1 Kings 18:21 ~ 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.
Ahab was real deadbeat and severely damaged the spiritual state of Israel as 1 Kings 16:30 said of him...
Ahab was real deadbeat and severely damaged the spiritual state of Israel as 1 Kings 16:30 said of him...
1 Kings 16:30 ~ "Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.
This is a pretty sad statement considering there were many bad kings that came before him including Jeroboam who was pretty horrendous.
As for the scenario being laid out for us here in Scripture, in the minds of most present, Baal had
the advantage in the coming contest as he was the god in control of weather. The name
"Carmel" means "the garden land," and it was famous for its
fertility. Elijah ordered Ahab present (v. 19) as was appropriate since the prophet was the representative of the true
King of Israel. Surprisingly Ahab obeyed. So we see a true prophet of God
pitted against 450 false prophets of Baal. It is clear a supernatural
intervention would be required to win the day. As we will later see, that is
exactly what happens.
Here we see the infamous and
definitive standoff between the One True God (Yahweh) and the false god Baal.
Actually it is the meeting of the prophets of Baal (Satan) and God since Baal
is a figment of people’s imagination and in reality satanic. Elijah challenges
the 450 prophets of Baal to a contest to determine who/what is truly God, Baal
or the God of Israel. An offering on alter is to be made so that the true God
would consume it by fire. The prophets of Baal clearly had a numerical
advantage. They are offered the chance first. It must have been an amusing
sight for anyone watching the prophets. Hooting and hollering and carrying on
like a bunch of freed monkeys (not unlike what I see on TV on TBN).
Elijah maintains and air of
dignity and views their antics with distain eventually mocking them. Elijah
sarcastically quips that Baal must be busy. At the time of the evening
sacrifice Elijah takes charge. He handicaps himself before offering sacrifice
to the Lord. He digs a trench around the altar and fills it with water. The
altar and the wood are also soaked. Fire falls from heaven consuming not only
the sacrifice…but also the wood, the stones of the altar, the dust around the
altar and the water in the trench. (((BOOM))) When I read this passage I get a
mental visualization here of a burnt smoking cinder left over after a Wild E.
Coyote explosion and it is slightly amusing. The prophets of Baal’s jaws must
have clanked like iron bars on the stony ground at Mt. Carmal. The prophets of
Baal had been exposed as fakes and idolators (Wiersbe 473). Guilty as charged
they are summarily executed by the sword (1 Kings 19:1)
The real source of Israel's
troubles were mostly Ahab and Omri's disregard of the Mosaic Covenant and a proclivity
for idolatry. This idolatry rubbed off
on the people and they apostatized and practiced what amounted to Baal/Yahweh
worship in a syncretistic blending of religions…hence Elijah’s sarcastic
question to the false prophets of Baal. The idolatrous Baal worship has been
put under the most favorable circumstances to win the day but it fails
horrendously because it is backed by a non-god. Because it had been accepted by
it’s “all-knowing” leaders (like today), it validated it that much more. Yahweh
would end all that in one fell swoop. We see a double-mindedness and that is
why Elijah presents the question.
The complete failure for anyone in Israel to
even bother to answer Elijah’s question shows their complete apathy and the
fact they had given over to idolatry. Elijah does not ask this question so much
expecting an answer to force them to be resolute. He does it to show their
indecisiveness. There is nothing more evil and obnoxious to God than complete
indifference and neutrality in spiritual things. This neutrality amounts to
nothing more than sin and evil anyway. As it has been said so many time, all
that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Problem
is, if they do nothing spiritually…they really are not good men, are they? We
see this no better than in Revelation 3:14-22 in the lukewarm Laodician church
when we see the Spirit say, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor
hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are
lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Because
of the Laodician indifference, Jesus spits them from His mouth.
In an effort to try and play it
safe, we lose everything. When we try to balance in the middle between God and
the world so we can have both, we get the world and lose God. Thereby we are
damned. So it was in Elijah’s time, so it is now, so it will be in the future
based on the readings of Revelation 3. Human nature is always the same and
there will be people damning themselves all the way to the end of time…the
Bible tells us as much!
Indifference and neutrality on
issues of the culture may work when it comes to some things but caving in and
accepting some of the unrighteous cultural norms of today makes us compromise
our Christianity or in a worst case scenario…our faith. We must make a firm decision for Christ and if we do we should expect that we will be put at odds with the world. Jesus told as much.
Matthew 10:34 ~ Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
We cannot allow the
world to pressure us so greatly that we begin to accept things into our lives
that compete with God. You are to have no other gods before God.
Wiersbe, Warren. "David’s
Unruly Sons." Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament Wisdom and Poetry
(Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 2003. 473. Print
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