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Commentary on 1 Kings 18

Whosoever Will · the Seven Threads Commentary

1 Kings 18:36

The Carmel confrontation. Ahab and Jezebel have made Baal worship national policy in the northern kingdom. The prophets of YHWH are being hunted. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest: call on your god to send fire; I will call on YHWH. Whatever god answers with fire, he is God. The prophets of Baal call from morning until noon. Then from noon until the evening sacrifice. They dance around the altar and cut themselves until blood pours out. No answer. No fire. No voice. Elijah takes twelve stones, one for each tribe, the whole unified covenant people, and rebuilds the altar of YHWH. He digs a trench. He pours twelve jars of water over the offering and the wood until the trench is full. Then the prayer: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Hear me, LORD, hear me, aneni YHWH aneni, that this people may know that you have turned their hearts back. The fire falls. Consumes the offering, the wood, the twelve stones, the dust, licks up the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces: YHWH he is God. YHWH he is God. Thread 1 is the purpose Elijah names: that this people may know, that you have turned their hearts back again. The whole Carmel event is Thread 1 in action, God reaching toward a nation that has turned away, using the fire that falls to produce the confession that reverses the apostasy. Thread 4 is the genuine corporate confession: the people's YHWH hu ha-Elohim is genuinely theirs, produced by genuine evidence. Then the broom tree. Jezebel threatens. Elijah flees and wants to die under the juniper tree: it is enough, LORD. Take my life. I am no better than my fathers. An angel touches him. Bread baked on coals. Water. Get up and eat: the journey is too great for you. Thread 2 is what God says next at Horeb: I have kept, Hishartiv, Hiphil, I caused to remain, seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Hear me O LORD hear me, the doubled imperative of maximum urgency; and the fire falls; and the people confess YHWH he is God; Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the most concentrated demonstration of Provisionist prayer in Kings.
עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה עֲנֵנִי (aneni YHWH aneni): hear me O LORD hear me: aneni (answer me, Qal imperative of anah, to answer, respond; the doubled imperative is the most urgent prayer form in Hebrew; Elijah is not performing; he is genuinely pressing in; James 5:17-18 cites this prayer as the model of effective righteous prayer that moves heaven) · יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים (YHWH hu ha-Elohim YHWH hu ha-Elohim): the LORD he is God the LORD he is God: the people's spontaneous doubled confession after the fire falls; the same confession of Deuteronomy 4:35, that you might know that the LORD he is God; the corporate free confession following the visible divine act is the pattern that the prophets are always trying to produce; here it works
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see James 5:17-18 · Romans 11:4-5 · 1 Kings 19:18

1 Kings 18:37

The Carmel confrontation. Ahab and Jezebel have made Baal worship national policy in the northern kingdom. The prophets of YHWH are being hunted. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest: call on your god to send fire; I will call on YHWH. Whatever god answers with fire, he is God. The prophets of Baal call from morning until noon. Then from noon until the evening sacrifice. They dance around the altar and cut themselves until blood pours out. No answer. No fire. No voice. Elijah takes twelve stones, one for each tribe, the whole unified covenant people, and rebuilds the altar of YHWH. He digs a trench. He pours twelve jars of water over the offering and the wood until the trench is full. Then the prayer: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Hear me, LORD, hear me, aneni YHWH aneni, that this people may know that you have turned their hearts back. The fire falls. Consumes the offering, the wood, the twelve stones, the dust, licks up the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces: YHWH he is God. YHWH he is God. Thread 1 is the purpose Elijah names: that this people may know, that you have turned their hearts back again. The whole Carmel event is Thread 1 in action, God reaching toward a nation that has turned away, using the fire that falls to produce the confession that reverses the apostasy. Thread 4 is the genuine corporate confession: the people's YHWH hu ha-Elohim is genuinely theirs, produced by genuine evidence. Then the broom tree. Jezebel threatens. Elijah flees and wants to die under the juniper tree: it is enough, LORD. Take my life. I am no better than my fathers. An angel touches him. Bread baked on coals. Water. Get up and eat: the journey is too great for you. Thread 2 is what God says next at Horeb: I have kept, Hishartiv, Hiphil, I caused to remain, seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Hear me O LORD hear me, the doubled imperative of maximum urgency; and the fire falls; and the people confess YHWH he is God; Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the most concentrated demonstration of Provisionist prayer in Kings.
עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה עֲנֵנִי (aneni YHWH aneni): hear me O LORD hear me: aneni (answer me, Qal imperative of anah, to answer, respond; the doubled imperative is the most urgent prayer form in Hebrew; Elijah is not performing; he is genuinely pressing in; James 5:17-18 cites this prayer as the model of effective righteous prayer that moves heaven) · יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים (YHWH hu ha-Elohim YHWH hu ha-Elohim): the LORD he is God the LORD he is God: the people's spontaneous doubled confession after the fire falls; the same confession of Deuteronomy 4:35, that you might know that the LORD he is God; the corporate free confession following the visible divine act is the pattern that the prophets are always trying to produce; here it works
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see James 5:17-18 · Romans 11:4-5 · 1 Kings 19:18

1 Kings 18:38

The Carmel confrontation. Ahab and Jezebel have made Baal worship national policy in the northern kingdom. The prophets of YHWH are being hunted. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest: call on your god to send fire; I will call on YHWH. Whatever god answers with fire, he is God. The prophets of Baal call from morning until noon. Then from noon until the evening sacrifice. They dance around the altar and cut themselves until blood pours out. No answer. No fire. No voice. Elijah takes twelve stones, one for each tribe, the whole unified covenant people, and rebuilds the altar of YHWH. He digs a trench. He pours twelve jars of water over the offering and the wood until the trench is full. Then the prayer: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Hear me, LORD, hear me, aneni YHWH aneni, that this people may know that you have turned their hearts back. The fire falls. Consumes the offering, the wood, the twelve stones, the dust, licks up the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces: YHWH he is God. YHWH he is God. Thread 1 is the purpose Elijah names: that this people may know, that you have turned their hearts back again. The whole Carmel event is Thread 1 in action, God reaching toward a nation that has turned away, using the fire that falls to produce the confession that reverses the apostasy. Thread 4 is the genuine corporate confession: the people's YHWH hu ha-Elohim is genuinely theirs, produced by genuine evidence. Then the broom tree. Jezebel threatens. Elijah flees and wants to die under the juniper tree: it is enough, LORD. Take my life. I am no better than my fathers. An angel touches him. Bread baked on coals. Water. Get up and eat: the journey is too great for you. Thread 2 is what God says next at Horeb: I have kept, Hishartiv, Hiphil, I caused to remain, seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Hear me O LORD hear me, the doubled imperative of maximum urgency; and the fire falls; and the people confess YHWH he is God; Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the most concentrated demonstration of Provisionist prayer in Kings.
עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה עֲנֵנִי (aneni YHWH aneni): hear me O LORD hear me: aneni (answer me, Qal imperative of anah, to answer, respond; the doubled imperative is the most urgent prayer form in Hebrew; Elijah is not performing; he is genuinely pressing in; James 5:17-18 cites this prayer as the model of effective righteous prayer that moves heaven) · יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים (YHWH hu ha-Elohim YHWH hu ha-Elohim): the LORD he is God the LORD he is God: the people's spontaneous doubled confession after the fire falls; the same confession of Deuteronomy 4:35, that you might know that the LORD he is God; the corporate free confession following the visible divine act is the pattern that the prophets are always trying to produce; here it works
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see James 5:17-18 · Romans 11:4-5 · 1 Kings 19:18

1 Kings 18:39

The Carmel confrontation. Ahab and Jezebel have made Baal worship national policy in the northern kingdom. The prophets of YHWH are being hunted. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest: call on your god to send fire; I will call on YHWH. Whatever god answers with fire, he is God. The prophets of Baal call from morning until noon. Then from noon until the evening sacrifice. They dance around the altar and cut themselves until blood pours out. No answer. No fire. No voice. Elijah takes twelve stones, one for each tribe, the whole unified covenant people, and rebuilds the altar of YHWH. He digs a trench. He pours twelve jars of water over the offering and the wood until the trench is full. Then the prayer: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Hear me, LORD, hear me, aneni YHWH aneni, that this people may know that you have turned their hearts back. The fire falls. Consumes the offering, the wood, the twelve stones, the dust, licks up the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces: YHWH he is God. YHWH he is God. Thread 1 is the purpose Elijah names: that this people may know, that you have turned their hearts back again. The whole Carmel event is Thread 1 in action, God reaching toward a nation that has turned away, using the fire that falls to produce the confession that reverses the apostasy. Thread 4 is the genuine corporate confession: the people's YHWH hu ha-Elohim is genuinely theirs, produced by genuine evidence. Then the broom tree. Jezebel threatens. Elijah flees and wants to die under the juniper tree: it is enough, LORD. Take my life. I am no better than my fathers. An angel touches him. Bread baked on coals. Water. Get up and eat: the journey is too great for you. Thread 2 is what God says next at Horeb: I have kept, Hishartiv, Hiphil, I caused to remain, seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Hear me O LORD hear me, the doubled imperative of maximum urgency; and the fire falls; and the people confess YHWH he is God; Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the most concentrated demonstration of Provisionist prayer in Kings.
עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה עֲנֵנִי (aneni YHWH aneni): hear me O LORD hear me: aneni (answer me, Qal imperative of anah, to answer, respond; the doubled imperative is the most urgent prayer form in Hebrew; Elijah is not performing; he is genuinely pressing in; James 5:17-18 cites this prayer as the model of effective righteous prayer that moves heaven) · יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים (YHWH hu ha-Elohim YHWH hu ha-Elohim): the LORD he is God the LORD he is God: the people's spontaneous doubled confession after the fire falls; the same confession of Deuteronomy 4:35, that you might know that the LORD he is God; the corporate free confession following the visible divine act is the pattern that the prophets are always trying to produce; here it works
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see James 5:17-18 · Romans 11:4-5 · 1 Kings 19:18

1 Kings 18:40

The Carmel confrontation. Ahab and Jezebel have made Baal worship national policy in the northern kingdom. The prophets of YHWH are being hunted. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest: call on your god to send fire; I will call on YHWH. Whatever god answers with fire, he is God. The prophets of Baal call from morning until noon. Then from noon until the evening sacrifice. They dance around the altar and cut themselves until blood pours out. No answer. No fire. No voice. Elijah takes twelve stones, one for each tribe, the whole unified covenant people, and rebuilds the altar of YHWH. He digs a trench. He pours twelve jars of water over the offering and the wood until the trench is full. Then the prayer: LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. Hear me, LORD, hear me, aneni YHWH aneni, that this people may know that you have turned their hearts back. The fire falls. Consumes the offering, the wood, the twelve stones, the dust, licks up the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces: YHWH he is God. YHWH he is God. Thread 1 is the purpose Elijah names: that this people may know, that you have turned their hearts back again. The whole Carmel event is Thread 1 in action, God reaching toward a nation that has turned away, using the fire that falls to produce the confession that reverses the apostasy. Thread 4 is the genuine corporate confession: the people's YHWH hu ha-Elohim is genuinely theirs, produced by genuine evidence. Then the broom tree. Jezebel threatens. Elijah flees and wants to die under the juniper tree: it is enough, LORD. Take my life. I am no better than my fathers. An angel touches him. Bread baked on coals. Water. Get up and eat: the journey is too great for you. Thread 2 is what God says next at Horeb: I have kept, Hishartiv, Hiphil, I caused to remain, seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Hear me O LORD hear me, the doubled imperative of maximum urgency; and the fire falls; and the people confess YHWH he is God; Elijah's prayer at Carmel is the most concentrated demonstration of Provisionist prayer in Kings.
עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה עֲנֵנִי (aneni YHWH aneni): hear me O LORD hear me: aneni (answer me, Qal imperative of anah, to answer, respond; the doubled imperative is the most urgent prayer form in Hebrew; Elijah is not performing; he is genuinely pressing in; James 5:17-18 cites this prayer as the model of effective righteous prayer that moves heaven) · יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים (YHWH hu ha-Elohim YHWH hu ha-Elohim): the LORD he is God the LORD he is God: the people's spontaneous doubled confession after the fire falls; the same confession of Deuteronomy 4:35, that you might know that the LORD he is God; the corporate free confession following the visible divine act is the pattern that the prophets are always trying to produce; here it works
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see James 5:17-18 · Romans 11:4-5 · 1 Kings 19:18
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