1 KINGS 18
Read 1 Kings 18:1-46
In these early days of the monarchy one of the mains tasks of a prophet was to confront the kings who had not only gone astray, but led God’s people astray too. Ahab, with the enthusiastic backing of his pagan wife, Jezebel, had turned away from God and worshipped idols. Elijah was detailed by the Lord to confront him. Last time we saw that God had withheld rain from the land to show that he was the true God of fertility and not the false god Baal that Ahab and his followers worshipped. Elijah made contact through Obadiah, the king’s head steward. Now Obadiah seems to have been a good man; he loved the Lord and hid away one hundred prophets who were in danger of persecution. An interesting note is that while Obadiah was concerned for the safety of God’s prophets, King Ahab seemed to be only concerned with the safety of his mules and horses (v5).
Obadiah brokered a meeting between King Ahab and Elijah. And then Elijah proposed a showdown to determine once and for all who is God – is it the Lord or is it Baal? Elijah claimed to be the last of the Lord’s prophets (we know he wasn’t because Obadiah had hidden away one hundred of them – but Ahab wasn’t to know that!) and he challenged four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal to a contest. Two sacrifices were to be set up, one for each side, and they would call on their respective gods to bring down fire to consume the sacrifices. The odds were stacked, one against four hundred and fifty. The prophets of Baal went first but there was no reply from their god; they tried and tried, but no answer. Elijah started taunting them. ‘Not much of a god, is he? Perhaps he’s not paying attention, perhaps he’s asleep, perhaps he’s gone to the toilet’ (that is what is in the Hebrew text but our translations don’t quite bring that out!). But to no avail, Baal did not respond.
Then it was Elijah’s turn. He obviously thought that four hundred and fifty against one was unfair, so he made things even more difficult for God by drenching his sacrifice with water. Then, rather than shouting and dancing and even the self-harm that the prophets of Baal did (v28), Elijah simply and quietly prayed to the Lord, acknowledging him as the one true God and that he himself was a servant of Lord (vv36-38). The Lord responded by igniting Elijah’s waterlogged sacrifice and proving that he, and not Baal, was the one true God.
There is a real contrast between the actions of the prophets of Baal and Elijah. The prophets of Baal indulged in frenzied passionate worship, even harming themselves to try to get their God to respond. Elijah prayed and trusted the Lord. There are some people who seem to think that God will only do things if there is passionate, even excessive religious activity. Outdoing others in religious fervour does not mean that God will favour you over others. What does God require of us? “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Simple, honest and faithful prayer is all Elijah needed and it is all we need as well.