Prophecy to the Nations Part 1
Prophecy to the Nations • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Throw Out the Prophets of Baal
Throw Out the Prophets of Baal
Throughout the Scriptures we find God calling Israel and other nations to repentance. One of the first things God calls them to do is get rid of the pagan gods and tear down the pagan altars. But before that happens, the pagan voices had to be identified and their powers over the people had to be broken. The eyes and ears of the people had to be opened.
We see God send forth men and women of God to call the nations to repentance. We see Moses, Elijah, Jonah, Amos, Isaiah, and many others calling Israel and other nations to repent. Often, we hear people point out how God brought judgement on the pagan nations but they never point out God’s merciful call to them to return from their wicked ways long before the judgement came upon those nations.
As people of God, we are called by God to declare God’s righteousness to the nations and call them to repentance. But how can the people of God be that beacon of light and that savor of salt if they are taken captive by the same voices of false prophets that the people of the nations are listening.
What is a false prophet? A false prophet is any voice that speaks contradictory to the will and righteousness of God. Biblically, they are defined as a נָבִיא nabi, spokesmen or voices who נָבָא naba, under the influence of a spirit, שֶׁקֶר sheqer or practice deception and manipulation.
In I Kings 17-18 we see these deceiving voices at play on a national level, a social level, a cultural level, a spiritual level and a personal level.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
First, we see Elijah speak a prophetic declaration of the Lord over the land because of the wickedness of the people led by the wickedness of the nations leadership. We see an example of this leadership in chapter 18.
and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
The idiom “cut off” used here means she had them all murdered. Who were they? They were the prophets of the Lord God who would not bow to her and become prophets of the state, so to speak. They were prophets of God who would not be silenced or censored by her governing authority.
Now before your political feathers start getting all ruffled up. Let me make it clear, that unlike most churches that are calling everything a Jezebel spirit, Jezebel was not the problem here. The problem was the prophets of Baal.
Keep in mind that the word “baal” בַּעַל actually means a husband, master, owner, or lord. But through the alliances of Israel with pagan nations came allegiances to their gods. And the word became a proper noun referring to the pagan god Baal.
The false prophets of Baal were teaching the people to sin against the true God of Israel. They were teaching the people of God that it was okay to sin a little here and there; to compromise; and that what God had said was a sin really was not. Like S’dom סְדֹם and A’morah עֲמֹרָה which means “burning culture” or a culture of open sin and fleshly desire.
This is what postmodern, subjective, inclusionary, relative, self-serving, compromising, self-justifying, cultural Christianity does today. It declares that God does not expect you to live holy. It says that God knows you cannot help but always succumb to the sins and ways of the world. Thus, God is willing to overlook your sins of omission and commission (James 4:17).
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
And regard to your sins of commission, the Apostles Peter and Paul tell us:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
The voice of the false prophets tell you that you must compromise a little to get ahead, to succeed or to meet your needs because you must do things the world’s way. They will try to convince you that God’s way will not work for you. That the Word of God sounds good but is not really practical for real life. That God’s expectations are too high and you can never be the kind of person Christ has called you to be.
The voices of the false prophets of Baal have convinced so many professing Christians of these and so much more. They have convinced so many Christians that the government is to be submitted to and bowed to morally even though it legislates wickedness in direct opposition to the ethics of God’s righteous law. They have convinced millions of so called followers of Christ that “You do not have to compromise your faith in order to support abortion.” That the murdering of innocent children is a moral obligation and a human right. They have been convinced that anyone who opposes this murder is not truly following the teaching of Jesus.
These false prophets voices have convinced millions of Christians that their children are the property of the government and it is the governments responsibility to educate them in the ways of the world because the parents are too stupid, incompetent, and unavailable; parents must comply and their children become products of the system.
These false prophets prophesy that the earth is doomed and they alone must save it. They tell you to trust in their economics because they alone will provide for your needs. When you’re in a crisis turn to them. They alone have the counsel and the programs to heal your soul. Trust in their protection, trust in their education, trust in their provision, trust in them. These false prophets will tell you that on that dollar bill that says, “In God We Trust”, they are that god; they are the new sovereign authority.
So, the spirit of Jezebel is behind the false prophets, but the root of the problem is the people of God listening to the voices of the prophets of Baal.
These false prophets work through your mind. They convince you that you can never be out of poverty; you will always be a failure; you are always unworthy; you are always, you will never, you cannot, you will not and so on in total contradiction to the Word, Way and Will of God for your life. They will always provide for you excuses, reasoning, loopholes, and justifications for your compromise and sin.
These false prophets convince you that the only way for healing of your soul, your marriage, your depression, your anxiety, your generational dysfunction is through worldly counsel and methods of psychological manipulation, behavioral modification, blame-shifting and social re-engineering.
These false prophets of Baal will convince you that the medical diagnoses has the final word. That the addiction can never be fully eradicated. That it is just all part of your nature and DNA and the best hope you have is to optimistically make the best of it while you can.
These false prophets are alive today and speaking everywhere you turn. They convinced past generations that prayer to the God of the Bible was unconstitutional. That Bibles in the schools was a violation of equal rights. They have convinced generations that the image of God does not exist, neither in Scripture nor in that from which they were created. They have persuaded Christians to accept that the family construct as ordained by God is a total failure and not only irrelevant but also unjust to the fabric of society.
They have persuaded Christians that anyone who goes against the system has a phobia, is a bigot, is a domestic terrorist and enemy of the state. If they have any ethical opposition to the cultural demands of lawless and unrestrained appetites and fleshly pleasures, then they are haters and evil people with a dead set of outdated religious values and norms.
The voices of these false prophets are not just outside the church but inside as well. They are in your families. They get into your homes through entertainment, local and national news, social and other types of media.
They will convince you that it is okay to be spiritual and all that on Sunday, but curse a little Monday through Friday. It’s okay that you looked and lusted last week just as long as you act spiritual to make up for it on Sunday. It’s okay to divorce you family for adulterous reasons or live in fornication as long as you profess Jesus, pray some, and give in the offering. They will convince you that you cannot stop sinning, that God is okay with it, and even use fallen preachers and politicians as examples of justification for your hypocrisy of Jezebel.
Those voices are the same voices that will tell you that you will never be free, nothing will ever change, they will keep you bound, oppressed, and struggling through life. They will convince you that the Spirit of the Living God cannot really come in your house, He will never really dwell within you, because your soul will never be stable, clean, or made whole.
That is the prophets of Baal. And so many churches have spent years trying to identify and cast out the spirit of Jezebel while being unwilling to confront the prophets of Baal.
Now in I Kings 18:4 we see a man named Obadiah who has hidden some of the Lord’s prophets in a cave and fed them bread and water. But he runs into the Prophet Elijah who orders him to go tell King Ahab, that the land would be without rain until the people stopped listening to the prophets of Baal.
and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
Obadiah asks Elijah in verse 8 basically, why would you send me to my death?
And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ” And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?
So, he goes as the Prophet instructed. And when King Ahab comes to Elijah he calls the Prophet of God a trouble maker for the nation just as they call true Followers of Christ today.
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”
But look at the Prophets response:
And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Where is the spirit of Elijah in our day? You might say, “Well, we have the Holy Spirit now.” So, I guess the spirit that drove, instructed, and motivated Elijah was a spirit different than the Spirit of the Living God? What spirit did Jesus have when He drove the money changers out of the Temple and declared that the House of His Father was intended to be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves?
Look at what the Prophet says to the people of the nation of Israel when they come:
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.
How long will you continue to waver between two opinions? Either embrace the way or the Lord or make it known that you have rejected God’s ethical standards and you will follow the way of the world and the false prophets of American Baal Culture. But stop playing the Counterfeit Cultural Compromising Christ Follower.
And notice the people of Israel, did not say a word until Elijah gave opportunity for the prophets of Baal to show the power of the compromise they had led the people to believe and live. Then they spoke up.
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, as they story goes the prophets of Baal danced, screamed out for their god to answer. They even cut themselves up with their swords and did all kinds of pagan practices to get their god to answer. And the Prophet Elijah began to mock them.
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.”
Finally, Elijah built the altar to the one true God of Israel. He defines Him by the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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.
The offering of the oblation was the evening offering which was usually not a blood offering but a grain offering.
and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed.
So, we see here both a meat and a grain offering in the name of the Lord according to the covenant God made with Abraham and Jacob (Israel). And when Elijah simply calls on the name of the Lord God consumes the offerings.
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.”
Once God was done doing His part, the prophets of Baal wanted to run. Just like the darkness to run when the light shows up.
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.
And when the people’s eyes and ears were opened and they no longer listened to the voices of the false prophets of Baal, the rains came.
And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.”
And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
Did not Christ warn us of the time when the days would be filled with many false prophets? Those days are hear and they are more abundance than you perceive.
Until the people of God stop listening to the prophets of Baal, we will not see a national revival. Until we get over the world wanting to like us and thinking that evangelism of the Gospel is compromise of the integrity of the Faith, we will not see the return of the favor of the Lord on our nation. Until, we are less concerned with being called names than upholding the righteousness of God, we will not see people set free from the bondage of wickedness. But the voice of the Lord is stronger and louder than the false prophets. And until we decide to stop letting the voices of the false prophets of Baal run our lives and our nation, to stop stealing our children and redefining our faith, God will not come in and force His favor upon us.
All that the Prophet Elijah did, he did because He trust that his God alone was God. The voice of the prophetic instruction of the Lord must arise within you His people. The prophetic voice of the Lord was meant to dwell within you. But you need the same Spirit of God that Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Jeremiah and Jesus had within them.