1 Kings 18:12

1Ki 18:12 And it shall come to pass, [as soon as] I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and [so] when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth.

Ver. 12. But I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.] This he saith not of vain glory; but upon necessity for his own safety, and that the prophet might not be mistaken in him, thus making excuse.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_18:12

I thy servant real the Lord from my youth.

Fearing the Lord from ones youth

There are two valuable lessons we are to carry away from these words of Obadiah.

I. The importance of early decision for God. It was a favourite idea, a hobby in short, of that singular and austere sage Thomas Carlyle, that a select few of our race are to be set up for the admiration and imitation of the rest: and though, no doubt, the Chelsea philosopher pushed it too far (as he was in the habit of doing with most ideas that possessed him), the notion is a sound and scriptural one. The Bible teaches as much by example as by precept, and it seems to me that the grand lesson of Obadiahs life--and it is hub a very brief biography we have--is the unspeakable value to a man, all through his career, of starting with fixed religious principles, and sticking to them at all hazards. I quite believe, if you will allow me to say so, that some of you, who would hardly venture to call yourselves real Christians, are most favourably inclined towards religion, only you will not come up to the point of a full and absolute decision. But this is just where your danger lies: for these half-religious feelings are apt to satisfy you, whilst, until you have actually given your hand to Christ, you are as absolutely unsaved as if you were a railing infidel.

II. The importance of courage in openly avowing our religious decision. The first thing is to have sound principles; and the second thing is not to be ashamed of them. It was a remarkable saying of the Duke of Wellington, that in war the moral is to the physical as ten to one. That is to say, that, if the soldiers know and feel in their conscience that right is on their side, they are ten times as brave as when they are not very sure about it. Well, when you know you are standing on sure ground, you can afford to despise the shots that are fired at you by godless men. Nay, more, the fact is, it is a great help to you, if your faith is genuine, to meet with a little opposition at times. A man is none the worse a Christian for having occasionally to stand up for his principles. It makes your religion more real, and gives you greater confidence in its power. You want a new principle within you, and that is faith in Christ as your Saviour. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.)

The fear of the Lord, as illustrated in the character of Obadiah

I. The great principle of action in the life of Obadiah, viz., the fear of the Lord.

II. The necessity for an early inculcation of this fear in the mind--I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. (H. C. Cherry, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 18:12. The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not — Shall snatch thee away from hence, so that thou shalt not be found; instances of such sudden transportations of the prophets, by an invisible power, to places far distant from those where they were, having undoubtedly occurred before this time, as we know they did after. See the margin. He shall slay me — Either as an impostor that has deluded him with vain hopes, or rather, because I did not seize upon thee forthwith, and bring thee to him. But I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth — He speaks not these or the following words in a way of boasting; but only for his own necessary vindication and preservation, that he might move the prophet to spare him, and not put him upon that hazardous action; which yet, it appears, he was resolved to perform, if Elijah peremptorily required it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Kings

OBADIAH

To the Young

1Ki 18:12.

This Obadiah is one of the obscurer figures in the Old Testament. We never hear of him again, for there is no reason to accept the Jewish tradition which alleges that he was Obadiah the prophet. And yet how distinctly he stands out from the canvas, though he is only sketched with a few bold outlines! He is the ‘governor over Ahab’s house,’ a kind of mayor of the palace, and probably the second man in the kingdom. But though thus high in that idolatrous and self-willed court, he has bravely kept true to the ancient faith. Neither Jezebel’s flatteries nor her frowns have moved him. But there, amid apostasy and idolatry he stands, probably all alone in the court, a worshipper of Jehovah. His name is his character, for it means ‘servant of Jehovah.’ It was not a light thing to be a worshipper of the God of Israel in Ahab’s court. The feminine rage of the fierce Sidonian woman, whom Ahab obeyed in most things, burned hot against the enemies of her father’s gods, and hotter, perhaps, against any one who thwarted her imperious will. Obadiah did both, in that audacious piece of benevolence when he sheltered the Lord’s prophets-one hundred of them-and saved them from her cruel search. The writer of the book very rightly marks this brave antagonism to the outburst of the queen’s wrath as a signal proof of a more than ordinary devotion to the worship and fear of Jehovah. His firmness and his religion did not prevent his retaining his place of honour and dignity. That says something for Ahab, and more perhaps for Obadiah.

Most of you believe that you ought to ‘fear the Lord’: but you are apt to put off, and so I wish to urge on you that you should give your hearts to Jesus Christ at once.

I. The blessedness of youthful religion.

{a} It guards from many temptations, and keeps a character innocent of much transgression.

Think of the dangers that lie thick in the streets of every great city, and of a lad coming up from a country home of godliness, where he was surrounded by a mother’s love and an atmosphere of purity, and launched into some lonely lodging, or some factory or warehouse with many tempters. Nothing will be such a help to resistance and victory as to be able to say, ‘So did not I because of the fear of the Lord.’

{b} It will save from remorse. Even if a man ‘sobers down’ after ‘sowing his wild oats,’ which is a very problematical ‘if,’ what bitter memories of wasted days, what polluting memories of filthy ones, will haunt him! And if he does not sober down, what then?

It is folly to begin life on a wrong tack, in regard to which the best that you can say is that you do not mean to continue it. If you do not, then the wise thing is to get at once on to the road on which you do mean to continue, and to save the weary work of retracing steps and the painful consciousness of having made a false start. Are you so sure that you will wish, or that it will be possible, to face right about and get on to a new line? Fishermen catch lobsters and the like by means of baskets with one opening, the withes of which are so set that the entrance is easy, but that a ring of sharp points oppose all attempts at turning back and getting out. The world lays ‘pots’ of that sort, and many a young man and woman glides smoothly in, and finds it impossible to get out.

{c} It usually leads to a deeper and more peaceful and harmonious religion than is attained by those who have given the world the better part of their days, and have only the last fragment of them to give to God. Obadiah had feared God from his youth, and that had a good deal to do with his brave stand against Jezebel. It is a grand thing to enlist habit on the side of godliness.

II. The foes of youthful religion.

There are foes within . . .. the strong self-reliance and bounding life proper to youth, without which at the opening of the flower, the bloom would be poor and the fruit little, . . . the power of appeals to the unjaded and physically strong senses, . . . the difficulty at such a stage of life of looking forward and soberly regarding the end.

There are foes without . . ..the crowds of tempters of both sexes, men and women who take a devilish pleasure in polluting innocent minds, . . . the companions whose jeers are worse to face than a battery, . . . the inconsistencies of so-called Christians, the anti-Christian literature which is peculiarly fascinating to the young, with its brave show of breaking with mouldy tradition and enthroning reason and emancipating from rusty fetters.

III. The too probable alternative to youthful religion.

It is but too likely that, if a man does not ‘fear the Lord’ from ‘his youth,’ he will never fear Him. Thank God, there is no time nor condition of life in which the wicked man cannot ‘forsake his way,’ or ‘the unrighteous man his thoughts,’ and ‘turn to the Lord’ with the assurance that ‘He will abundantly pardon.’ But it is sadly too plain to observation, and to the experience of some of us, that obstacles grow with years, that habits and associations grip with increasing power, that in all things our natures become less flexible, the supple sapling becoming gnarled and tough, that a middle-aged or old man is more inextricably ‘tied and bound by the cords of his sins,’ than a young one is.

Sin lies to us by first saying, ‘It is too soon to be religious,’ and then it lies to us by saying, ‘It is too late.’

The inclination diminishes.

The Gospel long heard and long put aside, loses power.

Contrast the beauty of a course of life, begun on the same lines as those on which it ends, and being like ‘the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the meridian of the day,’ with one which gave the greater part of its years to ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil,’ or at least to one’s godless self, and the dregs of it only to God.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:12-15 As a true believer, Obadiah recognized that the Spirit of the Lord operated within God’s prophets (Judg 6:34; Ezek 3:12, 14; 11:1). Obadiah feared that the Lord’s Spirit would carry Elijah away while he was reporting Elijah’s whereabouts to Ahab. The king would then interpret his inability to produce Elijah as a sign that he was hiding Elijah, and he would kill him.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I am none of the wicked persecutors that thou shouldest procure unto me such displeasure, but serve God, and favor his children.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 12. The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee] Obadiah supposed that the Spirit of the Lord had carried him to some strange country during the three years and a half of the drought; and as he had reason to think that Ahab would slay Elijah if he found him, and that the God of the prophet would not suffer his servant to fall into such murderous hands, he took for granted that as soon as he should come into danger, so soon would the Spirit of the Lord carry him away, or direct him to some hiding place.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee.—In this phrase there is perhaps a survival of the original physical sense of the word “Spirit”—the whirlwind which is “the breath of the Lord.” (Comp. 2Ki_2:16; Act_8:39.) To Obadiah it seemed that only by such miraculous agency could Elijah have been removed from the persecution for so long a time, and that, having emerged for a moment, he will be swept away into his hidden refuge again.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. And it shall come to pass] Clearly Obadiah regards Elijah’s concealment as only possible, amid such a thorough inquiry, by reason of divine aid. This may be exercised again, and he be taken away and concealed, before Ahab can be brought to him.

the spirit of the Lord shall carry thee] So Act_8:39, of the supernatural removal of Philip. Cf. likewise 2Ki_2:16.

fear the Lord from my youth] The true worshippers of Jehovah had not all perished out of Israel through Jeroboam’s sin. Not only in special bodies, as the sons of the prophets, but also in positions of secular employment, we find some who still hold to the pure religion of Jehovah, and teach their children the same. The Hebrew, literally is ‘but thy servant feareth the Lord from my youth,’ which accounts for the italic ‘I’ of A.V.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord? how I hid one hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? See Gill on Kg1 18:4, this he said not in a way of ostentation, but to show that it would be very ungenerous and ungrateful, as well as impolitic, to sacrifice such a friend at court to the Lord's prophets as he had been, and might still continue to be.

, this he said not in a way of ostentation, but to show that it would be very ungenerous and ungrateful, as well as impolitic, to sacrifice such a friend at court to the Lord's prophets as he had been, and might still continue to be.

1 Kings 18:14

kg1 18:14

kg1 18:14

kg1 18:14And now thou sayest, go tell my lord, behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. That is, should he carry such a message to him, and Elijah should be removed elsewhere, and not to be found.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Spirit. Abdias supposed that the prophet had been transported to some unknown country, (Calmet) as he was afterwards to paradise. His disciples imagined, by a violent wind, 4 Kings ii. 16. (Haydock) --- Thus the spirit of the Lord took away Philip, (Acts viii. 39,) and conducted Jesus into the desert, Matthew iv. 1., and Mark i. 12. (Calmet) --- Infancy. This he mentions, that the prophet might take pity on him. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The Spirit of the Lord; the Holy Ghost, to whom the inspiration and conduct of the prophets is commonly ascribed in Holy Scripture, as Isa 48:16; 61:1; Mat 4:1; Act 16:6,7, who might do this either immediately by his own power, or by an angel, or by a strong wind.

Shall carry thee whither I know not; such transportations of the prophets having doubtless been usual before this time, as they were after it. See 2Ki 2:16; Eze 3:12,14; Mt 4:1; Act 8:39.

He will slay me; either as a cursed impostor that hath deluded him with vain hopes; or rather, because I did not forthwith seize upon thee, and bring thee to him to receive punishment.

I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth: he speaks not these nor the following words in way of vain boasting, but only for his own necessary vindication and preservation, that he might move the prophet to pity and spare him, and not put him upon that hazardous action; which yet he was resolved to do, if the prophet peremptorily required it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. The Spirit… carry thee whither I know not — An allusion, perhaps, to the sudden disappearance of Elijah after his announcement of the drought to Ahab. 1Ki_17:1. There seems to have been so much of the weird and solemn about Elijah as even to inspire the pious Obadiah with a fear of him.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that Heb. I shall go from thee, and the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not These words, which literally translated are shall lift thee up upon where," etc., are to be explained by 2Ki_2:16, "lest the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up" (same word) "and cast him upon some mountain," etc. Seb. Schmidt, Wordsworth, al. think that such a transportation must have already occurred in the history of Elijah, but the sudden, mysterious disappearance and the long concealment of the prophet is quite sufficient to account for Obadiah"s fear. Compare Act_8:39. The words do suggest, however, that it had been believed by somethat the Lord had hid Elijah, and it is not improbable that during his long absence rumours had often gained credence that he had been seen and had suddenly disappeared, just as later Jews have held that he "has appeared again and again as an Arabian merchant to wise and good Rabbis at their prayers or in their journeys" (Stanley); and so when I come and tell Heb. and I come to tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me This is just what a prince like Ahab, or any prince who was under the guidance of a Jezebel, would do, out of sheer vexation at losing his prey when so nearly in his grasp: but Heb. and I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Obadiah"s meaning clearly is not that he, "as a God-fearing man and a protector of the prophets, cannot have any special favour to expect from Ahab" (Keil; similarly Ewald), but that it was hard that one who was a steadfast worshipper of Elijah"s God should be slain for his sake. It is extremely unlikely that Ahab knew of Obadiah"s having protected the prophets. He could hardly have maintained him in his post had he known that the steward of the palace had thwarted the designs of his queen.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Carry thee - Such transportations of the prophets having doubtless been usual before this time, as they were after it. Slay me - Either as one that hath deluded him with vain hopes: or, because I did not seize upon thee, and bring thee to him. But I, &c. - He speaks not these words, in a way of boasting; but that he might move the prophet to spare him, and not put him upon that hazardous action.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Has it not been told to you ... with bread and water?

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Surely you have been told about what I did ... with bread and water!" (See: Active or Passive)

my master

Here the word "master" is a term of respect used to refer to Elijah.

one hundred of Yahweh's prophets by fifties

"100 of Yahweh's prophets in groups of 50" (See: Numbers)

translationWords

Holy Spirit

worship

Yahweh

Jezebel

prophet

bread

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.