I know today’s Bible reading very well. The school where I went (a private Christian school) had their fifth grade act out this story each year for chapel. Our chapel services were K through 5th grade, with the sixth graders doing things with the Junior High classes. And normally, our chapel services happened in the assembly room, but every now and then, like when we acted out the story of Mount Carmel, we got to have chapel in the gym. So, growing up, I would watch the big fifth graders act this out and I got to know it well. By the time I reached fifth grade and was able to be in it, I knew all the parts and looked forward to it. And so, in fifth grade I began my regular habit of playing villains in school plays and played one of the priests of Baal. It was a lot of fun. I got to dance around a pile of stones in the gym, probably the only time dancing was allowed in that gym, by the way, and call out and act all crazy and watch as nothing happened to the stones in front of me. Oddly enough, I don’t remember much about Elijah’s part or what happened next, except that at the end the people of Israel went around and grabbed all of us priests and took us to the side of the gym and pretended to kill us. Like I said, the beginning of a long career throughout school of playing the bad guy.
I think, because I grew up knowing this story so well, it has always held a place close in my heart. Here is a place where someone prays for God to do something and it happens. Here is a place where someone publicly puts God to the test and God proves that he is God and there is no other. Here is a place where someone asks God to show himself and God does as clear as can be.
I sometimes wish life were this easy, this obvious, today. I sometimes wish that we could pray as calmly and as full of faith as Elijah did. I sometimes wish it were that easy to show people that the Lord is God and there is no other. But if it were that easy, we would have a tame God, a God who isn’t in control of himself but rather allows us to control him, and in the end we’d be no better than the worshippers of Baal.
I. A Powerless God
Much like the people of Israel in Elijah’s day, we sometimes choose to serve a God without any power. I mean, we believe that our God created this world and everything in it. We believe that our God sent his Son who, when he was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We believe that God worked miracles throughout the history of the world. And yet, in so many areas of our lives, we act as if there was no God at all. We live normal lives and do normal things and watch as the world passes us by. We forget the power that our God has. We forget what God is capable of.
The people of Israel in the time of Elijah had forgotten what God was capable of. They had discovered a new god that that they wanted to worship. Their new god was Baal, the god of fertility, the god of life, the god of the fields and the harvest. Their god was not mysterious like the one true God. Life was quite simple for them. They gave certain sacrifices, they participated in certain rights, and Baal would guarantee a good harvest. Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it be easy if I could stand up here and tell you that if you gave a certain amount to the church then I could guarantee that next year’s crop would be amazing? Would you like that? Well, that is not the way that God works. Our God doesn’t make life that easy, he doesn’t set up such a simple process that guarantees wealth and riches to his followers. Our God is not tame; he is wild and unpredictable. But this does not mean that he is powerless.
Unfortunately, the people of Israel had decided that God was powerless so they had begun worshiping a god who they thought would meet their needs. Again, this is something that we need to be careful of, for it is something that we do ourselves. Oh, we don’t have idols of Baal in our houses and we don’t necessarily worship other gods to meet our needs, but we have found other types of idols to worship. We have found other ways to meet our needs without even considering relying on God. We may not put our trust in Baal, but we might be putting our trust in other things instead of God. Perhaps it is our bank account that we rely on. Perhaps it is our job. Perhaps we spend all our energy and focus trying to find a way to earn our daily bread that we forget that we are called to turn to God and ask him to give us our daily bread.
But God doesn’t like it when you put your trust in something other than him. Israel did this and God’s response was to cause a drought. This was particularly harsh, but quite fitting because they thought Baal would guarantee them the rain they needed, so God took away the very thing that they relied on Baal for. And then, in the midst of this drought we have the great power struggle on Mount Carmel.
Here we have God making himself known to his people as clear as you can. The setup is quite simple. There is going to be a contest between the gods. Baal’s priests are going to set up an altar and pray that Baal can start it on fire. Then Elijah is going to set up an altar and pray for God to start it on fire. Whoever’s God can start the fire is the true God worthy of Israel’s worship.
Baal’s priests get to go first. And they make a big deal about asking Baal to come down with fire and prove that he is the one with power. They dance, they cut themselves, they scream themselves horse for a full day. Nothing happens. We skipped over some of the taunts that Elijah comes up with while they are praying, “Shout louder!” he calls to them, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” Of course, nothing happens. Maybe the problem isn’t that Baal is sleeping. Maybe the problem is that Baal doesn’t exist at all. Maybe the reason that Baal is so predictable and so easy to tame is that he is a figment of their imagination.
And so we come to Elijah and his altar.
II. Fire From Heaven
Now Elijah has a point to make to the people of Israel. He needs to show them clearly which God has power. He has put a choice before them, who are they going to worship, and now he needs to make it clear to them that there is only one God worthy of worship. So when it is Elijah’s turn, when the priests of Baal have danced themselves to a standstill, when they have cut themselves, when they have exhausted themselves completely, Elijah has water dumped on the altar three times, to the point where there is a trench around the altar and it is full of water. Then Elijah calmly speaks a prayer, no dancing around, no cutting himself, no working himself into a frenzy. Instead, he prays a simple prayer to God.
“Lord, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Elijah prays, not for things to get better for him, not for his own name to be great. He prays that God might turn the people of Israel back to God by showing them this sign.
Elijah isn’t standing in front of these people, testing God, so that his world might become a better world. He isn’t doing it to get something out of it. He isn’t trying to harness God’s power for his own ends. Rather he is asking that God use God’s power to touch God’s people and bring them back into relationship with God.
Elijah isn’t just worshipping God, he is following him. He doesn’t just trust in God, he obeys him. He isn’t trying to tame God, rather he is allowing God to lead him.
“Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!’”
The people had seen God’s power and they made their choice.
III. Choices
God is big into choices. On Wednesday night we were looking at an ancient writing, the Didache, which is an early writing of the church. Probably written within twenty years of the end of the Bible. In it, God’s followers, the Christians are told that they can choose one of two ways to live. There is the way of life and there is the way of death. The way of life is to love the God who made you and love your neighbor as yourself. They way of death is to live a life of sin, a life that puts yourself and your needs above all else. Here, in today’s scripture, the people of Israel are given a choice as well. They can choose whether to follow God or they can choose to worship Baal. If they follow God, they cannot guarantee that God will always do exactly what they want. They will be following a wild, untamed God. They will not be in charge, rather they will be the followers. Or they can worship Baal. With Baal, they don’t necessarily need to be followers. They get to be the ones in control. They set the rules and they choose what it is they want from this make-believe god. But then there’s the problem. Their god is a make-believe god who really has no power at all.
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