SERIES: Enlightening Epitaphs of the Kings and Prophets
Elijah: “Do It Again.”
Introduction: This morning we come to one of the great battle stories of the Bible–not great in the number of troops involved or in the number of casualties experienced but in the decisiveness of the victory. This battle was between two men. One was a wealthy and powerful monarch with scores of troops and bodyguards, plus chariots and countless weapons, yet he stood morally bankrupt and helpless in the presence of the other. The second man was without wealth, without family, without station in life, without weapons or protection, but he was God’s prophet. But in another sense, this battle between Ahab King of Israel, and Elijah God’s prophet, was really between two religious systems–human idolatry and the revealed Word of God. Ultimately, of course, it was a battle between Satan and God Himself.
Three and a half years earlier Elijah had delivered to wicked king Ahab notice that God was going to shut up the heavens so that it would not rain, as a punishment upon Israel for her near total apostasy. And for those years it did not rain once upon the land, and a severe famine resulted. Ahab put out an APB on Elijah, searching for him everywhere in Israel. Not only that; he also sent his security forces into surrounding countries looking for him. In fact, 1 Kings 18:10 informs us that whenever a nation or kingdom claimed Elijah was not there, Ahab made them swear they could not find him, on penalty of being added to the king’s list of nations that sponsored terrorism.
Meanwhile God hid His prophet, first by the brook Kerith and then at the foreign town of Zarephath in the home of a destitute widow. In both situations God made miraculous provision for him. Finally, after three years the Word of the Lord came to Elijah once more, commanding him to go and show himself to Ahab to announce the end of the drought. On his way to Ahab, Elijah had a “chance” meeting with Obadiah. Obadiah was in charge of Ahab’s palace, but at the same time he was a devout believer in the Lord–sort of an undercover agent for Yahweh. I wish we had time this morning to examine the story of Obadiah–it would make a great sermon in itself. It will have to suffice, however, to observe that Elijah asked him to go summon his master Ahab and tell him that “Elijah is here.” Despite Obadiah’s mortal fear that he will lose his life for doing so, he agrees.
We pick up the story in verse 16-18:
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.
I would love to have been present as these two men, Ahab and Elijah, stood face to face. One would think that Ahab, knowing Elijah had stopped the rain for 3 ½ years by his fervent prayer life, would have approached the prophet in a conciliatory manner. But no, his first words were spat out with venomous hatred, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” Isn’t it amazing how guilty people have the tendency to shift the blame for their own irresponsible actions to someone else? That started in the Garden of Eden (“Lord, it was the woman You gave me …” said Adam, and Eve responded, “the Devil made me do it.”) People have been following in their train ever since, and the more guilty we are, the more we seem to look for ways to rationalize our behavior and blame others.
But Elijah does not cower in the king’s presence. He does not flatter him. Nor does he conceal the cause of God’s judgment. Instead he exposes Ahab with a righteous tongue-lashing: “I have not made trouble for Israel. But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.” (1 Kings 18:18)
I don’t know whether it’s because of Ahab’s unrepentant attitude or what, but you will notice that Elijah withholds the news of the end of the drought, which God has already told him is imminent. This delay in the announcement may have been necessary inasmuch as the followers of Baal have surely been praying to their gods to send rain and undoubtedly would have given Baal credit when the rains came. So it is necessary that a spiritual battle first be waged to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the God of Israel, Yahweh, is the one who controls the heavens and is the only true God. So, Elijah declares war. Let’s read the challenge from 1 Kings 18:19-24:
Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.
Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”
Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
The challenge of Elijah (19-24)
The challenge Elijah lays down is threefold: to Ahab, to the people, and to the false prophets.
To Ahab: Gather the people and your prophets! Elijah orders Ahab to call the people from all over Israel to Mt. Carmel. And he is not to fail to bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the Asherah whom Jezebel had appointed as her own personal clergy. The incongruity of Elijah ordering Ahab around can be explained only by the fact that Elijah exuded the power and authority of God. The subject prescribes and the King complies.
Baal was the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon. He was thought to be the god of fire, as well as the god of rain and fertility. Baalism included such degrading and reprobate practices as child sacrifice and ritual prostitution. Asherah, on the other hand, was the goddess of the sea and the mother of several gods, including Baal. She was also his consort in an incestuous relationship.1
Mt. Carmel was one peak of the Carmel Range which begins at the very shore of the Mediterranean Sea and continues southeast for about 13 miles. The peaks vary from 470′ to 1740′, which is taller than it seems since the mountains rise directly from sea level. I recall standing on the very spot where this battle took place as Charles Brazeal read this chapter to a group of 40 or so from our church. That was one of the most moving experiences of our entire pilgrimage.
To the people: make a choice! (21) It must have taken several days for the people to convene at Carmel, and nowhere are we told how many gather, but surely the number was in the tens of thousands. If Elijah has sympathizers in the crowd, they are silent. Even Obadiah keeps discreetly in the background. It is Elijah standing alone against the tide. But we should not pity the prophet–he needs no sympathy. He is consciously standing in the presence of the One before whom all the nations of the earth are but grasshoppers. He is fully aware that in the spiritual realm, the question is never how many; it is always what kind? The issue is not the size of our group but rather the size of our God. The question is not, What can we do?, but rather, What can God do? It is not 850 against one. It is 850 against one, plus God!
Elijah examines the sea of faces before him and then he speaks, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, follow him!” Elijah does not personally doubt for a moment that the LORD is God, but he wants the people to see the absurdity of their fence-sitting. Religions so diametrically opposed cannot both be right; nor can they be mixed. Neutrality is impossible; syncretism is ridiculous; tolerance is intolerable. The people have to make a decision.2
We are reminded here of Joshua, who in his farewell address to the nation 500 years earlier, called the people of God to make a choice. “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) At that time the people all agreed; this time they are silent.
And do you not think that both Elijah and Joshua would say the same thing to us today? We may not worship idols made of wood or stone, but anything is an idol if it takes the place of God in our lives, if it substitutes for God as the source of joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction. How do we identify these idols? They are the things we think about constantly; things we fret over; things we cannot live without; things that take an inordinate amount of our time, energy, and money. It isn’t a sin to possess them; it is a sin when they possess us.3 I will not elaborate further this morning, for the message next week will be based upon 1 Kings 18:21 as Jeff speaks on the subject, “Idolatry, American Style.” I think this is something every one of us needs to hear.
There is a third challenge in our story:
To the false prophets: test your gods! In verse 22 Elijah is still speaking to the people but his words are directed specifically to the false prophets. He proposes a battle of the gods, fifteen rounds, winner take all. On one side stand 450 prophets of Baal. Clad in their colorful robes, with charms and amulets around their necks, they present a formidable sight. On the other side stands one gaunt figure, a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his waist, but with eyes like steel. He demands that two oxen be brought. The false prophets will choose one, cut it up, and place it on an altar piled with wood. He, Elijah, will do the same with the other, and then both will call on the name of their god. The one who answers with fire–Baal or Yahweh–will be acknowledged as the true God. And the people answered, “Do it.”
War has been declared. The gauntlet has been thrown down. And the challenge has been accepted. So, we move secondly to the course of the battle.
The course of the battle
There are two sides to this battle and two major truths surface from it. We can see the utter nothingness of an idol and the infinite greatness of God. Once again let’s read, this time from verse 25-39:
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” So they took the bull given them and prepared it.
Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD– he is God!”
The utter nothingness of an idol. When Elijah lays down the ground rules to the false prophets, one might expect at least some of them to back out. After all, don’t these false prophets know that their religion is empty and vain? The answer is, probably not; most of them are sincerely deluded. But those who are aware that they are perpetrating a fraud continue to do so because of the perks that go with their position–power, influence, and wealth.4
Think for a moment about what might attract these prophets to Baal worship, as opposed to the worship of Yahweh. Well, certainly the fact that the power structure in the nation was behind Baal worship would be an advantage. Who wants to be persecuted if they can avoid it? Then there was the stark difference in moral codes. Who wants to have to abide by the stringent requirements of the Mosaic Law if he can be religious and still do whatever he wants? Whatever the particular motives of these prophets of Baal, they welcome this opportunity to test their god against Elijah’s. Besides, from their standpoint they have home field advantage.
1. Clear cut advantages. First, they get to choose the ox they want, so they choose the best one, thinking Baal will be pleased. Second, they get to use dry kindling with their sacrifice. Third, they certainly have numbers on their side–both in respect to priests and audience. But most importantly, their god Baal is the lord of fire, and all they are being asked to do is appeal to their god to light a fire. If there’s anything a god of fire ought to be able to do, this is it.
And so, the false prophets enthusiastically jump into the task, but very shortly their enthusiasm declines into …
2. Pathetic desperation. For the first six hours they call upon the name of their god, “O Baal, answer us!” Then they begin ceremonial dances upon the altar. Later they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushes out. And right up until the time of the evening sacrifice, they rant and rave. Friends, if it ever crossed your mind that sincerity alone could save a person, or give him favor with God, this passage should dispel such a notion permanently. I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon from at least 35 years ago. Linus is in centerfield and the scoreboard reads 165 to 0. Linus is quoted as saying, “How can we lose when we’re so sincere!” Sincerity does not save. God saves.
Elijah can stand it only so long. Finally, he speaks and delivers words of withering sarcasm.
3. Withering sarcasm. It says in verse 27, “At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Shout louder!’ he said. ‘Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” Perhaps your god’s hearing aid has a bad battery. Maybe he’s occupied with another issue somewhere else; after all you can’t expect a god to do two things at once, can you? Maybe he took the weekend off and went on a trip. Or perhaps he took an overdose of Ambien and needs to be awakened! Maybe he’s even sitting on the toilet. Admittedly, that’s a bit uncouth, but that’s exactly what the Hebrew implies when it says, “Perhaps he is busy.”
Sarcasm is not listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit, and normally speaking it is not particularly conducive to good human relationships. But there are times when our righteous indignation should be so stirred up by the utter folly of sin that withering sarcasm is the only fitting response. The Psalmist used it on occasion, as did Apostle Paul, and even Jesus.
Well, the taunts and mocking of Elijah only drive the prophets to greater frenzy, but all they hear from heaven is a deafening silence.
4. Deafening silence. Verse 29 is powerful in its terseness: “There was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.” Oh, the folly of worshiping anyone or anything other than the Lord God. It’s sinful, it’s reprobate, but more than that, it’s stupid. The apostle Paul states in 1 Cor. 8: “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.” He doesn’t mean that there are no idols but that there is no reality to an idol, unless it be a demon. When a person worships an idol, he is just worshiping a piece of wood or a stone. Or a car or a house or a bank account or a sports team. Listen also to Psalm 115:3-8:
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes but they cannot see;
they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;
they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
But if the idol is utter nothingness, the true God is infinitely great. And this is what Elijah proceeds to demonstrate to the people.
The infinite greatness of God. The first thing Elijah does is to repair the altar of the Lord.
1. Repair of God’s altar. (30-32). Years earlier Jezebel had torn down the altar of the Lord. Now Elijah begins to rebuild it. He no doubt does a crude job because he has to do it by himself, but beauty is no prerequisite for the presence and power of God. He does make sure there is a stone representing each of the Twelve tribes of Israel, even though the nation has been split by civil war approximately 65 years earlier. The Lord God is the God of all Israel; they may be divided politically, but they are not to be divided spiritually.
In addition to the altar itself Elijah constructs a trench around it, approximately three feet wide. He then arranges the wood, cuts up the ox and lays it upon the wood. Elijah knows that unless he is very careful, the false prophets will claim that the fire of the Lord is nothing but a piece of chicanery on this part. So, he proceeds to eliminate all possible trickery.
2. Elimination of all possible trickery. (32-35) First of all, he says to all the people, “Come here to me.” He wants them to come up close so they can see exactly what he’s doing. That’s something you won’t hear a TV illusionist say, for the closer the audience gets, the better chance there is that deception will be discovered. Elijah has no such fear. Then to seal the deal he orders that four jars of water be filled and poured on the altar. These are not half-gallon jars but rather more like 50-gallon barrels. Then he says, “Do it again.” They do it again. “Do it a third time,” and they do it a third time.5
And by the time Elijah is finished, the altar is one soggy mess–even the trench is brim full of water. It is as if Elijah’s faith is so great that he is even willing to put obstacles in the way of God. More often than not we exert great effort to help God out and make things easy for Him. What we need to realize is that God’s power is infinite, and the word “obstacle” is really meaningless to Him.
3. Answered prayer. (36-38) Elijah prays, first by acknowledging the LORD as God. Then he acknowledges himself as God’s servant. He has no miracle-working power in himself; whatever happens is by God’s command. And finally, he makes his motive clear–it is not judgment nor revenge nor anger but rather that the people will turn their hearts back to the LORD.
Will you notice please that the power of prayer is not contingent upon its length, though there are sufficient examples of lengthy prayers in the Bible. This one is 20 seconds; 37 words in Hebrew. Nor is it contingent upon repetition. Rather, the power of prayer is contingent primarily upon its earnestness and its object. Elijah pours his entire heart, soul, and mind into this prayer. He isn’t praying to impress, he isn’t reciting a memorized prayer, he isn’t trying to fulfill his religious obligations. Rather He is communicating with almighty God on the basis of grace and mercy, not merit. The Lord God is the object of his prayer. Six times in this brief prayer Elijah addresses Him by name as he bares his soul before the heavenly throne.
And God answers His prophet, just as He earlier responded to his fervent prayer that it would not rain for 3 ½ years and that the widow’s son would come back to life. Verse 38 reads, “Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.” We all know that wet wood does not burn well, but given a hot enough fire even wet wood will burn. But stones, even dry ones, have never served well as kindling. And dirt is actually one of the best fire extinguishers we know; when you leave a campfire you are supposed to cover it with dirt. Yet this fire consumes not only the offering and the wood but also the stones and the dirt, and then licks up the water that is standing in the trench. Apparently all that is left of the altar is an empty hole.6
The battle of Mt. Carmel is over. The God of Israel has annihilated the gods of wood and stone. But now we find what is for us always an uneasy balance.
God’s grace and God’s wrath (39, 40)
Grace to the repentant. Previously, when Elijah challenged the Israelites to follow God if He is Lord, the people said nothing. Now they finally accept Elijah’s challenge, and they choose the LORD over Baal. They cry, “The LORD–he is God! The LORD–he is God!” And God graciously accepts that, though I don’t fully understand why. These people aren’t innocent. They have been partisans to an evil, apostate religion despite all that the Lord God of Israel had done for them. By rights the fire should have consumed them, too! But God causes it to consume the sacrifice instead, in fact, in their stead. God is willing to accept their surrender and to pardon them. I love the observation that “It doesn’t matter how many steps you take away from God, it is only one step back.”7
Perhaps there is someone here this morning who has denied the Lordship of Christ. Or perhaps you have vacillated in your attitude toward Him. Maybe you have chosen what you like to call “neutrality” toward Christ, but which is, in reality, a denial of Him. I want to tell you that if you will surrender your heart to Christ, God is willing to pardon you, to wipe your slate clean, and to grant you eternal life–no matter how sinful you have been or how long you have lived in your sin. Again, “It doesn’t matter how many steps you take away from God, it is only one step back.”
But if you are not willing to bow the knee, the same destiny awaits you as awaited the false prophets of Baal, and that is to experience the wrath of God.
Death to the wicked. Look at verse 40: “Then Elijah commanded them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!’ They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Valley and slaughtered there.” There are those who recoil in horror at such retribution and claim that this account attributes unworthy motives to God. But that is because they do not know God. He is not only a God of love–He is also a God of wrath. He hates sin with such a holy hatred that He has promised to judge it thoroughly. You see, there was a malignancy in the nation of Israel, and the only way to save the nation was to cut out the cancer.8
There will come a day when God performs spiritual surgery of a much more radical kind at the Great White Throne judgment, when all those whose names are not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (those who have not surrendered their hearts and minds to Christ) will be cast into the Lake of Fire. From that judgment there will be no appeal. And nothing will be able to resist that fire.
Power to the righteous. There’s just one more scene in our story, and that finds Elijah praying once more–this time for rain. The rain represents what happens when our relationship with the LORD is restored–we experience renewal and refreshment. It is God and God alone who can give us fruitful lives. Why waste our time with idols which cannot satisfy?
Conclusion: Friends, it’s time for us to put up or shut up. It’s time for us to decide whether we are going to follow the Lord or the gods of our own making. It’s time for us to decide whether we’re willing to swim upstream against the tides of popular opinion, or whether we’re going to sit on the fence. I close with an observation from Chad Walsh in his book, “Early Christians of the 21stCentury”:
Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quivers, divorced from the will, divorced from the intellect and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes. I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism or atheism. After all, if a man travels far enough away from Christianity, he is liable to see it in perspective and decide that it is true. It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.
Too many of us have been vaccinated with a mild case of Christianity. Will you ask God instead to inoculate you with the real thing? Will you choose Him this week over all other gods?
DATE: May 19, 2002
Tags:
Idols are nothing
Sarcasm
Prayer
Grace
Wrath
1. Inasmuch as the prophets of Asherah are not mentioned again, some have suggested that perhaps Jezebel overruled the plan and kept those prophets with her. After all, she personally provided their needs, according to verse 19. We cannot be sure where they fit into the rest of the story.
2. Elijah would have no sympathy with the politician of whom Howie Hendricks once spoke. When asked, “Are you for or against this issue?” He replied, “Well, some of my friends are for it. Some of my friends are against it. And I’m for my friends.” Elijah stuns the people into silence with his demand, “Make your choice!”
3. John Hanneman, The Mountain of Victory, Sermon Catalog #759, preached July 30, 1989.
4. There is a fascinating story in the OT Apocrypha, which while not inspired or authoritative, nevertheless has a good deal of insight into human nature. It comes from the book called “Bel and the Dragon,” and is the account of an incident that allegedly took place while Daniel was serving Cyrus, the Persian king.
The king worshiped an idol called Bel, and every day he allegedly ate 12 bushels of fine flour and 40 sheep, plus fifty gallons of wine. Daniel, however, refused to worship Bel because it was a man-made idol. The king challenged Daniel on the basis of all the food and wine Bel consumed every day, but Daniel maintained that the idol never ate or drank anything. So Cyrus challenged Daniel: if he could prove that Bel was eating the provisions, Daniel would die.
The king set food and wine out for Bel, locked the temple door and sealed it with his signet. However, before they left, Daniel ordered his servants to spread ashes on the floor. The next morning the king came, discovered the provisions gone, and proclaimed, “You are great, O Bel; and with you there is no deceit, none at all.” But Daniel laughed and told the king to look at the floor, where there were scores of footprints of men, women, and children. The priests and their families had entered the temple through a trap floor and had consumed all the food and wine, as they did every night. The king put them to death and allowed Daniel to destroy the temple.
All the worshipers, including the king, were deceived. Probably some of the priest were even deceived; but some of them were well aware of the fraud.
5. As a kind of side comment, it might be worth noting that some skeptics have accused the Bible of inconsistency here, for where would they get 300 gallons of water in the middle of a drought? But the real problem is that these skeptics have forgotten their geography. Mt. Carmel is within sight of the Mediterranean Sea. As Hendricks has put it, “Salt water is bad news for cattle and for men, but it is exquisitely designed for dousing wood.”
6. Could it be that in destroying even the twelve stones, God is sending a message that He is capable of wiping out the entire nation they represent? I believe He is warning His people of what would eventually happen if they continue to reject His grace and mercy.
8. How are we supposed to deal with false prophets in the church today? The Scriptures urge us to be on guard against them, to expose them, and to refute them. But it is not our responsibility to try to remove the tares from the wheat, to use Jesus’ analogy in Matthew 13:40. On the other hand, we are to deal with the false gods and prophets in our own hearts as decisively as Elijah dealt with the prophets of Baal. See Ron Ritchie, Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve, sermon catalog #4369, preached August 1, 1993.