Is That You, God?

IS THAT YOU, GOD?

1 KINGS 19:1 12

One of my favorite movies of all time is an old movie called "My Darling Clementine." It starred Henry Fonda and it was about the shoot out at the O.K. corral between the Earps and the Clanton gang. It's a classic showdown between good and evil...right and wrong.

The Bible records a showdown that is even more exciting than that of the O.K. corral...and it takes place in 1 Kings 18. In this face off we have one man against two separate gangs with a total of 850 men. (Not even John Wayne or Rambo handled those kind of odds).

The man, of course, is Elijah...and he faced 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashera up on Mount Carmel. And they were fighting for the loyalty of the people of Israel. Elijah called on them to make a choice..."If the Lord is God, follow Him...but if Baal is God, then follow him. Quit wavering between the two."

The people wouldn't respond, so Elijah got some things together and began the confrontation. Each side had a bull which was to be cut into pieces and placed on an altar of wood. And Elijah said, "O.K., the god that answers by fire...he is God! And being the gentleman that he was, he let them go first.

They began in the morning, and they started calling on the name of their god...but no response! And they were dancing around the altar...and pleading with Baal to answer them. And this went on until about noon. By then Elijah began to tease them.

"Hey, shout louder...maybe he's in deep thought...maybe he's busy...or maybe he went on a trip." "Wait, I got it...maybe he's sleeping and needs woke up. So they really begin to shout louder. And they started to cut themselves with swords and spears until the blood was flowing freely, which is something they did a lot.

Well, lunch time came and went and still nothing happened. So they continued their frantic prophesying until it was time for the evening sacrifice...all to no avail. Finally Elijah had enough, and he called all the people together.

He took 12 stones and made an altar. Then he dug a trench around it. Then he arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and placed it on the wood. But then he told them to take 4 large jars of water and pour it on the offering and the wood.

When they finished he said, "Do it again." So they did. And then he told them to do it one more time. By now there was so much water that the wood was soaked and the trench around the altar was filled with water. Then it was Elijah's turn to pray. And when he did, the Lord answered by burning up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil, and even dried up the water in the trench.

And the people all fell down on their faces are recognized that the Lord He is God! Then Elijah had all these false prophets of Baal and Asherah who had led the Israelites into sin taken and slaughtered. It was quite a day of victory!

And that wasn't the end because for the previous 3 years it hadn't rained. But now Elijah told King Ahab to get ready because it was going to rain...heavy rain. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky........7 times the servant went and checked...finally little cloud...then rain!

But then the king rode off and left Elijah to walk...but it says the power of the Lord came on him and he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.......17 miles. (Don't under estimate the power of a preacher under the anointing!!)

But then we go to chapter 19...and it says that Ahab went and told Jezebel what all took place, and how Elijah had killed all the prophets. The problem was...these had been the prophets of the gods Jezebel served. And she was livid! So she sent a messenger to tell Elijah that in 24 hours he would be history...just like the prophets of Baal.

Here is a man who stopped rain in the whole nation for 3 years...who had kosher "take out" while he was in hiding, his meals delivered to him by ravens...performed the miracle of provision for the widow and her son whose supply of flour and oil lasted nearly 3 years...he raised a boy from the dead...and now the victory over the prophets of Baal and the rain from a cloudless sky...and where is our man of faith and courage? Running for his life!

And not only did he run and hide in the desert...but he even prayed that he would die! All because he got the first lady of Israel hopping mad! In fact, he whined around so much he wore himself out. So he crawled up under a Juniper tree and fell asleep.