1 Kings 18:43

_AND SAID TO HIS SERVANT, GO UP NOW, LOOK TOWARD THE SEA. AND HE WENT UP, AND LOOKED, AND SAID, THERE IS NOTHING. AND HE SAID, GO AGAIN SEVEN TIMES._ Go up now, look toward the sea. From the place of worship there is a small eminence, which, on the west and northwest side, intercepts the view of the sea (Stanley; 'Sinai and Palestine,' p. 347; Van de Velde, 1., p. 121). It can be ascended in a few minutes, and presents a wide prospect of the Mediterranean. Six times the servant went up, but the sky was clear, the sea tranquil. On the seventh time he descried the sign of approaching rain (see the notes at 1 Kings 17:21)....

41-46 Israel, being so far reformed as to acknowledge the Lord to be God, and to consent to the execution of Baal's prophets, was so far accepted, that God poured out blessing upon the land. Elijah long continued praying. Though the answer of our fervent and believing supplications does not come quickly, we must continue earnest in prayer, and not faint or give over. A little cloud at length appeared, which soon overspread the heavens, and watered the earth. Great blessings often arise from small beginnings, showers of plenty from a cloud of span long. Let us never despise the day of small things, but hope and wait for great things from it. From what small beginnings have great matters arisen! It is thus in all the gracious proceedings of God with the soul. Scarcely to be perceived are the first workings of his Spirit in the heart, which grow up at last to the wonder of men, and applaus...

Verse 1 Kings 18:43. _LOOK TOWARD THE SEA._] From the top of Mount Carmel the Mediterranean Sea was full in view....

Tradition says that Elijah’s servant was the son of the widow of Sarepta 1 Kings 17:23....

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 SAID TO HIS SERVANT,.... Whom some take to be the son of the widow of Sarepta, but he must be too young to be employed in such service as this was: GO UP NOW; still higher on Mount Carmel; than where he was, even to the highest point of it: LOOK TOWARDS THE SEA: or the west, as the Targum, the Mediterranean sea, which lay to the west of the land of Israel: AND HE WENT UP AND LOOKED, AND HE SAID, THERE IS NOTHING; there was nothing in the sky, or arising out of the sea, that looked like or foreboded rain: AND HE SAID, GO AGAIN SEVEN TIMES; till he should see something....

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

1 Kings 18:41. THE SENDING OF THE RAIN. Elijah and his servant again ascended Carmel, where the prophet prayed and the servant watched. The nearest point of Carmel is about 17 miles from Jezreel. Eijah's feat (1 Kings 18:46) of outrunning the chariot was regarded as a proof of Divine inspiration, like the exploits of a Samson. The hand of Yahweh is an equivalent to this power (2 Kings 3:15, and commonly in Ezek.)....

SERVANT. young man....

_look toward the sea_ Because from that quarter would come the indication of the approaching storm. The LXX. omits -he went up" in the next clause, and adds at the close of the verse -and the servant went again seven times." _seven times_ Meaning an indefinite number. -Seven" is thus used Psalms 12:6; Psalms 119:164; Proverbs 24:16....