Showdown on Mt. Carmel - 1 Kings 18:16-40
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Alright, we're continuing in our series. I'm excited about about continuing in our series this morning. We've covered Moses, we've covered David, we've covered Noah. All these impossible moments or impossible odds where belief and faith in God were a must, and God was truly the only answer. What I'm loving about this series is that we are participating in a very simple ancient practice of sharing about Yahweh. I like using Yahweh because in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, that is God's name, and it distinguishes him from all the other gods that other cultures worshiped. But this ancient practice is really simple. It's all about sharing stories of God, of what he's done. And so from Israelites who would share with their Israelite children, to even other nations who didn't know or worship God, they would hear about Yahweh from these stories. They'd say, "Oh, you know, hey, little kid, we worship this God that did this for us, that in our past, he has done this, he has provided this in miraculous ways." Or these other nations that worship other gods would hear about Israel's God and say, "Oh, your God, Yahweh is the God that split the sea in two and had people walk on dry land." Or, "Your God is the God who brought down the largest fortress without any weapons." Or, "Your God is the God who helped people stay alive in the desert for 40 years." The people would come to know who Yahweh was by simply sharing these amazing stories of God at work. And before the early church, and before we had the Sunday format that we have today of coming to the church and hearing a sermon, this is how God was shared, was just telling stories about him.
So I love that we're doing that here on a Sunday. We're just sharing stories about what God has done in the past. Today, I wanna get into another impossible moment where the situation looked like it had impossible odds, but God shows up on center stage before Israel to remind them that he is God, that he's alive and that he is at work. Today, a little background with where we're at. in the era of the prophets. So we've had the kingdom of Israel, they've had a golden era, they had King David, a most amazing king, they had King Solomon, but after those two kings, it was really a short-lived golden era, those two kings, and then after that it goes downhill pretty quick. Those kings that follow Solomon, the tone shifts to very darkened and saddened as most of them drift away from God, and they disobey the number one commandment. Does anyone here remember of your 10 Commandments, your Sunday school, what is the first commandment? Okay, yes? Yes, yes. So, to not have any other gods before me. I do it in like the King James version, that's what I grew up with, but yeah. There's the "hath" and the "thou nots." But to not have any other gods except Him. And many of the Israelite kings have invited false gods into the culture, into the life of the Israelite people, specifically Baal or Baal. And if you were to read through 1 Kings, you would see this phrase, next to all these kings who continue to fail, it says, "And they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." I don't know about you, but I do not want that attached to my name at the end of my life. And for people to remember me by that, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. But that is what is attached to all these kings after Solomon, most of them. There's some good ones, but they're very few. but most of these kings are falling away from God and bringing Israel with them.
And we come to this, in this section of scripture, we come to this passage where we meet Elijah, this prophet. And so if you're reading your Bible, it's kind of this downhill decline of like, "Oh Solomon, uh oh, more and more, worse, worse." And then we have a little like, "Oh, who's this? It's Elijah. This is good." We don't have a lot of background on Elijah, he just kind of appears on the scene, but we do know that he's good because of how he's introduced to us. And it's through a couple small stories that let us know that he's going to be a good person. Kind of like David, there's this template in the Old Testament that sometimes we don't get the background on who they are, but we get a couple small stories, and they're good stories, like David and being able to defeat Goliath before he's king, or that he's able to kill a bear to protect the sheep, and you're kind of clued into, like, "Oh, David's going to be a really good guy." Well, the same with Elijah. We get a couple small stories that say, "Oh, Elijah's one of the good ones. He's working on God's behalf. And so the first story that we learn about Elijah is with this widow and her son. And right now at this time there's a famine in the land, and this widow and her son are on the doorstep of death. They're starving, and they're about to die, and they have a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil left. And they're planning their last meal. I mean, this is a very dark scene. And Elijah comes and he says, "I would also like to eat." Which, you're like, that's kind of inconsiderate. "This is their last meal, and you want them to share "what little they have with you." But God makes it go a long way, and it turns into a feast, and the oil and the flour don't run out. And so that's the first clue of like, "Oh, that's good. "This guy's a good guy." Next story is, sadly, that widow and her son, the son dies. And through the power of God, Elijah is able to raise that son from death back to life. And again, we're clued into like, "Oh, okay. "Elijah really is a good guy. "He's got the power of God with him." And so if you were reading the story of seeing all these kings fail, fail, fail, then Elijah, you'd be clued into like, okay, God's at work here, God's on the move, there's momentum shifting here, God is up to something.
The king of Israel at the time is King Ahab, and Elijah has had one previous encounter with him where he's told him, there's gonna be a famine in the land. There's gonna be a famine as a result of your disobedience to God, of your not being able to follow God's command. And so now Elijah is gonna come back and confront Ahab again, particularly about the worship of Baal and saying, "Hey, you gotta fix this "or it's only gonna get worse." So if you would turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Kings, we're in chapter 18, and I'm gonna read section by section, we'll pause along the way 'cause it's a long section of scripture, but we're gonna start in verse 16 And it says, "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, "and Ahab went to meet Elijah. "And 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 king's commands, "or 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 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.
We'll stop right there for a second. Elijah and Ahab meet up, and initially Ahab tries to put the blame for Israel, for Israel's issues on Elijah. And Elijah calls him, I was like, hey, this is not me. This was all you, I told you before, this is why the famine's here. And I love that in verse 19, Elijah says, let's deal with this right now. It's clearly on your mind, this is why I came to talk to you, let's deal with it right now. And I love this immediate action from Elijah, 'cause it's very much not who I am, so I admire that someone else is able to do this. If there's an issue, I kinda take the slow approach, like, all right, let's discern what God wants us to do, let's see what my response should be. And I like how Elijah's like, you, me, all of Israel, outside, right now, let's go. He's like, we're gonna take care of this. And so our stage is set. We have all of Israel, that's a lot of people, we have 450 prophets of Baal, We have King Ahab and one prophet of God, of Yahweh, and that's Elijah. By the way, if we just look at those optics, that's a lot of representation for the false god, Baal. And no wonder you can kind of see why Israel's fallen away. The one voice of God, which technically they should all know God, they come from, they're God's people. They know the law, they know the stories, but they have 450 prophets of false God. That's a lot of representation. That's a lot of false teaching. That's a lot of influence pulling God's people away from Him. And before you judge Israel and say, "Hey, you should have known better," which we're all tempted to do, pause and think about the influences in your own life. What voices are speaking to you? What influences do you have in your life? And how many of them are speaking truth? How many of them are speaking the love, the compassion, the kindness of God? Besides the Sunday, which you're all here right now, So this is one voice. What influences and other voices are speaking God's truth into and over your life? Israel had a lot of false prophets, but we too can have a lot of false teachings, a lot of lies being poured into our minds, whether that be through music or movies, TV shows, social media, other people that do not speak truth, whatever the case may be, all those things might be pulling us away from God. Israel needed to hear from God. And Elijah helped set the stage to make this happen. And the odds are becoming very clear. In front of Israel's eyes, on Mount Carmel, we have 450 prophets of Baal. On this side and over here, we have one prophet of Yahweh. And I imagine right now, by the way, Elijah just looks epic. Kind of like, I'm imagining like Jedi cloak with a beard, like a Pastor Chris beard, like, you know, just like man of God. And he's kind of, I imagine him with like this game face. He's like facing the other, he's like, yeah, let's go. We're gonna do this right now. Just epic, okay? Imagine that right there.
Let's continue in our story. Verse 21 says, "Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between the two opinions? "If the Lord is God, follow him. "But if Baal is God, follow him. "And the people said nothing. "Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bowls for us. Let Baal's prophets 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 bowl and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it. 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. And all the people said, what you say is good." So Elijah's not messing around. He doesn't miss words. He walks over to Israel and says, "Let's decide this right now. Why do you keep wavering between the two, Baal and Yahweh? You can only worship one God. And if Baal is God, worship Him. If Yahweh is God, then worship Him. But no more worshiping both." Just a thought on Elijah's words here is because it's not something we see often in Scripture. is the opportunity kind of presented to Israel to say, "Hey, if you want to go that way, go that way. But just don't do this thing where you're in between." Most of the time we hear the prophets and the people in the Bible and the scriptures saying, "You need to follow God." And this time they're kind of given this choice of like, "Hey, if that's what you want to do, then go do it." And I like that because I think we need that clarity today. Not that we would say exactly this to people. I mean, obviously use discernment and God's love and compassion. But it's kind of like saying, "Hey, if If you're calling yourself a Christian, then you gotta, you can't do these other things and follow these other things. You need to follow Jesus. Clarity is important here. Don't claim the name of the Lord being the one that you follow if you also follow these other things that are clearly not God. It doesn't help. It doesn't help you. It doesn't help the witness of God to other people. So this clarity is super important. I don't think, again, I would say this, but I do appreciate Elijah holding the people of Israel accountable to the law, to who they are as God's people. And sometimes we need to do that with people in our lives who claim to be followers of Jesus. Hold people in your life, the brothers and sisters that you have in Christ, accountable to the faith that they have in God. We just had a bunch of baptisms. I think about 15 students got baptized at camp this past week. And part of that public declaration of their faith is that they now belong to the family of God, to the church. And that means that we get to speak into their lives and say, "Hey, this is the way in which you need to go. Hey, you're a little bit off course right now. Let me help you get back." And also people can speak that into our lives. So maybe God is calling you to be a voice into someone else's life, to help them as they've wandered off course and have the courage, pray for the courage and the compassion especially to love and be that fellow believer to them.
In our story, Elijah gives the parameters to the challenge. So each side gets a bowl for the sacrifice. Each side will build an altar, and each side will call upon their God. Whichever God answers by fire, lighting that altar on fire wins, and wins all the people of Israel. If Baal wins, then Israel will go follow Baal. Pretty straightforward. If you're a fan of God, which I know all of you are, and you kind of know that this is exciting because God's gonna be at work, And God and fire have a good, you know, they have a good history. You know, God, burning bush, that was fire, that was God. The pillar of fire in the desert, leading Israel. So I feel like Elijah is sitting here being like, "Yeah, this is easy. "We got this one in the bag." Again, game face for Elijah. He's like very serious right now. And so the prophets of Baal go first. Elijah lets them go first. And again, knowing that if Baal were to answer, Israel would technically be allowed to follow them.
And the showdown begins, let's go back into our Bibles at verse 25, it says, "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. "So they took the bull, given them, and prepared it. "Then they called on the name of Baal "from morning till noon. "Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response, no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder," he said. "Surely he is God. Perhaps he is deep in thought or busy or traveling. Maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened." And so they shout louder and slash themselves with swords and spears as was their custom until their blood flowed. And midday passed and they continue their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. This did not go well for the prophets of Baal. It was so bad that even the people of Israel stopped watching. The prophets had set up their altar and they start crying out to Baal, calling from morning till noon. That is a long time. Hours. And silence. Start dancing around, trying to get the attention of Baal. Silence. Elijah starts taunting them. And these are... There's not a lot of smack talk in the Bible, but this is good. These are some good smack talk lines. And he says, "Oh, is he tired? Maybe he's not home right now." The ESV translates it to, "Is he relieving himself?" Which, whatever tone or attitude you read that with, that's such a good line. Elijah knows that it's over. Like this is, it's over.
And before we get carried away, I mean, there is some humor to it. Before we get carried away with celebrating that the prophets of Baal are defeated, What happens next is really a very dark scene. They start to cut themselves. And self-mutilation was a common practice for false gods at that time of trying to get their gods' attention. It's a mourning ritual, saying we're so sad. And so you could see these prophets saying in sadness, like, where are you, Baal? We've been crying out to you. We're so saddened right now that we haven't heard from you. And as much as, by the way, Yahweh, just for the record, we worship an amazing God. He prohibits self-mutilation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, so God's not about that. But as much as this scene gives us a sense of justice, and it should to a certain extent, I also believe that the heart of God was also broken and saddened by this. These people who are still humans made in the image of God, and God sees them and sees just how twisted and broken and fallen their minds have become to worship a false god like this. These people really believe that Baal would answer. They truly believe that. And when it didn't go their way, they started to harm themselves. Israel saw this too, and they even just stopped watching. I think they started to realize what was happening. But the tone here isn't like a, ha ha, like this is so funny, you guys lost. But it's more of silence and pity from Israel over these prophets. looking like how sad this is and kind of embarrassing. This is not good. And for us today, where are our hearts? When we see people whose minds and lives are broken and fallen and living out some twisted form of the truth, are we still compassionate, loving, kind, and slow to anger all the characteristics of God? Do we still look at them as made in the image of God? Or are we cruel and hateful and taking joy in someone's pain and loss? Do our hearts reflect God's love in all circumstances? Despite what happens at the end of the story, we are still called to love the lost and the broken. Even when those people don't realize it, even when they're in the deepest form of their brokenness, we are still called to be a Christ-like example to them.
Let's continue in our passage, verse 30. It says, "Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." And they came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. Elijah took 12 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." 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 sayers of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bowl into pieces, and laid it on the wood. And then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it a third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. 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. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. Now, given our series, did we ever have any doubt? No. But still amazing to read God at work here. Elijah, it's his turn and he fixes the altar. That's a whole other side story that we don't get into this morning, but he fixes the altar.
And Elijah goes beyond the agreed terms. He digs this trench around the altar. He has them pour water over the bull, the wood, the rocks, and he has it done three times. And then he prays. He prays to God that God would answer so that the people's hearts would be turned back toward him. He's not praying for his own glory. He's not praying that people like God help him to see how amazing I am. He's praying that their hearts would yearn for God and that God would be glorified. I mean, do we pray like that? Do we pray with a mind and a heart that is yearning for God's glory? I wanna ask this this morning, how can we maybe change our hearts and change our prayers with more of a mind to seek God first in what is happening, even if it means hardship for us, do we have a heart and mind that is yearning for God's glory? This requires us to be in tune with God's heart, and to be mindful of God's desires, where he is moving, what he's doing, and requires us to know him. In order to yearn for what God yearns for, we have to know God. That comes through reading, praying, time spent with him. So Elijah prays, and what happens? God answers. And notice this contrast in the story. On this side, we had the prophets who are yelling, shouting, begging, cutting themselves, trying to get the attention of Baal. And on this side, we have Elijah who just prays. He talks to God and God responds. We worship and serve a God who hears us, who answers us when we call. And we can have a deep assurance that when we pray, God hears and responds. Verse 38 says, God's response was that 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. So what happened to that altar? Gone. The rocks, gone. The bull, gone. Wood, gone. The soil, gone, like burned. The water, gone. All of it, God consumed all of it. Again, this is just, I love how over the top this is. Like you have these prophets over here trying their hardest and nothing happens. And you have Elijah who's just like, "Poor water, yeah, just water. "Add water to this, let's make this even harder." And it's nothing for God. God burns it all. Game over.
The people of Israel witnessed this and saw something undeniable. They witnessed Yahweh in action. And they responded in the most appropriate way, falling prostrate and declaring that Yahweh was indeed Lord. There is a renewed submission to God, a renewed confession of faith. Not only, they're saying not only does Yahweh exist, He's one of the gods, He's the God, but they also have put their faith back into Him. And this is one of the few times where we look at Israel and say, "Good job, this is what we should do too." When your wrongs are exposed in life, when you realize and acknowledge that you have been going in a direction that's away from God, do what Israel does. Repent, turn back to God, declare your faith in him. Fall prostrate and declare that Jesus is indeed your savior, that your faith is in him. Remember the gospel, let it soften your heart. Don't get defensive about where you've been going and the direction that you've been going, but instead repent, be like the Israelites just fall before God and say, "I'm sorry, you are Lord. I got this wrong.”
Our story ends in verse 40, where it says, "Then Elijah commanded them, 'Seize the prophets of Baal, don't let anyone get away.' They seized them and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there." Now the end of the story has a very serious tone, as Elijah has all the prophets of Baal slaughtered. If you read to the end of the chapter, The famine that was in place because of Israel's rebellion is ended with heavy rains. The famine goes away and God brings rain back. And Elijah goes off to continue to do the Lord's work. But verse 40 is very real. And it was actually the mosaic penalty for prophets who promoted other gods found in Deuteronomy 13. Elijah is carrying out the law. And given the context of Israel having forgotten the law, the king forgotten the law, The consequence here seems to fit as a way of punishment for the false prophets. And also to remind Israel, "This is how I called you to live. This is the law, this is the word of God, this is the standard which I've set before you. And these are the consequences if you don't." Now let me be clear, that's not any application for us today. I don't know if it's spending a week with you students, I need to clarify that. We're not supposed to do what Elijah does in verse 40.
But instead, think about this, what thought or ideology or belief or distraction or sin or motivation do you need to kill in order to give God your everything? What do you need to get rid of in your life completely that may be holding you back from pursuing God with your everything? That's what it was for Israel. These prophets, this fixation with Baal was holding Israel back from pursuing God like they were supposed to. And while we may not have a ball in our lives, we do have other things in our lives that hold us back, that keep us from God. And so, this morning or in this week, think about what is holding you back. What are those things that are keeping you from pursuing God with everything you have? This is a great story of God showing up, of a prophet, God's servant, helping get Israel back on track.
And hopefully today you are encouraged to get back on track, or to be like an Elijah and help your brother or sister in Christ get back on track. Our series has a theme, "God can overcome anything." And He did so in our passage today for His glory, and also so that the people of Israel would be reminded of who He is and what He can do. And God can do the same in your life. Whatever you're going through, it is not enough to stop God. God can overcome it. God can show up when it seems impossible, when it seems unlikely, when it seems improbable. God can exercise His grace, His power, His love and strength to help you see Him more clearly. And sometimes we just need to pray and we can rest assured that God will answer. Amen.
Let's pray. God, thank you for this amazing story of seeing you at work. And thank you, God, that we can rest assured that you are there, you are living, you are a God that is not only present, but is deeply a part of our lives. And so I pray that you would draw us back to you. God, that you would help us identify the things that are keeping us from pursuing you with everything. Maybe some of those things are, in and of themselves, good things, but maybe they're out of alignment in our lives, and we have them too high of a priority. I pray that through your Spirit, you would help us discern where we need to adjust some things, and that we could run after you with everything that we have. God, I pray that for anyone who's dealing with difficult times, challenges, I pray that they would rest assured and take comfort in the fact that when they pray, you hear them and that you will answer. It may not be in the way that we expect. It may not be in an audible voice, maybe it is. But God, I pray that you would help them see how you are answering their prayers. That they would see and know just as Israel did, that you are God. We love you, Lord, and we give you our everything. We pray this in your name, amen.