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God had withheld the rain for three years. He’d also hidden and protected His servant
Elijah. Now God was ready to confront
His people about who they would
serve. Ahab and 450 prophets of Baal met
Elijah on Mt. Carmel at Elijah’s request, and Elijah suggested a contest to
prove whether God or Baal was the mightiest.
The people were vacillating between serving God and Baal, and Elijah
called for them to decide, but no one spoke.
In the margin of my Bible I’d written, “Not deciding between
God and sin is a sin.”
Elijah weighted the contest heavily in favor of the prophets
of Baal, allowing them to go first
and giving them all the time they needed to pray for Baal to answer. They tried feverishly to call for his help
until 3pm, but of course no answer came.
Then Elijah did something I’d not really realized the
significance of before: He rebuilt a
stone altar to Jehovah there using 12
stones for the 12 tribes of Israel.
That’s significant because he was in Israel, the northern kingdom of 10 tribes. The southern kingdom, consisting of Judah and
Benjamin, wasn’t represented and was disliked by the other 10 tribes. My commentary said in doing this, “He
reaffirmed the spiritual unity of God’s
people in spite of their political division.”
After having weighted the contest in favor the prophets of
Baal, Elijah now handicapped himself
more to highlight even more God’s power, by having the sacrifice, the wood,
the altar, and the ground saturated with water.
He then prayed one time that God would glorify Himself and that He would
change the minds of the people
through what He was about to do. “By
sending fire from heaven, the Lord would be telling His people that He had forgiven them and would turn their hearts back to the worship
of the true God,” my commentary said.
God did just that, immediately sending fire from heaven,
burning up not just the sacrifice and the wood, but even the stones of the altar, the ground around
the altar, and all the water in the ditch around the altar! The people were left with no doubts that God
was mightier than Baal!
Elijah directed the people to capture the 450 prophets of
Baal and he killed them in the valley below before returning to the top of Mt.
Carmel to await the rain.
Seven times Elijah prayed for God to now send the rain, and
six times no response was evident, yet after the seventh time of prayer, clouds
began to form on the horizon. My commentary
said, “This is a good example for us to follow as we watch and pray and continue to intercede until the Lord sends His answer.”
Elijah sent a “flash flood warning” to King Ahab, telling
his he’d better get his chariot moving or risk getting stuck – this after the
ground had received no rain for 3
years and would be able to soak up huge amounts of water! God then gave His power to Elijah, who ran
the 17 miles back to Jezreel ahead
of Ahab’s chariot, beating him home!
Father, how thrilled Elijah must have been to watch as You
immediately answered his prayer and burned up his sacrifice, proving that Baal
was nothing. As the 450 prophets of Baal were destroyed, I
imagine that he was glad to be removing a huge source of Baal-worship. Then as You sent the rain, I imagine every
drop that touched his body felt like a kiss from You. What it also must have been like to run
faster than a chariot, without tiring, for 17
miles!
Yet fresh from this spiritual victory, Elijah will face a
spiritual valley. It seems to always happen. Please help me as spiritual victories occur in my own life not to be tempted by
a sense of entitlement to sin and not to have to experience what Elijah will
endure next.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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