1 Kings 18:1

EXPOSITION

ELIJAH 'S RETURN AND THE ORDEAL OF MOUNT CARMEL .—The preceding chapter having been exclusively occupied with the fortunes of Elijah during his enforced absence of three and a half years from the land of Israel, we are left to conjecture what the course of events in the northern kingdom during this period of drought and suffering must have been. But it is not difficult to picture in our minds the steadily increasing alarm and distress which the solemn ban he had pronounced must have occasioned. At one time, it may be, especially if the prophet up to that period had been unknown, both king and people, under the malign influence of Jezebel, professed to regard his threatening with contempt, the more so as the priests of Baal would not fail to assure them of the protection and blessing of "the Lord" of nature. But as the months and years passed by, and neither dew nor rain fell—as the heavens were brass and the earth iron—and the pastures languished, and the fruits of the earth failed, and the cisterns became dry, and man and child and beast began to suffer the extremities of thirst, we cannot doubt that the tone and temper of the country underwent a great change. At first, threats had been freely uttered against Elijah, who was perversely regarded as the author of all this misery, and that and the neighbouring countries were scoured to find him. Moreover reprisals were made on the system which he represented, by a fierce persecution of the prophetic order, of which he was recognized as the head. But it is probable that when the drought lasted into the third and fourth year, and when absolute ruin and death stared the country in the face, that then defiance had given place to dread and regret in every bosom, save, perhaps, that of the queen and the sycophants who ate of her table. The conviction was steadily gaining possession of the minds of all Israel that Baal and Ashtoreth were vanities, and that the Lord alone made the heavens and covered them with clouds. The great drought, and the manifold sufferings which it entailed—sufferings which the animated description of the prophet Joel ( Joel 1:1-20 .) enables us to realize—were doing their work. The heart of the people was being slowly turned backward, and in the third year of his sojourn at Zarephath the time was ripe for Elijah'e return, which our author now describes, together with the striking results which followed it. In the first fifteen verses, we have the meeting of Elijah and Obadiah; in Obadiah 1:16-20 , the meeting of Elijah and Ahab; Obadiah 1:21 -38 describe the ordeal of Mount Carmel; verses 39, 40, its immediate results; while the remainder of the chapter depicts Elijah's prayer for rain, the bursting of the storm, and the return to Jezreel.

And it came to pass after [This word is wanting in the Heb. except in a few MSS .] many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year [From what date is this "third year" to be counted? The prima facie view is that the words refer to "these years" mentioned in 1 Kings 17:1 , i.e; to the date of the announcement of the drought, and this is the interpretation of the Rabbins and some of the modems. But it is almost fatal to this view that the duration of the drought is distinctly stated in the New Testament to have been "three years and six months" ( Luke 4:25 ; James 5:17 ). It is every way better, therefore, to connect the words with 1 Kings 17:7 , i.e; with the date of the sojourn at Zarephath. It follows hence that the prophet spent about one year in the Wady Cherith, and two and a half in the house of the widow], saying, Go, show thyself [Heb. be seen ] unto Ahab; and I will send [Heb. give ] rain upon the earth. [Heb. on the face of the ground . Cf. 1 Kings 17:14 .]