You can most certainly expect God to attract your attention.
I cannot tell you exactly how He will do it, but I do know that He will do it. He will attract your attention.
Many of us face a spiritual issue called inattention. Distraction. Inattention. We are not paying attention to what God is telling us. We are asleep, drifting, blundering through life. But God is at work attracting our attention.
Now He may do it gently or He may do it vigorously. He may speak in that still, small voice that Elijah heard. Or he may knock you out of your seat like He did to Saul on the road to Damascus. He may tap you on the shoulder and whisper in your heart. Or He may use a lightning strike to shake you down to your boots.
He may be, as the hymn writer put it, "the silence of eternity, interpreted by love." Or He may be something like the old farmer who insisted that he could control his mule with nothing but gentle commands … said he never had any trouble getting old Bessie to follow. But somebody saw old Bessie and the farmer out in the field one day, and saw the farmer pick up a steel pipe and whap that mule up side the head. "Why, I thought you said you could control your mule without whips or violence; I thought you said you could command this critter with just a few words. What’s with this steel pipe?" To which the farmer answered, "Oh, well, yes. But first I have to get her attention!"
God is about the business of getting our attention. Sometimes it’s quiet. Something we are ready for and we just receive His word when it comes.
But much of the time, God has to use the steel pipe. God uses the crisis moments of our lives to get our attention. God will use a defining moment, a filled-up moment, to challenge us to make a choice. God will, when He must, use a lightning strike to get hold of us.
I expect you’ve had moments like that. Moments in which all of a sudden something flashed a warning signal on your radar screen, and you realized that God was getting your attention.
Maybe it came through the stern warning of a friend. Maybe it came when somebody just dumped all over you and told you how badly you had messed up. You really already knew that, but someone had the courage to tell you that what you had done was truly awful. That was God, getting your attention. Don’t blame the friend who had the courage of his convictions; blame God, if you must, for sending the lightning strike. The steel pipe. The attention-getter.
Those of us who are married know how our spouses get our attention. If you are in a marriage of true minds and of equal partners, then you can expect a few attention-getters along the way. I well remember how, years ago, when my work habits were keeping me away from home, night after night after night, and then when I would get home, I would take my bulging brief case to my desk and work some more. My attention-getter came in the form of a complaint from Margaret, who said, "You are missing the entire childhood of these kids. And if you don’t change now, you’ll never be able to recover those years." That was not very gentle. Not very nice. That was a steel pipe up side the head of this old mule. But it was also God’s attention-getter.
Incidentally, because of what is happening today, up the road in Camden Yards, it might be worth saying that if the pope had a wife maybe he wouldn’t be so sure he was infallible!
How is God working to get your attention? What kind of lightning is striking close to where you stand?
Elijah, God’s prophet, had seen that a defining moment had come in the life of Israel. Elijah had seen God trying to get King Ahab’s attention. Ahab and his queen, Jezebel, had brought into the worship life of Israel some major corruption. Not only had they promoted the worship of the Canaanite Baals; but also they had imported Jezebel’s Astarte worship from Sidon. And with these pagan worship practices came all sorts of moral corruption and destructive foolishness.
But the Lord had been trying very hard to get King Ahab’s attention. Three years without rain had left the land parched and the crops barren. Three years without food had left the people starved and rebellious. Still there was no action; still Ahab did not seem to understand the connection between his idolatry and the suffering of his people. It just did not dawn on the big galoot that what he was doing was the cause of this disaster.
And so Elijah saw that it was time for the steel pipe up side Ahab’s head. It was time for an attention-getter. Time for the lightning strike.
It came on Mount Carmel. When Elijah challenged the 450 priests of Baal and the 400 priests of Astarte to a showdown. Ahab, give it everything you’ve got. Bring all your priests, your soothsayers, your shamans, and let them strut their stuff. But I’ll show you, Ahab, what God can do when he wants to get your attention. It’s show time. Gunfight at the OK Carmel!
I Kings 18:20-39
I
The real issue is that most of us want to avoid hard choices. We want to keep away from the tough decisions. If we can, we like to stay neutral. But God’s attention-getters force us to make choices. God’s lightning strikes push us to choose whom we will serve.
I really love the way Elijah put it to the people. This is a wonderful image. "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?" "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?" The picture is: we are trying to hop around, first on one leg and then the other. We are trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord, and what happens when you put your two big flat feet in two different places? What happens when you try to walk down two different paths at the same time?
Well, you limp. You struggle. You don’t do so well. You limp, you stagger, you develop more moves than out there trying to outfox the Eagles’ defense, but in the end you fall on your face. In the end you collapse. If you try to follow both the Lord and the Baals, the idols … if you try to go around with two different opinions, one foot in the Lord and one foot in the world, it’s going to be a limp. It’s not going to work. It’s going to be a disaster. We’re going to have to decide. When God gets our attention, He forces us to decide whom we will serve.
Not long ago I was driving on the Beltway, close to where I-270 splits off to go up toward Rockville and Gaithersburg. As I got closer to the split, I notice a car right up against the barricade that separates the two highways. Why would anybody be parked up there? Well, the tire tracks I could still see on the partially wet pavement told the whole story. First the tracks went to the right; then they veered to the left; shortly after that they shot off to the right again; and, just before the inevitable end, they scooted off to the left one more time. Some driver couldn’t decide which way to go, and the end result was disaster.
How long, says the Lord, will you go limping with two different opinions? How long will you try to keep one foot in the Lord and one foot in the world? How long will we mouth one thing on Sundays and say something else the rest of the week? How long will we give lip service to integrity and then turn around and violate integrity in dishonesty. How long will we sing hymns to love and then slander our brothers and sisters behind their backs? How long will we go limping with two different opinions? Elijah has it right, "lf the Lord be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him." Follow one or the other. Do something; decide something. Because the lightning is about to strike. The choice is about to be forced. One day God is going to get your attention.
II
But now suppose you do decide, and you make the world choice. Suppose you decide that you’re going to be secular. That what you really want is profit, pleasure, and prestige. What if you decide that, yes, we know there has to be a choice. After all, the saying has it, “Not to decide is to decide." But all right, we’ll decide for the world. We’ll go with the flow and we’ll just enjoy what they have to offer out there.
What about that choice? What will that get us?
There was plenty of incentive for the people of Israel to choose Baal worship, you know. Plenty of reasons to go that way. For one thing, Baal worship involved unchecked, unbridled sexual expression. You could go to the shrines of Baal and pleasure yourself, all in the name of religion. No fuss, no muss. No guilt, no shame, no "thou shalt nots". Hey, just enjoy. That’s a pretty good reason to be a Baal worshipper.
And then, it was popular too. It was the thing to do. Baal worship had been there in Israel among the Canaanite people, long before the Hebrews got there, and it was still around. Popular stuff. Why not just choose what they’re all doing? There are always some people who make their decisions based on which way the wind is blowing. If it’s popular to be something, they’ll be that. If it changes, they’ll change too. If it’s in this year to be Republican, well, several congressmen have switched parties. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Or, if you are troubled by my reference to the popularity of Republicanism, then let me work the other side of the aisle. I’ve always enjoyed the way somebody about 75 years ago wrote up my great-grandmother in a book about prominent Kentuckians. He said, "Mrs. Moorman, being from western Kentucky, is OF COURSE, a Baptist and a Democrat." Of course. Go with the flow. Do what’s popular. That’ll work, won’t it?
Ah, but when the lightning is about to strike; when God is about to get our attention, discover with me that the popular thing, the of course thing, doesn’t work. It just does not work.
Elijah challenged the priests of Baal. They were running their trip, doing their thing, all around the altar, but nothing was happening. I’m sure it was quite a show, quite spectacular, but the results? Precisely nothing. Exactly zero.
And Elijah taunts them. He mocks them. Hey, maybe Baal is asleep. Maybe he’s busy. One scholar says that one of Elijah’s phrases literally means, "Maybe Baal has had to go to the bathroom!"
But the point is, nothing is happening. This stuff you have given yourself to doesn’t work. It produces nothing. No satisfaction, no joy, nothing worthwhile. The text uses the word "limping" again. Same word as Elijah used to tell the people what they were doing; now it’s used on the priests of Baal. They are limping around the altar. They are faltering, they are failing, they are running down. All morning long and well into the afternoon they set up their caterwauling. But nothing happens. Nothing at all. The text piles word on word, "There was no voice, no answer, and no response."
Men and women, do you see how sometimes we get stuck in pointless popular rituals? Do you see how sometimes we get caught in repeating the same old nothings? Things that don’t get us anywhere. Things that don’t do anything for us. But we keep up the same old habits, not only because they are popular, but also because, well, they are habits. They are routines. And we’d rather stick with something bad, that doesn’t work, than choose something else that is obedient to God, but looks risky. We’d rather limp with Baal and his corruption, getting no satisfaction, than to take the leap of faith toward the Lord. We are scared to get out of our ruts, our rituals, and our routines.
Do you know the old story about the fellow who was standing on the street corner, with a great big fan in his hand, and he just stood there for hours, waving, waving, waving that big fan. Finally somebody got up the nerve to ask him what this was all about. Why are you using all this time and energy waving this big fan, here on this city street? Well, said the man, "I’m keeping the elephants away!" "Keeping the elephants away? Man, this is downtown Washington. There aren’t any elephants here!" Swift and sure came the answer: "See what a good job I’m doing?"
We get stuck in pointless routines, in little idolatries, that make no sense. But we are afraid to let go of them, because it’s all we know to do. This Friday night, in our marriage enrichment group, we spent some time talking about how individualistic we Americans are. We talked about how in too many homes, husbands and wives live separate lives in separate parts of the house, each just doing his own thing. All of us agreed that this should not be. So we finished the group, and went home; who do you think promptly took his brief case and his papers down into his study, turned on his computer, and shut his door? Little idolatries that we will not let go, even when someone has gotten our attention.
But, I tell you, the lightning is about to strike. And the Lord is about to get our attention. And when God’s lightning strikes, when God gets on our case, He is going to show up the hollowness of our choices.
III
Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come closer to me" And Elijah prayed, "0 Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel ... answer me, o Lord, that his people may know that you, 0 Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back." Then the fire of the Lord fell ... and when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God."
"Come closer". Elijah said to all the people, "Come closer". Come closer, because the lightning is about to strike. Come closer, because the Lord is about to get your attention.
Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it? Sounds like a place you might not want to be. Come closer, stand where the lightning is going to strike.
But when the lightning did strike, what did the people see? When God sent His attention-getter, what did the people feel? They felt the energy, the power, the love that is His presence. They felt Him as grace and as gift. "When all the people saw [the fire consuming the offering] they fell on their faces and said, ’The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.’"
When the lightning strikes, when something happens that is God getting in your face, if you come closer, you’ll find out it’s love. Not anger, but love. Not destruction, but grace.
Martin Luther found that out. Walking through the forest one day, praying and working through spiritual torment, literally, the lightning did strike close by. And he felt that as the summons of God. Luther came closer, and when God sent the lightning strike, it was grace. It was what he needed to turn his life around.
John Wesley found it out. Serving as a missionary in the Georgia penal colony, he was a miserable failure. He sailed home in distress, not sure what he would do with the rest of his life. But in a little chapel in Aldersgate Street in London, listening to someone comment on the Scripture, Wesley says that he "felt his heart strangely warmed, and did know that Christ was his savior." Wesley came closer, and when the lightning struck and God got his attention, he found that it was grace, all grace, and hope.
Jim Vaus found it out. As a professional criminal, working for the Cohen gang in New York City, Vaus chose to steal, swindle, maim, or even kill to get what he wanted. But there was a nagging feeling inside that it meant nothing. The things that do not satisfy. The FBI arrested Jim Vaus and he was sent to prison. But in prison he heard the gospel, and knew that it was for him. The last I knew, Jim Vaus, ex-criminal, ex-con, was running a youth ministry in a place aptly called Hell’s Kitchen. The lightning struck, and it was grace.
So come closer, stand close to the lightning strike. And know God’s love.
When you lose a loved one, come closer. Come closer. God is getting your attention. But you will know the peace that passes understanding.
When you lose a job, come closer. Come closer. God is getting your attention. But He will supply your every need out of the riches of His grace.
When you are being tempted, come closer. Come closer. God is getting your attention. Yet we have not one who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
When you are in trouble, come closer. Come closer. God is getting your attention. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Come closer. Stand closer to the lightning strike. God is getting your attention. Why will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God indeed.
