Dear Friends,

Today’s devotional contains notes on two of the most powerful chapters in I Kings. Chapter 18 shows God’s great power; chapter 19 shows His great tenderness. As you study I pray you will be blessed.

Because of Calvary,

John Janney                                                                                                                                                           Grace Bible Fellowship Church

Adult SS Elective: I Kings 18:1-19:21                                                                                                                                              May 15, 2016

  c. The Idol Exposed (18:1-46)

                    i.   Obadiah Meets Elijah (18:1-16)

“There had been some three years of no dew, no rain. Bad…for Baal and his alleged fertility. Now…Yahweh, the real and only fertility God, has determined to send rain (18:1). …But he dare not do it just yet…. For three years now people realized that Baal had a massive case of impotence, but had Yahweh simply given rain again, they would have blabbered about how Baal had ‘recovered’… So, before it was safe for Yahweh to send rain, Baal must be discredited — clearly, publicly, obviously, decisively…. After Baal is exposed as a non-god, no one with a clear head should think the rain comes from him….

“Verses 1-2 strike the keynote of the chapter: Yahweh will send rain — which he does in verses 41-46. But most of the chapter rehearses the prelude to that…epilogue.” [Davis, p. 229-230]

“Not the third year from the commencement of the drought, but in the third year of his sojourn with the widow. The whole period of drought was three years and a half (Luke iv.25; James v.17): of this, probably about one year was passed by Elijah in the torrent-course of Cherith, which without fresh rains must have dried up in that space, and two years and a half at Sarepta.” [Rawlinson, p. 588]

“It was strange that either he did not reform Ahab or Ahab corrupt him; but it seems they were both fixed; he that was filthy would be filthy still, and he that was holy would be holy still…. God has his remnant among all sorts, high and low; there were saints in Nero’s household, and in Ahab’s.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 522]

“Obadiah has been described as a good man in a bad place” [Dilday, p. 208]. Cf. John 17:15

“The king and Obadiah were searching the country for grass and other foliage that could be used to feed the horses and mules used in the army. Ahab wasn’t especially concerned about the people of the land, but he wanted his army to be strong in case of an invasion.” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary II, p. 472]

“Ahab was worried about grass when he should have been worried about the wrath of God…. People prefer to worry about making a living rather than meeting God.” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 38]

“Elijah met Obadiah on this expedition, and told him to announce his coming to the king.” [Keil, p. 170]

“Ahab, note well, is to come to Elijah.” [Van Groingen, p.  247]

   ii.  Ahab Meets Elijah (18:17-19)

“Contrast the way in which the two men greeted the prophet: Ahab greeted him as ‘you troubler of Israel’ (v.17), but Obadiah addressed him as ‘my lord Elijah’ (v.7).” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 38]

“Ahab greets Elijah as troubler of Israel (17) with the typical obtuseness that cannot see beyond the judgment to its moral cause. Elijah supplies what Ahab omitted…” [Martin, p. 361]

“So he accuses him of ‘troubling Israel’ ― a charge never before brought against any one but Achan (Josh. vii.25), and one which must have called to the prophet’s recollection Achan’s miserable fate.” [Rawlinson, p. 590]

“As a matter of fact, Elijah was no more responsible for the drought than the thermometer is for the temperature.” [Phelps, Human Nature in the Bible, p. 163]

“Instead of quailing before the king’s anger, Elijah meets his charge with a countercharge. ‘I have not troubled Israel, but thou.’ And then, instead of apologies, and pleas for pardon, which Ahab had probably expected, he makes a sudden demand…. There is no passage of Scripture which exhibits more forcibly the ascendancy that a prophet of the Lord, armed only with his spiritual powers, could, if he were firm and brave, exercise over the most powerful and unscrupulous of monarchs.” [Rawlinson, p. 590]

  iii. Baal Meets Jehovah (18:20-46)

“Ahab sent through all Israel and gathered the prophets (of Baal) together upon Mount Carmel. According to vv. 21, 22, and 39, a number of the people (‘all the people’) had also come with them. On the other hand, not only is there no further reference in what follows to the 400 prophets of Asherah (cf. vv. 25 and 40), but in v. 22 it is very obvious that the presence of the 450 prophets of Baal alone is supposed. We must therefore assume that the Asherah prophets, foreboding nothing good, had found a way of evading the command of Ahab and securing the protection of Jezebel King Ahab also appeared upon Carmel (cf. v. 41), as he had no idea of Elijah’s intention, which was…to put before the eyes of the whole nation a convincing practical proof of the sole deity of Jehovah and of the nothingness of the Baals, that were regarded as gods, and by slaying the priests of Baal to give a death-blow to idolatry in Israel.” [Keil, p. 172]

(A)  Jehovah Sends Fire (18:20-40)

“No scene of higher dramatic power is to be found in all the world’s literature.” [B. B. Warfield, Faith and Life, (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1916), p. 7]

“Ahab and the people expected that Elijah would, in this solemn assembly, bless the land, and pray for rain; but he had other work to do first.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 525]

“There, on the parched slopes of that mountain, formerly the garden spot of Palestine, we see them, row after row of these idolatrous priests; apart from them, to show the complete cleavage between faith ad unbelief, stands solitary Elijah; and between them the curious throng, to whom the prophet now speaks these momentous, cutting words, ‘How long halt’ (really ‘limp’) ‘ye between two opinions?’” [Walter A. Maier, Courage in Christ, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941), p. 17]

“Lit. ‘How long leap ye upon two branches?’ a beautiful and poetical allusion to the restlessness of a bird, which remains not long in one position, but is continually hopping from branch to branch.” [Kitto in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary I, p. 897]

“They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, all-powerful for impotence.” [Winston S. Churchill’s Maxims and Reflections selected by Colin Coote and Denzil Batchelor, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1992), p. 176]

“Do you recall this robust saying of an old preacher? ‘The man who does not form an opinion is a sluggard; the man who cannot form an opinion is a fool; the man who will not form an opinion is a coward.’” [Ian MacPherson, Sermon Outlines From Sermon Masters, Old Testament, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966), p. 81]

“In the annals of Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (841 BC) Mount Carmel appears as ‘the mountain of Baal of the promontory.’…and Elijah may have chosen it for that very reason. If Carmel was Baal’s turf (note that Yahweh’s altar there had been pulled down, 18:30), the he had what in contemporary athletics we call ‘home court advantage.’… If Yahweh whips Baal on the latter’s own turf, it will only highlight the supremacy of Yahweh and magnify the impotence of Baal….

“Baal’s prophets tally 450 versus Elijah as Yahweh’s sole representative…. Carmel Day showed that popularity does not determine reality….

“The antics of Baal’s prophets measure very high on the scale of religious fervor. But all that is absent in Elijah. Not that he is not earnest; but he is not frantic. Because he does not need to be….

“Elijah…. orders four jars full of water poured over the sacrifice; in fact, he has it done three times. He then prays that Yahweh will consume his sopping mess (vv. 36-37). Israelites were now witness. They knew wet stuff doesn’t burn. Elijah had stacked the deck against Yahweh, so that when his fire came there could be no other explanation except that it was ‘an act of God.’” [Davis, p. 236-238]

“Elijah does not say, ‘The God that answers by water’ (though that was the thing the country needed), but ‘that answers by fire, let him be God;’ because the atonement was to be made by sacrifice, before the judgment could be removed in mercy. The God therefore that has power to pardon sin, and to signify it by consuming the sin-offering, must needs be the God that can relieve us against the calamity. He that can give fire can give rain; see Matt. 9:2, 6.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 526]

“Elijah took twelve stones, ‘according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come (Gen. 32:29; 35:10), Israel shall be thy name,’ and built these stones into an altar. The twelve stones were a practical declaration on the part of the prophet that the division of the nation into two kingdoms was at variance with the divine calling of Israel, inasmuch as according to the will of God the twelve tribes were to form one people of Jehovah, and to have a common sacrificial altar; whilst the allusion to the fact that Jehovah had given to the forefather of the nation the name of Israel, directs attention to the wrong which the seceding ten tribes had done in claiming the name of Israel for themselves, whereas it really belonged to the whole nation.” [Keil, p. 174]

“Some are perplexed at the lavish use of water on Carmel when drought was so severe. There were some springs on Mt. Carmel, and (should someone want to be difficult) the Mediterranean Sea was not far away.” [Davis, p. 237]

“Elijah’s brief prayer contrasts with the hours of Baal ritual and again involves the ancient covenant…. Answer me, O LORD contrasts with the no answer of v. 29 and the avowed reason is, not his own vindication but so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again…” [Martin, p. 362]

“As the sky was still perfectly clear, this fire cannot have been a flash of lightning. It was altogether, in its nature as well as its opportuneness, miraculous. From the clear blue ether overhead, deepening as the sun declined towards the sea, the whole multitude saw the bright white flame descend ― descend, and in a moment consume everything ― the offering, the wood, the altar, both its stone frame and its earthen center, and also the water that filled the trench.” [Rawlinson, p. 594]

“Through the fire that consumed the sacrifice, God not only revealed Himself as the Almighty who can do all things but also showed once more that He was willing to accept Israel’s offering. The people still had not been rejected.” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 251]

“Elijah availed himself of this enthusiasm of the people for the Lord, to deal a fatal blow at the prophets of Baal, who turned away the people from the living God. He commanded the people to seize them, and had them slain at the brook Kishon…to carry out the fundamental law of the Old Testament kingdom of God, which prohibited idolatry on pain of death, and commanded that false prophets should be destroyed (Deut. 17: 2, 3; 13:13ff.).” [Keil, p. 176]

(B)  Jehovah Sends Rain (18:41-45)

“The…contest on Mt. Carmel….is only the prelude. There Yahweh shows he is the real God, but he must still show he is the giving God, as he promised in verse 1 (‘I will give rain’). This he does in verses 41-46. These verses depict two contrasts and contain two themes. The contrasts are between the king and prophet. In the one Ahab dines while Elijah prays (v. 42); in the other Ahab rides while Elijah runs (vv. 45b-46)…. The passage breaks down into two sections. In the first we enter the school of prayer (vv. 41-45a), and in the second we watch the drama of grace.” [Davis, p. 247]

“‘Lord…you have shown that Baal is nothing, but now, O God, show yourself as the source of rain and life.’ Seven times Elijah prayed for rain… Persevere in prayer…” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 48]

“The men who stand straightest in the presence of sin bow lowest in the presence of God.” [F. B. Meyer in D. L. Moody, One Thousand and One Thoughts From My Library, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n.d.), p. 55]

“…If our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him…, is it necessary that we should present our petitions deliberately before Him? The simplest answer to that question is that we are instructed to do so…. We have a striking elucidation of the working of this Divine law in the case of Elijah…. He had the inward assurance that God’s answer to his…importunity was already on its way — ‘There is a sound of abundance of rain.’ Nevertheless, he did not cease from praying…until the skies grew dark with the gathering storm.” [David M. M’Intyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer, (Glasgow: Drummond’s Tract Depot, Stirling, n.d.), p. 118-119]

“Thus he was an intercessor for the people, just at the Christ is the Intercessor who Himself bore the sins of His people.” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 255]

(C)  Jehovah Gives Strength (18:46)

“Elijah had neither chariots nor retainers to drive them, but he did have the power of the Lord; and he ran ahead of Ahab and reached Jezreel ahead of the king, a distance of about seventeen miles. This was quite a feat for an older man and in itself was another sign to the people that God’s powerful hand was upon His servant.” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary II, p. 474]

                d. The Prophet Encouraged (19:1-21)

“A moment of conscious triumph makes one feel that after this nothing will really matter; a moment of realized disaster makes one feel that this is the end of everything. But neither feeling is realistic, for neither event is really what it is felt to be.” [J. I. Packer in John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), p. 37]

“There are critical times of danger. After great services, honors, and consolations, we should stand upon our guard. Noah — Lot — David — Solomon, fell in these circumstances. Satan is a robber; a robber will not attack a man in going to the Bank, but in returning with his pocket full of money.” [The Works of John Newton I, (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1824], p. 102]

“I have ever found it, when I have thought the battle was over and the conquest gained, and so let down my watch, the enemy has risen up and done me the greatest injury.” [David Brainerd in Marcus L. Loane, They Were Pilgrims, (Sidney, Australia: Angus and Robertson, 1970), p. 32]

“Samuel Chadwick summed up the wise attitude…in these cryptic words: ‘If successful don’t crow; if defeated don’t croak.’” [J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), p. 193]

                    i.   Jezebel’s Rage (19:1-2)

“Miracles cannot of themselves soften hard hearts or open eyes — only God can do this. The contest at Mount Carmel had come and gone, but evil remained. Elijah’s victory there was not the definitive defeat of evil — that would only come later at a cross” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 54]. Cf. John 12:57.

“This woman would stop at nothing. She even dared to take on the living God…” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 258]

“Why did Jezebel send a letter to Elijah when she could have sent soldiers and had him killed? He was in Jezreel and the deed could have been easily accomplished on such a wild and stormy night. Jezebel wasn’t only an evil woman; she was also a shrewd strategist… Elijah was now a very popular man. Like Moses, he had brought fire from heaven, and like Moses, he had slain the idolaters (Lev. 9:24; Num 25). If Jezebel transformed the prophet into a martyr, he might influence people more by his death than by his life…. Her letter achieved its purpose and Elijah fled from Jezreel. In a moment of fear, when he forgot all that God had done for him the previous three years, Elijah took his servant, left Israel, and headed for Beersheba, the southernmost city in Judah. Charles Spurgeon said that Elijah ‘retreated before a beaten enemy.’” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary II, p. 476]

“The message took Elijah be surprise.” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 258]

         ii.  Elijah’s Resignation (19:3-4)

“Great faith is not always alike strong.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 529]

“At first we might expect that God’s great victory over Baal…would have turned Israel in a new direction. But Ahab didn’t repent; the people continued to reject God, and Elijah felt alone. But of course he wasn’t alone…” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 51]

“If Elijah became discouraged, then it is clear that he foresaw failure. But he could only foresee failure if his eye was fixed on his own struggle, God’s cause never fails!” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 257]

“You are required to be faithful, but you are not bound to be successful. You are to teach, but you cannot compel people to learn. You are to make things plain, but you cannot give carnal men an understanding of spiritual things. We are not the Father, nor the Savior, nor the Comforter of the Church. We cannot take the responsibility of the universe upon our shoulders…. Now, I do not want you to get away from feeling a due measure of responsibility; but then you are not God, and you do not stand in God’s place; you are not the rulers of providence, and you have not been elected sole managers of the covenant of grace; therefore do not act as if you were.” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry, (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1890), p. 214-215]

“He wanted to die, for he was broken. He did not wish to die at Jezebel’s hand, for that would be judged her victory — hence his flight. But south of the proverbial southernmost city of the southern kingdom, in the wilderness of Judah, where none would give Jezebel credit for his death — there he begged Yahweh to take his life.” [Ronald Barclay Allen, “Elijah the Broken Prophet,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 22, (1979), p. 200]

“When he wished he might die (v. 4) God answered him not according to his folly, but was so far from letting him die that he not only kept him alive then, but provided that he should never die, but be translated.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 530]

   “I Kings 19 teaches you that you needn’t fear being a broken servant when you have such a kind and adequate God.” [Davis, p. 275]

Elijah went ‘south, the opposite direction of Baal’s dwelling (Mount Zaphon), to the place where the nation of Israel was born when God entered into covenant with those who had left Egypt….  Moses had also experienced the power of God on a mountain, only to find idolatry under way when he came down (Ex. 32). Through Moses, God had provided food and water for Israel during her forty years in the wilderness (ex. 17; Num 11; 20), and now he provides Elijah with food and water that will carry him for forty days (1 Kings 19:18). Moses had encountered God on Mount Sinai, and now God leads Elijah to that same place. There Elijah, like Moses would experience the presence of God in the wind, earthquake and fire (Ex. 19:16-19)…. On that same mountain, God passed by both men (Ex. 33:19,11; 1 Kings 19:11), and both avoided looking at God (Ex. 33:22-23; 1 Kings 19:13). Both were sent back to their tasks, their commissions to serve God renewed (Ex. 33:12-14; 1 Kings 19:11). Both Moses and Elijah complained that they had had enough and asked God to take their lives (Num. 11:15; 1 Kings 19:4; cf. Ex. 32:32), and God appointed prophets as help for each (Num. 11:16-17, 25; 1 Kings 19:16-17).” [Dillard, Faith in the Face of Apostasy, p. 54-55]

      iii. Jehovah’s Revelation (19:5-18)

(A)  God Reveals His Heart (19:5-8)

“How fortunate that God does not leave us alone when we are in despair!” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 259]

(I) He let Elijah rest (19:5)

“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”                          [Shakespeare, Macbeth II.ii.36]

      (II) He sent Elijah food (9:5-8)

“He asked for death, and for an answer received food — the best possible answer to such a request.”  [Phelps, Human Nature in the Bible, p. 165]

(B)  God Reveals His Plan (19:9-18)

“There is always the tendency, in a faithful man of God in dark days, (a tendency diligently cultivated by the devil!) to imagine himself alone. So he hunts the solitude befitting his imagined solitariness. But the voice of God came to Elijah, ‘What dost thou here?’ Embarrassing question, that!” [William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1938), p. 411]

“‘What are you doing here?’ is intended to make Elijah fully aware of who he is, where he is, why he is there, what brought him there, and that it is the Lord who is in charge of his life and work.” [Van Groingen, p. 248]

(I)  By Power (19:9-12)

“Certainly the prophet must have thought of the giving of the law as he witnessed this dramatic display of power (Ex. 19:16-18).” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary II, p. 479]

“Catastrophe has little power to cure…. Miami was once almost leveled by a tempest, but Miami is not a mecca of saints. San Francisco was shaken and broken by an earthquake, but San Francisco is not the ‘Golden Gate’ to heaven. Chicago was partly demolished by fire, but not purified of dross.” [George Arthur Buttrick, “The Sound of Silence,” The Protestant Pulpit edited by Andrew W. Blackwood, (New York: Abingdon Press, 1947), p. 181] Cf. Genesis 8:21

(II. By Grace (19:13-18)

“The raging fire, the roaring wind,

Thy boundless power display;

But in the gentler breeze we find

The Spirit’s viewless way.

The dew of heaven is like Thy grace,

It steals in silence down;

But where it lights the favored place

By richest fruits is known.”

[John Keble]

“Dr. J. Oswald Sanders states that ‘the whispers from Calvary are infinitely more potent that the thunder of Sinai in bringing men to repentance.’”’” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary II, p. 480]

“Elijah claims he is upset for God’s sake, for God’s cause. The Hebrew underscores this by placing emphasis on the direct objects, especially ‘your altars’ and ‘your prophets.’… It sounds like Elijah is charging Israel with apostasy rather than crying over a failed ministry.” [Davis, p. 265-266]

“He had often been…their advocate, but now he is…their prosecutor.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, p. 531]

“Is he depressed? Is he despondent? I think so. Over what? Over Yahweh’s interests — his covenant, his altars, his prophets. Such intensity and God-centeredness seem strange to us; indeed it exposes our frivolity by comparison.” [Davis, p. 273]

“Could you or I earnestly say such words? Do we really care that much about the infidelity of the professing church? Do its doctrinal indifference and idolatrous pragmatism ever get us upset for God’s sake?” [Davis, p. 273]

“If Elijah became discouraged, then it is clear that he foresaw failure. But he could only foresee failure if his eye was fixed on his own struggle. God’s cause never fails!” [De Graff, Promise and Deliverance II, p. 257]

“The answer is not what we should have expected. It is neither a justification of the ways of God, nor a direct reproof of the prophet’s weakness and despondency. Far less is it an explanation or application of the preceding parable…. He is simply directed back into the path of practical duty. The first words he hears are, ‘Go, return.’ These teach him that his withdrawal has been wrong, that his mission is not yet over, that there is still work for him to do.” [Rawlinson, p. 599-600]

    iv. Elijah’s Repentance (19:19-21)

“Elijah proceeds at once to execute one of his missions ― the simplest and the easiest of the three…. Perhaps after many years of solitude he yearned for companionship, and was glad, as he approached old age, to have one who would be to him what Joshua was to Moses, at once a ‘minister’ (see verse 21 ad. fin.) and a friend.” [Rawlinson, p. 601]