The Lord, He Is
The God!
Based on Series of
Sermons on the Repetition of Name and Titles
Preached in PCC
Worship Service, 26 February 2017
Part 2 of 3
We considered the first
part of our text from 1 Kings 18:1-40 in our last article. There, we saw the
reappearance of Elijah the prophet from verses 1-16. In this article, we will
consider the challenge of the prophet from verses 17-29.
The Challenge of the Prophet (vv.
17-29)
The
moment Ahab saw Elijah, he said in verse 17, “Art thou he that troubleth
Israel?” To which Elijah replied, “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.”
The last time that these two
men met each other was over three years ago. Since then, the terrible drought,
which Elijah predicted, and the resulting famine had greatly troubled the
northern kingdom. Ahab was quick to lay the blame on Elijah but he was wrong
for at least two reasons.
First, Elijah was simply the
messenger of God. He was not the cause of the drought and famine. But second,
and more importantly, it was really the grievous sin of Ahab and his father’s
house that brought about God’s judgment upon the land. The real troubler of
Israel was not Elijah. It was Ahab; and Elijah was quick to remind him of
that.
Then in verse 19, Elijah
told Ahab to call for a public assembly of all Israel together with 450
prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves or the Asherah, which was a
fertility goddess who was considered either the wife or mother of Baal. They
were to assemble on Mount Carmel, which was situated near the western coast of
the land.
Why did he choose Mount Carmel? Well, according to
some ancient writings, it appears that Mount Carmel served as a sanctuary of
Baal. If that is true, then Elijah was calling for this public assembly of
Israel on Baal’s own sacred ground. Or to use the language of modern sports,
Mount Carmel was Baal’s home field or home ground, where the home team has the
advantage of playing on familiar territory and with the support of the home
crowd behind them. Generally, in sports and games, the home team has the
advantage and is expected to do well. It is a great embarrassment for the home
team to lose in their own stadium or grounds. Clearly, Elijah was setting the
stage for that! He is leaving the followers of Baal with no excuse for the
defeat that they are about to suffer.
Another thing we need to take note of is that Elijah
was calling for a repeat of what happened many years ago during the time of
Joshua. During the conquest of the land, Achan kept some of the forbidden items
from the city of Jericho and as a result, Israel was defeated at the city of
Ai. Joshua called the whole nation to assemble and eventually, Achan was
identified as the culprit. Joshua said to him, “Why hast thou troubled us? the
LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and
burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised
over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the
fierceness of his anger.” (Joshua 7:25-26) The word “trouble” in Joshua 7 is
exactly the same word that we find in our text. Elijah wanted all Israel to
gather on Mount Carmel so that the true troublers of Israel might be singled
out and identified and punished.
Well, Ahab agreed to this
assembly and challenge, and so in verse 20, he sent unto all the children of
Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. Elijah then
addressed the people, saying, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the
LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” The word
halt means to limb. The English idiom “sitting on the fence” would be a good
equivalent. The people were not to sit on the fence with regard to Yahweh and
Baal. If Yahweh be the true God, then they should follow Him, but if Baal be
the true God, then follow him. There can and must be no merging or mixing or
intermingling of the two religions and gods.
Now one
might ask at this point – what was so attractive about Baal worship? Why would
the people halt or limb between the two in the first place? Well, here are a
couple of reasons why Baal worship was so attractive to the people. First, it
was sanctioned by the queen herself. Jezebel was an avid devotee of Baal and
Asherah. If you wanted to please the queen and not go into her bad books, you
had better align yourself with her religious preferences. Second, Baal worship
involved sexual rites which were built into the liturgy and no doubt added to
its attraction. There were always temple or shrine prostitutes to minister to
the needs of the worshippers. Third, Baal worship had a long tradition. Long
before Israel entered Canaan, the people of the land were already worshipping
Baal. This was no novel or new invention. It went back hundreds of years. And
finally, Baal worship was relevant to their everyday lives. He was after all
the god of fertility and of fruitfulness. He could give what every farmer was
hoping for, namely, rain and a fruitful harvest. He could give what every married
woman longed for, namely, the fruit of the womb or children.
And so for at least these
four reasons, Baal worship held a certain attraction for the Israelites. But
they could not continue in a state of trying to serve the LORD and Baal at the
same time. The time has come for a choice to be made between the two.
In
verses 22-24, Elijah presents to the people a contest that would help them to
make that choice. He said, “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.”
The contest was simple. The
prophets of Baal were to choose a bull, cut it into pieces, and lay it on the
wood. Elijah would do the same. The worshippers of Baal were then to call on
the name of their god while he called on the name of the LORD. The God who
answers by fire would then prove himself to be the true God.
Next in verse 25, Elijah
turned his attention to the prophets of Baal and said, “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.” Notice how in verses 22
and 25, Elijah highlights the fact that he is grossly outnumbered by Baal’s prophets.
He is but one man whereas they are in the hundreds. They outnumbered him 450 to
1. If ever the truth of one’s religion or the efficacy of one’s prayers
depended on how many people were on one’s side, then Elijah stood absolutely no
chance.
And so the prophets of Baal
had at least two advantages over Elijah. First, they were on home ground and
second, they had strength in numbers. In contrast, Elijah was the away team or
should I say the away solo and he was badly outnumbered.
In verse 27, we are told that they took the bull,
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. They leaped
around the altar as they prayed but to no avail. At first, Elijah was content
to leave them alone, but then at noon, after several hours of fruitless praying
and fervent leaping around, he decided that he had to say something.
“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.” Perhaps Baal was so preoccupied
with other matters that he couldn’t give them any attention or perhaps he was
meditating or on a journey or even asleep. In any case, what they needed to do
was to cry louder still. They needed to increase the decibel level.
The phrase “for he is a god”
in verse 27 might need a little explanation. Elijah lists it as a reason for
the lack of response of Baal. Now this might seem strange to us but it wouldn’t
be strange to a pagan. We need to remember that in paganism, the gods are
essentially glorified human beings and they are engaged in the whole range of
activities that we human beings are normally engaged in. They too need to go
away on journeys, they too can be too occupied to give attention to someone,
they too need to sleep and so on. The pagan gods are nothing like the true and
living God. They are all made in the image of man.
Well, the prophets of Baal are not offended by
Elijah’s mocking. In fact, they respond to his counsel with even more fervency
and religious activity. Verse 28, “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves
after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon
them.” The decibel level went up several notches. They even took out their
knives and lances to cut themselves until blood gushed out upon them. They were
hoping that by self-mutilation, they could somehow manipulate Baal into action.
All that intense prophetic frenzy went on for several hours but still nothing happened.
Verse 29 says, “there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that
regarded.”
In the next article, we will
consider the LORD’s answer to the prophet from verses 30-40.
…to be continued, next Issue
—Linus Chua