Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 17

Verses 1-29

VIII

ELIJAH ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD

1 Kings 17:1-21:29

Elijah the Tishbite is the most dramatic personage in all history. He has left an ineffaceable impress on the imagination of the men of all times. He appears on the stage of action suddenly, rarely, startlingly, and disappears as suddenly and dramatically for long intervals of time, in which he is completely hidden from public sight. The ordinary life of the man never becomes commonplace because never familiar by association with the people. His successor lived much in a city, and never in seclusion, so that his everyday life was in the full glare of publicity. This intensely dramatic way of appearing, when coupled with his strange garb, stern manners and ascetic life, naturally impresses the imagination. We are not disappointed in the reasonable expectation that such a career would breed many traditions. Long after he passed away we find the Jews continually expecting his return. At the observance of the passover the door is left open that Elijah may enter if he should suddenly come, and a vacant chair is reserved for him at the circumcision of a child. When lost goods are discovered and the owner cannot be found, they are set aside until Elijah comes to identify the owner. In New Testament times, the Jews, unable to account for Jesus of Nazareth, supposed that he was Elijah, and when Christ cried out in the extreme agony of his crucifixion they supposed he was crying for Elijah.

In harmony with his marvelous career, we find the biblical period of his history the richest in homiletical value of all the scriptures. All the great preachers in the world have found thrilling themes in the incidents of Elijah’s life, and not only the great preachers, but the preachers generally throughout the ages have gone into this deep rich mine for sermon themes. Perhaps no man in all the ministry’ and throughout all the ages entirely omitted the life of Elijah in selecting topics for pulpit discussions. It would be quite easy to name at least fifty texts for sermons in this part of the Bible. The Scripture books which treat of this remarkable man are 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans and James. The intense interest in his career is just as fresh and strong in our own time as in previous ages. Such long continued interest cannot wholly arise from the dramatic setting of his life. There must be some profounder reason for his unshaken hold on the imagination and thought of the religious world. We find that interest arising from the great world crisis of his time and his method of meeting it. Once only before, and never since, has true religion been in such danger of utter extinction as in Elijah’s time. We may therefore properly inquire: What were the elements of this crisis and what effective measures employed by him in meeting its necessities?

Briefly stated, the elements of this crisis were:

1. Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess.

2. The marriage of Jezebel’s daughter with Jehoram, prince royal of Judah.

3. The consequent unhallowed alliance between Judah and Israel.

4. The consequent establishment of Baal worship in both kingdoms.

5. The consequent and extraordinary persecution of the true religion and its prophets in both kingdoms.

6. The same murderous extinction of the seed royal of David by Athaliah’s husband, the daughter of Jezebel until one child alone is left of all the male progeny of David.

7. The consequent eminent hazard of the extinction of the true religion in the world.

Elijah himself thus expresses the situation: "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away." It is true, in the great depression of his mind following his flight from Jezebel, while under the juniper tree he prayed that he might die, feeling that his life had been a failure, that he exaggerated through ignorance his extreme loneliness. Some of the prophets had been saved alive by Obadiah, and the Almighty whose omniscience can read the hearts of the people in the most secret hiding places, assured him that there was a remnant according to grace of 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But he knew nothing of this secret following of Jehovah. His voice was the only voice in the whole wide world lifted up in favor of Jehovah, so that with some measure of truth he might well say: "Alone, alone, alone, one man against the world." In the days of Noah the remnant was even smaller than in the days of Elijah, but there has never been a period since his time when the true religion was reduced to as few flickering sparks.

After the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and the establishment of the dynasty of Omri and the marriage of Ahab, Omri’s son, with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess, and the adoption of her Baal worship in the place of the worship of Jehovah, the doom of the ten tribes was fixed, and all the) voices of the prophets could only briefly delay the swiftly coming ruin. One weak woman brought about the fall of the race, and this strong, cruel woman, Jezebel, could nearly bring about a second destruction. And when she had succeeded through her daughter, Athaliah, in establishing the Baal worship in Judah as well as in Israel, both streams of the national life became intensely corrupt. We are accustomed to admire the heroism of any sixteenth century reformer, who dared to lift his voice against the prevailing religious corruption of Romanism, but in no period of either pagan or papal persecution have the Christians been reduced to such small numbers and such scanty influence as in the days of Elijah. Neither Savonarola, nor Huss, nor Jerome, nor Prague, nor the Waldenses, nor Luther, nor Calvin, nor John Knox nor the Dissenters in the days of the Stuarts nor John Bunyan, nor Spurgeon was ever subjected to the extreme loneliness that afflicted the heart of Elijah. It is easy to go with the multitude, or even stand against the multitude if only a few stalwart friends unflinchingly support us, but when one man has to put himself against the whole world, the swelling tide of public opinion, the inquisition of hate, the devouring power of persecution with no reserve to fall back on except his own unconquerable spirit; then when such a man stands like a rock against which the billows dash themselves in vain, he is a hero indeed. No man can make such a stand apart from the divine call and support. In his case, as in the case of all trials of religious heroes, the Scripture is fulfilled: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against him." In our admiration of this man’s greatness and in our gratitude for the redemption wrought through his heroic courage and fidelity, we should not lose sight of the God-prompted measures employed by him to effectively stem the encroaching tide of evil.

THE EFFECTIVE MEASURES EMPLOYED BY ELIJAH
Briefly speaking, these were:

1. In his meeting with Ahab he startles the irreligious world with the announcement of a drought of three and a half years, which should not be broken except at his word, and then as suddenly as the drop of the curtain hides the arena of a theater from the sight of the people, he disappears and is lost to public view until the time comes for the breaking up of the drought. His name is unknown to history up to this sudden appearance with this awful denunciation. We know nothing of his father or his mother, or his kindred, or any of the early stages of his life. He emerges from total obscurity to stand as the mouthpiece of Jehovah, and then to be swallowed up into that obscurity for three and a half years more. The ravens knew the place of his retirement and furnished him food in his solitude, and a widow in the borders of Jezebel’s home country sheltered him from human sight. He had said that at his word only the drought should be broken; he was gone and no one knew where, and the consuming drought kept up its burning logic of opposition to idolatry. No soothsayer, no diviner, no rainmaker, no god of the heathen could even fleck the burning sky with a spot of cloud. While the ground parched and the water courses dried up, and all vegetation withered, and even kings spent their time in finding enough water to support the cattle of the royal household, well might the world wonder when this dramatic man would reappear and speak the word for rain to come. May we not account for Ahab’s worldwide search for him, by the desire that he would come and break up the drought by a word, before the nation perished? This measure was exceedingly effective in stemming the tide of irreligion, and in destroying public confidence in the powerless heathen gods.

The method of his own nourishment during the famine of the drought adds much to the character of the test between opposing deities. Jehovah miraculously provides for his prophet. There is nothing too hard for him. He may employ ravens or widows as instruments. We may not attempt to shut out a miracle by different vowel pointing of the word "raven." The word is "ravens" and not angels, nor merchants, nor Arabs. These birds probably nested in the caves where Elijah went, and may have brought the food for their young. But that conjecture could not meet the Septuagint rendering: "They brought him bread in the morning and flesh in the evening." The God whose spirit assembled the animals in the ark could influence ravens. Elijah is called the first apostle to the Gentiles because of his saving sojourn with the widow of Zarephath. The fact that Jezebel’s own country nourished the prophet adds emphasis to the test between opposing deities and as history counts it this widow is higher than Jezebel. The saving of the widow’s son led to her own salvation: many widows in Israel perished, but electing love reached out its saving hand to this widow in Jezebel’s country, as it did again in our Lord’s day. Jewish tradition represents this restored boy as becoming a follower of Elijah and identifies him with the prophet Jonah, the second foreign missionary.

Toward the end of this drought period, when its lessons of preparation have been well learned, and when messengers had vainly sought for Elijah throughout the habitable world, he reappears with all the dramatic power of his first appearance, and his second meeting with Ahab introduces his next effective measure of opposition to the irreligious life of his time.

2. He openly challenges Ahab to bring all the prophets of Baal together to put themselves against him alone in order to determine which god had the power to break this drought. The earth had never before seen such a single public test of the power of opposing deities. Elijah thus puts the case: "And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. But the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them, therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bullock and lay it on wood and put no fire under, and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken." Thousands of sermons have been preached on these thrilling words of Elijah. The first one my own boyish mind can recall was by my own father upon this theme. The demonstration of Elijah was complete, and all the people said, "Jehovah, he is God." In spite of their wickedness they found it impossible to blot out from their memories and from the memories of the race this great demonstration of divine power. And while the great reformation thus introduced seemed to be short-lived for these people, yet we, nearly 3,000 years later, feel the impress of the triumph of that day. Very rarely in a Bible story does a man of God indulge in sarcasm. The literature of the world cannot surpass this mockery of the false prophets of a false god: "And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked." Certain heathen authors have imitated Elijah’s mockery of false gods; for example:

"Jove went yesterday across the ocean to banquet with the Ethiopians." – HOMER. Jove on his couch reclined his awful head, And Juno slumbered on the golden bed.

"It is no wonder that the temple of Diana was burned; since she was absent at the time, employed in bringing Alexander into the world." – PLUTARCH.

" ’Tis plain that the gods are not at home, and probably have taken a voyage to attend the feasts of Ethiopia’s blameless race, for they are in the habit of inviting themselves as guests to those honest folks." (Lucian, Testimony of the Ages, p. 307.) Fire from heaven having attested the truth of Elijah and demonstrated the falsehood of Baal, the lying prophets were all slain at the word of Elijah and in the presence of the panic-stricken Ahab, Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, overlooking the sea, and prayed seven times for rain. What a lesson on the importunity of prayer, and what a text for another sermon on the little cloud no larger than a man’s head at first, but rapidly darkening the heavens, and oh, the rain, the blessed rain that followed! At the word of Elijah the drought was broken. Though a man of like passions with ourselves, so great was his power of prayer, his pleadings attracted and condensed the clouds of the heavens, and the rain fell in torrents. The parched earth rejoiced under its downpour, the dying roots of vegetation revived, and burst forth in blade and bloom and fruit, and even men were not unmindful in at least their temporary gratitude for the relief that came to assuage their burning thirst. In every subsequent drought and thirst men remember Elijah and pray as Elijah prayed that God might relieve the suffering world. The lesson is titanic and far-reaching in its influence. It demonstrates that man’s extreme need is God’s opportunity. It uncovered to all human sight a throne of grace approached by human and suffering suppliants. Hundreds of thousands in the passing ages have Carmel to look on the sight of those great happenings. They put their feet where the old altar of Jehovah stood, which Jezebel destroyed, and Elijah here reconstructed. Even Tacitus, the Roman historian, ages afterward speaks of Garmel’s strange altar. These same thousands have climbed Carmel’s crest, and marked the crest where Elijah, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea, by importunate prayer, called up the cloud.

It is true that at this high tide of this reformation, the daring and cruel Jezebel affrighted Elijah, and shook for the first and only time in his history his self-reliant spirit, and drove him in abject fear to another and distant retirement. But not even Jezebel could blot out the lesson. The wilderness has swallowed Elijah like the brook Cherith once hid him from sight. Under the juniper tree he may wish to die. In the cave of Horeb he would hear the howling of the storm, feel the shock of the earthquake, see the devouring fire, and listen again to the still small voice of God. Men may say that Elijah was defeated, that he was thoroughly panic-stricken. He is gone, but he will come again out of the silence of the desert, and the opposition will hear his voice again.

The record of this disappearance of Elijah is more marvel-ous than the first. That despair under the juniper tree; that voice of God: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that deep sleep; that angel food in the strength of which he fasted forty days, like Moses before him and his Lord after him – all in that same desert, – the visit to Sinai, and the voice again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" the theme of so many sermons. Spurgeon says of himself that when a boy, seeing a deacon in a questionable place, put his finger on his shoulder and startled him with, "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

3. Just as suddenly as on the previous occasion he appears before Ahab in Naboth’s vineyard, and evokes from the trembling lips of the startled king: "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" How grim is his response: "I have found you." And then comes the next measure to stem the tide of irreligion. As an oracle of God he denounced the doom of the house of Ahab. It shall perish root and branch; man, woman, nor child shall be left, and Jezebel) though she may array herself in royal apparel and paint her face and attire her head, yet shall the dogs eat her flesh. The word that had shut up the heavens, the word that had opened the heavens; that word now pronounces the downfall of this entire iniquitous house as certain and irrevocable. There is not space to rehearse the details of the execution of this doom. The records show that not a word of Elijah failed. The whole house of Ahab is blotted out and that lesson has power today. Even men who mock at God and deny the supernatural, and wade through blood to attain the goal of a tyrant’s ambition, yet tremble when they read the record of the fall of the house of Ahab. The miser, the covetous man who is an idolater, the individual land grabber, and the corporation thief of national territory may well cherish the experience of Elijah when in the vineyard of Naboth. The quiver of Elijah is not yet empty; another shaft is fitted to his bow of Death.

4. The son of Ahab is on the throne, and he is sick unto death. He had not forgotten the power of the word of Elijah. Let all sons of tyrants remember it. There is ever some weak or broken lattice to cause a fall that brings on the sickness unto death. And this man would inquire of Baal whether he would recover, but from out of his obscurity Elijah intercepts the messenger of inquiry and sends him back with the message of death. The affrighted man inquires of the messenger the appearance of the man who sends him this awful message: "What manner of man was he that came up to meet you and told you these words?" And they answered him: "He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about the loins, and he said, ’It is Elijah the Tishbite.’" The message was more impressive than the garb of the one who sent it and both are always recognizable by tyrants. The unhappy king seeks to arrest the prophet, but when two companies of fifty men have been consumed by fire, the man of God appears before the dying tyrant: "Thus saith Jehovah, forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore, thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." So he died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken. How significant this terrible lesson! Not even the sick and dying shall inquire of another God but Jehovah! It was a lesson worthy of association with the lessons of the drought and the rain, and the fire from heaven, and of the vineyard of Naboth. Some men for a time, may forget this lesson, but mankind as a rule never forgets it. The oracles of the heathen have been abandoned to the moles and bats. The lesson of Elijah falls from many lips since his time, and we hear it thus from the lips of Isaiah: "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards that chirp and mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." But the effective measures of Elijah have not reached their climax. The leaven of the Baal worship had spread through Jezebel’s daughter to the neighboring kingdom of Judah, and while Elijah’s mission was to Israel, or to the ten tribes, yet he has a measure for the kindred nations.

5. And this is his letter to Jehoram, king of Judah, the husband of Jezebel’s daughter. We have known Elijah as a man of deeds and of mighty words. We have not known him as a writer, but we do know that in this one case where he could not appear in person before the king of Judah, he wrote a letter, which, though not delivered until after his going away, yet found its object and was a posthumous bolt of lightning. This is the letter: "And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah; but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab; and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house, which were better than thyself: behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of the bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day." This word was as much a missive of death as the word to Ahaziah, and is a demonstration that Elijah, though alone against the world, is still triumphant in the great war against the house of Ahab and the Baal worship. Ahab, Jezebel, Ahaziah, and Jehoram, are gone. Jezebel’s daughter and all the other offenders will follow later.

6. The sixth measure, God-prompted, which Elijah employed was even more powerful than the preceding ones. It is the measure of perpetuity. He is already informed that the time is at hand when he must leave the earth, and before leaving he must take steps to provide for the full prosecution of his work. This measure consists of a triple anointment. He anoints Elisha to be his own successor. He anoints Hazael, king of Syria, to afflict the idolatrous Israelites, and he anoints Jehu, king of Israel, to be his executor of all the remnants of the house of Ahab, so that his translation from this world to the one above does not put a stop to the effectiveness of the redemption of his race, and to the growth of the true religion. It seems to me however great things one may achieve in the short time of his earthly life, they cannot possibly be equal in effectiveness to those measures which provide for the successors and the perpetuity of the good work when one is gone. Only those who can leave behind them others to take up the work where they left it and who, through organizing power, can provide for an endless succession of workers – only these are the great men of the world. It matters little if Christ is crucified if he left apostles and if these were empowered to institute a larger ministry, so that Paul might commit his work to Timothy, and Timothy in turn to faithful men after him, and thus secure a perpetuity of ministers. Whitefield was a great orator in his day, but his day passed. Wesley was a great organizer, and through his organization he lived long after Whitefield passed away.

7. Elijah has yet one arrow in his quiver; he will not die at all; God will translate him. Not even the sons of the prophets can find him when they search for him. No spot on earth holds his remains; no tombstone marks his resting place, and thus we come to his last effective measure.

He so went away as to create an expectation of his return. The expectation is voiced in these words of Malachi, which is the closing paragraph of the Old Testament: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

When we come to the New Testament, the angel thus carries on the closing thought of the Old Testament to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist: "For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." The words of our Lord give the interpretation of Malachi’s prophecy and of the angelic message to Zacharias. Concerning John the Baptist, Jesus said, "And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah which was to come." "And they asked him saying, Why say the Scribes that Elijah must first come? And he answered and told them, Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things, and how it is written of the son of man, that he must suffer many things and be set at naught. But I say unto you, that Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him."

We have thus found the elements of the crisis in Elijah’s time to be:

(1) Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel, the Tyrian princess.

(2) The marriage of Jezebel’s daughter with Jehoram, prince royal of Judah.

(3) The consequent unhallowed alliance between Israel and Judah.

(4) The consequent establishment of Baal worship in both kingdoms.

(5) The consequent and extraordinary persecution of the true religion and its prophets in both kingdoms.

(6) The murderous extinction of the seed royal of David by Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, until one child alone is left of all the male progeny of David.

(7) The consequent imminent hazard of the true religion and its prophets in the world.

And we have found Elijah’s effective measures of resistance to be:

(1) The sending of the drought at his first meeting with Ahab.

(2) The triumph over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and the breaking of the drought.

(3) His confronting Ahab in the stolen vineyard of Naboth and denouncing the doom of all his house.

(4) His interception of the message of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, and his denunciation of the doom of the wicked king.

(5) His letter to Jehoram, king of Judah.

(6) His appointment of successors to carry on his work.

(7) His departure from the earth in such a way as to create an expectation of his return in any similar crisis in the world’s history.

Such a man not only left his impress in Jewish traditions, but supplied some of the most important New Testament lessons. The most notable of these are the following:

Christ’s lesson from Elijah’s time in his sermon at Nazareth: "And he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land) but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city near Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow." This important lesson itself has been the theme of many a timely sermon. The lesson is one of extreme sadness. It carries back the mind to that awful drought when the stock were suffering, and the poor widows suffering most of all. It establishes the truth that any starving, dying woman of Israel could have found relief in an appeal to God’s prophet, but only a far-off stranger in Jezebel’s country had the faith to make the appeal and be saved from distress.

The next great lesson is the reappearance of Elijah at Christ’s transfiguration, where, with Moses, he appears in glory, and communes with the great Redeemer concerning his approaching death at Jerusalem (Matthew 17:3). So that Elijah not only fulfilled the public expectation in coming again in the person of John the Baptist, who had his spirit and his power, but he comes in his own person from the high courts of heaven to confer with our Lord concerning his expiatory death. What a lesson is this when the living apostles are protesting against his death; when the murderers are expecting his death to cut off his influence and stop the progress of his principles I From the realms of the invisible world, the great law giver and the great prophet appear to find in that death the world’s only hope of salvation.

Another important New Testament lesson is Paul’s use of the remnant of 7,000 in Elijah’s day in discussing the great doctrine of "Election" (Romans 11:2). And what a lesson of comfort this is when we feel our isolation and loneliness; when the reformers in the ages of corruption become discouraged, to look back to Elijah, and see him under the juniper tree wishing he might die in the thought that his life was a failure, and hear the words of God: "I have reserved for myself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal." In the times of great moral and spiritual corruption we know that there is hidden away, known only to the omniscient sight, many men and women true to what is right, though the great centers of influence become corrupt and though the great leaders turn away from the simple truth as it is in Jesus.

Another important lesson is given by James the brother of our Lord: "Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months." What a lesson is here for human feebleness and doubt as to the power of prayer, and how much does the world need this lesson! Particularly is it helpful just now when it has become fashionable among the literary great to decry the power of prayer, when unsanctified science, falsely so-called, rebukes the helpless when they sink down on bended knee in dire extremities, saying, "It is vain to pray: all things move according to natural law. It is useless to cry unto God. What profit shall we have if we pray unto him?"

One other New Testament lesson which I refer to Elijah’s time, is very sweet. We find the record of it in Matthew 10:41-42. Jesus had been saying that whosoever giveth even a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall receive a disciple’s reward, or whosoever shall receive a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. There seems to be allusion to the words of Elijah addressed to the widow of Sarepta, words spoken in times of famine and drought and thirst: "And give me, I pray thee, a cup of cold water." This lesson speaks to the lowliest and the poorest, those who have the least, and shows the mercy and grace of God in permitting the children of poverty even to find a blessing in helping somewhat the cause of the blessed God.

So that whether we consider the crisis of this man’s time or the effective measures adopted by him to stem the tide of religious corruption, or the New Testament lessons borrowed from the record of his life, or consider his period as an inexhaustible mine for digging up precious themes of pulpit power, we find Elijah and his times as supremely worthy of human study in any age. Such are some of the lessons to be learned from the man who stood alone against the world.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the theme and text of this lesson?

2. How do you account for the ineffaceable impress on the imagination of succeeding generations made by the life of Elijah?

3. Cite some of the traditions suggested by his life.

4. What is the relation of this life to homiletics and what books of Scripture furnish the material for the life of Elijah?

5. What proves that the abiding interest in Elijah is not due exclusively to the dramatic character of that life appealing to the imagination?

6. Give briefly the elements of the world crisis in his time,

7. How does Elijah himself express the situation?

8. How does Jehovah correct the exaggeration of this statement due to ignorance and morbid depression of mind?

9. Cite instances, apart from Jezebel’s case, of great harm coming from a woman’s influence, and then cite instances of great good resulting from a woman’s influence.

10. "There is a Jewish proverb: "When the tale of brick is doubled, then cornea Moses." What scripture embodies the thought?

11. What was Elijah’s first measure of meeting the world crisis and how did it fairly test the opposing religions and deities?

12. Why did Ahab send all over the world to find Elijah?

13. How and where did Elijah hide himself during the three and a half years of the drought and how was he nourished?

14. Was his food supply at the brook Cherith brought by angels, Arabs, or birds?

15. What poor woman of this story eclipses Jezebel, and how did this incident add emphasis to the test between opposing deities?

16. Why is Elijah called the first apostle to the Gentiles?

17. What is the proof that this heathen woman was saved by Elijah’s ministry?

18. What is the Jewish traditions about this woman’s son?

19. What was Elijah’s second test?

20. What is the meaning of the word "bait" in "How long halt ye between two opinions?"

21. What heathen authors have imitated Elijah’s sarcasm and mockery of a false god?

22. How did Jezebel turn the tables on Elijah?

23. Have you read Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon on this panic of Elijah?

24. What great lesson of the juniper tree and the cave in Horeb?

25. What was the third measure of Elijah?

26. What were the great lessons from it?

27. What was the fourth measure?

28. And what was its lesson?

29. What was the fifth measure and its lesson?

30. What was the sixth?

31. What was the seventh and last?

32. Restate the seven elements of the crisis and the seven measures opposing.

33. Cite five New Testament lessons from his life.