This sermon on 1 Kings 18:20-40 was given at Kew Baptist Church, London.
Not long after the prophet confronted the king, rumours began circulating in the towns and villages of Israel. Some spoke of how Elijah had challenged Abab over the nation abandoning the God of their fathers by worshipping Baal. Others talked of how he had condemned the building of a temple to Baal in Samaria. However, all the rumours had the conversation ending the same way, Elijah declaring a judgement on the nation: by his word rain would be withheld from the land. When they first heard of this, some pointed out that it had been rather dry lately. That when going for their morning strolls, they noticed the usual dew wasn’t to be found on the ground. However, most said that that was just a coincidence. It often got a bit dry this time of year, soon the seasons would change, and the rain would come as it always had. But as the months and seasons went by, crops started to die and cupboards began to empty. A full year past, and there was no rain. Some commented that Israel got a bad year every so often, they had had droughts before, next year no doubt the rain would return. Others started to wonder if there was something divine about this drought. Perhaps Elijah’s rudeness had offended Baal, he was after all the storm god, the one who was in charge of sending rain for their harvests. Maybe he was huffing with them, upset that they had allowed an obscure prophet of the LORD to oppose him so openly. Special sacrifices started to be offered up to Baal. His prophets were given the royal treatment. And yet, as the nation passed through the second year of drought, there was no rain on the horizon. A serious famine had set in. Even the wealthy were wondering how they might feed their families at home, and their beasts in the fields. The King and Queen were said to be particularly bothered. They were, after all, big supporters of Baal. And those pesky prophets of the LORD had clearly angered him. The Queen decided drastic measures were needed, soldiers were sent throughout the land to seize prophets of the LORD and put them to the sword. Many had been massacred. And yet, there was one that had so far managed to evade their grasp. Elijah, clearly the source of all this trouble, was hiding somewhere. Nobody knew where he had went. The King made special efforts to find him, ordering all of the neighbouring nations to conduct a search and swear he not was lingering in their lands. The whole region was hunting him, and yet he was nowhere to be found. The drought stretched into its third year. Even the most sceptical Israelites were starting to admit this was strange. The famine claimed many lives, nobody was safe, everybody was starving. Rumour even had it that the King was struggling, that he had given up his hunt for Elijah and was seen wandering the land at the head of his cattle herd, desperately trying to find water for them. And then that startling news had arrived, Elijah was back. He had confronted the King again, demanded that the prophets of Baal and nation of Israel be summoned to Mount Carmel. The nation assembled to watch the prophets of Baal, King Ahab and Elijah meet on that mountain top. It was time for the showdown they had all been waiting for.
That is perhaps how one of the Israelites on the slopes of Mount Carmel that day might have described the events running up to this famous encounter. The last time I spoke to you from 1 Kings 18, we ended with Elijah’s demand in verse 19, ‘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.’ Today, we begin with Ahab obeying, at least in part, that demand of Elijah. For verse 20 records that, ‘Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.’ What unfolds during the rest of the chapter is perhaps one of the greatest moments in the Old Testament. It is the kind of exciting story, like that of David and Goliath or Noah and the Ark, that is often included in Bible story books for kids. The rest of 1 Kings 18 easily divides into two scenes: (1) Overcoming the Prophets (v20-40) and (2) Outrunning the King (v41-46).
1. OVERCOMING THE PROPHETS – THE LORD IS GOD
I say this scene records Elijah overcoming the prophets of Baal, but really these prophets are only secondary characters. They are essential to the event on Mount Carmel, that’s why Elijah demanded Ahab send for them. However, it is the people that Elijah is primarily concerned about. The majority of the scene records a competition between Elijah and the prophets. But like a play on the stage, this production is only put on for the sake of the audience. The people of Israel are primarily assembled to be that audience. Unlike sporting events in a coronavirus world, the attendance of the crowd is crucial for this competition. It cannot go ahead in an empty stadium! We see this in the way the author records it. Before we get to Competing with the Prophets (v22-38), Elijah has a Challenge for the People in (v21). And at the end of the scene, in verses 39-40, we find that the competition not only has consequences for the prophets, but for the people as well.
A. Challenge for the People (18:20-21) – Consistent with our Confession
With the prophets and people assembled on the slopes of Mount Carmel, what is the first thing that Elijah does? ‘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."’ (1 Kings 18:21) Right from the off, Elijah introduces the issue he had assembled his audience to address. The cause of this confrontation isn’t a personal grudge between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, or payback for the persecution of Jezebel. No, the source of this showdown is the people’s fluctuation between following the LORD and following Baal. In order to express this, Elijah uses a brilliant metaphor. ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions?’ What the ESV translates ‘opinions’ could be ‘thoughts, branches, or crutches’. Whichever it is, the point is plain: Israel were trying to have it both ways, to serve two masters. They were spending their lives hopping, staggering between two different confessions: the LORD is God and Baal is God. Like a pair of crutches, they were trying to use these to limp through life. First leaning on one crutch before transferring their trust to the other. Elijah confronts this uncertain, uncommitted crowd and tells them it is time to make a choice. Just like Joshua challenging Israel: ‘…choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.’ (Joshua 24:15)
Elijah tells them to choose this day whom they will follow. However, notice he doesn’t tell them to just pick their preferred god. He doesn’t suggest they choose whatever works best for them. There is no hint of a post-modern understanding of truth in his challenge. They weren’t to choose their own truth, rather they were to choose in light of the truth. ‘If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ Their decision was to be determined by doctrine. It is was their doctrine that was to lead to their discipleship. To decide who to follow, they first had to discover this one fact: Who is really God?
This is the most basic, and yet important, question that anybody could ask. It is the one that the Bible seeks, perhaps above all else, to answer. This question takes us to the heart of God’s revelation, for above all else the Bible is God revealing himself to us. What is first of the ten commandments given by the LORD to Israel: ‘I am the LORD your God… You shall have no other gods before me.’ (Exodus 20:2–3) What is it that Moses declares to the people in Deuteronomy, just before he runs through the whole of the law: ‘know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.’ (4:39) The central truth that the LORD is the only true God, is the most basic of Biblical beliefs. It is the trunk from which all other truth branches out. It is the first thing a Christian must confess, illustrated so well by that early historical confession, the Apostles Creed, starting: ‘I believe in God…’.
Elijah is calling the people back to this confession. ‘If the LORD is God’. And yet, not only that confession, but to consistency with it. ‘If the LORD is God, follow him’. This seemed to be Israel’s problem. It wasn’t that they had stopped confessing the LORD was God, just that they had started to confess Baal as god as well. It wasn’t that they had stopped trying to follow the LORD, just that they had started to follow Baal as well. They were happy to use the LORD as one crutch, they just had picked up another crutch as well. Why rely on one god, when you can rely on two? Is it not better to spread your investments? Diversify your portfolio? Split weight between two different crutches? And that makes sense, if the LORD is just another crutch to lean on. Opium for the masses. A fairy tale we tell children and sometimes ourselves to help us sleep at night. The mythical supervisor of a set of moral values that helps society function better. If the LORD is just a crutch to lean on, something to use to help us limp through this life a little better, then we may as well grab on to any other crutch we can find. However, the LORD is no such thing, he is the only true God. He is not a crutch for us to lean on, he is the creator before whom we must lay down our lives. He deserves our all because he made us, gave us all. Yes, it may be easier to limp with two crutches than one. But as we see in the case of Elijah, when we trust the Lord as God, he can make us run. If we lean completely on him, we do not limp, we run through life. We aren’t staggering in uncertainty but striding with purpose. We won’t need crutches, for if we follow him, we will be able to outrun chariots. The Israelites were limping because they leant on the LORD as but another crutch, not on the LORD as the only true God.
Elijah calls them to consistency with the confession of the LORD as God, the simplest of Biblical beliefs. Comparing this to James 1:8, refers to ‘a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways’, Petrus Van Mastricht wrote, ‘the foundation of all constancy is in simplicity, just as in duplicity is the foundation of all instability.’ O Christians, if the LORD is God, follow him. Seeing how to do that in different circumstances may be complex. But the call itself is very simple. If the LORD is God, what else can you do? Where else can you go? If the LORD is who he says he is, how foolish it would be to do anything but follow him. If the Lord is God, follow him. In every decision that lies before you, whether in work, family or church life, make sure you are acting, feeling, trusting, in a way that is consistent to this simple confession: the LORD is God. For it is this simple confession that the foundation of constancy, the guard against all instability, in our lives. I love how the Puritan Thomas Manton spoke when preaching on this passage: ‘the great business which belongeth to our duty is the choice of a master, to consider to what we must addict ourselves, upon what we bestow our minds and hearts, our life and love, our time and strength: ‘How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’…Well, then, whom will you serve and love? To whom will ye give up your minds and hearts and whole man?... Make a right choice, and then be firm and true to it. Will you pretend to be servants to God, and do nothing for him?’ O Christians, let us make the right choice and be firm and true to it. May we not only confess the LORD is God, but try to live consistent with our confession. Let us not waste our lives limping between two different opinions.
B. Competing with the Prophets (18:22-38) – Secret of our Success
I’m sure you remember that moment in school. The teacher asks the class a question, and all they get is silence. They look around to try and get some kind of response. But no hands are in the air and all eyes are directed down towards their desks. The silence stretches on and so, with a sigh, the teacher changes tact and tries to arrive at the answer another way. Elijah experiences something similar here. The challenge goes out to the people, ‘And the people did not answer him a word.’ (18:21) So the prophet takes a different approach. Elijah throws down his gauntlet. He suggests that a competition take place. The purpose is clear, it is to help Israel make that choice, for: ‘the God who answers by fire, he is God.’ (18:24)
There is so much we could dwell on in these verses. However, I want us to primarily focus on the contrast between the prophets of Baal and Elijah. If anybody was giving out odds on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Elijah’s wouldn’t have been very good. In sporting terms, his was a horse you would not have considered backing. First of all, he is playing away from home. Mount Carmel, the site he has chosen, had once had an alter to the LORD (18:30). However, it had been thrown down long before and ancient sources tells us that Mount Carmel had become a sacred site for Baal instead. The prophets of Baal were playing in their home stadium. Not only that, but secondly, they had the crowd on their side. We see this from the language Elijah uses. In verse 22/24, speaking to the people, he groups them with the prophets of Baal, ‘you call on the name of your God, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.’ At the start of the match, there were few supporters chanting for Elijah. His rallying cry to the crowd has just been met with deafening silence. Thirdly, there are considerably more prophets of Baal. Sometimes in football, a team with 10 or even 9 men, can steal a victory against a team of 11. But the difference here is not 9 against 11. It is one against 450. ‘I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.’ (18:22) Fourthly, not only is Baal’s team considerably bigger, but Elijah lets them choose and sacrifice their bull first. ‘Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first…’ (18:25) Finally, Elijah not only gives them all these advantages, but disadvantages himself. For he has the people pour 12 jars of water over his altar, so that the alter area is flooded. Even if fire falls from heaven, how will it catch on such a soggy sacrifice? This competition is entirely unfair. Team Baal has all the advantages. His prophets are playing at home with the crowd behind them, a much bigger team on the field, are given a head start and have less obstacles to overcome. Yet, it is Elijah who emerges victorious.
How comforting it is to know that success seems entirely unrelated to our surroundings or size. Popularity and privilege are irrelevant when it comes to divine competitions. It does not matter how many obstacles we must overcome. In the end, the only thing that determines success is the God we serve. That was the secret to Elijah’s success. It did not matter that the prophets of Baal had all of these advantages. For the god they served and sacrificed to was no god at all. They were trying to win a Formula 1 race with a toy car. Trying to win a regatta in a boat only big enough for your bath. Trying to win the Tour de France on a tricycle. Because they were serving a false god, ultimately, they were just fooling around. Yes, ‘they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation’ in verse 29, ‘but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.’ It did not matter how loud they cried, for Baal had no ears to hear them. It did not matter how cruelly they cut themselves, for Baal had no eyes to see them. As Solomon explained earlier in 1 Kings, ‘the LORD is God; there is no other.’ (8:60) How foolish it is to follow after a fake. How futile it is to believe in a false god. No wonder the Psalmists writes that ‘the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply…’ (16:4). Following a false god can only end in failure. Like the people (18:21), we find these prophets limping around (18:26). Unlike the people, it wasn’t for failing to choose between the two gods, but because they had chosen the wrong god to follow. Both indecision and the wrong decision will make you to stumble and stagger through life. And, as we see, will have terrible consequences.
How foolish it is to follow after a false god. But Christians, how sweet it is to serve the true God. No matter the odds or the obstacles, we can be sure of our success in the end. The secret of our success being this: The LORD is God. Not a false or a fake, but the true God. DRD comments, ‘The LORD’s power has never depended on how many cheerleaders he has…popularity does not determine reality.’ We see here truth is not determined by a head count. Doctrine is not democratic. Neither do any advantages affect it. ‘The LORD is God’ has been true from the foundation of the world, it is not likely to fail us now. Like Elijah, if we follow God, we can be sure of success in the end. For as Paul proclaimed in Romans 8:31, ‘if God is for us, who can stand against us?’ We can take comfort in the words of John Knox in 1572, as he, like Elijah, stood alone trying to reform his nation, Catholic Scotland, ‘A man with God is always in the majority.’
The LORD is God is the secret to our success. But before we move on, I want us to see what such success looks like. For if I was to tell you that Elijah was successful, you might expect the nation forsake Baal and return to the LORD over the coming chapters. And yet, as we shall see, there is no shift in the spiritual state of Israel. Elijah is not able to turn them back. How then is Mount Carmel a success? Well, it was successful in achieving what Elijah had appealed for. We see the success he seeks in verses 36-37: ‘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….’ Read on and see fire fall from heaven and consume not only the sacrifice, the wood and the water, but the very stones of the alter and dust of the ground as well. At that moment there was not one person among the people who did not know that the LORD is God. For ‘when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God."’ (18:39) Not only is the LORD shown to be what he really is, but his servants are seen for what they really are. In the light of this fire, that reckless rescue mission of Obadiah’s can now be seen as perfectly reasonable. The decision of the 100 prophets of the LORD to sit and suffer in a cave rather than deny their God and feast from Queen Jezebel’s table all made sense now. The whole nation could see that those prophets who had been slain by the sword for their service to the LORD were right to suffer unto death. They might have thought Elijah was too enthusiastic or eccentric before, but I guarantee when fire fell from heaven, that notion fell from their minds. They now knew that he was God’s servant. The success we see here is the same as that prophesised by Joel, ‘You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.’ (2:27) Friends, no matter the odds or obstacles, when you serve the LORD, you can be sure of success. You can be certain that in the end God will be glorified and you will not be ashamed. No matter how this plays out in our lives, whether this success looks like what we expect and hope for or not, we can be sure that God will be glorified and his servants vindicated. For the secret of our success is: The LORD is God.
C. Consequences for the People and the Prophets (18:39-40) – Method of His Mercy
At the beginning I said that this was the kind of exciting and significant story you would expect to find in a children’s story Bible. Not only is the story gripping, but I can imagine illustrators having a lot of fun with drawing fire falling from heaven onto the mountain top. However, the final picture we are left with is slightly less child friendly. I can imagine editors scratching their heads, wondering whether to draw a line under verse 39, or to continue with verse 40 and the slaughtering of the Baal’s prophets at the brook. Even if they did include it, it is unlikely there would be any illustration.
If this death sentence strikes us as slightly shocking, it is perhaps a sign that we do not see the seriousness of our sin. In particular, the seriousness of causing others to sin through false teaching. In the Mosaic Law, God is clear how Israel should deal with false teachers: Deuteronomy 13 declares that they deserve death. And in the history of Israel, that is what happened. When we get into the New Testament, though we no longer have a civil penalty, there is no indication that God takes such sin any less seriously. In fact, Jesus suggests that death would a bit of a let off for these spiritual criminals. In Matthew 18:6, when speaking of a child he had just called over, Jesus explains that ‘whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.’ Clearly being a Sunday School teacher should come with a safety warning.
These prophets deserved to be cast into the deepest depths of the sea. And yet it was down to a brook that they are brought, where we are told that Elijah personally slaughtered them. The last brook Elijah was at in 1 King 17, he found life by trusting in God. However, at this brook these prophets find death for they have defied God. The Bible makes clear that this is the fate not just for false prophets, but for all who fail to trust in God. For all who have rejected his rule. For all who do not follow after him. Romans 6:23, ‘For the wages of sin is death…’. Following a false god is fatal. For them. For us. 2 Thessalonians speaks of a future day, when fire will come forth from heaven again, ‘when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction…’. (1:7–9)
Throughout the Bible, fire falling from heaven is a sign of judgement. What is it that consumes the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)? What do James and John suggest that they call down on the Samaritan villages who will not accept Jesus (Luke 9)? Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). And when that fire comes from the clouds, it is as if the very flames of Hell itself pour out of Heaven. The just judgement of God which will burn in the Lake of Fire forever, breaks into this world for a moment. Consuming all that do not fall on their faces and cry: ‘The LORD, he is God’. (18:39) That is of course how the Israelites avoid the fate of the false prophets. They are saved from destruction by believing in God. We see there are but two outcomes, for them and us. Confess God and live, or go after another God and be destroyed.
Fire falling from heaven is a sign of judgement, and yet here we see it fall and not a hair on the head of the people is singed. Despite their sin against their God. Their failure to fully follow after him. Their limping between two different opinions. Years of idol worship and trust in a false God. Not one Israelite is consumed by this fire. This isn’t the first time this has happened. It happened in the days of David at the consecration of the land for the Temple (1 Chron 21:26). It happened during the reign of Solomon at the opening of the Temple itself (2 Chron 7:1). On each occasion, fire falls from heaven, and consumes not the people, but a sacrifice laid out on an alter. Each time it is a burnt offering that is set alight, the offering given in Leviticus to make atonement for sin. The inclusion of this offering is clear here. When is it that Elijah makes his move? It is when it comes to the time of the offering of the oblation (18:29,36). What is it that he lays out on the alter and tells the people to pour water over: the burnt offering (18:33). And yet not a match is put to it. For this offering to burn, God must send fire. If there is to be atonement for sin, a sacrifice made on their behalf, God must himself must offer it up. See here the measure of his mercy. Like the prophets of Baal, they deserve to be ‘Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore.’ And yet it is their sins that God casts into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18-20). For God himself makes atonement for his people. ‘Our sins they are many, His mercy is more.’
See here too the method of his mercy. Because of his steadfast love they are not consumed, but instead, a sacrifice receives the fiery judgement on their behalf. They deserved the sentence passed on the prophets of Baal. To be slaughtered like a sacrifice. And yet we see a sacrifice substituted for them. This is the method of God’s mercy to all those who trust in him. Who fall on their face and cry the LORD is God. Who see that sacrifice laid out on the alter for them. Not a bull laid down on an alter, but Jesus Christ, lifted up on a cross. The one who was like a lamb led to the slaughter. The one on whom our sins were laid. The one upon whom the just judgement fell. He was offered up and consumed, for all who confess him as Lord and Saviour. Our salvation is through a sacrifice. We are saved by a substitute.
And so, the curtain closes on our production. Friends, unlike the people packed onto the slopes of Mount Carmel that day, we may not have seen that fire fall, but in reading this word and thinking upon, by the Spirit we also see that the LORD is God. O may we be consistent to that confession. May we realise that in it lies the secret to our sure success. May we see in the brutal slaughter of the prophets and that burnt offering on the alter, the measure and method of God’s mercy that comes to each of us who have trusted in his Son.
ALEXANDER ARRELL