1 Kings 18:3

_AND AHAB CALLED OBADIAH, WHICH WAS THE GOVERNOR OF HIS HOUSE. (NOW OBADIAH FEARED THE LORD GREATLY:_ Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. Although he did not follow the course taken by the Levites and the majority of pious Israelites at that time, of emigration into Judah (2 Chronicles 11:13), he was a secret and sincere worshipper. He probably considered the violent character of the government, and his power of doing some good to the persecuted people of God, as a sufficient excuse for his not going to worship in Jerusalem....

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...

Verse 1 Kings 18:3. _OBADIAH FEARED THE LORD GREATLY_] He was a sincere and zealous worshipper of the true God, and his conduct towards the persecuted prophets was the full proof both of his _piety_ and _humanity_....

Obadiah’s name, “servant of Yahweh,” indicates his religious character. It corresponds to the modern Arabic name Abdallah. Ahab could scarcely have been ignorant of Obadiah’s faithfulness to Yahweh; and it tells in favor of the monarch’s tolerance that he should have maintained an adherent of the old religion in so important an office. There seems to be no doubt that the worst deeds of Ahab’s reign sprang less from his own free will and natural disposition than from the evil counsels, or rather perhaps the imperious requirements, of his wife....

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 AHAB CALLED OBADIAH, WHICH WAS THE GOVERNOR OF HIS HOUSE,.... Perhaps his steward: the Jews m take him to be Obadiah the prophet, who wrote the small prophecy that goes by his name: (NOW OBADIAH FEARED THE LORD GREATLY:) who, though he did not go up to Jerusalem to worship, which ceremonial service was dispensed with in him, yet he did not worship the calves, nor Baal, but served the Lord in a spiritual manner. m T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 39. 2....

OBADIAH In such a time as the reign of Ahab and Jezebel a believer's true place was by Elijah's side. Obadiah is a warning type of the men of God who adhere to the world while still seeking to serve God. The secret of the Lord, and the power of the Lord were with Elijah, the separated servant. Compare (2 Timothy 2:20). FEARED (_ See Scofield) - (Psalms 19:9). _...

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 ...

GOVERNOR OF. governor over. Now. Figure of speech _Parenthesis._ App-6....