Supernatural God

INTRO

If you have your Bible today you can turn to 1 Kings 18 and if yo don’t grab one off the floor, open up you Bible app or look on the screen because you are going to want to see in the Word today what God has for you. This story that we are going to look at is one of the most well known stories about Elijah. You probably heard it when you were a little kid with some flannel-graph pictures possibly? Two weeks ago we saw Elijah have supernatural confidence to challenge Ahab and the prophets of Baal to meet at mount carmel. When I was a kid, all I could picture was people on a mountain of caramel. Just a random confession this morning, but the mountain was not made of caramel, it was actually a mountain where Baal worship was happening. This is interesting and good to know because Elijah is so supernaturally confident in God that he is challenging his enemies on their own territory. He is giving them “home court advantage” so to speak. But that is not the only advantage he gives them, as we will soon see. Since we have a decent amount to cover today, I’m going to just jump into the Word today, everyone ready?

BODY

20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 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.

So two interesting things in these two verses that I want to point out that will helpfully help us understand what is going on here. First, is this word “Limping” in verse 21. Some other translations are waver, struggle, sit on the fence or some kind of understanding that they are worshipping Baal in vain. But the word limping is intentional because we will see that this is what the prophets of Baal are doing when they start worshipping Baal. Their worship is in vain.

The second thing I want you to see is the response of the people. How did the people of Israel respond after Elijah gives them this challenge? Yea, they didn’t answer a word. Now there are really only three reasons for this

WHY THEY DID NOT ANSWER ELIJAH?

They didn’t hear him. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was windy and he didn’t have microphone to project? Maybe, maybe not?

Fear of King Ahab. Maybe they thought if they all cheered in agreement. King Ahab would make his soldiers start killing people off. This wasn’t a potluck. This was a tense moment.

Silence is the easiest way to be noncommittal. This is my assumption. They knew they were wrong. They knew that Elijah was pressing in on their idol that was not working. But with no kind of response, they can’t be help responsible for their sin. Passivity, apathy, and lack of response are not okay in the people of God. This is why I’m trying to help us to be responsive to the Word of God. Even if it means you are angry with it. Like be hot or cold! Don’t be indifferent. Don’t be numb to the call of God in your life. Do not harden your voice if you hear his voice today. Let us be responsive to the God’s word.

22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 23 Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. 24 And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”

So Elijah lays down the ground-rules for this challenge. Each get a bull, each will sacrifice the bull in the way their God is pleased with. And then no one puts fire to it because the God who is real will answer with fire. Is that fair with everyone? And everyone agrees. Either your Baal is real and will answer or our God is real. It’s going to be a supernatural occurrence where no one can deny it. Elijah is putting all the chips on the table. So why would the people and the prophets of Baal be okay with this? Baal is the God of fertility and rain, but not just rain, of storm. So they are thinking, hey he can do a little lightening bolt thing, we got this then!

Elijah then gives them not only home court advantage, but also first dibs. He let’s them try to prove first that this Baal is god.

25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26 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. 27 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.”

Did you see the word again? Limped is there. It is some king of ceremonial dance or action that they were doing to try to get Baals attention. And it wasn’t working. So Elijah’s shot at them in the beginning was true. Your limping/dancing/ceremonial action of worship is nothing but dead. And Elijah is in his lawn chair, maybe with a cup of hot coffee watching this from morning to noon. Sunrise until the sun is in the sky. And he starts mocking them. Where is your God? Is he on a trip? Maybe he is sleeping? He must of had to use the bathroom guys! Now, I don’t recommend using this kind of tactic for witnessing to others. But I think it shows once again that Elijah had great confidence in God, who had not even shown up in fire yet, to prove himself to his people. But from all this mocking from Elijah, the prophets get more intense.

28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 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.

I apologize if this is a little gruesome or TMI for anyone, but the two ways that people would worship Baal was child sacrifice and cutting. So thankfully, the first one was not happening, but from their self mutilation they think that this god will show up. But as it says in verse 29 there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention. Now reading this, you might think, wow, why would anyone do that? Why would people mutilate themselves, beat themselves up, make them hurt to get the attention of a false god?

And yet we see it all around us today. From the actual, terrible, sad act of people actually cutting themselves. To people hurting themselves for likes and comments. Hurting themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually for these “gods” that they think will help them in life.

And what is even worse is there are people hurting themselves and beating themselves up even in the church. I knew of people who were in ministry because they thought it would help them know the love of God. They were doing more, trying more, climbing some kind of church latter to get to God and it never worked. Do you know why? Because there was one already wounded for us to have full access to God. And from that wounding, we have His full attention day after day. We have his voice as a good shepherd. This is the good news, and Elijah is about to show us this good and loving God now.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD.

This is incredible significant what Elijah did. He builds a different alter, not the one that Baal was worshipped with. He then reminds the people of three important things.

ELIJAH REMINDS THE PEOPLE

The twelve tribes of Israel God created. From the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel, God formed 12 tribes that were the people of God. Elijah is reminding them of their identity in God.

The covenant God made with Israel. The covenant that God made with Abraham that was kept through his son Issac and through Jacob. God made a covenant with the people and was faithful to it despite them being an unfaithful bride.

God is worthy of sacrificial worship When Elijah was building this alter, it took work. It was difficult. It was probably hot. But this alter needed to be built to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. The only God worthy of all our heart, soul, mind and strength. This God does not our limping back and forth. He deserves our full commitment.

But Elijah doesn’t just make an alter, he also makes it so that a supernatural event has to happen.

And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

36 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. 37 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.” 38 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. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

So with a drought going on, Elijah “wastes” a ton of water and makes sure people understand that what is about to happen is supernatural. There is no dark magic here that he somehow is able to light the fire on his own. Then with a less than 20 second prayer, Elijah prays to God. Some people like to contrast the two prayers of Elijah and the prophets of Baal as a way to teach prayer, but that is not what is happening here. It is not a “how to” of praying it is a “who is God” situation. God’s fire falls, people respond by falling on their faces and worship God. Then Elijah kills all the prophets, which sounds mean or gruesome, but they were misleading the people of God. They needed to be put to death and while I wish I could say everything was amazing after this! The temple of David was restored and God was worshipped forever after this, unfortunately that is not the case. And we will learn more of why that is in the weeks to come. But I think it would be good for us to respond to this text today.

Conclusion

The nice thing about this text is that it is pretty straight forward in what it is trying to teach us, right? We need to follow the Lord. And what is interesting to remember is this: tThese are God’s people. This isn’t some revival of people that didn’t know God that started following him. These are God’s people, who have forsaken him, now drawn back to him because of a supernatural encounter.

It is the mercy of God to turn his people back to him. Remember, these are God’s people. This isn’t some revival of people that didn’t know God that started following him. These are God’s people, who have forsaken him, now drawn back to him because of a supernatural encounter.