1 Kings 18:15

_AND HE ANSWERED HIM, I AM: GO, TELL THY LORD, BEHOLD, ELIJAH IS HERE._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-16 The severest judgments, of themselves, will not humble or change the hearts of sinners; nothing, except the blood of Jesus Christ, can atone for the guilt of sin; nothing, except the sanctifying Spirit of God, can purge away its pollution. The priests and the Levites were gone to Judah and Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 11:13; 2 Chronicles 11:14, but instead of them God raised up prophets, who read and expounded the word. They probably were from the schools of the prophets, first set up by Samuel. They had not the spirit of prophecy as Elijah, but taught the people to keep close to the God of Israel. These Jezebel sought to destroy. The few that escaped death were forced to hide themselves. God has his remnant among all sorts, high and low; and that faith, fear, and love of his name, which a...

EXPOSITION ELIJAH'S RETURN AND THE ORDEAL OF MOUNT CARMEL.—The preceding chapter having been exclusively occupied with the fortunes of Elijah during his enforced absence of three and a half years from the land of Israel, we are left to conjecture what the course of events in the northern kingdom during this period of drought and suffering must have been. But it is not difficult to picture in our minds the steadily increasing alarm and distress which the solemn ban he had pronounced must have occasioned. At one time, it may be, especially if the prophet up to that period had been unknown, both king and people, under the malign influence of Jezebel, professed to regard his threatening with contempt, the more so as the priests of Baal would not fail to assure them of the protection and blessing of "the Lord" of nature. But as the

AND ELIJAH SAID, AS THE LORD OF HOSTS LIVETH, BEFORE WHOM I STAND,.... In whose presence he was, and whose prophet and minister he was; he takes this oath, to assure Obadiah that he would certainly be upon the spot, or to be found, and not expose him to any danger: I WILL SURELY SHOW MYSELF UNTO HIM TODAY; he was determined at all events to present himself to him that day....

2. ELIJAH ON CARMEL: THE ANSWERED PRAYER CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The command to see Ahab (1 Kings 18:1)_ 2. Elijah's response (1 Kings 18:2) 3. Ahab and Obadiah (1 Kings 18:3) 4. Elijah and Obadiah (1 Kings 18:7) 5. Elijah meets Ahab (1 Kings 18:16) 6. Elijah's demand (1 Kings 18:19) 7. The events on Carmel (1 Kings 18:20

ELIJAH'S MEETING WITH AHAB AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. The history of Ahab's reign must have been something like the following: On his marriage with Jezebel he must have allowed the worship of the Baal of Tyre and been met with the remonstrances of the prophets. Furious at their opposition, Jezebel had massacred a large number, but the king's steward had supported the cause of Yahweh (1 Kings 18:4); so Ahab cannot have been wholly ill-disposed to those who were faithful to the God of Israel. But he had no mercy for the leader of the whole movement, Elijah, who had prophesied the drought. He was sought in every neighbouring kingdom as the author of all the agitation, the troubler of Israel. In the meantime Jezebel had organised the worship of the Baal, and supported at her own. cost four hundred and fifty prophets ...

BEFORE, &C. See note on 1 Kings 17:1....

_I will surely shew myself unto him to day_ With this assurance Obadiah is satisfied, and goes to find Ahab....

II. THE GREAT CONTEST ON CARMEL 18:1-46 Events in Israel during the years of Elijah's self-imposed exile are not narrated in any detail. No doubt at first Jezebel and the Baal prophets assured the people that their god controlled the weather and not Yahweh. But as the months and years of drought continued, the people were increasingly filled with apprehension and alarm over the threat which Elijah had pronounced. Ahab scoured the countryside and even surrounding nations in an attempt to locate the Tishbite in order to vent his wrath upon the one who was regarded as the author of all the famine misery. Unable to get her hands on Elijah himself, Jezebel unleashed a fierce persecution on the prophetic order of which he was recognized as the head. But as the drought continued into the third and fourth years it is quite possible that the attitude of the people began to change. Maybe Baal and...

JEHOVAH OR BAAL? 1. In the third year] in Luke 4:2; James 5:17 the duration of the famine is given as 3 years and 6 months....