And we’ll begin with our New Testament reading now, and we’ll find that in the book of Revelation, chapter 20. Revelation, chapter 20, a brief reading here. It speaks of the final defeat. of our enemies, the enemies of our souls. Revelation chapter 20 verses 7 through 10. Listen to this. This is the very word of God.
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Now for our Old Testament reading and the text of our sermon, we turn to another passage where we see fire falling from heaven as an expression of God’s great power. Our reading will be 1 Kings 18. We’ll begin the reading in verse 20 and read through verse 40. 1 Kings 18, 20 through 40.
So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 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. Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 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.
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. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bowl and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. 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. And at noon, Elijah mocked them saying, cry aloud for he is a God, either he is musing or he’s relieving himself, or he’s on a journey, or perhaps he’s asleep and must be awakened. They cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. 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. Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. All the people came near to him.
And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took 12 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. 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 seas of seed. 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. 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. The water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.
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 the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. 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.
Thus far the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray for his blessing upon us. Father, now we come to the preaching of the word, and we pray that you’d make this means of grace effectual to us all. We pray that your Holy Spirit himself would be our instructor. May our souls be fed from the bread of heaven. May Christ be exalted, we pray. And we ask all these things in Christ’s name. Amen.
So this morning, I mentioned the the heavyweight bouts, the prize fights. And really, the one we looked at this morning, in most respects, is far more significant than this one. But this was certainly a spectacular event in redemptive history, in world history.
And we see that up to this time, as you know, Israel had been serving bail. And ever since the beginning of the reign of Ahab, they had essentially turned away altogether from the Lord God of Israel. And Baal worship had become institutionalized among what had been the covenant people of God.
But now for three and a half years, there had been this drought. A drought of two different kinds, you remember. No rain, nor dew. And so there was famine in the land, famine for bread. But worse than that, for three and a half years, there had been no word from the Lord. And after that, Elijah presents himself. He presents himself to Ahab, and he calls for a showdown with the prophets of Baal. the prophets of a pagan Canaanite god versus Elijah. But really, those aren’t the ultimate contenders, are they? Ultimately, the top of the ticket is the Lord God of Israel versus Baal. Those are the contenders. Those are who are lined up in battle array on Mount Carmel.
And we find from this passage that the Lord The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel is the only true God. That’s really what this passage teaches us. The Lord, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel is the only true God. Our three points, if you’d like them in advance, are these.
First of all, and they come as propositions, all people on earth must choose whom they will serve. That’s number one. All people on earth must choose whom they will serve. Secondly, the idols of the nations have no power to do good or harm. And thirdly, the true and living God is merciful and almighty. And I’ll repeat those for you as we come to them. But first of all, all people on earth must choose whom they will serve.
Ahab had summoned the nation of Israel to gather at Mount Carmel. But he did that, of course, at Elijah’s behest. We saw that back in verse 19 when we were looking at that. It was Elijah who said, gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel. And Ahab complied. Ahab went with the plan.
Now, Mount Carmel is actually a range of mountains. And it was a very prominent geographical feature in the land of Israel. It was visible from a long way off. There was plenty of room on the mountainsides there for a large multitude to gather. And that made it an ideal place for them to assemble and have this contest. And because so many people would be able to be present and view what took place, that means that all the people will be present to witness and see the outcome of this clash between the Lord and Baal. And we see the challenge go forth in verse 21.
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 this word that he uses, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? That’s probably actually a preliminary form of mockery of the prophets of Baal because he’s referring to what was apparently one of their worship practices when they’d build their altars to Baal, they would limp around them. I don’t know a whole lot about that practice, but that was essentially something they did. And we saw that in verse 26, when it says that they limped around the altar that they had made. And so Elijah’s playing on that when he says, how long will you limp between two opinions? Are you going to serve the true and living God, or are you going to serve Baal? Decide which one’s the real God and serve that God.
Now, In the Army, when we do training, when we train on certain skills at various different levels of skill, the Army manuals lay out procedures and directions for training, and they lay them out in terms of three categories. We refer to it as task, conditions, and standard.
And you can find task conditions and standard for almost any task or skill that any soldier of any occupational specialty will need to do. And there are some that are common to all soldiers. There are some that are specific to different jobs in the Army. So you have the skill of perhaps performing maintenance on an M4 rifle, or perhaps orienting a map, things like that. Anything that a soldier needs to do, there’s a manual about it and a sheet that says task.
What needs to be done? What is the task? Conditions, and that has to do with how you train. If you’re going to train on this task, you set up these various conditions. You have certain equipment available. It has to be in a certain setting. And then standard. The standard means this is what success looks like. You have successfully trained on this skill if you can do X, Y, or Z. Task, conditions, standard.
I couldn’t help thinking of that when Elijah laid out the protocol for the showdown that Baal and Baal’s prophets are going to have with the Lord God. He gives task, conditions, and standards. And we find that in verse 23 when he says, give us two bulls, let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on the wood, but, part of the conditions, don’t put any fire on it.
Call upon your God. and I’ll call upon the name of the Lord. And then the standard is, whose God can answer by fire? And the God that can answer by fire is the winner. The God that can answer by fire is the true God. Which God, whose God, actually has the power to answer?
And that’s what they’re gonna find out. And so he’s calling on the people of Israel to choose whom they’ll serve. And that challenge that we see in verse 21, who are you going to serve? That challenge is a universal challenge. Every nation, tribe, and tongue is called upon to answer that challenge. Who are you going to serve? Who is God? That’s a challenge. for men, women, children, in every generation of human history, in every age, all have to answer this challenge.
When Elijah says, if the Lord is God, serve him, if Baal is God, serve him, maybe it brought to some of your minds those words of Joshua in chapter 24. Some of you have those words in a frame on the walls of your homes. Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That’s what Elijah is basically saying. Choose whom you’ll serve. Make a decision. Quit limping between two opinions.
Or in the words of the second Psalm. Remember at the beginning of Psalm 2, the nations were raging, and the peoples imagined a vain thing. The kings of the earth had set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. against the Lord. But at the end of the psalm, it says, Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
So this challenge, the one we find in verse 21, that’s for everybody. Elijah issued it there on Mount Carmel. Joshua, put it forth to the people as they took possession of the land and the holy scriptures issued to us today. That’s the most important question before the nations of the earth. Will you serve the living God or won’t you? That’s a question for the nations and it’s a question for every single individual. All people on earth must choose whom they will serve.
Well, secondly, we find in this passage that the idols of the nations have no power to do good or harm. The idols of the nations have no power to do good or harm. You can’t help noticing the great energy and the great zeal of the prophets of Baal. how energetically and enthusiastically they serve their false god. It says, they took the bull that was given them, they prepared it, called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us.
And when there’s no answer, they limp about the altar as they were so in the habit of doing. But look at how the text even says it. There’s this barrenness. I think we’re intended to hear crickets there. They called out to Baal from morning until noon, but the text says there was no voice. No one answered.
And so then Elijah mocked them, mocked them, taunted them. He really must be a God, just call louder. When I read this passage, and even while I was preparing this message on it, I couldn’t get out of my head some of the passages from that oratorio titled Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn, because he portrays this event in song. And I can still hear the voice of this baritone who sings the part of Elijah, taunting, saying, call him louder, singing, call him louder, call him louder.
And you saw what our ESV says. Either he’s musing, or he’s relieving himself, or he’s on a journey. Some of the other English versions put some of these expressions a little bit more colorfully, shall we say. That first phrase, the New Living Translation says, perhaps he’s daydreaming. Maybe Baal’s up there, and he’s just sort of distracted. He’s thinking about something else. If he yells a little bit louder, maybe he’ll answer. The New International Reader’s version expresses that second one most bluntly. He says, maybe he’s gone to the toilet. Maybe Baal is sitting on the pot. Maybe he’s away on a trip.
And that’s how Elijah is responding to these antics, this pitiable attempt at worship that the prophets of Baal are engaged in. And I would, I want to just emphasize that what we see Elijah doing here is not biblical warrant for us to mock unbelievers. I advise you not to, in your conversations with non-Christians, don’t use that kind of strategy or rhetorical device with others that way. We see Elijah doing it, but that doesn’t mean We should be doing that with people that we talk to about the faith. But in response to Elijah’s mockery and his taunting of them, they do exactly what he said.
He said, cry louder. That’s what they do. They yell louder. They yell more and more continually. They call upon their God with increased fervor. And they even engage in these gruesome practices that the Baal worshipers would do. And we see the result in verse 29. It’s even more poignant than the previous statement. There was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention.
Now, Elijah wasn’t the only prophet who ever mocked the idols of the nations. In Isaiah chapter 41, that whole chapter really is an indictment against false gods, And at one point, verse 23 of Isaiah 41, Isaiah the prophet mocks the idols, the false gods of the nations.
He challenges them. He says, tell us what’s to come hereafter that we may know that you’re gods. Do good or do harm. Do something. Do good or do harm that we may be dismayed and terrified. challenging, daring these false gods to do anything because they’re not capable of doing anything. They can’t do harm. They can’t do good. They can’t foretell what’s to come. And even when it’s not the voice of a prophet mocking or ridiculing idols. Even Scripture’s narrative sometimes does that itself, just with the accounts. I think of 1 Samuel 5.
Remember, the people of Israel were defeated by the Philistines, and the Philistines captured the Ark of God. But when they took the ark of God and they put it in the temple of their God, Dagon, this is what happened. First Samuel five, starting in verse one, when the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.
And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. And this is the part that’s kind of humorous. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. He had to be picked up and set in his place because he’s powerless to get up himself. He had fallen down before the Ark of the Lord. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face forward on the ground before the ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon, and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
You see how, even in that way, the scriptures show us how impotent the idols of the nations are. And where that comes to apply to us is, it’s just an illustration that all the worldly things that people trust in, and put their confidence in are equally impotent.
You read about the rich person in Proverbs 18, verse 11, and it says, this one who has great wealth, says his wealth is his strong city. He thinks that because he’s got so much money, he’s safe. It’s like a high wall in his imagination, the text says. Or Psalm 33 verse 17 talks about the war horse. A cavalry in ancient warfare was a huge benefit. And Scripture says, a war horse is a false hope for salvation.
By its great strength, it cannot rescue. that teaches that that human beings are so prone to put their trust in riches, their trust in money, or in military might, you know, a nation with a strong army, the strong Navy, strong military power, they think they’re secure. But ultimately, those things cannot save them. People put their trust in medicine, people put their trust in political power. They put their trust in their own treachery and dishonesty. Psalm 62, 10 warns, put no trust in extortion. Set no vain hopes on robbery. If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
These become idols. These become false gods. And all of mankind’s false gods are impotent. The very next verse in Psalm 62, It’s where David says, once God has spoken, twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God. There’s no real inherent power in money. Riches can vanish.
There’s so many stories in the history of the world about some army, some mighty army, some nation, some empire that at one point was considered undefeatable. And then someone comes along and defeats it. Medicine sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. Political regimes rise and fall. But power belongs to God. The idols of the nations have no power to do good or to do harm.
Well, then finally, point number three, the true and living God is merciful and almighty. This powerful way in which he answered the prayer of Elijah shows his great might. But we also see in this passage wonderful and clear evidence of the mercy and the grace of God.
After the prophets of Baal did all their antics and there was no answer, Elijah called the people to himself. And although that was the prophet Elijah summoning the people, he was In that sense, in that moment being the mouthpiece of the Lord, this is Yahweh summoning Israel back to himself.
And it says that he repaired the altar. And do you notice when he says that when he did that he he rebuilt an altar with 12 stones. representing the covenant people of Israel, sons of Jacob, the text even makes that plain. And what he’s saying, you remember that the kingdoms have been split, there were only 10 tribes in Israel by this time, then Judah was separate and down below in a different kingdom. But Elijah built an altar of 12 stones, because God still has a true people.
And that was symbolized in this altar. that Elijah built. And then he does sort of the equivalent of tying one hand behind his back, you might say. Remember how Jesus was at such a tremendous and varied disadvantage when he went into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. Elijah deliberately puts himself as God’s representative at a disadvantage, because after he’d set up his sacrifice, he says, pour water on it. Four jars of water, and they do. Now his offering is soaking wet, and so is the wood that it’s on. He says, do it again. Do it a third time. And that trench that he had dug around his altar is filling with water. Now, you know that in the Levitical sacrificial system, there were burnt offerings and sin offerings. And with your offering, you would bring grain. And usually, you’d bring a drink offering, too. And usually, the drink offering was wine.
But after 3 and 1⁄2 years of drought, a drink offering of water would have been very costly. would have been very precious, water would have been. He calls upon the people to pour water all over his sacrifice. So it’s a costly drink offering. Just like, remember when David was pining about how he wished he could have a drink of water from the well that’s outside of Bethlehem, and three of those mighty men broke through the ranks of the Philistine, drew water from that well, and brought it back to David. And because these men had risked their lives, he didn’t drink the water. He poured it out. which seems kind of odd to us, but he’s doing that as an offering to God. And so this water on the altar was like a drink offering in that sense, because water was so precious during that drought. But more than that, or maybe not more than that, but in addition to that, more practically, the offering is soaking wet. And so is the wood making it humanly impossible to light the offering on fire.
And then what does Elijah do? He prays. And again, I think it’s noteworthy to contrast what the Baal worshippers did with what Elijah did. You think of what they did, this loud, frenzied, grotesque liturgy in which they were engaged as Baal’s prophets. And they carried on for probably about a total of six hours. And there was no answer. And what does Elijah do?
He simply prayed. He prayed. And that simple prayer is found in those two verses towards the end of our text. One little prayer, which to read it doesn’t take, even if you read it aloud, and you take time and read it with feeling, it’s only gonna take you 30 seconds to read. compared with six hours of carrying on by these pagan idol worshipers.
Elijah prays, and the Lord answered. Verse 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. And then the people fall prostrate and they give praise to Yahweh. Verse 39, Yahweh is God.
You know that in your Old Testament, in your English Old Testament, when you see the word Lord, it’s all in caps, all in capital letters. That’s the translator’s way of indicating that the word that’s being translated there is not Adonai, just sort of the generic word for Lord, it’s the Lord’s memorial name, Yahweh. We used to say Jehovah. It’s God’s name, his memorial name, his proper name that he revealed to Moses. It’s considered so holy that most Jews will not utter it. That’s why kind of in deference to them, most Bibles just put Lord. Even seminary professors, Hebrew professors, a lot of times when they’re translating it, the word is Yahweh, but they’ll say Adonai. just out of respect, not always. But the name there is Jehovah. And sometimes when you read your Bibles, try reading it and saying Jehovah when you see Lord in all caps, because in some cases it really does change the sense of the passage.
Especially, for example, in Exodus when Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh and he says, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may worship me. And Pharaoh says, who is the Lord? It sounds one way when we say the Lord, but it sounds much different when Pharaoh says, who is Yahweh? And then Pharaoh goes on to say, I don’t know Yahweh. And furthermore, I’m not going to let the people of Israel go.
So it’s worthwhile to at least think about the fact that when your Bible says all capital letters, Lord, it’s that name. And that’s what the people said. After Baal’s prophets failed, and the Lord God Almighty answered by fire from heaven, the people said, Yahweh is God. Yahweh, He is God. And then In the final verse of our text, we see retribution and judgment upon the servants of Baal. Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. And they seized them. Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
I think in that we see a precursor, a foreshadowing of the day of judgment. And that’s another thing the nations need to know. They need to know that they need to choose whom they will serve. But they also need to know that there’s a day of judgment coming. And when that day comes, no one will escape. The idols of the nations have no power.
The living and true God is all powerful. By sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice offered by his true prophet, the true God also shows something else. Not only that he’s powerful, that he’s living, and that he’s able to answer with fire. He also shows that through the mediation of his prophet, he will accept his people. The fact that he accepted the sacrifice shows that he, the true and living God, is ready and willing to be reconciled.
Elijah’s unorthodox sacrificial technique, the pouring of the water, illustrates something else for us too. It illustrates for us that man’s offerings ultimately cannot take away sin. No fire we light, no sacrifice we bring can atone for sin. God himself must provide a lamb. God must send the fire of his wrath on his own paschal offering for there to be forgiveness, for there to be reconciliation, for God to accept his people. And that is what was happening at the cross. Son of God was offered up for us on the cross, and the fire of God’s wrath fell on him to atone for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. The Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God, and he’s a God who’s gracious and merciful. He’s full of kindness and compassion. And he proved this by sending his only son into the world to save sinners.
Let’s pray. Lord, as we visit this dramatic and exciting passage from your word, we thank you for the truth that it reveals to us. We thank you that you are God and you alone All power belongs to You. Lord, forgive us for trusting in things that have no power. Strengthen our faith in You, the God in whom is all power. We thank You for sending Your Son to be our Savior. Lord, we pray that this very day more and more people will put their trust in Him and that our faith in Him might be strengthened, all for His glory. We pray it in His name. Amen.