1 Kings 18:39

_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 39. _FELL ON THEIR FACES_] Struck with awe and reverence at the sight of this incontestable miracle. _AND THEY SAID_] We should translate the words thus: _JEHOVAH, He_ _is the God! JEHOVAH, He is the God_! Baal is not the God; Jehovah alone is the God of Israel. As our term _Lord_ is very equivocal, we should every where insert the original word יהוה, which we should write _Yeve_ or _Yeheveh_, or _Yahvah_ or _Yehueh_, or, according to the points, _Yehovah_....

THE LORD, HE IS THE GOD - The people thus pronounced the matter to be clearly and certainly decided. Baal was overthrown; he was proved to be no god at all. The Lord Yahweh, He, and He alone, is God. Him would they henceforth acknowledge, and no other....

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 WHEN ALL THE PEOPLE SAW IT, THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES,.... In reverence of God, astonished at the miracle wrought, ashamed of themselves and their sins, particularly their idolatry, that they should turn their backs on the true God, and follow idols: AND THEY SAID, THE LORD, HE IS THE GOD, THE LORD, HE IS THE GOD; which acknowledgment of God, as the true God, in opposition to Baal, is repeated, to show their firm belief and strong assurance of it....

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 ...

_And when all the people saw_it, _they fell_ The LXX. simply says -And all the people fell." Josephus describes the reaction thus, -They fell upon the ground and worshipped the one God, calling Him most mighty and true, while the others were but names devised by wrong and senseless opinion....

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_ ...