And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and in detail how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
The king had just watched fire fall from heaven. He goes home and reports it all to his wife — and what she does with that news sends Israel's boldest prophet running for his life.
Ahab had seen everything on Carmel, yet he acts only as a messenger. One writer draws attention to the plain fact of who is speaking and who is not.
Notice, "Ahab told Jezebel." He had no real interest in the matter, so he took no active part himself. Even if he had been interested, he had no energy for it. To him the heavy rain may have seemed connected with the death of the prophets, so he could stand by quietly and watch them put to death.
Carmel changed nothing in Ahab. Elijah had served the king by running before his chariot; this is the return.
Elijah was willing to serve the king. He did so as no man could have without the power of God strengthening him, running and keeping up with his chariot at full speed. But Ahab was not prepared to serve the Lord any more than before.
Elijah had faced a king who did not care. He is about to face a queen who cares intensely.
Elijah had made the good confession before the wicked king, the false prophets and the idol-worshipping nation. Now he must face opposition of a very different kind, that of the wicked Jezebel. The king was selfish and lazy. He wanted only his own pleasures and cared nothing for religion. Jezebel was the opposite: a woman of fierce energy and a religious fanatic. She pushed idolatry tirelessly, protected the priests of Baal, and persecuted the servants of the Lord. To reach her religious ends she used the royal and political power of her weak husband.
This pairing is not a one-off marriage but a lasting pattern.
The Ahabs are always fit instruments for the Jezebels. So in the book of Revelation, where all these principles are seen full grown — those that have worked, are working, or are yet to work — we find the woman riding the beast: that is, corrupt religion using the power of the state.
Elijah had no idea what this conversation would set loose.
He seems to have had little idea of the terrible storm about to burst on him. He had come from the top of Mount Carmel, and in the energy of the Spirit he outran Ahab's chariot to the entrance of Jezreel. But there he was to be stopped — by the wicked Jezebel, who had kept herself in the background until then. She had kept herself in the background, but she had not been idle there.
Elijah's watchword had been that he stood before the Lord. After Ahab's report, that is not where he feels himself standing.
He flees from a woman — the man who had faced Ahab and stood against the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This was so unlike him before. It came from Elijah forgetting, at this moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. It was so true that he would have to walk forty days and forty nights before he stood before God again. The moment a believer lets anything at all come between his soul and God, the distance at once grows beyond measure.
Public usefulness and private strength are not the same thing, and they can part company at speed.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith can keep going while the inward life grows weak. Elijah had just had all the prophets of Baal killed by the people's own hands. It was the moment of the clearest testimony to God's presence among that rebellious people. Yet his faith fails completely at a mere threat from Jezebel. Inside, his faith did not hold him up in the same measure as his outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way his personal faith was not ready for.
The safeguard, then, is not another victory.
And so it is that the greatest triumphs of faith often come just before the greatest failure; for it is not triumph that keeps a man, it is dependence.
- Report. Ahab saw fire fall and rain return, then only carried the news to his wife. He had neither the interest nor the energy to act, and served the Lord no more than before.
- Alliance. An indifferent man is the perfect tool for a zealous one. The lazy king supplies the power; the fanatical queen supplies the will.
- Threat. The blow lands from someone who had stayed in the background but had never been idle there.
- Distance. Elijah could no longer say "the Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself standing before Jezebel instead. Let anything come between the soul and God, and the distance grows at once.
- Dependence. Outward testimony can outrun inward faith. What keeps a servant is not the last triumph but present dependence on God.
And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So do the gods [to me], and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time!
Ahab brought the news from Mount Carmel home to his queen: the prophets of Baal were dead. Her reply — an oath, with a deadline attached — turned the boldest man in Israel into a fugitive, and raises a question: why does courage collapse the day after a victory?
Ahab saw everything at Carmel and reported it. The answer came from his wife, not from him. His silence says a lot about who held the throne.
Jezebel's unbreakable will is now stirred to passion. Enraged, she swears an oath to make Elijah's life like the life of her slaughtered favourites. He flees the kingdom in fear. She was clearly the real ruler in Israel. As far as Scripture tells us, Ahab made no protest at all against her murderous threat, not even the mildest.
Jezebel set a deadline: "by this time tomorrow." A killer does not usually announce the hour in advance.
He seemed unable to view the threat calmly, or even to spread it out before the Lord. A little thought would have shown him that the threat was almost empty. Why should Jezebel give him a day's notice that she meant to kill him? Her messenger could easily have killed him at once, as Herod's executioner beheaded John the Baptist (Mark 6:27). It looks more as if Jezebel's real aim was to drive Elijah out of the country, before his influence grew too strong for her evil purposes.
Elijah once called himself the man who stands before the Lord. When the queen filled his sight, that footing was gone.
She swears by her false gods to take her revenge on Elijah within twenty-four hours, and she lets him know it. He flees before a woman — he who had confronted Ahab and resisted the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This attitude was so unlike his earlier one. It came because Elijah forgot, at that moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. And it was so true that he would have to walk for forty days and forty nights to stand before God again. The moment a believer lets anything come between his soul and God, the distance becomes beyond measuring.
Elijah's public triumph and his private collapse were only hours apart.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith may continue while the inward life grows weak. This came at the moment of the clearest testimony to God's presence among the rebellious people. Elijah had just had all the prophets of Baal killed by the people's own hands. Then his faith fails completely at a mere threat from Jezebel. His life was not inwardly sustained by faith in proportion to the outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way his personal faith was not prepared for.
There is a pattern in when this weakness strikes.
It has been truly said that faith in us is never more feeble than right after a great victory... With calm courage Elijah had faced crowds on Mount Carmel; now the voice of a woman terrifies him!
Elijah did not lose a supply of courage he had been carrying. He lost touch with the One who supplies it.
God never gives His servants a store of strength that they can draw on until it runs out. The power is always in Himself, not in them. So He supplies it moment by moment, as the need comes, to those who walk with Him and depend on Him. The brave hero of today may be weak and timid tomorrow.
Fear was not the whole story. Writers also tie his flight to disappointment at what his work seemed to achieve.
There you find, perhaps, how the apparent failure of his mission affected a man like Elijah. Looking at that, he was asking God to let him die, and sank down in discouragement. There he was — the very man who was not going to die. He was taken straight into heaven without ever seeing death. Yet the apparent lack of success defeated him, after all this wonderful display of power. Is this not a very healthy warning to us not to look at the success so much as at being with God, which will ensure success?
- Threat. Jezebel, not Ahab, answers Carmel. Her oath shows who really ruled Israel: the king never objected.
- Tactic. A killer who gives a day's warning may want a man gone, not dead. The threat drove Elijah out of the country.
- Turn. Elijah looked at Jezebel instead of the Lord. Let anything come between the soul and God, and the distance grows at once.
- Truth. Courage is not a reserve God deposits in us. He supplies it moment by moment, so yesterday's hero can be today's fugitive.
- Test. Elijah judged himself by visible results and sank. The safer test is being with God, not counting results.
And when he saw [that], he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
Elijah had just seen the people kill every prophet of Baal at his word. Now one threat from Jezebel sends him running for his life — how does faith that strong fail so fast?
Some translations open the verse with "when he saw that" instead of the ESV's "then he was afraid." Both point back to Elijah's eyes.
"When he saw that!" Everything depends upon what our eyes see, whether we are strong or weak. The sight of the glorified Christ strengthened Stephen to suffer and die, and Paul to suffer and live. Elijah could no longer say, "As Jehovah the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand." For the time being, his eyes were not upon God. His departure from Jezreel was not a quiet withdrawal, like the time our Lord went into the country in John 11:54. It was panic! It did not even occur to him to seek shelter in the territory of godly King Jehoshaphat. He rushed through the kingdom to Beersheba in the far south. There he left his servant, and went still further, right outside God's land altogether!
The collapse came at the peak of his public usefulness.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith may continue to exist, while the inward life grows weak. His faith fails altogether at a mere threat from Jezebel. Yet this comes at the moment of the most striking testimony to the presence of God among the rebellious people, just after Elijah had made the people kill all the prophets of Baal among them with their own hands. This faith did not sustain his inner life in proportion to the outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way for which his personal faith was not prepared. This is a solemn lesson.
He ran for his life. Notice what that leaves out.
"He went for his life." It was not for his God, or for the people of God, or for the testimony of God — but for his life he went. Having only himself in view he fled as far as possible from the place of testimony. He leaves the land of promise, turns his back on the people of God, and flees to Beersheba.
Beersheba lay at the far south of Judah. Its name carried a message he ran straight past.
But Elijah's faith faltered. He could stand before Ahab with no tremor of fear, but now a woman frightened him! He fled from Jezreel to Beersheba (v.3). The very name "Beersheba" should have stopped him, because it means "the well of the oath." Why did he not stop to think of depending on the refreshment of God's oath? God could not fail him. He did not even consult God about going away and when to go. God had led him before. Why did he not depend on Him to lead him now?
Blessing itself can set a servant up for a fall.
A time of special blessing often comes just before a period of great spiritual weakness. Satan is always on the lookout, and he makes us treat the blessings themselves as a reason for pride and for exalting the flesh. Such is in part the reason for Elijah's discipline... Notice again that Satan attacks the side we guard least, because it seems the least open to attack. Who would expect a man whose courage had stood up to a whole nation to run from a mere threat?
So what did this one step cost him?
Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him (1 Kings 19:3), and this breaks the thread of his career. No doubt he then arises and sets out at the angel's word. But he does so in order to come into God's presence and there learn to judge himself. Later we shall see that, despite this, God does not set His servant aside altogether. The experience of learning to know himself bears fruit. We find him again in 1 Kings 21 before Ahab, and in 2 Kings 1 standing without fear before Ahaziah's messengers.
- Sight — the break began with a look: eyes off God and onto the threat, and a man who had faced a nation ran.
- Self — he went for his life, not for God's testimony or God's people, and self-interest carried him out of the land.
- Distance — he reached Beersheba, "the well of the oath," without once asking God whether to go, or when.
- Discipline — the crash came right after the victory, striking the side he never thought to guard.
- Grace — one detour broke his course, but it did not end it. God brought him back to serve again.
And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a certain broom-bush, and requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough now, Jehovah, take my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
Elijah has just won a public victory on Mount Carmel. One day later he is a day's walk into the desert, alone, asking to die. How does a man fall that far, that fast? And what does God do with a servant who wants to quit?
Elijah's collapse started with a change in what filled his vision. He had lived by the words "the LORD, before whom I stand"; now a queen's threat fills it instead.
He flees before a woman — he who had met Ahab and resisted the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This attitude was so unlike his earlier one. It came from Elijah forgetting, at that moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. The moment a believer lets anything at all come between his soul and God, the distance becomes immeasurable.
The flight kept going after the danger was behind him.
From Jezreel he passes into Judah, where the queen could no longer reach him. He keeps running to Beersheba, the farthest border of Judah toward the wilderness, leaves his servant there, and, still not satisfied with his flight, goes a day's journey into the wilderness itself.
Where did the pressure come from? Not from the world outside.
Here we find Elijah, the servant of God. He has lost all courage through the difficulties connected with the people of God — not his own difficulties. It is not trial in the world; it is trial among God's own people. Nothing tests the saints of God like the troubles of the people of God. Some can face their own difficulties. But difficulties connected with the testimony of the Lord often overcome them, and they give way.
Wanting to die can look like faith. One writer weighs it the other way.
He is still the man of God, but a man tired of life. That was not a feeling of faith. There is often far more faith in being willing to live than in wishing to die... Elijah wished to die, wished to get out of the trial — certainly a most unbelieving wish. The Lord never did.
Two writers read the closing line as pride, not modesty. The first hears a complaint dressed as a confession.
A murmuring feeling rises. He asks God to take his life, saying, "I am no better than my fathers." This is not humility. He is saying that he ought to have been treated better. Since he was not, better to die — he had had enough of trial... A saint in close and peaceful communion with God never says, "It is enough." He follows the steps of the Perfect One and says, "Your will, not mine, be done."
The second asks who had ever said he was better.
In these last words is perhaps the secret of his failure. Who ever said he was better than his fathers? Possibly his success on Mount Carmel had inflated him. All alone he had done great things for God. Did this make him feel important, even indispensable? This is a state of mind that can easily develop in any of us, and it is fatal to our usefulness... It is an unspeakable honour for the great God to use any of us in His work; but let us never imagine He cannot do without us.
Elijah did not get what he asked for. That was mercy.
Unbelief is always unreasonable and inconsistent. If the prophet really wished to die, why did he flee from Jezebel? Why not die a martyr's death among the people of God?... How gracious of our God not to always take His poor, wayward servants at their word! God intended that Elijah should not die at all. His exit from the world would be like no one else's, before or since.
Serving God has a second half, and Elijah was not ready for it.
Elijah said nothing about longing to depart when he stood on Mount Carmel. There all was triumph. There he seemed to be achieving something, of some use. So he did not think of departing. But the Lord would show His servant not only what he "must do," but also what he "must suffer." We like the first well enough. We are not so ready for the second. Yet the Lord is as much glorified in a patient sufferer as in an active servant.
- Position — Elijah's strength lay in standing before the LORD. Once Jezebel filled his eye, the distance from God became immeasurable.
- Pressure — His breaking point came from trouble among God's own people. Nothing tests a believer like that.
- Prayer — "It is enough" was the language of a tired man, not a believing one. There is often more faith in being willing to live than in wishing to die.
- Pride — The words "no better than my fathers" answer a charge no one made. Success can leave a servant feeling indispensable, and that is fatal to usefulness.
- Patience — God said no. He had planned that Elijah should never die at all. The Lord is glorified in a patient sufferer as much as in an active servant.
And he lay down and slept under the broom-bush. And behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, Arise, eat!
Elijah has run for his life from Jezebel's threat. He has walked a day into the wilderness, asked God to end his life, and fallen asleep. What comes next is not the answer he prayed for, but a touch on the shoulder and a meal.
The shade Elijah found came from a desert shrub, not the evergreen we picture:
This is thought to refer to the Arabic ratam, the Retama raetam, and not to the juniper. It is a "broom" that grows twelve feet high. A person could sit under it for shelter. 1 Kings 19:4-5.
(Older translations say "juniper tree," and some quotes below use that word.)
One writer sets this scene beside an earlier one in Elijah's story:
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah by faith could make the widow's oil and meal last. But here he is weak. He needs an angel to come, strengthen him, and give him some food. He eats, drinks, and like a man without strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back again, for He is rich in grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and all our circumstances.
Elijah had asked to die. God's reply was food, not death:
Yet the Lord can graciously meet his poor servant even asleep under a juniper tree. "He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust." So He does not grant the sulky request of His hard-pressed and disappointed servant. Instead He seeks to feed and strengthen him for more work. This is not "the manner of man." It is — blessed forever be His name — the manner of God, whose ways and thoughts are not like ours. People often treat one another in a rough and harsh way. They make no allowance, and act in haste and severity. Not so God.
God had fed Elijah before, by ravens and by a widow's supply. This time He sends a messenger:
This was a deeper and a closer token of God's interest and care for him than the supply of the ravens or the widow's barrel. The cake baked on the coals and the jug of water at his head show him how God provides for him. But the angel is there to point them out and urge him to take them. That shows the Lord's own personal interest in him. Solitary as he was, he was not left alone or unattended.
Elijah never asked for this meal:
At the prayer of Elijah, fire had fallen from heaven upon the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. Rain had fallen on the dry land, from a sky opened at the prayer of that same righteous man. But God gave him the burning coals, the hot cakes, and the jug of water without his asking. How faithful was and is our God!
Elijah was not where God had sent him. That is what makes this visit so striking:
Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to provide a meal for a failing servant! This was a man who had left an important post of duty, and who was now completely outside the path of God's leading.
The food was not comfort for its own sake. It was meant to carry him on a journey:
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah himself received food, and then he gave food to others. Here, in the place his lack of faith had driven him to, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him... He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again. A second time he finds the same food. The angel says to him, "Arise, eat; for the journey is too great for you." God fed him so that he could walk. An important lesson for us!
Elijah and God wanted opposite things from that sleep:
The Lord knows better than we do what may be demanded of us. In His grace He strengthens us to match what He knows those demands to be. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow, but the Lord wished to strengthen him and steady him for future service.
- Weakness. The prophet who fed others in 1 Kings 17 now has nothing, and God must feed him.
- Refusal. He asked to die; God declined and gave him breakfast instead — the manner of God, not the manner of man.
- Nearness. Not ravens, not a widow, but an angel who points to the food and urges him to eat: a closer token of care than anything before.
- Grace. All of this reaches a servant who had abandoned his post and was outside the path of God's leading.
- Purpose. God fed him so that he could walk, because the journey ahead was too great for him.
And he looked, and behold, at his head was a cake, baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.
Elijah had run for his life from Jezebel. He asked God to let him die, then fell asleep under a broom tree in the wilderness. He wakes to find food and water at his head. Why does God answer a servant's collapse with a meal instead of a rebuke?
The prophet was not at his post when this meal arrived.
After some time — not too soon, we may be sure — an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." He looked around and saw a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He refreshed himself and slept again. Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to provide a meal for a failing servant! He had left an important post of duty, and was now completely outside the path of God's leading.
Elijah had been fed before by ravens and by a widow. This time help came another way.
No ravens were there with a ration of bread and meat. The touch that woke him was not a widow's, with her jar of flour that never ran out and a few sticks for a fire. He was not to die, but live. An angel of the Lord had provided for his needs. Fire and food, the gifts of his God, were right beside him.
Someone baked that cake and filled that jar. The wonder is who took the trouble.
One of the lessons of the way is to grasp how God can stoop to arrange the little things for His servants. He delights to stoop. Sadly, we often distrust the One whom we serve. We doubt the interest His heart has in us and in His people. Who would have thought of the blessed God preparing a cake, baking it, and filling the jar! Then He sent His angel to that poor, weary, depressed servant of His, to tell him what He had ready for him. Such is the heart of Him whom we serve.
The meal was not all that God sent. Someone came with it.
The cake baked on the coals and the jar of water at his head show him how God provides for him. But the angel is there as well, to point them out and urge him to eat. That displays the Lord's own personal interest in him. Solitary as he was, he was not left alone or unattended. God sends an angel as his companion and servant; and a second time he touches him, after watching him, no doubt, as he slept.
Elijah took the food without taking the point.
As Elijah slept the sleep of discouragement an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." How gracious the Lord is! Instead of reproving Elijah He provided the food Elijah needed. But after Elijah had eaten, he lay down again to sleep. When we are in such a lazy state we need the words of Scripture, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14).
Food from God was never meant to end in sleep. It was meant to put him back on his feet.
In 1 Kings 17 it had been Elijah who handed out food to others, after God had fed him. Here, where his lack of faith had driven him, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him. The only strength available to him comes from food God has prepared for him... He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again... God fed him so that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might bear a powerful testimony. But if divine food does not give us strength for ourselves, will God's purpose be reached? The food Elijah finds at his head has miraculous power. Is it not the same with the Word of God? It brings us to the mount of God.
God measured the strength to the road ahead, not to the mood of the man.
The Lord knows better than we do the demands that may come on us. He strengthens us in grace, according to His estimate of those demands. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow. The Lord wished to strengthen him and steady him for future service.
- Failure — Elijah is off the path of duty when the angel arrives. God's kindness meets him where his own fear has carried him.
- Provision — God baked the cake and filled the jar. He stoops to the smallest details for a discouraged servant.
- Presence — the angel points to the food and urges him to eat. That is closer care than the ravens or the widow.
- Purpose — God feeds him so he can walk, not so he can sleep. Food that leaves us where it found us has missed its aim.
- Proportion — God measures the strength to the journey He sees coming, not to the despair the servant feels now.
And the angel of Jehovah came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise, eat; for the journey is too great for thee.
Elijah has walked away from his post and fallen asleep in the wilderness, outside the path of God's leading. The angel has already fed him once. Now the angel comes back and touches him a second time.
Elijah's own strength is gone. The striking thing is that God does not stop at one visit.
He eats, drinks, and like a man without strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back again, because He is full of grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and all our circumstances. So the Lord bore with Elijah and helped him, and He is the same towards us.
The angel brings no rebuke. He brings a meal to a man who had walked away from his duty.
Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to bring a meal to a faulty servant! This servant had abandoned an important post of duty. He was now completely outside the path of God's leading!
God had fed Elijah by ravens before. This time the way He feeds him carries a message.
When he was right with God, only the need of his stomach had to be met, and the ravens were enough for that service. But when he was all wrong with God, something more serious than his stomach was in question. God would reach his heart. The attentions of the angel would be a definite assurance to Elijah that the Lord loved and cared for him still, despite his deep failure... The angel woke him a second time and said, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you." It was a journey he should never have taken!
God does not feed him so that he can lie down again. He feeds him for a reason, and the same reason lies behind what He gives us.
He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again. A second time he finds the same food. God fed him so that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might bear a powerful testimony. But if divine food does not give us strength for ourselves, will God reach His purpose?
The angel gives a reason. It is not only the road ahead that outran Elijah's strength — his whole life did.
He learns that he is on a journey, but, says the Lord, "the journey is too great for you." What a journey was Elijah's through this world. Cherith, Zarephath, Carmel, Horeb mark the stages of his journey. The chariot of fire is ready to end it in power and glory. But every stage was "too great" for Elijah. He had to show power. He needed courage and faith. He had to meet opposition and bear hardship. All of it was too great for a man with the same nature as ourselves.
One writer compares Elijah with Moses and with our Lord Jesus Christ. The three cases are not the same at all.
Elijah's was clearly the lowest of the three, for God gave him something that sustained him by a miracle. The Lord did not hold him up by His own power alone, with nothing else. God gave power to a means that sustained him. So his case was more a matter of what God gave. In Moses' case it was what he enjoyed, not what he was given. Created things did not give him power; he enjoyed the Creator Himself. And in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ it was the Creator Himself, in the most perfect self-denial and dependence on His Father.
One writer turns the angel's words toward the reader.
We too must take this to heart. Our journey through the world is too great for us if the food of the Word of God does not sustain us.
- The journey is too great — and not just the road to Horeb. Every stage of Elijah's life outran the strength of a man with our nature.
- So God comes — He sends an angel from heaven with a meal for a faulty servant who had walked off his post.
- And comes again — the second touch shows a God who watches over all our ways and feeds us in every circumstance.
- He feeds so we may walk — food from God that leaves us lying down has not yet reached its purpose.
- The same journey is ours — it is too great for us too, unless the food of God's Word keeps us going.
And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
Elijah has just asked to die under a broom tree. Now an angel wakes him twice with bread and water, because the road ahead is longer than he knows. The verse holds two things at once: a servant fed by food he did not make, and a servant walking to the mountain of the law.
One writer sees God's care here as measured by what He alone can see coming.
The Lord knows better than we do the demands that may be made on us, and He graciously strengthens us according to His estimate of those demands. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow, but the Lord wished to strengthen and nerve him for future service.
Earlier, Elijah's faith kept a widow's jar of flour and jug of oil from running dry. Now the roles reverse: an angel feeds him.
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah by faith could make the widow's oil and meal last; but here he is weak, and needs an angel to come and strengthen him and give him some food. He eats, drinks, and like a man without strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back again, for He is rich in grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and according to all our circumstances.
What defeats the servant does not defeat the One who supplies him.
As we view the greatness of the journey and our own littleness, we may well cry out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" But at once the answer comes, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And so, if all the grace and power of the risen Christ are at our disposal, we may well press on.
Elijah is not the only one to cross forty days without ordinary food.
With that food a man walks and does not faint. Moses had spent forty days and forty nights upon Horeb, conversing with God. His word and His presence were enough to sustain His servant's strength. The Lord Himself spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness without any food, in the presence of wild beasts and exposed to Satan's attacks. He was hungry, and had no food set by His head to help Him resist the enemy's temptations. But He was the Man who did not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
The cake on the coals belongs with the manna Israel gathered in the same desert.
The strength this food of the mighty gives lets us walk through the wilderness of this world without growing tired... It was in this same wilderness, on his way to the same Horeb, that weary Elijah received a special cake from God. Surely that was indeed the food of the mighty. God gave him water also; and so He did to Israel. In Exodus 16 and 17 we have the bread and the water. In John 6 and 7 the fulfilments of both are given for us, "the living Bread" and "the living Water."
Horeb is where God met Moses and gave the law. Commentators differ on what drew Elijah there. Some read his choice as a sign of his mood.
After forty days the prophet reached Horeb, the mount of God — a place of special interest. There the Lord dealt with Moses, forty years after he tried too soon to rescue His people. At Horeb Moses learned precious lessons that fitted him for his future service in Israel. In the same area was Mount Sinai, where the Lord dealt with the nation and set His holy law before them. It is significant that Elijah in his anger against the people should have gone there. It was as if he wanted judgment on them for their unfaithfulness.
Others stress that he moves at the angel's command, and that God has an errand there he did not plan.
Obedience marks the career of this man of God... Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him, and the thread of his career breaks off. No doubt he then gets up and sets out at the angel's word, but it is so that he may come into God's presence and there learn to judge himself. Later we shall see that despite this, God does not set His servant aside entirely.
- Weakness. The man whose faith once stretched a widow's flour and oil now lies down with no strength left. God does not scold him — He feeds him.
- Food. God gave Elijah the cake and the water, as He gave Israel manna in the same wilderness. Both point on to the living Bread and the living Water.
- Strength. God measures the meal by His estimate of the road, not by Elijah's. The journey too great for the servant is not too great for the servant's God.
- Journey. Forty days without ordinary food place Elijah beside Moses at Horeb, and beside the Lord in the wilderness. The Lord lived by every word from God's mouth.
- Mountain. He arrives at the mount of the law. Did he go there to accuse Israel, or did God bring him there to judge himself? Either way, God keeps him in service and does not discard him.
And there he went into a cave, and lodged there. And behold, the word of Jehovah [came] to him, and he said to him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I am left, I alone, and they seek my life, to take it away.
Fresh from victory on Mount Carmel, Elijah ran for his life to Horeb, and God asked him what he was doing there. This verse is his answer: a speech about his own zeal, Israel's sins and his own loneliness — much of it true, but not all.
Notice who fills the answer. One writer says the mistake was real, but not dishonest:
And now Elijah's trial comes, and "What are you doing here?" brings out the state of his heart. "I have been very jealous." There was the point. It was Elijah. Elijah was full of Elijah… "and I, even I only, am left." It was not true. It was not "I, even I only." He was wrong. There was no deceit in Elijah — none. But this was the blinding power of self, even in the most genuine saint of God. Self always blinds. The one and only thing that lets us see clearly is when we judge self.
On Mount Carmel the same man had spoken very differently:
How different this language is from what fell from his lips on Mount Carmel! There he defended God; here he defends himself. There he tried to win his brothers back by setting God's truth in front of them. Here he accuses them and lists their sins before God.
Elijah names three sins, and the sequence is not random. One writer traces how each one grew out of the last:
It is worth noticing the order in which Elijah lists the sins of Israel. First, "they have forsaken your covenant." Second, "they have thrown down your altars." Third, "they have killed your prophets with the sword." The ground of all this evil was that they had forsaken the covenant of God. The natural result was that they pulled down God's altars and gave up His worship. Killing the prophets followed from that.
The charges were true enough. But the claim to be the last man left overlooked others that God could see:
Much of this was true. But Elijah was so taken up with his own faithfulness to God that he could not take account of what God's eye could see. Obadiah, and the hundred prophets of the LORD whom Obadiah had rescued from Jezebel, were not men of the same stamp as Elijah. They did not have the same zeal for God, or the same energy in testimony. Even so, they did not belong among those who had thrown down the LORD's altars.
Horeb is the mountain where the law was given, and Elijah's speech there amounts to a request for judgment on his own nation. The contrast with an earlier servant on the same ground is deliberate:
The unhappy prophet spoke well of himself and ill of God's people, and in effect called on God to judge them. To speak like this, he had drifted a long way from God in his soul. The contrast with Moses after the people's worship of the golden calf is startling. The LORD proposed to wipe out the stubborn people and make a fresh start with Moses. Moses would not hear of it… He even asked God to blot him out of the book of life, if that would bring the people forgiveness.
There is a link between where Elijah was standing and what he was able to say. Withdrawal and accusation travel together:
The moment a man withdraws from his place of testimony and service among his brothers, he has to start praising himself and accusing them. His very act claims at once that he is faithful and they have failed. But the searching question comes to everyone who separates from his brothers and accuses them: "What are you doing here?" Let anyone who has ears to hear, hear.
God does not argue with Elijah's count. He tells him about people He has kept:
This is the great point of "the divine answer": "Yet I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." So there was a remnant according to the election of grace, known by God but unknown to Elijah. People still heard the soft gentle voice in these days of turning away from God, and it was in this weak remnant that God found His pleasure.
- Self blinds. Elijah meant every word; he was too full of himself to see straight.
- Sin has an order. Forsaking the covenant came first; abandoned altars and murdered prophets followed from it.
- Isolation accuses. Pull back from your place among God's people, and self-praise and blame soon follow.
- Moses is the measure. He asked God to blot out his own name rather than see Israel destroyed; Elijah asked God to judge them.
- God keeps more than we see. Seven thousand unbowed knees — a remnant of grace, unknown to the prophet, and the very thing God delighted in.
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Jehovah. And behold, Jehovah passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Jehovah Jehovah was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake Jehovah was not in the earthquake.
Elijah has fled from Jezebel, travelled forty days into the wilderness, and hidden in a cave at Horeb. There God tells him to come out and stand in the open. What follows teaches the difference between God's power and God Himself. It shows why the servant who had called down fire at Carmel now needed something quieter.
The order to stand before the Lord puts a finger on the exact thing that had gone wrong.
So the Lord speaks to Elijah again: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord." These words reveal the secret of his failure. Elijah may give many plausible reasons for fleeing to the cave, but the true reason is that he had failed to keep the Lord before him. One thing lay behind his bold witness before Ahab, his power to raise the widow's son, and his power to bring down fire from heaven and command the rain. He moved and acted in faith before the living God. The secret of his flight, on the other hand, was that he acted in fear before a dying woman. Before the king who had turned away from God he can say, "The Lord before whom I stand". But when he thinks about the wicked queen, it becomes: Jezebel before whom I flee.
Horeb was where God had dealt with Moses. It stood near the place where He gave the law to the nation.
After forty days the prophet reached Horeb, the mount of God — a place of unusual interest. There the Lord had dealings with Moses, forty years after he had tried too soon to rescue His people. At Horeb Moses learned precious lessons that fitted him for his future service in Israel (Ex. 3). In the same area was Mount Sinai, where the Lord had dealings with the nation and set His holy law before them (Ex. 20). It is significant that Elijah, angry as he was with the people, should have gone there. It was as if he wanted judgment on them for their unfaithfulness.
The three convulsions matched what Elijah had been asking for.
The strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire are all symbols of God's power at work in devouring, destructive judgment. God displayed them before Elijah for a plain reason. Elijah had been longing for God to step in with judgment like this in the middle of Israel, to back up his own mission and to defend the name and authority of the Lord. But he was now to learn that the Lord was not in these things. His zeal — which so easily turns into merely human energy — had drifted away from communion with the Lord's mind and heart. The moment this happens — and how often it does — the servant becomes completely unfit for his work.
Three times the text says the Lord was not in the display.
Displays of power come from God, but we must not confuse them with God Himself. Elijah had seen His power at Carmel. But because he no longer saw such displays, it seemed hard for him to believe God was working at all. Yet he soon learned that a quiet gracious work was going on in many hearts in Israel that he knew nothing about.
One writer measures God's power by a different standard.
God's power is not to be measured by what He does, but by what He is. He is beyond all His acts.
Elijah's complaint was that he alone was left. What he sees on the mountain cuts his own place down to size.
So the prophet was taught that he must be content to be an agent, and one of many. He might have thought that he had to do all the work himself. He came with all the terrible force of a mighty wind. He supposed he would sweep away every obstacle and bring the nation back to its place of glad loyalty to God. The most devoted, the most gifted and the most highly placed are only stones in the building, screws in the vast machine. Whoever supposes that he is the instrument will find himself much mistaken.
The three great signs are the run-up. God is in what comes after them (older translations: "a still small voice"; the ESV renders it "the sound of a low whisper").
Elijah has to learn that wind and earthquake and fire may indeed be God's servants to wake men up. But unless the "still small voice" is heard, no one is really won for God. The thunder of Sinai must be followed by the still small voice of grace if the heart of man is to be reached and won.
And this is how a servant who has drifted gets back on his feet:
It is the still small voice that touches him. When he hears it he hides his face in his mantle and comes out. There usually comes a moment, if a servant of God has drifted a little, when the Lord speaks to him in a still small voice, and he is restored.
- Stand. Elijah's collapse began when he stopped keeping the Lord before him and put Jezebel there instead. The cure starts where God does, with the command to stand before Him.
- Storm. Wind, earthquake and fire are the judgment he had been demanding on Israel. God stages them, then says three times that He is not in them.
- Source. Power belongs to God, but power is not God. Measure Him by what He is, not by what He does.
- Small. Signs wake people up; only the whisper of grace wins them. No one is won for God until he hears that voice.
- Sent. Elijah is one agent among many, not the one man God cannot do without — and a quiet work was already going on in hearts he knew nothing about.
And after the earthquake, a fire Jehovah was not in the fire. And after the fire, a soft gentle voice.
Elijah has fled from Queen Jezebel to Mount Horeb, and God tells him to stand on the mountain. Wind, earthquake and fire pass by, but God is in none of them — He meets the prophet in something else entirely.
Elijah knew what God's power looked like; he had seen it at Mount Carmel.
Displays of power come from God, but we must not confuse them with God Himself. Elijah had seen His power at Carmel. Because he no longer saw such displays, it seemed hard for him to believe God was working at all. Yet he soon learned that a quiet, gracious work was going on in many hearts in Israel that he knew nothing about.
Another writer weighs the quiet voice against everything that came before it. The quotes below use the older wording "a still small voice" for what the ESV calls "the sound of a low whisper."
After the wind, the earthquake and the fire came "a still small voice." This impressed the prophet's soul far more than nature's terrifying violence. He was in God's presence. We must not measure God's power by what He does, but by what He is. He is beyond all His acts.
The sign Elijah would have chosen and the sign he needed were not the same.
Wind, fire, earthquake — these announce the power of God to man. They would have suited Elijah's angry heart as instruments of divine power against Israel. But these displays of His power were not God Himself. The still small voice reveals His presence to Elijah. What would have satisfied his own will did not awaken his conscience. Nor did what might have been just toward others. But by the still small voice God reveals Himself. It pierces Elijah's heart, and he hides his face before the presence of the LORD.
Elijah might have expected one great agent to do the whole work.
By these solemn and varied displays of Himself and His wonderful workings, the Lord would teach His servant a deep lesson. He was not limited to one agent in carrying out His purposes. The wind was an agent, and a powerful one, yet it did not reach the goal. The same was true of the earthquake and the fire. Their sheer terror only paved the way for the last agent, the one that seemed weakest — the still small voice. Only God can make Himself heard, even when He speaks in a still small voice.
The great signs did have an effect on Israel, but it did not last.
He had thought that these mighty displays of God's power would turn the whole nation to God in deep repentance. But no real revival had taken place. Elijah has to learn that wind and earthquake and fire may indeed be God's servants to wake men up. But no one is truly won for God unless he hears the "still small voice." The still small voice of grace must follow the thunder of Sinai to reach and win the heart of man.
The order of the four signs is not accidental.
The first three signs — the great strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire — were the kind Elijah would have expected to find the LORD in. But He was in none of them. This is not to say He will never act in judgment. He has fixed a day for that. Sadly, we tend to take that work out of His hands and do it too soon, and so spoil it all. Besides, before the day of judgment there was to be a day of grace; and it is grace that speaks in the fourth and last sign.
The voice did what the earthquake could not.
In it was the Lord. Elijah was conscious of it. This was the voice that drew him out of the cave and made him stand at the entrance, his face wrapped in his cloak. He was both subdued and attracted, but not yet in the secret of the Lord, for he repeats his complaint.
This has a direct effect on how we judge our own work for God.
It is possible for us today to get discouraged if the work of God in our hands does not move in striking ways. When there are no visible signs, we tend to conclude that nothing is happening at all!
- Not in the wind. God sends wind, earthquake and fire, but He is not in them. Never mistake a display of His power for God Himself.
- Not what he wanted. The violent signs matched Elijah's anger at Israel. The quiet voice reached his conscience.
- Not one instrument. The Lord is not confined to a single agent, and He keeps the seemingly weakest one for last.
- Not judgment yet. Force can wake a person; only the voice of grace wins the heart, and grace speaks before the fixed day of judgment.
- Not finished. The voice draws Elijah out of the cave. He covers his face, subdued and attracted — yet he repeats his complaint.
And it came to pass, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice [came] to him and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Elijah has fled from Jezebel to a cave at Mount Horeb, and God has just passed by in wind, earthquake and fire without being in any of them. Then comes a gentle voice — older translations call it a still small voice — and it does what the shaking could not: it draws the prophet out, face covered, back to the question he had been avoiding.
Elijah stood unmoved through three displays of overwhelming force. The reason lay in his own mood.
The displays of God's mighty power did not move him, because they matched his own mood. But the grace shown in the tender and gentle voice touched him and took hold of him. So the question presses on his inmost soul again: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" It invites him once more to face the cause of his flight, and to find the root of why he left his field of service.
The question also points back to the place Elijah had left.
People sometimes come before God because they have forgotten Him in the place where they should have stood and given testimony for Him. And so God asks Elijah, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Wind, fire and earthquake announce the power of God to man. They would have suited the angry heart of Elijah as instruments of divine power against Israel. But these displays of His power were not God Himself. The still small voice reveals His presence to Elijah. What would have satisfied his will, and what might have been just towards others, did not awaken his own conscience. But the still small voice pierces Elijah's heart. Through it God reveals Himself, and Elijah hides his face before the presence of the LORD.
The covered face comes from knowing whose presence he is in.
After the wind, earthquake and fire came "a still small voice." This impressed the prophet's soul far more than the terrifying violence of nature. He was in God's presence. In fear and reverence he wrapped his face in his cloak and stood at the entrance of the cave. We must not measure God's power by what He does, but by what He is. He is beyond all His acts.
The voice that draws him out brings back the question Elijah had already been asked.
Elijah is in the presence of the Lord, and the immediate result is that "he wrapped his face in his cloak." Away from the Lord he talks about himself. In the presence of the Lord he hides himself. But there is still pride, bitterness and anger in his heart. So again the Lord searches him with the question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" God will have everything laid bare in His presence.
The change in him was real, but it was not complete.
He was both subdued and attracted, but not yet in the secret of the Lord, for he repeats his complaint. It takes a long time to bring us to understand the patience of God. And yet are we not ourselves the subjects of it all the time?
Elijah expected mighty displays to do the work. He has to learn otherwise.
Elijah has to learn that wind, earthquake and fire may indeed be God's servants to wake men up. But unless people hear the "still small voice", no one is truly won for God. To reach and win the heart of man, the still small voice of grace must follow the thunder of Sinai.
This is also why the first three signs pass by without God in them.
This does not mean He will never deal in judgment. He has fixed a day for that. Sadly, we are prone to take that work out of His hands and do it too soon, and so we spoil it all. Besides, before the day of judgment there was to be a day of grace; and it is grace that speaks in the fourth and last sign.
The voice also gave him strength to obey.
When Elijah had heard the still small voice, he wrapped his face in his cloak and stood ready to obey the Lord. By the power and strength he had found in this voice he was once again able to obey the commandment of the Lord.
What reached Elijah still reaches people now.
Again we say, it was the still small voice which made Elijah feel that he was dealing with God. It is the same today. God speaks now to consciences and hearts in the written Word.
- Voice over noise. Wind, earthquake and fire were God's servants, but God was not in them. He made His presence known in the still small voice.
- Voice as grace. Elijah wanted judgment on Israel. The fourth sign speaks grace, because God has fixed the day of judgment and it has not yet come.
- Voice that covers the face. Away from the Lord, Elijah talked about himself. In His presence he hid himself. Reverence measures God by what He is, not by what He does.
- Voice that searches. The voice that drew him out asked again what he was doing there. God will have everything laid bare in His presence.
- Voice that sends. That voice gave Elijah strength to obey again. God still reaches consciences the same way, through His written Word.
And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I am left, I alone, and they seek my life, to take it away.
God has just spoken to Elijah in a gentle whisper, and now He asks a second time what the prophet is doing there. Elijah gives back the same complaint, word for word — and that answer, which sounds so faithful, is the problem.
God asks, and gets the same words back. One writer weighs what that gentle voice was, and what the reply exposed.
This soft gentle voice was that of grace. It is in grace that God has revealed Himself in the fullness of His being to poor sinners like ourselves. The God who reveals Himself this way asks His question again, to probe the prophet to the very depth: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah makes the same reply. He had had time to reflect; he lays bare what is in his heart. Whom does he credit with good? Himself. Whom does he accuse? The people of God. In a word it is an orderly accusation, a case pleaded against Israel, and a speech in praise of Elijah.
One writer counts three faults in the complaint. Watch the second one — these same people had just helped Elijah kill the priests of Baal.
Does he humble himself, confessing his lack of faithfulness, courage and faith? No. His language is that of self-elevation and accusing others. That is always the case when a believer leaves the path of obedience and refuses to judge himself and confess his sin. These words betrayed his unhappy state of soul in three ways. First, self-exaltation. Second, unjust accusation against God's people, whom he charges with idolatry and with persecuting God's prophets. Why, they had just turned away from their idols and returned to the true and living God, and helped the prophet kill the priests of Baal. Third, a complete lack of fellowship with God's faithful remnant in Israel. There were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed their knees to Baal, and Elijah did not know one of them.
The New Testament looks back at this moment. One writer sets Elijah's words beside those of Moses.
Being taken up with himself led Elijah to hold very improper feelings toward the erring people of God around him. "Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?" (Rom. 11:2). Intercession against Israel! Speaking well of himself and ill of God's people! Is this the true role of God's witness?… Moses spoke very differently. It is refreshing to listen to his moving prayer to God for Israel after they worshipped the golden calf (Ex. 32, 33). He kept reminding the Lord that they were His people, despite their grave sin, and that the honour of His great name was bound up with their blessing. Rather than see them overthrown, he was willing that God should blot him out of the book He had written.
Not seeing them was itself a failure. One writer links Elijah's blindness to his self-focus — and then turns it on us.
Elijah failed there, and in failing there he failed God. These seven thousand were very precious to God. Yet Elijah had not seen one of them, did not know one of them, did not suspect that one of them existed. If Elijah had not thought so much about himself, he would have seen some of these seven thousand before. It is the same with ourselves… We must not forget that there are those we do not see, those we do not meet. We must leave room for them in our hearts, in our faith. We must carry them on our soul before God.
God holds Elijah up and hands his post to another. Grace and government run side by side.
Grace would strengthen the prophet. Government accepted the resignation that Elijah handed in to God. The prophet feared death at the hands of a wicked woman. Grace would take him to heaven in a whirlwind — chariot and horsemen of fire — without dying at all… Government directed Elijah to anoint Elisha in his place.
The same mistake returns whenever a few faithful people look like the last ones left.
Our own day grows more corrupt, and our outlook is small. How often we imagine that the work of God depends on one or two devoted and faithful servants of the Lord! We think that once they are gone all testimony for the Lord will cease. We have to learn that though servants pass, God remains. He has other servants in preparation for His service. And, unknown to us, God has His hidden ones who have not bowed down to prevailing evils.
- "Left" alone. Elijah's whole case rests on one word — he says he is the only one left. God answers with the same word and a number: seven thousand.
- Left, so accusing. Taken up with himself, he praises himself and blames God's people. He prays against Israel, not for it — the opposite of Moses.
- Left, so blind. The seven thousand were real and precious to God. Elijah knew none of them, because he was watching himself.
- Left, so replaced. Grace strengthens him and takes him to heaven. God's government hands his place to Elisha.
- Never left alone. Servants pass, God remains — and He always has hidden ones who have not bowed to the evils around them.
And Jehovah said to him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when thou comest, anoint Hazael king over Syria;
After the wind, the earthquake and the fire, God does not comfort Elijah with sympathy. He sends the prophet back the way he came, with an errand that answers every word of his complaint.
Elijah had fled from Jezebel and left his work behind. The command to return shows that God has not finished with him.
The Lord recommissions him for service. Having restored His servant's soul, He sends him back to his work.
The order of the three appointments is not random. Each one matches something Elijah had just said about himself and about Israel.
First the Lord says, "Go, return on your way." The prophet must retrace his steps. Then he is to appoint other instruments to carry on the work of the Lord. Had Elijah complained of the evil of the people of God? Now it shall be his sorrowful mission to appoint Hazael king over Syria — an instrument to chastise the people of God. Had Elijah fled from before the threat of the wicked Jezebel? Then he must appoint Jehu to be king over Israel — the instrument to execute judgment upon Jezebel. Had Elijah spoken well of himself, and thought that he only remained? Then he must appoint Elisha to be prophet in his place.
Elijah had accused his own nation before God. The journey north to Damascus is the shape that answer takes.
The Lord did not openly rebuke Elijah, but the instructions He gave were a serious rebuke. He told Elijah to leave that place and go to the wilderness of Damascus, far to the north of where he was, and there anoint Hazael king over Syria (v.15). Why this? Because Elijah had prayed against Israel, and his prayer could be answered by Hazael's vicious cruelty against Israel!
The same writer draws the lesson plainly. Elijah "would have been wiser to intercede for Israel rather than against them!"
The two kings are two different instruments. Hazael rules a foreign power; Jehu rises inside Israel.
The judgements that Elijah seemed to feel were necessary would be carried out. The broken covenant, the altars that had been defiled, and the murdered prophets would all be avenged. The judgements would match the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire. A ruthless destroyer from outside and a fierce reformer within would be let loose on the guilty nation.
Of the three names, the third touches Elijah himself. Notice which one he carries out first.
He returns by the way by which he had come (v. 15). He finds Elisha the son of Shaphat and casts his mantle on him — the mark of identification as a prophet. If he had stuck to the bare letter of God's word, he would have had to begin by anointing Hazael and Jehu (vv. 15, 16). Instead he hurries to do the act that would reduce himself to nothing. He, the great prophet, hands his authority to another. So the man who had said, "I, even I only, am left," shows that from now on he is nothing in his own eyes.
Yet losing the office was not losing God's favour. One writer sets grace and government side by side:
Grace would strengthen the prophet. Government accepted the resignation that Elijah handed in to God. The prophet had feared death at the hands of a wicked woman. Grace would take him to heaven in a whirlwind — chariot and horsemen of fire — without his dying at all. Government directed Elijah to anoint Elisha in his place.
The account never shows Elijah anointing these two kings. One writer explains why:
What happened was that Elijah met Elisha first, since the Lord brought him onto his path. He threw his prophet's cloak over him for the first time. In doing so he gave up his commission, so to speak, and passed it to Elisha, though his own work as a prophet was not yet over. From the moment Elisha was marked out as his successor, the other two anointings fell to him.
- Go — the first word of the answer is a direction, not a discussion. Restoration ends with the servant back at the post he abandoned.
- Granted — Elijah had prayed against Israel; Hazael is that prayer coming true. Interceding for people would have been the wiser prayer.
- Government — one judgment comes from outside Israel (Hazael), one from within (Jehu). Together they carry out what Elijah felt was needed.
- Given away — handing his office to Elisha ended Elijah's own commission. He rushed to do that one first, and reduced himself to nothing.
- Grace — the same God who accepted his resignation still took him to heaven without dying. Losing a role is not losing His favour.
and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint prophet in thy stead.
Elijah has run to Horeb. He has told God that he alone is left, and he has asked to die. God does not answer with comfort. He gives orders. Elijah must mark out three men, and the last of them takes his own place as prophet.
The three commands answer, one by one, the three things Elijah had said. God takes each complaint and turns it into an assignment.
Did He want the people of God punished for their sin? He Himself should anoint the men who carry out God's judgment — certainly painful work for someone who truly loved the people. Did he think no one could replace him as a witness? Then he must go and anoint his successor — Elisha the son of Shaphat. Did he regard himself as the only faithful man left in the land? Then he must learn his mistake. Jehovah startled him with the news that He still had 7000 loyal hearts among Israel's tribes.
Discipline and grace meet in one command.
God, who is as faithful in discipline as in grace, bids him anoint another in his place.
Elijah has three tasks. He does the third one first — the one that costs him most.
He goes back the way he had come (v. 15). He finds Elisha the son of Shaphat and throws his cloak over him — the sign that marks him out as a prophet. If he had kept to the bare letter of God's word, he would have had to start with Hazael and Jehu (vv. 15, 16). Instead he hurries to do the act that reduces himself to nothing. He, the great prophet, hands his authority over to another man. So the man who had said, "I, even I only, am left," shows that from now on he is nothing in his own eyes. As for Hazael and Jehu, it would not be Elijah, but Elisha who would anoint them.
Anointing was a familiar act in Israel. This one has no parallel.
"And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place" (1 Kings 19:16). This last one is striking. It is the only case where Scripture speaks of anointing a prophet. Elisha was Elijah's successor, so he had to be formally marked out for the post. As a rule a prophet had no successor. God called him for one specific purpose, and no one else could take his place.
Hazael and Jehu carry weapons of war. The third name in the list carries something else, and it reaches further than the other two.
God does not forget Ahab's wickedness while He gives Elijah the discipline he needs. Hazael is to be anointed king of Syria and Jehu king of Israel, and in due time both will carry out God's judgments on the house of Ahab. There was still another sword to be drawn, the most terrible of all... No one escaped Elisha's sword, and it cut far wider than the swords of Hazael and Jehu. Elisha's sword was the word of God. Its judgment caught up with the guilty house of Ahab and with the idolatrous nation, after the swords of Hazael and Jehu had been broken. "Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth." (Hosea 6:5)
Of the three men named, Elisha came first. The order matters.
Of the three, Elisha came first, with his wonderful ministry of grace. This is so like our God. If Israel had eyes to see it, Elisha's service among them was the divine pause between the sentence and the carrying out of the judgement. It was for Israel to say whether the sentence would take effect. Jehovah is always willing to turn aside the threatened blow when men truly humble themselves before Him. This is the principle He declares in Jeremiah 18:7-8, and we see it illustrated in His dealings with the city of Nineveh in the time of Jonah.
The verse ends with a short phrase: "in your place." It shapes everything Elisha becomes.
But God valued his faithful service, and would soon give him a unique and splendid honour: He would take him up into heaven. Yet in grace He planned that Elijah's faithful testimony would carry on in Elisha. So Elijah goes to heaven, and Elisha stays on earth in the same position to represent him — "in his place," as the verse says. The anointing was to fit him and equip him for this, so that he could represent the man whom God took into heaven.
- Complaint answered. God meets Elijah's three claims — punish them, I am needed, I am alone — with three commands and the news of seven thousand.
- Place surrendered. He hurries past the two kings to the one act that empties him of standing, and from then on he is nothing in his own eyes.
- Prophet anointed. This is the one anointing of a prophet in Scripture, because this is the one prophet with a successor.
- Sword named. Hazael and Jehu strike with steel; Elisha strikes with the word of God, and his sword reaches furthest.
- Grace first. The sentence stands, but mercy goes ahead of it — leaving Israel room to repent.
And it shall come to pass, [that] him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
Elijah had just told God that Israel broke the covenant, tore down the altars and killed the prophets, and that he was the only one left. God answers with three names linked in a chain of swords — and the puzzle is the third sword, since Elisha never killed anyone with a blade.
Elijah had asked God to act against Israel. The three swords give him what he asked for — and one writer reads that as a rebuke.
The words of verse 17 are also a serious reproof to Elijah's criticism of Israel. God told him that Jehu would kill whoever escaped the sword of Hazael, and that Elisha would kill whoever escaped the sword of Jehu. God only speaks of judgment against Israel by these three men, and says not a word of the grace that Elisha would minister. God spoke in this way because Elijah had inferred that Israel deserved judgment.
Wind, earthquake and fire had just passed by Elijah's cave. The judgments God now announces match that pattern, and one writer sums up two of the men in a phrase each.
The judgments which Elijah seemed to feel were necessary would happen. The abandoned covenant, the desecrated altars, and the murdered prophets would all be avenged. The judgments would come in ways that matched the whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire. A ruthless destroyer from outside and a fierce reformer within would be let loose upon the guilty nation.
Hazael and Jehu strike with steel. One writer reads the third sword as something else — and as the one nobody escapes.
There was another sword still in its sheath, the most terrible of all. Nobody escaped Elisha's sword, and it reached far wider than those of Hazael and of Jehu. Elisha's sword was the word of God. Its judgment overtook the guilty house of Ahab and the idol-worshipping nation, after the swords of Hazael and of Jehu had broken. "Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth." (Hosea 6:5)
Years later King Jehoram of Israel fled from Jehu. One writer stops there and points back to this verse.
Jehoram cries while fleeing, "Treachery, Ahaziah!" Not treachery, but judgment! God's word to Elijah comes true to the letter. "And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death" (1 Kings 19:17).
Not everyone reads the third sword the same way. Another writer finds no real killing by Elisha at all — only a figure of it, in the last moments of his life.
Notice too that the word spoken to Elijah — "the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death" — is fulfilled only in these last moments of the prophet's life, and even then only in prophecy. He is so little a prophet of judgment that he carries out judgment only in figure. And even this judgment is nothing other than the salvation of Israel and its deliverance from the yoke of Syria.
Elijah thought he was the last faithful man in Israel. God's answer names three other servants, and one writer says the gentlest of them would reach people Elijah never saw.
And so Elijah learned that other ministry besides his own had to work on Israel. Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha had yet to appear on the scene. The still small voice had worked to draw him out of his mountain cave. In the same way, the gracious ministry of Elisha would work to draw out of their hiding places the thousands of faithful ones he had completely overlooked. Elijah was not to do everything. He was only one servant.
- Complaint. Elijah asked God to act against Israel; the three swords are his own prayer handed back to him as a reproof.
- Chain. Hazael strikes from outside, Jehu from inside, Elisha last. Each sword catches whoever slipped past the one before.
- Word. Commentators differ on the third sword. One makes it the word of God, cutting further than either blade of steel. Another says Elisha killed only in figure, at the end of his life, and even that for Israel's rescue.
- Fulfilment. When Jehoram fell to Jehu he called it treachery; it was this verse coming true to the letter.
- Remnant. The swords are not the last word. Elisha's gentler ministry would draw out thousands of faithful people Elijah never knew were there.
Yet I have left [myself] seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him.
Elijah had just told God twice that he alone was left. God's reply names a number he never suspected, and raises two questions: how could a faithful servant be so wrong about God's people, and what does God count as faithfulness?
One writer explains how a faithful man could be so mistaken about the people around him.
Elijah had seen the terrible evils covering the land. But somehow he had overlooked the good that was there. Had he known that the LORD still had thousands of true hearts in Ahab's land, he would hardly have said, "I, even I only, am left!" Being taken up with self is spiritually ruinous, whatever form it takes. It is especially wrong when it leads a servant of God to imagine he is the last true man on earth! The testimony of God has never yet hung on the slender thread of a human life, and it never will. God Himself will take care of the testimony. In His infinite wisdom He always knows where to find those through whom He can speak to the consciences and hearts of the people.
Older translations read, "I have left Me seven thousand in Israel." One writer presses that pronoun.
"But what does the answer of God say to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." God does not say that they reserved or preserved themselves. No — He says, "I have reserved."
The same working of God did not stop with Ahab's day.
In the days of Ahab Israel had all but abandoned God. Even then He reserved to Himself no less than seven thousand who were true to Him at heart, though Elijah was the only one who stood out in public testimony. This was the fruit of His grace, and the same grace still works. The result is "a remnant, chosen by grace" (Romans 11:5).
God describes them by two refusals: the knee and the mouth. One writer reads the second as a matter of the heart.
To the prophet the position appeared beyond repair — no one left but himself. Again God has His reserves: seven thousand in Israel. Not only did they refuse to acknowledge the authority of Baal, they did not allow their affections to move towards him.
What is not said about them is as striking as what is.
The seven thousand faithful were not all prophets of the LORD, though some of them may have been. They are not commended for standing beside Elijah in his faithful witness, nor for any outstanding deeds of courage in defence of the true worship of God. But God takes account of their refusal to bow before the false god of the king, or to give it the kiss of allegiance.
Commentators differ on how to weigh their silence. One writer feels the loss in it.
It was a great encouragement to learn that there were seven thousand who had never bowed the knee. But it was very sad that not one of them ever came out in public witness to support Elijah. Here we have a picture of 2 Timothy where it says "the Lord knows those who are his" (2:19). It is a very sad thing when only the Lord knows them.
The verse leaves a duty behind it. If God counts people we have never met, our thinking about His people has to stretch to fit His.
If Elijah had not thought so much about himself, he would have seen some of these seven thousand before. And so it is with us… We must not forget that there are people we do not see, do not meet, and are not used to dealing with. We must leave room for them in our hearts, in our faith. We must bear them on our soul before God.
- Reserved. God's answer begins with Himself: He did not say they kept themselves, He said He kept them.
- Refused. He counts them by two refusals: the knee that never bowed to Baal, and the mouth that never kissed him. They withheld both submission and affection.
- Unrecorded. God credits them with no sermons, no exploits, no public stand. He takes account of the refusal alone.
- Unseen. Elijah was so taken up with himself that he had met none of the seven thousand. God's testimony never hung on one man's life.
- Repeated. The same grace that reserved seven thousand under Ahab still keeps a remnant today. So leave room in your heart for those you have never seen.
And he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing [with] twelve yokes before him, and he with the twelfth; and Elijah went over to him, and cast his mantle on him.
Elijah was worn out and sure he stood alone. God had just told him that seven thousand in Israel had not bowed to Baal. The first of them He shows him is a farmer at work in a field. The call comes with no sermon, only a cloak thrown over the young man's shoulders as the prophet walks past.
Elijah thought the work rested on him alone. Choosing Elisha answers that fear:
In our own day, with its growing corruption, our outlook is limited. So we often imagine that the work of God depends on one or two devoted and faithful servants of the Lord. We imagine that when they are taken away, all testimony for the Lord will stop. We have to learn that though servants pass, God remains. God has other servants in preparation for His service. And, unknown to us, God has His hidden ones who have not bowed down to prevailing evils.
God found His next prophet behind a plough, not in a palace. Writers see a pattern in this:
The one chosen to take the place of the prophet is not found among the great men of the earth. God is no respecter of persons, and in choosing His servants God is not restricted to the great and noble. He may indeed employ the rich and the learned, kings and priests, as He sees fit. But at times He pours contempt on all our pride by taking up a man from the humblest walks of life to perform the highest spiritual service. So it happens that in the days of Elijah He calls a simple farmer from following the plough to be the prophet of his age.
He was driving the twelfth pair himself. God's call found him hard at work:
Elijah did not find Elisha sitting down enjoying himself or taking a nap in the heat of the day. He found a very industrious man, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. This is a good thing to see in the Lord's servants. We see it all through the Bible: God chooses men of action, men of industry, men who can do things... God has called many, many great men from very active lives to serve Him. They proved themselves in their secular calling, and then they proved themselves in the calling of God.
His daily work also matched his future work. One writer reads the field as a picture of the ministry ahead:
His ploughing is typical of the spiritual work God called him to do: ploughing up the consciences of Israel in repentance toward God, so that the seed of the Word of God could be sown.
Elisha was working the last pair himself. Elijah says nothing, and lets the mantle speak:
Elisha is found ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and "he was with the twelfth" — no doubt a strong and patient farmer. Elijah passes by and casts his mantle on him, showing, I would suppose, that he was to take the place and calling of the owner of it. Elisha clearly understood it that way. But for a moment he yields to his natural affection, and asks permission to go back and kiss his father and mother. The prophet's reply throws him on his own responsibility: "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" It was for him to judge whether Elijah's action toward him had been a divine call or not.
Others press the symbol further, to the power behind the office:
The mantle pictures the Spirit of God, who clothes the one who receives it with spiritual power. So Elisha was to have the same Spirit that Elijah had for serving the Lord.
Elisha was ploughing land the rain had made ready, and the farm was a large one:
The rain Elijah had prayed for had done its work, and the land was ready for ploughing. Twelve yoke of oxen were in use, which shows that Elisha's father was a farmer on a large scale. So Elisha turned his back on good prospects when he accepted the call to follow Elijah. This is what God loves to see in those who serve Him... But, my friends, what has the step cost you? Have you given up something substantial (as people say) to serve the interests of Christ in a needy world?
Elisha shows no shock when the mantle falls on him — a sign, some suggest, that God had been at work in him long before that morning:
God's chosen servants are always trained in secret before they are called to public service. The training ground before the open field — the discipline of training before the noise of battle — is always the order. The future teacher must be taught. The future leader must learn to follow. The future commander must know first how to obey.
- Hidden — Elijah thought the testimony would die with him. But servants pass and God remains, and He keeps ready ones we know nothing about.
- Busy — the call finds Elisha at the twelfth yoke. God calls men already faithful in ordinary work, not idle ones.
- Fitting — the plough matches the mission. Elisha's task was to break up Israel's conscience, so the seed of God's word could be sown.
- Clothed — the mantle, thrown without a word, marked him for Elijah's place and the power to fill it. Elijah's words left the choice with Elisha himself.
- Costly — twelve yoke of oxen was real wealth, and he left it. The passage asks every reader what their own following has cost.