1 Kings 17 (Israel)
1-7 Elijah Predicts a Drought
- Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, tells Ahab there will be drought
- God tells Elijah to go live (hide from Ahab) by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan, where wadi provides him water, and the ravens bring him bread and meat
- However, the wadi eventually dries up.
- So God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath in Sidon, where he has a commanded a widow to feed Elijah.
- When he gets there, he finds her gathering sticks for a fire to cook a last meal for her and her son, because they are down to their last meal and oil.
- He promises her that if she will give him some of the bread, her meal and oil will not run out.
- She does so, and his promise is fulfilled; they eat for many days.
- After those days, the widow's son becomes ill and dies.
- The widow rails against Elijah, blaming him for her son's death.
- Elijah carries the child up to his room, covers him with his own body, and pleads to God for the child's life.
- The child revives, and the woman acknowledges that Elijah is a man of God and that he speaks the truth. The never-ending oil and meal are not enough to show this?
1-19 Elijah's Message to Ahab
- In the 3rd year of the drought, God tells Elijah to go to Ahab and tell him God is sending rain.
- In the meantime, in Samaria, where the drought is severe, Ahab sends for his servant Obadiah, who is in charge of the palace.
- (Obadiah is a follower of God; previously he had hid 100 prophets in a cave when Jezebel was "killing off" God's prophets.)
- Ahab instructs Obadiah to help him look for creeks throughout the land to find water for their cattle. Ahab goes one way, Obadiah the other.
- On the way, Obadiah meets Elijah, who asks him to tell Ahab of his presence.
- Obadiah responds, Are you kidding? They've been looking all over for you, and sure enough, as soon as I tell them you're here, you'll disappear somewhere, and they'll have my head!
- Elijah assures him he won't go anywhere, and Obadiah goes to fetch Ahab.
- Ahab greets Elijah as "trouble of Israel." Isn't that typical? Those who tell the truth of God are considered troublers rather than those who are disobeying him.
- Elijah: You and all your father's house are the ones who have troubled Israel because of your disobedience.
- Elijah asks Ahab to assemble Israel at Mt. Carmel, with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah who "eat at Jezebel's table."
- Elijah challenges the people to stop "limping with two different opinions." Choose either God or Baal.
- He calls for two bulls and challenges the prophets of Baal to prepare theirs for sacrifice and call on their god to light it with fire. From morning until noon they call, finally "limping" around the altar.
- Elijah mocks them: Maybe your god is meditating, or has wandered away, is on a journey, or maybe even asleep! They begin cutting themselves until they bleed. Yet there is still "no voice, no answer, and no response."
- Elijah: Watch this! He repairs the damaged altar of God with 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes. He digs a trench around the altar, prepares the bull and puts it on the altar, and 3 times has them pour 4 jars of water on the burnt offering, until the wood is soaked and the trench is full of water.
- He makes a short appeal to God, fire comes from God, consumes the burnt offering, wood, stones, dust and evaporates all the water.
- The people fall on their faces and recognize God as LORD.
- Elijah orders the prophets of Baal seized, takes them to the Wadi Kishon and kills them.
41-46 The End of the Drought
- Elijah tells Ahab to go up, eat and drink, for he hears rain, and Ahab does so.
- Elijah goes to the top of Carmel and bows down with his face between his knees. He keeps telling his servant to look toward the sea to check for rain. The first time, nothing, the next six times, nothing. The seventh time, a little cloud.
- He sends his servant to tell Ahab to board his chariot before the rain prevents him. The rain comes, and Ahab rides off to Jezreel, but, with strength provided by God, Elijah runs ahead of Ahab. According to a Jamieson, Fausset, Brown commentary,
...it was customary for kings and nobles to have runners before their chariots, who are tightly girt for the purpose. The prophet, like the Bedouins of his native Gilead, had been trained to run; and, as the Lord was with him, he continued with unabated agility and strength. It was, in the circumstances, a most proper service for Elijah to render. It tended to strengthen the favorable impression made on the heart of Ahab and furnished an answer to the cavils of Jezebel for it showed that he who was so zealous in the service of God, was, at the same time, devotedly loyal to his king. The result of this solemn and decisive contest was a heavy blow and great discouragement to the cause of idolatry. But subsequent events seem to prove that the impressions, though deep, were but partial and temporary.
1 Kings 19
1-9 Elijah Flees from Jezebel
- When Jezebel hears of the contest from Ahab, she threatens Elijah, and he runs. It's always worthy of remarking here that in a contest with 450 false prophets, Elijah shows no fear, but the threat of one woman terrifies him. Rather then being emboldened by that experience, he is exhausted.
- Leaving his servant in Beersheba, he goes into the wilderness and asks God to take his life, then he falls asleep.
- An angel wakes him, provides food for him, and tells him to travel. He gets to Horeb 40 days later on the strength of that one meal.
- v. 10 God comes to Elijah, and he tells God that he is zealous for him, but he's the only one left, and they're wanting to kill him.
- God tells Elijah to stand out on the mountain, "for the LORD is about to pass by."
- Though a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire come up, the LORD does not appear in any of them. But after the fire, there's a "sound of sheer silence." Even though I'm more familiar with the KJV's "the still, small voice" here, this description may be even more powerful. It had been so noisy up there on that mountain, the silence must have been especially "deafening" and would certainly get Elijah's attention.
- "When Elijah heard it," he emerged from the cave (where, I presume, he had been hiding from all that weather), wrapping his face with his mantle. The storm is gone, he hears this silence, yet he protects his face with his cloak Could it be that he was anxious about what would happen next -- like emerging from a basement after a tornado?
- A voice comes to him, and Elijah and God have the same conversation they had back in verse 10.
- God tells Elijah to go to the wilderness of Damascus and anoint Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as prophet in Elijah's place. Jehu will kill whoever Hazael does not, and Elisha will kill whoever Jehu does not. Except for Elijah, the other two do not seem to happen, at least not immediately.
- Yet God will leave 7000 in Israel who have not "bowed to Baal."
- Elijah goes and finds Elisha son of Shaphat plowing with 12 oxen. Elijah throws his mantle over him, and Elisha asks to go back home to say goodbye to his family.
- Elisha goes back, slaughters the oxen, and using the wood from their equipment, he boils their meat and gives it to the people. Maybe instead of saying we "burn our bridges behind us," we should say "boil our oxen."
- Then he returns to follow Elijah.
1-12 Ahab's Wars with the Arameans
- King Ben-hadad of Aram gathers his army, with 32 other kings, and attacks Samaria, then sends a message to Ahab demanding his silver, gold, his "fairest wives and children."
- Ahab's answer? "I am yours, and all that I have." Which is what you would expect this weak king to answer.
- Ben-hadad: I'm also sending my soldiers to ransack your houses and take whatever they want. After Ahab consults with the people, he refuses to allow him to do this.
- Ben-hadad boasts that after he's finished with Samaria, there won't even be a handful of dirt to go around for each of his followers.
- Ahab: "One who puts on armor should not brag like one who takes it off." Another expression that would be fun to remember, but I'm not sure when I'd ever use it!
- When Ben-hadad receives Ahab's message, he's drinking with the kings, and immediately orders his men to take their positions.
- A "certain prophet" tells Ahab the LORD will deliver Ben-hadad's army to his hands by the young men who serve the district governors.
- Ahab musters 232 of the young men, with 7,000 Israelites, and they go out at noon, when Ben-hadad is drunk.
- Benhadad's scouts tell him the Israelites are approaching, but it's too late -- the Israelites overcome the Arameans, though Ben-hadad escapes.
- The prophet warns Ahab that Ben-hadad will return in the spring.
- Ben-hadad's servants tell him the reason they were defeated before is because Israel's gods are "of the hills." If they can meet them on the plain, it will be different.
- So in the spring they go to Aphek to fight the Israel, and even though the Arameans "fill the country," while Israel is like "two little flocks of goats," the Israelites kill 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. The rest flee into the city of Aphek, and a wall falls on 27,000 of them.
- Ben-hadad has also fled into the city to hide, and his servants convince him to humble himself and plead to Ahab for mercy. Ahab accepts him, calling him "his brother," and makes a treaty: for Benhadad's promise to restore towns he has taken from Samaria, Ahab lets Ben-hadad go.
- "At the command of the LORD," A prophet asks another to strike him, but the 2nd one refuses. Because in this he disobeys God, a lion kills the 2nd prophet.
- He asks another man to do the same, and the man does.
- Then the prophet disguises himself with a bandage over his eyes and waits by the side of the road for the king to pass by. When he does, the prophet tells him he was supposed to protect a man, at the risk of his own life or a talent of silver, but the man has disappeared. The king replies: "So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it." In other words, you made the promise, you must keep it.
- The prophet reveals himself, and using himself as an object lesson, tells Ahab that because he spared his enemy, he would lose both his life and his people. Per commentaries, 1) God didn't even spare the prophet's friend from disobedience. How could Ahab spare Ben-hadad? 2) Ahab hadn't carried out God's wishes in destroying his enemy.
- Ahab returns to Samaria "resentful and sullen."
1-16 Naboth's Vineyard
- Back at home, Ahab is coveting the vineyard beside the palace, which belongs to Naboth the Jezreelite, but Naboth refuses to sell or trade his "ancestral inheritance."
- Ahab goes to bed and pouts, refusing to eat.
- When Jezebel learns the reason for his depression, she promises him she'll take care of it.
- Under Ahab's seal, she sends out letters to city elders and nobles, telling them to proclaim a fast, seat Naboth at the head of the assembly and appoint two scoundrels to accuse him of cursing God and the king, then to stone him to death.
- They do as she says and report back to her, and she tells Ahab to go ahead and take possession of his vineyard.
- God sends Elijah to tell Ahab (who is in Naboth's vineyard at the time) that "in the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood." This appears to be the last straw for God -- this ultimate show of Ahab's inhumanity and weakness. Even though he didn't kill Naboth, he allowed Jezebel to do his dirty work without question.
- Ahab calls Elijah his enemy, to which Elijah responds with the same curse that God had put on Jeroboam, that his family would be wiped out.
- And, by the way, the dogs will eat Jezebel.
- (There was no one like Ahab, who "sold himself to do...evil...urged on by his wife Jezebel.")
- At Elijah's pronouncement, Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and fasts.
- At these signs of Ahab's humility before him, God relents from killing Ahab, and promises instead to punish his family in the next generation.
- Jehoshaphat, Asa's successor, fortifies Judah's cities.
- God is with Jehoshaphat, who walks in the "earlier ways of his father" (Asa).
- He sends officials - Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Michaiah -- to teach the book of the law of the LORD in the cities of Judah, with several (named) Levites and two priests.
- The kingdoms around Judah have great respect for him and do not make war. Rather, the Philistines bring him tribute: silver, livestock.
- He builds up great armies with great warriors and great commanders:
- Judah
- Adnah, commander of 300,000 warriors
- Jehohanan - 280,000
- Amasiah - 200,000
- Benjamin
- Elida - 200,000
- Jehozabad - 180,000
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