Commentaries:
This occurs in the midst of a 3½ year drought. Elijah wastes, as it were, all this water—to soak the sacrifice and the wood and to fill the trench. What is he doing? First, he is making sure that everyone understands that, when this sacrifice gets burned up, it will not be any man's doing. No man can cause a sacrifice with this much water on it to burn—a sacrifice that is essentially drowning in water. Only God could do such a thing.
Second, he is showing how much God can supply. If Elijah is willing to "waste" that much water, then he must be certain that God will supply the people with the water to break the drought. Water was pretty precious stuff at this point! All the brooks had dried up. The countryside was brown with dead vegetation. Even on Mt. Carmel, the greenest part of Israel, it was dry and dusty. Yet, Elijah poured out vast quantities of water on the sacrifice. What faith!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Two Witnesses (Part Six)
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing 1 Kings 18:33:
Jeremiah 14:22
Amos 7:7-9
Mark 7:8
1 Corinthians 1:2
