1 Kings 19

1. AND Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the 2 prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the 3 gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow 4 about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer- 5 sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s 6 journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested 7 for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for 8 I am not better than my fathers. And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and, 9 behold, an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, be- 10 hold, there was at his head a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water. And he did eat 11 and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, 12 and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he 13 arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty 14 nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; 15 and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What does thou here, 16 Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the chil- 17 dren of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets 18 with the sword: and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And 19 he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed 20 by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the 21 LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD 22 was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the 23 fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he 24 wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, 25 behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What does thou here, Elijah? And he said, I 26 have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have for- 27 saken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, 28 even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And the LORD said unto him, 29 Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, thou shalt

16 anoint Hazael to be king over Syria : and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel : and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet 17 in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth from the sword of Hazael 18 shall Jehu slay : and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every 19 mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth : and 20 Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him. And 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 21 follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again ; for what have I done to thee? And he returned from following him, and took the yoke 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.

It has been often noted that the signal failures of the eminent men of Scripture (who were all “subject to like passions as we are”) occurred just in the points of their peculiar excellence. As it was the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the yearning after holiness of David, the gentle tolerance of John, and the ingenuous boldness of Peter that failed, so here it is the fearless intrepidity of Elijah that yields to the force of sharp and sudden trial. Standing among the foremost of those spiritual heroes whose sublime deeds are recounted as they were incited by the Spirit of Jehovah, in distinction ranking with Moses, a man pre-eminently mighty in word and deed and in miracle, a man who left so deep and permanent an impress of energy and great achievement upon the history and heart of the Jewish people that, nine hundred years later, when the Lord of glory appeared upon earth the Jews affirmed, It is Elias !—this man, in all other circumstances and at all other periods of his career, exemplifies more signally, perhaps, than any other the qualities of unfaltering faith in God and intrepid fearlessness of man. Of a nature bold, stern, self-reliant, of an iron strength and indomitable persistency of purpose, these elements of character signalized his whole history save the incident here recorded. At Carmel, through the intense strain to which his faith was subjected, the seemingly hopeless, helpless perils by which his courage was tested, both faith and courage held out to a successful end. As one directed and protected by Jehovah, he had commanded king and people to institute the trial, and they obeyed. Consummating his intrepidity, under the same Divine direction and protection he had ordered, and himself participated in, the slaying of the priests of Baal. And afterward we discern the same undaunted courage in entering Ahab’s presence alone and denouncing to the guilty king and the viler queen the ignominious, terrible end with which God would visit them. And at the last we see this stern, unyielding character rejecting all human companionship when about to take his heavenward departure. Thus proved, both before and after, by many severest tests superior to all ordinary human weaknesses, here—but only here—his courage of soul and his otherwise unyielding faith for the time utterly gave way. The causes of this one failure in faith and courage, and God’s kind restorative treatment, comprise the main points to be developed in this chapter. B.

No passage in Elijah’s history is religiously more suggestive and comforting than this—this mood of a prophet whose achievements had been so grand and whose apotheosis was to be so triumphant, and his patient, tender treatment by Jehovah, are alike full of consolation. Allon.

1-7. Jezebel’s heart is unmoved, alike by the tokens of God’s terrible power recited to her and by the manifest sign of His returning favor to the land. She thirsts for Elijah’s blood to avenge the destruction of Baal’s priests. At her forewarning of pursuit and death, the prophet is stunned with sudden fear. Looking only at his fierce foe (when he saw that, the record says), and failing, like Peter on the waves, to look to his Lord, the interposing power of God consequently failed him for the time. He flies from the threatened peril. Hitherto he had gone when and where God had bade him. Now, without Divine direction, from Jezreel he hastens southward through the kingdom of Judah ninety miles to Beersheba. Thence going a day’s journey into the wilderness, he casts himself down under a solitary broom tree, and asks that God would take to Himself his overburdened spirit. The simple expression It is enough ! intimates the thoroughly discouraged state of his mind. But even in his discouragement the tone of his prayer is elevated and touching. He does not weakly fret or repine. With the old boldness of an honest and faithful heart he affirms his own conclusions: “My work for Thee, O Lord, is done! Take me now to Thyself! Already Thou hast fully honored me! I deserve no more than those who have gone before me!”

But God will not take him in so inglorious a way and time. The Lord will not seal that shining ministry while so heavy a cloud rests upon it, nor take the strong spirit while bowed in its gloom. Radiantly and triumphantly his work and life are to close. Now, in answer to the prayer for death, God sends him bodily food in intimation that He would have him live. He sends by a higher ministry than the ravens or the poor widow—by an angel, as still more assuring. And He proceeds to deal graciously and wisely with Elijah, suiting His treatment to that strong, heroic spirit. First, with alternate sleep and food. He restores and miraculously strengthens the prophet’s exhausted body and mind. The intense excitement of the day at Carmel, followed by the seventeen miles of running to Jezreel, and the added journey from Jezreel to Beersheba, were causes enough to exhaust the strongest human frame, apart from his present great distress of spirit. A special recuperating force is imparted by the rest and the angel’s supply of food. So Elijah is prepared for the “great journey” which is indicated to him by the angel, about two hundred miles. B.

2. As simply a specimen of human nature painting, there is nothing equal to the Jezebel of Scripture in all the circle of literature. The strokes of the pencil are indeed very few. It is an outline, with no filling up of the details, as in the tragic poets. Yet the student who will take the pains to gather from the record and study this outline will find the Jezebel of Scripture stand out before him with more distinctness than the Medea of Euripides or the Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare. The mere outline sets her forth with a power, and vividness, and a gigantic grandeur of wickedness, yet withal a naturalness that no human genius has ever equalled. S. R.—This history may well astound us with its illustrations of the terrible influence of one bad woman. What Satanic energy of will! What bold ingenuity! What seductive power over her husband toward wickedness! We might have supposed that no mind less mighty than Satan’s could throw itself into the face of such a movement as that inaugurated on Mt. Carmel and block it utterly; but apparently Jezebel was equal to it, and did it! H. C.

It is worthy of note that this is the first great religious persecution that history records; and of all the subjects of religious persecution Elijah is the most dramatic and heroic. Such persecution was the necessary condition of prophetic greatness, and Elijah was great enough to become its hero. Elijah was the first to teach the world the lofty duty of resisting organized wrong, even at the cost of martyrdom. He was the first of the great roll of confessors who, against kings and national systems, have witnessed for God and truth. The three Hebrew youths, Daniel, Stephen, the Apostles of our Lord, the early Christians, Wycliffe, Savonarola, Huss, Luther, the noble army of the reformers and faithful witnesses for Christ, down to the Malagasy martyrs, must recognize him as their illustrious prototype. He first vindicated the sacred rights of the religious conscience against all its persecutors in the world or in the Church. Allon.

3. What is the solution of this paradox, that a man is running for his life and yet praying to die? It is, indeed, inconsistent enough, yet never was painting truer to the life of a saint of God in darkness and desertion. The clue to the whole mystery is that Jehovah has not said to Elijah, “Arise and flee,” as before He had said, “Go show thyself to Ahab,” or “Arise, get thee to Zarephath.” The record simply states that, hearing Jezebel’s fierce oath, Elijah “arose and went for his life.” Once the communication between Elijah and Jehovah is broken, he is just as inconsistent and weak as any of us. Well did the Apostle James say, “Elijah was a man of like passions with us.” S. R.

4. All day he travelled, and found no refuge; and in the evening, worn out with fatigue and consumed with hunger, he cast himself down under the shelter of one of the broom trees, which alone flourish in that wilderness. Here this lately strong-souled man lay hopeless, helpless, and despairing; and he who fled so anxiously from death prayed for himself that he might die. “It is enough; O Lord God, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” Strange contradiction! 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 him to do and to suffer. It was not enough. God had more to teach him, and had more work for him to do. If the Lord had taken him at his word, and had also said it was “enough,” Elijah’s history would have wanted its crowning glory. Kitto.

If Elijah can become weak and his courage die out, 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 in utter despondency below the solitary retem bush, praying his foolish prayer for death. A. M.—Despondency in the midst of severe contest, who has never had to wrestle with this? and he who has hitherto been preserved from it, what guarantee has he that he shall not to-morrow lie down like the stern prophet of the wilderness, under his juniper-tree? Disappointed expectation, increasing conflict and wavering faith, each of these three is in itself sufficient to deprive us of courage and strength; what, then, if they, as here in the case of Elijah, all storm at once on the weary soul? How will this end with Elijah if God does not Himself step in, but that he should become an unprofitable servant of the Most High, an indocile pupil of His providence, a murmuring rebel against His adorable sovereignty, who sins even in his prayers? Van O.

5. 6. Toil and sorrow have lulled the prophet asleep, under his juniper tree. That wholesome shade was well chosen for his repose. While death was called for, the cousin of death comes unbidden. The angel of God waits on him in that hard lodging. No wilderness is too solitary for the attendance of those blessed spirits. As he is guarded so is he awaked by that messenger of God, and stirred up from his rest to his repast. While he slept his breakfast is made ready for him by those spiritual hands; “there was a cake baked on the coals and a cruse of water at his head.” 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 favors 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. O 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. H.

7. The fatherly tenderness of God is nowhere in the Old Testament more touchingly brought out than here, where he waits, as it were, while the weary prophet sleeps again after his meal, and sends the angel a second time to remind him of the provision for his bodily wants, which he would be so likely to forget. Houghton.

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. 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. A. M.

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. 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.

8. The journey to Horeb, and the forty days’ fast. Horeb is one of the Sinai group of mountains central to the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, itself rising to the height of seven or eight thousand feet. From the appearances of God upon this mountain to Moses, and from the giving of the law, it is called the “Mount of God.” It is not strange, then, that Elijah, the great restorer of the law, should be guided to this sacred mountain. It is natural that he, who stood with Moses beside the transfigured Christ, should tread in the steps and share in the high experience of Moses upon the original holy mount. So, under circumstances dissimilar, with like purpose of special Divine instruction and manifestation, Elijah is led to Horeb. And, like Moses, and like the incarnate Lord Himself, Elijah fasts forty days in the wilderness. Alike they all fasted thus, “perhaps to intimate the likeness of their commissions, to propose, to restore, and to perfect the law, by God’s last and best gift, the Gospel; of which Moses and Elijah were witnesses with Christ at His transfiguration.” In the opportunity for quiet thoughtfulness during those forty days of the prophet’s journeying and resting, in his receiving and pondering afresh the lessons of the old history imprinted upon every step of the way, and especially conveyed by the sacred associations of the mountain, we may find a second particular of God’s restoring treatment of His disheartened servant. B.

God knows what he designs us for, though we do not, what services, 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; 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 would sustain him here, and, in due time, bring him hence, as he did Israel, though, like him, fretful and distrustful. H.

Elijah, faint and exhausted, begged that he might die, but Elijah, fed and refreshed, rose and went in strength through a forty days’ journey. Satan is a cowardly assailant, who loves to take us at a disadvantage, as he assailed our Lord when He was a-hungered. When the body is shattered he will shake the soul with pains. We should ask, therefore, when sad or depressed, Is it because I have been more wicked than usual or have more real trouble, or is it only because I am weak in health and so more sensitive? To be depressed because we are feeble and so fearful, would be about as sensible as to be depressed because we were hungry when food was before us. Use the remedy, and the evil will be more tolerable. Paul, after three days of gloom, received meat, and was strengthened. But the grace of God is our great help in practising upon these precepts. Sufficient to the day is the evil, and sufficient to the evil is the grace offered. W. H. Lewis.

9, 10. God’s question and Elijah’s answer. In this question we discern a still further step in God’s treatment. The bodily invigoration, and the long restful period for reflection, have failed to bring back right thoughts and trustful feeling. Elijah has not yet realized his defection and distrust in fleeing from Jezebel’s threat, when unbidden by God. Therefore the mild reproof: What doest thou here? The prophet’s answer shows that he understood and felt the rebuke. But he speaks boldly in justification of his withdrawal. And God forbears, once and again, with his boldness because of his truth. The reply, in its three particulars, discloses a condition of utter, hopeless discouragement. Three things, according to his own showing, combined to break down his brave spirit. For the time they paralyzed his intrepid faith.

1. He was discouraged by an imagined want of success, a conviction of failure. At Carmel he had “been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.” He had stood alone for God, and had triumphed in His name. The idolatrous prophets had been destroyed. Israel again had openly acknowledged Jehovah, and His favor had released their land from the interdict of barrenness. Seemingly in a single day and by a single deed the prophet’s life aim and work had been achieved. But on the very next day his work seemed wasted; his hope was dead. With the one shout of the people apparently ceased all their interest in a true, pure worship. Ahab, unmoved by all that had occurred, suffered Jezebel’s murderous purpose to go forward. She would triumph over the cause he had championed. No sign from heaven appeared; no voice from God was heard. It seemed that God had no more for him to do. His flight was not to save his life, but to prevent its being taken by Jezebel. For he asks the Lord to take it. And, connected with this conviction of failure, 2. A sense of human desertion, loneliness from lack of all sympathy in his bold stand for God, was another source of discouragement, and cause of failure in his faith and courage. “I, even I only, am left!” He had not felt his loneliness or craved sympathy before. During the great trial he was nerved by the Divine command, and by an issue grand enough to call into full play the mighty energies of his nature. But ever since, in his ear, the voice of the fickle multitude seemed a mocking, taunting echo. Resolute and unyielding as he was, this repeated thrusting back of disagreeable memories of solitary and fruitless endeavor, stirred the heart’s native craving after some sympathy, human or Divine. But no voice of comfort broke upon his desolate perturbed spirit. 3. Closely joined with this feeling of desolation was the want of any assigned aggressive work. This would have been solace enough for his strong nature; something to be resisted or grappled with, or some great peril to be encountered. Had God bidden him brave the haughty queen’s wrath when her threatening message came, he would unfalteringly have done it. But no voice came to him; no call for that moral struggle he craved and for which he was fitted. Only physical force was to be set upon him; and Jezebel’s triumph by his murder would obliterate all he had done, and set back the cause of God. This was the state of mind which induced Elijah’s justifying answer. These were the chief causes of his single failure in faith during a long life of signal heroism for God. B.

9. Cave.** 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 the founder, the other as the 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 Authorized Version—“the cave,” that same cleft in the rock where Moses had stood. 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 sympathizing heart. A. M.

11, 12. Jehovah manifesting Himself in natural forces, and speaking by His Spirit. Wisely and effectually He interposes to reach and relieve the prophet’s tempest-tossed, discouraged heart. Before repeating his gentle reproof, He will instruct Elijah respecting the character of the instruments by which He successfully works among men, the real conditions of failure or success. The method He employs is unusual, but exactly suited to the man and the end aimed at. In those sublime displays of superhuman might—“the great and strong wind that rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks,” the upheaving and convulsion of Horeb itself from base to summit, and the fierce flame filling the air around and above—there was a purposed ministry of soothing. For they were in strange keeping with the mood of Elijah’s stern, excited spirit. Yet in all these he was made to realize that God was not! But following these, after brief, solemnly impressive silence, there fell upon his ear and sank deep into his heart a still small voice. It was, he knew, the voice of the Lord! How plain the lesson! How admirably fitted to correct his erroneous belief! Not by miracle of might, such as had taken place on Carmel, would God work out His gracious purposes with men. Useful, needful as such astounding manifestations might occasionally be to intimidate or arouse, the real work upon the hearts of Israel would be wrought only by the silent, unseen ministries of the Spirit. Not in the bold spirit of conflict, that would measure strength continually with the powers of evil, but in the gentler spirit that speaks the truth in love, and relies upon the silent, inward efficacy of the Holy Ghost. B.

There are gorges near Sinai where at times the wind rushes with such fury that neither man nor beast can stand before the blast; rocks are loosened and hurled across the path, and the mountains bellow with tempest. There are signs that the earthquake has shaken those stupendous masses of rock from base to summit, opening new chasms, and dislodging ancient cliffs. Sometimes the violence of the wind is aggravated by the roar of thunder, and lightnings seem to belch forth from the mountain-tops as from a glaring furnace. In all these grand and terrible phenomena of Nature, Jehovah had spoken from Sinai at the giving of the law; and Elijah naturally looked for Him in like manifestations. But the Lord came to him in the still small voice, rebuking the timidity that distrusted the Lord after the miracles of fire and tempest at Mt. Carmel had ceased. Not miracles alone testify to the presence of God, but equally the silent operation of moral causes, the gradual development of truth, light, and love. Our faith in Providence is distorted when we are always straining after marvels, watching for signs of tempest and earthquake, hearing no voices of the night, seeing no wonders in the dawn. In the moral world, seedtime and harvest are constant, the storm and fire the exceptions. The most potent forces in physical nature, light and heat, are silent in their coming and their working; and, in the moral world, that Coming which has wrought the greatest marvels was in the silence of the night and the lowliness of the manger; that Character which has caused the greatest revolutions in human life and society was His who said, “I am meek and lowly of heart.” Oh, let us humbly, gently, learn of Him! J. P. T.

God is quiet in His workings. Mighty as are His vast machineries in nature, all move quietly in the fulness of His everlasting power. His spirit is quiet as “a still small voice,” though its working is wide as the world. The heavens are quiet while they declare His glory. Comets, meteors, wandering stars, rush and stagger in their courses, but the great orbs that light the steady flow of ages roll in quiet on their way. Christ, the great revelation of God to man, was quiet in the days of His flesh. He did not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. We should be like Him. Anon.

The Lord first passeth by him with the terrible demonstrations of His power—“A great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake the rocks in pieces.” The tearing blast was from God; God was not in it: so was He in it as in His other extraordinary works; not so in it as by it to impart Himself to Elijah. It was the usher, not the carriage, of God. After the wind came an earthquake, more fearful than it. That did but move the air; this, the earth; that beat upon some prominences of earth; this shook it from the centre. After the earthquake came a fire, more fearful than either. The other affected the ear, the feeling; but this lets in horror into the soul by the eye, the quickest and most apprehensive of the senses. Elijah shall see God’s mighty power in the earth, air, fire, before he hear Him in the soft voice. All these are but boisterous harbingers of a meek and still word. 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. H.

The answer comes in wonderfully dramatic and vivid symbols, which are not only perfectly congruous with the character of the entire history, but also full of resemblance to His own vehement mood; the wind, the earthquake, the fire, in which God was not, followed by the still small voice in which God was, were manifestly designed to teach Elijah a great lesson concerning God’s ways of working. Not by great manifestations of physical power, not by coercive and destructive means, does God accomplish spiritual processes, but by means which are silent, gentle, and suasive. Spiritual forces are always such; such were the characteristics of our Lord’s ministry—“He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.” So it is of all ministries which achieve the greatest and profoundest spiritual processes. Achievements of miraculous vindication cation and of avenging bloodshed, such as those of Carmel, are not the true spiritual forces of God’s kingdom. God might sanction them, He might be in them, as in many analogous processes in the after history of His Church, and in the experiences of individual men; but in a much higher and more transforming sense He is in agencies and processes that have the still small voice for their type. It was a lesson in the true methods of Divine working that would not only correct and instruct the prophet, but would also comfort him. It would rebuke his yearning for more palpable judgments or miracles; it would qualify his estimate of what had really been effected on Carmel; and it would encourage him by the suggestion that in thousands of hidden Israelitish hearts quiet, unrecognized spiritual processes were going on. Allon.

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 is 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. A. M.

There is a quiet deepening and strengthening of the spiritual forces in the soul, which every one who seeks it finds. But it is a silent work. So noiseless, so powerful are the energizings of the gentle, persuasive, penetrating, almighty Spirit of God. Believers who live during this dispensation of the Spirit miss the profoundest part of His holy ministration if they know nothing of this sweet, potential, silent tuition. Silent communion, noiseless revelation, voiceless teaching—these are the sources of Christian power. It would encourage us could we see how to-day God is working on the hearts of men with His silent, attractive power. How bold and sure our service of Him would be if we wholly believed in the vast reserve of effectual, silent energy with which He reinforces every act or word for Him! If any heart responds to the messages of mercy which we bear, we may be sure God has been before us, with His noiseless work of preparation. H. C. T.

13-18. The question and answer repeated; subsequent directions and assurance of Jehovah. The loudest, fiercest voices of the elements Elijah could hear without any conscious appeal to heart or conscience. But the still small voice of the present God reached and bowed his soul; while reverently “he wrapped his face in his mantle.” Then while he was still meditating upon the lesson, when in answer to the same question, his naturally self-willed spirit faintly repeated the reasons before assigned, God graciously proceeds to complete the treatment and the cure. He bids Elijah at once to arise, return, and fulfil the work still before him. He assigns him at the outset a specific work (15, 16), adapted to his brave, commanding spirit. And to take away all remnant of his discouragement, He assures the prophet that his ministry at Carmel and other ministries still existing among the people had not failed; that many (seven indicating an indefinite number) thousand hearts were still true to Jehovah; and these had been secretly strengthened and comforted by his manly courage and unyielding faith. So from these instructive acts and impressive lessons of Jehovah, he departed to execute his commission—a wiser and more useful man. His faith in God, his indomitable spirit, and his superiority over human weakness, held firm and unmoved until alone he was borne in the flame-chariot to heaven.

A word respecting the directions given to Elijah. How the command to anoint Hazael and Jehu was fulfilled we do not know, but that in its meaning, which Elijah understood, it was obeyed, we are assured. Hazael became the enemy and oppressor of Israel; and Jehu was God’s instrument in the terrible punishment of Ahab and Jezebel, of the seventy sons of Ahab, and of vast numbers of Baal’s worshippers. The concluding verses (19-21) show that Elijah called Elisha to the chief prophetic office by casting his mantle upon him. He might also have subsequently anointed him. The inspired record carefully selects all and only the important facts. The unimportant and therefore vaguely reported matters furnish the main topics for sceptical question and discussion. B.

13,14. Tranquillity now reigns once more, and the solemn stillness of the sanctuary, as though Horeb, Sinai, mountain cliffs and sand-deserts, aroused from their slumber, are all lying in mute awe and adoration at the feet of Jehovah. A “still small voice” at length breaks the silence, and, though repeating the question, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” yet, somehow, now its accents seem to murmur softly in the very depths of his soul. It is a tender, gentle, complaining voice, as that which said in Gethsemane—“What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” It breaks Elijah’s heart. Abashed, confused, humbled, he covers his face with his mantle; and though he too utters the same words in response, yet how changed their tone and spirit! It is in the accents of a subdued and humbled child—those wailing accents at once of penitence and confidence, which never yet father, that was not a monster, could resist. “I have been very jealous for Jehovah;” thou knowest how sincerely I grieved at the dishonor of His name. Israel—poor children of the covenant—led astray by servants of the devil, has apostatized. Thy prophets, the witnesses for the truth, have all been slain. No other voice than mine remains to be lifted up in testimony for Jehovah. And me they persecute to the death. S. R.

15,16. We must interpret the meaning of the command in accordance with the prophet’s action, judging that he understood what was intended by the words. The word “anoint” is used concerning Jehu and Elisha as well as Hazael; and we know that Elijah did not anoint Elisha, though he could easily have done so, but only made known, by the act of casting his prophetic mantle upon him, that he was called to that office. In the same way then we may understand the rest of the Divine order. Elijah was to receive assurance for himself, and to make known that assurance to others, as he found occasion, that God was still ruling Israel both from without and from within, and would call to the throne of Syria one who should execute His judgments upon His rebellious people, and to the throne of Israel one who should destroy Baal and his worship out of the land. We shall not err, it seems, if we suppose that the knowledge which Elisha had (2 K. 8: 13) when he says, “The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria,” was derived from Elijah’s communication, as also the instruction which led him, at a future day (2 K. 9: 1, 2), to send one of the sons of the prophets to Ramoth-Gilead to anoint Jehu. Hence “anoint” in the text becomes equivalent to “point them out as the anointed ones.” Lumby.

The commissions 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 done at once on his journey, though Abel-meholah, 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 work 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 are only links in a chain, and that we can be done without. God removes the workers and carries on the work. 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 dishonored 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 that merciful energy of the 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 (verse 18), 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. A. M.

Thus reanimated for his remaining work, he was sent to prepare for three great changes affecting the state of Israel: to anoint Hazael as the future king of Syria, in place of Benhadad; Jehu, the son of Nimshi, as king of Israel, in place of Ahab’s house; and Elisha, the son of Shaphat, to be prophet in succession to himself. These three were to follow each other in the destruction of the worshippers of Baal. Elijah only performed in person the last of the three acts, the designation of Elisha, leaving to him the other two, which he himself found no opportunity to execute. P. S.

17. Hazael, Jehu, Elisha—all the three were to be instruments of the Divine wrath, and ministers of the Divine vengeance upon degenerate Israel. The execution of judgment against sinful Israel may be clearly traced in the case of each of the three persons named. For after Hazael succeeded to the throne of Syria he was a constant thorn in the side of Israel. We read that in these days “the Lord began to cut Israel short,” and that “Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel” (2 K. 10 : 32); that a little later “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael, king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad, son of Hazael, all their days;” while it is even said in yet stronger language, that the king of Syria had “made them like the dust by threshing” (2 K. 13 : 3, 7). If Hazael thus scourged Israel as a people, still more did Jehu scourge Ahab and Jezebel and all their house. So terrible was the work of extermination upon which he entered when he took possession of the throne, that it has been justly described as one “hitherto unparalleled in the history of the Jewish monarchy.” Nor did Jehu prove himself less the scourge of those worshippers of Baal with whom Ahab’s house had been so closely identified. And Elisha was also in like manner a warning and a scourge to the idolaters of his time.

18. These words immediately follow: “Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” The words, as correctly given in the Revised Version, contain more than an intimation that, though Elijah had thought himself alone, there were seven thousand in Israel still faithful to the truth. They are also a promise that, amid all the judgments that were to follow, seven thousand would be found worthy to escape them, because they would refuse to yield to the general apostasy of the people. The promise, when correctly interpreted, implies more than it is generally supposed to include—not merely that at that moment there was a remnant according to the election of grace, and that Elijah did not stand alone in his allegiance to the Almighty, but that that election would be preserved through all the judgments that were to follow. There were times of heavy trial in store for the Church of God in Israel, in the midst of which many would fall and be overwhelmed. Yet, whatever might happen to the merely outward members of the body, the Lord knew them that were His. W. M.

The Lord knows them that are His, though we do not; He sees them in secret. There are more good people in the world than some wise and holy men think there are. Their jealousy of themselves, and for God, makes them think the corruption is universal; but God sees not as they do. God’s love often proves larger than man’s charity, and more extensive. H.

So the fainting prophet is restored. A new body has the Divine Physician prepared him and a new spirit has He put within him. And with faith and courage comes hope. To the eyes of the recovered prophet there is a future for God and His kingdom. Elijah now knows that God will remain in the world-field even after he himself finally departs; so he begins to reach forth the anointing hand to marshal the forces which shall win in the coming days of the Lord. It is a great thing for a prophet—ay, a great thing for a man—to be brought beyond the power of doubting that God is in this world to stay—in this world for victory after victory until every foe is vanquished. Such a one will fall into his little grave with eye strained to catch the bursting glory and hand reached forth to grasp the banner of the coming Lord. S. S. Mitchell.

19,20. Leaving Horeb, and again traversing the great desert of the wandering, Elijah again enters Judah, probably by Beersheba and Hebron; but, avoiding Jerusalem, he descends through Engedi into the great Jordan valley; ascending it he comes to a field at Abel-meholah in the north, where he finds Elisha ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, himself with the twelfth. For three years and a half this was the first spring-time that gave promise of a harvest, and we may imagine the joyous toil of the husbandmen. The appearance of Elijah was sudden and startling. Apparently without speaking a word, Elijah throws his prophet’s mantle over the shoulders of the young farmer—a well-understood symbolical act—and passes on. Whatever Elisha may have felt, he expresses no surprise, utters no remonstrance either of unwillingness or modesty; but leaving his plough, he runs after Elijah, accepts his calling, and simply requests permission to bid his family farewell. In laconic speech, strange as his abrupt action, Elijah bids him go: “Go, and return, for thou knowest what I have done unto thee.” Elisha turns back for this purpose, and kills the yoke of oxen with which he had been ploughing, for a farewell feast, as well perhaps as to indicate his renunciation of his old calling, and then follows Elijah. And for the next six years, during which we hear nothing of Elijah’s dodings, his solitary spirit was to find companionship in the gentle, soothing ministry of this young prophetic Timothy. The chief thought with Elijah would be that his mission was ended, and his successor appointed—“Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” It is a strange succession: Elijah, the rough Bedouin of Mount Gilead, the prophet of fire—Elisha, the gentle son of a pastoral home, a herdsman of the valley; the one a Boanerges, the other a Barnabas. Yet such is the succession whereby God carries on His work, and whereby it is best carried on; these men represent the two elements that must enter, perhaps alternately, into all great spiritual work. Allon.

Elisha’s native place was at Abel-meholah (the meadow of the dance), a place in the valley of the Jordan, near its junction with the plain of Jezreel. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, himself guiding the twelfth, a proof of the wealth he abandoned to “put his hand to the plough” of Jehovah, when Elijah arrived on his way up the valley toward Damascus, and, without saying a word, cast his prophet’s mantle upon Elisha, as if claiming him for a son. Elisha, with a heart prepared by God, only begged to give his father and mother a parting embrace, and Elijah consented, in words implying a keen feeling of Elisha’s separation from his parents and home. P. S.

The act of Elijah, as, in passing by, he unfastened his mantle and threw it over Elisha, was deeply significant. It meant that the one was to appear like the other—that he was to hold the same office, and to discharge the same functions. With the quickness of a ready heart, the son of Shaphat understood the meaning of this action. It was not to a position of wealth, of ease, or of influence he now felt called. On the contrary, all this had to be relinquished. He, a man of peace, was called from home, friends, and comforts, to endure hardship, to suffer persecution, to bear scorn. Yet he offered not frivolous excuses nor unbelieving objections, but arose and followed the Master. Elijah had passed on, as if unconcerned how Elisha received the call. It had been addressed to him, and it was his part voluntarily to decide for or against its acceptance. This explains what follows in the narrative. Hastening after the prophet, Elisha requested permission to bid farewell to his family and friends; or, as Matthew Henry puts it, he would “take leave, not ask leave.” The answer of Elijah, “Go back, for what have I done unto thee?” is intended not as a rebuke, but as a trial. It meant, in effect, Unless your heart fully responds, if it fondly lingers on the past, go back to your home. A. E.

21. The feast here partaken of was not an ordinary festival, but a feast after a sacrifice. It was the pledge that those who partook of it were in covenant with God, that they had surrendered themselves to His service, and that they were at peace with Him. Looked at in this light, the whole transaction now recorded assumes an aspect wholly different from that in which we commonly regard it. Instead of supplying evidence of even momentary hesitation upon Elisha’s part, it indicates that the future prophet not only renounced the world, but that he was desirous to tell the world that he did so. And if it shows that he had tender affections and friendly feelings, it shows also that he had learned from the moment when Elijah cast his mantle upon him to count all things but loss for the excellency of the service to which he had then been summoned. The force and vigor of Elisha’s character appear as conspicuously in this scene as they do in every other action of his life. W. M.—When that call came it was obeyed without a question. He asked not to what it would lead, or where he was to go. There was no bargaining with God. The response was immediate and unequivocal. It was, “Here am I, send me,” of one of after days. It is this ready obedience that honors God. F. Whitfield.

Suggested Truths.

God’s mightiest, most productive working in nature, His widest, most radical, and effective movements in providence, including all useful and permanent effects wrought in the advance of civilization and the growth of the Church, and His enlightening and transforming force within the individual soul, all alike are mainly produced by silent, invisible, and seemingly inadequate agencies. B.

The silent affections, the splendors of an interior devotion, the unions of love, humility, and obedience, the daily offices of prayer and praises sung to God, the acts of faith and fear, of patience and meekness, of hope and reverence, repentance and charity, and those graces which walk in a veil and silence, make great ascents to God, and as sure progress to favor and a crown as the more ostentatious and laborious exercises of a more solemn religion. Many times God is present in the “still voice” and private retirements of a quiet religion, and the constant spiritualities of an ordinary life; when the loud and impetuous winds, and the shining fires of far more laborious and expensive actions, are profitable to others only. Bp. J. Taylor.

The allegory wrought out by such terrific symbols on Horeb, taken in connection with the ultimate failure of Elijah’s popular demonstration at Carmel, conveys this most instructive truth; that the means and agencies which ensure success in spiritual undertakings are not the visible and demonstrative, not those which are apparently popular and striking. They are found alone in the quiet ministry of the truth by the Spirit. The true work of God in human hearts is not carried on by the mere stimulus of popular preaching and the consequent excitement of listening throngs, or by any of the accessory methods by which sensation is produced. It is wrought by the faithful, persistent inculcation of pure truth, directed and accompanied by the unseen ministry, gentle but resistless, of the Holy Spirit. B.

There are many professors of religion who are never happy except they see a revival. They only live fully in an atmosphere of sensation and excitement. They crave for electric conversions, for a ministry of signs and wonders. They are dissatisfied and unhappy when the Church of God is at its normal pulse, working quietly yet steadily, silently yet solidly, at the building of the Lord’s Temple. The lesson many need in these days is, that God’s best work is not done by miracles but by ordinary agencies. And the true test of religion, the proof whereby our attachment to God’s work is to be evinced, lies in steady effort under commonplace conditions, in faithfulness in little things. “God,” writes Mr. Ruskin in an eloquent passage in “Modern Painters”—“God is not in the earthquake nor in the lightning, but in the still small voice. They are but the blunt and low faculties of our nature, which can only be addressed through lampblack and lightning. It is in quiet and subdued passages of unobtrusive majesty; the deep, and the calm and the perpetual, that which must be sought ere it is seen, and loved ere it is understood; things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet very eternally, which are never wanting, and never repeated; which are to be found always, yet each found but once. It is through these that the lesson of devotion is chiefly taught and the blessing of beauty given.” Interior.

Wonderfully does Christ’s way on earth confirm the teaching of this Divine manifestation on Horeb. Never did He put forth the terrible might locked up in His hand, except in ministries of gentleness, or in confirmation of His calm and loving words. Except against conscious hypocrites, destroyers of souls, His was ever the still small voice, unheard in the streets. “The bruised reed he did not break, nor quench the smoking flax.”

As with the “elders who obtained a good report,” so now every true follower of God has points and periods of special weakness; and his chief failures and defections lie exactly in the line and at the point of his peculiar excellencies. This fact rightly interpreted (in the light of this Old Testament history) may afford comfort to the consciously self-consecrated believer in his occasional lapses from duty. And it answers the error or cavil of the unbeliever, who sees the Christian’s defection, but not his after-sorrow toward God.

Where there is truth in the heart, God’s forbearance is very great with human weaknesses and defections, however extreme. Even more impressively is this illustrated in the cases of Abraham, Jacob, and David, and in those of Moses and Elijah. And Christ forbore with all sinners save hypocrites.

The faithful laborer sometimes makes Elijah’s double mistake—of thinking his labor useless, and that his work for God is done. But God’s wise, kind interposition always corrects this mistake. And gladly, bravely the worker goes on, waiting until God shall intimate that his work is finished.

God’s remedy for a discouraged, disgusted, lonely heart, is twofold: Work and Trust! Yielding to despondency, repining or retiring before disappointment, or folding the hands in the protracted indulgence of even a desolating grief, are acts of unbelief, of selfish weakness, and moral cowardice. No believer, however sorely stricken, has here a right to a prolonged rest of inaction. No sorrowing, burdened heart may rightly say “It is enough! Let me now die!” For with life there is work to which God bids us set every energy of our nature. And in work is found the best relief and firmest support. Trust, too, with work! Trust in God’s assurances that He, quietly but effectually, will bring good for us and for others out of every disheartening disappointment, out of all painful toil and suffering. B.

“What does thou here?” To every human being this question must be suggested, “Why am I doing what I do, thinking what I think, seeing what I see?” Work and recreation are equally legitimate, if each is treated as part of the will of God. There may be very good reasons for spending portions of our life on Horeb as well as upon Carmel, but the essential point is, that we should be where we are, that we should be doing what we do, because, so far as we know, He who has given us the gift of life wills this, wills nothing else respecting us. Liddon.—Emphatically to the spiritually idle, world-busy, but soul-careless, God’s question comes sharply home, What does thou here? All doing is worse than useless that bears not wisely and savagely upon the soul’s supreme relation to God. For the end of such doing is utter failure and eternal loss. Therefore, with His question, hear also His loving command, “Son, go work to-day in My vineyard.” B.

Throughout the whole history of Elijah we see a striking harmony of the highest miraculous with the simplicity and truthfulness of the ordinary life. What a charm they have for us, and, at the same time, how morally impressive these life-like pictures of the ancient Israel! The prophet’s sojourn “by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan,” his journey to “Sarepta, a city which is near unto Sidon,” the widow’s unfailing cruse of oil, long since passed into a proverbial saying to denote the unfailing providence of God, that graphic scene where Elijah sends his servant to watch from the top of Carmel the signals of the coming rain, the repose under the juniper-tree, the heaven-provided sustenance, the Lord’s talking with the prophet at the cave in Horeb, the familiar yet startling question, “Where art thou, Elijah?” how life-like is it all! how truth-like in the midst of the most astoundingly marvellous, how minute in circumstantial fact, and yet, with no loss of dignity, no abatement of ever-thrilling awe! And then, that pure religious teaching present in every act! it is this that gives it such a moral consistency, taking away its incredibility, and making it so unlike the unmeaning and impure wonders of a false religion.

Thus, especially, does that most remarkable scene in Horeb rise to the very height of the natural as well as the sublime. It is just what we are led to expect—Deity so holding converse with His faithful servant, the ever-present One thus talking in the solitude of nature to the man who, for His sake and for His worship’s sake, had fled from the world! If it is not so with us in our own personal experience, we cannot help feeling that there must be a lack of that religious intercourse, that personal nearness to God, which would make it seem as probable as it is in itself both rational and true. But how easy, we may say, are such associations of thought and feeling in connection with these striking narratives. The two departments of the world seem to blend together. In its association with the deeply and fearfully religious, the natural acquires a new dignity; it seems to rise up into the region of the supernatural. On the awful summit of Horeb nature becomes Divine; and we can hardly tell which has most to impress the soul—the “fire, the wind, the earthquake,” or the still small voice that attests the near presence of the higher power. We are lifted up to a plane of thought where much becomes credible that would altogether transcend belief if viewed from the lower horizon of the soul. It is just because the constant reading of the Scriptures produces this elevation of thought, that its miraculous retains that hold upon the Christian faith which the sceptic cannot understand. T. Lewis.

AHAB’S DOUBLE VICTORY OVER BENHADAD OF SYRIA, THROUGH DIVINE COUNSEL AND HELP. HIS DISOBEDIENCE DENOUNCED AND ADJUDGED BY JEHOVAH.