1 Kings 18:17

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN AHAB SAW ELIJAH, THAT AHAB SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU HE THAT TROUBLETH ISRAEL?_ Art thou he that troubleth Israel? A violent altercation took place. Ahab thought to awe him into submission; but the prophet boldly and undisguisedly told the king that the national calamity was traceable chiefly to his own and his family's patronage and practice of idolatry. But while rebuking the sins, Elijah paid all due respect to the high rank, of the offender, and urged the king to convene, by virtue of his royal mandate, a public assembly, in whose presence it might be solemnly decided which was the troubler of Israel. The appeal could not well be resisted, and Ahab, from whatever motive, consented to the proposal. God directed and overruled the issue....

17-20 One may guess how people stand affected to God, by observing how they stand affected to his people and ministers. It has been the lot of the best and most useful men, like Elijah, to be called and counted the troublers of the land. But those who cause God's judgments do the mischief, not he that foretells them, and warns the nation to repent....

ART THOU HE ... - Meaning, “Can it possibly be that thou dost venture to present thyself before me, thou that troublest Israel by means of this terrible drought?” The charge of “troubling” had never before been brought against anyone but Achan (marginal reference “e”); it was one which must have called to the prophet’s recollection Achan’s miserable fate....

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 IT CAME TO PASS WHEN AHAB SAW ELIJAH,.... As soon as he came up to him, and knew who he was; Abarbinel thinks, because his hair was grown so long that Ahab did not know him certainly, and therefore put the following question: THAT AHAB SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU HE THAT TROUBLETH ISRAEL? by opposing the religion of Baal, which prevailed among them; but chiefly rain being withheld from them according to his word, and at his prayer....

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 ...

TROUBLETH. Compare Joshua 7:25 with Joshua 6:18, and 1 Chronicles 2:7, ISRAEL. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for Israelitish people....

Meeting of Ahab and Elijah. Baal proved to be no god. Slaughter of Baal's prophets (Not in Chronicles) 17. Art _thou he that troubleth Israel?_ R.V. IS IT THOU, THOU TROUBLER OF ISRAEL? For Ahab would ascribe the drought and consequent famine directly to Elijah, after the language of 1 Kings 17:1....

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...