1 Kings 18:16-39
“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. 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."
20“So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
So here we have the showdown.
Ahab brought 850 pagan prophets to M.C. to match wits w/ Eli.
850! Do you ever notice how evil loves to gather together?
Or how negative people just feed off of one-another?
A Farmer had a neighbor that just absolutely was negative, no matter what. If it was raining, the farmer would say to his neighbor, "Boy, look at it rain, God's sort of washing it clean." "Yeah, but if it keeps up it's gonna flood." Then the sun would come out and he'd say, "If it keeps that up, it's gonna just scorch the crops." The farmer thought, "What am I gonna do to win this guy?" So he trained his dog to walk on water. He didn't tell his neighbor, he just took him duck hunting. Boom! Boom! They brought these ducks out of the sky, and said to his dog, "Go get 'em." The dog went across, picked them up, and hopped back in the boat, nothing wet-- just his paws. The farmer said, "What do you think of that?" The neighbor said, "He can't swim, can he?"
Ahab, as well as other evil kings hated God’s prophets b/c they spoke against sin and idolatry. So w/ the kings’ backing many pagan prophets sprang up to counter the word of God’s
prophets.
But Elijah showed the people that just speaking a prophecy wasn’t enough, that one needed the power of the true living God to fulfill it.
21 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.”
Elijah challenges the people to take a stand - to follow whoever was the true God. Why do you think so many people wavered between the 2 choices? Maybe some people were just not sure
- like the undecided votes we always hear about prior to election times.
However, many of them did know that the Lord was God, but they enjoyed the sinful pleasures and other selfish benefits that came along with siding w/ Ahab.
This really demonstrates the importance of taking a stand for Christ. If we just drift along w/ whatever is pleasant and easy, we will someday discover that we have been following a false god - ourselves.
So many live for themselves - we must take a stand b/c we too can drift into nothingness - meaningless - we think we have all these current, important, even urgent issues, but in reality most of them are meaningless.
Solomon, the wisest man to ever live tells us it’s all meaningless apart from God. in Eccl. chapters 1 & 2 he goes into specific
detail of all the things we consider of great importance are meaningless - work, play, pleasures, fooling around, a full list.
“You gotta stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”
we kinda laugh at that quote, but it’s really quite true.
It’s what happens to alot of us - we fall for anything, the current, urgent issues of each day can keep us from what really matters if we are not settled in already that everything is meaningless apart from God - He must be the center and highest priority.
Listen... is that the case in your life? Or is your life full of “anythings”?
We’ve become accustomed to watching life happen rather than living it. If we want to be heroic we just p/u a copy of BraveHeart, if we want a love story we p/u Sleepless in Seattle,
if we want mystery or adventure we p/u Lord of the Rings or Fantastic 4 - in actuality we deceive ourselves and we think we’re living life when we’re really just watching.
And what God is wanting us to hear is we can live a life more wonderful, more powerful than anything we can observe.
read v.22 on...
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 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. 24 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."
25 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." 26 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.
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." 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 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.”
Although the prophets of Baal raved all afternoon, no one
answered them. Their god was silent b/c it’s not real!
You see the gods were tempted to follow may not be made of wood or stone, but they’re just as false, just as dangerous b/c they cause us to follow something other than the true God.
Be it power, status, money, appearance, or materialism can become our gods if we devote our lives to them - if they have a higher priority then is it a false god in our lives.
30“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. 31 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."
I love this... Elijah calling the people towards him - “get closer
I don’t want you to miss this” (Venice Beach entertainer walking on glass - come closer)
Elijah grabs 12 stones to build the altar - you may remember in week 1 of this series we discussed the splitting of Israel into 2 kingdoms - a southern and northern kingdom - the north w/ 10 tribes of Israel and the south w/ 2.
Placing 12 stones around the altar was a silent reminder of they’re selfish reasons for the split.
Do you ever notice God placing these little silent reminders in your life? Little subtle hints, a small tap on the shoulder whenever our selfish wants start taking over?
Hey, don’t miss those - He has our best interest
32 “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. 33 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."
34 "Do it again," he said, and they did it again.
"Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.”
Totally drown the thing man - like a typhoon
b/c I don’t want there to be any doubt, I don’t want a single
person questioning what’s really happening here.
Something similar ever happen to you?
Just as Elijah doused the altar w/ water basically saying, there’s no way I could even get a spark to land on this much less have it consumed in fire. Only God, the true living God will be able to.
as for us...
I mean you’ve hit rock bottom or you’re at your wits end - there is absolutely nothing more you can do - you’re out of options - if anything is going happen it’s gonna be God - only God can pull this off.
Welcome to God's Waiting Room. It’s that place in your life where there are things beyond your control that you can’t speed up—an answer to prayer, a miracle, a change in a situation—you want it to happen, and happen quickly, but it is totally out of your control and you have to wait on God. Have you been there? Are you there now?
We need to remember what God CAN do and not only what we can do - we must be patient and faithful. - watch what happens -
36”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. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, (see his humility - last week)and that you are turning their hearts back again." (check this out)
38 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.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!"
I bet they did! I’m thinking if I were on the other side of this I’d be crying out, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!"
Here God flashed fire from heaven for Elijah.
You know what? He’ll help us too - to accomplish what He commands us to do. The proof of that may not be as dramatic in our lives as in this case, but God will make resources available to us in creative ways to accomplish His purposes.
He will give us the wisdom to raise a family, the courage to take a stand a stand for truth, or the means to provide help for someone in need.
Like Elijah, we can have faith that whatever God commands us to do, He will provide what we need to carry it through.
‘Where God guides, He provides’
Here’s what we’ve seen studying Elijah today:
We’ve gotta stand for something, something real, authentic - something of eternal value - We can only find that in God
Sometimes, God asks us to get closer, don’t miss this.
It appears you may be at a dead-end, out of options, nothing more you can do - and God says, get closer, watch this
and pulls us thru and all we can do is stand in awe, jaw dropped awe - God is breath-taking, awe-inspiring, wonderfully
magnificent!
As we see w/ our own eyes, there’s no way this could have happened other than a miracle, only by the hand of God.
It builds our faith and we draw closer relationally to the Creator of the Universe. Our heart beats w/ His & that’s a good thing.
We can’t waver - we need to make God the most important thing in our lives. And you know what, when we do that - life is soooo much better, much better.
It doesn’t mean we will live these pain-free perfect lives - but it sure is alot easier to deal with b/c of the love He has for us and the hope we have in the God who has created everything and in control of everything.
Whatever you are dealing with, whatever difficulty is in your life right now...
God is saying, "Come closer... I don't want you to miss this"
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