1 Kings 18:36

_AND ELIJAH TOOK TWELVE STONES, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE TRIBES OF THE SONS OF JACOB, UNTO WHOM THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME, SAYING, ISRAEL SHALL BE THY NAME:_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 36. _LORD GOD OF ABRAHAM_] He thus addressed the Supreme Being, that they might know when the answer was given, that it was the _same_ God whom the patriarchs and their fathers worshipped, and thus have _their hearts turned back again_ to the true religion of their ancestors....

AT THE TIME OF THE OFFERING OF THE EVENING SACRIFICE - i. e., probably “the ninth hour,” or three o’clock. Thus there might still remain about five hours of light, during which the other events of the day were accomplished. LORD GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND OF ISRAEL - This solemn address would carry back the thoughts of the pious to the burning bush of Horeb, and the words there spoken (marginal references), for there only had this mysterious formula been used before. Its use now was calculated to stir their faith and prepare them in some degree for God’s answering “by fire.” THAT I HAVE DONE ALL THESE THINGS AT THY WORD - i. e., “That I have been divinely directed in all that I have done publicly as a prophet, in proclaiming the drought, in gathering this assembly, and in proposing this trial; that I have not done them of my own mind” (marginal reference)....

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, AT THE TIME OF THE OFFERING OF THE EVENING SACRIFICE,.... Which the people of God at Jerusalem were now attending to: THAT ELIJAH THE PROPHET CAME NEAR; to the altar he had built, and on which he had laid the sacrifice: AND SAID; in prayer to God: LORD GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB; the covenant God of the ancestors of his people, though they had now so fully departed from him: LET IT BE KNOWN THIS DAY THAT THOU ART GOD IN ISRAEL; and that there is no other: AND THAT I AM THY SERVANT; a true worshipper of him, and his faithful prophet and minister: AND THAT I HAVE DONE ALL THESE THINGS AT THY WORD; restrained rain from the earth for some years past, and now had convened Israel, and the false prophets, together, that by a visible sign from heaven it might be known who was the true God; all which he did not of himself, but by the impuls

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 ...

ISRAEL, not Jacob. See note on Genesis 32:28....

_And it came to pass_… evening _sacrifice_ R.V. OBLATION. This change follows on what was done in 1 Kings 18:29. The LXX. omits this clause entirely. Elijah waited till the usual hour for the evening offering, that in this way his action might be in more accord with the order of worship which had been appointed in the Law, and so the people be put in mind of Jehovah's worship which they had cast aside. _Elijah the prophet came near_ He was no priest, but at such time the protesting prophet assumed all the functions of the priestly office. And the people would be in no way surprised, for the patriarchal rule, which allowed others than the tribe of Levi to come near to the altar, had not become obsolete, as we can see from the action of Solomon. The LXX. gives, instead of these words, -And Elijah cried unto heaven." _Lord God of Abraham, Isaac_[R.V. OF