CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 18:19. Prophets of Baal, &c.—Soothsayers and oracle príests. Groves—Asherah. Baal and Astarte were the male and female divinities. Jezebel was the patroness of the prophets of this female divinity.
1 Kings 18:21. How long halt ye, &c.—From the root סָעַף, to divide, dissever. In Psalms 119:118, the same word is rendered by “vain thoughts,” i.e., double-minded, ambiguous. The Vulg. translates here, Usquequo claudicatis in duas partes? To go from one to another. Not with standing all Ahab and Jezebel had done to exterminate Jehovah-worship, there was vacillation between Jehovah and Baal—not decision against Jehovah, only indecision.
1 Kings 18:24. The God that answereth by fire—A specially favourable test, for Baal was the fire-god, the sun.
1 Kings 18:25. For ye are many—An ironical taunt. You are the more numerous religious party in Israel, and, as being in the ascendant, you have the right of first choice! Yet, O how near the moment of their reverse from this ascendancy!
1 Kings 18:26. Leaped upon the altar—The pantomimic heathenish dance.
1 Kings 18:27. Cry aloud; for he is a god—A seuthing satire, a most mocking taunt. Talking, or meditating; pursuing, gone astray.
1 Kings 18:28. Cut themselves after their manner—וַיִּתֻגּדְדוּ means more than a mere puncturing or scratching. The superstition existed that the blood of priests was specially virtuous in constraining the deity to action; and now they were in extremis.
1 Kings 18:32. Two measures of seed—The measurement is not very definite, and cannot be conjectured with any accuracy, but it must have been both deep and wide.
1 Kings 18:38. The fire of the Lord fell—יְהֹוָה—אֵש does not mean lightning (comp. Leviticus 9:24).
1 Kings 18:40. Slew them there—For they were deadly criminals, perilous to the theocracy, and had incurred the penalty of death (Deuteronomy 17:2-4; Deuteronomy 13:13).
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 18:19-40
THE TRIAL AND DEFEAT OF IDOLATRY
THE grand, imposing spectacle on Mount Carmei described in these verses has an interest and a lesson to humanity for all time. As in other ages and countries, a great delusion was here tested, exposed, and overthrown. Truth long despised and persecuted had the opportunity of vindicating itself, and the vindication was so public and complete as to constitute an example for universal reference. The place was worthy of the scene to be enacted there. Carmel was the peculiar haunt of Elijah. Situated on the west of Palestine, immediately to the south of the Bay of Acre, it rises at its highest point sixteen hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, from the shores of which it stretches in a south-eastern course, and in ranges of different heights, for five or six miles, commanding a view of the great plain of Esdraelon, just where the glades of the forest sink into the usual bareness of the hills of Manasseh. In the distance, and on its commanding position, overlooking the whole valley, rose the stately city of Jezreel, with Ahab’s palace and Jezebel’s temple embosomed in its sacred grove. Immediately under their feet spread, far and wide, that noble plain—the battle-field of sacred history—the plain of Megiddo or Jezreel, with the torrent Kishon passing (as its name implies) in countless windings through the level valley—that ancient stream on whose banks had perished the host of Sisera and the host of Midian, before the army of Deborah and Barak, before the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. In such a scene, with such recollections of the past, were the people of Israel gathered for a conflict as momentous as any which had taken place in the plain beneath. On the one side were ranged the king and people, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal dressed in their splendid vestments; and on the other side the one solitary figure of the prophet of the Lord in his rough sheepskin cloak, though supported all the time by an invisible throng of heavenly intelligences. Observe—
I. That idolatry was here put on its trial under the most favourable circumstances to secure its triumph.
1. Took place at the seat of its greatest power. Idolatry was the established religion of Israel, and those who did not heartily accept it were awed into submission by the terrors of persecution. The multitude now gathered on Carmel, from the king downward, were worshippers of Baal, and were ready to defend their favourite deity. It seemed a daring and hopeless thing to offer the slightest opposition.
2. Was accepted by its acknowledged leaders. The four hundred and fifty priests might have declined the contest, and the king might have forbade it; but whether compelled by the unanimous voice of the people, or assured of victory by observing the lonely and unfriended condition of Elijah, or urged by an influence they were powerless to resist, they accepted the challenge. Could it be that they had any real confidence in the power of Baal? Alas! there is no knowing to what depth of delusion idolatry may sink its victims. The maddening earnestness of the reiterated appeals to Baal (1 Kings 18:26; 1 Kings 18:28) was a sight to make one sad.
3. Appealed to what the worshippers believed was the most prominent attribute of their deity (1 Kings 18:24). Baal was the sun-god, and his worshippers might readily suppose that, having at his command the source of light and fire, he would in such a strife vindicate himself by answering by fire. Surely, Elijah might have urged, your sun-god should find it easy, in the use of his own element, to triumph over Jehovah! He takes the Baalites on their own ground, and agrees that by a sign from heaven in the form of fire the claims of their respective religions shall be determined. The proposition is startling, because it was of the very essence of Judaism that there was no other God but Jehovah. It was a great concession on the part of Elijah to heathen notions, where contests as to the power of rival deities were of frequent occurrence. Thus Baal had everything in his favour, and if he could do anything at all, now was his opportunity.
II. That idolatry exhausted all its resources in the contest (1 Kings 18:26-29). Confident of success, the priests of Baal dress the bullock, and place the cut pieces dripping on the altar. The condition was they should put no fire under; although St. Chrysostom has preserved an old tradition which asserts that inside their altar the Baalites had secreted an accomplice who was to kindle a fire, but that in the act of so doing he died of suffocation. And now for three long hours the cry is heard—the anxiety of king, and priests, and people, growing more intense and feverish with each repetition—“O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, nor any that answered. To hurry the answer, they begin the wild, frantic pagan dance. “As the Mussulman dervishes work themselves into a frenzy by the invocation of Allah! Allah! until the words themselves are lost in inarticulate gasps; as the pilgrims round the church of St. John at Samaria formerly, and round the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre now, race, run, and tumble, in order to bring down the Divine fire into the midst of them; so the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal performed their wild dances round their altar, or upon it, springing up or sinking down with the fantastic gestures which Orientals alone can command, as if by an internal mechanism, and screaming with that sustained energy which believes it will be heard for its much speaking.” Still no answer. This afforded an opportunity Elijah could not resist, and he mocked the devotees with words of bitter irony (1 Kings 18:27). His object was to stimulate the priests to greater exertions, and so to make their failure more complete, and to suggest to the people that such failure would prove absolutely that Baal was no God. Elijah’s scorn has the effect intended; it rouses the Baalites to increased effort. Louder and louder grow their cries, wilder and more rapid their dance, more frautic their gesticulations. At length, when the frenzy has reached its height, knives are drawn from their sheaths, lances are upraised, and the blood spurts forth from hundreds of self-inflicted wounds. And this was all idolatry could do: Baal was unresponsive to the most piteous cries, was powerless to help, and his worshippers are driven to suicide and despair! Could anything more completely expose the utter helplessness and vanity of idolatry?
III. That idolatry suffered a signal and crushing defeat (1 Kings 18:30-38).
1. Was defeated by the Being it ignored and insulted. Elijah was careful in all his arrangements to give prominence to Jehovah, of whom he was but the humble and intermediate agent. The altar was built in the name of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:32); the offering was arranged according to the injunctions of the law of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:33 compared with Leviticus 1:3-9); and the short, simple, and beautifully suggestive prayer was designedly addressed to “the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel” (1 Kings 18:36-37). Jehovah had been forgotten; His ever-living presence is again asserted: He had been ignored and insulted; His peerless majesty and righteous claims are again vindicated.
2. The defeat was signal and complete (1 Kings 18:38). As the sky was still perfectly clear, this fire cannot have been a flash of lightning. It was altogether, in its nature as well as in its opportuneness, miraculous. From the clear blue ether overhead, deepening as the sun declined towards the sea, the whole multitude saw the bright white flame descend, and in a moment consume everything—the fragments of the ox on the summit of the altar, the pile of wood heaped from the forest of Carmel, the very stones of the altar, the dust, and also the water that filled the trench, till everything is consumed, and the crackle and hiss are gone. “The prayer of a moment has accomplished what the howlings of a whole day have failed to achieve.” The most obdurate heart could not fail to be convinced. The neglected and insulted God of Israel has triumphed, as He ever must.
3. The defeat was publicly acknowledged (1 Kings 18:39). Unable to endure the brilliance of the Divine light, the people fell on their faces before it, and hid their eyes lest they should be blinded (Leviticus 9:24; 2 Chronicles 7:3). The people understand thoroughly the nature and bearing of the whole scene, as a trial to determine whether Baal or Jehovah is the true God. And they now pronounce the matter to be clearly and certainly decided Baal is overthrown; he is proved to be no god at all. The Lord Jehovah, He and He alone, is God. Him will they henceforth acknowledge, and no other. The time is coming when truth shall universally triumph, and the supremacy and glory of God be everywhere adored (Philippians 2:10-11).
IV. That idolatry involves its votaries in disgrace and punishment (1 Kings 18:40). The vindicator of Jehovah becomes His avenger. The slaughter of the idolatrous priests was in harmony with the express commands of the law (Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 17:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:20). Moreover, a prophet under the theocracy had a right to step in and execute the law when the king failed in his duty. In this act we may see some retaliation for Jezebel’s slaughter of the prophets of the Lord. It is an unalterable principle of the Divine government that evildoers shall be punished for their sins, and often by the same instruments with which they have wrought the evil. Robespierre perished on the same scaffold on which he had shed some of the best and bravest blood of France.
LESSONS:—
1. Error is sure to fail when fairly put to the test.
2. The claims of God to universal homage are absolute and unchangeable.
3. The enemies of God will meet with their merited punishment.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 18:19-40. The challenge. Whenever we read of a meeting of crowned heads or prominent statesmen, we generally infer that they have been called together by some pressing object in which they are mutually interested—an object which may involve the welfare of a people, or the destiny of a nation. And when Elijah and Ahab met face to face, such an object as this engaged their thought and discussion. The people of Israel had for a long time been suffering from a severe famine, and the king attributes it to Elijah, who disclaims the responsibility, and charges it upon the conduct of the king. Not only does he makes this charge, but he is anxious to put it to a fair trial, and consequently he gives Ahab the challenge contained in the above verses. Concerning the challenge, we shall notice the object, the test, the decision, the result.
I. The object.
1. To confirm his statement that Ahab was responsible for the prevailing distress. This could only be obtained on the assumption that Jehovah would support Elijah in his denunciation of the king by some manifestation of Himself which would carry conviction to the mind of Ahab and others; and by this challenge Elijah sought such a manifestation of God.
2. To establish his claim as the prophet of God. In all probability the people would regard Elijah with the same unbelief and hostility as Ahab did. And before Elijah could gain a hearing from them, he needed to overcome their unbelief and opposition. This could be done by means of the challenge.
3. To prove that Jehovah was the only true God, and that Baalim was no god. This was the most important object of the challenge. At this time the people believed Jehovah to be one among many gods. Elijah sought to show them that besides Him there was no god; that Baalim and all other supposed gods were the creations of men’s minds, and, therefore, false.
4. To restore the people of Israel to their allegiance to Jehovah. They had forsaken Him, and transferred their allegiance to Baalim. Elijah seeks to recover them from this apostacy; and the means by which he sought it was admirably adapted to his purpose. If God should answer Elijah, then the people would be reminded in a forcible manner of their own past history, the most prominent and grandest feature of which was the appearance of Jehovah at various times to their fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to Moses in the burning bush; in Egypt; at the Red Sea; throughout the wilderness; to Joshua at the Jordan; at Jericho; and in giving them possession of the land wherein they dwelt. A similar manifestation to themselves would surely impress them with a sense of their sin, and awaken repentance in their hearts.
II. The test.
1. This test was fair to the Baalites. They acknowledged Baal as the god of fire. If he could manifest his power in any way, surely he could in the way proposed.
2. It was honourable to Elijah. His appeal was to the special prerogative of Baal. He does not ask for a manifestation of power not claimed for him by his followers.
3. It was adapted to the multitude. It was one upon which they could all judge. It would appeal to their senses, involving no mystery, and leaving no room for doubt.
III. The decision. Elijah’s proposal being accepted, he suggested to the Baalites that they should be the first to make the trial to which they agreed. No sooner had they retired, than Elijah steps forward to prepare the altar for his bullock. His preparation is more elaborate. He has a trench dug round it, and water poured upon the sacrifice and the wood; this is repeated three times. Here we see his wisdom and his faith. He is protecting himself against any charge of procuring fire by false means. He can afford to do this, because he believes that God can send sufficient fire to consume the sacrifice, notwithstanding the water. With what excited feeling would the multitude watch Elijah, as he came near and asked the God of Abraham to show Himself this day that He was God in Israel, so that His apostate people might be convinced of their sins and return unto Him. At the close of his prayer, the fire fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. It required no deliberation to form a judgment upon the point at issue. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and said: “The Lord He is the God, the Lord He is the God!”
IV. The result. The prophets of Baal were slain. There are some objections raised against the conduct of Elijah in such a slaughter. Could he slay these prophets in the face of the authority of the king? Would the people obey Elijah in this thing? How is it to be reconciled with justice? To these objections we may answer:
1. Ahab was a coward; he would be overwhelmed with fear, and would shrink from opposing his authority to one who could in such a way invoke the God of Heaven.
2. The people knew that God had spoken against idolatry, and His law was that those who practised it were to be put to death.
3. God sought to establish His claim to be King of kings and Lord of lords: that He was a jealous God, and would not share His glory with another. The people needed to be taught this, and by such terrible means they would learn the lesson. Let us learn:
1. That God’s claims are submitted to our intelligence and judgment, as well as to our hearts.
2. It is our duty to examine His claims and to yield to them.
3. It is unreasonable and dangerous to be undecided with regard to them.—The Study and Pulpit.
—A memorable day. l. Because of the unique assemblage it gathered.
2. Because of the distinguished personages it engaged.
3. Because of the extraordinary nature of its transactions.
4. Because of the momentous truths involved.
5. Because of the important results that followed.
1 Kings 18:19-38. Elijah on Mount Carmel, surrounded by all Israel, while the prophets of the groves, and those that ate at Jezebel’s table, were offering their bullocks, or crying “O Baal, hear us!” and leaping upon the altars, and cutting themselves with knives, is a picture with which we are all familiar. If you try to recall the impressions which it has made upon you, I think you will feel that it has not proceeded mainly from the sudden appearance of the fire which came forth to consume Elijah’s sacrifice, but from the contrast between the fever and restlessness of the priests, and the calmness and minute regularity of all the proceedings of the prophet. To testify by the form of the altar that the people were even then a portion of the twelve tribes, that they were united in God’s sight, though visibly separated by the sins of men, was one great part of Elijah’s work. But it was not a less important part of his duty to remind the people that God had appointed the method and time of the sacrifice; that prayer to Him was not a violent effort to bring about some mighty result desired by the worshipper, but was an act of quiet obedience, of self-surrender: all its earnestness being derived from a belief in the willingness of God to make His creature that which without Him he cannot be. “O Lord God, turn the heart of this people back again! they are in an unnatural, disorderly condition; they are trying to be independent of Thee. And they have so fixed and rooted themselves in that which is false, that they cannot break loose from it. The evil power to which they have done homage holds them fast bound in his fetters. Good has become evil to them; evil has become good. Ruler of the heart and reins, who desirest good and nothing but good for them, make them reasonable beings, restore them to the state of men!” To this prayer the fire was an answer. It came down as a witness that God himself is the Author as well as the Accepter of every sacrifice; that all fire must be false which He has not kindled.—Maurice.
1 Kings 18:21. The necessity of decision in religion.
1. Because of its superior claims.
2. Because of its exalting benefits.
3. Because of the moral deterioration and inevitable misery involved in prolonged hesitation.
—
1. Israel’s double-mindedness.
2. Israel’s unreasonableness.
3. Israel’s coldness and indifference under appeal.
—“And the people answered him not a word.” The sullenness of unbelief.
1. Unbelief is slow to accept evidence.
2. Is reluctant to admit conviction.
3. Stubbornly refuses to act in harmony with both evidence and conviction.
—Israel is met together. Elijah rates them not so much for their superstition, as for their unsettledness and irresolution. Nothing is more odious to God than a profane neutrality in main oppositions of religion. To go upright in a wrong way is a less eyesore to God than to halt betwixt right and wrong. The Spirit wished that the Laodiceans were either hot or cold; either temper would be better borne than neither, than both. In reconcileable differences, nothing is more safe than indifferency both of practice and opinion; but in cases of so necessary hostility as betwixt God and Baal, he that is on neither side is the deadliest enemy to both. Less hateful are they to God that serve Him not at all, than they that serve Him with a rival.—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 18:22. The solitariness of the good.
1. A picture of indomitable bravery when menaced by overwhelming Numbers 2. Calls forth profound sorrow in view of the popular and prevailing iniquity.
3. Yearns for companions to share the bliss of a holy life.
1 Kings 18:24. We see the god of the blind, mad world; and the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. The generation of to-day thinks itself elevated far above the Baal worship which in its nature was deification of nature and the world; and yet how often does it happen that it serves the creature rather than the Creator! Men no longer make gods out of wood and stone, but construct them out of their own thoughts, and worship their own ideas. The world wishes to hear nothing of the God who is holy and ready to sanctify the sinful heart of man; who is just, and metes to each man the measure which he deserves; who does not suffer Himself to be scorned; of the rebukes and chastisement of such a God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, the world makes nothing; and will only hear of a God who never rebukes or punishes, who is no avenging judge, who works no miracles, can hear no prayers. Elijah, could he return to earth, would scorn such a divinity no less than he did the idol Baal.—Lange.
—The people now find a voice. They had hesitated before, not wishing to decide between the two worships, or wholly to relinquish either. They now readily accept a proposition which promises them an exciting spectacle, and will relieve them of the trouble of making a decision by mental efforts of their own.—Speaker’s Comm.
1 Kings 18:26-29. The infatuation of idolatry.
1. May beguile minds of the highest order.
2. Incites its votaries to the most extravagant Acts 3. Is more resolute the less it succeeds.
4. Presents a painful picture of what self-deceived humanity may become.
1 Kings 18:36-39. The sublimity and efficacy of true prayer.
1. If we consider the glorious Being to whom it is addressed (1 Kings 18:36).
2. If we contrast it with the wild iterations of raving idolaters (1 Kings 18:26-28). If we consider the practical good it seeks to confer on men (1 Kings 18:37).
3. If we consider the remarkable answers vouchsafed (1 Kings 18:38-39).
1 Kings 18:37. All knowledge and recognition of God is inseparable from the conversion of the heart to Him. That is the aim of every testimony and revelation of God, and for that every true servant of God should daily pray in behalf of those entrusted to his care. Elijah, unlike the priests of Baal, who called upon their god the whole day, used few words, yet was he heard, because in those few words he expressed infinite meaning, and his prayer came from the depths of a believing, unquestioning soul.
1 Kings 18:38. What is the miracle of that fire which devoured the burnt offering and compelled the whole people to cry out: “The Lord He is God,” in comparison with the miracle that God hath sent His Son into the world to kindle the greatest fire which has ever burnt in the world; compared with the miracle that the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory? In Bethlehem, and upon Golgotha, the glory of the Lord is infinitely higher in its manifestation than upon Carmel.—Lange.
1 Kings 18:40. The appeal of Elijah was to the people. He called upon them to inflict then and there, upon these ringleaders of the people in idolatry, the punishment which the law denounced, and such as would have been inflicted upon himself had the victory been on their side; and the king seems to have been too awestricken to interfere. From the character of Elijah, we have no doubt that he executed this act of blood heartily and with entire satisfaction. It is not for us to vindicate him; the only question is: Was this in accordance with the law and with the spirit of the times? It certainly was; and Britons, not so much as fifty years ago, performed under their own laws, with perfect peace of mind, upon far less heinous offenders, the deadly executions which we now regard with horror. If, then, in looking back upon the last generation, we make allowance for this great change of law and sentiment within so short a time, we must needs make the same allowance in surveying the more remote and less refined age in which Elijah lived.—Kitto.
—A fearful vengeance, surely! Does the thought occur to you—“If this book be, as is alleged, not a mere history of that which is strange and exceptional, but a revelation of permanent laws and principles, may not this act be pleaded in justification of any, even the most outrageous punishment of worshippers false, or thought to be false, that has ever taken place in any age of the Christian church?” I answer, I conceive this story is a revelation of permanent priniciples, just as I believe Elijah’s declaration that there should be no rain nor dew, or his commanding the widow’s cruse not to fail, is the revelation of a permanent principle. The one shows forth God’s indignation against those who corrupt and demoralize a nation by trading in religious arts and fears, just as the others show God’s continual government over the outward universe, and His protecting care over every person who dwells in it. The method in which the revelation of these truths was made belongs to a peculiar period of the world’s history. In a general way, it may be said to belong to the whole Jewish dispensation, Including in that the period down to the destruction of Jerusalem. In another sense, it belonged to the special circumstances of the time in which Elijah was living. We do not need to have prophets executing these purposes of the Divine government, which famines, pestilences, revolutions execute without them, or those which are accomplished through the intervention of the ordinary minister of health and nourishment. But if no prophet had ever been commissioned to do one kind of work as well as the other, we should not have known to whom we might refer them. An infinite darkness would have rested both upon human and natural proceedings, which, except through our own fault and unwillingness to profit by God’s illumition, does not rest upon them now.—Maurice.
—The sentence upon the idol-priests was a terrible but necessary one, which should serve us not as an example, but as a warning; for although under the new covenant superstition and unbelief, idol-worship and apostacy, are not chastised with fire and sword, yet there is not wanting a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Those who tread under foot the blood of the Lamb will shrink from the wrath of the Lamb (Luke 9:54-56; Hebrews 10:27-31; Revelation 6:16).—Lange.