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Agape Bible Study
1 Kings 19 - 20
Chapter 19: Elijah and the Aftermath of his Victory at Mt. Carmel
This section of the Elijah cycle Part I has three episodes:
- Elijah's encounter with Jezebel and his journey to Mt. Horeb/Sinai (19:1-8)
- Elijah's encounter with Yahweh at Horeb/Mt. Sinai (19:9-18)
- The call of Elisha (19:19-21)
1 Kings 19:1-8 ~ Jezebel's threat and the journey to Horeb
The word "all" is repeated three times in the Hebrew text of Ahab's account of events to Jezebel. The repetition is probably to emphasis the enormity of Elijah's actions which were part of God's divine plan to call Israel to repentance.
Question: Why was Elijah fearful of Jezebel? Hadn't God protected him in the past?
Answer: Elijah and the other Biblical heroes are not cardboard saints. They were real, flesh and blood men and woman who experience all the fears and anxieties that we face, but they were called by God to extraordinary works in His name. Elijah was afraid because he was human; it is human to fear suffering and death.
In the failure of Israel to repent after his victory at Mt. Carmel, Elijah did not experience a crisis of faith but a crisis of expectation.
Elijah
1 Kings 19:9-18 ~ Elijah's encounter with Yahweh at Mt. Sinai
When Elijah arrived at the mountain he spent the night in a cave. There is no information to confirm if it was the same cave where Moses stood. When Yahweh spoke to Elijah he asked "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (verse 9). God could be asking why Elijah felt the need to come here, or it could be a challenge asking why Elijah has abandoned his mission to call Israel to repentance.
1 Kings 19:19-21 ~ The call of Elisha
Elisha, whose name means "God is salvation," lived in a town called Abel-Meholah (19:16). The town was probably located in the Jordan Valley south or southeast of Beth-shean, but its exact location has not been identified. The assumption of its location is based on the name appearing as a designation of one of the boundaries of Solomon's fifth administrative district, in which Tannach, and Beth-shean are two of the chief towns (1 Kng 4:12).
Twelve yoke of oxen is twenty-four oxen with a pair of oxen under each of twelve yokes. The twelve pairs of oxen were plowing the field under the direction of twelve different men, Elijah with one pair of oxen and eleven other men who were either Elijah's father's servants or kinsmen who owned the field in common or joined together to plough their adjacent fields. Elisha was plowing with the last two oxen and the other pairs were in front of him.
When Elijah put his cloak over Elisha, Elisha knew exactly who he was because by this time all Israel knew about Yahweh's prophet Elijah and his victory at Mt. Carmel. He also understood that being covered with the prophet's cloak was an invitation to discipleship. The cloak symbolized the owner and his rights/authority. In addition, as we will later learn, the prophet's cloak has miraculous properties (2 Kng 2:8) and Elijah, by throwing his cloak over Elisha, apparently acquired an authority over him that Elisha is inspired to accept (although his free-will choice was still intact).
Question: What request did Elisha make?
Answer: His one request was to say goodbye to his parents.
Question: Why does it make sense that Elijah would have approved Elisha's request? See Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16.
Answer: Elijah approved because Elisha's request was in accord with the commandment to honor one's parents, and it is Elijah's mission to not only call the people to repentance but to call them to obedience to the Law.
Chapter 20: The Aramaean Wars
1 Kings 20:1-6 ~ The siege of Samaria and the demands of Ben-Hadad king of Aram
Aram was located northeast of Israel and is known today as Syria. Ben-Hadad II was the ruler of the Aramaean kingdom of Damascus and the successor of Ben-Hadad I mentioned in 1 Kings 15:18 with whom King Asa of Judah made a treaty alliance to save himself from an invasion by the Northern Kingdom. In c. 857 BC, Ben-Hadad saw an opportunity to attack the Northern Kingdom that had been weakened by famine. This was not the first time the Kingdom of Damascus had attacked Israel. In a previous conflict Ben-Hadad I had taken towns from Omri and demanded a trading mission in Samaria (see 20:34). Ben-Hadad II gathered together a coalition of 32 "kings" who were probably tribal chieftains or heads of city-states who recognized him as their overlord. He laid siege to the Northern Kingdom's capital city and demanded a tribute payment of all Ahab's gold and silver. In agreeing, Ahab was acknowledging Ben-Hadad as his overlord and accepting vassal status without a fight. When Ahab agreed so quickly, Ben-Hadad must have taken it as a sign of weakness and decided that instead of a tribute payment he would conquer the kingdom.
1 Kings 20:7-12 ~ Ahab's reply to Ben-Hadad and Ben-Hadad's response
Ben-Hadad's second demand went too far even for Ahab. With the support of his counselors, he refused the demand. Enraged, Ben-Hadad took an oath to utterly destroy Samaria. King Ahab's response was to quote what must have been a proverb of the times the purpose of which is to remind Ben-Hadad that a boast is not the same as a victory and the battle is not won until the victor takes off his armor. An overly confident Ben-Hadad received the message at his camp tent drinking with his vassals.
1 Kings 20:13-21 ~ God's message from a prophet and Israel's victory
An unnamed prophet of Yahweh arrives to deliver a message to Ahab.
Question: What is the message and why has Yahweh sent it?
Answer: God will give the Israelites victory over their enemy as another proof that only Yahweh is God.
1 Kings 20:22-25 ~ The prophet warns Ahab and the Aramaeans' battle strategy
The prophet who went to King Ahab is probably the same prophet as the one in 20:13.
Question: What warning does Yahweh's prophet give King Ahab?
Answer: Be resolute and make the effort to be ready because the Aramaeans will return in the spring.
Question: What advice did Ben-Hadad receive from his counselors?
Answer: Their suggestion is that the best strategy is a professional military. They think Yahweh is a mountain god because the prophets of Baal were defeated at Mt. Carmel and they suggest that the Aramaeans should engage the Israelites on level ground where their chariots will be an advantage.
1 Kings 20:26-30a ~ Israel's victory at Aphek
After the spring equinox which is the beginning of the Israelite liturgical year (Ex 12:1-2), when armies go to war (see 2 Sam 11:1), the armies of Israel and Aram faced each other at Aphek. In 1 Samuel 29:1 the Philistines used a place called Aphek as a site to muster their army against Israel. It is unlikely that the site of the battle between Israel and the Aramaeans is the same place, since there are numerous locations that have this name. The site is named eight times in the Old Testament or nine if the place called Aphekah in Joshua 15:23 is included; both Aphek and Aphekah mean "fortress" in Hebrew.2 This Aphek is probably located in the northeast on the border between the two kingdoms east of the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Valley on the plain near to where the river Yarmuk flows into the Jordan.
1 Kings 20:35-43 ~ Ahab's policy with Ben-Hadad is condemned
The prophets in this part of the narrative, like the prophet who first came to King Ahab to inform him that Yahweh was going to give him victory, are probably members of the community of prophets saved by Obadiah (1 Kng 18:3-4, 13). Yahweh has told the prophet to take Yahweh's pronouncement of divine judgment to Ahab in which he must assume the identity of an Israelite soldier.
Question: The fate of the second prophet who refuses to help the first prophet carry out his mission is similar to what other story in 1 Kings? See 1 Kng 13:11-25.
Answer: It is similar to the story of the "man of God' from Judah who broke the fast God commanded him to keep and was eaten by a lion as a judgment for his failure.
The second prophet refused to strike his brother prophet even though it was part of God's divine plan because it seemed wrong to him. He was going by his own understanding and not according to God's divine plan and his judgment was to be eaten by a lion. Lions as a vehicle of judgment are also found in 2 Kings 17:25 and metaphorically in Hosea 5:14.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 167 Some Who Will Not Taste Death
CHALLENGE: “Jesus said, ‘There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power’ (Mark 9:1; cf. Matt. 16:28, Luke 9:27). But that generation died long ago and the world hasn’t ended. So Jesus’ prediction was false.”
DEFENSE: Jesus was not referring to the end of the world.
There is a sense in which the kingdom of God comes at the end of the world (1 Cor. 15:24), but the kingdom is a complex reality that includes God’s activity before that time (1 Cor. 15:25). Jesus recognized this. Asked when the kingdom would come, he replied: “Behold, the kingdom of God is
in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21).
Thus we must ask if the passages above refer to something in his day. Luke’s version merely speaks of some not dying before seeing the kingdom, but Mark refers to them seeing it “come with power” and Matthew refers to them seeing “the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”
This suggests we should look for an event where Jesus was manifest in a powerful, miraculous way. And there was one: the Transfiguration.
In each of the synoptic Gospels, the Transfiguration immediately follows Jesus’ announcement (Matt. 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–10; Luke 9:28–36). Jesus takes three of the disciples—Peter, James, and John—up a mountain. His clothing becomes dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear beside him, everyone is enveloped in a cloud, and God the Father speaks from heaven, identifying Jesus as his Son/his Chosen, and declaring, “Hear him!”
This manifestation is likely the coming of the kingdom “with power” Jesus referred to, and the text of each Gospel suggests this is the way the evangelists understood it. Not only does the Transfiguration happen right after the announcement, but each Gospel says it was about a week later (Matt. 17:1, Mark 9:1, Luke 9:28; the slight difference in the number of days may reflect reckoning parts of days as wholes and counting days as beginning at sunset, midnight, or dawn).
Peter, James, and John thus were the three who did not taste death before they saw the kingdom coming with power.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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