1 Kings 18:17-40
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- Special Prayer for Persecuted Church;
- Prayer for Don and Carol;
- Prayer for Rick and Ruthie;
Text: 1 Kings 18:17-40
Context:
Ahab became king over Israel. Had a wife named Jezebel. Ahab was a worse king than any other that came before him. He and Jezebel were flat out hostile to God. They set up altars to the false gods Baals (more than one) and Asherah. These gods promoted child sacrifice and sexual immorality in all forms. They killed servants of God. In judgment, God withheld rain from the land for over 3 years.
Verses 17-19
Even after all this time, Ahab still had not repented. When he encountered Elijah again, he accused Elijah of being the one to cause all the problems Israel was facing.
Application 1:
Unfortunately, people who hate God tend to be like that. Problem upon problem is added onto their lives as they continually reject the Lord and His commandments. Their poor choices lead to a bad life. But then, instead of turning back to God, they blame God and His people for their problems.
This is not uncommon in human governments either. Egypt, the enslavers of God’s people, blamed their problems on the people and the God of the people they had enslaved. Babylon did this sort of thing. Nero, the famously evil and inept Roman emperor, blamed the burning of Rome upon Christians.
Germany and Russia – in their evilest of days, were hostile to God and blamed their problems on God and attacked His people. North Korea and numerous countries in the Middle East attack God’s people today. And they aren’t nice places to live. Very violent and oppressive. But somehow they imagine God is the problem.
In a democracy like ours, there are people who would behave this same way if they were to be voted into power. Frankly, there are people already in power behaving this way. Unfortunately there are people who really do hate God and all that He stands for and they make opposing God and His ways a chief part of their designs for government.
They make promises that sound smooth and enticing, but ultimately they prove bankrupt, destructive, and they blame their failures on God. Never cast your vote for an Ahab, no matter how smooth their words might be. Even if they should have good policies that you like and support, it is not a good idea to cast your vote for someone that hates God and His people. It has only ever worked out very badly.
Psalm 33:12 says “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
More than any other nation in the history of the world, that was to be true of Israel. Instead, Ahab had made the gods of the nation Baals and Asherah. It had proven an embarrassing disaster. It had not rained for three and a half years. And this under the “watchful” eyes of the Baals. The chief of the Baals was the storm god. And yet it hasn’t rained for three and a half years. But it’s Elijah’s fault, not Ahab’s, so says Ahab.
Well, Elijah calls him out on it and says nothing but the truth. The disaster is Ahab’s fault. Elijah then issues a challenge to Ahab. “Let’s gather together Israel at Mount Carmel. I will meet you and the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah there.”
The fact that Ahab agrees to this challenge shows that he really sincerely believes that he is correct – that Baal and Asherah are true and Elijah and the Lord are false. I don’t think Ahab would have agreed to this if he had realized where it was going to go. The storm god hasn’t made it rain for three and a half years and Ahab still doesn’t get it.
The Bible says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ahab has no fear so he has no wisdom.
Verses 20-24
Fortunately, the people are not all as witless as Ahab. They don’t jump up in support of the Lord immediately, but they’ve at least come to recognize that this whole Baal thing hasn’t been working out very well, so they are ready to see what happens.
The challenge being made and described, Elijah lets the false prophets go first.
Verses 25-29
While we’re talking about prayer in this series, let’s talk about what you should not do: This. Don’t do this. Any of it.
Really, I’m sure elaboration is not needed. You aren’t going to do this. But I’ll go ahead and say briefly that the fundamental problem with their prayer is that Baal isn’t real. So at that point any statement, action, whatever, becomes pointless. Baal can’t hear them, so it’s a waste of time.
Their wailing, shouting, and cutting themselves is designed to make themselves as big a spectacle as possible in the hope that they might get Baal’s attention. He could be thinking, or using the restroom, or traveling, or sleeping. But surely screaming blood drenched people would get his attention. Nope.
Application 2:
But hear me out here: although no one here is going to be praying to Baal and cutting themselves while they do, sometimes Christians do pray to God as if He is like Baal.
This is done when Christians believe that they must get God to pay attention to their prayers. Sometimes Christians think that God won’t hear their prayers unless they say them enough times. Or unless they earn an audience in some way – like, “I’ve given to the poor today Lord – please hear my prayer.”
Sometimes people might feel like the prayer must be spoken out loud to be heard by God. Or it must be repeated many times. Sometimes it’s believed you have to try to stir up His emotions to answer a prayer, to make Him care to, as if He isn’t interested in doing the right thing unless you talk Him into it or something.
But God is real and He is not like Baal. He is always doing countless things and yet never too busy to hear what you have to say. He is a God of righteousness, truth, beauty, and goodness. You don’t have to talk Him into doing a good thing. He wants to. Doing good is what He does. God is good. And every good thing that is happening is ultimately being done because of Him, don’t you worry.
God interacts with mankind not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of love, mercy, and grace. God needs nothing and so you can’t do Him a favor in order to have your prayer heard.
But fortunately, because of Jesus’ merit, He is willing to listen to and answer our prayers!
Link: Our prayers should be cognizant of the fact that God does hear, does care, and is willing to act to do good things. Elijah’s prayer demonstrates this:
Verses 30-35
Elijah doesn’t need to manufacture an answer to his coming prayer request, especially since he already knows that God is going to act. God told Elijah in 1 Kings 18:1 “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” He knows that God is about to do big things, so he wants to make absolute certain that God gets all the glory.
This is why Elijah has so much water poured on the altar that it will be drenched. Soaking wet. Nowadays you would need a whole lot of gasoline to get something like this to light on fire! But back then, having something this wet meant that no human was going to manage to light it on fire.
Having the wood and everything else so completely soaked prevents anyone asserting after the fact that Elijah somehow manufactured this incident and actually lit the fire himself. It’s not humanly possible to light this and everyone there knows that. If it catches on fire, it will clearly be of God.
Elijah’s desire to give God all the glory is also why he makes the altar of twelve stones and builds the altar in the name of the Lord. If he doesn’t do that, then one of those Baal fools might come back later and say “Oh, Baal actually woke up at last and sent the fire. Baal did it, not the Lord.” With the altar being now so strongly identified with the God of Israel and His glory, there’s no room now for someone to claim it was actually Baal that did it.
Application 3:
This is a good reminder that we want to give God the glory for answered prayers. Sometimes people can pray about something, God answers the prayer, but then people later explain the answer away in natural terms – as if God had nothing to do with it. Or they forget that they had prayed and fail to give thanks to God for answered prayer.
Sometimes, too, believers can be afraid to make a big prayer request – thinking perhaps God doesn’t answer such big or miraculous things. It’s true; God doesn’t answer every prayer request with a yes. And if you were to go down to Washington D.C. and try to get fire to come down from heaven on the lawn there you are more likely to be the target of open fire from the security guards than to see fire come down from heaven.
But, God is pleased to do miraculous things and answer prayer requests when they are within His will and plan. Miraculous answers to prayer give God the glory the best because they are not easily explained away. Don’t be afraid to ask for a miracle in your prayers to God. Be sure to give Him glory for the answer when it comes.
Link: The answer that Elijah is about to see to his prayer almost never happens, but that doesn’t mean that miracles almost never happen. God is doing them all the time.
Verses 36-40
Elijah prays out loud to be heard by the people. His prayer is very simple and every bit of it is intended to give God the glory for the answer. He says “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel” – so there is no question of which God performs this miracle. He says “I am your servant and have done all these things at your word” so people know it isn’t something special about Elijah that did it. He didn’t earn God’s favor or grab God’s attention. God was already intending to do this thing and Elijah just did as instructed.
He even makes sure to attribute the coming repentance to God – it’s not my might, or my persuasive words, or the reasonableness of the people that turns them back to God – God, you turn them back to God. Let the people know, God, that you deserve the glory even for their repentance.
When God answers the prayer, it is in one of the most spectacular ways in biblical history. Fire comes down so intense that what it touches is gone. The sacrifice, the wood, even the stones, the water and all the dust of the ashes is gone. It’s all gone.
The people, once so blandly neutral, are now on their faces, fully convinced that the Lord is God and it is time to turn back to Him. Their repentance is demonstrated by putting to death all of the deceitful prophets who had encouraged turning to a god different from the true God.
This ending is a little shocking to the sensibilities of today. “Elijah killed them all? That’s not very loving or tolerant. Why did he do this?”
Well, look at Deuteronomy 13:1-11. *Read*
God had given the Israelites the Mosaic Law as their form of government. That law described what to do in the event that someone should come to try to turn Israel away from the true God – and that something was to put the person to death. The strict and severe treatment was to discourage any false prophet from ever trying to do so again.
So, if your sensibilities are shocked by this and you wonder – did God command this to happen? The answer is – yes, He did. It was carried out in repentant obedience to God’s command. If you think that command a little harsh, well, consider that for more than 3 years Israel has been engaged in worshipping a false god which they sacrificed their children to because they did not obey the command. These are not nice people that were put to death. They were people who burned infants alive. A lot of terrible things could have been avoided if it hadn’t taken 3 and a half years for the people to obey.
But, here’s the important thing. Many places in the New Testament make clear that Christians are not under the Mosaic Law today. Read through Galatians if you think Christians should still follow the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law is not our governing Law as Christians. Neither is the United States under the Mosaic Law in its governmental form, so we aren’t under the Mosaic Law as citizens either.
So, to do something like this today would be a very serious sin. It would be mass murder, not the application of capital punishment in accordance with the written law. Not obedience to God’s command, murder – plain and simple.
There is a reason that you never read about the early church out there killing other people like this, and that’s because the New Testament is very clear that’s not the way Christians are to be. Instead, Christians are the ones dying in submission to Christ’s commands. The Mosaic Law showed God’s punishment of sin. The Law of Christ show’s God’s self-sacrificing mercy and grace.
All of God’s Word, Old Testament included, has things to teach us about God and obedience to God. We just always want to make sure we do a careful job in applying it. The Mosaic Law is a unique law for a unique nation in a unique period of history. There is a reason these commands were given, and there is a reason we don’t follow them today. A lot of confusion is settled when we remember that.
Conclusion:
- Unfortunately, people who hate God tend to blame all their problems on God and His people. Problem upon problem is added onto their lives as they continually reject the Lord and His commandments. Their poor choices lead to a bad life. But then, instead of turning back to God, they blame God and His people for their problems. God can change such people, but around them “be wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.”
- Our prayers should be cognizant of the fact that God does hear, does care, and is willing to act to do good things. You don’t have to earn His attention or talk Him into doing good.
- God is pleased to do miraculous things and answer prayer requests when they are within His will and plan. Miraculous answers to prayer give God the glory the best because they are not easily explained away. Don’t be afraid to ask for a miracle in your prayers to God. Be sure to give Him glory for the answer when it comes.
- We must be careful to recognize the historical uniqueness of some circumstances in the Bible. Miracles still happen, but you aren’t likely to see a column of fire from heaven in answer to prayer today. If you gather together a large group of people and pour water on something to watch fire come down, you’re probably going to be embarrassed. And we are not to harm people who believe differently from us. All of this happened at a unique time, for a unique purpose, and God personally instructed Elijah all the way.