Vers. 4-21. Return of Elijah to the Desert. It is well for us to recognize tho.t the groat servants of God are men like ourselves, tho.t they were formed of the same clay, e.~d t~at they share our infirmities, Elijah _ho.d no time to magnify himself after his triumph on Mount Carmel. It was at thIB very moment God allowed hi.ra l li'QlllS. 21 481 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ CB, XX, 1--41.
to pass through the most terrible montal conflict. Led into the bnre nnd e.ricl solitudes of lloreb, he fell into a state of depression bonlering on despair, and, throwing himself down under a juniper tree in the wilderness, he cried, "0 Lord, now take away my life!" (Ver. 4.) A spiritual crisis like this comes in the life of most men of God, and may be explained by two reasons. 1. There is a spiritual necessity for it. The man of Goil who has gained the first great victory is apt to think that it is decisive and final, s..ud that he may now cen.se to fight. Ancl behold, the evil that was vanquished yeste:day lifts up its heail. a.gain, and the conflict bas to be begun anew. 11 I have been 'Very jealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant" (-rer. 10). 2. This painful crisis is permit.ied by God, who will not have His servants uplifted in their own eyes, even by the most splendid triumphs of the cause which it is their honour to ma:intnin. This is the explanation of the mysterious thorn in the flesh with which St. Paul was buffeted (2 Cor. xii. 7). This is the cnuse of the momentary despondency of John the Baptist, which prompted that utterance of a faltering faith, "Art thou he that should come?" (Matt. xi 3.) To the same source we may trace the anguish of Luther in the Wartburg. He who is pleased thus to exercise the soul of His children is Himself their only efficient Comforter. God raises His downcast servant Elijah by means of a glorious vision. The Lord is not in the wind, not in the earthquake; these are but the symbols of His awful majesty. He is in the still small voice, which whispers the name afterwards to be proclaimed to the whole world by the beloved disciple, and written in letters of blood upon the cross: " God, is love" (1 John iv.16). Let us not forget, however, that if God is not in the stormy wind and earthquake, these manifestations of His severity necessarily preceded the manifestation of that love which is His true essence. It was needful tho.t the reed which had presumed to lift up itself against God should be bent, that the ho.rd heart, like the stone, should be broken in order that the still small voice might go.in an entrance to it. Repentance must come before the deliverance and joy of pardon, It is by this path through the desert that God leads every soul of man ; it was thus tbat He led His servant Elijah. His overwhelming anguish of soul was like the whirlwind which prepared the way for the soft whisper of heavenly pence. This desert of spiritual desolation is to be made to blossom like the rose under the re- viving breath of the Lord (Isa. xxxv. 1). Elijah comes forth from it with renewed strength and courage, after the wholesome discipline of humiliation, 11, wHnees to us of the truth of the Divine assurance uttered by the lips of Christ Himself: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they sho.11 be comforted" (Matt. v. 4).-E. de P.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XX. 1-43. original compiler, a.a the Vatican L:XX., which sometimes appears to represent an THE INVASIONS 01!' IBIIAEL BY THE SYBUNS older and purer text, places ob. xx. after &ND THEIB BEBULTS.-The insertion of this eh. :xxi., thereby concluding the history of chapter, which contains an account of two Elijah-so for as it was comprehended w invasions of Israel by the hosts of Syria, the reign of Ahab-before entering on tho and of the utter defeat of the latter, and subject of the Syrian ware. lt is noG un, which therefore constitutes a break in the probable, oonsequentlv. that this latter wns history of Elijah, which has occupied the the original order; and it is quite cercnia historian up to the end of eh. xix ., and that the account of Elijo.h's ministry, of which is resumed with eh. xxi.-the inser- which eh. xxi. forms a part, is of a piece with tion of this twentieth chapter in this place oh. xix., e.nd by the same hand, and is by is apparently due to the compiler of these a different hand from the author, or authors, records, who seems to have adopted this of chaps. xx. and xxii. Ch. xxii. 1 abo arrangement as the more chronological. It supplies a reason why that chupter shoul,i is not absolutely certain, however, that we follow eh. xx. There seems, moreover. io owe Uiis dii!poeition of his materials to the be a close oonntlxion between oh, :u:ii. ancl OH, XX. 1-48.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS, 483