what have I done to thee? I have stlmmoned of timber may have had something to do thee to follow me. Bllt I have not reqllired with this application of the " instruments thee to replldiate thine own flesh e.nd of the oxen ; " but it is much more import- blood."] ant to see it in a symbolical act, expressive Ver. 21.-And he retlll'Iled back from h1m of Elisha's entire renunciation of his secular [Wordsworth is not warranted in affirming calling, He would henceforth need them that Elisha " did not go bo.ck and kiss," &c. no longer. Cf. 1 Sam. vi. 14; 2 Sam. xxiv. The text rather implies that he did], e.nd 22], and gave unto the people [Not only the took a yoke (Ileb. the yoke. Cf. ver. 19] servants or peasants who had been plough- of oxen, and slew them [Heb. sacrificed; ing with him, but possibly his neighbours LXX. Wve1e. But the word, though gene- and frienils. This was a. farewell, not a. rally restricted to sacrificial acts, primarily religious feast. Cf. Luke v. 29, where Levi means " to slay " simply, as here, and in makes e. "great feast " on the occasion of Gen. :nxi. 64; 1 Sam. xxviii. 24; 2 Chron. his call], and they did eat. Then he arose, xviii. 2 ; Ezek. xxxix. 17. There was no and went after EllJah, and mJnistered unto altar there, and the flesh of e. sacrifice was him. [i.e., became his attendant, as Joshua never boiled], and boiled their :flesh [Heb. had been the minister of Moses (Exod. x.xiv. boiled them, the flesh] with the instruments 13; Josh. i. 1), e.nd as Gehazi subsequently of the oxen (the plough, yoke, &c. The became serve.nt to him. See 2 Kings iii. 11 : plough of the East is extremely rude e.nd "Elisha . . . which poured water on the slender, hut the yoke, shaft, &c., would hands of Elijah;" and cf, Aots xiii. 5,] e.fford a fair supply of wood. The scarcity
HOMILETICS. God and tke Man of God. This ohe.pter lends itself more ree.ilily to textual than to topical treatment. Ver. 1.-" .And.Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.'' Was there no word, then, of what God had done? Did he think that Elijah, by his own power or holi- ness, had brought down fire from heaven? Or if Elijah brought it, was there no thought of Him who sent it? But it is e.n every-day experience that men will think of anything, talk of anything but their Maker. They do not "like to retain God in their thoughts" (Rom. i. 28). Perhaps Ahab was afraid in the presence of Jezebel to connect the awful portent with the name of the Lord. That would be tantamount to confessing before her that the Lord He was God (eh. xvii.i. 24). Jezebel, therefore, may think it was magio if she will. Men are not nnseldom cowards in religion, even before their own wives and children. How blessed it is when husband and wife rehearse to each other the righteous acts of the Lord; how doubly blessed when the believing husband wins and saves the unbelieving wife (1 Cor. vii. 14, 16). Then marriage is a saorament indeed. "And . . . how ho had slain all the prophets," &o. There was no need to tell her that, e.t least that night. This communico.tion shows tho.t Ahab's hen.rt was unohanged, otherwise he would have practised a discreet reserve. He must hnve known full well what the effeot of those dark tidings would be. Had he wished for her conversion, he would surely have waited till the morning light. That would have given the other tidings he had brought a. chance to work repentance. To speak of th_e death of the prophets would be to fill her with ungovernable rage. It was ohanty to hold his peace. That was "a time to keep silence." Ver. 2.-" Then Jezebel Bent a messenger." Not, as we might hnve expectetl, to sue for forgiveness, but to threaten reprisals. "She swears and stamps at thnt w~ereat she.should have trembled" (Hall). There is no hate like a. woman's, no wiokedness like hers. They never do things by halves. " Men difier at most as heaven and earth, But women, best and worst, as heaven and hell." This woman will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead (Luke xvi. 1). The fie17 sign was lost upo~ her (" Fe.it~ come_th by hearing, not by apparitions"). Ahab W1tnessed the execution of the pnests and was too much awed to prevent it. Jezebel only hears of it, and straightway vows vengeance against its author. " A.dam 1 KINGS, 2B 466 THE FIRS'!' BOOK OF RINGS. [cu. XIX. 1---21.