KINGS
COMMONLY CALLED
THE THIRD BOOK OF THE KINGS
THE THIRD BOOK OF THE KINGS
CHAPTER 18
Elijah is sent to meet Ahab—Obadiah saves a hundred prophets, and meets Elijah—Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to call down fire from heaven—They fail—He calls down fire, slays the prophets of Baal, and opens the heavens for rain.
1 AND it came to pass after many
days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in
the third year, [ Most likely the reference is
to the third year of the drought. ] saying, Go,
shew thyself unto Ahab; [ He was commanded to hide
- now he is commanded to come out of hiding. One might assume that Elijah
expects that if the Lord is telling him to come out that the curse of
the drought is beginning to work...the people are becoming more humble
and ready to change in their relationship with the Lord. So now we are ready to begin round two of crying repentance. Elijah has show that he has the power to seal the heavens with no rain, now he is going to show that he can open them as well. ] and
I will send rain upon the earth.
3 And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. [ Which is kind of like what Joseph was. ] (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:
4 For it was so, when Jezebel cut off
the prophets [ Samuel organized
the "school of the prophets" They were organized and acted from a central
location (1 Sam. 18:19-20). The prophets referenced here could easily
be from that school and as such would be very easy for Jezebel to identify
and kill. ] of the LORD, that
Obadiah took an hundred prophets, [ So no wonder we keep seeing these prophets pop up here and there. Prophets that we know little or nothing about, well there were hundreds of them in the land. The reason maybe we know little about most of them is maybe because they are in hiding. Especially with Jezebel around, when she finds one she has him put to death. ] and hid them by fifty in a cave, and
fed them with bread and water.) [ Obadiah has tried
to maintain a relationship with the Lord. He has not been an outward
zealot in preaching the gospel, but because of his position and beliefs
in the Lord he is able to save hundreds of prophets. Doing this would have put in a very awkward position. If Ahab and especially Jezebel would have known that they surely would have killed him as well. ]
5 And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts.
6 so they divided the land between them to pass throughout
it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
[ Ahab has too much pride to acknowledge the Lord and
would rather find a natural way to solve his problem rather
than repent and acknowledge the Lords hand in the drought and his ability
to save him. Are we ever like that? How? If
the prophet tells us to do something and we don't are we much the same? ]
7 ¶ And as Obadiah was in the way, [ As he was out look for grass for the animals to keep them alive to survive the last of the drought hopefully. ] behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah?
[ Or where in the heck have you been, I had no idea that you were still around, so good to see you again. Then he probably exclaims something like. Do you know that I have been looking for you. Did you know that Ahab was so ticked at you because the last time we saw you, you said that you would seal the heavens and Ahab did not believe you, but now he does. HE did not believe in the God of Israel, but well now he is starting to sing a different tune. One that says there might be something to this God of Israel thing after all. ]
8 And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
[ Go tell Ahab that I am here, I am willing to meet with him. ]
9 And he [ Obadiah. Who probably recognizes that if Elijah is a live then is is most likely because God has provided a way for that to happen. ] said, What have I sinned,
that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay
me? [ Elijah's request
to bring Ahab there seems quite straightforward - the is a small predicament
what is it? Obadiah
is trying to serve both Ahab and the Lord. so
why 9 verses on the matter? Obadiah
knows that if he tells Ahab were Elijah is and Elijah is not there he
is a dead man. Elijah is sensitive to Obadiahs plight and tried to put
him at ease. ]
10 As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not.
12 And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth.
13 Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
15 And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day.
[ Obadiah was afraid that God would move Elijah for Elijah's protection, and if he brought Ahab back here and Elijah was not here that Ahab would kill Obadiah. So Elijah promises that I promise I will stay here and meet with Ahab. ]
17 ¶ And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah,
that Ahab said
unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? [How
might Elijah have troubled Israel? What does a prophet do? He
reminds people of what they are supposed to be doing - that can trouble
you if you are not willing to repent and change. Could
one not argue that it was really Ahab that was troubling Israel? He
is the one that keeps leading them away and making it dificult for them. ]
18 And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel; [It is not
me but the Lord - If anyone.Why? because
he is doing what the Lord has instructed him to do. Elijah did not have
power by himself to seal the heavens - the Lord did] but
thou, and thy father’s
house, in that ye have forsaken the
commandments of the LORD, and thou hast
followed Baalim. [ In otherwords you know darn
good and well who is troubling Israel - so don't project the blame on
me. ]
19 Now therefore send, and gather
to me all Israel [Why
does Elijah what Ahab to summon all of Israel? If
Ahab does it they can come without fear of death - if it were just Elijah
then Ahab could watch and see who came and have them put to death and
so most would not have come. So Elijah wants them all to have the opportunity
to see what is going to happen for themselves - no second hand stories,
or ones contrived by someone else for some other purpose. ] unto mount
Carmel, [ Mount Carmel; carmel means the "vineyard of el" is a mountain ridge several
miles long running from southeast to northwest, the ridge rises abrupty
to about 1,800 feet above sea level - it is quite prominent. More importantly it is home court advantage for the Canaanites, in essence Elijah is stacking all of the cards against himself. In addition because of the proximity to the coast it gets more rainfall than almost any place in all of Israel. ] and the prophets of Baal [ He was the God that controlled the weather. ] four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves
four hundred, [ The female counterparts, Ashtoreth or Venus whom Jezebel worshipped. She was the God of the tree of life, fertility, the God by which things grow. See 3rd Thousand Years for additional details...They were really whores, and sustained their church thru adultry. This is really setting everything up. Elijah is call out their Gods in a way. As if to say that the God of Israel has shut up the heavens for that past few years and neither Baal nor Ashtoreth it appears have done anything to overcome that. ] which eat
at Jezebel’s table. [ She is the one from whom they get their support so of course they are loyal to her. ]
20 so Ahab sent unto all the children
of Israel, [ Ahab does not know what Elijah has
planned - but he figures that rather than have him executed on the spot
he will let him carry out his plans and when they flop - becuase they
most likely will (Remember everyone is afraid of Ahab) so they will most
likely not choose to join Elijahs side not matter what happens right?
and when that happens he can dispose of Elijah without any cause for
martyrdom. ] and
gathered the prophets together
unto mount Carmel. [ No matter who wins there are going
to be some good fireworks - so everyone wants to come and see. ]
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How
long halt [ The word halt is a rather fascinating word to use in connection with Israel at that time. It means to walk lamely, to limp. It also means to falter, to be hesitant, to be in doubt, to waver. This was for Israel a significant time of decision: would they cast their lot with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or would they turn instead to Baal? Once again, many of the Israelite chose unwisely. ] ye
between two opinions? [What
do you suppose it means to Hault between two opinions? The
Phrase according to Clarke means literally "How
long hop ye about upon two boughs" - they dreaded Jehovah and could not
totally abandon him and his ways - but they feared Ahab and Jezebel and
so they embraced the religion arranged by them. All the while they were
waiting for an opportuity to make a decision for themselves. Are
we ever guilt of that? How? Elder Neal A. Maxwell
said "the stirring words of various prophets...urge us to choose, to decide,
and not to halt...Elijah's message has tremendous relevancy today, for all
must finally choose between the gods of this world and the God or eternity" ] if
the LORD be God, follow him:
but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered
him not a word. [ Why? because
Ahab is around and in their opinion Ahab is a threat - Elijah well he
is just a prophet. People are caught between a political leader who holds
their physical life in his hands and the prophet of the Lord who hold's
their spiritual life in his hands. Elijah does not care he throws down good. If Baal be God then let's find out, and if not what do you have against knowing for sure who the real God is. The people cannot say a word, they are not going to choose a side in such a situtation. ]
22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; b [ I am Gods prophet, and it will only be me who will demonstrate the power of the God of Israel. Either Elijah does not know that there are still other prophets around, you know the ones that Obadiah was feeding, or if he does he might want to keep their presence quiet for their protection. Either way he is going to go 1 man verse 450 priests of Baal, and 400 priests of Ashtoreth, 850 to 1. How would those odds play out in vegas? Elijah is setting himself up as the ultimate underdog. ] but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
[ And for the side of Baal - well there are four hundred and fifty of them, surely one of you can get through to Baal. ]
23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let
them [ The Priests of Baal. Baal happens to be the God of the weather. ] choose one bullock for themselves, [ You get first choice so that I might have no advantage. ] and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, [ The symbol of a bull is "el". So in essence the bull "el" is one of their Gods. ] and
lay it on wood, and put no fire under: [ So both side place their lamb on the sticks that have been gathered. Everything is equal here, well except there are 850 to 1, and they are in Baal's and Ashtoreth's home court, oh and we will even sacrifice on of your God's "el" or a bull, oh and the sticks are a product of the goddess Ashtoreth. But Elijah is fine with that. ]
24 And call ye on the name of your gods, [ So here are the rules for this contest. YOu call upon any and all of your Gods, all 850 of you, and I will call only on the God of Israel to light the fire. ] and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. [ The one who does this will be declared the winner, winner take all. Let's let God settle it himself, who has the most power. So he is saying in a way is not your God Baal the God of lightening, and fire, and wind. So it should be easy for him to win here all he needs to do is hit the sticks with a small lightening bolt. That should be a piece of cake for him to do. ] And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
[ Or that sounds fair since there is really no way to rig this in your favor. So we the people get to just sit back and watch these two Gods duke it out, man this sounds good. ]
25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose
you [ Your choice So no one can say that you were
not given every opportunity. ] one bullock [ A bull. ] for yourselves, and dress it first;
for ye are many; [ Small
jab here by Elijah - 450 priest of Baal, and four hundred priests of
his female counterpart, Ashtoreth or Venus whom Jezebel worshipped. ] and
call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, [ So they have been at this all morning. ] saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, [ No clap of thunder. ] nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
[ Either this is really stupid on their part as what would the lightening bot hit first, the priest dancing on the altar. So maybe they were mocking Baal in a way, thrusting out their chest at him and provoking him to hit them with a bolt of lightening as well. It is life or death to them any way. If they loose they are dead any way. ]
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah
mocked them, [ Elijah starts to talk a little smack. Does that sound like a prophet?
What is he trying to do, do you suppose? ] and said, Cry aloud: for
he is a god; [ Or at least so you say. ] either
he is talking, [ First cut - your God cannot do
two things at once - he has limits (Which would make him not a God at
all). Perhaps he is erngauged with someone else at this time, whoa too bad for you we picked now to do this. Or is he talking to you now and this is all that there is? Is your God soft spoken, a weakling. ] or he is pursuing, [ The Hebrew word that was used would better be translated instead of pursuing would be better translated as "or he is relieving himself". Maybe someone else is more important than you at this time. Maybe it does not fit into his calendar today. ] or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, [ Compares their God to a man that needs sleep. And if he is sleeping man he sure needs a lot of sleep. He must be tired and frail. ] and must
be awaked. [ You guys have to step it up, cause
what ever you are doing it is not cutting it - raise the roof. Notice
how there is "No Fear" in Elijah he does not let up as he try's to spur
them on to even more hideous displays in the eyes of Israel, displays
that will be rideculous and utterly disgusting. ]
28 And they cried aloud, [ So they do as Elijah suggests, they step up the volume a bit. ] and cut themselves
after their manner [ How do you supose that
Israel was feeling at this point? sounds like the Laminites doesn't it? Can
you imagine how absurb this must have looked? Is this their last ditch effort to show Baal how much they wanted it. ] with
knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, [ Man they must be tired, they have been at this all day long with nothing to show for it. ] that there was neither voice, [ No thunder. ] nor any to answer, [ No lightening bolt, no nothing tha was even close to starting a fire for them. ] nor any that regarded.
30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come
near unto me. [ First thing he does - summons them
to come unto him or the teachings of the Lord. Is that not the message
of the Savior and his gospel? So I have given them all day long, and they have nothing to show from their God. So now let me teach you about the God of Israel. ] And
all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the
altar of the LORD [ Elijah reconstructs
the altar according to the dictates of the Law. some ordinances have
proper proceedures that should be followed. This is the first thing that he teaches them, that God has a way in doing things and Elijah is obedient to those ways. He gathers the people to him. ] that
was broken down. [ A pretty bold,
move as Elijah is repairing an altar that was certainly torn down
at Ahab's and Jezebel's behest and replaced by an altar to Baal. And,
he is doing it right in front of Ahab and all of gathered Israel. ]
31 And Elijah took twelve stones, [ See
Jos 8:31 - the Law of moses commanded how the altar was to be built. The stones
had to be whole stones, none that have been cut by the hand of man. ] according to the number of the tribes
of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came,
saying, Israel shall be thy name:
32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
[ He constructs a pretty deep moat around the altar. ]
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, [ He is following the rules of the contest, the same thing that the priests of Baal have done so far. ] and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
[ Obviously it will be harder to light. ]
34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
[ How many stones were on the altar? 12 how many times does he drench the altar? 12 - four barrels of water 3 times. ]
35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he
filled the trench also with water. [What
signifigance do you think that the water has? Who is he really showing
now? It
is a known fact that priests of Baal would bulid tunnels and light fires
under the altars and open doors to allow the fire to breathe and as such
the backdraft would provide and instant consuming effect for show. The
priests all 450 of them are being shown that there will be none of that
this time - you will know that this is for REAL. Elijah demonstrates
the confidence that he has in the Lord.]
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, [ Well since you guys took all day, now it is evening and my turn. But that is great because fireworks and lightening always look better in the evening sky. ] that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, [ Usually this would read of Jacob but here Elijah emphasis Israel, the fact the he is your God Israel. ] let it be known this day [ He asks for two things here: 1) that thou art the God of Israel; 2) that I am they servant. ] that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
37 Hear me, O LORD,
hear me, [ Notice the contrast between all the
ruckus of the priests of Baal and the simple prayer of the Lords servant "Hear
me, hear me" ] that this people may know that thou art the
LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back
again. [ Was this not the purpose of the famine in the land in the first place. ]
38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
[ The God of Israel just bests Baal with no room for discussion. It really was not even a contest as the other Gods did not even bother to show up. It is kind of like how God attacked the individual Gods of Egypt with the plagues, here he attacks their God Baal, the God of the weather, destroys the remains of Ashtoreth the Goddess of the groves when he consumes the sticks, and The God El when he consumes the young bull. Their symbols are all destroyed. ]
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
[ In Hebrew this is "I am that I am". ]
40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal;
let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them
down to the brook Kishon, and slew
them there. [ While idolatry carried the death
penalty (cf. Deut. 17:2-7), these prophets of Baal may have been involved
in the murder of the prophets of the Lord. I would assume the prophets
of Asherah referenced in v. 19 were probably present and were put to
death as well. ]
41 ¶ And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get
thee up, eat and drink; [Why do a prophet
seem to say eat drink and be merry? Elijah is mocking
Ahab at this point. He is saying "Go home
and see if you can be in a good mood about what has just happened" the
implication obviously being that his return home would be a gloomy one
and his appetite would be ruined by his bad mood as a result of the overthrow
ofhis religion, ct. Judges 9:27, Judges 19:6, Eccl. 8:15. Eccl. 9:7. ] for there
is a sound of abundance of rain.
42 so Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,
[ Ahab comes up humbly to thank God for proving himself to him. ]
43 And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. [ What kind of test do you suppose this was for Elijah? Why did the Lord wait so long to answer the request for rain, when the request for the fire was so immediate? 1) Perhaps because the request for fire was so immediate, to let people know they don't always get what they want immediately and that things run on the Lord's time and not at the people's convenience.
2) Also, it may have been because the Lord is aware before hand of what Elijah later finds out, that Israel's return to Him is not as entirely whole-hearted as He would have liked. Hence the Lord is not in any real rush to lift the curse of drought, but has to because of the promise He made earlier. so, it is only after prolonged intercession by a prophet that the rain actually does come.
3) the Lord may not have been particularly thrilled with the way Elijah was conducting himself in mocking the Baalite prophets and Ahab. While we find it quite entertaining, such conduct surely isn't promoted or endorsed by the Law.]
44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, [ Elijah tells Ahab that you better hurry home because the rain is coming. ] that the rain stop thee not.