Unanswered Love and an All-in God - 1 Kings 18:20-40

Introduction

Introduction

Jesse Whitlock was the prettiest girl in the first grade. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and the coolest giant Snoopy pencil you’ve ever seen. And, she was my girlfriend. Of all the dudes, I was her favorite dude. The timing was really great, too. I was just learning to read and write, which meant I could develop my Shakespearean English by writing love sonnets to my Juliet. That is, until I realized she was telling my best friend, Mark, the same things she was telling me. One day on the playground, I see Jesse — my Juliet — holding hands with that traitor I used to call my friend. And, that’s when I realized that I loved her but she didn’t love me back.

There’s no worse feeling than loving someone who doesn’t love you back. To realize that you’re giving of yourself to someone who is only interested in taking and not returning.

God’s Word

Like me chasing Jesse Whitlock in the first grade, it seems we’re always chasing love only to never be loved back. That’s what’s happening with Israel in 1 Kings 18. Over and again, they keep chasing after these false gods — especially Baal. And, they keep chasing after Baal because Baal offers them more money, more success, more achievement than God seems to. That’s what leads to the big confrontation that’s happening here between Elijah — God’s prophet — and Ahab — Israel’s king.

This confrontation makes clear that this A Story with Three Different Types of Love (Headline):

A story of “half-hearted” love.

1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.”

You know, the thing about Jesse is that she was leading me on. She would give me just enough attention to keep me interested, but never enough to show me real love. This is the common approach to faith in Jesus today. I’ll give him a little. I’ll acknowledge that the evidence of his resurrection is impressive. I’ll be baptized in case it’s true. I’ll jump into a church service if nothing else is going on, but I can’t give him everything. And, that’s exactly where Israel is in 1 Kings 18 in their relationship with the Lord. When Elijah is able to confront all of Israel, he asks them: “How long will you go LIMPING between two opinions?” “Limping” is an interesting word that will come up again in verse 26. It can mean to be on two crutches so that you’re not on solid ground, or it can be the picture of hopping from one leg to the other. It’s having one foot in two different camps. It’s a description of half-hearted love. It’s an attempt to love two opposing realities at the same time. You see, half-hearted love...

Half-hearted love keeps its “options” open.

That’s how we should see this “limping”. Isreal is open to the possibility of more gods, even better gods than what they would have thought of as their ancestral God. That’s why the “people did not answer him a word.” They didn’t want to decide. They wanted the ability to jump at a better opportunity if it should present. Did you know that 30% of Tinder users are married? 30% have made a vow to another person, but are keeping their options open. Is that love? Is it love when we reduce God to the margins of our lives so that we pay attention to him only if nothing more exciting or seemingly more advantageous comes along? Are you keeping your options open with the Lord? Because, it’s also true that...

Half-hearted love refuses to “commit”.

Elijah assures Isreal that their indecision really is a decision. The very nature of God demands a decision. So, Elijah asks them: Are you all in? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” You see, what Isreal really wanted was to be able to have both Baal and YHWH. They wanted to keep their long history with YHWH and add to him the success and influence and wealth that Baal offered. God had told them that He was the only God and they should love him, but they kept their hearts open to more.

That’s what we do, too. We live in a world with a lot of gods, don’t we? You can take some people’s social media posts about little league or sports or exercise or education or sex, and you could substitute the name Jesus, and the post would still make sense. Our commitment to our own success and the achievement of our dreams is religious in nature. Jesus becomes a contributor to our well-roundedness, just one slice of the pie rather than the blazing center of our lives, which is really just a way to say that He’s one god among many. We want Jesus and we want popularity. Both matter to us. We want Jesus and to live like our friends too. We want Jesus and every rusting treasure this world can offer us. But, Is that love?

A God this great demands decisive faith. He wants to set you free from worrying with all of that. He wants to set you free from winning everyone’s approval and attaining success as this world defines it. But, you have to decide: Will you go all in with him? Not just a slice, but your whole life!

A story of “unanswered” love.

So, Elijah issues a challenge, a proposal. There will be a contest between the LORD and Baal. If Israel believes that Baal is a rival and competitor to the LORD, then we’ll settle this on the field. They meet at Mt. Carmel, which is right on the edge of Baal territory. Baal is given a bit of home-field advantage. Baal’s 450 prophets will have first pick of the animal to sacrifice. Double advantage Baal — they have more prophets and first pick in the draft. Then, they’ll call down fire from heaven, which should be Baal’s specialty since he supposedly controls lightning. Advantage Baal. Elijah stacks the competition in Baal’s favor because dead men can’t dunk, even if it’s a six foot goal.

And, Elijah was proving to them that Baal didn’t love them back. In both cases, the love had been one-sided. As the prophets of Baal seek to prove his power, you see the tragedy of loving a god that doesn’t love you back.

Other gods are “absent” from the chase.

1 Kings 18:26-29 “And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.”

The day I found Jesse and Mark walking on the playground holding hands, I got off of the bus at home, and I cried as I walked up my driveway. I wanted her to love me so badly, but she didn’t. Thankfully, my mom did, and she made me some pizza and I got over it. But, that’s Israel. They wanted Baal to love them so badly. They wanted what he had promised them. And, in 1 Kings 18, their chase redlines. They’re put the pedal down and are going for broke. But, what they get is a cold shoulder. The prophets call and call on Baal for hours with everything on the line, and nothing happens. The mockery of Elijah stands out. Can you imagine playing backyard ball with this guy? But, it’s meant to highlight what a silly, foolish pursuit it is to chase after a god who doesn’t love you, when you have a God who is committed to you chasing after you. Each satirical insult points to a different known and accepted flaw in Baal’s character. He was known to be flighty and undependable and sleepy — like a man. It’s not just that Baal isn’t a good god; he’s not even a good man. Chase after him all you want, and you’ll never catch anything be air.

That’s because...

Other gods are “abusive” of their followers.

For hours, the prophets of Baal — who are likely Israelite prophets that caved to Jezebel’s persecution and converted to Baalism — do everything imaginable to catch Baal’s eye. They dance and shout. They’re ecstatic and fanatical. They cut themselves so that their blood begins to spill out — something that the Lord forbids his people to do — hoping to arouse the interests of Baal in any way possible. And, it’s interesting that the word “limping” comes up again, isn’t it? They’ve been limping between two gods, and the god they’re chasing has left them quite literally with a limp after years of abuse. “Idols abuse their worshipers.” Phillip Ryken

I’ve seen so many student experience this over the years. They sleep with their boyfriends so he won’t leave them, so he will love them back, but he bails. Then, it happens again and again so that all self-worth seems lost. You work and work so that your dad will be proud of you. You make the best grades. You score the most points. You get into the best school. But, he still doesn’t seem proud. You want to fit in. So, you compromise everything you’ve ever believed in. You change how you act and how you talk and what you do and where you go. But, enough is never enough, is it? You have to keep going. You’re being neglected and abused.

And, there’s a dire warning for us here...

Other gods “abandon” when it matters.

And, the prophets are a sad story, aren’t they? They were fanatical, passionate, and more than committed. They had sold out to the hope of Baal. And, I point that out because it contradicts the graduation speeches you hear. You can be whole-heartedly sure of you “my truth” and whole-heartedly wrong at the same time. You’ll notice the sequence of three “no’s” in verse 29. It’s a punctuation of the silence of Baal. He’s not coming; he’s not speaking; he doesn’t care. Is there a greater tragedy than selling out your soul to a god that doesn’t hear you, love you, or answer you? Are we living for gods that won’t love us back? We love sports because they offer us fame and prestige, but they don’t love us back. As soon as we get injured or graduate, they replace us and forget we were ever there. It’s empty. We love popularity. Being liked is a great feeling, but as soon as we mess up, as soon as someone more exciting comes along, as soon as everyone moves on with their lives, we realize how people were really using us to feel good about themselves. It’s empty. We love achievement and success. To win the award and receive the scholarship and get accepted into the school seems as though it will make us finally feel acceptable to others and meaningful personally. But, climbing one mountain just leads to another one. The day after winning one award you start looking for another one so that you can recapture the feeling. It’s like trying to catch the wind. It’s empty.

These false prophets make us ask: What if you’re all in with the wrong gods?

A story of “all-in” love.

This proposal is meant to prove two things: God is greater, and Israel’s love is lesser. There are two different dimensions of unanswered love in this story — two different instances of one loving someone without the other loving them back. First, there’s Israel’s love for and pursuit of Baal. Secondly, there’s Israel. God had loved Israel, saved Israel, and set Israel apart. But, Israel had not loved him back.

Don’t you see how much better the love of God is? That’s the point of this story. That’s the point. We keep chasing other gods, and the LORD keeps chasing us. He’s relentless. Sometimes, people read the Bible, and they wonder: Why does it have to be all about God all the time? Why does He have to rule over the details of my life? Is He some kind of narcissist or something? But, you see, God is the sun, and we are the earth. If the gravitational pull of the sun is off just a bit, the earth is destroyed. God is our gravity. He’s not a piece of our lives. He is our lives. He is the one whole holds our lives together. We can only flourish when our lives rotate around him. You see, life with God is qualitatively better. He releases you from answering to gods that don’t care about you. You see, you can learn how to throw a curveball, and the second you graduate, you’ll be replaced. You can become the most popular person in school, and the second everyone moves off to college, they’ll forget about you. What a harsh slavery. But, a life centered upon the enjoyment of God is just the starting line for an eternal joy. It’s one thing to focus upon, to revolve around that will reap dividends for billions of years to come. That’s freedom, man. And, in the Kingdom of God, there are no replacements. What does your life revolve around? What does your family revolve around? What does your career revolve around? What do the conversations with your kids revolve around? What does your calendar and your budget and your decision-making revolve around around?

1 Kings 18:36-39 “And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.””

Elijah rebuilds the altar of the LORD with 12 stones to represent all of Israel — a reminder that they had been fractured because of false gods already. Three different times, he has water poured over the sacrifice. He’s disadvantaged the Lord in every way possible. This isn’t going to be a slight-of-hand trick. And, without fanatical dances or ecstatic shouts or pouring blood, a missile of fire shoots across the darkening sky and consumes the sacrifice — and all the stones too. Again, God had proven his power, but more than that, He had proven his love. When the fire consumes the stones, it’s a picture of what could happen and what should happen. How should God respond to the unanswered love of his people? He should consume them. How did He respond to them? By pursuing them again. By displaying his glory again. By showing, again, that He is alive and sovereign and the ruler of the gods. It was on one hand — to the answer of Elijah’s prayer proof of his power, and it was on the other— a call for them to love him decisively.

You see, the point is: God has went all in with you. The cross proves that to us. He pierces himself and spills his on blood, completely different from all the other gods. We may ignore him, deny him, and reject him. He came to us and died for us any way. So, he’s went all in with us. Will you go all in with him? That’s the question that faced Israel. That’s the question that faces you.