I Kings 18.7-40
Elijah - a nation to its knees
Do you remember the TV programme Opportunity Knocks with Huey Green? Do you remember the catch phrase? “It is make your mind up times folks. Such a moment has now arrived for the people of Israel.
It is now three and a half years later. All this time Elijah has been living in Zarephath. Flour and oil supplied each day by God for his daily bread. We have the miraculous bringing back to life of the widow’s son at the end of chapter 17. Now the the word of the Lord comes to Elijah again - this time he is told to go and present himself before Ahab because God is going to send rain again on the land.
The venue for this day of decision is Mount Carmel. It is 1791 feet above sea level and it gets its name from the Hebrew for vineyard because it was such a fertile place. The sea is on one side fit and the Kishon valley on the other. In the distance you can see Mount Tabor and the village of Nazareth is nearby. Just on the horizon you can make out lake Gennesaret.
I know we did not read the opening six verses but if you take a quick look at them we see that Ahab is more concerned for the welfare of his horses, his animals, than he is for his people. Quite a revealing insight in to this man’s heart. He sends Obadiah, who has been a faithful servant of God in this pagan regime, to find grass so that he, Ahab, will not have to kill any of his animals. On this search Obadiah meets Elijah and that is where we pick up the story.
One of the things I do not believe in is chance. Let me read to you Proverbs 16:33. Even the throw of a dice in a game is controlled by God. You may not think that, may not have even given it a thought until now. So the encounter we read of here between Elijah and Obadiah is no chance meeting. Look at verse 1 of chapter 18. God had instructed Elijah to leave Zarephath and to go and meet with Ahab because the drought was about to end, rain was coming once again on the land.
Obadiah is on his way to find grass for the king’s animals and he encounters Elijah. He is delighted with this meeting. In fact from the passage I think it is fair to surmise that Elijah was the last person he was expecting to meet and he is certainly taken aback with the instructions that Elijah gives him.
Elijah tells Obadiah to go and bring Ahab to meet with him. Obadiah points out that Ahab has been searching high and low for Elijah and it was not to wish him a happy birthday. In fact any country who said Elijah was not hiding there had to swear and oath to the same. Obadiah is, I think rightly, fearful of carrying such news to Ahab. He is fearful because he knows that Elijah has disappeared before and if he goes and brings Ahab and Elijah is not there he will forfeit his own life. Seeking, I think, to justify this assertion he tells Elijah how he has been faithful in the past in hiding 100 prophets of God from the murderous intent of Ahab. However, Elijah insists that he goes and tells Ahab and Elijah promises that he will remain where he is.
Can you imagine the thoughts and the fears of Obadiah as he goes to find Ahab and convey this message to him? I am sure he is full of fear. How will Ahab react? Will he be angry? Will he vent his anger out against me?
Well, Ahab receives the news and goes to meet Elijah. Whereas Obadiah was delighted to see Elijah and was respectful in addressing him the very opposite is true of Ahab when he meets Elijah - verse 17. Ahab calls Elijah the troubler of Israel. Basically he is saying the last three and half years of drought are all your fault Elijah. It is all your doing. Ahab is not willing, even after three and half years of drought, to admit that he and the people have sinned against God in following Baal and Asherah. Ahab will not confess that as king he has led the people of Israel astray.
Elijah, verse 18, in response to this accusation tells Ahab it is his sin that has led to this situation. Elijah puts the blame firmly on Ahab’s shoulders. Quite a brave remark before a king who has spent the last three and half years trying to find you to kill you.
Then in verse 19 Elijah lays down the challenge to Ahab. Call the prophets of Baal and let us meet here on Mount Carmel and settle this matter as to who is Lord God in Israel. You know we could miss it but there is startling occurrence here. Ahab obeys. The command of Elijah. I wonder if Ahab was a few miles down the road when he thought hold on, I am king and he ordered me to go and bring the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. Well, the moment has arrived and the scene is set for a showdown.
Verses 20-40 put before us the encounter of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. We are told all the people have assembled and look at verse 21. Elijah lays the reality of the situation before them all. He basically says “It is make your mind up time folks!”
He lays down the challenge to the prophets of Baal. They cannot lose face before all the people. The test is simple. Build and altar and offer a sacrifice. Whichever god answers with fire is the true God of Israel. Twice Elijah tells them they are not allowed to set fire themselves. Basically, you are not allowed to cheat as you have been doing all these years in deceiving the people. It is quite ironic that in a land of drought fire is called for and not rain as the test for the true God to be revealed.
Elijah is outnumbered and popular opinion for all these years has been with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah allows the prophets of Baal to go first. If fire comes and consumes their sacrifice then the contest is over. They win. Elijah is humiliated and no doubt killed. Baal is declared the true god of Israel.
We read that the prophets of Baal put their sacrificial bull on the altar of Baal and start. For six hours they sing, dance, chant and cut themselves. All to no avail. Elijah at one point taunts them that maybe Baal is asleep, gone on a journey or even that he is in the bathroom and cannot hear them. So they work themselves up in to a frenzy but nothing happens.
The hour is 3pm. The time designated by God in His Law for the evening sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is no accident that this is the moment Elijah steps forward. Note some of the details that he follows here.
Following the instruction in the Law that no hewn stone was to be used for the altar Elijah picks up 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Even though he is living in a kingdom of 10 tribes he recognises Israel from God’s perspective - one people united in the Covenant with God.
We read that he dressed the sacrifice and placed the wood - all in accordance with the instructions that God had given in His word concerning sacrifices to Him. He has a trench dug around the altar and then he makes this strange request. Three times he instructs those gathered to take four jars of water and to soak the sacrifice. We read that it fills the trench with water. Two things strike me here. In a land of drought such a quest is amazing but God has told Elijah the rain is coming. Secondly, there will be no doubt that supernatural divine fire has consumed this sacrifice because it is soaking wet.
Step forward Elijah. He speaks 63 words in prayer. No histrionics. No dancing and no self-mutilation. Look at his prayer in verses 36-37. By his building the altar with 12 stones, dressing the bull for sacrifice and arranging the wood he was reminding the people of Israel of what they had abandoned. Now in his prayer he reminds them again that they are the people of God called by God in an everlasting Covenant to worship Him alone.
He begins by addressing God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is no impersonal deity of stone. This is a God of relationship and covenant promise. Elijah is concerned that the people will know that God is the God in Israel and that he is God’s servant. Here is a calm and dignified prayer. No haste. No histrionics. No confusion. A simple plea for God to hear and to answer. He has come near to God and he is confident that God will answer and answer God did.
Verse 38 then fire fell from heaven and consumed not only the sacrifice but the altar and the water in the trench. This was no ordinary fire but the fire of the Lord God. The power of God was manifest for all to see that day. There was no doubt it was from heaven and there was no doubt that God had answered Elijah.
Verse 39 shows the people’s response. They proclaim “the Lord is God, the Lord is God.” The sad thing is they did not change their ways. They had seen the wonder of God’s fire falling from heaven and consuming the sacrifice but it did not change their hearts. We will come back to that in a moment.
Then verse 40 I think many of us find uncomfortable. Why did the prophets of Baal have to be slaughtered? Let me suggest to you that the greatest enemy in Israel were these false prophets. They had led the people astray. They had led the people in to sin, in to idolatry and in to immorality. They had led the people of God away from God to the worship of an idol. To let them escape was to leave the reason for the judgement of God in place. To let them live was to deny the holiness of God and God’s judgment on sin. To allow them to live allows for further apostasy in Israel. To allow them to live is to misunderstand the holiness of God and the divine command that God will have no rival for the worship of His people. To allow them to live is deny that God will be avenged and God’s judgment does come to those who rebel against Him.
Well, another wonderful story but what relevance does it have for you and I this morning? Let me, in closing, draw some things to your attention.
It is make your mind up time folks! Verse 21 is quite a powerful challenge to us all this morning. Are we people who have been vacillating between two destinations or questions? Are we trying to please God and live a worldly life? Are we, as James says, double-minded and unstable in all our ways? As the old saying goes do we try to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds?
It is so easy to become comfortable in our sins and to allow other gods to have our attention, our time, our heart, our gifts and our finances. It is so easy to get caught up in the ways of this world and slowly God gets relegated in our heart and in our minds and over time He gets forgotten completely. Be warned if that is your situation this morning then the judgement of God is coming and I genuinely pray that it comes in this life to wake you up to erring ways and not the Day of Judgment when it will be too late. It is make your mind up time folks? Who are you going to serve?
Secondly, it is possible to see the wonders of God and remain fast and dead in your sins. It is possible that you have witnessed and experienced the power of God and even have proclaimed that God is Lord and God and remain fast and dead in your sins because your heart has never been changed. You were in awe at the service, at the work of God and at the word of God. You experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and you may even have been convicted of your sin but you left unchanged and unconverted. Be warned today is the day of salvation and not tomorrow.
Lastly, when God exposes the idols in our lives to be lifeless, powerless and full of deception then we need to slaughter them. Far too often we tolerate them. We say we have removed them but they still live in our lives and in our hearts. They need taken down in to the Kishon and slaughtered, just as Elijah did to the prophets of Baal. For some that may mean quite literally removing some things from your home, from you life, from you sphere of influence. It may mean giving up a relationship, a friendship or ceasing to go to certain places and be involved in certain things. You know the idols of Baal and Asherah in you life that God has exposed this morning and is telling you its make your mind up time folks!
I will not labour the point because it is not my rhetoric that brings you to this moment but the Spirit of the living God. Listen to His voice and make your mind up.
Amen.
