He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, 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.
The Sound of "I"
Notice who fills the answer. One writer says the mistake was real, but not dishonest:
William KellyAnd 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:
C. H. MackintoshHow 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.
The Order of the Charges
Elijah names three sins, and the sequence is not random. One writer traces how each one grew out of the last:
C. H. MackintoshIt 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.
What He Could Not See
The charges were true enough. But the claim to be the last man left overlooked others that God could see:
An Outline of Sound WordsMuch 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.
Pleading Against, Not For
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:
W. W. FeredayThe 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.
The Cave and the Complaint
There is a link between where Elijah was standing and what he was able to say. Withdrawal and accusation travel together:
C. H. MackintoshThe 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's Answer
God does not argue with Elijah's count. He tells him about people He has kept:
H. L. RossierThis 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.
Summary
- 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.