The Show Down
I Kings 18:29 –
This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response.
Here we find Elijah, a herald of the Lord, confronting a wicked King Ahab and the priests of the false gods Baal and Asherah. Elijah challenged the false worshipers to stack their gods against the one true God, and gathered King Ahab and the rest at a place called Mount Carmel and laid down the rules. He said,
“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 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.” (I Kings 18:22-24)
The false worshippers raved loudly and passionately from morning to night, but “no one answered; no one paid attention.” The text records that they even went so far as to “cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them” (I Kings 18:28). After all of the commotion, all of the seeming fervency and devotion, even after a daylong worship service “there was no voice.” Their gods answered in silence, the only real answer a false god can give. Elijah prayed, and even though his offering was soaked in water, God sent fire and consumed it.
When the people saw it they responded in amazement, “the Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” A great miracle was performed in front of a thousand people, and Elijah did not try and assert himself as king or leader. Elijah did not connive to use the Lord’s power for his benefit, but to the Master’s glory. Live your life in such a way that leaves those around you saying, “The Lord, He is God.”
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