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Scott's Reference Library
1 Kings 19:9 through 1 Kings 19:18 (NIV)
9There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The
Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your
prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are
trying to kill me too.”
11The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD,
for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks
before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an
earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12After the earthquake came
a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle
whisper. 13When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out
and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The
Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your
prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are
trying to kill me too.”
15The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of
Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16Also, anoint Jehu
son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel
Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17Jehu will put to death any who escape the
sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.
18Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to
Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
The question God put, What doest thou here, Elijah? is a reproof. It
concerns us often to ask whether we are in our place, and in the way of our
duty. Am I where I should be? whither God calls me, where my business lies, and
where I may be useful? He complained of the people, and their obstinacy in sin;
I only am left. Despair of success hinders many a good enterprise. Did Elijah
come hither to meet with God? he shall find that God will meet him. The wind,
and earthquake, and fire, did not make him cover his face, but the still voice
did. Gracious souls are more affected by the tender mercies of the Lord, than by
his terrors. The mild voice of Him who speaks from the cross, or the mercy-seat,
is accompanied with peculiar power in taking possession of the heart.
God repeated the question, What doest thou here? Then he complained of his
discouragement; and whither should God’s prophets go with their complaints of
that kind, but to their Master? The Lord gave him an answer. He declares that
the wicked house of Ahab shall be rooted out, that the people of Israel shall be
punished for their sins; and he shows that Elijah was not left alone as he had
supposed, and also that a helper should at once be raised up for him. Thus all
his complaints are answered and provided for. God’s faithful ones are often his
hidden ones, Psalms 83:3, and the visible church is scarcely to be seen: the
wheat is lost in chaff, and the gold in dross, till the sifting, refining,
separating day comes. The Lord knows them that are his, though we do not; he
sees in secret. When we come to heaven we shall miss many whom we thought to
have met there; we shall meet many whom we little thought to have met there.
God’s love often proves larger than man’s charity, and far more extended.