This is one of the parables of nature which we may apply in many directions. It expresses the truth that often out of seeming nothingness there arises the very blessing most desired.
(1) "There is nothing." So the disciples thought when, from the top of Olivet, they gazed into heaven after their departed Master. But was there indeed nothing to come? Yes, there was everything. That little cloud which had shrouded Him from their sight was full of blessings. Christ was gone, but Christendom and Christianity were coming. (2) "There is nothing." So we think as we look into the wide world and see no visible trace of its eternal Maker and Ruler. But the absence of any especial presence is itself an expressive indication of the spiritual nature of things Divine. Let us hold on, "knowing, fearing nothing; trusting, hoping all." (3) "There is nothing." So we say to ourselves as, in the blank desolation of sorrow, we look on the lonely work that lies before us. The voice that cheered us is silent, and the hand that upheld us is cold in the grave. But out of that tender memory comes at last a cloud of blessings. (4) "There is nothing." So it would seem as we look at the small materials with which we have to carry on the conflict against the great powers of nature. (5) "There is nothing." So we sometimes think as we look on the barren fields of theological and metaphysical controversy. (6) "There is nothing." So we think as we look on many a human spirit and think how little there is of good within it, how hard is the ground that has to be broken, how slight is the response that is to be elicited. (7) "There is nothing." So we think of the small effects which any effort after good can accomplish. Yet here also out of that nothingness often rises that little cloud not bigger than a man's hand, yet the very hand that relieves us, that grasps us, that saves us from perishing. "Be not weary in welldoing." "Patience worketh experience, and experience hope."
A. P. Stanley, Addresses and Sermons in America,p. 172.
References: 1 Kings 18:43. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 274; A. K. H. B., Towards the Sunset,p. 167. 1 Kings 18 J. Foster, Lectures,1st series, p. 206. 1 Kings 19:1-3. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. iii., p. 47. 1 Kings 19:1-4. J. R. Macduff, The Prophet of Fire,p. 143. 1 Kings 19:1-18. Parker, Fountain,Feb. 22nd, 1877; W. M. Taylor, Elijah the Prophet,p. 129.