1 Kings 18:17-46
Yahweh Alone is God!
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1 Kings 18:17-46
17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Elijah’s Mount Carmel Victory
20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”
So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
25 Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”
26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
27 And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.
36 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 Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”
40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.
The Drought Ends
41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.”
So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”
44 Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”
45 Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. 46 Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Ki 18:17–46.
Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you’ll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
This afternoon, I’d like you to take your Bibles and turn to First Kings chapter 18. And we're going to read verses 16 through 46, the account of Elijah and his confrontation with the profits of Baal. Probably the most well known of the encounters of the narratives concerning the prophet Elijah. But this is full of all kinds of instruction first, so let's listen to the Word of God, starting in First Kings chapter 18, starting at verse 17, actually, is where we'll start.
“When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.”
“So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
“Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your 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 seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.
“And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering 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 said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
“And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”
Probably it should be for us as well as the Jewish people of the Jewish faith, but the so called Shema, which is the heart of the Jewish faith, the “Hear Oh Israel,” which we read as our called the worship. The Lord is God. The Lord alone. That is the most basic statement in Scripture of monotheism. Our first commandment aligns with that. You shall have no other gods before Me. This is basic monotheism. There is no other God but the Lord. The term Lord with capital letters is, that’s why I titled this: “Yahweh Alone is God,” because we think that it's pronounced Yahweh. The ancient Jewish people stopped pronouncing it, lest they deface the name of the Lord. We've kind of lost the pronunciation. Older translations said Jehovah. We think Yahweh is probably how it is pronounced.
But we take this basic creed for granted. But the people of God have always been challenged to deny that basic truth. That there's one God, the Lord, Yahweh, and He alone is God. And that is a basic confession. I don't know of any passage in Scripture that emphasizes it in such a dramatic way as this text in front of us. There is a number of implications that we want to look at today of this truth that the Lord alone, or Yahweh alone, is God.
Now, seeing the background in this is important, because the chapter before has introduced Elijah and Ahab for a couple of chapters before that, the two conflicting characters in this narrative. Elijah shows up in chapter 17 just out of nowhere it seems like, as God's prophet. Ahab was the king of the Northern Kingdom at the height of its power. And because of being the good politician that he was, he decided the political marriage would be very expedient, so he married Jezebel, who was the daughter of the Phoenician king. Ancient Phoenicia is what is in modern day Lebanon, which was also a pretty important power during this time. Now, interestingly enough, Jezebel probably epitomizes everything about evil that you could find in the Scriptures. As a matter of fact, think about that. You'd never find anybody who names their daughter Jezebel, because as soon as you would name your daughter Jezebel, people would immediately say, “Ah Ha! I know what you're saying about that little girl to name her Jezebel.” Because it becomes a name that sort of epitomizes a scheming, conniving, main evil person. She's, when I say vain, there's that scene when she does die, she wants to put her eye makeup on. Remember that? She says, “Let me paint my eyes before you toss me out the window. I gotta look good even if I'm going down.” You know, really, that's what she says. I gotta look good, even when I'm going down.
She's vain, but she's a worshipper off Baal. Because Baal was worshipped in her home area of Phoenicia. Baal was a fertility god, which meant that they had sacred prostitution, and all sorts of things designed to make the crops grow. She was a devotee of Baal. Now her husband, Ahab, seems to be a classic, what we’d call a syncretist. What’s a syncretist? That’s somebody who thinks he can blend things. The reason we know that is he named all of his kids with the compound of the word “Yahweh” in their name. All those “yah”s at the end of names, like Elijah, those were based on the name for God. You don't do that unless you're thinking I can blend. I can do a little bit of Baal like my wife wants. I can do a little bit of Yahweh like our tradition is. And one of the things that Elijah the prophet clearly challenges the people of God, “Well, how long will you,” what's the term? “Waiver.” Thinking you can blend the two together.
Elijah had declared there would be no rain and there had been no rain. And Ahab had a right-hand man who was a godly man named Obadiah. If you look in the chapter before, you’d see that and he was out trying to find fodder for all their horses and mules. They had a lot of them. He had a lot of chariots, which he wasn't supposed to have and was clearly told not to have them, but he had them anyway. He was trying to be like a king like everybody else around them had a lot of chariots troops. And his horses and mules were running out of food. And he realizes that Elijah has done all of this. And he's put a wanted poster, basically, out on Elijah and said, “Anybody get that man.” And there was this fascinating little conversation between Obadiah and Elijah in the earlier part of this chapter, where he shows up to Obadiah and he says, “Call your boss,” basically, “the king.” And Obadiah says, “Oh, no. Because every time I say you’re there, he's been looking for you, you're gone and he’s gonna kill me if I tell him this time you're going to show up.” But Elijah says, “No, no, I'll show up. I'll show up.” And he does.
And in this context, the setting begins when Elijah was seen by Ahab, and Ahab says, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” How would you like to have that name, “you troubler of Israel”? The word literally could be translated as disturber, but it has the idea, you're the guy who put a curse, a hex on us. You put a voodoo curse or something on us and made the rain stop. You're the one that's the trouble. If we just get rid of you, everything will be okay. What does Elijah respond? “No, I'm not the troubler of Israel, you are.” He says that to Ahab. “You're the troubler of Israel. You who think you could mix a little bit of worship of Yahweh and satisfy your pagan wife with all of her Baal Asherah prophets. You're the real troubler of Israel. You have failed in your duty as a king, a theocratic king, who's supposed to ensure the worship of Yahweh. Instead, you've got this pagan wife and you let her drag you around. And she has all these prophets of Baal, all these prophets of Asherah,” who was the female consort, actually, of Baal. God is taking the initiative here.
So Elijah says, “We're going to have a contest. We're gonna gather on Mount Carmel. Now, Mount Carmel was picked for several reasons. One reason is it was way up in the northern end of the kingdom, within a stone's throw of actually the border with ancient Phoenicia, or modern day Lebanon. In other words, Baal has home court advantage here, because he's up real close to where Jezebel's own family comes from. Second of all, it was a large amphitheater like place where the people could gather and watch what was going on, on the mountain. So this was picked very strategically. God is taking the initiative, though. And it's basically calling them to a duel. This is perhaps the high point of Elijah’s career. But it's important to see that God is taking the initiative in saying, “Okay. Now we're gonna have this showdown at the Mount Carmel Corral. And we're going to see who is the real God here: Baal or Yahweh. Now, it's interesting, the prophets of Baal show up, the prophets of Asherah don't seem to show up. I don't know, for whatever reason, they don't show up. But you’ve got 450 prophets of Baal and one lonely Elijah.
So Elijah starts this confrontation. And his first point that he emphasizes, “If Yahweh alone is God, there can be no wavering.” Now the people, when he calls them up there, the people at first are silent. You look at verse 21, the people say, he says, ““If Yahweh is God, if the Lord is God, you follow him. If Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer.” Elijah says, “If I’m only the prophet of God left, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men, so you guys get first choice.”
And he urges them to say, “Let's have no wavering.” Don't go on limping along or wavering between two opinions. Interestingly enough, the word that he uses here for limping or wavering is the same word used to describe the little shuffle dance that the prophets of Baal will do later when they go around the altar calling upon Baal for hours on end. So, he's basically telling the people of God, “Are you gonna act like those goofy prophets of Baal, shuffling along in their shuffle dance? Or are you going to worship Yahweh, the true God?
He's really hitting at this problem of syncretism here. The great temptation, which Ahab so exemplifies, and all the Northern Kings tended to do as well, including some of the southern kings. The Northern kingdom is always one bad king after another. The Southern kingdom seems like it has a good one, a bad one, a good one, a bad one, up and down, up and down. So it's a problem in the southern kingdom, but the Northern kingdom is full of kings that are syncretists. Even Jeroboam, the first one, remember? He said, “Well, I don't want all those people to go down to Jerusalem, because then I might lose my kingdom, so I'll build some bull calves.” Even from the very beginning, the bull calves are a classic example of syncretism. Because what is the command told not to do? No graven images that are already from the beginning. The Northern kingdom is full of graven images. But it reaches its peak with these 450 prophets of Baal on all their fertility religion. The Lord is calling through Elijah the prophet for the people to make up their mind once and for all.
And it's a contest to see who is the true God. It's interesting that when Elijah sets this up in verse 31, it says he took “12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob.” You might say, “Well, isn't that just a stylistic difference?” Probably not. Because most of the time they're referred to as the children of, what? Israel. But remember, Israel was the name Jacob had been renamed after his conversion at Mount Peniel. And it's a way of saying, “We’ve got to go back to square one here. Back when Jacob was at the time of his conversion.” Remember, Jacob was the name that basically means something like Mr. Slick, Mr. Bamboozler, because that's what Jacob was noted for. Remember, he was always trying to hoodwink his brothers and everybody else. And he had to be converted. He got his thigh out of joint because he wrestled with God and he was converted. Elijah, it seems to be saying here, “We got to go back to that early day, and we have to rebuild the altar.
Did you notice it says that this altar had fallen down? Before the central temple was built, there were regional altars, and there seems to have been one there. That's another reason why he picked Mount Carmel, because he was saying, “There's an altar there, but it's all broken down.” And Elijah rebuilds it. He rebuilds it with 12 stones. Interestingly enough, this is all in the Northern kingdom, but Elijah doesn't forget that there are 12 tribes. They are right now politically divided into two kingdoms, but they shouldn't be. They should all be worshipping, people of God.
Well, see, syncretism has always been a problem for the people of God. It's always been a temptation. We face that as much today as Elijah did at the time of Elijah’s time. Our syncretism isn't between Yahweh and Baal, but it's between the Lord and a host of other “isms.” Pop culture, psychology, materialism, feminism, new age influences, probably most of all, pragmatism. Why did we do it this way? Because it works. Americans are dead ringers to fall for that. It works. If it works, you know, have you ever had people tell you really strange things sometimes? “Well, it works! It works! And they say I follow this belief because it works for me.” And you and you scratch your head and you say, “That sounds like a bunch of hocus pocus to me. A bunch of hooey.” Well, it is, probably! Depending on what they've told you. But they think it works for them. And they think they can blend it.
You know, you've got in the Caribbean islands, they try to blend Voodoo, which is a blend of some sort of thin veneer of Christianity and some African pagan religions. But that's very blatant. But here in the U.S., you have all sorts of people who claim to be Christians, and yet, if you look at what really is driving their lives, it's not worship of Lord. It's anything but. They're driven by all these other “isms”.
So that question always still comes back to us. “Why are you wavering between two opinions? If the Lord is the Lord, you follow Him.” And you don't try to blend all this other pop culture sort and pragmatic and all these other things in and follow that. But the text also points out that if the Lord alone is God, if Yahweh alone is God, He will humiliate, ultimately, those who follow these false gods. This narrative flows out very interestingly enough, because in some ways, it's an extended commentary on Psalm 2:4: “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” Laughs at those who think that they can thumb their nose at the Lord and His anointed. Our God, after all, the Scripture says, is a jealous God. And this passage shows that. He, the Lord, is demonstrating here in a very vivid way, the overwhelming futility, or folly, of following these false gods.
And there's a kind of a divine mockery that goes on in this passage. Elijah here is acting in his role, his covenant role as a prophetic office. He's a spokesman for God's laughter, here in this passage. And those who would foolishly follow Baal. Baal worship. Now, you have to remember just how this is shown, because we're going to see at the end that it's shown, not just in the fire coming down from heaven, but in the rainstorm being sent as well. You have to remember, why have they been worshipping Baal? Because he's supposed to guarantee the rains will come and the crops will grow. Well, the whole setting shows that Baal has already been humiliated. We've had three years with no rain. That's a long time for a fertility god to be not showing any value.
But Elijah gives the prophets of Baal, they have home court advantage, of course, but he also gives them the first shot. He says, “You pick which one of the bulls you want, build your altar, and you call upon your god.” I think he does this, so there would be no suggestion that he had cooked the books or something, that there wouldn’t be any fraud. And it says that they worked themselves up into a frenzy. They yelled, they danced, they did this strange little shuffle dance, they cut themselves, they called upon, all the way to the middle of the afternoon. From the morning to the middle of the afternoon, they danced around, 450 of them. It must have been an incredible racket that they were making dancing around, calling upon Baal to answer them.
Now, Elijah kind of taunts them. He cries out at noon, “Cry aloud, for he's a god. Either he's amusing, or, some translations say he turned aside, or he is busy. The ESV actually comes very close to what the what the Hebrew text says, “he is relieving himself”, or he's on a journey. In other words, he's saying, “Well, maybe he went to the outhouse. Maybe that's why he's not listening. He's gone. He went to the bathroom.” In other words, this is taunting. And this isn't just Elijah having a having a having sport. This is God's way of saying this false religion is absolutely ridiculous. Because you think about how ridiculous this is sounding. A god, who's supposed to be a fertility god, “No, he's taking a nap. Maybe he went to the outhouse. Maybe he’s gone on a journey.” You know, you gotta cry louder. Cry louder. Get his attention!
So they cry louder. They cut themselves. They cut themselves. Blood's gushing everywhere, trying to get the attention of this false God. So Elijah says, “Okay, now it's our turn. Now it's the turn of the true God.” But did you notice what Elijah does? If the prophets of Baal have had home court advantage, they've been out there all day, they put their sacrificial bull on the altar, Elijah says, “Okay, let's put my bull on the altar. Now, let's dump the whole thing with so much water that the thing is nothing but a water-soaked mess.” That's what he does. It's a water-soaked mess. And he simply calls out to God and he says, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known in this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and I have done these things at your word.” Did you catch the point there? Let all Israel know that you, emphasis is, alone. You are God.
By the way, that famous Shema text, when it says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Interestingly enough, if you look at modern Jewish translations of this, and I think this is interesting because it's, these are not Christian translations, these are Jewish translations translated, I think, getting the key point here, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone.” That's what it says, the Lord is one, that's the meaning of that term “one” there. There is no other God. And that's the point that Elijah is making here. These prophets of Baal are false. They're yelling to a false god. That's why we sang those psalms that says they have ears, but they don't hear, mouths but don't speak. They don't do anything. They're dumb idols. They're nothing. But the Lord hears. And the fire comes down from heaven, consumes the altar as well as the sacrificial ox, and consumes all the water Elijah has dump all over it.
Now, I can tell you what some liberal critical scholars have, in their unbelieving ingenuity have argued. They have said, “Well, Elijah really dump naphtha on there and he had a little mirror here, see? And he shined a mirror on there and that’s really how he did it. When I read those kind of things, it just makes me laugh, sometimes. It takes more strange faith in human ingenuity to believe stuff like that, than it does to believe the Biblical account. But, really, there were some scholars who claimed that. He some naphtha or mineral spirits or something that looked like water, and then he just had a little mirror and flashed the little mirror and that's what did it.
That's not at all what this text is saying. It's saying the Lord was demonstrating in an absolute dramatic way that He alone is God. Now, the Lord is exposing the foolishness of those people. This is the Lord saying, “He sits in the heavens and laughs.” Does that mean that this is a model for us? We're supposed to go around and tell people how stupid they are for worshipping false gods? I'm not convinced that's what he's saying, but it is telling us that we have an attitude here that we must be aware that the Lord will expose the false gods of this world in a way that will humiliate the followers as well as that god himself. We ought to be people who warn people: false deities, are absolute dead ends. Your folly will be exposed.
Our culture is a very relativistic culture. Everything is good. People will talk about, have you ever noticed that everybody's referred to as being “spiritual” now? You know, we have a good friend that was referred to, you know, when my dad was getting elderly and her dad, she's mentioned to me one time, and a lady that we that we love, but she said, “Well, your dad and my dad were both very spiritual.” Her dad was a professing Christian, as my dad was. And after a little while, I found myself thinking, spiritual? No! Your dad and my dad were Christians, not just spiritual people. That's a kind of this vague way to say, “Well all spirituality is really pretty good, isn't it?” And some people are Christian in their spirituality, while other people have their other kinds of spirituality. Well, Christian spirituality happens to be true spirituality as Francis Schaeffer titled his book. Many of these other spiritualities are absolutely false, and that's exactly what Elijah is being used by the Lord to expose here. Our relativistic culture likes to be nice, in theory, to say, “Well, all spiritualities are ultimately good.”
I finally came by the way to think when, a lot of times, when people talk about somebody being spiritual, I think they mostly mean they're emotional. I happen to be a fan of jazz music. And there's a famous jazz musician who kept referring to something about those guys, those early jazz players were so spiritual, they were so spiritual, and I would think, “Well, some of them had really rotten lives, so what does he mean?” And I finally realized he meant that they were people who were emotional. Being emotional, being spiritual in that sense has nothing to do with truth. Just as that you happen to be a person that gets moved by certain things. Maybe certain music moves you. No, we're talking about truth and falsehood here. And the text is saying, “God is going to expose, in a really dramatic way sometime, if nothing else, at the second coming! Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.” We need to understand that maybe we need a little bit more of the Prophet Elijah in us to point out to people, not just that all spirituality is good spirituality, and we can accept everybody, but to say there's truth and there's falsehood in this world, and if you are following false gods, you will be humiliated in that someday.
But last of all, we need to see that this text points out, if Yahweh alone is God, He will demonstrate it in the most basic areas of life. We forget that this encounter on Mount Carmel is followed up with this little short narrative about the resumption of rain. Now, we know that the false prophets are all killed because when Elijah tells the people, “Seize the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape,” which will get Elijah in big trouble with Jezebel later. And he has to go into hiding, he has to go into the early version of the federal witness protection program, because Jezebel is after him because he killed all of her prophets. But he tells the people, “Now it's time to say whose side are you on?” But he tells Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink.” And you may say, “Why is that?” Well, probably because Ahab was fasting during this time. He said, “Now, the drought is gonna end and the rain is going to come.”
The drought will be ended in the most dramatic sort of way. But even the way the drought is ended, Elijah upholds his office as the prophet and messenger of God. Because, did you notice? He goes up in the mountain, on top of Mount Carmel, which probably meant he was able to be visible to everybody down there in an amphitheater, he bows himself down on his knees, puts his face between his knees and says to his servant, “Now go look at the sea.” He tells the servant to do that seven times. He's praying. He's saying, “My prayer caused the rain to stop. My prayer now is going to stop the drought. You have to remember, all of these Baal fertility prophets, there are 450 of them and 400 prophets of that Asherah. That's 850 prophets who've been trying for years, several years, to get this drought to stop. Elijah simply falls on his knees in front of everybody says, “Okay, time for the rain to come back.”
And he has this wonderful little play where he tells his servant, “Go looking.” Then they see a little cloud about the size of a man's fist. A little cloud. Now the rain is coming. Now he also runs in front of his chariot. By the way, this was a 17 mile run, so, I don't know, I used to run a few years ago. You probably not notice it by looking at my body now, but I used to be a long distance runner, but about 10-15 miles is the longest I’d ever run. A 17 mile run is a long run, especially in front of a team of horses pulling a chariot. But he runs ahead of them. By the time he gets there, the rain is coming up all over the place. Baal, the fertility god, had done nothing. The Lord changed everything immediately, just at the words of His prophet.
In one sense, this is almost a more dramatic demonstration than the fire coming down from heaven. Because, with a simple prayer, Elijah said, “Okay the drought is done now.” Who's God? Your fertility god’s worthless. They can't do anything. You got a lot of your fertility prophets. You got 450 and 400 of them. They've done you nothing. Simple act of Yahweh’s spokesman Elijah, the drought has stopped. The Lord then is the supplier and source of everything we need. Yet, He uses this humble prayer of Elijah to show that all of this elaborate fertility worship that has been going on is worthless.
We see that in our own lives, because, for example, in the Lord's Prayer, the model prayer, did you notice that little petition which seems sometimes to some of us in the midst of all of those rather high flying spiritual prayers, you know, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, forgive us of our sins,” and then there’s that little one, “give us today our daily bread.” Aren't you tempted sometimes to think, “It seems a little mundane”? “Give us our daily bread.” But it's so important.
Now, there's a classic reversal of that, that always comes to my mind when I think of this. Jimmy Stewart is a favorite actor of mine, in an old movie called Shenandoah. And he's the patriarch of this big civil war era family in the Shenandoah Valley. And he sits around, he is a widower, and his wife had been apparently a devout Christian and said, “You gotta have some Christian influence in this family,” and he's an agnostic. So he prays some prayer like this, “Lord, you know, we tilled the ground. And if we hadn’t tilled the ground, we wouldn't have this food here. We harvested the crops. If we hadn’t harvested the crops, if we hadn't had this food. And we cooked this food…” He goes on this long list, “but we thank you for it anyway.”
You know, in other words, it's sort of real tongue in cheek, as if they're saying, “I'm going through the motions here, you know, of saying that this food on this bountiful table here is a result of you. We really did it all. Well, that's exactly the attitude the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is designed to make sure we don't have, to recognize that unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain. And that's what Elijah is showing here, is that not only is Yahweh the Lord that could bring fire down from heaven and show how stupid, frankly, the prophets of Baal are, but he's also the God that can provide the basic necessities, such as rain. Think about how much we're dependent on rain. A few months ago, we had too much of it, you know? And I know you guys couldn't get your crops in on time. They were late this year. I drive through the countryside sometimes, and I would look and think, “Oh man.” When my dad was still alive, the farm boy never got out of him, he would always ask me, he would always say, “How the crops look out there?”, he would ask me. I talked to him every Sunday evening. He would always ask me, “How the crops look?” You know. And this year, he's gone now He went to be the Lord. But I would have to tell him they can't get the crops in. No, Dad, they can't. But you guys got I've got a little bit of rain recently, but I'm sure you we're ready for some again. It was starting, I'm sure it was starting to get dry again. The proper timing of the rains are crucial. And who's in control of that? This text reminds us, the Lord alone is in control of this, not some fertility god that you dance around and cut yourself and do all kinds of crazy shenanigans. They were worthless. The Lord alone.
That means that we have an attitude that realizes that we are dependent on the Lord. Saying that we believe the Lord alone is God is saying that we truly trust and depend upon Him. We need to, of course, be warn-ers to those who deny the Lord, but recognize that He gives His gifts of common grace to everyone. Makes, as Jesus says, “He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Those are His good gifts. Even when those who don't recognize it. But we need to, sometimes, we need to be aware that we depend upon that but also to tell people. You know? You may not recognize this, but this is a gift of the Lord. God's people, of course, lived by the Word. His Word, Jesus reminds us, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” When we forget, or ignore that, as the people of Israel did, there's nothing but trouble. Genuine blessing can only come from when we do more than lip service to the magnificent gifts of God's grace, whether they're the gifts of His common grace, that sun and that rain, which He makes to shine on the just and the unjust, or His gifts of saving grace. Yahweh alone is the Lord. That's always been at the heart of Biblical faith. And we must guard our own hearts, because the temptation is always there. It comes in a slightly different form today than it did in the time of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The Lord had to demonstrate the truth that He alone was God in a dramatic way here. Two dramatic ways, actually, in this encounter. But we need to never forget He's the same God. And He alone is God, and we need to live by it and proclaim it boldly in a culture that seems to be doing everything it can to try to forget it.
Well, let’s pray. “Father, we thank You for Your truth. We thank You for the fact that You alone are God. May we live out of that reality. May we realize that You give us our daily bread. May we resist the temptation to syncretism, blending of the worship of You with all other false gods. May we be willing and able to warn those around us that they can't do lip service to You and blend in worship of false deities all over the place. But You alone are God. We thank You for that truth. In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.