Elijah's Confrontation Series

And then we see the setting. It all takes place on beautiful Mt. Carmel. It’s a low mountain that overlooks the plains of Megiddo and the Mediterranean Ocean. As I said last day, this would be home team advantage for the prophets of Baal and those who followed them. You see, they believed that Mt. Carmel was the home of the weather gods. They had special sanctuaries built there for this very purpose. And you remember that I said Baal was the storm god. If lightening were to strike anywhere it would probably strike here. And so the confrontation would the answer the question once and for all, who is the real God. Is it Jehovah or is it Baal?

Elijah isn’t one to give great sermons but in this confrontation he makes seven statements through which we come to understand the message of this portion of scripture.

1. How long are you going to halt between two opinions? Basically, he was asking them to pick a side. Are you with God or are you with Baal?

A These people were simply sitting on the fence. They hadn’t totally rejected Jehovah nor had they committed themselves to Baal. They had a little bit of their Hebrew background and they mixed it with some of the new religion. Basically, they would say, “What’s wrong with Baal worship? You got to live and let live. They have their religion and we have ours. I’m sure there’s a lot we can learn from each other. We have turkey dinners at our church and bingo at theirs and we both play in the same softball league. Everybody gets along great. After all, isn’t that what religion is supposed to be about?

We see something like this today as we meet people who say they are believers but they also hold to a form of evolution. My question for them is simply, how can you worship a creator and then claim He is incapable of creating. You can’t combine creationism with a form of atheism.

B These people weren’t what you’d call on fire for God but they be offended if you said they were cold. They were lukewarm and you remember what Jesus said about those who were lukewarm. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus said,”He would spit them out of His mouth.” I find it interesting to see that this is the same condition that will exist in the last days. If we took the time to look at the church of Laodicia we’d see that they had the appearance of spirituality but the scripture says they lived for money and clothing. This describes people who are committed to the here and now. If you can’t spend it or wear it then who cares. In I Timothy 4 we read that in the last days men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. When we think of this our first thought is, well that certainly describes the people of our day. But this isn’t talking about the people of the world. These are the supposed believers of the last times. The so-called Christians will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They’re more interested in fellowship than evangelism.

C These people were sitting on the fence. You know what the problem with sitting on the fence is, it’s that you get shot at from both sides. The Christian’s accuse you of being worldly and the non-Christians accuse you of being fanatical. The people on the fence never feel comfortable. D So he asks them, how long will you halt between two opinions? How long are you going to hang around the middle and not be totally committed to either side? And it says, ”The people answered him not a word.” They said nothing! They just stared. And we wonder why?