Elijah continues to weight the contest in the favor of the 450 prophets of Baal. Every possible advantage and edge was conceded to the Baalites. They were clearly the favored contestants here, ready to steamroll over Elijah and his Yahweh. Emphasizing the sheer superiority of their physical numbers, he defers to them to select which bull they wanted, to build their altar first, and then to take whatever time they needed to do their “thing” so that Baal would respond to them. They could take the stage for the first trial that they might, if they could, establish the claims of Baal and their own power, and thus settle the dispute without any further action. The only caveat – again the reminder to not light the fire. This was to be a legitimate test, not rigged as they were likely wont to do. Perhaps for the first time in their history, these false priests were unable to insert the secret fire under the sticks which lay upon their altar.
Elijah takes pains to clearly demonstrate that the deck is stacked against him. He is both confident and is anxious to prove to the people that though every conceivable advantage was systematically in Baal’s favor, Yahweh would demonstrate Himself in an unmistakable and overwhelming display of power.
18:26 “They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!' they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar which they had made.” (NJB)
From around 9:00 in the morning (estimated) until noon, the prophets of Baal shouted out to Baal to answer them. Imagine the sound of 450 men yelling out the same phrase for three hours. Perhaps they needed to warm up their voices as they began their rituals, but soon all of them would have been in full height of their vocal capacities, fueled by the massive volume of their aggregate yells. When no response was provoked by their continual chanting and yelling, they began dancing up and around their altar in the wild and grotesque ritual dances of the pagan religions.
The same term Elijah used of the people in their hobbling between religions, pāsah (“limp”), is somewhat contemptuously used here to describe the reeling, swaying, bacchantic dance of these priests of Baal. Pagan rituals included a strange form of gyrations and bodily contortions, accompanied by strange and hideous cries, with wild drum beats at times adding to the chaos. Elements of this type of ritual dances can be seen yet today in aspects of the dancing dervishes and Indian devil-worshippers, with the circumambulation (“Tawaf”) of Muslim pilgrims around the Kaaba sacred stone pictured as being “done with a certain ritual-step which is described as resembling dragging the feet in deep sand” (D.B. MacDonald). According to Islamic tradition the first building at the site of the Kaaba, the most sacred location for Muslims, was erected by Abraham. All Muslims around the world face towards Kaaba in prayer five times a day, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every capable Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk several times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction, with the most dramatic scenes during the Hajj, when two million pilgrims simultaneously gather to circle the building on the same day.
Round and round the altar the prophets of Baal went in their wild and mystic dance, all the while repeating their monotonous chant, “O Baal hear us, O Baal hear us.” Despite all their zeal and all their calls to Baal, “there was no voice, no answer.” The altar stood cold and smokeless, the bull drying out in the morning sun. The powerlessness of Baal and the folly of his worshippers was beginning to be made fully apparent:
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.After describing the powerless idols, note how the Psalmist continues: “O Israel, trust in the LORD.” (vs. 9)
They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. (Psa 115:4-8)
Clearly Satan could have responded to the prophets of Baal and sent fire onto the altar, just as he did on Job’s sheep and shepherds: “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them (Job 1:16). In Revelation, we read that in the end times the second beast, the false prophet of Satan, “performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs” (Rev 13:13-14). But while Satan was given permission by God to torment Job’s (1:12) and to deceive the earth in the future, here he is utterly powerless to respond to the false priests and so deceive the Israelites.
Note for now how there was no voice and no response.
18:27 “And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, ‘Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened’." (ESV)
After three hours of standing by and observing the absurdity and fruitlessness of the wailing and dancing of the prophets of Baal, Elijah interrupts the circuis with advice heavily steeped in mockery. “The worship of idols is a most ridiculous thing, and it is but justice to represent it so and expose it to scorn” (Matthew Henry). “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision” (Psa 2:4, NKJV). “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me” (Pro 1:26-28).
He goads them on to cry out even louder, for after all, Baal is a god, so therefore it must be a lack on the part of the false priests that there is no response. It was at midday, when the sun was at its highest and hottest point, when these gyrating priests should have had the best opportunity for success. He offers four suggestions as to what may be keeping Baal from attending to their cries: perhaps he is in deep thought or meditating; maybe he has “gone aside” – believed to be a euphemism for visiting the celestial loo; possibly he is on a journey to tend to his commercial interests or maybe hunting (Phoenician sailors believed Baal traveled with them on the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, and when the goddess Anat, Baal’s consort, comes to look for him, she is told he has gone hunting); or perhaps he’s like the gods of other religions and is simply sleeping and needs to be roused from his slumbers or beauty sleep (Vishnu sleeps four months out of the year). No matter the reason, clearly he hasn’t heard them, so the Baalites need to ratchet up the decibel to a higher level to get his attention.
While these four suggestions appear ridiculous to our culture and we would conclude this would therefore only offend and infuriate these charlatans, these activities are actually consistent with the mythology of the ancient religions in terms of what the pagans believed preoccupied their gods. So rather than reacting with rage to Elijah’s taunts, the response from the Baalites seems to indicate they considered his suggestions as being quite valid.
18:28 “They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them.” (HCSB)
We might think these priests of Baal would have caught on that Elijah was mocking them, yet we see they are so caught up in their own deception that these blind fools actually take his “good advice” and step up their ritual dramatically. “So infatuated and stupid were those devotees of Baal that they do not appear to have discerned the drift of his words, but rather to have regarded them as containing good advice” (Pink). They respond by increasing the fervor of their appeals, working themselves into a frenzy. Heightening the stakes in their ritual to ensure Baal’s attention, they slashed themselves with knives and spears, “until blood gushed over them.” Self-mutilation was believed by the pagans to be the ultimate sign of devotion and affinity to their god, consistent with the barbaric customs of so many pagan religions down through the ages. What poor, miserable slaves are idolaters whose objects of worship can be gratified with human gore and with the self-inflicted torments of their worshippers!
While the Israelites had been strictly forbidden by Yahweh to take part in such cruel and gruesome customs (Deut 14:1), cruelty is a common distinctive of false religions. But what would you expect from a religion that has the devil behind it, for “he has been a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). Pagan gods are supposed to be appeased and pleased with the blood of humans. Pagan cultures widely believed that if the blood of the sacrifice would not move their gods to action, the blood from their self-inflicted wounds ensured a response from their object of worship. Adopted in violation of God’s commands by the idolatrous Israelites, this was the custom of the ancient nations, and we see it occurring still today.
One writer vividly captures the gruesome rituals of the ancient Syrians: “A discordant howling opens the scene. They then rush wildly about in perfect confusion, with their heads bowed down to the ground, but always revolving in circles, so that the loosened hair drags through the mire; they then begin to bite their arms, and end with cutting themselves with the two-edged swords which they are in the habit of carrying. A new scene then opens. One of them, who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with signs and groans; he openly accuses himself of the sins which he has committed, and which he is now about to punish by chastising the flesh, takes the knotted scourge, which the Galli generally carry, lashes his back, and then cuts himself with swords till the blood trickles down from his mangled body.” (Movers: Phönizier, i. pp. 682,683)
The notable Jewish historian, Edersheim writes: “First rose a comparatively moderate, though already wild cry to Baal; followed by a dance around the altar, beginning with a swinging motion to and fro. The howl then became louder and louder, and the dance more frantic. They whirled round and round, ran wildly through each other's ranks, always keeping up a circular motion, the head low bent, so that their long dishevelled hair swept the ground. Ordinarily the madness now became infectious, and the onlookers joined in the frenzied dance. But Elijah knew how to prevent this. It was noon—and for hours they had kept up their wild rites. With cutting taunts and bitter irony Elijah now reminded them that, since Baal was Elohim, the fault it must lie with them. He might be otherwise engaged, and they must cry louder. Stung to madness, they became more frantic than before, and what we know as the second and third acts in these feasts ensued. The wild howl passed into piercing demoniacal yells. In their madness the priests bit their arms and cut themselves with the two-edged swords which they carried and with lances.”
Bishop Caldwell describes the devil-dances of Southern India: “He cuts and hacks and hews himself, and not unfrequently kills himself there and then.” Kitto writes of “the furious gashes which the Persians inflict upon themselves in their frantic annual lamentation for Hussein.”
This latter comment actually reflects the modern day of Ashura, marked by Muslims as a whole, but for Shia Muslims a major religious festival. It is a solemn day mourning the martyrdom of Hussein in 680 AD at Karbala in modern-day Iraq. The killing of Hussein was an event that led to the split in Islam into two main sects: Sunnis and Shias. Day of Ashura in Nabatiyeh is made up of mourning rituals and passion plays re-enacting the martyrdom. Shia men and women dressed in black also parade through the streets slapping their chest and chanting. Many Shia men in Nabatiyeh seek to emulate the suffering of Hussein by flagellating themselves with chains or cutting their foreheads until blood streams from their bodies. They also cut the foreheads of young boys and babies.
18:29 “All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.” (HCSB)
The frenzied climax to the ritual dances was the “raving” or the wild utterances, coherent at times and at other times bordering on the animal-like. Considered prophesying by the pagans, hence the reason for these false priests referred to as the prophets of Baal. This demoniacal ritual continued through the afternoon up to the time of the evening sacrifice. Based upon the existing accounts of the Temple times and observances, the daily evening sacrifice, which consisted of a burnt-offering and a meat-offering (Ex 29:38; Num 28:3-8), was offered in the closing hours of the afternoon. The evening sacrifice was offered “between the evenings” – between the going down of the sun and the night-time. This time would be 3:00 by our accounting.
In other words, these Baalists had been going at it from approximately 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon – nearly six consecutive hours of yelling and dancing, with two more hours of frenzied mutilations and ravings. They continued in such manner to the middle of the afternoon, when their powers of endurance must have been all but exhausted, greatly weakened by the self-inflicted wounds and the loss of blood. It wouldn’t be surprising if some of them dropped in exhaustion, passed out or perhaps even bled to death.
Consider what that wild and gruesome scene must have been. 450 possessed men shouting and screaming as they dance wildly and hacking or cutting away with knives and spears! It is obvious that their faith in Baal was sincere and profound, though clearly misguided. Making due allowance for the fact that they were under the eyes of their king and patron, and of representatives of the entire people, it is still impossible to doubt their sincerity and intensity: “Of one thing I am assured—the devil-dancer never shams excitement” (Caldwell).
The misguided actions of these prophets of Baal serve to remind us of a very important truth. False religious movements certainly do not lack for zeal. In fact, they often put Christians to shame by their earnestness. The prophets of Baal put on quite a show on Mount Carmel. For some six hours they were loud and long in crying for Baal to answer them, and yet how often do people complain if a church service goes over one hour? Faith and sincerity in religious worship do not insure that one’s worship is acceptable. Earnestness is not the test of validity, and sincerity does not guarantee truth. We must not be like Charlie Brown who lamented after losing a baseball game, “One hundred and eighty-four to nothing. I don't understand it. How can we lose when we're so sincere?”
No one could fault them for not being sincere. No one could deny that they had faith. However, it is not enough to have faith, and it is not enough to be sincere. The problem was that their faith was in the wrong object and they were sincerely wrong! Jesus reminded the Samaritan woman that true worship of God must be “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The Apostle Paul did not fault the sincerity of his unbelieving Jewish brethren, but pointed out that their zeal alone did not merit salvation: “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”(Rom. 10:2–3). Tragically, for many “religious” people who conclude that a display of religious zeal and fervor is a real sign of spirituality, “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Oh, the blindness of those caught up in false religions and ideologies: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:4, ESV)
Look how in this verse we see once again that there was “no sound; no one answered” – similar to verse 26. However, there is a third ‘no” here that warrants consideration: “no one paid attention.” This no, no, no declaration emphasizes how completely the priests of Baal struck out. They received no response from Baal, no answer to their ravings and mutilations, and here we see they received no regard from “the people, who were now tired out with so long attention and expectation; and therefore more readily deserted them” (Matthew Poole). These false prophets gave the people nothing to cheer about, nothing to rejoice in, nothing to encourage their hopes. How exposed was their futile faith in a powerless god!
Isa 45:16 “They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them; they shall go to confusion together that are makers [and worshippers] of idols.”
Jer 10:5 “Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them for they can do no harm – and they cannot do any good.” (HCSB)
18:30 “Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come near me.’ So all the people approached him. Then he repaired the Lord’s altar that had been torn down.”
As the appointed time of the offering of the evening sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem drew near, though now in the southern kingdom of Judah, Elijah stepped forward and took charge. He had given nearly six straight hours to the 450 priests of Baal to prove their god could live up to his alleged strengths. That clearly had gone nowhere, expect to leave the false prophets bleeding, exhausted and humiliated.
The ball was now in Elijah’s court. His calm, measured approach contrasted dramatically with the frantic actions of the prophets. Turning his focus once again back to the people, the ones who really mattered to him, he instructs them to come near to him. After enduring six hours of noise, chaos, bloodletting and disappointment, all the people quickly gathered around Elijah, to see if his turn and his God would yield any results.
Note how he wants the people close to him and able to watch his every move, as he goes about rebuilding the altar and making preparations for the sacrifice. Truth always operates fully and openly in the light, as there is nothing to hide, and welcomes observation and eye-witnesses. Truth begs to be examined, investigated, and scrutinized; for when it is, it will shine forth in its glory. As Jesus openly invited: “search the Scriptures because..they testify about Me.” (John 5:39)
Elijah invited the closest scrutiny of the people as he repaired the broken altar of Jehovah. They should be in the nearest proximity so that they might see for themselves there was no trickery, no insertion of any secret fire beneath the wood on which the slain bullock was laid. Furthermore, note how he builds a separate altar, not simply using the one the Baalites had built. There was to be no confusion as to whose God responded to whose prophet and at which altar.
What is this “the Lord’s altar that had been torn down”? This may have been an altar from long ago, dating back to the early history before the Temple or even the tabernacle served as the center of worship to Yahweh. According to the Mosaic law there was only one altar upon which sacrifices might be offered, and that was where the Lord had fixed His peculiar residence, from the days of Solomon, in Jerusalem, and before that the tabernacle. However before the tent of meetings was erected, sacrifices might be offered in any place, and in the previous dispensation altars were built wherever the Patriarchs sojourned for any length of time. That said, this may have been a more recent altar, subsequent to the splintering of the nation of Israel, where the northern followers of Yahweh worshipped, the Temple now being in the southern kingdom. Either way, this undoubtedly was one of the altars that had been “torn down” by the command of Ahab and Jezebel, or one of the other wicked kings of Israel (19:10). It has been suggested that his rebuilding of this altar, vs. erecting a new one, shows him to be the restorer of the law and the true religion: “in the spirit and power of Elijah, turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and wrongdoers to the way of righteousness; to make ready a people whose hearts have been turned to the Lord.” (Luke 1:17, BBE)
18:31-32 “And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’ Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.” (NKJV)
Though the nation of Israel had been torn in two and 10 of the tribes had followed the way of Baal, the Lord, in whose name the altar was being rebuilt, still remained faithful as the covenant Yahweh who had originally given to them their name – Israel. As a people they should have remained as one in the worship of the God of Israel, having communion with each other as brothers, which indeed they (the tribes) were. The invocation of the name of their father Jacob by the name of Israel (“a prince with God”) was a rebuke to shame his degenerate seed, who worshipped a god which they saw could not hear nor answer them. False religions divide, they put a great division between God and man, and they also break up sanctified relationships of man with man. But true religion unites. It brings people together through the common bond of fellowship in the Lord. The twelve stones would have also been a sharp slap in the face of Ahab.
After rebuilding the altar, he does something rather curious – something he had not instructed the prophets of Baal to do. Imagine what would have been going on in theirs and the peoples’ minds as he digs a sizeable trench all around the altar. The trench was large enough to accommodate “two seahs of seed.” One seah was considered a standard measure for seed, and two seahs was the third of an ephath. In equivalency to our terms, two seahs equal roughly 11-13 quarts, so roughly four gallons or a third of a bushel of seed (1 bushel = 32 quarts). Now four gallons of seed would not amount to much space to dig around the trench, particularly given the amount of water that would be poured over the altar later in this narrative. It is likely that the trench was large enough to “house” a standard container that would typically hold two measures of seed: the “well-known measure of a double seah fixing the depth and breadth of the trench.” This would be then similar to our indicating the trench was deep and wide enough to hold a 4-gallon container.
18:33-35 “Next, he arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood. He said, ‘Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the offering to be burned and on the wood.’ Then he said, ‘A second time!’ and they did it a second time. And then he said, ‘A third time!’ and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; he even filled the trench with water.” (HCSB)
In compliance with the Mosaic Law (Lev 1:3-9), Elijah “arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood.” Consider that this was a bullock being sacrificed, meaning that this a burnt offering. What is the significance of such a sacrifice? A bullock was a sin offering. It recognized the sinfulness of man and the need for the mercy of God. How appropriate this was in the case of Israel. Sin was the problem in the land of Israel, and God's mercy was desperately needed to forgive the people and heal the land. A bullock was also on Baal's altar, but it was Elijah who directed that the bullocks should be on both altars. While the significance of the specific steps and meaning behind the sacrifice may have been lost on the apostate Israelites, see how strictly Elijah holds to the commandments of the Lord.
The adherence to the Mosaic Law aside for the moment, the arranging of the wood and bull would not have been remarkable to the people. However, his next instruction must have completely caught them off guard, far more than digging a trench around the altar. Imagine again what must have been going through everyone’s minds as the three-fold trek for water was ensuing. How the air must have been taut with tension and bewilderment!
Once the altar and the trench had been completed inundated and saturated with 12 containers of water, could there have been any doubts as to whether or not Elijah was secretly playing with fire? Could he possibly do anything else to cement the impossibility of the situation against him and Yahweh? If the 450 prophets of Baal couldn’t ignite dry wood during the heat of the day, what possibly could the lone Elijah do to start a fire when everything was completed soaked? It was obvious in this contest that the circumstances were being arranged so Baal would have every advantage compared to Yahweh. They offered their sacrifice first, they had the advantage of the heat of the day to kindle fire on the altar, they greatly outnumbered Yahweh’s one prophet, and their opponent's altar was drenched with water.
Isn’t this just like the Lord, the God of the impossible? How we panic when things seem to slip out of our control, yet when our Father in heaven is the Lord of the impossible, why do we strive so hard to keep things within our control? Wouldn’t it be far better to leave things in His omnipotent hands? “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26; Mark 10:27)
Consider the story of another impossible sacrifice. Recall how Isaac as his father Abraham, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham’s response? “God Himself will provide” (Gen 22:7-8). Here we see that the bull and the wood was present, and God would once again provide – this time the fire.
Note again here the significance of 12, reinforcing the representation of the 12 tribes. The containers were likely the large water pitchers typically carried by the women, and the water was undoubtedly from the spring (“Elijah’s Spring”) just a couple hundred steps from the altar.
18:36-37 “At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, ‘Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that at Your word I have done all these things. Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that You, Yahweh, are God and that You have turned their hearts back’.” (HCSB)
Notice the unusual designation here for Elijah. While historically he is commonly referred to as “the prophet Elijah,” in 1 Kings he’s typically referred to as the Tishbite or “man of God.” The significance here is to clearly highlight the prophet of the living God from the phony prophets of the false god.
Look closely at Elijah’s prayer. He begins by clearly addressing the Lord by His proper name and the designation He had given to Moses. This formulaic description had only once before been used, and that by God Himself at the burning bush – when He appeared as a flaming fire. Also, see how the “Israel” is purposefully inserted for Jacob. This not only proclaims the Lord as the heavenly “God of Israel,” but it additionally emphasizes that “Israel” was the name that was given not to individual tribes, but to the earthly father of one nation. In case the stiff-necked Israelites hadn’t caught on yet, Elijah not only starts with the Lord’s name, he emphasizes it two more times in his short prayer. There was to be absolutely no confusion as to who is Lord!
Without the six hours of shouting, raving, and any of the theatrics of his adversaries, Elijah prays personally, simply, and shortly – only sixty-three words in the English translation and fewer still in the Hebrew. What a contrast is this from the Baalites, as well as some of the long drawn-out and wearisome prayers of some people and pulpits today! “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” (Eccl 5:2, ESV)
Elijah’s prayer was a simple one, but it was a prayer of faith. There was no screaming or shouting, no frenzied cultic dancing, no vain repetition of the same words uttered for hours, no mutilation, no show. Truth, simplicity and faith – how does that type of prayer fit with what we see, or don’t see in our churches and lives today? He addressed the Lord as one addresses another living person, and he humbly makes four petitions, all four ones we must incorporate into our prayers and lives:
1) The glory of God. The Israelites wanted rain, but Elijah wanted God to receive the glory. It was not rain first, but God's glory first. The reason for their problems was that God was not first. In our lives and prayers may we seek His glory first, just as the one whom we follow seeks God’s glory first: “I seek not My own glory” (John 8:50).
2) Testimony – Elijah wanted everyone to know Who he served, Who was his God. Clearly this was a hostile environment, but he wanted his testimony to be sure.
3) The Word of God – Elijah wanted the people to understand the significance of the Word of God, and to know the importance of adhering to God’s word.
4) Elijah prayed for the people. He didn’t criticize them for being fools to follow Baal. He didn’t ask for the fire to fall on them in judgment. He had compassion on them. God had chosen the Israelites to be His people. As the servant of God, who was Elijah to dismiss or disregard them? Grace, mercy and love have been freely extended towards us – as followers of Christ, may we be like-minded towards others. Note how the text is written in the past tense. Elijah was so convinced and certain of God’s actions and that His will is done, the turning back of the people in his mind and prayer is already done. How confident and faith-filled is his prayer!
18:38 “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.”
There was no need for six hours. In immediate response to Elijah’s simple yet passionate prayer for God’s glory and His people, the Lord made His presence known in no uncertain fashion. The storm gods of the ancient Near East are typically equipped with lightning bolts that are their means of sending fire. Assyrian kings spoke of the gods as a burning flame and of sending fire before them. Fire brought about by these thunderbolts was one of the principal weapons of the gods. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), and when He made His presence known, there was no longer any doubts as to His true identity and the lack thereof for Baal. All four of Elijah’s petitions were answered in one fell swoop of God’s holy fire.
Notice the amazing facts of this consuming fire, so simply and succinctly spelled out:
1) The fire came down from heaven.
2) The pieces of the sacrifice were first consumed.
3) The wood next, to show that it was not even by means of the wood that the flesh was burned.
4) The twelve stones were also consumed, to show that it was no common fire, but one whose agency nothing could resist.
5) The dust, the earth of which the altar was constructed, was burned up.
6) The water that was in the trench was, by the action of this fire, entirely evaporated.
7) The action of this fire was in every case downward, contrary to the nature of all earthly and material fire, and nothing could withstand it.
Elijah’s prayer had lasted less than a minute, yet consider the power and results in response to his simple, faith-filled petition! Nothing could have so clearly demonstrated Yahweh's supreme power over fire, water, and rain – a very deliberate repudiation of Baalism, and by extension, every other false religion in this world. “Where moments before an altar and sacrifice had stood shining in the sun, there now remained only a burned, fire-blackened depression in the scorched soil” (Phillip Keller).
What great evidence that Yahweh is God! What a great demonstration of the power and glory of Yahweh!
18:39 “When all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, ‘Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God’!” (HCSB)
Could there be any other response? There could no longer be any doubt as to the existence and the omnipotence of Yahweh. There could no longer be any deception as to who is God. They saw it with their own eyes. They had long delayed the glory due unto the Lord, this is only one small preview of what will one day be universal acclaim: “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess” (Rom 14:11; Phil 2:10).
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