Where is the God of Elijah? Part 6,   

Fire on the Mountain         1 Kings 18:20-4

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- September 17, 2006

²⁰So Ahab summoned all the people and the prophets to Mount Carmel. ²¹Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.

²²Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the LORD who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. ²³Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. ²⁴Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

The primary thought in the area of true religion is—keep your eyes on God. Honor Him and He will honor you.

Elijah does just that as he confronts King Ahab. Ahab was an evil, unbelieving ruler over Israel. He was self-centered and corrupt in every way. He would have exemplified the Property Laws of a Toddler quite well:

 Property Laws of a Toddler:  Some might say this is evidences of Original Sin.

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours. Source Unknown.

Having challenged Ahab to call Israel and the false prophets of Baal and Ashteroth to Mount Carmel, he meets them there.

Elijah knows that all of God’s people have been affected by the sin of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. The worship of Jehovah has ceased. The altars of God have been broken down. The sacred flame of fire for sacrifice that was to burn perpetually has been quenched. Many of the prophets, God’s spokesmen, have been killed. The Word of God has been silenced too. The fire of God’s presence, the fire of God’s promises to his people and the fire of God’s power has been extinguished in their unbelief.

The souls of God’s people are as dry and impoverished as the land itself. They are hard-hearted and stubborn. For 585 years they have been willful, stiff-necked and have had divided loyalties. They have tried to maintain worship of God and of the false gods of the people around them. They have time and again followed after the false gods and over and over again God has sent someone to bring them back from the brink of destruction. Why has God done this? He has done it because He loved them and he had chosen them to be his people.

Elijah is a man who is fearless. He is a man who stands for the glory of God. He will not hesitate to stand alone before the king and the people of Israel.

When they have all gathered up on Mt. Carmel he calls out to the people:

 “How long are you going to waver between two opinions?  If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

James 1:8 tells us this about double minded people: double minded people are unstable.

Elijah asks them how long they are going to waver between two opinions. The word waver is an interesting word in the Hebrew. It is a word that means to stagger or stumble. As I thought about that this week, I wondered, when do people stagger or stumble? People stagger or stumble when their balance is impaired. They do it when they have no control over their body. People who are on drugs or are drunk do that a lot. They have lost control and are under the influence of the alcohol or drugs. Others stagger and stumble when there is some physical impairment in their bodies. Illness can cause it and make it difficult for someone to walk. We have a couple of people here today who would have those kinds of problems.

The spiritual application of Elijah’s question is this: False spiritual beliefs and life styles will cause us to be unbalanced. We will stagger and stumble out of control in need of repentance and forgiveness of sin. If we are ever double minded, we will stagger and stumble around spiritually, unstable. That is what the people of Israel are doing.

Elijah has been led by God to force his people to face the facts of their sin and separation from God. He has a message of God to deliver to them and he will deliver it at any cost. Elijah is God’s man, in God’s place at God’s own time.

His mission is to show God’s people that God is the one and only true God. If they will honor God, he will honor them.

He throws down the challenge: Bring out two bulls. One will be for me and the other will be for the prophets of Baal and Ashteroth. We will prepare two sacrifices and call upon our respective gods. The God who answers by fire is the real God. What we have here is to be a spiritual duel.

The people of Israel are in bad spiritual shape. They have been inundated with counterfeit spiritual activities: worshiping false gods, listening to false prophets, offering false sacrifices, living with false priorities and false lifestyles, honoring false leaders who fostered all these false beliefs. All of that sort of reminds you of the day in which we live.

The people agree. “Well said. Well said.” They reply. “Let it be so.”

The problem with their decision is, of course, the fact that they were ill-prepared for a true visitation from God that day. Before this day was done, they would have witnessed what God could do. God will show up and his power will be obvious to all Israel. Elijah is a true man of God.

This can be seen in the nature of the sacrifice he proposed up on Mt. Carmel that day. He told them to bring two bulls. These were oxen to be sacrificed. Israel missed the real significance of the suggestion Elijah makes. They are preoccupied with the fire to come and they miss the significance of the sacrifice to be offered.

A priest, prophet or man of God offered an ox in sacrifice to God only for his own special, private sins and wrongdoing. It was an offering of atonement made on behalf of himself and his immediate household.

Implicit in the offering of the bullock was his awareness of his own unworthiness. God had instituted the sacrifice for the cleansing and purification of the man of God. This was a preparation for God’s own servants to be in a right relationship with God. “And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.” (Lev. 16:6).

This bullock was offered as a sin offering. It showed that the true in heart must be made right with God in humility and complete contrition. A man of God was to bring such an offering, with a humble mind, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. God’s response is always to delight to come and touch the spirit of such a man or woman who sees himself undone before God.

None of this is characteristic of the people of Israel as they gather there on Mt. Carmel.

But Elijah knows and understands that God honors those who honor him. And in spite of all that Elijah had seen God do on his behalf, Elijah was a humble servant of God who knew his own unworthiness.

If we would serve God ourselves, we must find ourselves where Elijah was…unworthy before God, and humble of mind and contrite of spirit. When we are there, we will see the power of God manifest in our own lives as did Elijah.

Notice what Elijah does. He lets the prophets of Baal and the priests of Ashteroth go first. He gives them the pick of the bulls. They can have the best one. They can make their sacrifice, put it on the altar and call upon their gods to send fire down upon the altar to burn up the sacrifice. The one thing they cannot do is set their wood on fire themselves.

From morning to noon, the false prophets and priests call on their gods. They dance around and when there is no answer begin to cut themselves with knives. They pleaded and cried out to Baal to send down fire to consume the offering. All they needed was one simple stroke of lightning from their god of the thunderstorms, hail, rain and lightning. But the skies remained clear without a hint of a thunderstorm.

And then Elijah began taunting them. “Shout louder! He said. Call harder, he cried. Perhaps your god is busy in a conversation. Perhaps he is going to the bathroom or is preoccupied. Perhaps he is away on a trip somewhere. Maybe he has fallen asleep. Awaken him so he can answer you.

The gods of Baal and Ashteroth have given their priests and prophets, as well as those who believed in them, false hopes, false aspirations and false expectations. And nothing happens. There is no answer.

Look at the world around us and see the false hopes, the false aspirations and false expectations that come from the false worship of almost everything. People worship money and yet you never see the armored car behind the hearse. People worship things and there is no U-Haul truck behind the hearse either. If it is power or recognition people worship, the day soon comes when they and all they have done or stood for is forgotten. They are no longer remembered. Deluded by darkness, people worship almost anything but God and the result is always the same: disillusionment, defeat and destruction.

There on Mt. Carmel in the heat of the day time dragged on. The noise of the shouting and screaming became an ear deafening crescendo. They chanted their prayer. They gesticulated wildly and then cut themselves. Not a single syllable came from their gods. There was no answer. There was no response.

Elijah called the people over to him. “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.” Come over here and see what God will do.

And then Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord there on the mountain top. He took 12 uncut stones and piled them up in 3 tiers of four stones to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. He gathered the wood he needed for the sacrifice. On the altar he placed the pieces of the bull being offered to God. The blood of the sacrifice symbolized the laying down of God’s own life for the sins of the world.

Elijah did not come before the people in the name of Elijah. No, he came in the name of the Lord Jehovah. This altar represented the spot where the judgment and mercy of God fell in fire upon sin to consume and cleanse it away. It also stood for the spot where the mercy of God fell in love for man the sinner.

Around the altar, Elijah dug a deep trench. The width of the trench was two plow furrows and just as deep. The trench would separate the sacred altar from its surroundings. Elijah then turned the people. It was their turn to get involved in the sacrifice. He directed them to fill four barrels with water and pour it on the sacrifice. This seems like a strange request. Where would they get the water? They were in the midst of a terrible drought. Rivers, streams and even springs of water had all dried up. Where would the water come from? The Mediterranean Sea is at the foot of Mt. Carmel. They could get the water from there. Three times the four barrels were filled and poured out over the altar with the sacrifice on it. The water soaked the sacrifice, the wood, the altar and even filled up the trench to overflowing. They were to get one barrel of water for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The significance of the sea water would not be lost on Elijah’s audience. Those who understood the requirements of the Law of Moses regarding sacrifices would know that no sacrifice could be offered to God without salt. Salt was absolutely essential as an ingredient of every offering. This common element so essential to the common man when added by the humble man to his humble offering identified him with his own offering before God. It was an indication that he was offering himself in penitence to his God.

Without salt the offering would not be acceptable to God.

The people of Israel by participating in the sacrifice were saying “We have sinned. We too wish to identify ourselves with this offering.”

And at the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah lifted his eyes toward heaven and with a booming voice said: ““O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. ³⁷O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

This was his prayer of faith. This was a petition that could not be denied. This cry of his heart was a heart cry that God would hear and honor. It is not a long prayer. It is only 57 words, but they are words that found God ready to act. That is the way it always is with God.

That is our message for today: God honors those who honor him!

And the fire fell.

It fell on the offering and burned it up.

It burned up the stones of the altar.

It blazed with such a fury that even the water in the trench was turned to steam and disappeared. God’s presence there on that mountain top was manifested.

God’s power was evident in that instant. God had been silent for 3 ½ years and now he has spoken with power. And Elijah alone stood there on that mountain top.

But thousands and thousands of his countrymen were flat on their faces before God. They declared: “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”

The people were brought back to their beginnings.  When God declared himself to Abraham, he came down in flame to consume Abraham’s evening sacrifice. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, God made his presence known by the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. When God gave the Law to Israel he showed his presence in the fire that descended upon Mt. Sinai. And here on the mountain he reveals his presence and his power once again. And the result is that the people return in belief to God.

 Elijah commands that all the false prophets be killed. And Israel comes to grips with the falsehoods they have accepted and kill the false prophets. The source of their sin had to be dealt with before they could go on in worship of the True God.

 If we keep our eyes on God we will never find ourselves accepting false gods, false beliefs or false life styles.

 God will honor those who honor him. Bank on it!

--Dennis Gleason