1 Kings 18:16-24, 30-40 – The God Who Answers by Fire
I’m told of an occasion when Satan got into an argument with Jesus about who had the greater power. Satan said, “I can do anything you can do only better.” Jesus replied, “OK, prove it. Go ahead and try creating a man.” Satan said, “No problem,” as he reached down and picked up a handful of dirt and began to mold and shape it. With that, Jesus slapped his hand and said, “Get your own dirt!”
We continue to journey through the story of Elijah on Mt.Carmel in I Kings 18 – the battle of the gods. Whose god was powerful enough to ask the prayers of his followers? Whose god would set the sacrifice on fire? We see in this story that our God, the mighty God, the only true God, is indeed the God of fire. But what does that mean? What happened then? And what does it mean for us today, that our God is a God of fire? 1 Kings 18:16-40.
What do I mean when I say that God is a God of fire? We first see this thought in Exodus 3, when Moses heard a voice speak to him from the bush that was burning but was not consumed in the flames. In Exodus 13, God points the way for the Israelites in the desert as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And in Exodus 19, God appears as a fire on Mt.Sinai, where Moses received the law. In fact, in Exodus 24, God appeared as a consuming fire, a familiar verse quoted again in Hebrews 12:29 – “our God is a consuming fire.”
Well, so what? Why does it matter if God is a fire? What does that mean? It matters because it is a symbol of God’s very nature. Fire is a symbol of who God is – His purity, His perfection, His passion. In fact, that’s probably how you could sum it all up… His passion. His energy. His vigor. His excitement. His drive. A burning, a yearning that defines who God is. A supreme, overwhelming personality that fuels everything He does.
We often picture a laid-back, easy-going, mild-mannered kind of God. We picture Clark Kent, when He is really much more of a Superman. The picture the world has is a wimpy God, a weak God. When in reality, He is a meek God. Meekness is vastly different from weakness. Meekness is power under control. That means that God does not fly off the handle, but He is certainly no-one to be trifled with either.
No, He gives 100% to all He does. Picture this: the prodigal son in Luke 15. The son wanders away, squanders the family inheritance, and then comes back for a second chance. Now, OT law says that the boy should have been killed. He was a disgrace, and should be executed. But the father, looking way off in the distance, sees the lad and runs to meet him.
This implies 3 things: 1) he was waiting expectantly for the son to come home. 2) he was willing to run to him so that he could save his life from the people who would have wanted to kill him. 3) he was willing to risk embarrassment and shame, to go outside of cultural expectations of how a dignified man should act, to show his son he still loved him. This father went beyond all normal and reasonable expectations to show love to his wayward son.
And the father represents God. God loves us with a relentless affection, a love that goes beyond all limits, a love that reaches out to us when we are lost by choice, a love that cost God a great deal. This is the fiery passion of our God. A God who goes looking for us, long before we looked for Him. A God who longs to know us, before we care less about knowing Him. A God whose love for us makes our love for Him look dull and drab. This is our God, a God of passion, a God of fire.
Now, you understand that this makes the God we worship unique. No other religion will claim such a God. They will claim a lazy God, an unaffected God, a wrathful and vengeful God. But they can’t picture a God who would run undignified to the very ones who run away from Him. Contrary to what others may say, no other religion would claim a God who burns with a passion to know us and to be known by us. Pastor and author D. James Kennedy wrote: “Whenever you hear someone say all religions are basically the same, you can safely assume the person you are talking to is ignorant. He or she doesn’t know anything about religions. Anyone who has made a serious study of the world religions would never claim they are all the same.” No, we all alone who believe in the Bible worship a God of fire, a God of a burning passion to reach out in love and holiness.
Because that’s what we see on Mt.Carmel. God desperately wanted people to know Him. He wanted to end idol worship. He wanted to be done away with the false gods, who are really no gods at all. He wanted allegiance from the people, because He alone is worthy of love and loyalty. The second time in the Bible He is called a consuming fire, He is also called a jealous God. That is, He wants our 100%. No wavering. No hopping from one foot to the other. He wants our all. He wants to eliminate the double-mindedness. He wants to get rid of the counterfeit.
Which is an interesting thought. Watch this. The stage is set for a showdown between the fake and the real. There were the counterfeit religious people, praying counterfeit prayers, pouring out their lives in counterfeit sacrifices to a counterfeit god, a god who wasn’t even there.
Then one man stood up for the truth. He offered real prayers to a real God. Then God’s fire fell. God chose that moment to reveal how real He is, how pure and holy He is, how passionate He is. God’s fire separated the real from the fake. God’s presence split the wheat from the chaff, the meat from the bones, the dross from the silver. The fire of God, His passion for us to be right with Him, showed up that day and people came back to him.
For that really is what God wants. He is passionate about knowing us, and us knowing Him. That’s what he wants. He wants our loyalty, which is what He demanded that day on Mt.Carmel. He accepted the challenge because He would go to great lengths to reach out to us. He wants our loyalty.
But He also wants our purity. He wants us to be pure and holy. He wants us to be free of sin. He wants our hearts to be 100% His. Now, though 100% performance isn’t possible here – we will accidentally mess things up sometimes. But the Bible promises we can have a new and clean heart. And that’s where the fire of God comes into play again. I think of Malachi 3:2-4 – “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.”
This pictures God as a refiner, one who would take the silver and plunge it into the fire to melt off anything un-silver-like in it. You see? God works with a passion to purify us, to clean us, to sanctify us, to make us like Himself. Now, His cleansing on us isn’t always pleasant. V2 does ask: “Who can stand it?” God’s refining fires on our lives isn’t always fun or easy. We certainly go through hard times, but God wants to use them to make us like Him. This is His burning passion. Romans 8:29 says: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…” Get it? God wants to transform us into the image of His Son. He wants us to be just like Jesus.
Folks, the fires of God come into your lives, not because He doesn’t love you, but because He does. He loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. As a friend of mine said recently, God is more concerned with your holiness than your happiness.
He wants to cut through your hypocrisy to make you real, to make your testimony believable. He wants you to cut through going thru the motions and commit your heart, all that’s inside of you. He wants you to place Him first, above all else, above your comfort, above the opinions of your peers, above the opinions of your children or parents. He wants you to stop trying so hard to look and sound like a Christian, but actually act like one. He wants your walk to match your talk.
And He’ll do it by presenting you with challenges. He’ll use a verse from James that says, how can you say you love me when you hate so-and-so? He’ll use a verse in Matthew that says where 2 or 3 are gathered in his name He’ll be there, and He’ll ask the question: how can you say you believe in prayer when you don’t ever go to prayer meetings? He’ll use Malachi to say, how can you say you trust me if you don’t even tithe? He’ll check you on your choice words and ask, would Jesus say that? He’ll check you on your selfishness and say, would Jesus do that? He’ll check you on your TV watching and say, if Jesus was here sitting on the couch, would He watch that?
And each time you’ll be faced with: do I do what I want, or do I do what’s right? You’ll be challenged each time to serve yourself or serve Him. His fire, His conviction, His pressure, His heat will step into your life whenever it’s time to step up your obedience and faith levels.
And it’s all because of His love for you. Because He wants you to know Him. Because He wants you to be free from self. Because He wants you to be pure, like He is. That’s why He challenged the people back on Mt.Carmel, and that’s why He challenges you. His heat is not pleasant, but if you stick it through, you’ll be better at the end. Hebrews 12:11 encourages us with these words: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
So friends, stick with it. Endure the heat. Know that it’s for your good. Know that you’ll be closer to God if you let the fire takes its course. Know you’ll be better and more refined than you are now. Don’t say no when God points something out in prayer, Bible reading, and church services. God loves you with a relentless affection, and He will go to any length to have you love Him back with an undivided heart. Will you let His fires burn away your dross today? Will you let Him have His way with you?
