looked on as properly a “flight,” a lack of faith, courage, and firmness (Krummacher: “Faith, to remain was wanting in him this time”). The text has no more knowledge of a flight (בָּרַח), like that, e. g., in the case of Jonah (Jon_1:2-3), than of his being afraid. He recognized in the threat of Jezebel a providential admonition, which, however dark and hard it might appear to him, he did not believe himself at liberty to resist, since no higher direction to remain had come to him. For him, the strong man, firm as a rock, heroic in temper, it was an infinitely more difficult and humiliating duty to give up to the anger of a godless, wicked woman, than to bid her defiance, and make trial of the Lord. He bowed beneath the inscrutable decree, as becomes a true servant of God; and so his going away was an act of faith no less than his appearing before the persecuting Ahab (1Ki_18:15 sq.). “To force martyrdom upon himself, of his own choice, without necessity, he did not consider a part of his calling, nor did he regard it a great and holy act, nor has this ever been the ease with the prophets and apostles. In behalf of the truth and the glory of God’s name the prophet would have given up his life with joy; but at the present crisis this end would not have been attained through his death; it would have been a triumph for Jezebel” (Menken). There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Elijah withdrew from Jezreel “through fear of man,” and that then, because he had arbitrarily relinquished the prosecution of his prophetic calling, he was “summoned, so to speak,” to an account and justification of himself on Horeb (Thenius). It was just there that he was favored with the most glorious revelation.
3. The state of mind into which Elijah fell in the wilderness has nothing to do with the common “weak-minded weariness of life” (Thenius). His righteous and holy sorrow over the fruitlessness of all that God had done, through him, to save His people from ruin and destruction, overpowered him, being as he was, according to the apostle’s expression, ὁμοιοπαθὴς ἡμῖν (Jam_5:17; cf. Act_14:15); so that he was subject to the frailty and weakness of human nature, from which no mortal is free, so long as he lives in the body. Even he, this mighty hero, was obliged to go through this experience for himself, and pay his tribute to it. Similar States of mind appear even in lives of the firmest and strongest men of God. Thus, in the case of that other Elijah, John the Baptist in the prison, who believed, in like manner, that he must give up all hope, and sent, in the hard hour of temptation, to inquire of the Lord, “Art thou He that should come,” &c.; yet at that time the Lord testifies of him that he is no reed which the wind blows to and fro. And the Author and Finisher of faith himself, in the days of his flesh (Joh_1:14), offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears (Heb_5:7), and called out: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Mat_26:38). As here Elijah, so there the Lord in Gethsemane was strengthened by angel—a clear token that his condition was one indeed of severe temptation, but not of guilt or sin, such as would merit censure or reproof, or even a summons before the tribunal of God.
4. Elijah’s spending forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before reaching Horeb, while he might have attained his end in a much shorter time, was anything rather than accidental or meaningless; concerning Moses the fact is made prominent, not once merely, but repeatedly, with a certain emphasis, that he, before receiving on Horeb the highest revelation from Jehovah, spent forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking (Exo_24:18; Exo_34:28; Deut. 9:9; 18:25; 10:10). Since, now, the same thing took place in the case of Elijah also, and in that of no other servant of God, this very fact marks him out as the other, the second Moses; but it follows at once from this that the season of forty days and forty nights had the same significance for Elijah, the restorer of the covenant (vide above on chap. 17.), as for Moses its founder. It was a season of preparation for the highest possible revelation of God that can be given to a mortal, but, as such, a season of abstinence from all earthly enjoyment, of absorption in God and a higher world, of contemplation and prayer. This significance is impressed upon it by the number forty, which is in the Scriptures generally the measure of every season of abstinence, of purification and trial, of conflict and correction, and so also of expectation (Gen_7:4-17; Deu_8:2-3; Deu_29:4-6; Jon_3:4; Eze_4:6; Eze_29:11-13; Mat_4:2). Elijah now spent this time, not like Moses upon the mountain itself, but in the wilderness lying before it, which was just the most appropriate locality for him. “Here the whole wonderful history of the old fathers passed in review before him.… With every step which he took forward into the silent desert, new pictures and scenes came before his gaze out of that wonderful past” (Krummacher), he was most vividly reminded “how even in this wilderness God the Lord had manifested Himself to His servants and to His people in the most varied and most glorious manner.… and so he was gradually prepared for the revelations and consolations which awaited him in this wilderness” (Menken).
5. The revelation which Elijah received on Horeb furnishes, indeed, an unmistakable parallel to that which once fell to the lot of Moses, but the account of it is in no wise copied by our narrator from that earlier one, as more recent commentators suppose. (Thenius thinks that he surpasses his model almost.) The common characteristic of the two revelations consists in this, that Jehovah here, as there, “passes by,” which designates, as observed above, the highest state of revelation under the old dispensation. When now Elijah is favored with the same revelation, such as fell to the lot of Moses only and of no other servant of God beside Moses under the old dispensation, he is thereby placed over against Moses; in fact, to a certain degree, on the same line with him; and this is owing to the position which he holds in sacred history as the restorer of the broken covenant, the other, the second Moses. The nature and method of the “passing by” were, on the contrary, very different; the accompanying natural phenomena are wholly wanting in the earlier instance, and are in the Ingest degree peculiar, for they have reference to the special relations and circumstances in which Elijah found himself, as is moreover expressly attested by the explanatory language of God (1Ki_19:15 sq.). The whole of this revelation bears in general a predominantly prophetic character, referring, that is, to the future, while this element is almost entirely absent from the revelation to Moses. However, it is a matter of greater importance that here, as there, Jehovah reveals saving grace as His most real and inmost essence, and that this revelation fell to the lot of just these two, Moses and Elijah, i. e., the founder and the restorer of the covenant, the representatives of the law and of the prophets, and so of the Old Testament economy in general (Mat_17:3; Luk_9:30). This fact is the best refutation of the common assertion that the God of the Old Testament is entirely different from the God of the New Testament—an angry, despotic, national God, not the God who, under the new dispensation, has revealed Himself as “Love.” That which became evident to all, Jews and Gentiles, when the time was fulfilled, was already disclosed by the Lord to the two representatives of the old dispensation, although with “veiled countenance,” for it was just they who, in their higher historical position, needed to take a deeper look into the essence of God, and so into the counsel of His mercy and love.
6. The whole transaction on Horeb may indeed be designated a “vision” (Niemeyer, Herder, Von Gerlach. Keil), only by this must not be meant that it was merely a transaction within the prophet, a pure vision which he had during sleep, perhaps “in a dream” (Thenius). The expression in 1Ki_19:9 : “And behold the word of Jehovah came to him,” which is constantly used of an inner revelation, points doubtless to the fact that Elijah found himself in a visionary condition, into which he seems to have been brought already, more or less, during the forty days and nights (1Ki_19:8); but the account certainly does not mean to designate the natural phenomenon, the medium of the theophany, as an object of purely internal perception, but as an object of external experience, as appears from the fact that Elijah went out from the cave and veiled his face with his mantle. Yet this does not remove the visionary condition, for the theophanies are, as Lange (on Gen_3:8) observes, “universally effected by means of visionary frames of mind.” We have before us here a theophany which is not, as in 1Ki_22:17 or Ezekiel 1, a mere vision, still less as in Psa_18:7 sq., only poetry, but which, like that in Exo_3:2 sq., has an occurrence in nature for its substratum. This kind of theophany has, as even Knobel (Prophet. der Hebr. I. s. 160) says, “an objective truth in so far as every occurrence in nature is a revelation of the moving God.” As in general the whole of created nature makes known the Creator and reveals His glory (Psa_19:1 sq.), so also single special objects in nature, and phenomena or occurrences in nature, serve for His special revelation, for they correspond to the relations of the special time and person, as is here the case.
7. Of the various explanations which the appearance on Horeb has received, that one, first of all, is to be rejected as wholly mistaken which finds represented here for Elijah the fact that the peaceful rest of eternity is to follow the unrest, the conflicts and tribulations of this life (Seb. Schmidt), for this has no connection with the explanatory oracle in 1Ki_19:15, or rather is directly contradictory to it, even were it not Jehovah, but Elijah’s life, that “passed by.” Much more probable and widespread is another explanation, according to which the appearance expresses a censure of Elijah’s “zeal as not wholly free from human passion,” and aims “to quiet his zeal, which demeans itself too passionately, although it is commendable so far as concerns the sentiment lying at its foundation,” and to “show to him that his zealous activity for the honor of the Lord is not in harmony with the love, grace, and long-suffering of God,” and at the same time also to remind and admonish him not to go too far in the matter (Keil after Ephraim the Syrian, Theodoret, certain Rabbis, Le Clerc, et alii). But where, then, had the prophet, thus far, demeaned himself too passionately, and where did he go too far in his zeal? It could only have happened upon Carmel. But since, then, “by slaying the priests of Baal he only fulfilled what the law demanded” (Keil on 1Ki_18:40), he certainly deserved no censure or reproof; and since later he caused fire from heaven to fall upon the company sent against him (2Ki_1:10 sq.), he would certainly have paid no heed to the pretended admonition not to be too zealous. The gentle whispering in which Jehovah was, and out of which he spoke, can by no means have set forth what Elijah was to be, and how he was to control himself; it was no censure, but comfort and encouragement, consolation and support for him.—A third explanation sees on the appearance a picture of the two economies: the law, which terrifies and crushes sinners, and the gospel, which makes them alive and quickens them (so Irenæus, long ago, Grotius, and many more modern ones), or, at the same time, of the judgments and chastisements which came upon the people under the old dispensation, and of the New Testament season of refreshing and peace, in which the Lord Himself will appear and dwell among His believing ones (Jo. Lange, Calw. Bib., et alii). This, however, is opposed by the fact that the appearance would, in that case, stand in no direct connection with Elijah’s complaint (1Ki_19:10), to which, nevertheless, it was the first reply; and moreover the following oracle (1Ki_19:15 sq.), which makes it refer to the relations existing at that time, contains no allusion to the Messianic age. When Paul (Rom_11:5) cites Elijah’s complaint and the divine response (1Ki_19:18), and then continues: “Even so, then, at this present time also there is a remnant according, to the election of grace,” he does not mean to say: What is there predicted is now fulfilled, but: As in Elijah’s time God according to His grace had left alive a number of such as did not give themselves up to the service of Baal, so now also, in the time of salvation, there is an “election of grace,” which does not, with the hardened multitude, reject the offers of salvation, but embraces it and is saved. In Isaiah a recurring theme of prophecy is this: that after all the chastisements and judgments which would come upon Israel, there should still always be in existence a “remnant” of the peculiar and faithful people of God, therefore also at the end of the Old Testament age, resp. at the beginning of the Messianic age (Isa_4:2; Isa_6:13; Isa_10:16 sq.; 1Ki_11:11). But the reference in the oracle before us is not to this remnant, but to that which in Elijah’s time does not bow the knee before Baal, although it can always be looked upon as a type of the later one and the last. The truth presented in the natural phenomenon on Horeb is of such a kind that it finds application to various times and relations, because it is universal and eternal, and in so far it may be valid also for the Messianic age, but it was revealed to Elijah only with reference to his own time, that of the Old Testament.
8. The calling of Elisha to become a prophet naturally connects itself directly with the revelation on Horeb. What filled Elijah with the greatest solicitude, and drove him into the wilderness and to Horeb, was, that he alone remained of all the prophets, that with him his work of restoring the covenant would go down and the prophetic office die out. On Horeb now he learned that Jehovah had appointed as prophet one who would step into his place and carry on his work, so that there should never be in Israel a lack of such as do not bow the knee before Baal. This it was that brought him out of his depressed state of mind, since the cause of God was the only matter of importance to him, and tilled him with new courage, and because this was the chief matter for him, he felt himself impelled to summon at once as his successor that Elisha whom Jehovah had appointed and elected to become a prophet, and so he betook himself “thence” to him directly, and without delay. There can, therefore, be no thought of a “gap” in the account before us between 1Ki_19:18-19 (Thenius, vide above on 1Ki_19:15-18). The calling of Elisha was the most urgent thing in his eyes, the time for the “anointing” of Hazael and Jehu he left with the Lord.—Krummacher (Elias, s. 294) repeatedly expresses such a conception of the calling of Elisha as that, with it, “an entirely new period was to begin in the history of the education of Israel, a period of divine condescension after the days of punishments and thunderings of the law, a term of the gentle breeze after that of the storm, the dame of fire, and the earthquake;” but this is in direct contradiction of the oracle (1Ki_19:16-17), where Elisha is put in the same rank with. Hazael and Jehu, the instruments of divine punishment, and it is said: “Him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay,” which can scarcely mean: Elisha, in contrast with them, will be a bringer of salvation and peace. It was just the time of Elisha that was farthest from being the period of the gentle breeze, for from without Israel was continually hard pressed by the Syrians, and from within the kingdom was thoroughly shaken by the turbulent Jehu, who put a bloody end to the house of Ahab.—We shall return to the relation in which Elisha stands to Elijah in sacred history when he really steps into Elijah’s place (2 Kings ii).
9. Elisha’s being called away from the plough to become a prophet and indeed the successor of an Elijah, an historical position of such elevation and influence, is one of the not infrequent examples of the manner in which God has selected and equipped with light and power from above, for the carrying out of his counsels of salvation and for the founding and extending of His kingdom, just such men as were living unseen before the world and neglected by it, in quiet and retirement, faithful and submissive to their inglorious earthly calling, and were not thinking or wishing to become anything great, to the end that all the world might know that the work which they have been called to carry out is not of men but of Him (Act_5:38 sq.; 2Co_4:7). His apostles, who went into all the world and accomplished the greatest and most difficult task which has ever been achieved, were called by the Lord from the fishing-smack and from the customhouse. It is a rule of the divine government: “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1Co_1:27 sq.).
Homiletical and Practical
1Ki_19:1-18. The course which God takes with His servants, (a) He leads them down into the depths (wilderness, conflict, 1Ki_19:1-8); (b) but then He sets them on high (Horeb, vision of God, 1Ki_19:9-18; vide ethical remarks).
1Ki_19:1-8. Bender: Elijah in his flight from Queen Jezebel, (a) The situation into which he came; (b) the state of mind into which he fell; (c) the comfort which was imparted to him.—Wirth: Elijah under the juniper-tree (a) The deep despondency into which the prophet of God was fallen; (b) the wonderful strengthening which he received.
1Ki_19:1-4. Krummacher: The flight into the wilderness, (a) The persecution; (b) the flight; (c) the dejection.
1Ki_19:1-2. Ahab after the day on Carmel. (a) Ahab tells his wife everything that he has experienced and witnessed there (every man should tell his wife the great deeds of God, in order to bring her to the way of life and keep her there; thus marriage becomes what it should be, Eph_5:23-27). (b) He lets his wife’s anger and spite have free course (instead of her being subject to him, he is subject to her; instead of holding before her the command: Thou shalt not kill, and turning her from her wicked way, he suffers himself to be contented, keeps quiet, and bows beneath her will; such weakness is not conjugal love, but sin and shame).—Würt. Summ.: Hardened sinners allow themselves to be won over and converted neither by the punishments nor by the favors of God, but become more wicked, the longer they live.
1Ki_19:2. There is no anger so bitter as the anger of women. When hatred and revenge have once entered a woman’s heart, she does not shrink even from the greatest crimes (Mar_6:19; Mar_6:24).—To bind one’s self to wickedness by an oath is the highest step of religious and moral infatuation (Act_23:12). Calw. Bib.: A profligate man often determines to bind himself thus in order that his wicked plans may not be repented of. Would that men would seek to bind themselves to the right.
1Ki_19:3. Calw. Bib.: So long as we can escape martyrdom we may and should do so (Mat_10:23). How much more must it be folly to seek it. It is enough for us to stand firm when escape from persecution is impossible. The Scripture says: He that believeth shall not make haste (flee), Isa_28:16; and, Fear not them, &c. (Mat_10:28); but every flight is not unbelief; fleeing is reprehensible and disgraceful only when it leads away from the fulfilment of a duty, or when it results from dread of toil or suffering, from love of rest and ease. It is often the part of faith and self-renunciation to yield before the wicked and godless rather than to stay and bid them defiance. If God shows us ways and means for saving our life and our honor, we are not at liberty to hope for, and presume upon, miracles and extraordinary assistance.
1Ki_19:4. The deep sadness of the prophet, (a) Its origin (it was not the sadness of the world, that arises from the loss of temporal goods, honor, respect, joys and pleasures, but a sadness in view of the fact that every great act which God had performed with reference to his people, every labor and every contest for the salvation of their souls had remained without result. This is the noblest and rarest sadness. But where are the parents, where the preachers, who are troubled over nothing so deeply and seriously as over the blindness and deafness of the souls intrusted to them)? (b) Its manifestation (Elijah wishes death for himself because it is intolerable for him to see God abandoned and his people running to destruction).—Menken: This outbreak of the full, oppressed heart of the prophet does in no wise justify the thoughtless, light-minded, irrational utterances of many men who wish death for themselves, and has nothing in common with the unholy gloom of unholy men, who … are weary of life because they cannot conquer their will, because they set no limits to the passions and demands of their heart, and neither seek nor know the truth which could free them from all their discontent and unhappiness, if they would be obedient to it.—Wirth: There is no Christian’s life, even though it were the most pious and perfect, which does not also have its hours of despondency; there is no child of God who might not also, for once perhaps, like Elijah, sit under the juniper-tree and wish to shake off his burdens and sigh: It is enough, &c. Those are dangerous moments; the word of the Lord is applicable to them, Luk_22:31 sq.—Elijah’s prayer in the moment of temptation, (a) It is enough! the measure is full (we may indeed sigh under the burden, which is pressing us to the ground, and entreat: Put an end, O Lord, put an end to all our necessity! But whether it is enough, when we think it is enough, is known only to Him; to determine the measure of life and of suffering is not our business but His (Mat_26:39; Luk_22:42). Many a man before now has called out: It is enough! and yet afterwards thanked God that the Lord did not at once listen to his request, but suffered it to be not yet enough), (b) Now, O Lord, take away my life (because Elijah’s soul belonged to the Lord and his whole life was devoted to Him, he ventured to say: Take my soul, which thou gavest me, back to thyself, and give it rest in the everlasting tabernacles of peace.—Menken: In order to be able to say with Paul: I desire to depart and to be with Christ, we must know and love the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul knew and loved Him, and also be able to say like him in truth: For me to live is Christ! In order to be able to pray with Elijah: It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life! we must, at least on a small scale, have worked and suffered and maintained ourselves well amid temptations, and labored over ourselves with the grace and gift of God as Elijah did). (c) I am not better than my fathers (the particular gift of a long life Elijah does not believe himself to have deserved, although he always walked in the ways of God. Not because he considers himself too good for this world does he wish himself out of it, but because he feels himself to be not better than his fathers; he does not rest his prayer on his merit and good works, but in the consciousness of his sinfulness and in the hope of God’s grace and mercy he awaits death. He who dies so, dies well)!
1Ki_19:5-8. Krummacher: The visit under the juniper-tree. The guardianship of divine grace becomes evident (a) in the hearing vouchsafed to the prophet’s prayer; (b) in the appearance of an angel which the Lord sends to him; (c) in a wonderful nourishment which he experiences; (d) in a delightful prospect which God opens before him; (e) in a supernatural strengthening for his wandering through the wilderness.
1Ki_19:5. Menken: There have been in all ages faithful servants of God and Christ who have been weakened and discouraged by the thought that it was all in vain, all their anxiety and labor were fruitless, nothing more could possibly be gained for the Lord, and no more work of any importance could be done by them for His cause and kingdom, and they have been on the point of finding joyous, spirited, zealous work in the service of the Lord, nay, even life itself, distasteful. But they have always found consolation from the Lord in his Word, and have been aroused and strengthened by His spirit to new courage and to unremitted perseverance in their work for the truth. They have learned to think of Him who endured similar contradiction of sinners against himself.… The Lord Jesus Christ had taught them not to estimate the value of their labor according to the effect which they produce by it, nor according to the visible results perceptible to themselves, but with joy and confidence to persevere unweariedly, even though it should appear as though all they said was addressed to an uninhabited desert.
1Ki_19:6 Cramer: When the children of God are forsaken by every human being, and lie in the midst of a wilderness, God with his holy angels, like a heavenly host, ministers to them. (Heb_1:14; Gen_32:1.—Menken: God is present in the desert also, and can prepare a table for your soul even there, and just at a time when man is and can be nothing to you, when the world can give you no help; then, better than at any other time, can he be to you all and in all.—Wirth: For us too, and for our hours of lack of faith and despair, God has prepared bread and water which will nourish and quicken the soul. This bread, this water is His word, the everlasting word of God, which is the life of God and strength of God (Mat_4:4). Eat of this bread, drink of this water, when you are in danger of going astray in your life-work, not only once or twice, nay, again and again eat and drink.
1Ki_19:7. We all have a long journey before us, and do not know how long a time we will be obliged to spend on the way, through what deserts He is still to lead us, during how many dark nights we are to grope about, and what burdens and hardships, without and within, we have still to bear. Let us then hearken to the voice of Him who is much more to us than an angel from heaven, when he cries to us: Awake, thou that sleepest (Eph_5:14)! Arise and eat! For the long journey he provides the bread of life, and water that springs up unto everlasting life: he that cometh unto Him will never hunger or thirst (Joh_6:35); through his strength, which is mighty in weakness, we shall reach the goal and arrive there, where we shall see Him as He is.
1Ki_19:8. Menken: The way of the prophet into the wilderness seemed to him as he entered upon it a road to death and hell, but it proved to him the way of life and heaven, a means of most valuable experiences. The world often thinks that it has given to a man of God a cup to drink which will prove most bitter to him; it plans to give him as much distress as possible. The Lord permits it, and plans how to make it a source of good to him, and..… permits him to enjoy such pleasures and refreshings, to have such experiences, to attain such knowledge and strength, as had never been his portion, and such as he never would have attained to in any other way.… We too would gladly enjoy something of the experience, the knowledge and comfort of the saints; but without the sufferings of the saints, without their want and their sacrifices, and just because we will that in the very midst of the world it could be our share, with all the peace and joy of the world beside, it never will be our lot. Our weak and delicate spirit shrinks from venturing even a day’s journey into the wilderness; and yet in all times every one who has been led far into its depths have been thankful for all their life long.
1Ki_19:8-18. Bender: Elijah on Mount Horeb. (a) The wonderful consolation which he enjoyed on his journey thither; (b) the exalted revelation which he there received; (c) the new duties and encouragements which were his lot even there.
1Ki_19:9-13. Wirth: Elijah at Mount Horeb. (a) The night-quarters in the cave; (b) the appearance of the Lord.
1Ki_19:9-11. Krummacher: The arrival at Horeb. (a) The night spent in the cave; (b) the speaking Word; (c) the divine reproof; (d) the prophet’s complaint; (e) the summons (?) before the Lord.
1Ki_19:9. The divine inquiry: What doest thou here? (a) To Elijah (purpose and intent of the question; vide explanations under 1Ki_19:9. God desires to have us disclose our hearts to Him; He summons us to do so in conformity with His love and friendship for us, Lament. 1Ki_2:19; Psa_62:9; for he would heal those who are of a broken heart, Psa_147:3.—Menken: A question may be like a cutting and wounding knife in the pain it gives a human heart; but it may also be as beneficent as healing balm. He who is indifferent to the questions he asks, and does not weigh their import, is still inconsiderate, and is greatly lacking in wisdom and love. Many thousand wicked and unnecessary questions are asked, which are causeless and without aim; questions of scorn, of derision, of anger, of uncharitableness, and of heart and time-destroying curiosity. On the other hand, there are few questions of wisdom and love. He who asks in order to be able to assist, to instruct, is inspired with the spirit of love, and in addition to love, he has great wisdom if he understands how to ask, so as to attain his end by means of his questions). (b) Made to us all by Jehovah. (What doest thou here in this world and at this time? Art thou here only for the purpose of eating and drinking, to pass thy life in enjoyment and folly, and wear away the time? How many live without considering that it is appointed for men once to die, and then cometh the judgment. Heb_9:27. Let not a day pass without answering the question which God puts to thee: What doest thou here? The question may also imply: What doest thou here, in this place in which thou happenest to be, in the situation and circumstances into which thou hast transferred thyself? What is it that has led thee hither? Canst thou here talk and act in the sight of Him of whom it is said: there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; whether I walk or lie, thou art about me and art acquainted with all my ways? Psa_139:3-4. Wherever thou mayest go, or wherever thou tarriest, let this question of God come into thy mind: What doest thou here? it is a question of divine love, but yet a question of divine solemnity.)
1Ki_19:10. Elijah’s zeal for the Lord, (a) A pure and sincere zeal (it was solely for the Lord, not for himself, for his opinion, honor, glory or advantage, just as with the Apostle who counted all things but loss that he might win Christ. Php_3:8. How often folly, dogmatism, passion, and injustice is mingled with zeal for the Lord and for His kingdom. Would that all who would be, or who pretend to be zealous for the cause of God, could stand before the Searcher of hearts and say in sincerity: I have been zealous for the Lord). (b) A persevering and regardless zeal. (Like Paul, he shrunk from no distress or labor, from no strife or affliction, nor hunger nor nakedness, neither scoffing nor disgrace, Php_4:12-13; 2Co_6:4-10. He had no respect of persons, did not ask whether he was a king, serving Baal, or a beggar, whether he was lord or servant, whether his opponents were few or many: it could be said of him: The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, Psa_69:10. How few of those have any knowledge of such a zeal, who follow their calling mechanically, and never become warm in its behalf, whose zeal is like a smothered fire, and grows less and inefficient, and cools, both when temptation arises and when they are in prosperity.)—The complaint of the prophet against Israel is a threefold one. (a) They have forsaken thy covenant, although it is their only source of safety (this was the first stage of their apostasy. They lightly estimated the word of the Lord and did not trouble themselves about it. The same thing appears in Christianity still. The covenant which was sealed by the blood of the Son of God, and the covenant meal are forsaken and considered of no value; how many there are who forsake the church and the communion table, and, losing the knowledge of a covenant with God through Christ, live henceforth like the heathen without God in the world). (b) They have thrown down thine altars. (This was the second stage of their apostasy; desertion from grew into enmity to; the places of prayer were destroyed; they were unwilling to have among them longer anything that reminded them of their Lord and God. So too, now-a-days, want of esteem and indifference rises gradually to enmity. They who to-day are singing:
Reisst die Kreuze aus der Erden,
Alls sollen Schwerter werden!
would, if they had the power, tear down the altars and overthrow churches. For a time they are satisfied with working away at the foundations of the church of God by means of false wisdom and knowledge, or by means of scorn and insult.) (c) They have slain thy prophets with the sword. (This was the lowest stage of their apostasy; hostility grew into blind fury; not contented with throwing down the altars, they persecuted and put to death those who warned them to return. So too in Christianity, there has never been lacking a persecution of those who have preached repentance and faith with zeal and earnestness. Mat_10:22; Joh_15:18. When a man will not listen to the truth, he seeks first of all to remove its witnesses, either by power or by cunning. But so long as a single witness of the truth survives, it will never remain unattested.)
1Ki_19:11. Krummacher: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord! This call is issued to all those who, like Elijah, lodge in caves and dens. The caves, however, are of various kinds. Our heart is a cave, a dark tomb … The soul attacked and tormented by doubts is in a cave.… Bodily distress and external affliction may be called a cave.… O go forth and go upon the mount and look aloft to Him who hangs upon the tree.… go forth! Spread the wings of hope, soar, and place thyself upon the heights of the everlasting promises of God, which are Yea and Amen, and from thence cast a look of confidence into the heart of Him whose counsel is truly wonderful, but who nevertheless doeth all things gloriously.—Wirth: There comes sometimes an hour when the call of the Lord echoes in every corner and cavern of life: Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord! Pray, do not think that you will be allowed to do what you please undisturbed in your dens of sin. You must one day come forth and stand before the Lord, before His judgment-seat, where each man shall receive according to what he hath done in the life of the body, whether it be good or evil.… One day the blessed hour will come when he himself will lead you forth forever out from your chambers of sorrow, and up to his everlasting hills before his face.
1Ki_19:11-18. The revelation of God upon Horeb. (a) By means of a manifestation of nature, which displayed his chastising justice toward the recreant and the godless, but also his saving, revivifying grace as his true character. All nature and creation are a revelation of God (Psa_19:1-7; Job_12:7-9); by the word of the Lord it was created, and through it he speaks to us. It is the great language of God which we should learn to interpret, a book in which we should read; its only end is not to support us and furnish enjoyment for the mind, but that from it and in it we may learn to recognize and worship the majesty of God (Rom_1:19-20). He who sees in nature nothing more than a lifeless mass is as one who having eyes sees not. (b) By the voice which announced the decision of God. What was still dark to the prophet in the manifestation of nature, the divine word plainly and decisively interprets for him. The book of nature is made perfectly intelligible only by the word of God in the book of Scripture. For this reason the Scriptures place the revelations side by side (Psa_19:1-12; Psa_147:7-20). The heathen were able to perceive the character of God in the works of creation, but they nevertheless fell into idolatry and error (Rom_1:21 sq.), because they lacked the word of God. Israel possessed this word, therefore it ranked above all nations. We have still more than Israel, therefore let this word, which has been committed to us, be always a light to our feet and a lamp to our path. Where it is wanting there is, in spite of all professed wisdom (Rom_1:22), foolishness and darkness, moral and spiritual decay.
1Ki_19:11. Behold, the Lord passes by! To Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the old covenant, the Lord passed by only in visible perceptible veil or covering, but among us He dwelt, who is love, and we saw his glory (Joh_1:14; Joh_1:16-17). For in this was manifested the love of God, &c. (1Jn_4:9; Col_2:9). What sentence of condemnation will be declared against those who despise such a revelation and turn away from it (Joh_3:36; Heb_10:28-29). Just as God made known His true, real character, not in the storm, the earth-quake, or the fire, but in the still small voice, so ought our life, if it is from God, to manifest itself, after the pattern of Christ (Mat_12:19-20), by an inner, quiet, gentle disposition of love (1Jn_4:16).—Menken: The Lord is not dreadful and terrible except to the perverse and malignant. Where he cannot penetrate with the word of his grace, with the glance of his love, with the gentle admonition of his spirit of peace, there he speaks to hearts and ears, that are like rocks, in the destroying whirlwind, and annihilates that which rises up against him, like a devouring earthquake, and makes room and space for himself and for that which he desires to create, like a consuming fire. But those who surrender themselves to his grace and love experience nothing dreadful and terrible from him, for he is to them a delight, like a rain after the drought and like a breeze after scorching heat. Having renounced all his glory and majesty, he came with gentle and friendly aspect, a Saviour and Helper; but when now he shall appear, his coming will be to his foes like whirlwind, earthquake, and fire, sweeping them away, consuming and removing them. But to his own, who have remained protected and unharmed amid all this, it will be like the still, small whispering of the breeze after the storm has gone by.
1Ki_19:13. Only with veiled face, i.e., with renunciation of his own wisdom and righteousness, is man able to glance into the decrees of the grace and saving love of God. He who has once experienced the working of this grace in himself, in his inner man, covers his face in humility and holy awe, and stands adoring before the mystery of eternal love, listening for the words which proceed from its mouth.—Terstegen: I adore the power of love, &c).
1Ki_19:15-18. The answer of the Lord to Elijah’s repeated complaint; it includes (a) a direction: Go, return, &c., which is the answer to: Thus far have I been zealous in vain. Carry forward the work already begun, doubting not the result, let thy hands fall not, fear not, I am with thee. So the Lord always calls to all workers in his vineyard. The work is never intended nor permitted to cease, although it was sometimes in vain and remained without fruit. (b) A commission: Anoint Hazael, &c., that is the answer to: They have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars. Through Hazael will I chastise rebellious Israel, through Jehu destroy the house of Ahab, through Elisha preserve the order of the prophets.—Menken: Let us here observe how the royal government of the Lord influences so deeply and so powerfully, and yet so quietly and noiselessly, all human undertakings, contrivances, and conditions, all worldly events, and how so much happens under his direction which seems to happen without him, as if by accident (cf. Dan_2:31). (c) A promise: Yet have I left. &c, This is the answer to: I only am left, and they seek my life. The Lord will never forsake his people and wholly reject them (Rom_11:3-5). The race of believers will never perish; no storm, no earthquake, no fire will destroy them. However great and extended the revolt may be, there will always be a remnant who do not bow their knees before Baal, who may indeed be oppressed and persecuted, but can never be exterminated, for they rest in the hand of the Almighty; they are the salt of the earth, which preserves the world from corruption and ruin.
1Ki_19:18. The election of grace i.e., the chosen, the remnant (Rom_11:5; Rom_11:7). (a) Who are they? They are those who have not bowed, &c., who refuse to float with the current of the times, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev_7:13), those who allow not themselves to be seduced from the narrow way to life by no cross or suffering, and endure in the faith unto the end. Dost thou belong to these? (b) Who knoweth them? The Lord knoweth them that are his (2Ti_2:19). Even Elijah at that time knew them not, and yet there were seven thousand of them. Their cry is not heard in all the streets, their life is a hidden one. They are scattered in all lands, in all conditions, among high and low, rich and poor; they do not themselves know one another, but the Lord knoweth them. How often we consider a person as a lost child of the world, who in the eyes of the Searcher of hearts is a child of God. How often we think that a nation, a city, a community is utterly corrupt, and yet even there too the Lord has a hidden seed, and elections of grace. (c) Of what are they assured? They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation (1Pe_1:5). The Lamb will lead them, &c. (Rev_7:17). That faith which holds fast to God and Jesus overcomes and is crowned, &c. (Rev_2:10; Col_3:3-4; Luk_12:32). Therefore let us look up, &c. (Heb_12:2).—Menken: We must not look upon ourselves as the only ones, but remember that there are thousands besides with us, going one way to the same goal, with one faith, one hope, with one love inwardly united to us through one spirit, and that even these sufferings which meet us also befall these our brethren in the world; we must make ourselves one in spirit with them all, and the remembrance of them be encouraged by and rejoice in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will unite us with them all.—Krummacher: The invisible church. (a) The hidden seed; (b) the disclosure of it; (c) the promise that is given it.
1Ki_19:19-21. Krummacher: Elisha’s call, (a) Elijah calls Elisha; (b) Elisha follows. Compare the Historical and Ethical, 8, 9.
1Ki_19:19. Menken: Thus we find it throughout sacred history. The greatest, most distinguished men, who have become God’s most important instruments for the execution of his counsel and immortal benefactors of the human race, were always humble, modest men, who.… were not moved by their own souls to bring themselves forward in their impure pride as lights of the world, as reformers of the human race, but remained in their place and calling, looking quietly up to God .… But the impure, arrogant, egotistical pride, when one without looking up to God, without loving the truth, without having a duty and a call, allows himself to be impelled by his own soul to wish to enlighten the world, while he himself is in darkness, to reform Church and State without having regulated his own house, much less his heart,—this makes tools of the devil, incendiaries who call themselves enlighteners.… Every withdrawal, through our own choice and passion, from a calling and station where by God’s will we are and should be, whether from a lower to a higher station or vice versâ, is dangerous, and sinful, and without blessing, and has for its consequence misery and tribulation, even if matters go on well now, if God does not completely turn away his mercy.—Krummacher: Another in his place would long before have come to the conclusion, that he was too good for the plough, he was born for a higher sphere than that of a simple peasant; he was not at liberty to withhold his talents from mankind, he must study, and then enter upon the theatre of public action to help enlighten and govern the world.… Consider: the lights have the fairest and clearest lustre which know not that they shine, and those flowers of God scatter the sweetest perfume around them, which, well contented with the little spot the Lord has appointed them, bloom hidden in silent dales. It does not follow from the calling of Elisha away from the plough, to become a prophet, that every one without gifts and without much knowledge can leave the plough or any other ordinary occupation and take up the prophet’s calling. Men often think the Lord calls them to another, higher position while it is only their vanity and the over-estimation of their gifts and powers which impels them. If God has called thee to anything, he will also open the way for thee and furnish the means that are requisite thereto.
1Ki_19:20. Elisha’s request and Elijah’s granting of it. (a) The request was no loitering or evasion, it came from a heart on which the command of God had been imprinted: Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy, &c. (Exo_20:12), and which knew: the glory of a man is from the honor of his father; and a mother in dishonor is a reproach to the children (Sir_3:11); because above all he feared God, he also honored his father and mother; with God’s blessing on his new calling, he wished also for the blessing of his parents (Col_3:20). (b) The granting was not unconditional: Go and return again. Elijah honors and respects his filial love and gratitude. There is no calling or position, however great and high and weighty it may be, which invalidates the command: Honor, &c. (Mat_7:10, sq.). But just as little are we permitted to hold back from following the call of the Lord. He that loveth father or mother, &c. (Mat_10:37; Deu_33:9.)—Elisha’s parting from his family, (a) a joyful one (although he was now going to meet so many deprivations, so many toils, so great a conflict, yet the day on which he entered upon his holy calling was a day of joy and honor, on which all should rejoice with him, therefore he prepared a feast); (b) one of love (he invited all who were previously living and working with him to the feast; he would not eat and rejoice alone; no one was too insignificant for him, no one too low.—Calw. Bib: We see from this how exemplary a relation subsisted between him and his servants).—Elisha in comparison with the three followers of Christ, Luk_9:57-62. (a) Although the son of rich parents and heir to a great possession, yet he forsakes and renounces all, for he considers it a greater gain to follow and serve the (poor) prophet. (b) He takes leave indeed of his parents, but he does not put off the succession to a later time, until after their death; he does not disavow filial affection, but it does not keep him from entering upon his succession immediately. (c) He looks not backward after his call, but forward, and has no longing after that which he gives up; he follows on and serves with undivided heart in complete and joyful consecration. How deeply this Elisha shames many amongst us, to whom however not an Elijah, not a prophet, but the Lord of glory, calls: Follow me!—Menken: Many a one hears the words of good tidings with joy.… and beholds the treasure therein presented; there are moments and hours when he vividly feels that it profits a man nothing if he gains the whole world and loses himself, but that in Jesus Christ is life and full sufficiency.… Then, instead of making a good, prompt, firm resolve to surrender himself on the spot without consideration, and without condition, to the gracious offer of the Lord, he goes on again amid cares and affections of this world, turns his gaze again away from the invisible and eternal; the willing heart becomes again unwilling and seeks only a pretext how it can justify this or that obstacle, or retain and accept with honor this or that thing which cannot go through the narrow gate of the heavenly kingdom; and so he never attains to complete fidelity and self-sacrifice (cf. Joh_12:26).
Footnotes:
[1]1Ki_19:1.—[וְאֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׂר הָרַג. The כָּל, which creates the difficulty of this clause, and which is represented in the withal of the A. V., is omitted in several MSS., and passed over unnoticed by the Sept., Vulg., and some other VV. Its use is to be explained by the combination of great fulness with ellipsis: “He told all that Elijah had done, and (he told) all how he had slain,” &c.
[2]1Ki_19:2.—[Since the verb is in the plural, all the VV. here understand אֱלֹהִים, as the A. V., of Jezebel’s false gods. The Sept. makes the oath of Jezebel still more emphatic by prefixing to this clause the words Εἰ σὺ εἶ ’Ηλιοὺ καὶ ἐγὼ ’Ιεζάβελ.
[3]1Ki_19:2.—[Many MSS. supply לִי, necessarily understood and expressed in the VV., as in the English.
[4]1Ki_19:2.—[On the use of כִּי in connection with oaths see Nordheimer Heb. Gr. § 1091, 3, and cf. Gen_42:16; 1Sa_14:44, &c.
[5]1Ki_19:3.—[The form וירא admits either of the pointing given by the Masorets: וַיַּרְא, fut. from the root רָאָה he saw: or וַדִּרָא, fut. from יָרֵא he feared. The latter is followed by the Sept., Vulg., and Syr., and is expressed in six MSS. by the fuller form ויירא. As to which sense should be preferred here, see Exeg. Com.
[6]1Ki_19:5.—[The Sept. omits the word angel here, supplying its place by the indefinite τις, as the Vat. Sept. has omitted the messenger in 1Ki_19:2 (the Alex., however, there has ἄγγελον); but in 1Ki_19:9 it is given.
[7]1Ki_19:6.—[The A. V. has overlooked the word מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָיו at his head, which is given in all the VV.
[8]1Ki_19:7.—[Our author, in his translation, avoids the comparative sense, and sustains this view in the Exeg. Com. Others prefer to retain the usual comparative force of מ in מִמְּךָ in connection with the adjective רַב. In 1Sa_20:21, to which the author refers, there is no adjective.
[9]1Ki_19:9.—[The article points doubtless to some especially known cave.
[10]1Ki_19:9.—[Notwithstanding the remarks in the Exeg. Com. our author in his translation renders וַיָּלֶן (as in the A. V.) by übernachtete; of the VV. the Chald. avoids the word altogether, the Syr. and Arab. give the sense of the A. V., the Sept. κατέλυσεν admits of either sense, and the Vulg. accords with the Exeg. Com. The primary meaning of the Heb. לדּן is unquestionably to pass the night, but it hence comes in its secondary sense to mean simply remain.
[11]1Ki_19:11.—[The Sept. inserts here the word αὔριον, on the morrow, thus showing that the translator meant the κατέλυσεν of 1Ki_19:9 of passing the night. It also changes the punctuation, putting the clause, “And, behold, the Lord passed by” into the future as a part of the previous sentence, with a period following, and then a new sentence beginning, “and, behold, a great and stormy wind.” &c., see Exeg. Com.
[12]1Ki_19:11.—[The Chald. rendering of this verse is remarkable and instructive, as bringing out the ancient Jewish view:—”and before him was an host of angels of the wind rending the mountains and breaking the rocks before the Lord, but the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not in the host of the angels of the wind; and after the host of the angels of the wind was the host of the angels of the earthquake, but the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not in the host of the angels of the earthquake; and after the host of the angels of the earthquake, a fire, but the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not in the host of the angels of fire; and after the host of the angels of fire, a voice of [angels] singing in silence.” The Sept. describes the voice as φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς, and the Alex. Sept. adds “and the Lord was there.”
[13]1Ki_19:15.—[Our author translates “the wilderness towards (gen) Damascus.” It may be questioned, however, whether the Heb. is not better represented by the A. V.
[14]1Ki_19:18.—[The Heb. verb is in the future וְהִשְׁאַרְתִּי, and this tense is preserved in all the VV. except the Arab. (The Sept. puts it into the second person καταλείψεις). The A. V. may have been unnecessarily influenced by a regard to the κατέλιπον of Rom_11:4, where the tense is a matter of no consequence to the argument.
[15]1Ki_19:20.—[On the question whether this clause should be rendered interrogatively, see the Exeg. Com. The VV. are divided.
[16]1Ki_19:21. —[The Vat. Sept. puts this in the plural τὰ ζεύγη, as if Elisha had slain the whole twelve yoke; the Alex. Sept. preserves the singular.—F. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 ELIJAH’S FLIGHT TO HOREB, 1Ki_19:1-18.
ELIJAH’S FLIGHT TO HOREB, 1Ki_19:1-18.
1. Ahab told Jezebel — The king was probably drawn towards Elijah in sympathy, and believed him to be a holy man of God. The mighty works of Divine power at Carmel, which his own eyes had witnessed, had convinced him that Jehovah was God, and Baal was no god worthy of respect. He might have thought to convince Jezebel of this by relating all that Elijah had done, but the wondrous tale only provoked the spirit of the idolatrous queen to the fiercest vows of revenge.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Chap. 1Ki_19:1-8. Elijah’s flight to Horeb (Not in Chronicles)
Chap. 1Ki_19:1-8. Elijah’s flight to Horeb (Not in Chronicles)
1. And Ahab told Jezebel] The LXX. adds ‘his wife.’
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and withal how] 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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 (1, 2) There is a certain grandeur of fearlessness…
(1, 2) There is a certain grandeur of fearlessness and ruthlessness in the message of Jezebel, which marks her character throughout, and places it in striking contrast with the vacillating impressibility of Ahab, whom she treats with natural scorn. (See 21:7.) Ahab, as before, remains passive; he has no courage, perhaps no wish, to attack Elijah, before whom he had quailed; but he cares not, or dares not, to restrain Jezebel. She disdains to strike secretly and without warning: in fact, her message seems intended to give the opportunity for a flight, which might degrade Elijah in the eyes of the people. We note that the prophet (see 1Ki_18:46) had not ventured to enter Jezreel till he should know how his deadly foe would receive the news of the great day at Carmel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 ELIJAH"S FLIGHT THE THEOPHANY OF HOREB AND THE CALLING…
ELIJAH"S FLIGHT THE THEOPHANY OF HOREB AND THE CALLING OF ELISHA. We can readily understand with what a sense of humiliation and shame the weak and excited king, who must have been awed and impressed by the strange portent he had witnessed, would recount the day"s proceedings to his imperious and headstrong consort, and with what intense mortification and rage she must have heard of the triumph of the proscribed religion and of the defeat and death of the priests of Baal. One might almost have expected that the testimony of an eyewitness, and that her husband, to the greatness and completeness of Elijah"s victory; that his unprejudiced, and indeed unwilling, account of the sacrifices, of the descent of the heavenly fire, of the cries it wrung from the people, etc., would have brought conviction to her mind and taught her how useless it was to kick against the pricks. But there are eyes so blinded (2Co_4:4) and hearts so steeled against the truth that no evidence can reach them, and this fierce persecutor of the prophets had long been given over to a reprobate mind. She listens to his story, but her one thought is of revenge.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain Heb. and all which he had slain. The construction, if it were not for the lK; would be usual enough. As that word is omitted in some MSS. and versions, it is possible it has been inserted by a transcriber, mechanically, from the rva tae preceding all the prophets, sc., of Baal, all who were present with the sword.
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HOMILETICS.
God and the Man of God.
This chapter lends itself more readily to textual than to topical treatment.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done." Was there no word, then, of what God had done? Did he think that Elijah, by his own power or holiness, had brought down fire from heaven? Or if Elijah brought it, was there no thought of Him who sent it? But it is an everyday experience that men will think of anything, talk of anything but their Maker. They do not "like to retain God in their thoughts". (Rom_1:28) Perhaps Ahab was afraid in the presence of Jezebel to connect the awful portent with the name of the Lord. That would be tantamount to confessing before her that the Lord He was God. (1Ki_18:24) Jezebel, therefore, may think it was magic if she will Men are not unseldom cowards in religion, even before their own wives and children. How blessed it is when husband and wife rehearse to each other the righteous sets of the Lord; how doubly blessed when the believing husband wins and saves the unbelieving wife. (1Co_7:14, 1Co_7:16) Then marriage is a sacrament indeed.
how he had slain all the prophets," etc. There was no need to tell her that, at least that night. This communication shows that Ahab"s heart was unchanged, otherwise he would have practised a discreet reserve. He must have known full well what the effect of those dark tidings would be. Had he wished for her conversion, he would surely have waited till the morning light. That would have given the other tidings he had brought a chance to work repentance. To speak of the death of the prophets would be to fill her with ungovernable rage. It was charity to hold his peace. That was "a time to keep silence.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD. Vers. 1-8.
Elijah"s Prayer for Death.
How erratic have been the movements of this prophet! Our first introduction to him is at the court of Ahab, whence, as soon as he utters his prophecy, he is away to Cherith in the east, among the wilds of Gilead. Next we find him in the north, at Zarephath of Zidon. Then he meets Obadiah, probably in the plain of Esdraelon, whence he passes over to Carmel in the west. From Carmel he runs before Ahab"s horses to the entrance of Jezreel. The next day finds him on his way to Beer-sheba in the extreme south of Judah. The day following he is pushing his way into the wilderness of Sinai, where we now find him under a shrub, requesting for himself that he may die. Let us consider
I THE OCCASION OF THIS PRAYER.
1. Jezebel had threatened his life.
(1) Ahab had reported to his queen what Elijah had done at Carmel, and in particular recounted how he had slain all the prophets. In this statement we notice two capital faults. He did not recount what Jehovah had done; he did not properly distinguish the "prophets" slain as idolatrous and false. The gospel may be variously preached.
(2) Instead of reflecting and repenting, Jezebel was filled with resentment, and resolved upon the destruction of Elijah. Miracles will not do more than reason with a corrupt and prejudiced heart. (See Luk_16:31; Joh_12:10, 11.)
(3) She accordingly sent messengers to Elijah with an oath, declaring that within twenty-four hours she would revenge upon his life the slaughter of her priests. Wickedness is not always politic: by giving him this notice she gave him an opportunity to escape.
2. To save his life hefted.
(1) Was this wrong? Some have blamed him for it because he did not first ascertain the will of God. Had he no voice of God in the instinct of self preservation? Had he no voice of God in the providence which apprised him of his peril? Would he not have tempted the Lord his God to have waited for another voice? Had he remained and forfeited his life, would he not have been to blame? God gives us our reason, and if we follow its light, together with that of an upright conscience, we shall do well.
(2) But who can say that Elijah had no direction from the word of the Lord? Certainly there was a plan for his journey recognized by the angel with which he was familiar (see ver. 7). The distance from Beer-sheba to Horeb was about 150 miles.
(3) In his flight he came first to Beer-sheba, where he was under the pro. tection of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who feared the Lord. There he left his servant in safety, and might have abode himself in safety had he not acted under the promptings of inspiration to proceed alone into the wilderness.
3. Alone with God he asks to die.
(1) The Hebrew phrase is, "He requested for his life that he might die." There is life in death to the righteous.
(2) "It is enough." This is the language of disappointment. He looked for better fruit of his ministry than he found. He thought, surely this demonstration on Carmel will extinguish idolatry; but he finds Jezebel swearing against his life, and apparently in a position to carry out her purpose. "Now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." I am no more useful here than they have been who are gone hence. Let me join them.
II THE ANSWERS GIVEN TO IT.
1. They come in the form of physical refreshment.
(1) Elijah"s prayer was evidently uttered under the influence of physical exhaustion and discomfort. His sitting under the "juniper" is mentioned, not to suggest that he derived comfort from an ample shade, but rather to show how little shelter he could find. The word ( is construed as in the text by the Hebrews, by Jerome, and the Vulgate; yet it is rather the genista (broom), a shrub with yellow flowers which grows in the desert, and which has its name (from to bind) from the toughness or tenacity of its twigs, which were used for withes. N ot only was he wayworn with his journey and exposure to the sun, but faint also for want of food and drink.
(2) The answer came to his prayer, therefore, in the blessing of refreshing sleep. Out of this also he was seasonably aroused by an Angel to find a cake on the coals (as bread is sometimes baked in the East) and a cruse of water at his bolster. God knows our frame, pities us, and makes due allowance for our frailties. When we find our spirits in a morbid state let us look to our health. Hygiene may come, even to the soul, as an angel of God.
2. They came to him in spiritual blessing.
(1) The refreshment which Elijah received was supernatural in its source. The bread and water came to him with the word and touch of the Angel-Jehovah (hwhy This was no common angel, but one of the Persons of the Godhead.
(2) It was supernatural also in its effects (ver. 8). In these he is brought intimately into association with Moses and Jesus. (Compare Exodus Deu_9:9, Deu_9:18; Mat_4:2) It is also noteworthy how these three appear in glory together on the holy mount. (See Luk_9:30, Luk_9:31) The spiritual life we derive from God"s word is set forth in the mystery of the manna which for forty years nourished the people of God in this wilderness. It is also set forth in that new life of Jesus in which after His resurrection He appeared to His disciples during forty days. (See Rom_6:11; Gal_2:20) J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Vers. 1-18.
The Desponding Prophet.
A marvellous change has come over Elijah. It is difficult to imagine a more complete contrast than is presented by his moral attitude in this and the previous chapters. He who just before has so boldly confronted the proud king, and defied the priests of Baal, standing without fear before his flaming altar, and sternly carrying out the judgment of God on the corrupters of His people, is now filled with dismay, and flies from the post of duty and of danger. So unstable are the grandest forms of human virtue, and so weak are the noblest of men when God is pleased for a while to leave them to themselves. Consider
(1) The prophet"s state of mind.
(2) The way in which God deals with him.
I THE PROPHET"S STATE OF MIND. It is one of deep despondency. Fear of the queen"s revenge is not enough of itself to explain it. There is disappointment at the apparent result of the events of the previous day, weariness of life, disgust at the condition of the land, a sense of powerlessness before the difficulties of his position, perhaps doubt as to the wisdom of what he has done. He speaks and acts as a dispirited, broken-hearted man. Note some of the manifest causes of this despondency. We can never thoroughly understand the feelings of a man unless we take into account the sources and occasions of them, and try to put ourselves in his place.
1. Physical exhaustion. His bodily frame was worn and weary. animal spirits had had a great strain upon them, and now suffered a corresponding relapse. Unwonted exertion of strength was followed by unwonted weakness. The relation that exists between the state of the body and the state of the mind is very mysterious, but very real. The elation or depression of our religious feeling depends far more on mere physical conditions than we often imagine. A diseased body will often cause a dark cloud to come over the spirit"s firmament; much that is morbid in the religious thoughts and emotions of good men needs to be dealt with by the physician of the body rather than of the soul.
2. Loneliness. He was without the companionship and sympathy of those who would share his labours and perils. "I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to destroy it." It is a single-handed conflict in which he is involved. There are none to stand by him, none whom he can trust. Such isolation is the severest possible test of fidelity, As the rock never appears more majestic than when seen standing alone, with the ocean billows rolling round it, so with one who is "faithful found among the faithless," cut off from all natural and human supports, isolated in a surrounding sea of indifference or iniquity. (Think of Paul: "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me," 2Ti_4:16; above all the Christ. "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me," (Isa_63:3) Supernatural help will often come for special emergencies, and will make the soul sublimely independent of external aid; but it is hard to carry on a long, patient conflict with difficulties alone.
1. Want of success. His ministry, seems all in vain. His words are but as the dreams of the false prophets. The solemn testimony given on Carmel has passed away without effecting any real change in the condition of things.
2. The fire that consumed his sacrifice has gone out. Righteous vengeance has been inflicted on the idolatrous prophets, and the Kishon has swept away their blood. The drought has done its work, and the rain has returned upon the land. And now all seems to be going on just as it was before. Ahab and Jezebel are as hostile and treacherous and full of cruel hate as ever; and as for the people, there is no kind of security for their constancy to their recent vows. Surely he is living his sad life in vain! That dreariest of all thoughts to a man of high and holy purpose that his labour is utterly fruitless sweeps like a withering wind through his soul, and he wishes he were dead. "O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.
3. The sense of having forsaken the post of responsibility. It may have been a natural impulse that moved him to "fly for his life," but no wonder his despondency deepened as he lost himself in the solitudes of the wilderness. His was the inward disquietude which will always be the penalty of a man"s having weakly or wilfully deserted the path of duty. When good men place themselves in a false position, they must expect the shadow of some morbid condition of feeling to fall upon their spirits. When the hands of those who ought to be busy about some work for God are idle, their hearts are left a prey to all sorts of evil influences. Religious activity is one of the main secrets of religious health. What is our grand business in this world but just to battle against the weaknesses of our own nature, and the force of adverse circumstances? And when the difficulties of our position gather thickest about us, then is the time to cast ourselves most fearlessly on the Divine power that will enable us to overcome them and listen to the voice that says, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.
II GOD"S WAY OF DEALING WITH HIM. Taking a general view of the Divine method, we see that each successive step is wisely adapted to the prophet"s need.
1. Physical refreshment. An angel is sent with food for the nourishment of his exhausted frame; not to talk with him, not by remonstrance or persuasion to chase away his morbid feelings, but to feed him. The disease of the mind is to be cured by first removing the weakness of the body, which was one of its causes. It is a suggestive incident. Our physical nature is as truly an object of Divine thought and care as the spiritual. God will not fail to supply the meaner wants of His children. The beneficent
2. ministries of His providence are ever auxiliary to the higher purposes of His grace.
3. A significant revelation of the Divine presence and power. The remarkable phenomena described in the eleventh and twelfth verses on doubt had a symbolic meaning. The wind, the earthquake, and the fire were emblems of the conspicuous and extraordinary manner in which Elijah probably expected the work of God to be carried on. The "still small voice" that followed taught him that God"s chosen way of working was rather one that is calm and noiseless. The stirring events that had recently taken place were only preparatory to the silent but mightier energy of His spirit working through the voice of the prophet. We are apt to overestimate the power of that which "cometh with observation." Why should the wind, and the fire, and the earthquake be God"s only instruments? Is He not equally in the gently dawning light, the soft-whispering breeze, the silent, secret forces of nature? Your path of usefulness may be obscure, your influence unobserved, its issues slowly developed. But be not disheartened. Remember the "still small voice" breathing in the ear of the prophet at the mouth of the cave when the tumult was over and learn that it is by a feeble instrument and a quiet, patient process that God will accomplish His grandest work in the moral sphere. This is the method of the world"s Redeemer. "He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets, etc.. (Isa_42:2, Isa_42:8, Isa_42:4)
4. Words of rebuke and encouragement. "What doest thou here, Elijah?" "Go, return on thy way." "Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel," etc. Thus does God reprove him for the faithlessness that lay at the root of his despondency. If the veil that hid the secret life of Israel could at that hour have been uplifted, he would have seen how little real reason there was for it. Seven thousand living witnesses might have come forth from their obscurity to show that his work was not in vain. We little know what God is doing beneath the surface, at the secret heart of society, when appearances seem most unfavourable. Let us be true to ourselves and to Him, doing faithfully the work He has given us to do in storm or in calm, and leave it to Him to bring about the glorious issue. "Be ye therefore steadfast, immovable," etc.. W. (1Co_15:58)
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART Vers. 1-8.
The Prophet"s Despair.
I ELIJAH"S WEAKNESS.
1. His disappointment. With the hand of the Lord upon him he had come to Jezreel. (1Ki_18:46) Was it not because a further success for God awaited him there? Could Carmel"s wonders and the mercy of God in the rain now flooding the earth be resisted? Jezebel"s message, displaying only determined and increased hostility, rudely dispels the dream. The blighting of the long-expected fruit of prayer and waiting and mightiest effort is worse to bear than all the hardships which went before. Other trials may depress, but under this the spirit is utterly broken.
2. His flight. He shows no trust in Him who was mightier than Jezebel tie flees to the south of Judah. Even there it does not seem to him that he is in safety, and he goes a day"s journey into the wilderness; but neither at Jezreel nor at Beer-sheba does he seek direction from the Lord. The overthrow of hope is also the overthrow of faith. Ceasing to hope in God we cease to wait on God.
3. His prayer.
(1) Its inconsistency. He had fled for his life, and now he prays God that he may die. We are not fittest for heaven when we are most tired of earth. We must "enter his gates the gates of the city that hath foundations praise," not with complaints and accusations.
(2) Its unbelief. God"s work is abandoned as impossible; nothing remains for Him but to take back the life of His defeated servant! Many a noble heart besides has lifted up the same cry of despair. The noblest of mankind are nothing when once the fire of trust is quenched in the soul. "The just shall live by faith;" when faith dies, every good and noble thing dies with it.
II HOW GOD BINDS UP THE BROKEN HEARTED.
1. He gives rest. "He lay and slept." Even in the desert to which we flee unbidden, God gives shelter and rest. "For so he giveth his beloved sleep.
2. He imparts strength for the onward way to where light will break upon the darkness and a new mission will be given. Elijah is fed once and again with angel food, and in the strength of it goes "forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God." We are revived with tender heavenly ministrations: we see His goodness in the land of the living, and pass onward to the place where we shall meet with Him and hear His voice. J.U
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v3 He arose and went for his life.
1Ki_19:3-18
He arose and went for his life.
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The flight into the wilderness
This is a sad sequel to the triumph on Mount Carmel. Elijah had forgotten Jezebel. Not present herself on Mount Carmel, she had received with sceptical scorn the reports which had reached her. The fire from heaven she looked upon as a mere conjurers trick. The rain following the prophets prayer was a mere coincidence, and, like all others who speak so glibly of coincidences, she never asked what power had made the two events coincide. So she felt utter contempt for the cowards who had stood by while her prophets were butchered by a madman. In a passionate fury she declared that she was no turncoat to forsake the gods of her fathers at the bidding of a wild Bedouin. If no one else had the courage to withstand Elijah, she would do it herself. So the letter was sent which made the prophet flee. Are we not all in danger of repeating Elijahs mistake, and forgetting our chief adversary? We reckon with the opposing forces that we can see, but we forget the unseen array of principalities and powers whose hostility is implacable, who with deadly craft and subtlety wait for our unguarded hours. Elijah, too, had taken his eyes off God. When he saw that, he arose, and went for his life. It is impossible for us to justify his flight. He acted in a panic. There was no waiting for Divine guidance. Oh, the sad pity of it! A moments reflection would have changed the whole aspect of affairs. Fear not, only believe. Jezebel may rage, but Jehovah lives. One such word--a child might have spoken it--and the prophets faith would have leaped up, his old courage would have returned; and instead of fleeing from Jezreel, he might have driven Jezebel out of the kingdom. But why were his eyes off God? I think because, though to a certain extent unconsciously, his eyes were upon himself. It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. Had he thought that he was? Had tie been uplifted at the success God had given him? Had he thought that the shouts of the people would end the conflict? We must not judge him unkindly. Gods first care was to give him rest and sleep. Overwrought nerves, a tired brain, and physical exhaustion, had much to do with the prophets fall. The meeting with Ahab; the preparation for the contest; the strain of the conflict itself, with its tremendous output of faith and prayer; the excitement of the grim work of judgment; the fatigue of the long, quick run to Jezreel--had left the prophet in a state of physical tension, which nothing but calm, trustful confidence in God could have endured. Much of the low spirits and unbelief among Christians to-day is the result of rush and overstrain. And after this Elijah was not left without a congenial friend and companion. Elisha was called from the plough to follow him and to minister unto him; for it is not good for man to be alone. Solitude, while a real means of grace, may easily become a means of sore temptation. Just as Queen Eleanor was said to suck the poison from her husbands wounds (thus saving his life), so the sympathy and love of wife or sister or brothers in arms are most effective in removing the sting and virus from lifes sorrows and temptations. If Elijah had had Elisha at his right hand, he would not surely have forgotten God. Let us value our Christian fellowship. (F. S. Webster, M. A.)
The flight to the wilderness
1. We may well learn, from this sad crisis in Elijahs history, the lesson of our own weakness, and our dependence on Gods grace. In the Divine life, often the most dangerous and perilous time for the believer, is after a season of great enlargement; when he is saying to himself, My mountain standeth strong. The spiritual armour is loosely worn;--he gets supine after the flush of victory: the bold, bounding river, that we have just witnessed taking leap after leap in successive cataracts, loses itself in the low, marshy swamps of self-confidence.
2. Beware of taking any step without the Divine sanction. Let us be careful not to follow our own paths; not to take any solemn and important step unless it be divinely owned and recognised. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, in whose heart are Thy ways.
3. Beware of murmuring under trial. Each of us has, or may yet have, his day of trial--sickness, bereavement, crushed hopes, bitter disappointments, crossed wishes--stings and arrows from quarters least expected. How are we to meet them? Are we to give way to peevish, fretful repining? Are we to say, I am wearied of life. I would I were done with all this wretchedness. What pleasure is existence to this wounded, harassed, smitten spirit? Nay, take courage. It is not enough. The Lord has work for you still to do. It is not for you, but for Him, to say, at His own appointed time, as He said to Hezekiah, Thou shalt die, and not live. If we have ever been guilty of uttering such a rash prayer as that of Elijah--Take away my life let us be thankful God has not given us the fulfilment of our own wish--the ratification of our own desire--and allowed us to die, unmeet and unprepared! (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
Loneliness in religious depression
I. Religious depression following great public excitement.
1. It is a natural reaction. As a matter of mental and moral law, such depression must follow such excitement.
2. It is a needful discipline. Continual conquests on Carmel would not be good for the prophets own soul. He must have sometimes more of introspection and self-communing and less of challenge of foes, or of the applause of friends.
II. Religious depression producing the feeling of utter loneliness. Under the juniper-tree he longs to sob out his life and afterwards thrice over utters the pathetic alone, alone, alone.
III. Religious depression causing mistaken views of life. He, in his present passing loneliness, had two wrong notions clouding his vision. He thought, first of all, that his life-work had been a failure, whereas he had stirred the religious life of the people to its very centre, and his name ever lives as a symbol of heroic single-handed conflict with evil.
2. And he supposed the generation of godly seers was extinct. This mood of mind often leads men to see failure written on their labours, and to feel the number of the Christly a narrow instead of an ever-widening circle of men and women and children.
IV. Religious depression divinely removed by fitting means. Here Elijah was lifted from his depression through the instrumentality--
1. Of nature.
2. Of new occupation. There was fresh work to be done.
3. Fresh companionship. An Elisha was waiting for him.
4. Unveiling of forgotten facts. In the existence of the 7000 faithful men there was a fact of hope and encouragement he had forgotten. So every exiled spirit needs, and, if true to God, has, an Apocalypse. (U. R. Thomas.)
How the mighty fell
I. His physical strength and nervous energy were completely overtaxed. We are fearfully and wonderfully made; and our inner life is very sensitive to our outward conditions. It has been truly said, that the most trivial causes--a heated room, a sunless day, want of exercise; or a northern aspect--will make all the difference between happiness and unhappiness; between faith and doubt; between courage and indecision. Many who send for the religious teacher would be wiser if they sent for their physician.
II. He was keenly sensitive to his lonely position. I only am left. Some men are born to loneliness. It is the penalty of true greatness. At such a time the human spirit is apt to falter, unless it is sustained by an heroic purpose, and by an unfaltering faith. The shadow of that loneliness fell dark on the spirit of our Divine Master Himself when He said: Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. If our Lord shrank in the penumbra of that great eclipse, it is not wonderful that Elijah cowered in its darksome gloom.
III. He looked away from God to circumstances. Up to that moment Elijah had been animated by a most splendid faith, because he had never lost sight of God. He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Faith always thrives when God occupies the whole field of vision. Let us refuse to look at circumstances, though they roll before us as a Red Sea, and howl around us like a storm. Circumstances, natural impossibilities, difficulties, are nothing in the estimation of the soul that is occupied with God. They are as the small dust that settles on a scale, and is not considered in the measurement of weight. O men of God, get you up into the high mountain, from which you may obtain a good view of the glorious Land of Promise; and refuse to have your gaze diverted by men or things below! (F. B. Meyer, M. A.)
Elijah in the wilderness
I. Elijahs weakness.
1. He was a man of like passions with us. He failed in the point wherein he was strongest, as Abraham, Moses, Job, Peter, and others have done.
2. He suffered from a terrible reaction. Those who go up go down.
3. He suffered grievous disappointment, for Ahab was still under Jezebels sway, and she was seeking his life.
4. His wish was folly: O Lord, take away my life. He fled from death, and yet prayed for death! He was never to die. How unwise are our prayers when our spirits sink.
5. His reason for the wish was untrue.
II. Gods tenderness to him.
1. He allowed him to sleep. This was better than medicine, or inward rebuke, or spiritual instruction.
2. He fed him with food convenient and miraculously nourishing.
3. He made him perceive angelic care: An angel touched him.
4. He allowed him to tell his grief (verse 10). This is often the readiest relief. He stated his case, and in doing so eased his mind.
5. He revealed Himself and His ways. The wind, earthquake, fire, and still small voice were voices from God.
6. He told him good news: Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel. His sense of loneliness was thus removed.
7. He gave him more to do--to anoint others, by whom the Lords purposes of chastisement and instruction should be carried on.
Let us learn some useful lessons.
1. It is seldom right to pray to die. We may not destroy our own lives, nor ask the Lord to do so.
2. For the sinner t is never right to seek to die; for death to him is hell!
3. For the saint it is allowable only within bounds.
4. When we do wish to die, the reason must not be impatient, petulant, proud, insolent.
5. We have no idea of what is in store for us in this life. We may yet see the cause prosper and ourselves successful.
6. In any case, let us trust in the Lord and do good, and we need not be afraid. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The despondent prophet
I. The prophets despondency.
1. Its intensity. For the time his depression seems almost overwhelming. Why this: that we must not expect that the sincerest piety, or the highest service for God, will preclude the possibility of our being bowed down beneath the burden of depression and discouragement. It may consist with genuine religiousness to be so circumstanced. Those children of God, in old time, whose faith rose to the loftiest altitudes, and whose courage paled not before the extremest perils, knew well the painfulness of such experience. It is well for us to bear in mind that the ground of spiritual security is distinct and separate from any state of mere feeling. Frames are uncertain, fluctuating, affected by innumerable causes over which our control is but limited, and must not, therefore, be made to determine character, standing, safety before God. The heart may sink when the souls grasp is the strongest.
2. The causes of the prophets despondency. People forget the closeness of the connection that subsists between their material and their spiritual part, and often connect with an imagined wrong condition of the latter, what more properly belongs to a morbid or deranged state of the former. They send for the minister, when they ought to send for the physician. They charge upon the mind a fault that really attaches to the body. Not even religion can cure some persons of melancholy; they are gloomy or pensive by natural temperament, and must await the resurrection-morn to be made otherwise,
3. Its effects upon his conduct. It had led him from the scene of actual service, bold and faithful testimony, earnest confronting of Jehovahs foes, to hide himself in wilderness solitudes.
II. Gods method of relief.
1. God recruits his exhausted strength by a timely supply of sustenance.
2. But observe, again, in Gods method of relief, that He rouses His servant to exertion. Having afforded Him needful refreshment and repose, He gives him work to do; He bids him journey to the distant Mount of Horeb.
3. Gods method of relief includes a manifestation of Himself in glory and grace. The journey to Horeb was not its own end. Elijah was brought thither that he might commune with Deity.
4. In Gods method of relief there was a correction of the prophets misjudgment, as to the effects of his own labours, and the cause of truth. He had thought that he had laboured in vain, and spent his strength for nought, and in vain. (C. M. Merry)
Elijahs depression
The best of men have their defects, but do not despise them on that account; just as we dont despise a mountain because there are rifts in its side, or the sun because there are spots on its face.
I. Some of the causes of Elijahs depression.
1. Physical weakness.
2. Rampant wickedness.
3. Want of occupation.
4. The apparent failure of his mission.
II. What lessons should this subject teach us?
1. That great men are subject to sudden changes in their mental moods.
2. That these seasons of depression do not unchristianise a man. John Bunyan tells us that the pilgrims were as surely progressing towards the Celestial City, when climbing the hill Difficulty, passing through the valley of Humiliation, and engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with Apollyon, as when transported with the visions of the Delectable Mountains, fanned with the balmy breezes, and regaled with the fragrant odours of the land of Beulah, where the sun always shines. If needs be, says Peter, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
3. That God comes to the succour of His servants in seasons of depression.
4. Severe trials are fruitful of good to Gods people.
5. That labour is an essential condition of enjoyment. (H. Woodcock.)
Avoiding the shadows
I looked from my window this morning across the fields. I noticed a dwelling-house whose roof was exposed to the early and cheerful sun. There had been a storm in the night, and snow covered the roof. In an hour the warmth of the sun had melted it, save where the shadow of the chimney fell. That long, dark shade kept firm grasp of the iciness. It gave me a morning lesson, like a text from Scripture. The ice of our lives lingers only where the shadow is. If we have no Christly warmth, it is because we live in the dark. If our love is chilled and our nature sluggish, there is something between us and the light. What then? We must go forth from shadows. The sun shines and its beams are full of life. If we walk in this life the ice will melt, and instead of deathly conditions, we shall become rivers of living water. Christ is the Sun. Shadows do not belong to us. They savour of death. The one aim of God is to make us children of life and light; then follows holy fellowship and hallowed communion. (A. Caldwell.)
Discouragement
I remember a good many years ago I got very much depressed because the Lord, I thought, hadnt blessed my ministry. I was cast down, and used to talk discouragingly of what was being done. There was not any life in my ministry, and this went on for three months. One Monday, when I was in the valley, and very much cast down, I met a friend who was on the hilltop and exceedingly elated. He said he had had a grand Sunday; what had I? Oh! I said, I had not a good one. Much power? No. What did you preach about? Oh, I preached about Noah. I said, How did you get on? Oh, grandly. Did you ever study up Noah? I said I thought I knew all about Noah, for there are only a few verses about him. Oh, if you havent studied up Noah you ought to do it. Hes a wonderful character. After he left I got out my Bible, and read all I could find about Noah, and while I was reading this thought came to me: Here is this man who was a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years, and yet never had a convert outside his own family. I went to the prayer-meeting after that; and there was a man, who had just come from a town in Illinois, who spoke of one hundred young converts. Why, I said, what would Noah have said if he had one hundred converts, and yet Noah didnt get discouraged! Then a man right close to me got up, and he was trembling. My friend, he said, I wish you would pray for me. I said to myself: What would Noah have given if he had heard that during those one hundred and twenty years, and yet he never heard the voice of an inquirer--not one. Still, he didnt get discouraged. (D. L. Moody.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 "A still small voice comes through the wild, Like…
ELIJAHS FLIGHT
1Ki_19:1-4
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"A still small voice comes through the wild, Like a father consoling his fretful child, Which banisheth bitterness, wrath and fear, Saying, Man is distant, but God is near."
- TEMPLE
THE misgiving which, joined to his ascetic dislike of cities, made Elijah stop his swift race at the entrance of Jezreel was more than justified. Ahabs narrative of the splendid contest at Carmel produced no effect upon Jezebel whatever, and we can imagine the bitter objurgations which she poured upon her cowering husband for having stood quietly by while her prophets and Baals prophets were being massacred by this dark fanatic, aided by a rebellious people. Had she been there all should have been otherwise! In contemptuous defiance of Ahabs fears or wishes, she then and there-and it must now have been after nightfall-dispatched a messenger to find Elijah, wherever he might be hiding himself, and say to him in her name: "As sure as thou art Elijah, and I am Jezebel, may my gods avenge it upon me if on the morrow by this time I have not made thy life like the life of one of my own murdered priests." In the furious impetuosity of the message we see the determination of the sorceress-queen. In her way she was as much in deadly earnest as Elijah was. Whether Baal had been defeated or not, she was not defeated, and Elijah should not escape her vengeance. The oath shows the intensity of her rage, like that of the forty Jews who hound themselves by the cherem that they would not eat or drink till they had slain Paul; and the fixity of her purpose as when Richard III declared that he would not dine till the head of Buckingham had fallen on the block. We cannot but notice the insignificance to which she reduced her husband, and the contempt with which she treated the voice of her people. She presents the spectacle, so often reproduced in history and reflected in literature, of a strong fierce woman-a Clytemnestra, a Brunhault, a lady Macbeth, an Isabella of France, a Margaret of Anjou, a Joan of Naples, a Catherine de Medicis-completely dominating a feebler consort.
The burst of rage which led her to send the message defeated her own object. The awfulness which invested Elijah, and the supernatural powers on which he relied, when he was engaged in the battles of the Lord, belonged to him only in his public and prophetic capacity. As a man he was but a poor, feeble, lonely subject, whose blood might be shed at any moment. He knew that God works no miracles for the supersession of ordinary human precautions. It was no part of his duty to throw away his life, and give a counter triumph to the Baal-worshippers whom he had so signally humiliated. He fled, and went for his life.
Swift flight was easy to that hardy frame and that trained endurance, even after the fearful day on Carmel and the wild race of fifteen miles from Carmel to Jezreel. It was still night, and cool, and the haunts and byways of the land were known to the solitary and hunted wanderer. "He feared, and he rose, and he went for his life," ninety-five miles to Beersheba, once a town of Simeon, now the southern limit of the kingdom of Judah, thirty-one miles south of Hebron. But in the tumult of his feelings and the peril of his position he could not stay in any town. At Beersheba he left his servant-perhaps, as legend says, the boy of Zarephath, who became the prophet Jonah-but, in any case, not so much a servant as a youth in training for the prophetic office. It was necessary for him to spend his dark hour alone; for, if there are hours in which human sympathy is all but indispensable, there are also hours in which the soul can tolerate no communion save that with God. {Mat_26:36} So, leaving all civilization behind him, he plunged a days journey into that great and terrible wilderness of Paran, where he too was alone with the wild beasts. And, then utterly worn out, he flung himself down under the woody stem of a solitary rhotem plant. The plant is the wild broom with "its cloud of pink blossoms" which often afford the only shadow under the glaring sun in the waste and weary land, and beneath the slight but grateful shade of which the Arab to this day is glad to pitch his tent. And there the pent-up emotions of his spirit, which had gone through so tremendous a strain, broke up as in one terrible sob, when the strong man, like a tired child, "requested for himself that he might die."
Of what use was life any longer? He had fought for Jehovah, and won, and after all been humiliatingly defeated. He had prophesied the drought, and it had withered and scorched up the erring, afflicted land. He had prayed for the rain, and it had come in a rush of blessing on the reviving fields. In the Wady Cherith, in the house of the Phoenician widow, he had been divinely supported and sheltered from hot pursuit. He had snatched her boy from death. He had stood before kings, and not been ashamed. He had stretched forth his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, and not in vain. He had confounded the rich-vested and royally maintained band of Baals priests, and in spite of their orgiastic leapings and self-mutilations had put to shame their Sun-god under his own burning sun. He had kept pace with Ahabs chariot-steeds as he conducted him as it were in triumph, through the streaming downpour of that sweeping storm, to his summer capital. Of what use was it all? Was it anything but a splendid and deplorable failure? And he said: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life: for I am not better than my fathers" He could have cried with the poet:-
"Let the heavens burst, and drown with deluging rain
The feeble vassals of lust, and anger, and wine,
The little hearts that know not how to forgive;
Arise, O God, and strike, for we count Thee just-
We are not worthy to live."
Who does not know something of this feeling of utter overwhelming despondency, of bitter disillusionment concerning life and our fellow-men? Some great writer has said, with truth, "that there is probably no man with a soul above that of the brutes that perish, to whom a time has not come in his life, when, were you to tell him that he would not wake to see another day, he would receive the message with something like gladness." There are some whose lives have been so saddened by some special calamity that for long years together they have not valued them. F.W. Robertson, troubled by various sorrows, and worried (as the best men are sure to be) by the petty ecclesiastical persecutions of priests and formalists, wrote in a letter on a friends death: "How often have I thought of the evening when he left Tours, when, in our boyish friendship, we set our little silver watches exactly together, and made a compact to look at the moon exactly at the same moment that night and think of each other. I do not remember a single hour in life since then which I would have arrested, and said, Let this stay." "Melancholy so deep as this is morbid and unnatural," and he himself wrote in a brighter mood: "Positively I will not walk with any one in these tenebrous avenues of cypress and yew. I like sunny rooms and sunny truth. When I had more of spring and warmth I could afford to be prodigal of happiness: but now I want sunlight and sunshine. I desire to enter into those regions where cheerfulness and truth and health of heart and mind reside." Life has its real happiness for those who have deserved, and taken the right method to attain it; but it can never escape its hours of impenetrable gloom; and they sometimes seem to be darkest for the noblest souls. Petty souls are irritated by little annoyances, and the purely selfish disappointments which avenge the exaggerated claims of our "shivering egotism." But while little mean spirits are tormented by the insect-swarm of little mean worries, great souls are liable to be beaten down by the waves and storms of immense calamities-the calamities which affect nations and churches, the "desperate currents" of whose sins and miseries seem to be sometimes driven through the channels of their single hearts. Only such a man as an Elijah can measure the colossal despondency of an Elijahs heart. In the apparently absolute failure, the seemingly final frustration of such men as these there is something nobler than in the highest personal exaltations of ignobler souls.
"Now, O Lord, take away my life!" The prayer, however natural, however excusable, is never right. It is a sign of insufficient faith, of human imperfection; but it is breathed by different persons in a spirit so different that in some it almost rises to nobleness, as in others it sinks quite beneath contempt.
Scripture gives us several specimens of both moods. If Jonah was, indeed, the servant-pupil of Elijah, the legendary story of that meanest-minded of all the prophets-the meanest-minded and paltriest, not perhaps as he was in reality-for of him, historically, we know scarcely anything-but as he is represented in the profound and noble allegory which bears his name- might almost seem to have been written in tacit antithesis to the story of Elijah. Elijah flies only when he has done the mighty work of God, and only when the life is in deadly peril which he would fain save for future emergencies of service; Jonah flies that he may escape, out of timid selfishness, the work of God. Elijah wishes himself dead because he thinks that the glorious purpose of his life has been thwarted, and that the effort undertaken for the deliverance of his people has failed; Jonah wishes himself dead, first, because he repines at Gods mercy, and would prefer that his personal credit should be saved and his personal importance secured than that God should spare the mighty city of Nineveh with its one hundred and twenty thousand little children; and then because the poor little castor-oil plant has withered, which gave him shelter from the noon. Considering the traditional connection between them; it seems to me impossible to overlook an allusive contrast between the noble and mighty Elijah under his solitary rhotem plant in the wilderness wishing for death in the anguish of a heart "which nobly loathing strongly broke." and the selfish splenetic Jonah wishing himself dead in pettish vexation under his palma Christi because Nineveh is forgiven and the sun is hot.
There are indeed times when humanity is tried beyond its capacity, when the cry for restful death is wrung from souls crushed under accumulations of quite intolerable anguish and calamity. In the fret of long-continued sleeplessness, in sick and desolate and half-starved age, in attacks of disease incurable, long-continued, and full of torture, God will surely look with pardoning tenderness on those whose faith is unequal to so terrible a strain. It was pardonable surely of Job to curse the day of his birth when-smitten with elephantiasis, a horror, a hissing, an astonishment, bereaved of all his children, and vexed by the obtrusive orthodoxies of his petty Pharisaic friends; unconscious, too, that it was Gods hand which was all the while leading him through the valley of the shadow into the land of righteousness-he cried: "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul?" In those who have no hope and are without God in the world, this mood-not when expressed in passing passion as by the saintly man of Uz, but when brooded on and indulged-leads to suicide, and in the one instance recorded in each Testament, an Ahithophel and a Judas, the despairing souls of the guilty:-
"Into the presence of their God Rushed in with insult rude."
But Elijahs mood, little as it was justifiable in this its extreme form, was but the last infirmity of a noble mind. It has often recurred among those grandest of the servants of God who may sink into the deepest dejection from contrast with the spiritual attitudes to which they have soared. It is with them as with the lark which floods the blue air with its passion of almost delirious rapture, yet suddenly, as though exhausted, drops down silent into its lowly nest in the brown furrows. There is but one man in the Old Testament who, as a prophet, stands on the same level as Elijah, -he who stood with Elijah on the snowy heights of Hermon when their Lord was transfigured into celestial brightness, and they spake together of His decease at Jerusalem. And Moses had passed through the same dark hour as that through which Elijah was passing now, when he saw the tears, and heard the murmurs of the greedy, selfish, ungrateful people, who hated their heavenly manna, and lusted for the leeks and fleshpots of their Egyptian bondage. Revolted by this obtrusion upon him of human nature in its lowest meanness, he cried to God under his intolerable burden: "Have I conceived all this people? I am not able to bear all this people alone. And if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand; and let me not see my wretchedness." In Moses, as doubtless in Elijah, so far from being the clamor of whining selfishness, his anguish was part of the same mood which made him offer his life for the redemption of the people; which made St. Paul ready to wish himself anathema from Jesus Christ if thereby he could save his brethren after the flesh. Danton rose into heroism when he exclaimed, "Que mon nom soit fletri, pourvu que la France soit libre"; and Whitefield, when he cried, "Perish George Whitefield, so Gods work be done": and the Duke of Wellington when remonstrated with for joining in the last charge at Waterloo, with the shot whistling round his head he said, "Never mind; the victory is won, and now my life is of no consequence." In great souls the thought of others, completely dominating the base mans concentration in self, may create a despondency which makes them ready to give up their life, not because it is a burden to themselves, but because it seems to them as if their work was over, and it was beyond their power to do more for others.
Tender natures as well as strong natures are liable to this inrush of hopelessness: and if it sometimes kills them by its violence, this is only a part of Gods training of them into perfection.
"So unaffected, so composed a mind,
So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined,
Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried:-
The saint sustained it, but the woman died."
The cherubim of the sanctuary had to be made of the gold of Uphaz, the finest and purest gold. It was only the purest gold which could be tortured by workmanship into forms of exquisite beauty. The mind of Jeremiah was as unlike that of Elijah as can possibly be conceived. He was a man of shrinking and delicate temperament, and his life is the most pathetic tragedy among the biographies of Scripture. The mind of Elijah. like those of Dante or Luther or Milton, was all ardor and battle brunt; the mind of Jeremiah, like that of Melancthon, was timid as that of a gentle boy. A man like Dante or Milton, when he stands alone, hated by princes and priests and people, retorts scorn for scorn, and refuses to change his voice to hoarse or mute. Yet even Dante died of a broken heart, and in Miltons mighty autobiographical wail of Samson Agonistes, amid all its trumpet-blast of stern defiance, we read the sad notes:-
"Nor am I in the list of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,
The close of all my miseries, and the balm."
When the insolent priest Pashur smote Jeremiah in the face, and put him for a night and a day in the common stocks, the prophet-after telling Pashur that, for this awful insult to Gods messenger, his name, which meant "joy far and wide," should be changed into Magormissabib, "terror on every side"-utterly broke down, and passionately cursed the day of his birth. {Jer_20:1-18} And yet his trials were very far from ended then. Homeless, wifeless, childless, slandered, intrigued against, undermined-protesting apparently in vain against the hollow shams of a self-vaunting reformation-the object of special hatred to all the self-satisfied religionists of his day, the lonely persecuted servant of the Lord ended only in exile and martyrdom the long trouble of his eternally blessed but seemingly unfruitful life.
I dwell on this incident in the life of Elijah because it is full of instructiveness. Scripture is not all on a dead level. There are many pages of it which belong indeed to the connected history, and therefore carry on the general lessons of the history, but which are, in themselves, almost empty of any spiritual profit. Only a fantastic and artificial method of sermonizing can extract from them, taken alone, any Divine lessons. In these Books of Kings many of the records are simply historical, and in themselves, apart from their place in the whole, have no more religious significance than any other historic facts; but because these annals are the annals of a chosen people, and because these books are written for our learning, we find in them again and again, and particularly in their more connected and elevated narratives, facts and incidents which place Scripture incomparably above all secular literature, and are rich in eternal truth for all time, and for a life beyond life.
It is with such an experience that we are dealing here, and therefore it is worthwhile, if we can, to see something of its meaning. We may, therefore, be permitted to linger for a brief space over the causes of Ehijah's despair, and the method in which God dealt with it.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 1Ki_19:2. So let the gods do to me—The pl.…
ELIJAH DEJECTED, REPROVED, AND ENCOURAGED
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
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1Ki_19:2. So let the gods do to me—The pl. אֱלֹהִימ is used commonly for GOD, Jehovah; but here appears for Jezebel’s idols. The Sept. prefixes to this oath the words, Εί σν εἶ Ἠλιοὺ καὶ ἐγὼ Ἰεζάβελ.—“If thou art Elias, and I Jezebel.”
1Ki_19:3. And when he saw that—וַיַּרְא may be future of רָאָה, he saw, or יָרֵא, he feared. Accordingly the Sept., Vulg., and Peshito read, “And he was afraid.” But the former is preferable; for would Elijah be likely, after facing the Carmel ordeal, to take fright at this miserable threat of Jezebel?
1Ki_19:4. Juniper tree—Broom plant, “the most longed for and most welcome bush of the desert” (Robinson). It is enough—“I have already endured tribulation enough” (Keil). “I have now lived long enough” (Lange).
1Ki_19:6. Cake baken on the coals—On hot stones among ashes and coals (Gen_18:6).
1Ki_19:8. Went in the strength of that meat, &c.—This does not state that he occupied forty days and forty nights in the journey to Horeb, distant only forty geographical miles from Beershebs, but that he went in the strength of that meat during that prolonged period; was supernaturally sustained by that supernaturally provided meal.
1Ki_19:9. What doest thou here?—Not a reproach, but an interrogation, designed to call out the depressed cry of his soul, that God might correct and alleviate his despondency.
1Ki_19:11. Go forth, and stand upon the mount—Go forth to-morrow (so Sept., but without any authority). “To the complaint of the prophet, the Lord answers, first, by the manifestation of His nature in deeds (1Ki_19:11-14); and then by the declaration of His will in words (1Ki_19:15-18)” Keil. Great and strong wind—earthquake—fire—Natural phenomena, calculated to impress the mind with Jehovah’s power, and indicate the Divine resources for destruction of His enemies.
1Ki_19:12. Still small voice—דַקָּח קוֹל דְּמָמָה, lit., sound of a soft blowing. This gentle phenomenon suggested, in contrast, the tenderness and compassionateness of God towards His people.
1Ki_19:13. Wrapped his face in his mantle—As even the seraphim veil their faces in reverent awe.
1Ki_19:18. Yet I have left me 7,000—To be taken as future: “I will leave in Israel.” In the judgments which Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha shall execute, that number would remain faithful to Jehovah.
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki_19:1-18
THE WEAK MOMENTS OF A GREAT MAN
I. Here we see a great man giving way to an unworthy fear (1Ki_19:1-3).
1. Elijah quailed before the threat of an unscrupulous woman (1Ki_19:2). The hero of Carmel is the coward of Jezreel. He who had overawed Ahab and the host of Baal worshippers found more than his match in Jezebel. He was not prepared for so sudden a collapse of the influence he had gained: he had expected that the bare rehearsal of the victory of Carmel would have subdued the idolatrous queen, and prepared her to listen with respect to the prophet, and to encourage the king in bringing about religious reform. On the contrary, all the wild, savage nature of the idol-enthusiast was aroused, and she swore a tremendous oath to be avenged for the slaughter of her priests by compassing the prophet’s death. Like the Lady Macbeth, of the great English dramatist, her spirit of revenge might be expressed in similar terms:—
Come, come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, and fill me
Top-full of direst cruelty!
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.
Elijah was seized with fear to which he had hitherto been a stranger, and trembled before the threat of a Jezebel. And alas! he is not the only brave and noble spirit who, after performing the most heroic exploits in the cause of morality and religion, has succumbed before the scowl and scorn of a wicked and deceitful woman.
2. He deserted the post of duty from fear of death (1Ki_19:3). For a lesser man to have run away might have been excused, but for Elijah to prove renegade was a calamitous blow to all trust in human greatness. The work of the prophet was so public and so important to the religious interests of the nation, that even the fear of death ought not to have prompted him to relinquish it: and had he been absolutely certain that God would not have interposed to protect him, and that to remain was death, how could he know but that the cause of Jehovah might be better promoted, and His name glorified, by his death than by his life? Of all men, we should have looked to Elijah for a display of the true martyr-spirit. But when faith in God is impaired, the loftiest fall and the bravest flee.
II. Here we see a great man giving way to querulousness and despair (1Ki_19:4). The disappointment of his expectations, the failure of his mission following so closely on the heels of such signal success, his long abstinence from food, and great physical exhaustion arising from rapid and extended travelling, would all tend to prostrate his powers; and when he sank down under the sheltering broom tree, he gave utterance to the deep dejection of his mind in the querulous words, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.” Strange contradiction! says Kitto. Here the man who was destined not to taste of death, flees from death on the one hand, and seeks it on the other. And who told him it was enough? God did not. He knew what was enough for Elijah to do and to suffer. God had more to teach him, and more work for him to do. It is an affecting sight to see a great, strong man sink into helplessness and despair; and yet in the hour of disappointment and defeat many a gallant spirit has cried out for the oblivion of death! Desertion of duty—a fleeing from the word of God—is sure to be followed by trouble, and often the deepest mental anguish.
III. Here we see a great man miraculously sustained in the moment of his greatest weakness (1Ki_19:5-8). God granted Elijah not the oblivion of death, but the refreshing oblivion of sleep—riches to the poor, health to all; and while he was locked in the arms of forgetfulness, a repast was prepared for him by angel-hands, to which he was summoned by an angel’s touch. In the strength of that meat he went forty days and forty nights across the platform of the Sinaitic desert, till he came to Horeb, the mount of God. “The journey” was not simply a pilgrimage to Horeb, which was less than two hundred miles distant, and might have been reached in six or seven days; it was to be a wandering in the wilderness, not unlike that of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, only it was to last forty days instead of forty years. It was not without significance that Elijah was directed to Horeb: amid its sacred solitudes he was to learn a lesson never to be forgotten. God is a wise physician—food first; instruction, rebuke, after. He comes to man in the moment of his greatest helplessness, restores and strengthens him, and then prepares him for future usefulness and more splendid triumphs.
IV. Here we see a great man Divinely instructed. (1Ki_19:9-14). “What doest thou here?”—a question ever pertinent and timely. The answer of Elijah betrays in him what some have called “a spirit of pious fault-finding,” and also a disposition to exalt himself above measure. He does not accuse Jehovah, but his words imply that he himself was the only saint in Israel, and it was too bad that Divine power had allowed idolatry so far to triumph. Elijah’s notions of the Divine government were manifestly shaped too much by external displays of awful power, and he needed to learn a profounder lesson of the Divine nature. He is directed to “go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord” (1Ki_19:11), and in rapid succession the most demonstrative symbols of Jehovah’s mighty power in storm, earthquake, and fire, pass before him. But not in these, but in the “still small voice,” the prophet detected the true grandeur and comfort of the Divine presence. Humbled at the revelation, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and listened for further instruction. The thoughts under this heading may be arranged and treated in the following order:—
1. The pointed expostulation (1Ki_19:9).
2. The attempt at self-justification (1Ki_19:10).
3. The power of Divine gentleness (1Ki_19:11-13).
4. The influence of Divine gentleness not always immediately apparent (1Ki_19:13-14). The question is now put again to the prophet by the Lord himself. Will he have taken to heart the lesson of the great parable which has been acted before him, and make a humbler and more gentle answer? No; he is satisfied with his own statement of his case, and does but repeat his former words! “He has been very jealous—he is left alone—his life is sought—he has done right, therefore, to quit an ungrateful country, and relinquish a thankless office.”
V. Here we see a great man encouraged to return to the work he had forsaken (1Ki_19:15-18). The best remedy for dejection is work; absorbed in the duties of a lofty mission, man forgets his sorrow and regains his normal tone. Elijah is reminded that God did not overlook the sins of Israel, and he is instructed to anoint others who shall carry out His judgments against the house of Ahab. Again, Elijah had supposed he was alone in his witness for God. “It was a thought of anguish,” says Maurice,” and yet it was a thought of pride. He felt the misery of solitude, yet there was self-exaltation in it. “I alone am left, and they seek my life.” No; there are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Is it so indeed? What, Elijah, the great prophet, after all, does not know more than a multitude beside! He is not more faithful than they are! God has called them as well as him. Who can tell whether Elijah could have borne that discovery a few hours before? The still small voice had made it the most blessed of all discoveries. That voice had taught him not to care whether he was better than his fathers, or better than his brethren; to desire only that God might be glorified in his strength and in his nothingness.” It is at once a humiliation and an encouragement to reflect that man is only one amid a host of seen or unseen workers for God!
LESSONS:—
1. Great men are liable to failure.
2. Great men often fail at the point where they are considered strongest—the fearless become cawardly, the pure immoral, the honourable dishonest, &c.
3. God restores the erring soul by a method which it best suited at once to humble and encourage.
ELIJAH’S DESPONDENCY
If there were anything for which Elijah is remarkable, we should say it was superiority to human weakness. Like the Baptist, he dared to arraign and rebuke his sovereign; like the commander who cuts down the bridge behind him, leaving himself no alternative but death or victory, he taunted his adversaries, the priests of Baal, on Mount Carmel, making them gnash their teeth and cut themselves with knives, but at the same time ensuring for himself a terrible end, in case of failure, from his exasperated foes. Now it was this man—so stern, so iron, so independent, so above all human weakness—of whom it was recorded that in his trial hour he gave way to a fit of petulance and querulous despondency, to which there is scarcely found a parallel.
I. The causes of Elijah’s despondency.
1. Relaxation of physical strength. On the reception of Jezebel’s message, Elijah flies for his life, toils on the whole day, sits down under a juniper tree faint, hungry, and travel-worn, the gale of an Oriental evening, damp and heavy with languid sweetness, breathing on his face. The prophet and the man give way. He longs to die. You cannot mistake the presence of causes in part purely physical. We are fearfully and wonderfully made; of that constitution which, in our ignorance, we call union of soul and body, we know little respecting what is cause and what is effect. We would fain believe that the mind has power over the body, but it is just as true that the body rules the mind. Causes, apparently, the most trivial; a heated room, want of exercise, a sunless day, a northern aspect, will make all the difference between happiness and unhappiness, between faith and doubt, between courage and indecision. To our fancy there is something humiliating in being thus at the mercy of our animal organism. We would fain find nobler causes for our emotions. We talk of the hiding of God’s countenance, and the fiery darts of Satan. But the picture given here is true. The body is the channel of our noblest emotions, as well as well as our sublimest sorrows.
2. Want of sympathy. “I, even I only, am left.” Lay the stress on only. The loneliness of his position was shocking to Elijah. Surprising this: for Elijah wanted no sympathy in a far harder trial on Mount Carmel. It was in a tone of triumph that he proclaimed that he was the single, solitary prophet of the Lord, while Baal prophets were 450 men. Observe, however, the difference. There was in that case an opposition which could be grappled with; here there was nothing against which mere manhood was availing. The excitement was passed, the chivalrous look of the thing gone. To die as a martyr; yes, that were easy, in grand failure; but to die as a felon, to be hunted, caught, taken back to an ignominious death—flesh and blood recoiled from that. And Elijah began to feel that popularity is not love. The world will support you when you have constrained its votes by a manifestation of power, and shrink from you when power and greatness are no longer on your side. “I, even I only, am left.” What greater minds like Elijah’s have felt intensely, all we have felt in our own degree. Not one of us but what has felt his heart aching for want of sympathy. We have had our lonely hours, our days of disappointment, and our moments of hopelessness—times when our highest feelings have been misunderstood, and our purest met with ridicule—days when our heavy secret was lying unshared like ice upon the heart. And then the spirit gives way: we have wished that all were over; that we could lie down tired, and rest like the children, from life; that the hour was come when we could put down the extinguisher on the lamp, and feel the last grand rush of darkness on the spirit. Now the final cause of this capacity for depression—the reason for which it is granted us—is that it may make God necessary. In such moments it is felt that sympathy beyond human is needful. Alone, the world against him, Elijah turns to God: “It is enough, now, O Lord.”
3. Want of occupation. As long as Elijah had a prophet’s work to do—severe as that work was—all went on healthily; but his occupation was gone. To-morrow, and the day after, what has he left on earth to do? The misery of having nothing to do proceeds from causes voluntary or involuntary in their nature. Multitudes of our race, by circumstances over which they have no control, in single life or widowhood, in straightened circumstances, are compelled to endure lonely days, and still more lonely nights and evenings. They who have felt the hours hang so heavy can comprehend part of Elijah’s sadness. The law of life is, in the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread. No man can evade that law with impunity. Like all God’s laws, it is its own executioner. It has strange penalties annexed to it. Would you know them? Go to the park or the esplanade, or the solitude after the night of dissipation, and read the penalties of being useless in the sad, jaded, listless countenances—nay, in the very trifles which must be contrived to create excitement artificially. Yet these very eyes could, dull as they are, beam with intelligence; on many of those brows is stamped the mark of possible nobility. The fact is, that the capacity of ennui is one of the signatures of man’s immortality. It is his very greatness which makes inaction misery. If men with souls live only to eat and drink and be amused, is it any wonder if life be darkened with despondency?
4. Disappointment in the expectation of success. On Carmel the great object for which Elijah had lived seemed on the point of being realized. Baal’s prophets were slain—Jehovah acknowledged with one voice—false worship put down. Elijah’s life aim—the transformation of Israel into a kingdom of God—was all but accomplished. In a single day all this bright picture was annihilated. The tradesman sees the noble fortune for which he lived, every coin of which is the representative of so much time and labour spent, squandered by a spendthrift son. The purest statesmen find themselves at last neglected, and rewarded by defeat. Almost never can a man look back on life and say that its anticipations have been realized. For the most part life is disappointment, and the moments in which this is keenly realized are moments like this of Elijah’s.
II. God’s treatment of Elijah’s despondency.
1. First He recruited His servant’s exhausted strength. Miraculous meals are given—then Elijah sleeps, wakes, and eats; on the strength of that goes forty days’ journey. In other words, like a wise physician, God administers food, rest, and exercise, and then, and not till then, proceeds to expostulate; for before, Elijah’s mind was unfit for reasoning. Persons come to the ministers of God in seasons of despondency; they pervert with marvellous ingenuity all the consolation which is given them, turning wholesome food into poison. Then we begin to perceive the wisdom of God’s simple homely treatment of Elijah, and discover that there are spiritual cases which are cases for the physician rather than the divine.
2. Next Jehovah calmed his stormy mind by the healing influences of Nature. He commanded the hurricane to sweep the sky, and the earthquake to shake the ground. He lighted up the heavens till they were one mass of fire. All this expressed and reflected Elijah’s feelings. The mode in which nature soothes us is by finding meeter and nobler utterance for our feelings than we can find in words—by expressing and exalting them. In expression there is relief. Elijah’s spirit rose with the spirit of the storm. Stern, wild defiance, strange joy, all by turns were imaged there. Observe, God was not in the wind, nor in the fire, nor in the earthquake. It was Elijah’s stormy self reflected in the moods of the tempest, and giving them their character. Then came a calmer hour. Elijah rose in reverence, felt tenderer sensations in his bosom. He opened his heart to gentler influences, till at last, out of the manifold voices of nature, there seemed to speak, not the stormy passions of the man, but the “still small voice” of the harmony and the peace of God. There are some spirits which must go through a discipline analogous to that sustained by Elijah. The storm-struggle must precede the still small voice. There are minds which must be convulsed with doubt before they can repose in faith; there are hearts which must be broken with disappointment before they can rise into hope.
3. Besides, God made Elijah feel the earnestness of life. What doest thou here, Elijah? Life is for doing—a prophet’s life for nobler doing—and the prophet was not doing, but moaning. Such a voice repeats itself to all of us, rousing us from our lethargy, or our despondency, or our protracted leisure, “What doest thou here”—here in this short life? There is work to be done, evil put down, God’s church purified, good men encouraged, doubting men directed, a country to be saved, time going, life a dream, eternity long, one chance, and but one for ever. What doest thou here? Then he went on further: “Arise, go on thy way.” That speaks to us: on thy way. Be up and doing; fill up every hour, leaving no crevice or craving for a remorse or a repentance to creep through afterwards. Go! return on thy way, if thou art desponding—on thy way, health of spirit will return.
4. God completed the cure by the assurance of victory (1Ki_19:18). So, then, Elijah’s life had been no failure after all. Seven thousand at least in Israel had been braced and encouraged by his example, and silently blessed him, perhaps, for the comage which they felt. In God’s world, for those that are in earnest, there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain. We turn naturally from this scene to a still darker hour and more august agony. If ever failure seemed to rest on a noble life, it was when the Son of man, deserted by his friends, heard the cry which proclaimed that the pharisees had successfully drawn the net around their Divine victim. Yet, from that very hour of defeat and death, there went forth the world’s life; from that very moment of apparent failure there proceedeth forth into the ages the spirit of the conquering Cross. Surely, if the Cross says anything, it says that apparent defeat is real victory, and that there is a heaven for those who have nobly and truly failed on earth. Distinguish, therefore, between the real and the apparent. Elijah’s apparent success was in the shouts of Mount Carmel. His real success was in the unostentatious, unsurmised obedience of the seven thousand who had taken his God for their God.
LESSONS:—
1. For all teachers who lay their heads down at night, sickening over their thankless task. Remember the power of indirect influences—those which distil from a life, not from a sudden brilliant effort. The former never fail: the latter often.
2. For ministers, again, what is ministerial success? Crowded churches, full aisles, attentive congregations, the approval of the religious world—much impression produced? Elijah thought so: and when he found out his mistake, and discovered that the applause on Mount Carmel subsided in hideous stillness, his heart well-nigh broke with disappointment. Ministerial success lies in altered lives and obedient, humble hearts: unseen work recognized in the Judgment Day.
3. Get below appearances, below glitter and show. Plant your foot upon reality; not in the jubilee of the myriads on Carmel, but in the humble silence of the hearts of the seven thousand, lay the proof that Elijah had not lived in vain.—F. W. Robertson.
THE SUBDUING POWER OF THE DIVINE WHISPER
Elijah hastened first to the court to find the queen overwhelmed with defeat and humiliation; but Jezebel, so far from being terrified into conviction by the appalling wonders of Carmel, was preparing to take his life. This was so heavy and sudden a blow to Elijah’s faith in the converting power of judgments, that courage and dignity forsook him for a time, and he fled like a frighted deer because a woman had threatened him! An angel of God found him in the wilderness of Beersheba, lying under a juniper tree, bitterly complaining of his lot, and praying the Lord to take his life. It was now that Jehovah explained to His servant, by the impressive signs described in these verses, that power might avenge and destroy, but could not win; that the silent intellectual process of instruction and spiritual influence can alone reach the heart, and change the man. The theatre of these signs was Horeb, celebrated of old for displays of the Divine terrors. Here Moses saw the flaming majesty of the I AM in the bush. Here was Sinai, the mount that might be touched, that burned with fire, and trembled when the trump of God gave forth the voice of words. Recalling these events, and impressed by these associations, Elijah, after a journey of forty days, drew near to this Horeb, the mount of God; and, entering a cave or grot hollowed out in one of its sides, he lodged there. There God found him. “What dost thou here, Elijah?” The prophet answered, in a distempered mood, that he had been jealous for the Lord of Hosts: that in spite of all he had done to reclaim Israel, the Divine covenants were yet broken, the altars profaned, the prophets slain, and himself, the sole remaining witness for the truth, they were seeking to destroy. Then the Lord commanded the melancholy and despairing seer to ascend to the top of the mount; and while he stood there, surrounded by bleak and barren hills, fit images of power and desolation, the Lord passed by in a succession of grand and suggestive phenomena. There were four signs; of which three were material, and the fourth intellectual.
1. A strong wind swept by, rending the imbedded cliffs of Horeb, and scattering them like stubble. The stormy soul of Elijah found a congenial element in this untamed and mighty agent; and he, perhaps, wished he could ride upon its wings, turn its head toward Samaria, and demolish the usurpation of Baal. But while he watched for some particular appearance to indicate the presence of Jehovah, some strange glory or voice, to show that the hurricane was a fit chariot for the career of God, the storm fell; and the prophet knew that the Lord was not in the wind.
2. Then followed another sign, more terrific than a tempest. Perhaps in all nature there is nothing which so nearly resembles what we should think to be the immediate interposition of God as an earthquake. “After the wind an earthquake.” As the prophet felt that ancient and lofty pile of hills, apparently immortal in their steadfastness, give way beneath his feet, writhing helplessly in the grasp of some unseen power, like a convulsed child, he must have thought, “Surely God is here! These fearful shakings and hurlings are the tokens of His dread presence;” and he might have repeated to himself the triumphant chant of a psalm he had often sung, “What ails ye, ye mountains, that ye skip like rams; and ye little hills like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.” But the Lord was not in the earthquake; the convulsions subsided without a sign.
3. The third wonder that passed before the eye of the now perplexed prophet was an element as destructive as an earthquake, but far more imposing. Shining above the brightness of the sun, roaring and consuming, a huge fire played about the rocks on which Elijah stood. And as he saw its nimble tongues of flame lick up the hard verdure of the ground, and split and melt the rocks with its devouring heat, he knew that this fierce brightness had been from the beginning a chosen vehicle of Jehovah. He remembered Sodom and Gomorrah; he remembered Sinai, part of the very hill that now blazed around him, when lightnings had accompanied the declaration of law, and he probably waited to receive from that fire another commandment for Israel. There stood the stern man in the midst of devastation. The wind had shaken, the earthquake had swallowed up, the fire had consumed; but God had not spoken! The prophet had been awed, but not instructed. He had gone to the mount doubtful, dissatisfied, perhaps, self-condemned; the material signs gave him no relief. They were splendid and dreadful, but there was no mind in them.
4. While he thus stood bewildered, debating with himself what this might mean, the last sign explained all: it was a still small voice. It was still, because no sound struck audibly on the ear; it was small, because no ostentatious medium conveyed it; it was the voice of mind whispering to mind. God spake to Elijah, and without any symbol there were thoughts interchanged that bowed the prophet’s soul to the dust. And it came to pass when Elijah heard it, or felt it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and returned to his cave, standing in the entrance to hear the voice again, as if repeating the words of Samuel—“Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”
I. My dear brethren, that which bows the mind, that which makes a man wrap his face in his mantle in silent and intelligent reverence, is not a sign that strikes upon the senses, but a thought understood and felt in the heart. Miracles have an historic value, but they have seldom produced in those who witnessed them a moral benefit; neither error nor vice can spring from a miracle, nor can either be rejected by a miracle: they arise from the connection of mind with mind, and must be destroyed by a new mental fellowship.
II. This will be manifest if we follow the course of the Divine revelation. The patriarchs transmitted a few simple and fixed beliefs; the Jewish economy dispensed miracles and types; the knowledge of God became more defined and enlarged; it was systematized in laws, but national and local in its application. When Christ came, He made the gospel the subject and instrument of teaching, fulfilling the prediction—And they shall be all taught of God. Divine knowledge, in coming down to us from the past, has become more and more a voice speaking to the heart, more and more free from material mediums. When Abraham embraced the knowledge of God, it was on its way to us; when Moses lodged it in the Jewish Tabernacle, it was purifying itself for us; when Christ found it there, and baptized it with the Holy Ghost and with fire, He sent it forth to us. It is now doing its greatest work, not by flood and fire, although there are cities in the world as wicked as Sodom; not by miracles, although there is as hard a scepticism as ever reigned in Judea or Rome; but by the still small voice of instruction, supported and carried out to gracious results by the silent communion of the Holy Ghost.
III. These are the last and crowning means of Christianity; everything else, by whatever name you call it, belongs to the three first signs. And what a fondness we have for these signs, the picturesque and the striking! But what do they gain who seek to embellish the church with a gorgeous architecture; who cultivate the sublimity of domes and capitals; who subdue by a solemn colouring the very light that falls upon the worshippers; who place in imposing situations the picture, the statue, the emblem; who burnish their altars with gold, and bring to the holy crucifix the homage of tapers and the genuflexions of surplice and mitre; who enter the assembly with the music of chanted litanies, and terrify the people by the thunder of anathemas? The Lord is not in the architecture, the picture, the music, the pomp; you see no more here than the three signs of the prophet. You must seek the Lord in the voice of the conscience; this is the sign of the gospel dispensation—the word, and not the picture; Christ, and not the crucifix; the Holy Ghost, and not the seven candles.
IV. If we stop with the three signs, we go no farther than the heathen. The negro falls down before the whirlwind and the earthquake, and cries, Lo! God is here! The Parsee worships the shining fire. But their impressions are sensuous and temporary; fading before the heart is touched, for the still small voice of instruction is wanting. Look at the people around us! We see whole nations prostrate before the three signs. To the Hindu the splendours of Hinduism are the whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire; and his homage is fear and admiration. When I have seen an idol arrayed in traditionary terrors, and magnificently paraded through the streets of a large native town—and in the night too—and when ten thousand human beings have pressed near to worship amid the gleaming of innumerable torches of coloured lights, and rockets and candles of every device shooting up into the air, and when the priests have sung in solemn cadence, and the multitudes have shouted their acclamations, I have caught the prevailing awe. With all my better knowledge, I could not resist the terror and beauty of the spectacle; but the Lord was not there. The multitudes returned to the homes with an intoxicated sense, and a fevered imagination; but no silent voice to instruct and win them to God. But I have taken one of those Hindus whom the earthquake and the fire had dazzled, but not changed; I have drawn him away from the three signs, and invited him to await with me for the fourth; and while we listened a still small voice spoke in our hearts; and when he heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and cried, What must I do to be saved? And the effect of that voice was a new heart and a new life. It was the silent winning of Calvary, and not the fiery testimony of Carmel. It was not Moses or Elijah thundering forth the law upon the senses, but Jesus breathing truth and grace into the soul.
V. Have you ever bowed before this voice, and hidden your face in penitence? Perhaps, amid the clamour and discord of louder voices, the still accents of Jesus escaped you. We cannot catch the sound without profound listening. When we do hear it, speaking pardon from the Cross, speaking help from the right hand of God, speaking victory in the conflict—
’Tis music in the sinner’s ear,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.
For the comfort of those who have been terrified by the storm and fire of the law, I am commanded to promise that the blessed sign of a Saviour’s presence shall follow. You have been convinced of sin; have quaked beneath the threatenings of Horeb; a storm of distemper and doubt is rending your soul. But follow Elijah’s example; wait, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. The thick cloud of sin shall pass away before the still small voice of heavenly peace.—E. E. Jenkins’ Madras Sermons.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ki_19:1-8. Elijah under the juniper tree. How are the mighty fallen! He who stands before us in the preceding chapter as the fearless champion of the God of Israel, putting to shame the worshippers of Baal, and slaying his prophets, is presented to us in this chapter as being overcome with fear, the victim of cowardice and despondency. He who could boldly defy the king is now terrified by the threat of a vile and angry queen, and flees for his life, until the shade of a juniper tree in the wilderness affords shelter to his exhausted frame. I. His dejection. “He requested for himself that he might die.” This is the feeling which dejection generally awakens, the desire to be separated from the object of trial or annoyance. Whenever men’s hearts fail them in any work, their first wish is to get away from it. This will account for the frequent instances we hear of desertion from the post of duty. In this dejection of Elijah we have an instance of men breaking down in the strong point of their character. He was fearless, bold, and courageous, yet these were the points on which he failed—he was afraid of Jezebel. Moses was the meekest man, yet it was for impatience and anger that he was excluded from Canaan. Peter was fearless and impetuous, yet he denied his Lord. Men generally fear their weak points, their besetting sins; but they have need to fear as well those they think strong. What were the causes of his dejection?
1. Physical exhaustion. The anxiety and excitement of Carmel would be extremely exhausting to him. After such a strain there would come a reaction; the nerves unstrung—irritable; taking a gloomy view of things. This is the common experience of those who suffer from bodily exhaustion.
2. Disappointment. Elijah in all likelihood expected that after the scenes on Carmel the whole of Israel, including Ahab and the royal house, would be converted and restored to God. He would think that the evidence afforded would be irresistible in favour of Jehovah. But instead of Jezebel being converted, she was enraged, and her enmity increased. At this unexpected result, the prophet would be disappointed, and his heart would sink within him.
3. Eclipse of faith. The figure of Jezebel so appeared before him as to hide or obscure his vision of God. When he saw “that,” the threat, he arose, and went for his life. “The God before whom I stand,” were the words with which he confronted Ahab, and he was as bold as a lion. Now he saw nothing but Jezebel’s threat, and fear takes hold upon him. Men are strong and steadfast only as they see God. Let anything obscure this vision, and their strength is gone—in temptation, in work, in sorrow, in death.
II. His recovery. “And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.” There is no rebuke here. Men often notice the words most which are spoken in anger or irritation. But God passes over those which escaped Elijah’s lips in his time of depression. They represented his despondency, not his real self. Undeterred, therefore, by the prophet’s request for death, God provides him with food to refresh his exhausted frame. He also addressed to him words of kindness to comfort his mind: “The journey is too great for thee.” What a beautiful instance is this of the watchfulness and consideration with which God attends His servants. In their times of despondency and difficulty they may forget Him, and wander from His ways, but he does not forget them, or leave them to themselves.—The Study and the Pulpit.
1Ki_19:2-3. The tyranny of fear.
1. May overpower the bravest spirit.
2. Is intensified when life is threatened with a cruel termination.
3. May be wielded by the most contemptible individual.
4. Drives the hitherto dauntless worker from the post of duty.
1Ki_19:2. Neither scourges nor favours can work anything with the obstinately wicked. All evil hearts are not equally disaffected to good: Ahab and Jezebel were both bad enough, yet Ahab yields to that work of God which Jezebel stubbornly opposeth. Ahab melts with that water, with that fire, wherewith Jezebel is hardened; Ahab was bashfully, Jezebel audaciously, impious. The weaker sex is ever commonly stronger in passion, and more vehemently carried with the sway of their desires, whether to good or evil. She swears and stamps at those whereat she should have trembled; she swears by those gods of hers, which were not able to save their prophets, that she will kill the prophet of God, who had scorned her gods, and slain her prophets.—Bp. Hall.
1Ki_19:3. Strange spectacle! The man at whose words, but yesterday, the fire of Jehovah miraculously fell, and five hundred and fifty false prophets were slain, now flies for his life before the threat of an idolatrous queen! Jehovah seems to have left him for a season to himself. Perhaps there was danger that, like the Apostle, he might become exalted above measure by the abundance of revelation and of power which were manifested through him, and it was needful to remind him by an impressive experience that he was still a man encompassed with human passions and infirmities. To many it may seem that a great opportunity to reform the worship of the kingdom was lost by Elijah’s flight. The people were convinced. Ahab was awed to reverent silence and submission. Only Jezebel and Asherah priests seem to have remained an obstacle in the way of reform; and how easily might they have been removed by the Divine power which had already wrought such wonders! So we might judge. But there is a point beyond which Divine power will not multiply miracles, and the turning point here was the instability of Ahab. He had the power, and ought to have shown the courage, to silence the ravings of his impious wife, and to command his household and the whole kingdom to keep the way of the Lord. But he was governed by his wife, became false to his deepest convictions of truth, and Jehovah would proceed no further at that time to magnify His name. But the moral lessons of the scene at Carmel have never been lost. Though failing to reform the king and the nation, they speak to every after age, and form a part of that Divine revelation which claims the admiration and reverence of all that desire to know and worship the true God.—Whedon.
—The fear and flight of Elijah are very remarkable. But yesterday he was a conqueror in the full glory of an unprecedented triumph, imposing his will as law on king and people. To-day he is an outcast, a fugitive, broken down in spirit, only anxious to place the greatest possible distance between himself and his enemies. What had produced the extraordinary change? Not, probably, Jezebel’s threat alone, but in part, perhaps, physical reaction from the over-excitement of the preceding day: in part, internal disquietude and doubt as to the wisdom of the course which he had adopted.—Speaker’s Comm.
1Ki_19:4-13. The prophet’s hour of darkness. We learn more from example than from precept. The human weakness of Scripture characters, as well as their spiritual strength, is shown us. We are taught as much by the one as by the other. I. The human sorrow. After the prophet’s triumph came his time of depression.
1. When Elijah overcame the prophets of Baal it was his time of triumph. Then came the reaction. He heard of Jezebel’s threat, and fled into the kingdom of Judah. We can picture to ourselves the wearied old man resting under the shade of the juniper tree. He complained of the failure of his life, and desired to die. Then there fell upon him sleep, God’s gift to the wretched. Thus it is with us; after our time of triumph comes our time of reaction. In the day of joy we scarcely believe it, but it is so. It is very difficult to make the child who has never before seen the sea understand that in a few hours the waters will have ebbed from the bay, and left it covered with long stretches of brown-ribbed sand and jagged rocks.
2. It is so in the Christian life. We may have our hours of rapture, but they will be succeeded by our hours of depression. The glow of first love will not always last. Nor is it well that it should. It is beautiful, but not deep. The flowers must fall from the fruit tree, if the autumn store is to hang on its boughs. If it were not so, we should walk by sight, not by faith.
3. It is so with temptation. Our sins often seem to be trodden down; but unless we are careful, they will rise again. It may be painful to be told this, but it is true, and therefore it is well to know it.
4. Is, then, our religion a delusion? By no means. It is a discipline. Look at the Saviour’s hour of trial; it came after the glorious life, and before he was able to throw open the gates of immortality to all believers.
5. After trial, God sends sleep, or rest. “He giveth his beloved sleep.” II. The Divine consolation.
1. But the time of refreshment came: it was the darkness before the daybreak, not the darkness of death; yet the deliverance was not such as the prophet wished. He was a wanderer for forty days more before he saw the morning. Thus it is with us; our gloom lasts a long time, but not for ever. We do not understand Christ’s way of working. We want to arrange everything. Yet it were better to put a child to manage machinery than entrust us with the concerns of our own lives.
2. The prophet said all was dark, that there was no godliness left in the land. But the Lord showed him that it was not so evil as he feared—seven thousand had not bowed the knee to Baal.
3. After his journey of forty days, when he was at Horeb, the Lord commanded him to stand upon the Mount. First there came a whirlwind which rent the rocks, then an earthquake, and afterwards a fire. But God was not in these. With any of these forces He could have destroyed the guilty king and queen; but such was not His way of working. Last of all came a still small voice; and by this Jehovah spoke to His servant. Thus God comes to us, and speaks to us, not with a voice of desolation, but with a whisper of love. The wind, the earthquake, the fire, are the law: the still small voice is the Gospel. Christ thus addresses us, and by it assures us of returning peace.
LESSONS:—
1. Our day of triumph is not always our day of prosperity.
2. In the silence of the desert, and the solitude of own hearts, we have our deepest communion with God.
3. He speaks to us, not in a voice of terror, but by the quiet consolations of the Gospel of forgiveness and peace.—Pulpit Analyst.
1Ki_19:4. Despondency.
1. The reaction from a state of high mental excitement.
2. Renders the victim indifferent to physical sustenance.
3. Indulges in excessive self-deprecation.
4. Seeks relief in personal oblivion.
1Ki_19:5-8. The visit under the juniper tree. The guardianship of Divine grace becomes evident.
1. In the hearing vouchsafed to the prophet’s prayer.
2. In the appearance of an angel which the Lord sends to him.
3. In the wonderful nourishment which he experiences.
4. In the delightful prospect which God opens before him.
5. In a supernatural strengthening for his wandering through the wilderness.—Krummacher.
—Divine succour.
1. Is administered in extremity.
2. Is supplied by unexpected agencies.
3. Affords strength in a time of unusual but salutary trial.
—Oh! the never-ceasing care and providence of the Almighty; not to be barred by any place, by any condition! When means are wanting to us, when we are wanting to ourselves, when to God, even then doth He follow us with His mercy, and cast favour upon us, beyond, against expectation! What variety of purveyance doth He make for His servant! One while the ravens, then the Sareptan, now the angel shall be his caterer; none of them without a miracle; those other provided for him waking, this sleeping. Oh, God! the eye of Thy providence is not dimmer, the hand of Thy power is not shorter; only teach Thou us to serve Thee—to trust Thee.—Bp. Hall.
1Ki_19:5. There have been in all ages faithful servants of God and Christ, who have been weakened and discouraged by the thought that it was all in vain, all their anxiety and labour were fruitless, nothing more could possibly be gained for the Lord, and no more work of any importance could be done by them for His cause and kingdom, and they have been on the point of finding joyous, spirited, zealous work in the service of the Lord—nay, even life itself—distasteful. But they have always found consolation from the Lord in His Word, and have been aroused and strengthened by His Spirit to new courage and to unremitted perseverance in their work for the truth. They have learned to think of Him who endured similar contradiction of sinners against Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ had taught them not to estimate the value of their labour according to the effect which they produced by it, nor according to the visible results perceptible to themselves, but with joy and confidence to persevere unweariedly, even though it should appear as though all they said was addressed to an uninhabited desert.—Menken.
1Ki_19:8-18. Elijah on Mount Horeb.
1. The wonderful consolation which he enjoyed on his journey thither.
2. The exalted revelation which he there received.
3. The new duties and encouragements which were his lot even there.—Bender.
—The lessons Elijah learned at Horeb were full of instruction. The symbols of wind, earthquake, and fire, followed by the still small voice, have a wide and varied significance and application.
1. The central lesson of these symbols is, that there are mightier influences at work in human history than physical force. Men are ever prone to think otherwise, or, at least, to disregard this fact. That which is tangible to the outer senses, which blows, and shakes, and burns before the eyes of men; confounding and confusing, and, for the time, overwhelming and crushing all opposition—that is too apt to exhaust all our ideas of mightiness. We should, therefore, be reminded that in the silent workings of mind and heart there are often developed forces stronger than the whirlwind, mightier than the earthquake shock, and fiercer in their burnings than fires which many waters cannot quench. In this we may discover just the relation of miracles to the truth, which they have often served to introduce and confirm. We are in danger of esteeming the former above the latter, whereas the law and the prophets and Christ have taught a different lesson. The seven thousand devout hearts in Israel are a mightier power for good than even all the miracles of Elijah. So, too, Jesus taught his disciples that it is better to have one’s name written in heaven than to have power to work miracles (Luk_10:20), and that the true believer, led by the Spirit, shall do even greater works than the Messiah.
2. The immediate application of this lesson was to Elijah’s undue estimate of the miracles at Carmel. He seems to have supposed that the answer by fire that consumed his sacrifice, and the mighty wind and rain that came so quickly after, together with the slaughter of the false prophets, would accomplish the speedy reformation of Israel; but because they did not, he yielded to discouragement and despair. His radical error was in placing too much confidence in the outward and the marvellous. So the still small voice, as it developed itself into the sure word of prophecy, showed him how groundless was his despair, how mistaken his notions of Jehovah’s ways, and how manifold might be other agencies of judgment yet at God’s command.
3. At the same time, the lesson might remind him that the impious Jezebel from whom he fled, and who now, after all his work against her gods, seemed to be triumphant still, was trusting in the outward appearance of power at her command. She might array against him and his fellow-prophets all the forces of government, and all the pomp and pretensions of the idolatry to which she was devoted; but these would soon exhaust themselves, for God would not be in them. The wind and fire of her presumptuous wrath would soon pass by, and after all its fury was spent, there would rise the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal; a silent force, perchance, but, with God in them, mightier far than all that could come against them.
4. But the deeper and grander lesson of these symbols is the contrast they present between the Old Dispensation and the New—the Law and the Gospel. The miracles of the Exodus, the clouds and thunders and lightnings that attended the giving of the Law at this same Sinai, and all the later marvels in the sacred history of Israel, only prepared the ear of man to catch more readily and appreciate more fully the gentle voice of Him who did not cry or lift up His voice in the streets, but still spake as no other man spake. The sweetest, holiest sound that ever steals upon the soul of man is the voice of the Word that was made flesh; and that voice, ever speaking in the Gospel, shall go forth throughout the earth, and its words unto the end of the world, until all idols fall, and all tongues confess that Jesus is the Christ.—Whedon.
1Ki_19:9-14. The powerlessness of the terrible in moral teaching. Storm, earthquake, and fire, are the symbols of the Divine punishments exterminating the ungodly. God is not in the storm, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, to show that His sway in the theocracy is not implacable, annihilating vigour and all-consuming jealousy. Jehovah appears in the sound of a gentle blowing or soft murmur—the sign of the nearness of God—which is the love that endures the sinner with sparing mildness, with patience and long-suffering, and delays the punishment as long as mercy is possible. The acted parable is, in fact, an anticipation of the evangelical rule—a condemnation of that “zeal” which Elijah had gloried in, a zeal exhibiting itself in fierce and terrible vengeance; and an exaltation and recommendation of that mild and gentle temper which “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” Read in the light of after revelation, we can thus understand the true drift of this most marvellous scene; but it may be questioned how far Elijah was able to perceive its meaning. Perhaps he felt dimly something of the true force of the lesson; perhaps for a while it moderated his excessive zeal, and inclined him to gentler courses.—Speaker’s Comm.
—Though I do not read in this story of Elijah’s deep despondency the condemnation of his last act—the slaughter of the priests of Baal—I do see in it the natural effects of any great exercise of destructive power, perhaps of power at all, upon the mind of him to whom it has been entrusted. The sense of exhaustion, the cry, “I am no better than my fathers,” though I have done such wonders; the hopelessness of the future becoming all the more deep from the apparently useless triumph that had been won already—surely every prophet must have these bitter experiences, if he is not to sink into a Baal-worshipper, and after all to regard the God of Truth and Righteousness merely as a God of Might. Elijah, though he wrought so many miracles, was comparatively still a novice when he sat under the juniper tree. When he left the cave he was an initiated man. He had thought that the earthquake, the fire, the wind that rent the mountains, must be the great witnesses of the Lord. But He was not in them. Not they, but the still small voice, had that awe in it which forced the prophet to cover his face with his mantle. What a blessed and a beautiful conclusion of all the past history! What an interpretation of its meaning! The glaring outward signs, which the priests of Baal sought for, were feeble; the living power which spoke to the heart within, this only demanded and compelled reverence. He who could send bread to the woman of Zarephath was indeed the God who answered by fire.—Maurice.
1Ki_19:9-10. Elijah at Horeb. We may feel a little surprised to find him at Horeb, so far away from the kingdom of Israel, the place to which God had sent him to make known His will, and to fulfil His purpose. But it may be that Horeb had special attractions for him. It was far away from the scenes through which he had been passing, and it was in the midst of a mountainous region, away from the habitations of men, abounding in caves and ravines; so that its solitude and security would afford him a quiet retreat where he could rest awhile and feel secure from the wrath of his enemies. Its religious associations, too, would doubtless exert a healthy influence upon his mind. It was here that God appeared to Moses while tending the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, and commissioned him to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt. It afterwards became a place of encampment for the Israelites during their journey through the wilderness, and it was from the adjoining mountain of Sinai that God delivered to Moses the Ten Commandments. But he was not long left alone there. He little thought how he was watched, until he was surprised by the voice of the Lord. Notice—I. The rebuke administered. “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Elijah was now in a fit state, both of body and mind, to be dealt with. He was a deserter. It was necessary to make him feel his cowardice and his want of faith in God. When under the juniper tree, he was too weak in body and too dejected in mind to receive rebuke, and God dealt tenderly and considerately with him. But now he was stronger, and able to bear conviction. In this question he is rebuked for forsaking duty. He was sent to Israel as the messenger of God, and to remain there during the Divine pleasure. In former instances of his life God showed him when to leave and when to return, but now he did not wait for God’s direction; he goes himself. He had chosen his own way, and so set God aside. He would be reminded of this by the question: “What doest thou here?”—so far away from the place whither he had been sent; as much as if God had asked him, “Who is to do the work in Israel when thou art here?” The question would also be a rebuke to his want of faith in God. What doest thou here? He, above all men, should have remained at his post. His past experience of God’s favour should have served him now; his faith should have been strengthened by the remembrance of such favour, so that when Jezebel threatened him, he would have fled instinctively to Him who could restrain her wrath and protect his servants. How often do men still act as Elijah did? They forsake God’s way, and choose their own. He has assigned them some special work, but they have withdrawn from it. And God follows them into their wanderings, as He followed Elijah, and proposes the same question to them, Sinner! backslider! lukewarm professor! what doest thou here? II. The defence. He does not frankly acknowledge his error, and come to God with a penitent heart, seeking to be restored, but he seeks to justify himself, and that upon these grounds.
1. Former service. “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.” He looked with satisfaction upon his past labours, and claimed some merit because of them, and that now he might retire from his arduous toil. Thus he clung to a feeling of self-righteousness. He overlooked his obligation to God. As it was God who called him to work, so it was for God to release him from it.
2. Isolation. “I, even I only, am left.” No doubt he felt weary of continuing his work by himself, without sympathy from anyone. But, admitting the influence of loneliness, his service had not been a very long one—three and a-half years at the utmost. And he overlooked the never-failing presence of God. Our Lord experienced this loneliness, but He did not yield to it. He said, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”
3. Persecution. “They seek my life, to take it away.” He shrunk from the opposition which his enemies now raised against him, and fled from it, thinking he was justified in doing so. But he had been in as much danger before, when the king had searched the country for him. He forgot this, and forgot also the Arm by which he was then protected. These are the grounds upon which Elijah sought to defend his conduct before God. But that defence reveals to us a departure from God. He had lost, for the time, faith in God; his heart was not aglow with love and devotion to Him. These were the true reasons of his being at Horeb. And the example of Elijah is often imitated by those who wander from God, and who are arrested in their wanderings by the question: “What doest thou here?” The sinner will excuse himself—time enough yet—a more convenient season. The backslider may blame difficulties, associates, change of circumstances. The lukewarm Christian hides himself beneath the increase of other duties, want of success in his work for God, weariness. All these excuses reveal a departure from God in heart, and the only safe course is to acknowledge this, and return to Him at once.—The Study and Pulpit.
1Ki_19:10. Elijah’s zeal for the Lord.
1. A pure and sincere zeal. It was solely for the Lord, not for himself, for his opinion, honour, glory, or advantage, just as with the apostle who counted all things but loss that he might win Christ (Php_3:8). How often folly, dogmatism, passion, and injustice are mingled with zeal for the Lord and for His kingdom! Would that all who would be, or pretend to be, zealous for the cause of God, could stand before the Searcher of hearts and say in sincerity, I have been zealous for the Lord.
2. A persevering and regardless zeal. Like Paul, he shrunk from no distress or labour, from no strife or affliction, nor hunger, nor nakedness, neither scoffing nor disgrace (Php_4:12-13; 2Co_6:4-10). He had no respect of persons, did not ask whether he was a king, serving Baal, or a beggar; whether he was lord or servant; whether his opponents were few or many. It could be said of him—The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. How few of those have any knowledge of such a zeal, who follow their calling mechanically, and never become warm in its behalf; whose zeal is like a smothered fire, and grows less and inefficient, and cools, both when temptation arises, and when they are in prosperity.—Lange.
1Ki_19:11-17. The disclosure on the mount. We learn from this incident—
1. That men are not brought to acknowledge God merely by outward manifestations of power or greatness. Elijah needed this lesson. Our Lord, in the days of His flesh, constantly met with those who sought signs and wonders as the only means of producing faith. The rich man prayed that Lazarus might be sent to warn his five brethren, pleading that if one went to them from the dead, they would repent. And the same feeling is still shown by men in the importance they attach to some outward circumstances for producing repentance—calamity, bereavement, affliction. Others look with great confidence to special means or special men, the various revivalistic agencies, revival preachers, thinking that without these the work of God cannot be promoted. We need to learn that all these may be present to us, and still God be absent.
2. That outward circumstances may be helpful in bringing men to acknowledge God. While some depend too much upon the outward and circumstantial, others go to the opposite extreme, and ignore them altogether in the work of God, whereas they have a place in that work. Calamity or affliction may not produce repentance, but they tend to subdue the spirit, and make it more susceptible to the work of God. They break up the fallow ground, and prepare it for the seed of truth.
3. That true repentance is produced by the voice of God. It was when Elijah heard the still small voice that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood at the entrance of the cave. He had been prepared for such submission by the terrible displays he had witnessed. And so, when the voice of God speaks to the conscience of the guilty, or to the heart of the sorrowful, there comes peace to the one and comfort to the other.
4. That Christian work is needful to spiritual health. Elijah was commanded to return to the wilderness of Damascus, and to do the work assigned him. He obeyed, and we never read of him wandering away again. Many Christians get low-spirited, and wander into forbidden paths, because of inactivity. Earnest work for God would restore and preserve them.—The Study and Pulpit.
1Ki_19:11. Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord! This call is issued to all those who, like Elijah, lodge in caves and dens. The caves, however, are of various kinds. Our heart is a cave, a dark tomb. The soul attacked and tormented by doubts is in a cave. Bodily distress and external affliction may be called a cave. O, go forth and go upon the mount, and look aloft to Him who hangs upon the tree. Go forth! spread the wings of hope, soar and place thyself upon the heights of the everlasting promises of God, which are yea and amen, and from thence cast a look of confidence into the heart of Him whose council is truly wonderful, but who, nevertheless, doeth all things gloriously.—Krummacher.
1Ki_19:12. In that God was! Behold, in that gentle and mild breath there was omnipotency; there was but powerfulness in those fierce representations; there is not always the greatest efficacy where is the greatest noise. God loves to make way for Himself by terror; but he conveys Himself to us in sweetness. It is happy for us if, after the gusts and flashes of the law, we have heard the soft voice of evangelical mercy.—Bp. Hall.
1Ki_19:15-18. The answer of the Lord to Elijah. Includes—
1. A direction. “Go, return!” which is the answer to—Thus far have I been zealous in vain. Carry forward the work already begun, doubting not the result; let thy hands fall not; fear not, for I am with thee. So the Lord always calls to all workers in the vineyard.
2. A commission. “Anoint Hazael,” &c. That is the answer to—They have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars. Through Hazael will I chastise rebellious Israel, through Jehu destroy the house of Ahab, through Elisha preserve the order of the prophets. Observe how the royal government of the Lord influences so deeply and so powerfully, and yet so quietly and noiselessly, all human undertakings, contrivances, and conditions, all worldly events; and how so much happens under His direction which seems to happen without Him, as if by accident.
3. A promise. “Yet have I left, &c.” This is the answer to—I only am left, and they seek my life. The race of believers will never perish; no storm, no earthquake, no fire will destroy them. They are the salt of the earth which preserves the world from corruption and ruin.—Lange.
1Ki_19:15-17. Return to active duty the cure of despondency.
1. The soul finds true health and vigour in obedience to God.
2. The example of a faithful worker is an inspiration to others.
3. The vengeance of God against evil-doers will never lack instruments to carry it out—Hazael, Jehu, Elisha.
1Ki_19:18. God’s hidden ones.
1. Exist in the worse times, and in the most unexpected places.
2. Illustrate the unremitting care of God over His persecuted people.
3. Are often made manifest for the encouragement of the solitary worker.
—Thou art deceived, O Elijah! Thou art not left alone; neither is all Israel tainted. God hath children and prophets in Israel, though thou see them not. Those clear eyes of the seer discern not the secret store of God: they looked not into Obadiah’s caves, they looked not into the closets of the religious Israelites. According to the fashion of the wealthy, God pleaseth Himself in hidden treasures: it is enough that His own eyes behold His riches. Never did He, never will He, leave Himself unfurnished with holy clients, in the midst of the foulest depravations of His church. The sight of His faithful ones hath some times been lost, never the being. Do your worst, O ye gates of Hell! God will have his own. It was a true cordial for Elijah’s solitariness that he had seven thousand invisible abettors; neither is it a small comfort to our weakness to have companions in good.—Bp. Hall.
—Learn.
1. Never to take too gloomy or desponding a view of the position and prospects of the Church. 2. Beware of harsh judgments on our fellow-men and fellow-Christians.
3. The influential power of a great example.—Macduff.
1Ki_19:18. The faithful seven thousand. We learn from these words.
1. That men may be often deceived with regard to the strength of God’s church. Many have possessed a similar feeling to that expressed by Elijah. They have looked upon the prevalence of sin, in all ranks and conditions of life; they have looked upon the wide-spread indifference to religion, and that, too, in the midst of religious privilege and effort; and at such a sight their hearts have failed them; they have thought that the people of God were very few, and they have been tempted to think that their efforts to increase the number were vain and useless, and under such temptation many have relinquished their work. Such thoughts and feelings as these often arise in consequence of ignorance and a partial view of the subject. And are we not often very narrow in our views of Christian life? We are apt to look for that life to manifest itself in one particular form; for those who profess discipleship to conform to one outward mode of conduct, without taking into consideration the difference of temperament, education, &c. God’s spirit comes into men as they are; He does not change the constitution of their minds; He inspires the powers already there, and brings them into submission to His will.
2. That God has a perfect knowledge of His own people. The children of God may be unable to recognize each other, especially in times of persecution, which may restrain men from making an open avowal of their faith. And even in ordinary times there are many who may not feel called upon to make this avowal, so that their relation to God remains unknown to those around them. But God sees and knows them.
3. That God can keep His people amid the most widespread sin and evil. It is not without reason that Christian people fear for themselves and for others when sin and evil abound, and when temptations are numerous and powerful. They know their own weakness, and they know, too, how many have fallen in the conflict with sin. But they may be delivered from their fears by the assurance that God is able to keep that which they commit to Him. Nothing can separate from the love of God. Trusting in Him, they shall never be confounded.
4. That men should be faithful to their duty, and leave results with God. Elijah was so discouraged at not seeing the result he looked for, that he shrank from his work, and fled from the post of duty. And many since his day have acted in a similar manner. They have looked for certain results to their labours, and have not seen them; then their hearts have failed them, and they have grown weary in well doing. They have forgotten that they were responsible for the faithful discharge of their duty, not for the results. And whilst they have been mourning over failure, their efforts may have been bringing forth fruit which they little thought of. And in the great harvest of the world, many who in this life mourned over a want of success to their efforts will find that their labours were not in vain.—The Study and Pulpit.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1Ki 19:4
1Ki 19:4
I. The wish for death, the weariness of life, is a phenomenon extremely common, and common because it arises from a multitude of causes; but those causes all run up into this, that, as Scripture expresses it, "man is born to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward." Rebuke this feeling as you will, you must deal with it as a fact, and as an experience of human life. The sense of failure, the conviction that the evils around us are stronger than we can grapple with, the apparent non-atonement for the intolerable wrong—there are hours when, under the incidents of these trials, even the noblest Christian finds it hard to keep his faith strong and his hope unclouded. Take any man who has spoken words of burning faithfulness, or done deeds of high courage in a mean and lying world, and the chances are that his life’s story was clouded by failure or closed in martyrdom.
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II. In this chapter we have God’s own gracious way of dealing with this sad but far from uncommon despondency. Elijah had fled into the wilderness, flung himself down under a juniper-tree, and requested that he might die. How gently and with what Divine compassion did God deal with his despair! He spread for Elijah a table in the wilderness, and helped him forward on his way; only then, when his bodily powers had been renewed, when his faith had been strengthened, does the question come, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The vision and the still small voice may have brought home to the heart of Elijah one reason at least why he had failed. He had tried taunts and violence in the cause of God; he had seized Heaven’s sword of retribution, and made it red with human blood. He had not learned that violence is hateful to God; he had to be taught that Elijah’s spirit is very different from Christ’s spirit. And when God has taught him this lesson, He then gives him His message and His consolation. The message is "Go, do My work again;" the consolation is "Things are not so bad as to human eyes they seem."
III. Those who suffer from despondency should: (1) look well to see whether the causes of their failure and their sorrow arc not removable; (2) embrace the truth that when they have honestly done their best, then the success or the failure of their work is not in their own hands. Work is man’s; results are God’s.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 305.
I. Elijah’s despondency was partly physical; it was his bodily weariness and discomfort that reacted upon his soul. The practical lesson from this is, that a believer ought, for his soul’s comfort and profit, to obey God’s material laws; that, for our soul’s sakes, it becomes us to care for our bodies. We are to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are His.
II. A second cause of Elijah’s despondency doubtless was that his occupation was gone. The same cause tends to much of the religious despondency that exists among ourselves. It is wonderful how hard work will cheer and brighten all our thoughts and views.
III. A third cause which conduced to Elijah’s despondency, and which conduces to the despondency of Christians still, is the sense of failure, the feeling that, having done our very best, we have failed in our work after all.
IV. A fourth cause of despondency peculiar to the Christian is the sense of backsliding, the feeling that he is going further from God, and that the graces of the Spirit are languishing and dying. The real reason of the disquiet and depression of many hearts is that they are not right with God; they have never truly and heartily believed in Jesus Christ. Get the great central stay made firm and strong, and all will be well; but if the key-stone of the arch be wrong, or even doubtful, then all is amiss. The great step towards trusting all to God as your Father is to be really persuaded that God is your Father, and that you are of their number to whom He has promised that "all things shall work together" for their true good.
A. K. H. B., Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church, p. 259.
References: 1Ki 19:4.—Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 63; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 73; E. Monro, Practical Sermons on the Old Testament, vol. 1., p. 503; G. Calthrop, Temptation of Christ, p. 162; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 79; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 140; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 476; G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 334. 1Ki 19:5.—Ibid., vol. xxxi.,p. 36. 1Ki 19:5-9.—J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 159. 1Ki 19:7.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Lent to Passiontide, p. 149.
1Ki 19:8
I. It was no wonder that after such a day as that on Carmel, so glorious and so exciting, there should be a violent reaction affecting the whole system of a man. It was no wonder that the mind of Elijah should be greatly discouraged because the instant result of the miraculous fire had not been the conversion, if not of the whole nation, yet at least of thousands of the people, to the true God. He was in circumstances the most depressing; he was alone, many miles away by himself, in the great white desert. His own conscience was reproving him for what he had done and was doing, and it may be that he was harassed and tempted by evil spirits. We have all felt the parallel in our own hearts. The very best men, the most earnest and most useful Christians, are liable to such times of deep depression.
II. The spiritual food which God gave Elijah answers to truth, the true and real in everything. It is a strange alchemy, but it is a literal fact, that the grace of God in the heart can turn stones to bread. There is an idea, a lesson, a picture, a caution, a comfort everywhere.
III. God has enshrined all truth in Christ. He is the true and living Bread, which is the "life of the world." We must appropriate this food, and we shall go in the strength of it many days.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 15th series, p. 77.
References: 1Ki 19:8.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 279; E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 261. 1Ki 19:9.—W. Drake, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 81; A. Mursell, Lights and Landmarks, p. 147; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 52; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 1st series, No. x. 1Ki 19:9-13.—J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 171. 1Ki 19:10.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 373; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 87. 1Ki 19:11.—G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 362.
1Ki 19:11-12
In the wilderness God taught Elijah a lesson which was quite new to him, and which is a lesson for all time. He taught him that if it were His good pleasure to restore His worship among the apostate Israelites, it would not be by earthquake or fire, but by the gentle influence of His Spirit, and by that voice of His which gently, but so that all can hear who will, speaks to every man born into the world.
I. It is almost necessarily incident to the human mind to take views of things and to plan schemes different from those which God’s wisdom approves. At the first blush of the thing the dealings of God with mankind, as we read them in the Old Testament, are very different from what we should have expected them to be. God is not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still small voice, and that voice which spoke so gently in the time of our Saviour has been far more powerful than any wind, or earthquake, or fire could have been; the birth, and life, and death of our Saviour speak now as distinctly as ever. His Church which He founded has flourished, and now we thankfully acknowledge that God’s ways are best, although His ways are not as ours, nor His thoughts like ours.
II. In the lesser dealings of God with His Church and with ourselves the same rule is found true. Man’s ways are noisy, blustering, rude; those of God are quiet, gentle, still. In the Sacraments, in slight afflictions, in conscience, God speaks to man in His still small voice; our duty is to listen to its warnings, and see that we obey it. If we will not follow the guidance of His voice, the storm, the earthquake, and the fire may frighten us, but they can never make us holy.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 1st series, p. 178.
References: 1Ki 19:11, 1Ki 19:12.—J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 367; A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 314; H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines of Sermons for Parochial Use, vol. i., p. 363; J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, Nos. 69 and 70; W. Nicholson, Redeeming the Time, p. 198.
1Ki 19:11-13
I. It was a strange work to which Elijah was called when he was bidden to defy the king of his land, to mock the priests of Baal in their high places, and finally to destroy four hundred of them. The glory of the service consisted in this, that it was the victory of weakness over strength, a sign how poor and trumpery all visible power is when it comes into conflict with the invisible. But he who has a commission to declare this truth to the world may be himself in the greatest danger of forgetting it; nay, the very power which has been given him for this end may tempt him to forget it. And therefore it is mercifully ordained that after such efforts, and before the pride which succeeds them is ripened, there should come a kind of stupor over the spirit of the man who was lately lifted so high. Elijah finds how little the recollection of a great achievement can sustain him; he is no better than his fathers, though the fire has come down at his call, and though he has slain four hundred priests.
II. His discipline is a most gracious one. He is taught what power is not, and what it is; he is cured of his craving for that power which shall rend rocks in pieces, and he is taught to prize his weakness; he is shown what kind of strength it is which might come forth through that weakness to move his fellow-men. We also need to have this truth driven home to our hearts. Christ’s servants must be taught to hear the still small voice saying to them, "This is the way; walk ye in it," by the experience of their own ignorance, and confusion, and self-will; they must learn that the quietest means are the mightiest, that gentle and loving acts are the best witnesses for the God of love.
F. D. Maurice, Practical Sermons, p. 447.
Elijah is a true type of the heroes of the theocracy. In a time of degradation, of universal idolatry, he was possessed with the thought of the glory of God. His temptation was the temptation of great souls—souls whom the thirst for righteousness and holiness consumes. Like all ardent men, Elijah passes from one extreme to the other; discouragement seizes him; his faith is obscured; God forsakes him, the ways of the Almighty are incomprehensible to him, and he charges God with forgetting His cause. The storm, the earthquake, the fire-was it not this that Elijah had asked when he reproached the Lord for His inaction and His incomprehensible silence? He sees the storm, he trembles, and the Lord is not there. In the soft, low sound he recognises the presence of God; and covering his head with his mantle, he bows himself and worships. From this scene we may draw the following instructions:—
I. Let us learn not to judge the Almighty. Often the delays of God astonish us. His silence appears to us inexplicable. Let us remember that the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God; and to overcome evil, let us imitate that Divine Providence which, while able to subdue by force, aims above all to triumph by love.
II. We have here also a thought of consolation. Love is the final and supreme explanation of all that God has done in the history of humanity and in our own history, love and not anger, love and not vengeance, however our heart at times may have thought it.
III. Elijah was told to return to the post and the mission which he should never have deserted. Let us also return to the post of duty, bringing to it a revived faith, a brighter hope, a stronger and more persevering love.
E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 244.
1Ki 19:12
Most of us make a mistake as to the way in which we expect God to speak to us. We look to find it in something great and magnificent. We should like to be spoken to by a prodigy.
But God is too great to do that. He does all His works in the simplest manner possible; therefore He speaks to us by the "still small voice."
I. It very often pleases God to make use of external displays of His power to make way for the working of His grace; only He is jealous to show that these external circumstances are never themselves the grace. We would not underrate the wild prelude that ushers in the harmony. God delights to write out His love in the background of His terrors.
II. We speak of men as being "converted by a sermon." We speak of men being "changed by affliction." Yet the sermon or affliction was no more than the outward scaffolding. It was the "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit’s influence that brought the men to God. Without that all is silent as the winds of yesterday.
III. Jesus Christ was God’s "still small voice" when, in His human garb, He walked the plains of Galilee, and declared His Father’s glory and His Father’s will. Despised in His littleness, that "voice" was, nevertheless, the great power of Jehovah’; and calm as were those loving lips, they uttered the mandates that all worlds obeyed.
IV. Whenever the question arises in our minds, "Is God speaking to me?" we may be perfectly sure by that sign that the "still small voice" is at work. Such a voice is not very likely to be heard in the din and noise of life. In secret places, tranquil hours, such visits may be expected. When Elijah heard the voice, he "wrapped his face in his mantle"—confession of sin—and "went out and stood in the entering in of the cave"—a position of expectation.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 143.
There are three respects in which the lesson of this passage may be helpful to us in these days.
I. It reminds us that in the order of God’s government the quietest influence is often the most powerful.
II. It reminds us that the force of love is always greater than that of sternness.
III. It reminds us that the apparently insignificant is oftentimes really the most important.
W. M. Taylor, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 105.
References: 1Ki 19:12.—J. Macnaught, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 122; D. G. Watt, Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 267. 1Ki 19:12, 1Ki 19:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1668.
1Ki 19:12-16
I. Consider the character of Elisha. He is not a dwarfed and flaccid Elijah. The "still small voice" of which we read just before his call is the emblem of the younger prophet. Gentleness is his characteristic help, and deliverance and salvation are his work. His very name signifies "God’s salvation." He is no cloistered ascetic, no head of the Carmelite brothers, no monk of the Old Testament. In Elisha the practical and the contemplative are most exquisitely balanced. He pauses in the Shunammite’s house, as if he loved to hear the stream of family life rippling beside him and to feel its spray upon his face. His character is full of the most refined humanity.
II. Consider the messages to this age which are conveyed in Elisha’s message to his own age. (1) The first, and not the least important, of these is directly connected with his prophetic office. The prophet is the interpreter of God, the solemn witness against wrong, the remembrancer of right. The modern statesman claims to be the exponent of the popular will, and thus to enjoy the privilege of being always on the winning side.
But the prophet of old is the stern opponent of popular or royal will, and is always for a time on the losing side. (2) The other lessons which Elisha teaches are: (a) a warning against the spirit of mockery so prevalent among the young; (b) a warning against the spirit of irregularity in religion; (c) a warning against the opposite spirit of formality; (d) a warning against overaddition to old modes of conveying religious truth; (e) a warning against trusting in new and sublimated forms of Christian thought.
III. No single type fully represents Christ. But all these isolated types of moral beauty, of king, or priest, or prophet, find their centre in the incarnate God.
Bishop Alexander, Oxford Lent Sermons, 1869, p. 137.
1Ki 19:13
It has been more than once observed that some of the men who, as we say, most distinctly leave a mark on their age, are liable to great changes of spirits, alternating between buoyant enthusiasm and something like despair. The great effort which rivets the attention of the world, which perhaps gives an impression of extraordinary strength and capacity, is often dearly purchased by succeeding hours of depression and weakness. So great was Elijah’s power both over man and nature, that in after-ages his countrymen came to regard him as an almost preternatural personage, whose conduct was not a precedent for, or an example of, that of ordinary men. St. James prefaces his argument by what might seem to us a very obvious and trite remark, but it was a remark which was by no means unneeded by St. James’s first readers. He says that "Elias was a man subject to like passions with ourselves." Elijah, he means, had his share of impulse and of weakness, and therefore the power of his prayers is an encouragement to others than himself.
I. In deep depression, after a journey of forty days, Elijah reached the sacred mountain, the very scene of the great revelation of Moses. There the word of the Lord came to him, and the Lord said to him, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" To the question Elijah could not but reply. It was, so it seemed to the prophet, his zeal for the cause of God, it was his tragic despair, it was his isolation, it was his crushing sense of impotence and failure, which had brought him thus to Horeb. His answer is neither accepted nor rejected; it is passed by significantly without a word of approval or rebuke.
II. "The Lord passed by" before Elijah on the mountainside. In physical impulse, in convulsive terror, in the white heat of emotion dealing with sacred things, we may ask for God in vain, but when conscience speaks clearly we may be sure of His presence. Conscience is His inward message, and in its quiet whisper we listen to an echo from the Infinite and the Unseen.
III. Conscience then repeated the question, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Observe that the motive of Elijah’s despondency was beyond all question unselfish and noble, but in itself his despondency was wrong. He might have remembered that what passes for the moment on earth is no measure of what is determined in heaven; he might have reflected that, while duties are ours, events are God’s. For the moment he had set aside the claim of duty in favour of the indulgence of sentiment.
IV. The directions whispered by the still small voice to the conscience of Elijah involved two principles, (1) Elijah was not to dwell on the abstract aspects of evil; he was to address himself to the practical duties that lay around his path. (2) He was to begin his work with individuals; he was to deal with men one by one. "Anoint Hazael" (the heathen monarch, heathen though he be, has a place in the Divine government of the world). "Make Elisha prophet in thy room. That shall be thy first concern, thy most sacred and imperative duty."
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 97.
References: 1Ki 19:13.—F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 189; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vii., p. 86, and vol. x., p. 342. 1Ki 19:13-18.—J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 187. 1Ki 19:14.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part II., pp. 52, 63. 1Ki 19:15-17.—J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 201. 1Ki 19:15-21.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 1; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 97. 1Ki 19:18.—F. W. Aveling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 36. 1Ki 19:19-21.—W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet, p. 149; J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire, p. 215 H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 593, also Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 353, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 79. 1Ki 19:20.—G. T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 396. 1Ki 19—Parker, vol. viii., p. 41.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 1 Kings
1 Kings
ELIJAH’S WEAKNESS, AND ITS CUBE
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1Ki 19:1 - 1Ki 19:18.
The miracle on Carmel cowed, if it did not convince, Ahab, so that he did not oppose the slaughter of the Baal prophets; but Jezebel was made of sterner stuff, and her passionate idolatry was proof against even a sign from heaven. Obstinacy in error is often a rebuke to tremulous faith in God. She fiercely puts her back to the wall, and defies Elijah and his God. Her threat to the prophet has a certain audacity of frankness almost approaching generosity. She will give her victim fair play. This woman is ‘magnificent in sin.’ The Septuagint prefixes to her oath, ‘As surely as thou art Elijah and I Jezebel,’ which adds force to it. It also reads, by a very slight change in the Hebrew, in 1Ki 19:3, ‘he was afraid,’ for ‘he saw,’-which is possibly right, as giving his motive for escape more distinctly.
I. We may note, first, the prophet’s flight {1Ki 19:3 - 1Ki 19:8}. Beersheba, on the southern border of the kingdom of Judah, was eloquent of memories of the patriarchs, but though it was nearly a hundred miles from Jezreel, Jezebel’s arm was long enough to reach the fugitive there, and therefore he plunged deeper into the dreary southern desert. He left behind him his servant, his ‘young man,’ as the original has it, whom Rabbinical tradition identified with the miraculously resuscitated son of the widow of Zarephath, and supposed to become afterwards the prophet Jonah. Thus alone but for the company of his own gloomy thoughts, and wearied with toilsome travel in the sun-smitten waste, he took shelter under the shadow of a solitary shrub {the Hebrew emphatically calls it ‘one juniper,’ or rather ‘broom-plant’}, and there the waves of depression went over him.
His complaint is not to be wondered at, though it was wrong. The very overstrain of the scene on Carmel brought reaction. The height of the crest of one wave measures the depth of the trough of the next, and no mortal spirit can keep itself at the sublime elevation reached by Elijah when alone he fronted and converted a nation. The supposed necessity for flight, coming so immediately after apparent victory, showed him how hollow the change in the people was. What had become of all the fervency of their shout, ‘The Lord, He is the God!’ if they could leave Jezebel the power to carry out her threat? Solitude and the awful desert increased his gloom. The strong man had become weak, and it was ebb-tide with him. His prayer was petulant, impatient, presumptuous. What right had he to settle what was ‘enough’? If he really wished to die, he could have found death at Jezreel, and had no need to travel a hundred miles to seek a grave. He was weary of his work, and profoundly disappointed by what he hastily concluded was its failure, and in a fit of faithless despondency he forgot reverence, submission, and obedience.
If Elijah can become weak, and his courage die out, and his zeal become torpid apathy and cowardly wish to shuffle off responsibility and shirk work, who shall stand? The lessons of self-distrust, of the nearness to one another of the most opposite emotions in our weak natures, of the depth of gloom into which the boldest and brightest servant of God may fall as soon as he loses hold of God’s hand, never had a more striking instance to point them than that mighty prophet, sitting huddled together in utter despondency below the solitary retem bush, praying his foolish prayer for death.
The meal to which an angel twice waked him was God’s answer to his prayer, telling him both that his life was still needful and that God cared for him. Perhaps one of Elijah’s reasons for taking to the desert was the thought that he might starve there, and so find death. At all events, God for the third time miraculously provides his food. The ravens, the widow of Zarephath, an angel, were his caterers; and, instead of taking away his life, God Himself sends the bread and water to preserve it. The revelation of a watchful, tender Providence often rebukes gloomy unbelief and shames us back to faith. We are not told whether the journey to Horeb was commanded, or, like the flight from Jezreel, was Elijah’s own doing; but, in any case, he must have wandered in the desert, to have taken forty days to reach it.
II. The second stage is the vision at Horeb {1Ki 19:9 - 1Ki 19:14}. The history of Israel has never touched Horeb since Moses left it, and it is not without significance that we are once more on that sacred ground. The parallel between Moses and Elijah is very real. These two names stand out above all others in the history of the theocracy, the one as its founder, the other as its restorer; both distinguished by special revelations, both endowed with exceptional force of character and power of the Spirit; the one the lawgiver, the other the head of the prophetic order; both having something peculiar in their departure, and both standing together, in witness of their supremacy in the past, and of their inferiority in the future, by Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. The associations of the place are marked by the use of the definite article, which is missed in the Authorised Version,-’the cave,’ that same cleft in the rock where Moses had stood. Note, too, that the word rendered ‘lodged’ is literally ‘passed the night,’ and that therefore we may suppose that the vision came to Elijah in the darkness.
That question, ‘What doest thou here?’ can scarcely be freed from a tone of rebuke; but, like Christ’s to the travellers to Emmaus, and many another interrogation from God, it is also put in order to allow of the loaded heart’s relieving itself by pouring out all its griefs. God’s questions are the assurance of His listening ear and sympathising heart. This one is like a little key which opens a great sluice. Out gushes a full stream. His forty days’ solitude have done little for him. A true answer would have been, ‘I was afraid of Jezebel.’ He takes credit for zeal, and seems to insinuate that he had been more zealous for God than God had been for Himself. He forgets the national acknowledgment of Jehovah at Carmel, and the hundred prophets protected by good Obadiah. Despondency has the knack of picking its facts. It is colour-blind, and can only see dark tints. He accuses his countrymen, as if he would stir up God to take vengeance.
How different this weak and sinful wail over his solitude from the heroic mention of it on Carmel, when it only nerved his courage I {verse 22}. The divine manifestation which followed is evidently meant to recall that granted to Moses on the same spot. ‘The Lord passed by’ is all but verbally quoted from Exo 34:6, and the truth that had been proclaimed in words to Moses was enforced by symbol to Elijah. If the vision was in the night, as 1Ki 19:9 suggests, it becomes still more impressive. The fierce wind that roared among the savage peaks, the shock that made the mountains reel, and the flashing flames that lighted up the wild landscape, were all phenomena of one kind, and at once expressed God’s lordship over all destructive agencies of nature, and symbolised the more vehement and disturbing forms of energy, used by Him for the furtherance of His purposes in the field of history or of revelation. Elijah’s ministry was of such a sort, and he had now to learn the limitations of his work, and the superiority of another type, represented by the ‘sound of gentle stillness.’
It is the same lesson which Moses learned there, when he heard that the Lord is ‘a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth.’ It was exemplified in the gentle Elisha, the successor of Elijah. It reached far beyond the time then present, and was indeed a Messianic prophecy, declaring the inmost character of Him in whom ‘the Lord is,’ in an altogether special sense. Elijah as a prophet brought no new knowledge, and uttered no far-reaching predictions; but he received one of the deepest and clearest prophecies of the gentleness of God’s highest Messenger, and on Horeb saw afar off what he saw fulfilled on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Nor is his vision exhausted by its Messianic reference. It contains an eternal truth for all God’s servants. Storm, earthquake, and fire may be God’s precursors, and needed sometimes to prepare His way; but gentleness is ‘the habitation of His throne,’ and they serve Him best, and are nearest Him whom they serve, who are meek in heart and gentle among enemies, ‘as a nurse cherisheth her children.’ Love is the victor, and the sharpest weapons of the Christian are love and lowliness.
The lesson was not at first grasped by Elijah, as his repetition of his complaint, word for word, with almost dogged obstinacy, shows. The best of us are slow to learn God’s lessons, and a habit of faithless gloom is not soon overcome. It is much easier to get down into the pit than to struggle out of it.
III. The commission for further service, which closes the scene, is a further rebuke to the prophet. He is bidden to retrace his way and to take refuge in the desert lying to the south and east of Damascus, where he would be safe from Jezebel, and still not far from the scene of his activity. The instructions given to anoint a king of Syria and one of Israel were not fulfilled by Elijah, but by his successor; and we have to suppose that further commands were given to him on that subject. The third injunction, to anoint his successor, was obeyed at once on his journey, though Ahelmeholah, on Gilboa, was dangerously near Jezreel. The designation of these future instruments of God’s purpose was at once a sign to Elijah that his own task was drawing to a close {having reached its climax on Carmel}, and that God had great designs beyond him and his service. The true conception of our work is that we sire only links in a chain, and that we can be done without. ‘God removes the workers and carries on the work.’ To anoint our successor is often a bitter pill; but self-importance needs to be taken down, and it is blessed to lose ourselves in gazing into the future of God’s work, when we are gone from the field.
Further, the commissions met Elijah’s despondency in another way; for they assured him of the divine judgments on the house of Ahab, and of the use of the Syrian king as a rod to chastise Israel. He had thought God too slow in avenging His dishonoured name, and had been taught the might of gentleness; but now he also learns the certainty of punishment, while the enigmatical promise that Elisha should ‘slay’ those who escaped the swords of Hazael and Jehu dimly points to the merciful energy of that prophet’s word, his only sword, which shall slay but to revive, and wound to heal. ‘I have hewed them by the . . . words of my mouth.’
Finally, the revelation of the seven thousand-a round number, which expresses the sacredness as well as the numerousness of the elect, hidden ones-rebukes the hasty assumption of his being left alone, ‘faithful among the faithless.’ God has more servants than we know of. Let us beware of feeding either our self-righteousness or our narrowness or our faint-heartedness with the fancy that we have a monopoly of faithfulness, or are left alone to witness for God.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Elijah at Horeb
Elijah at Horeb
2. Then Jezebel sent, etc.] Her religious feelings as a votary of Baal and her dignity as the queen had both been outraged by the prophet, and she at once sought revenge.
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3. And when he saw that, etc.] In men of impetuous disposition displays of fiery courage often alternate with moods of despondency. Elijah's character resembled that of St. Peter, who first struck a blow in defence of his Master and then denied Him (Joh_18:10, Joh_18:15).
Beer-sheba] within the territory of the tribe of Judah, but assigned to Simeon (Jos_15:28; Jos_19:2). It was a sanctuary in the time of Amos, and may have been the same in the time of Elijah.
4. Into the wilderness] Since the king of Judah was an ally of Ahab, the prophet did not consider himself safe from Jezebel's fury until he was beyond Judaaan territory. A jumper tree] a kind of broom, with purplish white flowers, that grows to the height of 10 or 12 ft. Requested.. might die] The nervous tension caused by the scene on Carmel was now succeeded by reaction and exhaustion. Elijah felt that he had been no more successful in checking the nation's apostasy than the prophets who had been before him.
6. Coals] perhaps stones heated by a fire of wood, kindled with twigs of broom: cp. Psa_120:4.
8. Horeb] i.e. Sinai. The forty days and forty nights are not to be taken as a measure of the distance of Horeb from the prophet's starting-point (1Ki_19:3-4), for this (about 180 m.) could be traversed in a much shorter time, but are meant to associate Elijah with Moses (see Exo_24:18; Deu_9:11, Deu_9:18). In solitary communion with God, such as Moses had enjoyed, the prophet would recover his fortitude. The mount of God] cp. Exodus 31. Horeb had probably been a sanctuary even before Moses' time.
10. Thine altars.. thy prophets] cp. 1Ki_18:30, 1Ki_18:13.
11. The Lord passed by] All the experiences here described formed part of a single manifestation of the divine presence, but the earlier stages did not reveal God in the same degree as the last. Elsewhere in the OT. wind, fire, and earthquake are frequent accompaniments of a Theophany: see Exo_19:18; Psa_18:7-13; Psa_97:3-5; 2Sa_5:24; Job_38:1; Eze_1:4.
12. A still small voice] cp. Job_4:16. The LXX renders, 'the sound of a gentle breeze' The hurricane, the earthquake, the lightning, were all tokens and agencies of God, but none disclosed Him so convincingly as the peaceful calm that followed the tempest. It awakened, and blended with, the prophet's conscience; and he thus came to realise the true value of patience and forbearance in the furtherance of the divine purposes, as compared with the violence which he himself had displayed in his conflict with idolatry (1Ki_18:40).
13. He wrapped his face in his mantle] in awe at the near presence of God. Moses similarly hid his face when God addressed him out of the bush (Exo_3:6).
14. I have been very jealous] The prophet, as yet unsubdued by the influences of the scene, returned the same indignant answer as before (1Ki_19:10).
15. The wilderness of Damascus] i.e. the Syrian desert in which D. is situated. Anoint] not used in a strict sense, since neither Hazael nor Elisha is described as having been anointed, whilst Jehu was anointed not by Elijah but by a young prophet commissioned by Elisha (2 Kings 9). The lesson which the direction given to Elijah in this v. conveyed was that he still had work to do even though he might not see the issue of it. He was not to relinquish it as he had desired (1Ki_19:4), just because he was himself unsuccessful, but was to transmit it to others, and so pave the way for success in the distant future. Hazael] see 2Ki_8:8.
16. Jehu the son of Nimshi] He was really son of Jehoshaphat and grandson of Nimshi (2Ki_9:2).
17. The sword of Hazael] For the calamities brought on Israel by Hazael see 2Ki_10:32. The sword of Jehu] For the destruction of the house of Ahab by Jehu see 2 Kings 9, 10. Shall Elisha slay] doubtless through the agency of others. The prophets are frequently described as effecting what they enjoin or announce (Hos_6:5; Jer_1:10).
18. I have left] better, 'I will leave' Elijah was mistaken in thinking that he was the only survivor of the Lord's loyal servants. Jehovah's cause' was not desperate because His prophet had fled from the field of conflict.
Kissed him] For this as an act of devotion see Hos_13:2. In Job_31:26-27 sun-worshippers are described as kissing their hand to the object of their adoration.
19. With twelve yoke] Elijah himself guided only one 'yoke' (or pair), the remaining eleven being in charge of his servants. His mantle] A hairy mantle was the characteristic garb of the prophets (Zec_13:4).
20. What have I done to thee?] whatever sacrifice was involved in the prophetic call was to be made ungrudgingly. Elijah, like our Lord, would have no half-hearted service: cp. Luk_9:59-62.
21. The instruments of the oxen] The wooden yoke and the framework of the plough served as fuel: cp. 2Sa_24:22.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 3. Elijah in the Wilderness and upon Mount Horeb
3. Elijah in the Wilderness and upon Mount Horeb
CHAPTER 19
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1. Elijah’s flight and despondency (1Ki 19:1-8)
2. Upon Mount Horeb (1Ki 19:9-18)
3. Elisha called (1Ki 19:10-21)
Elijah perhaps stopped at the very door of the palace where wicked Jezebel dwelt. He would remain with Ahab to the very last before he went in to face the queen. Should not Elijah have remained and gone even before Jezebel to bear his testimony? Instead he becomes terrified of wicked Jezebel. Had he hoped that what had taken place on Carmel would result in bringing not alone Ahab back to Jehovah, but also influence Jezebel? If such was his expectation he must have been bitterly disappointed. Jezebel seeks to kill him and he flees for his life. All what follows is the result of unbelief. This verifies James’ statement in his Epistle: “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are.” Then in despair and unbelief he requested to die. He is altogether occupied with himself and did not look to God. Instead of seeking the wilderness, his training school, to pour out his heart before God, to get new strength in communion with the Lord, “he requested for himself that he might die.”
“The heart of Elijah and the hand of God led the prophet into the wilderness, where, overwhelmed perhaps, yet precious in Jehovah’s sight, he will be alone with God. Elijah’s forty days journey in the wilderness has only a partial resemblance to the forty days which Moses spent with God, in the same Horeb to which the prophet was going, or to those which Jesus spent in the wilderness for conflict with the enemy of God and man. In the two latter cases nature was set aside. Neither Moses nor the Lord ate or drank. As for Elijah, the goodness of God sustains the weakness of tried nature, makes manifest that He considers it with all tenderness and thoughtfulness, and gives the strength needed for such a journey. This should have touched him, and made him feel what he ought to be in the midst of the people, since he had to do with such a God. His heart was far from such a state. Impossible, when we think of ourselves, to be witnesses to others of what God is! Our poor hearts are too far from such a position” (Synopsis of the Bible).
In Mount Horeb the Lord spoke to him: “What doest thou here, Elijah?” It was the gentle rebuke of a loving God. He was not in the place where the Lord wanted him as His servant. It is a great contrast--Elijah on Mount Carmel and Elijah on Mount Horeb in a cave. On Carmel he stands the man of faith, filled with a holy zeal for Jehovah. On Horeb hidden in the cave because he fled from Jezebel. And how many children of God may learn something from this question: “What doest thou here?” They are drifting into the world while others have left the sphere of service into which the Lord called them. And Elijah’s answer shows his self occupation. It is what he had done; what he was and the threatening danger to lose his life. But that danger was far greater when they searched countrywide for him and when the Lord preserved his life by the ministry of the ravens and by the widow-woman.
His answer has in it the spirit of bitterness and accusation. Then the Lord passed by. The storm, the earthquake and the fire preceded His coming; these are always connected with Jehovah’s presence and manifestation. Then came “a still small voice” Elijah knew so well. He wrapped his face in his mantle and then he answered the question once more, but in an humbled spirit. He receives the commission to anoint Hazael, King of Syria; Jehu (Jehovah is he), the son of Nimshi (Jehovah reveals), he is to anoint King of Israel and Elisha is to be his successor. All three are called as instruments of judgment upon Israel’s idolatry and the house of Ahab. Then the Lord announced that He had a faithful remnant of 7000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. (See its prophetic meaning in Rom 11:3-6.)
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Elijah Flees before Jezebel
Elijah Flees before Jezebel
v. 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. He was bound to give her a report of all that had transpired, and his heart undoubtedly had to sanction the execution which had taken place.
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v. 2. Then Jezebel, lashed to fury by this turn of events, sent a messenger unto Eujah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. She did not dare to have him put to death outright, and would probably not have carried out her threat, on account of the attitude of the people, but she hoped to get rid of the prophet by this scheme.
v. 3. And when he saw that, when he noted the conditions in the northern kingdom and the unchanging hatred of Jezebel, which seemed to make all further attempts useless, he arose and went for his life, commending his soul to his God and Lord, that he might be secure in His protection, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, on its extreme southern boundary, and left his servant there, since he intended to be entirely alone in the wilderness with his God.
v. 4. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, the northern Arabian Desert, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree, a furze-bush or broom-plant, abundant in beds of streams; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. He felt that he had lived long enough, that he had done his duty; he was tired of his prophetic office and longed for rest.
v. 5. And as he lay and slept under a juniper-tree, under the furze-bush which he had sought, behold, then an Angel, the special Messenger of God, touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
v. 6. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake, one of the usual small bread-cakes, baken on the coals, on the heated stones, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again, overcome by his great weariness.
v. 7. And the Angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, for he had not finished his meal, because the journey is too great for thee, namely, the trip which the Lord had in mind for him.
v. 8. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat, food which had been given supernatural powers of sustaining strength, forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. Like Moses before him, he was miraculously preserved by God. Note: It happens time and again that faithful pastors become weary and distressed when they see that their earnest labors bring so little fruit. But God always has strength for them in His Word and in the power of His Spirit.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 So may the gods do to me, and more…
So may the gods do to me, and more also
This is a comparison used as an emphatic oath. "May the gods kill me and do even more bad things"
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if I do not make your life like the life of one of those dead prophets
"if I do not kill you like you killed those prophets"
he arose
"he stood up"
translationWords
Ahab
Jezebel
Elijah
prophet
sword
send
messenger
false god
life
die
Beersheba
kingdom of Judah
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2–3 19:2 Speaking a curse, Jezebel reinforced her threat to…
19:2 Speaking a curse, Jezebel reinforced her threat to kill Elijah within a day. Solomon had made a similar declaration regarding his half-brother Adonijah (2:23), and the king of Aram later issued an edict against Elisha with the same formula (2 Kgs 6:31). Jezebel acted with cold-blooded resolve to accomplish her purposes (1 Kgs 21:5-15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.