1 Kings 18:31

And Elijah took twelve stones [This number, too, was full of significance. Not only would it carry back their thoughts to the giving of the law ( Exodus 24:4 ; Exodus 28:21 ), and to their fathers' entrance into the promised land ( Joshua 4:3 , Joshua 4:9 ), but it would remind them of the essential unity of the people, notwithstanding the division of the kingdom. The act was thus a protest against the schism. We cannot hold with Keil, Wordsworth, al . that it was "a practical declaration on the part of the prophet that the division of the nation into two kingdoms was at variance with the will of God," because we are distinctly told that that division was "from the Lord" ( 1 Kings 12:15 ). But it was certainly a witness against a divided Church, and a reminder of the unity of the race] , according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came [ Genesis 32:28 ], saying, Israel shall be thy name. [He thus protests against the exclusive assumption of the name of Israel, and the exception of the southern kingdom from the glorious heritage and calling of Israel, by the ten tribes. But we cannot follow Bähr in the belief that Jacob received "from Jehovah the name of Israel," i.e; the "soldier of God," because he commanded his house to "put away the strange gods" ( Genesis 35:2 , Genesis 35:10 sqq.), or that Elijah would teach that "only those who did as Jacob did had a claim to his name." The great idea is that the people are one, and are the Lord's.]