1 Kings 18:25

_AND ELIJAH SAID UNTO THE PROPHETS OF BAAL, CHOOSE YOU ONE BULLOCK FOR YOURSELVES, AND DRESS IT FIRST; FOR YE_ _ AND ELIJAH SAID UNTO THE PROPHETS OF BAAL, CHOOSE YOU ONE BULLOCK FOR YOURSELVES, AND DRESS IT FIRST; FOR YE ARE MANY; AND CALL ON THE NAME OF YOUR GODS, BUT PUT NO FIRE UNDER._ Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves. The priests of Baal commenced the ceremony by calling on their god. In vain did they continue invoking their senseless deity from morning until noon, and from noon until evening, uttering the most piercing cries, using the most frantic gesticulations, and mingling their blood with the sacrifice. (See description of the manner and invocation of the pagan, Osborne's 'Palestine,' p. 253; Roberts, 'Oriental Illustrations,' in loco; Davy's 'Travels in Ceylon;' and Dr. Marshall, 'Ceylon.')...

21-40 Many of the people wavered in their judgment, and varied in their practice. Elijah called upon them to determine whether Jehovah or Baal was the self-existent, supreme God, the Creator, Governor, and Judge of the world, and to follow him alone. It is dangerous to halt between the service of God and the service of sin, the dominion of Christ and the dominion of our lusts. If Jesus be the only Saviour, let us cleave to him alone for every thing; if the Bible be the world of God, let us reverence and receive the whole of it, and submit our understanding to the Divine teaching it contains. Elijah proposed to bring the matter to a trial. Baal had all the outward advantages, but the event encourages all God's witnesses and advocates never to fear the face of man. The God that answers by fire, let him be God: the atonement was to be made by sacrifice, before the judgment could be removed...

Verse 25. _FOR YE_ ARE _MANY_] And therefore shall have the preference, and the advantage of being first in your application to the deity....

Elijah gives precedence in everything to the Baal-priests, to take away all ground for cavil in case of failure. It is his object to make an impression on king and people; and he feels rightly that the impression will depend greatly on the contrast between their inability and the power given to him....

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 UNTO THE PROPHETS OF BAAL,.... Who agreed to this proposal, though not expressed; or they signified it by their silence. Ben Gersom thinks they agreed to it, because that, according to their belief, Baal was Mars, and in the sign of Aries, one of the fiery planets, and therefore fancied he could send down fire on their sacrifice; but Abarbinel is of opinion that it was the sun they worshipped, under the name of Baal, the great luminary which presides over the element of fire, and therefore had power to cause it to descend; and if not, they agreed to it, he thinks, for three reasons; one was necessity, they could not refuse, after the people had approved of it, lest they should rise upon them, and stone them; and another was, that Elijah proposed to offer without the temple, contrary to the law of his God, and therefore concluded he would not answer him by fire, and so the...

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 ...

_the prophets of Baal_ Here, as above in 1 Kings 18:19, the LXX., instead of -Baal" has τῆς αἰσχύνης. See note there. The pomp and splendour of the priests of Baal glittering no doubt with gorgeous vestments (cf. 2 Kings 10:22) would shew the more because of the rough shaggy garb of the Tishbite, whose congenial abode was the mountain tops or the fastnesses of Gilead....

B. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEST 18:21-40 The story of the contest on Carmel is one that has excited the imagination of believers through the centuries. The narrative is somewhat lengthy and may for convenience be discussed under the following heads: (1) The preliminaries of the contest (1 Kings 18:21-24); (2) the prayers of the Baal prophets (1 Kings 18:25-29); (3) the preparations and prayer of Elijah (1 Kings 18:30-38); and (4) the punishment of the false prophets (1 Kings 18:39-40). _1. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE CONTEST_ ...