First Kings Chapters 17-18 “Like a meteor suddenly flashing across the darkened sky, Elijah appears on the scene without genealogy, without historical background, and without warning. One thunderous judgment from heaven through his lips and he disappeared without a trace” (Whitcomb p. 50). Chapter 17 17:1 Elijah whose name means “my God is Yahweh”, came from the town of Tishbe which was about eight miles north of the Jabbok river in the rugged region of Gilead. “Because his manner matched the terrain from which he came, Elijah was frequently called simply ‘the Tishbite (TISH bite)’” (Smith p. 500). Elijah suddenly appears on the scene (just like John the Baptist), the New Testament endorses the historical reality of Elijah and that he was a man just like us (James 5:17-18). 17:1 “God permitted neither debate nor dialogue between His prophet and Ahab. The king was left to stagger for three more years under the colossal judgment of an unrelieved drought” (Whitcomb p. 50). Yet centuries before the Israelite nation had been warned that one of the consequences of disobedience would be that the rains would cease (Deut. 11:17; 28:24). Israel had officially rejected God, and His providential blessings upon the land came to an end. The New Testament endorses the historical accuracy of this drought (Luke 4:25; James 5:17). 17:1 “dew nor rain”: “The inclusion of dew along with the rain is very important because in the hills of Palestine the dew falls between 100 and 180 nights per year and is a significant supplement to the rain. Elijah’s pronouncement was a slap in the face of Baal who was supposed to be a rain god and god of fertility” (Vos p. 113). Elijah’s name, “Yahweh is God”, exemplified his mission, which was to prove that Yahweh and not Baal was the true God (18:39). 17:2-5 Elijah had said that rain would come only at his word (17:1), hence God hid Elijah from Ahab, and from Israelites who would have been constantly begging Elijah to reverse this judgment. “God sent Elijah into seclusion. Not only would Ahab’s frantic search for the prophet be thwarted, but Elijah’s very absence would be living testimony of a divine displeasure” (Gaebelein p. 138). “To prevent His prophet from being besieged by the desperate entreaties of the dying
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and the dire threats of Ahab and Jezebel, the Lord whisked him away to a secluded spot just east of the Jordan. 17:3 “The brook Cherith”: This seasonal riverbed (KEE rith), is east of the Jordan River, and is probably the same was Wadi Yabis, near Beth Shean. This brook is simply one of the many narrow gorges which fed into the Jordan River. 17:5 The distance from Ahab’s capital in Jezreel to this area was about fifteen miles. 17:6 Here Elijah was reminded that God was not limited in the way that He can care for His servants. “Nothing he needs has been withheld, a point that must be recalled for future reference” (House p. 213). Remember, during all his time Ahab is desperately trying to find Elijah (18:10). “Ahab would learn who gave the rain as he searched for water through dusty fields and in dry creek beds” (Winters p. 130). 17:7-9 In time the drought worsened, the Brook Cherith dried up and God sent Elijah some one hundred miles north to the home of a widow in the Phoenician coastal city of Zarephath (ZAR eh fath), about seven miles south of Sidon. Here a poor widow was supposed to provide for him! Such a promise is remarkable, because poor widows were the first ones to run out of food during a famine. Note, God did not send Elijah to some foreign rich ruler to have his needs met. 17:10-11 In Zarephath Elijah encounters this widow, who was in the process of collecting sticks so she could prepare a last meal for her and her son (17:12), and Elijah is supposed to ask her for, of all things, water and something to eat! The New Testament endorses the historical truthfulness of this account (Matthew 10:41-42; Luke 4:25-26). 17:12-14 God put this poor widow to the test, and this was a severe test. Elijah told her that if she would first bake a small loaf for Elijah before seeing to her family needs, God would honor her faith with a supply of flour and oil so long as the drought would last. This woman was not a Jew, but like Rahab centuries before, she believed. This example demonstrates: 1. God cares for all people, not just those in Israel. 2. Anyone can believe and people don’t need a tremendous amount of evidence. 3. It was a rebuke to all those in Israel because God did not send Elijah to any widow in Israel (Luke 4:26). 4. This woman was blessed, because she put God and His will ahead of her own family and her own life (Matthew 6:33). What a rebuke to Jezebel, for she never dreamed that Elijah would be hiding in her own homeland! (1 Kings 18:10) 17:17-18 The son of this widow dies of a severe illness and she thinks that her son died because of some sin she had committed. The woman fears her sin has brought about her son’s death and wonders if Elijah has been 2
sent to punish her. “Perhaps if he had not come, her son would have lived (forgetting, of course, that he would have starved)” (House p. 215). 17:19-20 Elijah appears puzzled as to the Lord’s purpose in all this. Yet Elijah does not roll over and accept the inevitable, he pleads with God for the life of the child. The child revives because God hears Elijah’s plea, not because of some mystical power possessed by Elijah. Yahweh is God, not Baal, not Elijah. 17:21-24 God has not repaid evil for good because the death of this child only served to bring glory to God. The widow is impressed that Elijah is a true prophet of God and God, the true God, speaks through him. Chapter 18 18:1 The total time of the drought was three years and six months (Luke 4:25). 18:2 The affects of the famine were especially severe in the capital city. “This command, therefore, must have stirred mixed emotions within the prophet (remember, Elijah was ‘a man subject to like passions as we are’ James 5:17). Happily, Baal was about to be exposed for the nothing he was, but first Elijah must have another face-to-face encounter with that diabolical monarch and his devilish bride” (Winters p. 134). 18:3-4 Obadiah was the governor of Ahab’s palace in Samaria, which was a very important position, possibly the second most importance position in the capital. Here we learn that Jezebel was a zealot for Baal worship to such an extent that she had executed many of God’s prophets. Obadiah had been hiding the remaining prophets in various caves and was providing them with food. This was quite a task when shortages were so severe and when he was working for the enemy. There are about 2,000 caves in the region of Mount Carmel alone. 18:5-7 “Obadiah is in a tough position. He desires to serve the Lord, yet must serve Ahab as well. Ahab sends him to find pasture during the worsening drought, yet Obadiah may know that the king is the reason the drought has come” (House p. 216). Whatever the fate of the people in Israel, Ahab was desperately concerned about his horses, for they were his first line of military defense. 18:7-15 Elijah suddenly appears to Obadiah and instead of being thankful, Obadiah is afraid! “Obadiah was horrified at the thought of announcing to Ahab that Elijah had returned, because he knew the position of his master. Obadiah was afraid that when he went to inform the king of Elijah’s whereabouts, the prophet would disappear. If such would happen, then Ahab would feel that his steward had lied to him or trifled with him. In either case, he surely would have ordered his steward executed. Obadiah pled that Elijah
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would take note of his life-time commitment to Yahweh and his compassion for the prophets” (Smith p. 504). Ahab had racked his brains looking for Elijah and had even searched in foreign countries (18:10). Obadiah was in a hard situation, a believer in God, who was working for Ahab and Jezebel, yet even in this hard situation, Obadiah was able to do some good things. “Sometimes Christian boldness necessitates a costly withdrawal, the resignation from a high-paying job, the cancellation of a contract, the refusal to join a certain organization. But sometimes Christ-like valor means sweetening the sour situation by staying” (Williams pp. 208-209). 18:15-16 Elijah calms the fears of Obadiah and under oath promises to remain here so that Ahab can come out to meet him. 18:17-18 Sinners often try to intimidate the righteous. The wicked often try to create “the spin” that Christians, morality, the Bible, and God, are the cause of the world’s problems. When people argue that religion, God and the Bible, are the causes for the world’s wars, and that following the Bible only results in such things as the Salem witch hunts or McCarthyism, they are playing the role that Ahab played before Elijah. Yet Elijah does not back down and neither is he intimidated. “In words seething with defiance, the Tishbite hurled the epithet back into the teeth of the king” (Smith p. 505). Ahab, hoping to deal with Elijah from a position of strength, greeted him with the charge of being a troublemaker in Israel. “Possibly the king was implying that the famine was all Elijah’s fault; because of Elijah’s hostile attitude, Baal had become angered and so had withheld rain for the past three years” (Gaebelein p. 144). Too often Christians roll over against the world’s accusations and admit fault, when there is nothing to admit! God is holy, His word is perfect, His will in no way, shape, or form, causes any evil (1 John 1:5). Elijah didn’t admit any fault, he didn’t say, “Yea, maybe I have been too hard in my preaching”. 18:19-20 Elijah issues a challenge. It is time to decide who is the true God, Yahweh or Baal. Let the priests of Baal and his supposed female consort Asherah, be brought together at Mount Carmel, Baal’s supposed stronghold. Apparently Ahab liked the idea and probably was so naïve as to think his side would win. Mount Carmel was a mountain range rising just south of Haifa Bay and standing close to Phoenician territory. A pagan worship center stood there, in addition Yahweh had one prophet against Jezebel’s 850. These verses also tell us that Ahab’s government subsidized Baalism and these prophets were on the government payroll. The 400 prophets of Asherah did not attend (18:22,40), probably because they 4
were under the personal control of Jezebel and she did not want them attending. Jezebel might have known that her religion was completely false. 18:21 The people of Israel were also invited, and they were told what they needed to hear. “Make up your minds!” “Stop riding the fence!” One cannot serve God and something else (Matthew 6:24). Apparently, many in Israel wanted to have both God and Baal, they wanted to pluralistic society, in which they would believe in the true God, but also attend the immoral worship services at the local Baal shrine. Yet the people who had come to witness this contest remained silent, but this silence did not discourage Elijah. The battle lines had been drawn, and he would concede no territory. “God has never tolerated middle-of-theroad, lukewarm compromises in spiritual matters (Revelation 3:15-16)” (Whitcomb p. 53). Man has a choice, he is not depraved, and he can decide between God and whatever. We definitely choose who or what we are going to serve. The failure of the people to take a clear-cut stand for God was the same was choosing Baal as their god. The failure to clearly stand for the truth is to support error. 18:22 Though in the vast minority, Elijah knew that truth is not determined by numbers (Matthew 7:13-14). Yet, in our own time some professed Christians are arguing that we cannot have the truth, seeing that we are such a minority! 18:23-24 Elijah gives the prophets of Baal all the physical advantages. They get to choose which ox they will sacrifice, which would be a guarantee that they would have no excuse that their animal was less fit for sacrifice. Baal was supposed to be the god of storm of lightning, hence he should have no problem answering by fire. In addition, Elijah gives them all the time they need. 18:25-26 These Baal worshippers are convinced that Baal will answer by fire, and these people are dedicated and sincere. Please remember that sincerely believing error does not make it right, and neither does it make one right with God. If you sincerely believe error—then God will sincerely punish you. “Despite all their plaintive wailing and ecstatic dancing, when morning gave way to noon and still Baal had failed to provide the necessary fire” (Gaebelein p. 144). 18:27 Elijah mocked them—with God’s approval (18:36). Elijah says maybe Baal is lost deep in thought, preoccupied with his many cases, had gone to care for his many commercial interests or was in the bathroom. The statement “gone aside” (NASV), is a euphemistic expression for using the bathroom. House notes that ancient Baal worshipers indeed did imply in their writings that not only could Baal die, but he also could go on a journey, fall asleep, or even resort to bloody self-mutilation (p. 220). 5
We must too laugh at such a concept of deity, for we have a God whose presence permeates and penetrates the entire universe (Psalm 139:8,9). In addition, He is always alert and watchful (Psalm 121:4). “So accustomed are we to hearing such truths that we tend to take them for granted” (Whitcomb p. 55). We forget that we are surrounded by people who are worshipping the gods of human invention, deities who have human weaknesses, who are unpredictable, impersonal, or prone to error. Even something that looks “Christian,” like Mormonism, believes that God was once a man, which means that God can make a mistake, or at the very least has committed sin in the past. How many “enlightened” people today simply believe in “something out there”? 18:28-29 Desperate hundreds of men now slash themselves with knives in order to provoke their god to respond. The true God never wanted His people to do anything like this (Leviticus 19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1). Are we thankful that God does not insist upon such cruel practices as child sacrifice and self-mutilation? Is not it ironic that people will complain about God’s moral standards and then they will go out and abuse themselves or allow themselves to be abused in the name of some other religion or god? Friends, may I suggest to you that the world, Satan, and error, make far more demands upon the lives of people, than God does. “No one paid attention” (29), because Baal doesn’t even exist! 18:30 The prophets of Baal had been given more than enough time. Elijah now calls the crowd near to him and repairs an old altar to the true God that had been vandalized. 18:31-35 The sacrifice and the wood were thoroughly soaked, which demonstrated that no trickery was possible; a real miracle would have to take place to consume this sacrifice. “At the precise moment when all hope of igniting the wood seemed totally lost, Elijah stepped forward and called on God” (Gaebelein p. 145). 18:36-38 “The calm assurance and dignity of Elijah provides a startling contrast to the heated frenzy of the pagan prophets” (Whitcomb p. 55). God answered; and such an answer! Fire fell and consumed not only the wood and sacrifice, but the stones, the soil, and even the surrounding water. What a contrast! The prophets of Baal had cried for hours, while Elijah’s prayer lasted less than a minute. The difference lay in the One addressed! It just seems to me that God consumed the altar, dirt, and water in the trench, is because if He hadn’t, some skeptic probably would have said, “This wasn’t a miracle, there was still a cup of water left in the trench”. Of course, modern critics argue that Elijah actually had poured naphtha on the sacrifice and had used a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays and 6
ignite the fire. These same people argue that Jesus’ walk upon the sea was nothing more than Him walking on a shallow sand bar, or the feeding of the five thousand as an emotional response of the crowd to a boy’s willingness to share his lunch, so that they all spontaneously took out the lunches they had selfishly hidden in their garments! “Church members of some denominations would be surprised to learn how many such men occupy positions of great influence in their church-supported institutions of higher learning today” (Whitcomb p. 56). Of course, if we try to explain away the miracles found in the Bible, we must at the same time accuse Elijah and Jesus of being deceitful sinners. 18:39 This verse is almost humorous, “He is God, He is God!” These people realized that the fire which had consumed the sacrifice—could have just as easily come upon of them because of their unbelief and compromise. 18:40 Error and those who are determined to preach it cannot be tolerated. False prophets were to die without mercy (Deut. 13:5; 18:20). “The only churches that can expect Christ’s commendation are those which examine and expose those who falsely claim to be Christ’s representatives (Revelation 2:2)” (Whitcomb p. 57). The Brook Kishon was at the base of this mountain range. “Elijah probably chose the Kishon ravine for the place of execution because of the coming rain would send a torrent of water down the valley to sweep the bodies out to sea” (Winters p. 140). 18:41 Nothing is said about Ahab doing anything to stop Elijah from having his state-supported prophets killed. Apparently, he was either amazed, shocked or afraid of the crowds if he tried to intervene. Once again, Elijah demonstrates to Ahab that Yahweh is God. It is time for rain. 18:42-44 Elijah climbed further up the mountain to pray and observe God’s working. Elijah told his servant to tell Ahab to head home, lest a torrential rain overtake him on the way.18:45-46 Girding up his loins, that is, gathering about his waist his long flowing robe, Elijah set out running toward Jezreel. He actually arrived at the gate of the city prior to Ahab. God either gave Elijah supernatural strength or Elijah outran Ahab, because he could travel cross-country and Ahab’s chariot was fighting roads which had now turned to mud. From Mount Carmel to Jezreel was about 17 miles cross-country. “Among the many lessons in the passage, one is primary: the impossibility of neutrality in relationship with God. Our English word ‘neutral’ comes from two roots, meaning ‘not either’. In many realms of life neutrality has been exalted as a virtue. Judicious calmness, open-mindedness, and suspended judgment, are often honored as sophisticated” (Dilday p. 214).
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Yet in the end, none of these events will change the heart of either Ahab, Jezebel, or most of the people living in Israel.
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