A Contest on the Mountain
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Background
Elijah vs. Ahab and the prophets of Baal
“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.
And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,
his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land,
and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day,
and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place,
and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel.
For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did.
“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,
and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.
But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,
a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.
No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today,
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,
you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Dt. 11:13-21
“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
“Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake
(for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house,
hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.
that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.
But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’
Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”
But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
1 Kings 9:6-7
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Context: Elijah Confronts Ahab
Context: Elijah Confronts Ahab
Elijah, as a character, is introduced from out of nowhere, similar to the way Abijah and Jereboam (First king of Israel) are introduced.
God begins a “show of force” against Ahab. Ahab introduced Baal worship. God says, through Elijah, “God is going to shut up the heavens.”
This is sure to be a contest like God’s confrontation of the false gods of Egypt. So, Elijah goes away to watch the show.
But, in the king’s wickeness, the people are the ones who are harmed. God shows Elijah this harm through the widow of Zarephath.
The Prophets of Baal Defeated
The Prophets of Baal Defeated
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Kings (5) Elijah’s Victory on Mount Carmel (18:16–40)
Those who lead others astray in this manner are held more accountable than mere followers of heresy, though the followers are forced to choose the correct way as well.
House, Paul R. 1, 2 Kings. Vol. 8. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995.
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Result: YHWH Sends Rain
Result: YHWH Sends Rain
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Kings (6) Drought Ends (18:41–46)
A God like Yahweh must be God of all. Rain is not just rain here but evidence of the Lord’s absolute sovereignty over nature and human affairs.
House, Paul R. 1, 2 Kings. Vol. 8. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995.
House, Paul R. 1, 2 Kings. Vol. 8. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995.
p. 221