1 Kings 18:40, commentary and pictures

After the fire from heaven proved Jehovah the true God, Elijah commanded the aroused people to seize every prophet of Baal so none would escape, and they brought them down to the brook Kishon where he slew the hundreds of idolatrous priests with his own hand that same day. He did this promptly in obedience as God's instrument doing His will under divine direction. The judgment fell because the deception was unveiled and the priests refused to repent despite witnessing God's power, so their removal protected repentant Israel from teachers who had led them into Baal worship and cleared the cause of apostasy that the curse might be withdrawn in rain. The act vindicated the Lord, put idolatry to shame, and began decisive reform as many returned to God, and it did not unfit Elijah for solemn prayer but was followed at once by earnest intercession until the rain came. Defending God's honor at any risk still brings censure as cruel, yet the slaying at Kishon was not a pattern for Christ's disciples, for He rebuked the wish to destroy rejecters and came to save lives.

Carmel Setting and Sequence

The command belongs to the events at Carmel, where Israel had been summoned to meet Elijah and the prophets of Baal and of Ashtoreth. It took place on a conspicuous height, chosen so that God's power would be seen and the honor of His name vindicated after idolatrous worship had dishonored Him there. Elijah entered that confrontation as one chosen to be a preacher of righteousness, guided by the Holy Spirit and working under God's direction. He had been commissioned to return to Israel and stand before the idolatrous priests on Carmel, and this was his God-given mission against them.

That was a terrible day on which he stood alone as the sole witness to the true God before Ahab and the whole nation of Israel. Against him were arrayed the 450 prophets of Baal at their head, with the king and the people looking on. He had come to it after bearing a burden for Israel through three and a half years of famine, giving faithful warnings against national idolatry in deep solicitude while watching and waiting for repentance. Even undaunted courage before king and nation could not prevent later weakness, for strength can fail, will power weaken, and faith let go its hold when Satan assails in the time of greatest weakness.

God's power was shown by fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice in answer to Elijah's simple prayer before the king and thousands. That marvelous exhibition proved to Israel that Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, is God and that Elijah was His chosen messenger in a contest between life and death over king, priests, and people. Afterward the people declared their allegiance to God and acknowledged Him. The judgment that followed was part of that decisive demonstration of God's power against idolatry.

The slaughter stands immediately before Elijah told Ahab to go up to eat and drink, for there was a sound of abundance of rain. He himself went to the top of Carmel to pray for rain, casting himself down upon the earth with his face between his knees. There he offered strong and earnest prayer in a painful, humiliating position, with faith sorely tried yet continuing until rewarded by tokens of rain. Then heaven grew black with clouds and wind, and there was great rain.

Seizure and Execution Described

Elijah commanded the aroused people to take the prophets of Baal and let not one of them escape, directing that every prophet be seized. The people obeyed by falling upon the false prophets who had deluded them, seizing them and bringing them down to the brook Kishon. They themselves took part in what followed there, joining in the slaughter to which they brought the priests.

At the brook Kishon Elijah with his own hand slew those idolatrous priests, personally carrying out the killing there. The number slain was eight hundred and fifty, described as hundreds of idolatrous prophets. After Israel recognized the Lord's power he acted promptly and had them put to death that same day, knowing delay until morning could change the situation.

God directed Elijah to destroy them and wrought through him in the act. It was done in obedience as work commissioned by God and as His instrument doing His will.

Reasons for the Judgment

The slaughter at Kishon was the execution of God's judgments upon the false priests, carried out after Israel had seen Jehovah's power, confessed sin, acknowledged the God of their fathers, and turned in anger against the prophets of Baal who had deluded them. The hour had come for delusion to be unveiled, and the people at last saw the awful deception that had been practiced upon them by the false prophets. Those priests had hardened their hearts and, even after witnessing the manifestation of God's power, refused to be convinced or to repent, choosing to remain Baal's prophets and thereby showing themselves ripe for destruction.

Their removal protected repentant Israel from the influence and allurements of the very teachers who had led the people into Baal worship. By putting them to death the cause of Israel's apostasy was removed, so that the withering curse could be withdrawn and God would restore blessing by sending dew and rain.

Purpose and Outcome Achieved

The slaughter at Kishon was obedience to God and the doing of His will, a public vindication of the Lord after Carmel and a defense of His honor in the midst of apostasy. It belonged to the decisive demonstration of divine power by which Jehovah was proved to Israel to be the true God and Elijah to be His chosen messenger, and by which judgment fell on idolatry after the people acknowledged Him. The execution crowned Elijah's faith with victory, put the priests of Baal to shame, and confounded the worshipers of false gods. It humiliated apostasy before all Israel, including Ahab, whose priests the eight hundred and fifty slain men were.

It marked the beginning of decisive reform that day, for the prophets were destroyed because, though they witnessed God's power, they refused to repent and remained Baal's prophets. Their overthrow dealt a decisive check to the idolatry promoted by Ahab and Jezebel, deeply stirred Israel, and led many to return to the worship of God. Through faith idolatry was cast down and brought to an end, and the blessed rain that followed testified to the showers of blessing waiting to be poured upon the nation. The work of slaying did not unfit Elijah for solemn prayer but was followed at once by earnest intercession for sinning, apostate Israel. Because he had been obedient and done God's will, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and his obedience was followed by answered prayer for rain.

Elijah After the Triumph

The slaying at Kishon was one of the day's displays of divine power that Ahab carried to Jezebel, along with fire falling from heaven to consume the sacrifice and the coming of rain after three years in which heaven's treasures had been shut up by Elijah's word, for God had wrought the victory through him, and that victory stirred Jezebel to seek his life. Jezebel, hardened in sin and bold, defiant, and determined in idolatry, was infuriated by the report and declared Elijah should not live, swearing in the name of her pagan gods to do to him in the presence of Israel as he had done to the priests of Baal.

He should have met that threat with an appeal for protection to the God of Heaven who had commissioned him, telling the messenger that the God in whom he trusted would guard him against hatred and threats, but exalted above measure after victory he lost his hold on God and, when testing came under Jezebel's threats, lost courage and faith and lost sight of his Keeper. In weariness after exhausting toil on a day of signal triumph, fear of death overcame his faith, will power weakened, and he fled for his life without being sent, unlike his God-given mission to Carmel. This proves that even one who has stood long and valiantly for the right, standing alone and fearless before Ahab and all Israel as the sole witness to the true God, can be overcome when strength fails and faith lets go its hold upon infinite power, for Satan takes advantage of human weakness and assails the soul with fiercest temptations at the time of greatest weakness.

The manifestation of God's power had braced Elijah to do His work, and he hoped much from it, for it was meant to impress king and people toward reformation. That signal triumph on the heights of Carmel opened the way for still greater victories and wonderful opportunities before him, yet he was turned from them by Jezebel's threat, and he could not complete his work until he learned to trust wholly in God and understood the weakness of his present position compared with the vantage ground the Lord would have him occupy. His failure of faith cut short the work he had begun, and God bade him anoint another to be prophet in his stead. Yet God marked his heart-service and honored his faithful public ministry by giving him ascent with angels to the presence of His glory, rather than letting him perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness or descend to the tomb.

Even after rebuking and humiliating Ahab before his subjects and executing with his own hand God's judgment on eight hundred and fifty priests of Baal, hundreds of idolatrous prophets, Elijah acknowledged him as king. After exhausting toil on that day in which his word had locked dew and rain from earth for three years and then unlocked heaven to bring rain, and his simple prayer before the king and thousands had brought fire upon the altar, he was willing to lay aside ministerial dignity and perform the service of a menial. He ran before Ahab's chariot in darkness and wind and rain through the storm to guide the king to Jezreel and to the city gate, which rebukes all who claim to serve God, including young ministers and conductors of His work, yet feel above lowly, needful duties.

Warning and Example Today

Elijah stood wholly for God when the honor of God had been exalted as supreme before the people, and his whole life was devoted to the work of reform as a voice crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of moral evil. While he came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message offered the Balm of Gilead to sin-sick souls of all who would be healed, from zeal for God's glory and deep love for the house of Israel. His stand for the right in the midst of apostasy brings inspiration and courage to those called to do the same. It has special significance for those upon whom the ends of the world are come, because history is being repeated.

Elijah's day had its Ahab and Jezebel and its worship of Baal springing from a wrong conception of God and His attributes, and today has the same Ahabs and Jezebels and the same idolatry. Today there is no outward shrine or image for the eye, yet thousands follow gods of riches, fame, pleasure, and pleasing fables that permit the unregenerate heart to follow its own inclinations. Those fables turn the heart away from the divine and exalt the human, and many professed Christians are allied with influences unalterably opposed to God and His truth. All who stand today as representatives of God's work in the earth are to catch Elijah's spirit of zeal and learn its intensity.

Conductors of institutional work especially are to seek for the grace of God that will give them an experience in advance of what they have enjoyed, to love the work of God, and to pray for its advancement in the world. Defending the honor of God at any risk brings censure and condemnation as hard and cruel from many. Yet Elijah acted in obedience and did the will of God as His instrument, and that work of slaying did not unfit him for prayer, for the Spirit of the Lord came upon him because he had been obedient and done God's will, and his obedience was followed by answered prayer for rain.

The account of judgment at Kishon was not a pattern for Christ's disciples to apply against people who rejected Him. Christ rebuked the wish to destroy the Samaritans and made clear that His mission was to save, not to destroy, human lives. The record declares that sin brings only shame and loss, and that unbelief means failure. God's mercy reaches to the deepest depths, and faith lifts the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God.