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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="chap_50" /> <h2 class="vm_30 h2head"> KINGDOMS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. PART <abbr title="2">II.</abbr> Period of mutual alliance, and hostility to Syria.</h2> <hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="1">I.</abbr> REIGN OF AHAB. ERA OF ELIJAH. <abbr title="First">1</abbr> Kings <abbr title="chapters 17 through 19">xvii.–xix.</abbr>   <abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr>   B.C. 918<abbr title="through">–</abbr>915.</h3> THE first act of Jehoshaphat, who succeeded Asa on the throne of Judah, was to fortify and garrison the fenced cities in his dominions, as well as the towns in Ephraim, which his father had captured (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 2). With much zeal for the national faith he next endeavoured to put down the high places and groves, and sent a commission of princes, priests, and Levites to traverse the various towns, and instruct the people out of the Book of the Law (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 6<abbr title="through">–</abbr>9). His pious zeal did not go unrewarded. The Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and gave him peace round about. Not only his own subjects, but even the Philistines and Arabians brought him tribute (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 5, 11), which enabled him to build castles and store-cities in Judah, and maintain a large standing army (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 12<abbr title="through">–</abbr>19). Meanwhile, very different scenes were enacted in the rival kingdom of Israel. Ithobalus or Ethbaal353, the father of Ahab’s queen, had once been a priest of the Phœnician goddess Astarte, and had usurped the throne of his brother Phalles354. Jezebel inherited the spirit of her father, and quickly acquired the most unbounded influence over her weak-minded husband, so that he became a mere puppet in her hands. The first effect of her influence was the establishment of the worship of Baal on the most extensive scale. Near the palace at Samaria rose a temple in honour of this Phœnician deity, and an oracular grove, while 450 of the prophets of Baal, and 400 of Astarte, were supported at the queen’s table (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 16">xvi.</abbr> 31, 32, <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 19). She also resolved that a worship, now formally legalized, should be forcibly imposed on her husband’s subjects, and so great was her severity towards the prophets of Jehovah, that they were constrained to conceal themselves in caves, and there eke out a precarious existence (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 13). While she thus persecuted the servants of Jehovah, her yielding husband occupied himself chiefly with indulging a taste for splendid architecture. He erected several cities, and built an ivory palace; and while Samaria remained his capital, sought another Tirzah in the beautiful city of Jezreel, the very name of which, the seed-plot of God, indicates the fertility of the neighbourhood355. In this crisis of the Israelitish kingdom came forth, sudden as the lightning, alarming as the thunder, one of the most remarkable men that Israel ever produced. From the wooded uplands across the Jordan, “from the country of the rude soldier-judge Jephthah356,” clad in the austere garb of the prophets, consisting of a girdle of skin round his loins, and a sheep-skin “mantle,” his “hair long and thick, and hanging down his back” (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 1">i.</abbr> 8), appeared in the palace of Ahab, Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead. Without a word of comment or introduction, he announced in the name of that God, whom the monarch had insulted, a speedy and awful judgment. As the Lord God of Israel liveth, said he, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years but according to my word357. Having thus boldly delivered his message, he fled for his life to the brook or torrent-bed of the Cherith, either amongst his own native hills, or on the west of Jordan and nearer to Samaria. Here he was for some time miraculously supported by ravens, which brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, while he drank of the water of the brook (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>7). After a while the slender streamlet was dried up. Guided by the Divine direction the prophet now repaired to Zarephath or Sarepta (<abbr title="Luke">Lk.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 4">iv.</abbr> 25<abbr title="through">–</abbr>29), a Phœnician village on the sea-shore between Tyre and Sidon, and in the very midst of Phœnician heathenism. As he drew nigh the place he met the widow, with whom he was to lodge, gathering sticks. Though she was so poverty-stricken, that she had but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and the sticks she was gathering were to make a last meal for her child and herself before they died, he yet bade her make a little cake for him first, and assured her that the barrel of meal should not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, till the rain returned. Strong in faith, the woman did as he bade her, and found his words true. For a full year (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 15, margin) she and her house did eat, nor did their supplies fail. But before long a sore trouble visited her home. Her son sickened, and seemed at the point of death. In the agony of her grief she imputed this trial to the presence of the mysterious prophet. But Elijah took the boy up to his chamber, and laid him on his own bed; then he stretched himself three times upon him, and cried mightily to the Lord that his life might be restored to him. His prayer was heard; the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, and the prophet restored him to his mother, who was now convinced that her guest was a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in his mouth was truth (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 17">xvii.</abbr> 8<abbr title="through">–</abbr>24). Meanwhile, the kingdom of Israel was suffering the most grievous extremities from the prolonged drought. The earth lay cracked and parched and barren. Sheep, cattle, horses, perished from want of water, and from the failure of the crops. So great was the destitution, that Ahab left his luxurious palace at Samaria, and divided with Obadiah—his chief domestic officer, and who, at the peril of his life, remained faithful in his allegiance to Jehovah—the duty of examining every spring and “nook of the most shaded torrent-bed” to discover any sign of herbage, wherewith to save the horses and mules alive, that they might not lose all the beasts. While, then, Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself, suddenly the latter discerned the prophet standing in the midst of the path. At the Divine command Elijah had left his retreat at Zarephath, and now bade the minister of Ahab announce to his master his own return. At first Obadiah demurred. He feared lest, while he had gone on this mission, the Spirit of the Lord might summon the prophet in some other direction, and the king would slay him in his disappointment. But Elijah reassured him, and he went and told Ahab, and Ahab went to meet the servant of Jehovah. Few but pointed were the prophet’s words, when he was confronted with the weak woman-governed king. After sternly denouncing his idolatries, he commanded him to summon instantly to the top of Carmel358 the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Ashtaroth. Awed by the bearing of the seer, the monarch dared not disobey, and the prophets, followed by a large concourse of people, repaired to the appointed spot, at the extreme eastern point of the long Carmel range, “commanding the last view of the sea behind, and the first view of the great plain in front359.” It was the crisis in the history of the Ten Tribes. On that day it was to be proved, once for all, who was supreme, Baal or Jehovah. With his one attendant Elijah proceeded to the Place of Controversy, and proposed to the assembled multitudes a decisive test. Let two bullocks be chosen; let one of them be slain by the priests of Baal, and cut in pieces; let these be laid upon an altar, with no fire under; let them then call upon the name of their gods, and the God that answered by fire let him be God. The challenge was accepted. The altar was built; the victim slain; the pieces laid in order; and the priests of Baal commenced their incantations. But there was no voice, neither any that answered. Morning passed, and noon came, and still there was no reply. Meanwhile Elijah suggested to them that they should cry aloud, for, said he, with cutting irony, he is a god; either he meditateth, or he is pursuing, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. Stung to the quick, the priests redoubled their invocations. They cried aloud, they cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. But prayers, cries, lacerations were each and all in vain (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>30). The hour for the evening-sacrifice now drew near, and Elijah bade the people approach, and with twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Jacob, repaired an ancient altar on the mountain-top, which Jezebel probably had caused to be thrown down. Round about it he next caused a trench to be dug, and having slain his victim, laid it upon the altar. Then once, twice, and yet again he caused victim and altar to be drenched with water360, till it filled even the trench. This done, the solitary prophet poured forth his whole soul to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, praying Him that He would that day prove that He was indeed the Lord, and that he himself had done all these things at His word. His prayer was answered. The Fire of the Lord descended, and consumed the burnt-sacrifice and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up even the water that was in the trench. The effect on the people was profound. Falling on their faces to the earth, they with one accord confessed, Jehovah, He is the God; Jehovah, He is the God (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 18">xviii.</abbr> 30<abbr title="through">–</abbr>39). It was the moment for still more decisive measures. Elijah had bowed the hearts of the people as one man. Take the prophets of Baal, he cried, let not one of them escape; and down the steep sides of the mountain they were brought to the level plain below361, where flowed the Kishon. There these troublers of the nation’s peace were slain, and this stern act of duty done, the prophet bade the king accompany him up the mountain to join in a sacrificial feast. Then, while Ahab ate and drank, he himself ascended to a higher level, and on the bare ground, with his face between his knees, remained wrapt in prayer, having bidden his servant ascend yet higher, and look towards the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Six times he came back to his master with the announcement that he could see nothing. But the seventh time he returned, saying, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. It was the long-desired sign, “the first that had for days and months passed across the heavens,” telling of the coming rain. Instantly the prophet bade the king descend the mountain, prepare his chariot, and make for his palace. The king obeyed, and meantime the little cloud had grown and overcast the whole evening sky. Soon a wind arose and shook the forests of Carmel, and the welcome rain poured down in torrents. Across the bed of the Kishon Ahab urged his chariot along the road to Jezreel, while Elijah, girding up his loins and tightening his hairy mantle about him, ran before the chariot of his sovereign at least 16 miles to the entrance of the city362. Thus far the triumph of the Prophet was complete. But now, when victory seemed to be in the hollow of his hand, at the most critical moment of his life, his courage failed him. Jezebel, informed of what had taken place on Carmel, sent a messenger threatening him with certain death, and Elijah, who had boldly defied multitudes on Carmel, fled before the face of a woman, in a southerly direction towards Beer-sheba. There he left his attendant, and went alone a day’s journey into the waste uninhabited country, which borders on the south of Palestine. Wearied, disappointed, he requested that he might die, and flinging himself under a juniper-tree363 fell asleep. Presently an angel awoke him, and pointing to a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water, bade him refresh himself, and in the strength of that meat go still further southward, to Horeb the Mount of God. Arrived there, he remained at least one night in one of the caverns of the awful mountain-range, and in the morning heard the word of the Lord enquiring, What doest thou here, Elijah? In reply, the prophet urged his eminent services for the cause of Jehovah. The children of Israel had forsaken the covenant, thrown down the Lord’s altars, and slain the prophets with the sword, he alone was left, and they sought his life to take it away. In this dejected, murmuring mood he was not fit to discharge the duties of his office. The Lord, therefore, bade him leave his cave, and stand before Him face to face upon the mountain, while He passed by “in all the terror of His most appalling manifestations.” First, a mighty rushing wind rent the solid mountain, and brake in pieces the cliffs of Sinai, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then an earthquake shook the rocks, and the mountain trembled with the crash, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then a fire blazed forth, and burned with a consuming heat, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then all was quiet; the convulsion of nature was hushed; and presently there came a still, small, Voice, and as Elijah listened, his face wrapped in his mantle, he learnt that there was yet something left for him to do, that he was not the only instrument the Lord could employ. He was to return, and anoint Hazael king over Syria, Jehu the son of Nimshi king of Israel, and Elisha of Abel-meholah as his successor in the prophetical office; and whereas he had complained that he was the only faithful servant of Jehovah, he now learnt that the Lord had left him 7000 in Israel, all the knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>18). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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