God Enhances the Impact of the Individual

Without God, what were the chances of a single man taking down the entire religion of Baal?

They weren’t very good.

Baal worship very quickly became a powerful institution within the Israelite culture.

Not only were there 450 prophets to promote and propagate this false religion, but they had the backing of the royal family and the government.

The religion of Baal was the opponent that was too big to be defeated or withstood.

And yet, what do we read in 1 Kings 18:40?

1 Kings 18:40 KJV 1900

40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

Elijah and the people bring them down to the river and they begin to slaughter the false prophets of Baal

It wouldn’t have been hard.

The prophets were weak from their earlier display.

Many of them have lost considerable amounts of blood.

These ones who had influenced the people of God away from the truth.

These ones who had promoted sinful lifestyles.

They all met their end at the brook Kishon.

It probably took a long time for this to be accomplished.

This was not an unjustified killing.

The things that the prophets of Baal had done were punishable by death according to the law of Moses.

Who would have thought, as they were marching to the top of Mt. Carmel that this is how they day would end?

The powerful hundreds of Baal followers being completely wiped out.

Who would have thought that Ahab would have stood by and let this happen?

Who would have thought that God would have so swiftly cleansed the land of this infection of false religion?

And to think He did it all with a single servant.

God doesn’t need an army to topple the opposition.

He can use a single servant.

With God, a single servant can take down the entire religion of Baal.

Without God, what were the chances of the drought ending in Israel?

Ahab and others had done everything they could do to try and put a stop to the drought that had plagued Israel for the past 3 years.

None of it had worked.

They had only grown more and more desperate.

As the last of the prophets of Baal are killed, Elijah goes to Ahab and finds him on the ground.

He tells Ahab to get up and get something to eat and drink.

God is satisfied with the response of the people.

Rain is on it’s way.

God had used Elijah to announce the start of the drought.

Only Elijah would announce the end of the drought.

Elijah goes back to the top of Carmel.

He sits with his head between his knees and tells his servant to look out to the sea.

The servant goes and comes back and tells Elijah that there is nothing.

Elijah sends him to look seven times.

On the 7th look, the servant comes back and tells Elijah that there is a little cloud, like a man’s hand out on the horizon.

A tiny little cloud, nothing to be concerned with at all.

In just a few verses that tiny cloud will turn into a blacked out sky with driving winds and pelting rain.

After 3 years, rain was on it’s way.

Some people had probably given up on it ever raining again.

Who would have thought that one single prophet, and one single cloud would change their experience so drastically?

One single servant was all God used to declare the beginning and end of the worst drought any of them had ever seen.

God used a single man to topple Baal.

He had used a single servant to end the drought.

Without God, what were the chances of man outrunning a chariot?

You say, a man did what?

That’s right.

After Elijah saw the cloud, he sends his servant back down the mountain.

Ahab needs to high-tale it back to Jezreel before the storms roll in.

He has to get back before his chariot gets stuck in the mud like the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

Ahab heads back his horses’ hooves pounding the earth.

Ahab looks back to see where the clouds were and he notices a tiny blip on the road behind him.

He rides on for a little bit and looks back and the blip is a lot closer.

Now he notices that this is not a wild animal or anything.

Elijah is running and catching up to Ahab’s chariot.

The Bible is very clear about this, but it says that the hand of the Lord was on Elijah .

Elijah not only catches up to the chariot, he passes