The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 392

(See Psa. xln. 4; John iv. 14; vii. 37-39; Rev. xxii. 17.) 2. Their b1·cad shall be given. "I have commanded ravens to feed thee there. (1) What an unlikely thing! Ravens were unclean creatures (Levit. xi. 15). They are insect-feeding, ca1Ti~1_1-eating birds, ~~emselves fed by specinl pro-yidence of <:3-od. (See Job x=,m. 41; Psa. c:tlvu. 9.) (2) Yet God could do 1t; for the mstincts of ell creatures are in His hands. He restrained hungry lions from harming Daniel ; instructed a fish how to behave to Jonah; and another to lift a piece of silver from the bottom of a lake and then fasten upon a hook. " Is anything too hard for the Lord ? '' (3) But woidd He do it? Would He employ an unclean creature to feed His servant? He migh~ have Hi_s own reasons even for this. Elijah sustained for t:'JTee years and a half m the wilderness was a type of the Christian Church nourished by the word of God for three and a half prophetic years (Rev. xii. 6, 14). Babylon the great, from whose face the Church had to fly, was the mystical Jezebel, as the true Church was the mystical Elijah. But in this Church the destruction of clean and unclean creatures had no place. (See Acts x. 16, 28; xv. 7-11.) Might not this gospel have been foreshadowed in the manner in which Elijah was fed? 3. But is it certain that ravens were employed .t (1) He might have been fed by .Arabians! For the word (C 1 ::rW) translated "ravens" also denotes .Arabians. (See it so used in the singular, Isa. xiii. 30 ; J er. iii. 2; N" eh. ii. 19; and in the plural as here, 2 Chron. xxi. 16: xxii. 1.) And Gilead bordered upon that tract of country more especially described in Scripture as Arabia. (2) Or he might have been fed by merchants. For this word also desig- nates merchants. (See Ezek. xx:vii. 9, 27.) If Israelitish merchants supplied the prophet's needs, then probably would they be of the seven thousand who scorned to bow the knee to Baal (eh. xi.x. 18), and so would not discover his hiding place to Ahab. (3) Or he might have been sustained by certain inhabitants of Oreb, a rocky place beyond Jordan. (See Judg. vii. 22; Isa. x. 26.) This opinion is favoured by Jerome, who says," The Orbim, inhabitants of a town on the confines of the Arabs, gave nourishment to Elijah." (See more in A. Clarke.) (4) Whether by ravens, Arabians, merchants, or people of Oreb or Orbo, matters little; God can spread a table in the wilderness. He can give us the bread of the day in the day -" bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening." Neces- sary things are sure ; luxuries we may dispense with. The greatest luxury to the wise and good is the feast upon the spiritual food which accompanies faithful obedience to God (J obn iv. 32-34).-J. A. M. Vere. 7-9.-The Widow of Zidon. Towards the close of Elijah's year of seclusion, to use the words of Dr. Macduff, "the brook began to sing less cheerily; once a full rill or cascade, which, night by night, was wont to lull the prophet of Israel to sleep, it becomes gradually attenuated into a silver thread. In a few days it seems to trickle drop by drop from the barren rock, until, where pools of refresh- ing water were before, there is nothing now left but sand and stones.'' It is time for the prophet to look to God for further direction; and in response to bis prayer, "the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise," &c. How different are the resources of the believer from those of the worldling I When the Cherith of the world.ing fails be bas nothing further to look to, but when from the believer one comfort is withdrawn another is at hand (Psa. x:xxvii. 19). Let us meditate upon- I. THE COMMAND OF GoD TO THE WIDOW. 1. She ia to sustain the prophet of the Lord. (1) What an honour is this I For two years and a half to entertain the man that "stands before Jehovah," at whose word the clouds are sealed or the windows of heaven opened I (See ver. 1 and xviii. 41.) The man whose prayer was to bring fire down upon the sacrifice on Carmel to the confusion of idolatry I (eh. xviii. 38.) Who was to bring the same element down upon the soldiers of Ahaziab I (2 Kings i. 10-12). Who was destined to ride alive into the heavens in a chariot of fire ! (2 llini;s ii. 11). Who was destined, many centuries later, to appear in glory with Messiah on the mount of transfiguration ! (Matt. xvii. 8). And who is yet to come before the great day of judgment to gather back the children of_Is~ael from their dispersion! (M:al. iv. 6, 6). (2) How could she hope for such d1Stmo- OH, XVI!, 1-24.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 401