We’ve come a long way in our study over the last two weeks so I want to update you on where we are historically. Last week we were going to be talking about Solomon, that is, until the advent of the “aporkalypse”—had to do a sermon on that. We’ll talk more about Solomon when we get into the wisdom literature in few weeks.
What’s important for us to note for our purposes today, though, is that after Solomon’s death the nation of Israel that was ruled by David and Solomon becomes rent in two by civil strife. Solomon was a heavy-handed ruler who exacted a high price in taxation and labor from the people in order to maintain his opulent lifestyle. After his death, his son Rehoboam increased the oppression of the people and the then northern tribes revolted under the leadership of Jeroboam (Jeroboam had formerly been one of Solomon’s trusted overseers). Jeroboam sets up his own centers of worship in the north, thus cutting off connection with all of Judah and, in a very real sense, setting the table for the destruction that was to come.
But for now, realize that you have two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The rest of the books of Kings and Chronicles tell the parallel stories of these Kingdoms, their rulers and the prophets who challenged those rulers. You might want to use this chart to keep them straight.
The succession of rulers in the north became increasingly idolatrous and evil, according to the biblical narrative. In response to that apostasy, we begin to see God raise up prophets from among the people—prophets who were to be God’s mouthpiece and speak God’s truth to these wicked kings and warn them of God’s impending judgment.
That brings us to the story in I Kings 18. Now let me set this up for you …Elijah was called to be a prophet in about the ninth century BC during the reigns of Kings Ahab and Ahaziah. Elijah seems to come from nowhere in particular, coming out of the desert as many other prophets will do.
Now King Ahab was exceptionally powerful for a king. If you go to the city of Megiddo, for example, you’ll see the remains of the stables for his horses, a symbol of military might. But Ahab had a glaring weakness – he had married a foreign woman from Tyre, a pagan named “Jezebel”. Jezebel brought with her the worship of the Baal fertility god and, once again, Israel found herself on the outs with God. Jezebel was, well, a “Jezebel” – controlling the king and the kingdom with her fury. She even launches a campaign to kill all the Israelite prophets of God while Ahab simply yes, “OK, dear.”
Elijah shows up to call the king and queen to account. He is a nomadic prophet, dressed in leather, a wild-haired kind of guy. He proclaims a drought over the land as a sign of God’s judgment. Ahab decides to go after him, and when he meets Elijah he calls him the “troubler of Israel.” Here again we see a prophet being a burr in the saddle of the status quo, challenging the prevailing culture.
But rather than simply gripe at Ahab, Elijah proposes a contest – a winner take all kind of event, a superbowl of prophets that will settle once and for all who would really be the god of Israel – the wooden deity Baal, or the God who had brought the ancestors of these same Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Elijah tells Ahab to gather all the people of Israel at Mt. Carmel and there they’ll have a contest – the 450 prophets of Baal (and 400 prophets of Asherah, Baal’s female deity consort) vs. Elijah the prophet of God. When the people gather (tickets must have been hard to get), Elijah says to the people, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” No more fence-sitting. Choose.
But the people said nothing in response, their silence indicating their indecision
Now Elijah sets the rules. Each side will build a stone altar to their god and sacrifice a bull on that altar. They’ll cut the bull up in pieces and lay the wood to burn it. But here’s the kicker: the fire for the altar will have to come from a divine source. Look at verse 24 where Elijah says to the prophets of Baal, “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.” Whichever altar gets fired up first is the winner.
The ultimate fire-building contest.
An interesting geographical note here: Mt. Carmel lay between Israel and Phoenicia, the lands of the gods in question. The Phoenicians believed that the god Baal actually dwelt on Mt. Carmel, thus Elijah had already given the prophets of Baal a homefield advantage. Not only that, Elijah lets them go first.
The 850 prophets build their altar to Baal and begin their ritual fire dance. From morning to noon, with whooping and hollering, prayers and dancing, the 850 prophets milled around their altar. But no fire came, no answer from the mighty Baal.
About noon Elijah, who I picture as kind of standing off to the side by himself, arms folded, has a bit of a smile creep across his face and he starts to talk some trash to his opponents. Verse 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.” (translation note: the Hebrew word translated as “busy” can also be translated as “going to the bathroom”. In other words, Elijah suggests that Baal just might be in his “throne room”, if you know what I mean).
The prophets of Baal just get louder and begin to cut themselves, which was part of their ritual. But still, nothing happens. I like the way it’s put in verse 28: There was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
Evening comes and now it’s Elijah’s turn. Elijah builds the altar of the Lord with 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And puts out the wood and bull, but then he does something unusual. He digs a trench around the altar and then instructs the people to fill four large jugs of water and pour it over the wood, the sacrifice, the whole thing. Then he has them do it again. And again. Three times So much water is poured over the altar that the trench around it is full to the brim, the wood thoroughly soaked.
Then Elijah, standing alone, prays – not with loud shouts or dancing, but a simple prayer: “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, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
And this time…the real God shows up.
Fire comes down from heaven – whether it’s lightning or whatever – and the fire consumes the wood, the bull, the stones, the surrounding soil and even all the water in the trench….a serious fire! An impressive display.
It’s fire that puts the people on their knees. Impressed by the display they shout, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!” Elijah orders them to hunt down the prophets of Baal and then turn their allegiance to God.
It’s an amazing victory. Elijah, as God’s prophet, has stood alone in the face of overwhelming opposition and was successful with God’s help. If this were a fairy tale, everything would be turned right and the people would live happily ever after.
But here’s where the lesson comes
in for me for this section of the Bible By now you have come to realize that most biblical stories have no “happily ever after.” Humans continue to be broken and weak. Even the prophets are no exception.
That brings us to chapter 19, which we read earlier. Word reaches Jezebel, the evil queen, that Elijah has killed off her prophets and she is angry. She sends word to Elijah that she will use all her powers to hunt him down and kill him.
Now Elijah has just demonstrated the power of God, has defeated the prophets of Baal, has shown amazing pluck and determination. He is at his zenith as a prophet of God. But when this pagan queen threatens him, what does he do? He becomes afraid and he runs away into the desert from whence he came. He sits under the shade of a broom tree and, according to 1 Kings 19:4, prays for death. Listen to his prayer: “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.”
You’d think that he’d be pumped up by the powerful fireworks display on Mount Carmel, but instead he is exhausted and defeated. As Anna Carter Florence puts it: “Maybe he’s was just having ‘one of those days.’ You wake up, you eat breakfast, you slaughter 450 prophets of Baal, y’know. Well it’s hard work to be the only one left. It is no fun.”
Ever felt like you’re the only one left? Does working only 9 to 5 sound like a dream? Too much chauffer duty for soccer practices and piano recitals and youth group events? Serving on too many committees and sitting in on too many meetings? To-Do lists longer than the days to accomplish them? Screaming kids leaving you with a tired soul?
Or maybe the isolation is ever more painful — maybe you’re dealing with a painful loss of a family member or friend recently. Some may be feeling the emptiness of lonely singleness. I know some deal with feelings of depression and despondency. Sometimes, like Elijah, there are those even wondering if not living is better than living like this.
But notice in this story that God doesn’t choose to meet Elijah in the midst of success. Sure, God sends the fire to impress the people, but for Elijah God waits. See, God chooses to meet Elijah not in his success but instead in the midst of all of this life chaos — in his fatigue, in his busyness, in his stress, in his depression, in his questioning, in his self-doubt. An angel comes to strenghthen him by giving him food and water—call it comfort food. But the real comfort for Elijah will come in a different form.
The first thing you notice here in this story is that God meets Elijah’s needs through his presence within these circumstances, not the removal of the circumstances.
Through his angel bearing food and rest, God brings his presence to Elijah’s physical needs. Through his own words, God brings his presence to Elijah’s spiritual needs. It is the presence of God which is what Elijah most needs.
I know that I have had times in my life when I have felt like running away. Indeed, times when I’ve done it. I figured that if I could change my circumstances, everything would be better. If I could only run away from that bad job or that difficult person, then I’d be OK.
But I have found that it never works that way. We might be able to change our scenery, but if our problem is a spiritual one then running won’t change our outlook.
What we need is a change of heart—the kind of change that we receive only when we experience the presence of God.
Elijah goes and hides in a cave. God comes to him and says, “What are you doing here?” Why are you hiding? What are you running from? Don’t you know that I am with you now and have been with you all the time?
Elijah’s response is that of a burned out prophet—“Don’t you know that I’ve been working for you? I’ve been zealous for you, but these people haven’t been. They’ve rejected you and rejected me. And now I’m the only one left.”
I’ve had this same conversation with God on more than one occasion. Maybe you have, too. It’s a kind of pious pity party, when you get right down to it.
But there in that cave God decides to show Elijah that he isn’t alone. God “passes by” in a loud display of wind, earthquake and fire—but note the text: “God was not in earthquake, or in the wind, or in the fire.” Where was God? Verse 12: “in a gentle whisper.”
Man, how we want God to come in earthquake, wind and fire to show us his power and shake, destroy and burn up the circumstances that frighten us. But God doesn’t do that. God doesn’t always rescue us with a display of raw supernatural power. But God does come—in a whisper.
To hear that whisper, though, we have to be listening. When we’re under the crushing burden of burnout and despair, we have to get alone, quiet our hearts, shut up all that self-talk that breeds fear and simply listen to God. Would your life be quiet enough — free enough of noise and distraction — that you might hear God’s whisper and know his voice there? What keeps you from hearing from God?
If we look at the rest of this passage we can see that meeting God changed Elijah. It rested and refreshed him. It reset his attitude and lifted his depression. It prepared him for life once he went down the mountain again. It restored his sense of God’s purpose in his life. His solitude filled him up with God so that he was spiritually and emotionally healthy enough to be around people again.
And read the beginning of verse 15: “Go, return on your way …” That is spiritual direction. As part of comforting Elijah and meeting his needs, he sends him right back to the place that either caused or was the location of his difficulties. Instead of running away, God encourages Elijah to face the very things that are challenging him. And he does…not because circumstances have changed, but because Elijah has—having encountered God in the midst of silence.
God doesn’t always remove the hard circumstances of our lives or allow us to run away from all that challenges us. In this case, God joins Elijah in the midst of difficulty. He gives him purpose within it.
We live in uncertain and fearful times. Like Elijah, we can look around us and think that we’re the only ones left, that everything and everyone seems to be against us. But it is in that place that God wants to meet us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, to get us to go back and face our difficulties with a renewed sense that God is with us.
