Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/145

Rh ELIJAH 135 probably a worshipper of Baal, she received the prophet with hospitality, sharing with him her all but exhausted store, in faith of his promise in the name of the God of Israel that the supply would not fail so long as the drought lasted. Her faith was rewarded by the fulfilment of the promise, the cruise of oil and the barrel of meal affording sustenance for both herself and her guest until the close of the thres and a half years famine. During this period her son died, and was miraculously restored to life in answer to the prayers of the prophet, Elijah emerged from his retirement in the third year, when, the famine having reached its worst, Ahab and his minister Obadiah had themselves to search the land for provender for the royal stables. To the latter Elijah appeared with his characteristic suddenness, and announced his intention of showing himself to Ahab. The king, who in spite of the calamity that had befallen him was still hardened in his apostasy, met Elijah with the reproach that he was the troubler of Israel, which the prophet with the boldness that befitted his mission at once filing back upon him who had forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baalim. The retort was accompanied by a challenge or rather a command to the king to assemble on Mount Carmel &quot;all Israel&quot; and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah. The latter are described as &quot; eating at Jezebel s table,&quot; by which it is indicated that they were under the special favour and protection of the queen. From the allusion to an &quot;altar of Jehovah that was broken down &quot; (1 Kings xviii. 30) it has been inferred that Carmel was an ancient sacred place, though this is the first mention of it in the Scripture narrative. (On Mount Carmel and Elijah s connection with it in history and tradition see CARMEL, vol. v. p. 116.) The scene on Carmel is perhaps the grandest in the life of Elijah, or indeed in the whole of the Old Testament. As a typical embodiment for all time of the conflict between superstition and true religion, it is lifted out of the range of mere individual biography into that of spiritual symbolism, and it has accordingly furnished at once a fruitful theme for the religious teacher and a lofty inspira tion for the artist. The incident is indeed a true type, showing the characteristic features of combatants that are always meeting, and of a conflict that is always being waged. The false prophets were allowed to invoke their god in whatever manner they pleased from the early morning until the time of evening sacrifice. The only interruption came at noon, in the mocking encouragement of Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 27), which is remarkable as an almost solitary instance of grim- sarcastic humour occurring in the Bible. Its effect upon the false prophets was to increase their frenzy ; they &quot;cried aloud and cut themselves with knives and lancets,&quot; as the authorized version has it. The translation should rather be &quot;swords and lances.&quot; The evening came, and the god had made no sign; &quot; there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.&quot; Elij-ih now stepped forward with the quiet confidence and dignity that became the prophet and repre sentative of the true God. Two things are noteworthy in his preparations : all Israel is represented symbolically in the twelve stones with which he built the altar ; and the water poured upon the sacrifice and into the surrounding trench was evidently designed to prevent the suspicion of fraud. In striking contrast to the unreasoning frenzy and the &quot; vain repetitions &quot; of the false prophets are the few and simple words with which Elijah makes his prayer to Jehovah. Once only, with the calm assurance of one who knew that his prayer would be answered, he invokes the God of his fathers to vindicate himself in the presence of an apostate people. The answer comes at once : &quot; The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.&quot; So convincing a sign was irresistible; the people who had stood by in wondering silence now fell on their faces and acknowledged Jehovah as the true God. lu harmony with the method in which Jehovah often vindicated himself in the Old Testament economy, the acknowledgment of the true prophet and his God was immediately followed by the destruction of the false prophets. The first heat of conviction made the people quick to obey the command to seize the prophets of Baal, who were immediately afterwards slain by Elijah beside the brook Kishon. The deed, though not without parallel in the Old Testament history, stamps the pecu liarly vindictive character of Elijah s prophetic mission. The people having returned to their rightful allegiance to the true God, the drought sent as a punishment for their defection at once ceased. The narrative proceeds without a break. On the evening of the day that had witnessed the decisive contest, Elijah, after having invited Ahab to eat and drink, and foretold abundance of rain, proceeded once more to the top of Carmel, and there, with &quot; his face between his knees &quot; (possibly en gaged in the prayer referred to in James v. 17-18), waited for the long-looked-for blessing. His servant, sent repeatedly to search the sky for signs, returned the seventh time reporting a little cloud arising out of the sea &quot; like a man s hand.&quot; The portent was scarcely seen ere it was fulfilled. The sky was full of clouds and a great rain was falling when Ahab, obeying the command ^of Elijah, set out in his chariot for Jezreel. Elijah, with what object does not appear, ran before the chariot to the entrance of Jezreel, a distance of at least sixteen miles, thus showing the power of endurance natural to a prophet of the wilderness. If he went with any hope that the events that had just occurred would change the heart of Jezebel, as they seem to have changed the heart of the king, he was at once undeceived. On being told what had taken place, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with a vow in thn most solemn terms that ere another day had passed his life would be even as the lives of the prophets of Baal, and the threat was enough to cause him to take to instant flight. The first stage of his journey was to Beersheba, on the confines of the kingdom of Judah. Here he left his servant, who, according to an old Jewish tradition, was the widow s son of Zarephath, afterwards the prophet Jonah, 1 and proceeded a day s journey into the wilderness. Laying himself down under a solitary juniper (broom), he gave vent to his bitter disappointment at the apparent failure of his efforts for the reformation of Israel in a prayer for death. By another of those miraculous interpositions which occur at nearly every turn of his history he was twice supplied with food and drink, in the strength of which he journeyed forty days and forty nights until he came to Horeb, where he lodged in a cave. A hole &quot;just large enough for a man s body &quot; (Stanley), immediately below the summit of Jebel Musa, is still pointed out by tradition as the cave of Elijah. If the scene on Carmel was the grandest, that on Horeb was spiritually the most profound in the life of Elijah. There for the first time he learned that the normal channel of divine revelation is spiritual and not material, and that its object is mercy and not judgment. Not in the strong wind that brake the rocks in pieces, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in the still small voice that followed, the Lord made himself known. There, too, he learned also for the first time, the true nature and limits of his own prophetic mission. He was the herald, not of a sudden 1 Jerome, Proccm. in Jonam.