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Ehud (Judg. 3:12–30)
In Latin, the word meaning “left-handed” is sinister. In English, the word sinister means “dangerous, suspicious, evil, ominous.” Why? Because a soldier who was left-handed could distract an opponent with his right hand and then stab him with the left.
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Unusual weapons during the days of the Judges: an ox goad (Judg. 3:31); a tent peg (Judg. 4:22); pitchers or jars (Judg. 7:20); a millstone (Judg. 9:53); a jawbone (Judg. 15:15). See also 1 Corinthians 1:26–29.
Eleazar (2 Sam. 23:9–10)
Happy are they who can follow a good cause in its worst estate, for theirs is true glory.
CHS, 56:181
This man Eleazar, however, made up for the failures of his countrymen, for “he arose and smote the Philistines.” He was a man of marked individuality of character, a man who knew himself and knew his God, and did not care to be lost in the common mass, so as to run away merely because they ran. He thought for himself, and acted for himself; he did not make the conduct of others the measure of his service; but while Israel fled, “he arose and smote the Philistines.”… I do not find that he wasted time in upbraiding the others for running away, nor in shouting to them to return; but he just turned his own face to the enemy, and hewed and hacked away with all his might.
CHS, 56:182
When we have a good work to do for our Lord, we are glad of the company of kindred spirits, determined to make the good work succeed; but if we have no such comrades, we must go alone.
CHS, 56:183
“The people returned after him only to spoil” (v. 10). Eleazar was pleased to see them in the field again. I daresay he did not say one rebuking word to them, but perhaps remarked, “Well, you have come back, have you? Share the plunder among yourselves. I might claim it all myself, but I will not; you are welcome to it.”
CHS, 56:188
How many courageous leaders have fought the battles and others have claimed the spoils! It isn’t important who gets the credit or the spoils, but that God gets the glory.
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Eli
The first point remarkable in him is the absence of envy. Eli furthers Samuel’s advancement, and assists it to his own detriment.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 4:4
Eli’s feelings were all good; his acts were all wrong. In sentiment Eli might always be trusted; in action he was forever false, because he was a weak, vacillating man.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 4:11
Elijah
He suddenly appears as the crisis-prophet, with thunder on his brow and tempest in his voice. He disappears just as suddenly, being swept away in a chariot of fire.
J. Sidlow Baxter, Mark These Men, p. 11
Elijah was a praying fighter. He won his greatest battles upon his knees. (James 5:17)
Clovis Chappell, And the Prophets, p. 51
He had a consuming passion for the glory of God. He was content to be a slave of Jehovah. He was implicitly obedient to the divine commands.
J. Oswald Sanders, On to Maturity, p. 174
We need such anger today. It is fine to be tolerant. To fail to be so is to fail to be Christian. But much of our so-called tolerance is not tolerance at all but indifference…. There is no surer sign that one’s moral nature has become flabby and honeycombed than a lost capacity for unselfish anger.
Chappell, And the Prophets, pp. 49–50
The man who enters a place of public service … must be alone with God; his spirit must be exercised in private; he must pass through the deep waters in his own experience, otherwise he will be but a theorist, and not a witness; his ear must be opened to hear, ere his tongue can be fitted to speak as the learned.
C. H. Mackintosh, Life and Times of Elijah, p. 11
We must be kept low…. Our time of training in secret must far exceed our time of acting in public.
Mackintosh, Elijah, p. 21
The man of faith must be emptied from vessel to vessel; each successive scene and stage of the believer’s life is but his entrance upon a new form [level] in the school of Christ, where he has to learn some fresh and, of course, more difficult lessons.
Mackintosh, Elijah, p. 36
Because of our proneness to look at the bucket and forget the fountain, God has frequently to change His means of supply to keep our eyes fixed on Him.
Watchman Nee
Though the stream must fail, the fountain is still full and still flowing.
John Newton
1 Kings 18
In our day, the greatest lack in the life of the individual Christian and of the Church is the fire of God, the manifested presence and mighty working of the Holy Spirit…. Our lives are not fire-touched.
Sanders, On to Maturity, p. 177
The immortal test of Elijah, made in the presence of an apostate king, and in the face of a backslidden nation and an idolatrous priesthood on Mount Carmel, is a sublime exhibition of faith and prayer.
E. M. Bounds
I am sure, if God hadn’t held him back, Satan would have brought up a little spark out of hell to set that sacrifice on fire. But God wouldn’t let him.
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 157
1 Kings 19
Elijah was a great man, but he was still only a man “of like nature” as we are. He was not the first servant of God to get discouraged in the work and want to quit or die. Consider Moses (Num. 11:15), Jonah (Jonah 4:3), David (Ps. 55:6), Jeremiah (Jer. 9:1–2), and even Paul (2 Cor. 1:8–11). “The best of men are but men at their best.”
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Elijah’s experiences on Mount Carmel and afterward illustrate Isaiah 40:31. At the altar, he mounted up with wings as the eagle and defeated the pagan priests. He ran before Ahab’s chariot and did not get weary, and he walked in the wilderness to Mount Horeb and did not faint (1 Kings 19:1–8). But in running away from the place of duty, the prophet disobeyed the Lord and walked by sight and not by faith.
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“I only am left.” See Psalm 12:1; Isaiah 57:1; 63:5; Jeremiah 5:1; 15:1–4; and Micah 7:2.
Nothing but abiding faith in the Word of God can maintain anyone in the path of service, because faith makes a man satisfied to wait for the end, whereas unbelief, looking only at surrounding circumstances, sinks into complete despondency.
Mackintosh, Elijah, p. 93
When you get in the dumps and fret and fume and wish you were dead, just stop right there and tell yourself that you are a liar…. A lot of blue people need rest from idleness. One big reason why they are blue is because they have nothing else to do.
Clovis Chappell, Sermons on Biblical Characters, p. 125
Now, what the Lord wanted Elijah to learn is just what He wants you and me to learn, that our job in this world is not bookkeeping.
Chappell, Sermons on Biblical Characters, 126
He thought there was not a good man in Israel. And if you want a short cut to wretchedness, get to a place where you do not believe in anybody.
Chappell, Sermons on Biblical Characters, p. 122
But Elijah, if you die, there will be an end of the Lord’s people, if your reckoning is correct. Surely, if you are the only one left, you ought to pray that you may live on until there are some more to carry on the work…. He prayed that he might die; why? Because he was afraid that he should die! That is the odd thing about his request: he was running away from Jezebel, because she had threatened to kill him, yet he prayed that he might die.
CHS, 47:210–11
At Mount Carmel, Elijah walked by faith and vindicated the Lord. But at Mount Horeb, he walked in unbelief and tried to vindicate himself and also accuse the whole nation.
For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:14 NKJV
2 Kings 2
Bethel had ceased to be the house of God save in name; Gilgal was no longer valued as the place where the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away. The walls of Jericho which had been destroyed by faith, were built again. Jordan was no longer viewed as the scene of Jehovah’s power. In a word, all these things had become form without power. [See Amos 5:4–6.]
Mackintosh, Elijah, p. 111
The Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–13)
He [Jesus] had reached a crisis in the process of the work, and they [Moses and Elijah] came to greet Him in the moment of triumph, and to speak with Him of the work yet remaining to be done. By their conversation with Him they revealed the interest of the dwellers in heaven in His approaching work, for they talked with Him of the exodus which He was about to accomplish.
GCM, The Crises of the Christ, p. 235
Elisha
Elisha is a different personality. Elisha is not the copyist. Elisha is not the echo. Elisha stands out in his own unspoiled individuality.
George W. Truett, The Prophet’s Mantle, p. 17
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:12
Elijah had taught his friend that no man is indispensable. Therefore Elisha asked not, “Where is Elijah?” but “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” The need of our day is not this prophet or that prophet, this man or that man. The big need of our day, and of every day, is God.
Chappell, And the Prophets, p. 52
We know where the Lord God of Elijah is—on the throne of heaven. But where are the Elijahs?
Enoch
He preached the Second Coming (Jude 14–15), practiced the Second Coming (Heb. 11:5–6; 1 John 3:1–3), and pictured the Second Coming (Gen. 5:21–24; 1 Thess. 4:13–18).
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Enoch’s Day (Gen. 4:17–24; 6:1–8)
They became famous and skilful in all the works of this life: one was called the father of shepherds, and another the father of musicians; but we read of none that was a father of faithful lambs in Christ’s flock, of none that was the father of children who made God’s statutes their song in the house of their pilgrimage. (See Ps. 119:54.)
Ryle, The True Christian, p. 233
To walk with God is to be always going forward, always pressing on, never standing still and flattering ourselves that we are the men and have borne much fruit; but to grow in grace, to go on from strength to strength, to forget the things behind, and if by grace we have attained unto anything, to abound yet more and more.
Ryle, The True Christian, p. 238
If it be a marvelous thing that Enoch walked with God, it is a more marvelous thing that God walked with Enoch, waiting for him as for a weak child along the way.
GCM, 5:68–69
When he changes mere “living” into “walking with God,” he goes over precisely the same ground—he is still occupied with the care of “sons and daughters.” No outward eye could have detected the difference. Religion is not a change of space; it is a change of spirit. It is not a new road, but a new perception. It finds its earliest glory in retracing the old way. Enoch, in his vegetating days, has gone the round of certain household duties, has borne certain burdens which as a parent he was bound to bear. When he begins to walk with God he walks on the same path where he had vegetated. He repeats the old duties with a new light in his soul. He bears the old burdens with a new strength in his arm. He meets the old faces with a new love in his heart. He treads again the path which he trod yesterday; but yesterday he walked alone, today he walks with God.
GM-RMB, 1:76–77
Esau
He is called a “profane person” (Heb. 12:16 KJV). Modern translations use words such as “godless,” “irreverent,” “irreligious,” and “careless about God.” The English word profane comes from the Latin profanus and means “outside the temple, common, ordinary, not sacred.” His mind and heart were accessible to everybody; he had no boundaries or walls that set him apart for God. The Vulgate uses this Latin word for “what may be used freely.” Because Esau did not know God, he was open to everybody and everything.
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He was a profane person, not in the sense of taking God’s name in vain—there is no suggestion of that—but in the sense of never feeling and recognizing God’s claim upon him at all.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 207
In every incident [in Esau’s life] we find a new reason, a new passion, a new motive; a profane person, a temple with the doors open, and all the unhallowed crowds tramping in and out, walking across the threshold, no sanctity, no sacredness, no reserve, no consciousness of high and holy things, no recognition of principle, no sense of responsibility.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:102
He sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and he thought he would buy it back by giving his father a mess of pottage…. This is what sinners say. “I have lost heaven by my evil works; I will easily get it back by reforming.”
CHS, 5:119
There was no reason for Esau to exaggerate his situation and say he was at the point of death. His father Isaac was a very wealthy man and there was plenty of food in the camp. Why did he sell his birthright? Because he despised it and had no interest in spiritual things—and everybody knew it! (See Gen. 25:34 and Heb. 12:16.)
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Esau voluntarily gave up his own birthright. And the doctrine is, that every man who loses heaven gives it up himself. Every man who loses everlasting life rejects it himself. God denies it not to him—he will not come that he may have life.
CHS, 5:118
But though the past is irrevocable, it is not irreparable…. God Himself cannot undo the past, but He can and will forgive. He will not mention the past, but give us a fair fresh start.
F. B. Meyer, Israel: A Prince with God, p. 31
There are no trifles in Christian living. Everything is great; because the mightiest events revolve on the smallest pivots; and the greatest harvests for good and ill spring from the tiniest seeds.
Meyer, Israel, pp. 27–28
Genesis 33
While Jacob remembered the dark threat (Gen. 27:41), Esau himself forgot it. His sudden blaze of anger, instead of smoldering down to a life-long hatred, quite died out; and on Jacob’s return to Canaan, “Esau ran to meet him….” Esau might be reckless and impulsive, but he was not malevolent; he was quicker to forgive than to blame; and when his heart was touched, the strong man wept like a woman.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 259
Esther
The Lord’s wisdom is seen in arranging the smallest events so as to produce great results.
CHS, 20:619
Remember, for your humiliation, that God can do without you…. When He looked and there was no man, His own arm brought Him salvation. [Esther 4:13–17; Isa. 63:5]
CHS, 20:233
Ezekiel
The word sword is used 82 times in the Hebrew text of Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Like Jeremiah and John the Baptist, Ezekiel was born to be a priest but was called to be a prophet, a much more difficult ministry. The Law of Moses instructed the priest in his duties, but the prophet had to receive fresh messages day after day to know what the Lord wanted him to do. A priest ministered to keep the people walking with God, but the prophet was sent by God to bring the people back to His way. A priest was rarely in danger, but a prophet was often looked upon as the enemy of the people, especially of the apostate establishment.
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Ezekiel records the departure of the glory of God from the temple in Jerusalem: 8:1–4; 9:1–3; 10:1–4, 18; 11:22–23. He also promises that the glory will return (43:1–5).