Transcript

A minister received a letter from the governor welcoming him to open a city council meeting in a word of prayer. This letter also requested that the minister pray generically so as not to offend people of other religious persuasions.

The minister accepted the call. The day of the event, he took his place at the podium and began to pray, “Father, I want to thank You for this opportunity to pray before the city council. I would like to thank You first of all for creating them, because if they were not here, then they could not take on this responsibility.

“According to Your Word, everything created was created by Christ Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for creating government. Government is an institution of God according to the Apostle Paul, who met Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road.

“And Lord, if there are any city council people here today who do not understand that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death for them, and bodily arose from the dead, would You please make this clear to them!

“I ask that You bless their proceedings today in the name of Jesus. Amen.” The governor approached the minister after his prayer and expressed his disappointment in how the minister had imposed his religion on other people.

The minister gently replied, “I don’t do neutral prayers. I don’t do Muslim prayers. I don’t do Buddhist prayers. I do Christian prayers because I am a Christian, and that means to follow Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word.”

Like this minister, the prophet Elijah took a stand for the living God, declared His truth, and challenged the neutrality and compromise around him in Israel in his day.

The prophet Elijah’s ministry began with him suddenly and boldly confronting Israel’s ungodly king Ahab, and he gave him a weather report.

Elijah declared that because of Ahab’s apostasy and idolatry, that God would not allow it to rain for years, and that this severe drought would not end until Elijah said so.

Elijah’s message of judgment in preventing rain from coming on the land, demonstrated that God was challenging the power of the false god Baal who was being worshipped by Ahab and most all of Israel.

Baal was the god of the rains and fertility, who supposedly controlled the crops and productivity of the land, and by this drought God demonstrated that He alone is the one, true, living God who had power over the rain and dew.

And under the Law, Israel had been warned that the Lord would withhold rain from the land if they turned from Him to serve other gods. They had reaped what they sowed.

Deut. 11:16-17 reads, “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain.”

Having made his dramatic and devastating announcement to Ahab, Elijah was then hunted by Ahab. 1 Kings 18:10 speaks of the extent that Ahab searched for him. It says, “there is no nation or kingdom, whither [Ahab] hath not sent to seek [Elijah].”

But after 3 ½ years of this drought, Elijah courageously appears before Ahab.

1 Kings 18:17-19: “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.

“Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.”

When Ahab finally meets with Elijah, he calls him the one “that troubleth Israel.” But Elijah doesn’t back down and he thunders back that it was he, Ahab, and not him that brought this trouble on Israel through forsaking God’s Law and worshiping Baal (v. 18).

Not much has changed, as believers today are often blamed for problems in the world, when the real problem is sin.

Ahab and Israel needed to know and see that the God of heaven and earth reigns supreme and so Elijah asked for a public meeting with the people of Israel.

Elijah also requested that Ahab send to this meeting 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of “the groves,” or literally of Asherah, a false, female goddess and consort of Baal. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, personally cared for and supported these 850 prophets.

Elijah asks for the location of this meeting to be Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel was located near the border of northern Israel and Phoenecia. It was a good place for the Phoenecian false god Baal to meet Jehovah, the God of Israel, the only true God.

Mount Carmel was regarded by the Phoenecians as “the sacred dwelling place of Baal.” Thus, Elijah even gives Baal “home-field advantage”! So the showdown was set between the worship of the living God and a dead, false god, Baal.

1 Kings 18:20-21: “So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

Ahab agrees to Elijah’s request for a meeting. He then sends out a decree throughout the Northern Kingdom of Israel asking for people’s presence at Mount Carmel.

We can be certain that thousands from all of its ten tribes attended and gathered at Mount Carmel, along with the prophets of Baal.

Elijah then cries out to this large crowd: “How long halt ye between two opinions?”

In other words, “How long will you waver and vacillate and remain lukewarm and worship two Gods?” He tells them that they cannot continue with this divided allegiance. Some were undecided about which one to serve. Some were trying to serve both Jehovah and Baal, seeking to combine the worship of the Lord with the worship of Baal.

But Elijah says “You can’t have it both ways. It’s time to decide if the Lord is God then follow Him and serve Him wholeheartedly. If Baal is God, follow Him.”

Baalism would accommodate other gods, but not Jehovah, as He demanded the loyalty, worship and service rightfully due to Him alone, the one true and living God. Rightly so, God is a jealous God, because there are no other gods but Him alone.

Like Moses and Joshua before him, Elijah calls for Israel to make a decision and to take a stand for the Lord. In Exodus 32:26, “Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side?”

Joshua challenged the Israelites: “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served…Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether…the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (24:15).

God calls each of us to make a settled decision to follow Him and to take a stand for Him, and to serve and worship Him faithfully.

In response to Elijah’s challenge, the people do not answer and remain uncommitted, lacking conviction, “lingering in the neutral zone,” as it’s been said.

They were very much like the lukewarm Laodicean church in the future Day of the Lord. The Lord didn’t have good things to say about this group of people.

Revelation 3:15-16 reads, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.”

We learn by all this that God doesn’t want us to have a divided allegiance, or to remain in a lukewarm state of noncommitment. God wants us to fully commit ourselves to Him and to serve Him with our whole heart.

I Kings 18:22-25: “Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.

“Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:

“And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

“And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.”

Elijah stood there outnumbered, 450 to 1, but with God on his side, he was a majority.

At his trial before Nero, Paul wrote in 2 Tim. 4:16-17: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me…Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.”

Like the Lord stood with Paul, the Lord stood with Elijah, and strengthened him. And the Lord stands with us when we take a stand for Him and He gives us the strength.

One author wrote, “The world is crying out ‘where is the Lord God of Elijah’, and the answer is that He is where He has always been, the real question is where are the Elijahs?”

Here we see one voice, one man speaking out and standing alone for God. It would’ve been much easier for him to keep quiet. Are we willing to do this? To be that one voice for the Lord in standing strong for Him and for His truth?

Elijah lays out a plan here that was going to provide undeniable proof that the Lord is the true God.

He weighs the test in favor of the prophets of Baal. He lets them build their altar first, select their sacrifice first, and offer it first. Elijah calls for two bulls to be killed and cut up and placed on wood for a sacrifice, without lighting the fire.

Then they would be given all the time they needed to call on Baal, and he would do the same. Elijah states that the deity that responded in sending fire upon the slaughtered bull would unequivocally be proven to be the true God.

Now the people finally speak up and say, “It is well spoken,” or “Sounds good to me,” or “That’s a good idea.”

Fire from heaven was thought plausible by those who believed in this false deity, along with the fact that 450 of his zealous prophets would be praying to him for it, compared to only one praying to Jehovah.

1 Kings 18:26-29: “And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.

“And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

“And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.”

After preparing the bull they chose and the wood for the sacrifice, the prophets of Baal begin calling out to their god, and kept calling, and kept calling…

They call out to Baal all morning until noon, with no response. “O Baal, hear us!” Nothing happened. “O Baal, answer us!” No fire. No response. The silence in the sky above was deafening.

In desperation, they turn fanatical and begin “leaping upon the altar,” or literally leaping around the altar. They start jumping up and down, frantically dancing around, crying out, begging, trying to do anything to attract Baal’s attention.

And that’s a blessing about our relationship with God, that we don’t have to do anything like this to get or have God’s attention. We have it always.

He cares deeply about each of us, and is interested in every area of our lives. We know when we turn to Him in prayer that He is always there, always listening and is waiting for our prayer.

Finally at noon, Elijah can contain himself no longer. I picture Elijah leaning against a tree, arms crossed watching them jump around and cry out. It’s a humorous scene, but also a sad scene, because they were spiritually blind and deceived.

But all this becomes too much for Elijah and he begins mocking them.

In v. 27, he says “Cry aloud,” or speak up, maybe you’re not calling out loud enough, or perhaps he can’t hear you because he is “talking” or literally meditating. Maybe he’s musing or deep in thought, “so yell guys, to get his attention!”

“Maybe he is pursuing,” or he is busy and preoccupied with other matters. In other words, maybe he’s so weak, he can’t do two things at once.

Sarcastically Elijah then says, “Maybe he can’t hear you because he is traveling and gone on a vacation and he’s not even home.

“Perhaps he’s sleeping and taking a nap and an afternoon siesta, and you have to wake him up, so you better yell louder.”

Then you think about the living God, who is everywhere at once, always present, always caring, who never is busy or preoccupied, who never grows weary. Psalm 121:4 says, “Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”

Hoping to stir Baal to action and get his pity, the prophets begin cutting and mutilating themselves with knives and lances.

These 450 prophets continued to call out and rave on to Baal until just before the time of the evening sacrifice at 3:00 pm.

But there was “no” voice, “no” one answered, “no” one paid attention, and the heavens were brass, and these exhausted, bloody, humiliated men collapsed.

1 Kings 18:30-35: “And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.

“And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:

“And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.

“And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.

“And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.”

Finally, Elijah stepped forward and calmly took charge. He called the people of Israel together and to draw near to himself. And they drew near.

He then rebuilt an altar of the Lord which was at the site but in disrepair, either because of lack of use, or having been destroyed by Baal’s prophets.

Elijah then put 12 stones around the altar, representing the 12 tribes, united as one nation as God intended. This was to remind them they were all still God’s people.

Even after the division into two kingdoms, between the 10 tribes in the north of Israel, and the two tribes in the south of Judah, they were still one people in God’s purposes, with the same Lord and one destiny and one name.

Elijah then digs a deep trench around the altar. He carefully arranges the wood in order, cuts up the bull, and laid it on the wood.

Elijah had given the Baal prophets many advantages, and now in addition he gives himself some disadvantages. He directs that 4 barrels should be filled with water, and then poured all over the sacrifice and wood. After this was done the first time, Elijah says “Do it again.” After it was done a second time, Elijah says, “Do it again.”

The soaked and drenched the sacrifice, the wood, the ground around it, and the deep trench was also filled with water.

1 Kings 18:36-39: “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word.

“Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the LORD God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again.

“Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

“And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God.”

Now at the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah prays to God, with no theatrics. No shouting, no pleading, no jumping and dancing around the altar, no repetition of the same words over and over again.

He prays a plainly spoken request. He prays to the covenant-keeping God, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, requesting that He be glorified as the true and living God, “that Thou art God in Israel.”

He prayed that he, Elijah. be known as the servant of the living God, and that all he had done had been in obedience to His word and not by his own initiative.

And he asked that the Lord show the people that He alone, is God, so that this might turn the hearts of the people back to Himself.

Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.”

And in response to Elijah’s prayer, immediately a consuming, glorious fire flashed and fell from heaven and devoured the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust and soil around it, and the water in the trench, and in a moment it was consumed.

The fire was consuming and the fire was convincing, and the immediate response of the people was that they hit their knees and fell on their faces and their hearts were turned back to Jehovah, and they acknowledge that “The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God.”

And now there remained only one altar with wood and a cut up bull on it as a monument to the fallacy of idolatry and serving and worshiping anyone but God. On the other side there was nothing left, which showed “The Lord, He is the God!”

A.W. Tozer once said, “Whoever is on God’s side is on the winning side and cannot lose; whoever is on the other side is on the losing side and cannot win.” We see this so clearly in this showdown with Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

Hebrews 11 speaks of the heroes of the faith, of those who “wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, mountains, and caves of the earth.”

This description includes Elijah. He took a stand for God. God honored that stand. The world was not worthy of Elijah.

We can be like him as God transforms our lives by His grace. We too can trust the Lord implicitly and live for Him passionately and take a stand for Him.