The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 440

offered up the so.crifice on Carmel. In this sacrifice the people accepted Jehovah e.s their covono.nt God. So must we likewise accept God in Christ. In token of their communion with Jehovo.h they appear to have feasted on the sacrifices. With the burnt offering there were doubtless peace offerings, for these were usual accompaniments, upon which the worshippers feasted. This was the eating and drinking to which Elijah moved Ahab (ver. 42). (6) Elijah also was a. type of Christ in his character of IntercessOT. While Ahab and his people were partaking of the peace-offerings, "Elijo,h went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself clown upon the earLh, and put h.is face between his knees." He bowed reverently in prayer with his head towards the gronnd-_an attitude still observed in the East. So Christ, in the heights, makes intercession for us. 3. The blessing came. (1) While Elijah interceded he sent his servant to look for the signs of the coming blessing. In this parable, in which tho prophet is still the type of Christ, his servant stands for the Chwrch, whose duty it is to look for the fmits of the Redeemer's pleadings. Aie we thus looking? (2) The servant went, and went ·again ancl again before he witnessed any sigu, in which the lesson to us is that while Christ pleads we must never be cliscouragecl, but "hope to the end." (3) At the seventh time the promise appeared in a. cloud as of a man's hand rising out of the sea, which was to be followed by others in rapid succession until the heavens were" black with clouds and wind," and the thirsty earth was visited with copious showers of refreshing rain. This was prophetic of that seventh time, or '' fulness of time," when the hand of God shall act in the sea, or among a.11 nations, and raise that" plentiful shower ''which shall refresh His weary inheritance (Psa.. l.xviii. 9). Meanwhile Elijah sent his servant to Ahab, saying, "Harness the horses, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." (4) Now the parable is changed. Ahab, the king of Israel, after the destruction of the prophets of Baal, riding as in triumph, and attended by the blessings of heaven, is the type of Christ. So Elijah runs before him in the spirit and power of God. The Baptist accordingly came "in the spirit a.nd power of Elias," as the forerunner of Christ, in His first advent, to establish His spiritual kingdom. But Elias, in person, will be His harbinger when He comes again, in the fulness of His blessing, to establish a visible o.nd everlasting kingdom (MoJ. iv. 6).-J. A. M. Vers. 7-IG.-Obadiah. It is a proof of the extremity of distress to which the land had been reuuced by famine that the king himself with one of bis highest officers, the governor of his household, should have gone forth on this expedition in eearch of water and pasturage. The reverence the person of Elijah inspired is seen in the behaviour of Obo.diah towards him when they met. The brief notice we have of this man is highly instructive. I. Hrs FIDELITY. His name, Obadiah, "servant of Jehovah," is suggestive of the strength of bis religious character. And it was probably no vain boast that he hacl always sustained it (ver. 12). It may seem strange that so good a mo.n should have been willing to remain in the service of such a king, and of a state so demoralized ancl disorganized by the spirit of idolatry. But note-I. Religious fidelity wins respect even from those whose own life is moat at variance with it. Ahab must have known that his servant remained true to the Goel of his fathers, ancl his being continued in such a post was a testimony to his moral and practical worth. Like Joseph in the court of Pharo.oh, and Daniel in Babylon, "the S1iirit of God was in him," and the king could find none more worthy of his trust. The fear of God is after all one of the highest qualifications for the secular businesses a.nd re~ponsibilities of life, and "when a man's ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to boat peace with him" (Prov. xvi. 7). 2. It is often a noble thing to stand at the post of duty, however uncongenial the moral atmosphere may be. We have no reason to believe that Obadiah retained his position by any kind of moral laxity. He did not violate bis conscience in maintaining his secular allegiance. Na.a.man the Syrian, in the zeal of bis new devotion to the God of Israel, asked a dispensation of forgiveness if he should bow with his master in the house of Rimmon (2 Kings v. 18), but we have no evidence even of such 11, com· 1 KINGS, 2 c;.  450 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [en. XVIII. 1-46.