1 Kings 17:1

ELIJAH THE TISHBITE, 1 Kings 17:1-24.

1. Elijah the Tishbite “This wonder-working prophet,” says Doran, (in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia,) “is introduced to our notice like another Melchizedek, (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7:3,) without any mention of his father or mother, or of the beginning of his days as if he had dropped out of that cloudy chariot which, after his work was done on earth, conveyed him back to heaven.” Or, as Krummacher says, his sudden appearance is like lightning falling from the clouds, or a firebrand hurled by the hand of Jehovah. In the weird grandeur of his desert life, in the fiery spirit of his words, and the power of his public acts, he stands alone among the old prophets, and finds a compeer only as his spirit and power are reproduced in that greatest of the prophets, the herald of Messiah, who came crying in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2. The miraculous element in the history of Elijah is noticeably large, and in this Rationalism can, of course, see nothing but the colored legends of a superstitious age. But there are obvious reasons why a prophet of Jehovah, appearing at that time, and having to oppose an almost triumphant idolatry that had usurped the kingdom of Israel, should be supported everywhere with extraordinary evidences of his divine mission. Whenever the powers of darkness appear incarnate in some such ruling personage as Jezebel, with her hosts of Baal and Asherah prophets, then our God provides an incarnation of his Divine Spirit and power, with suitable signs and wonders to confuse and confound the ministers of Satan. Such an incarnation was Elijah. Such, too, was Moses, in opposition to Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. Such, indeed, was Jesus the Christ, appearing in that “fulness of the time” (Galatians 4:4) when such an incarnation as his alone could be was most opportune, inasmuch as legions of devils had actually taken possession of multitudes, and no power but that of his Divine voice and name could cast them out. And so it will be in the last times, when the good and the evil come to their final struggle, and that lawless one shall be revealed, “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Extraordinary manifestations of wickedness demand extraordinary manifestations of the power of God.

Of the inhabitants of Gilead By a slight change in the Masoretic punctuation we may read, Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbi of Gilead; and this is the reading of the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Josephus. Some have thought this place identical with the Thisbe mentioned in Tob 1:2 ; but that was a town in Naphtali, while this was in Gilead. The most natural supposition, therefore, is, that Elijah was called the Tishbite from being a native or resident of a place in Gilead called Tishbi or Tishbeh, of which no other trace or mention is now known. The wild, irregular, Bedouin-like character of much of Elijah’s life is in noticeable keeping with his Gileadite origin. The tribes on the east of the Jordan soon fell into the habits of the original Bedouin inhabitants, whose wandering tent life and almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses made them in ancient times what they are now a people of wild, unsettled habits.

As the Lord God of Israel liveth A suggestive and significant formula, and somewhat peculiar to Elijah himself. His mission was to proclaim the living God in opposition to Ahab’s dead, senseless idols.

Before whom I stand Words expressive of a sacred ministry and office, and used of the Levites who bore the ark. Deuteronomy 10:8. Solemn and sublime is the position of him who stands to minister before Jehovah, the living God.

Not be dew nor rain This was a punishment which Jehovah had threatened in case of idolatry. Deuteronomy 11:16-17. St. James says, that Elijah “prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” James 5:17. So Divine judgments may come in answer to prayer; and the spirit of such prayer is the Elijah-spirit, which also breathes in the vindictive Psalms. The manner of Elijah’s praying for rain to come again is told at 1 Kings 18:42.

These years No definite time is specified, but all is made dependent on the word of the Lord as uttered by the prophet. Ahab’s obstinacy continued the drought for three years and a half. See 1 Kings 18:1.