Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 2 Lesson 11
In this lesson, David Capoccia examines Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. David Capoccia first looks at the context of the confrontation at Carmel, then the contest at Carmel, and then the application of the account of Carmel. This section of Scripture vividly exposes the uselessness of revering or serving any false god, physical statue, or idol of the heart.
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to align to though let’s recap what we said about Jonah last week at least a little bit of what we said why did Jonah disobey God’s call came down to ya Joe he didn’t want to go to Nineveh true but is he just lazy or why didn’t you want to go yes Steve oh yeah he’s prejudiced he I think we can beam strong in that he hates the Ninevites he hates them so much he would rather not risk the possibility that God would show kindness event you might have relished the idea of pronouncing judgment on them but he knew God’s heart and he didn’t want at any cost to see God relents of judgment to the Ninevites now how did Jonah survive in the great fish it was miraculous remember there’s no way as we can understand for a human to survive inside of a whale or fish so it had to be miraculous preservation now when God’s dealings with Jonah which attributes did God demonstrate clearly demonstrates compassion he does not give to Jonah what Jonah deserves during a disobedient a prophet event out of all people should have been obedient to the Lord but God is gracious to him and he’s completely sovereign and powerful he can orchestrate the storm the casting of lots of fish miraculous preservation he does all of these things he demonstrates his total power when Jonah goes to Nineveh dough and actually preaches what even greater miracle takes place exactly all of the people repent from the greatest to the least of them everyone repents this this Gentile City the greatest city in the Middle East at this time they all repent and God therefore relents at the judgment now we didn’t mention this last week we’re just as an aside remember this is not God demonstrating inconstancy God declares that he never changes he never changes his mind didn’t you change your mind if you said you were going to judge and in it and then you didn’t Oh God for ordained all of these actions even his own responses and he was acting completely consistent with this character he is a God who is angry with the evil and proud always but he’s always kind to the repentant and humble and God’s response to Nineveh was completely consistent with that character he’s consistent with his holiness and consistent with his compassion but Jonah is angry with God’s response why was Jonah’s anger hypocritical yes d right he accepted God’s mercy he experienced God’s compassion they didn’t want to see gone do that to other people this particular people group besides God’s demonstrating his great compassion and power in the Book of Jonah why else was the book of jonah written yes d that’s true it has some messianic implications the sign of Jonah is something that Jesus is going to refer to for himself but there’s that’s it’s good that you say that because that points us to another aspect of the Book of Jonah that even Jesus brings out you’re going to say something wrong I think so some have pointed out that Jonah is some ways almost symbolic of Israel that he didn’t want us to share the good news with Nineveh just as Israel never really sought to be a witness to the other nations it was just trying to reap the blessings for itself but keying on earth even going further with the idea of Israel remember that the Book of Jonah is a work of contrast Nineveh the greatest city of the Gentiles the most wicked city of the Gentiles repents that the preaching of one prejudiced half-hearted preacher but Israel will not repent even though all these preachers and even though they’re God’s people are coming or all these features are coming to them again again so it is a as an exposure Israel’s wickedness by way of contrast to the Vice Israel stubbornness Israel’s hard-heartedness issue had far more reason to repent and follow God but they would not in Nineveh had seemingly small reason to repent from human perspective and they do now there was a question last week I heard after class about whether such a rebuke via the Book of Jonah is truly fair if salvation is only possible by the Lord spirit as we know then how can God get condemn Israel for not believing true Nineveh had less reason to repent but they only repented because God moved them to repentance if God didn’t grant repentance to Israel then how can God find fault with Israel ah this is the classic misunderstanding of God’s sovereignty that nullifies man’s responsibility without spending a whole Sunday School lesson on it let me just try and sum up the answer quickly man is responsible to believe in and obey God yes every reason to do so and any kind of blessing or extra revelation at man receives makes him even more culpable but man by his own choice will not ever believe or obey God he is a man is bent toward rebellion God does not force man’s choice on this issue man brings upon himself his own deserved punishment man reaps what he sews this was true of Adam and it’s true of us his descendants as pastor taught recently it is therefore impossible for any man to be saved unless God intervenes unless God makes the person choose differently than he would naturally and this is what God does in salvation he intervenes he opens a man’s eyes he gives the man faith he makes the man alive by the Holy Spirit so that the man cannot help but choose God be save and experience God’s blessing now God’s refusal to intervene for all is not blameworthy you say well if you interview for some why don’t you intervene for all isn’t that not fair God does not need to save any you don’t have to intervene for any person the fact that any are all any at all are saved is an extremely surprising mercy therefore for those who are damned the responsibility in shame is entirely their own they chose it they reap the consequences of it but for those who are saved the responsibility and glory is entirely God’s because God chose it God accomplished it God made it come to pass now you weak you can try and say but what logically doesn’t this make gone responsible or doesn’t this make man irresponsible the Bible doesn’t let you do that the bible does not let you argue otherwise it states explicitly God does not force people to sin and by extension God does not force people to go to hell God allows evil for his own purposes but he categorically is not the author of evil or injustice of any sort this is part of what makes salvation so wondrous we could never have deserved it or even expected it it was a big merciful surprise we would have justly perished like the rest but God amazingly showed his loving kindness to us back to Israel even though we know Israel would never have turned to God without God’s intervention it is nonetheless true that Israel should have turned to God they had every reason to do so and the fact that they did not is even more blame worthy than those who had never experienced that special relationship to God or heard God special revelation questions about that or about what we talked about regarding Jonah last week yes yeah that’s good comment Steve there’s just something a little bit or repeat a little bit where you’re saying the the account of Jonah and even these understandings of God’s sovereignty and salvation they really emphasize the mercy of God the great compassion of God and it is something for us to imitate it is not something for us to be hypocritical about and even with this situation with the shooting in a gay nightclub of an Orlando this is another instance where we should be thinking about having an attitude of mercy and extending mercy because it has been extended to us and I also think about anytime you see a tragedy or natural disaster or something like that it’s always good to go back to the words of Jesus or the when he talks about the tower that fell on certain people or those who were killed when they were offering sacrifices he says you think they were more evil than you I’ll tell you no but unless you perish for unless you repent you will likewise perish so it’s not this oh they were you know they were homosexual they were they were living a gay lifestyle that’s why it happens them we’re all evil we all deserve to have that kind of thing happen to us there’s no reason necessarily that it happened to one and not the other we need to be we need to learn the lesson how we need to get right with God because the same thing could happen to us other questions or comments ok well the account of Jonah takes place in the middle of the divided Kingdom period under Jeroboam the second but we’re going to back up some years now and consider an earlier prophet Elijah Elijah was a fascinating individual unique in many respects it was a powerful servant of God and yet he was just a man he affected some of the most momentous miracles in the Old Testament including raising a person from the dead he was bold for the Lord and declared as a prophet must that the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom that’s where he ministered they must repent and serve God Elijah you may remember also is unique and that he never died but he ascended to heaven how in a chariot of fire but Elijah was also a week and failing profit in the book of Kings we see him express both loneliness and despair like Jonah Elijah at times asked for God to kill him because Elijah feels like allied is the only God fever left in Israel he’s always on the run from people who want to kill him and it feels like he’s not strong enough to keep standing for the Lord but God did sustain Elijah and even use this at times failing profit in a powerful way of course that there are parallels for us there we can’t look at elijah’s whole prophetic ministry but we are going to look at a few things today here’s our outline we’re going to focus on the accounts of Elijah at Mount Carmel but first looking at the historical context the historical situation of that moment in Elijah’s ministry then we’ll take a look at the contest itself between God and bail at Carmel and then we’ll finish by considering application from this momentous event let’s pray before we go on father I pray that your greatness to be on display in this class that you’d help me to be able to explain clearly and hopefully what your word says and that we would grow and understanding and love and fear god of you as the as the one great God and then Jesus name Amen let’s start by examining the context of the caramel debacle please open your Bibles to first Kings chapter 17 if you’re using the Bible’s in the pews this is on page 372 1st Kings 17 not going to read this whole chapter but I will make reference to a couple of the verses in it by the way I’m going to try and use the laser pointer function so that’s showing it and kind of see it nice as I said we’re in the divided Kingdom period around 900 BC about 100 years before Jonah’s ministry at this time the infamous a hab is king of israel remember Israel being the Northern Kingdom do you roam the first that was the first king of the first king of Israel was pretty evil but a hat was even more wicked one evil act of Ahab was his marriage may have married a Phoenician princess Jezebel and made her queen of Israel phoenicia by the way I think you can see it on the map and the top middle is the area that included the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon is the northwest of Israel modern Lebanon Jezebel is from Phoenicia and he brings she brings into Israel the worship of Vail now you remember bail bail was sometimes a sometimes the bales is just a generic term for all the gods of the nations but Bale specifically usually refers to a particular god this is the he had a regional variants but this is the chief of the gods of the Canaanites and of the Phoenicians some regard to him as the god of the Sun but most worshipers viewed him as the god of storms he had power over due rainfall lightning very similar to Zeus of the Greeks and Marv Duke of the Babylonians because this impact on crops he’s also associated with fertility now Israel is reason very dependent on rainfall so very quickly bail this bail becomes popular now enter Elijah chapter 17 verse 1 introduces Elijah as Elijah has a message from God to the king of Israel look at verse 1 of chapter 17 now Elijah the Tishbite who is of the setters settlers of Gilead said to Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand surely there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word and we can notice a few things from the dust that’s one statement first of all Elijah is called a Tishbite that just means he’s from the town of tisch p not exactly sure where that was but it was he said also to be from Gilead should be the northeast area of Israel where my little pointer is now that would be the region of Gilead tishman must be somewhere in that area now notice his proclamation of judgment no rain or Dew in israel until Elijah says so why is this appointed judgment are those random judgments no it’s very purposeful right y-yeah duty exactly that is that is precisely the area that their false god this new God that is get becoming popular in Israel is supposed to rule over he’s supposed to bring the do he’s supposed to bring the rain and God says because you’ve turned to the god of the sky the goddess supposed to give you doin rain I’m going to not have any do I rain in your in your area until I say so this is a very purposeful judgment now after this the Lord instructs Elijah to flee already Elijah is on the run he is constantly on the run I think if it was kind of like a running prophet he has to flee and they first he hides at the book careth in Gilead so he’s going back to this northeast section yeah he’s miraculously provided for there but as the drought oh okay good as the drought continues to Brooke dries up and God directs him to another place to a city called Zarephath you’ve probably heard of that but where is Arafat I look at verses 8 to 9 of chapter 17 then the word of the Lord came to him saying arise go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there and behold behold I’ve commanded a widow there to provide for you zarephath is in Sidon or in other words what Kingdom phoenicia so remember phoenicia is right up here you can see Zarephath would be in between tyre and Sidon about where my pointers and God sends Elijah to a widow in Zarephath but not just any widow look down to verse 12 at this point Elijah has asked the widow for some food and water no sir response but she said as the Lord your God lives I have no bread only a handful of flour in the bowl in a little oil in the jar and behold I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son that we may eat it and die all right this is a pretty this is very informative statement from this Widow what do we learn about her she’s poor she’s clearly poor and connected with that I think we can also say the famine produced by the drought is indeed severe she is almost no food and you can see how poverty and having no food fit together with no rain there are little to no crop yields which means by the law of supply and demand the price of food goes way up a poor Widow ko no longer afford to buy food to live and there’s no welfare a handout system and no crops to glean even if that were allowed in the area so she’s doomed she’s poor the famine is severe but we also learned something else about her she knows about God and seems to have some fear of him because notice her first name it she says as the Lord your God lives she’s making an oath a by Yahweh now should I say your God I don’t know if we can read too much into that but she doesn’t necessarily know too much about Elijah and yet she’s already swearing by Yahweh she has some fear maybe even faith in Yahweh and were what happens right after this is that Elijah tells her to do something that would be kind of scary to do he says oh give me the food that you have and don’t worry you won’t run out and she believes him she obeys she had spate so I think we’re looking at somebody here who actually is a believer in Yahweh and exercises through faith so what we see here is the same sad irony that we saw with Jonah Israel is persisting in idolatry turning after bail meanwhile the place where bail comes from Phoenicia has a widow who’s turning two and remaining faithful to yahweh this is a persistent theme in the divided Kingdom period and among the prophets hard-hearted Israel will not turn to God but pagan Gentiles all of them but some of them do turn to God and even though they have far less reason to do so as with Jonah Jesus again points out this idea and makes a parallel to his own day if you don’t mind turn real quick to Luke chapter 4 keep your finger in first kings but Luke chapter 4 Jesus is in his hometown and he says some pretty interesting words Luke 4 verses 23 to 27 page 2024 in the pew Bibles Luke chapter 4 verse 23 and he said to them no doubt you will quote this proverb to me physician heal yourself whatever we heard was done at Capernaum do here in your hometown as well and he said truly I say to you no prophet is welcome in his hometown but I say to you in truth there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut up for three years and six months when a great famine came over all the land and in yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath and the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow and there were many lepers in Israel on the time of Elisha the Prophet and none of them was cleansed but only name and the Syrian hopefully you can appreciate Jesus’s point here he is saying what I was just saying hard-hearted Israel consistently rejects God’s prophets well pagan Gentiles believed and they get to experience God’s mercy and blessing Jesus by saying no prophet has honor in his own town you’re going to be quoting certain profit proverbs to me he foretells that they will do the exact same thing to him and his message by the way what’s the crowd’s reaction Jesus’s words they try to kill him they get his point he’s shaming them he’s saying your heart hardened you won’t listen to God’s message but the pagans will the Gentiles will and they don’t like that and they try and kill Jesus but it’s not his time they can’t do it and Jesus leaves by the way how long does Jesus say the famine in Elijah’s day lasted three and a half years now that is a mega droughts and that’s going to result in severe famine can you imagine three and a half years with zero rain and no do there’s no water anywhere in Israel and probably in the surrounding regions Israel must have been a dry and dusty wasteland severe food shortages people are probably trying to import food as best they can consuming the livestock that they raised but there are still many starving people many starving animals it’s a total catastrophe but why did this happen because they turn to bail and because they turn to false gods Oh a habbo Israel why do you persist in your stubborn idolatry three and a half years as bail truly served you well we shall not subject yourself to the true God who actually does have power over rainfall but Israel and its King do not repent meanwhile God miraculously provides for this Phoenician widow and Elijah His Prophet until God is ready to visit Israel again in an act of undeserved compassion let’s actually see what God does we’ve looked at the background the context of caramel now let’s look at the episode of caramel itself back to 1st Kings back to first Kings chapter 18 now page 3 73 in the pew Bibles this is going to be our main passage today we’re going to look at the whole thing it’s 46 vs. so bear with me as I read it follow along now what happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying go show yourself to a hat and i will send rain on the face of the earth so aligned to win to show himself day hab now the famine was too veer in some vit in Samaria a hab called Obadiah who was over the household now Obadiah feared the Lord gravely from a Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by 50s in a cave and provided them with bread and water then a ham said to Obadiah go through the land to all the springs of water into all the valleys perhaps we will find grass and keep the horses and mules alive and not have to kill some of the cattle so they divided the land between them to survey it a hab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself nows Obadiah was on the way behold imagine met him and he recognized him and fell on his face and said is this you Elijah my master he said to him it is I go say to your master behold Elijah is here he said what’s Sinha by committed that you were giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death as the Lord your God lives there was no nation or Kingdom where my master has not sent to search for you and when they said he is not here he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you and now you were saying go say to your master behold Elijah is here will come about when i leave you that the spirit of the lord will carry you where i do not know so so when i come until a hab and you cannot find you you will kill me although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth has not been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the province of the Lord that I hid or that I hit a hundred prophets of the Lord by 50s in a cave and provided them with bread and water and now you’re saying goes lady or master behold Elijah is here he will then kill me hell I just said as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand I will surely show myself to him today so but I went to me they haven’t told him and they have went to meet Elijah when they have saw Elijah Ahab said to him is this you you trouble ER of Israel he said I have not troubled Israel but you and your father’s house have because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the bales now then send and gathered to me all Israel at Mount Carmel together with 450 prophets of bail and 400 prophets of the ashram who eat at Jezebel’s table so Ahab send a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together out at Mount Carmel Elijah came near to all the people and said how long will you hesitate between two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but if they’ll follow him but the people did not answer him a word then Elijah said to the people I alone am less the prophet of the Lord but bales profits are four hundred and fifty men now let them give us two oxen and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up and place it on the wood but put no fire under it and I will prepare the other rocks and lay it on the wood and I will not put a fire under it then you call in the name of your God and I will call on the name of the Lord a name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire He is God and all of people said that is a good idea so Elijah said to the Prophet the bail choose one ox for yourselves and prepare first for you are many and call in the name of your God but put no fire under it and they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of bail from morning until noon saying oh bail answer us but there was no voice and no one answered and they leapt about the altar which they made it came about at noon that Elijah mocked him and said call out with a loud voice for he is a god either he is occupied or gone aside or was on a journey perhaps he is asleep it needs to be awakened so they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and Lance’s until the blood gushed out on them when midday was passed they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice but there is no voice no one answered and no one paid attention then Elijah said to all people come near to me so all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down Elijah took 12 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 so 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 measures of seed many arranged the wood and cut the oxen pieces and laid it on the wood and he said Phil four pitchers with water and poured 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 do it a third time and I did it a third time the water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water at the time of the offering of evening sacrifice Elijah the Prophet came here and said Oh Lord the God of Abraham Isaac and Israel today let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant I have done all these things at your word answer me O Lord answer me that this people may know that you o Lord our God and that you have turned their heart back again 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 when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God then Elijah said to them sees the prophets of bail do not let one of them escape so they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the brook kishan and slew them there now Elijah said a ham go up you can drink for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower so I have went up the in drink but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees said to his servant go up now look toward the sea so he went up and looked and said there’s nothing and he said go back seven times and it came about at the seven time that he said behold the cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea and he said go up say they had prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower does not stop you in a little while the sky grew black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy shower and Ahab road and went to jen’s real then the hand of the Lord is on Elijah and he girded up his loins and outran a half two Jezreel pretty amazing amazing that this actually happened that this is history but it’s been reported for our instruction so let’s study it will start with basic observations God tells Elijah to show himself a hab afterward what does God promised to do i will send rain not i will think about sending main i will send rains God reigned is an Elijah with a hat via this man Obadiah Obadiah is a righteous man what is oh but I had done without the Kings knowledge he hid a hundred prophets of Yahweh and provided food and water for them now why did they need to be hidden Jezebel was executing God’s prophets there was a definite need Elijah tells Obadiah to tell a hab that Elijah wants to see him but Obadiah hesitates why what’s a Obadiah sphere yeah great oh yeah that God might hide Elijah that God might carry Elijah way yeah he says we’ve been looking everywhere for you a hat acenta foreign nations looking for you and now you tell me to go tell am I found you God might take you away and then Ahab’s gonna kill me he’s gonna be so angry that he’s going to kill me but Elijah reassures Obadiah and by the way we’re getting a picture of the character of the two rulers of Israel at this time Jezebel and Ahab very very wicked but Elijah does me what they have what does they have call Elijah trouble ER of Israel you trouble ER of Israel Allied attorneys the phrase around I’m not troubled Israel but you and your fathers have and how have they done so according to Elijah sit that’s right by turning to bail and by forsaking the commandments of the Lord he says you are the trouble of Israel then illogic commands they have to assemble the people of Israel and 450 prophets the bail and 400 prophets of the Asherah at mount carmel and we called the Astra is a term that refers to a wooden tree like image or pole probably shape to depict a goddess ashra likely depicted ashed or wrath the principal female deity of the Canaanites and the Phoenicians goddess of love sex tility and war bail and asteroth were the two main deities of the Phoenicians so it makes sense that these deities would become principal deities in Israel with the inauguration provided by the Queen from Phoenicia the princess of Phoenicia Jezebel so he says bring both of those groups of prophets notice also that it says the prophets of bail and Ashford eat at Jezebel’s table Jezebel is directly honoring and supporting these prophets Elijah orders these 850 prophets come to Carmel where is caramel well i provided a map for you carmel mountain range is on the northwest section of israel so where my pointer is now mount carmel be right around here so this is not too far from where phoenicia is if we just go a little bit north we would find this is where tyre and sidon are so pretty close to Phoenicia and very close to the coast now the people visual gathered a caramel Elijah asked them to make a decision what’s what decision decide today which God are going to follow God or bail this may remind you of another episode in Israel’s history where else have we heard a man of God tell the people to choose between God and other gods Joshua right Joshua 20 enemas life choose this day whom you will serve as for me and my house we will serve the Lord that’s where that verse comes from don’t vastly any longer between two opinions you can’t serve God and bail choose one or the other during the time of Josh would the people affirmed that they would follow yahweh but here nobody answers Elijah now Elijah proclaims himself at Carmel you can say something George ok so now Elijah proclaims himself at Carmel to be the only prophet left of God this true no we already heard earlier in the passage of their 100 other prophets that were hit by Obadiah not quite sure why he says that this is a strange insistence of Elijah that he even repeats to the Lord later maybe he’s just saying this because in this instance he’s the only prophet not there are 450 prophets the bail I’m the only prophet of the Lord he here or maybe he just felt alone technically true yes there were other prophets but he felt like he was the only one left now that caramel Elijah tells the people that they’re going to prove once and for all which God has gone and it’s going to happen with a test but with Elijah and the prophets of bail will arrange sacrifices on altars but what will be missing from these sacrifices fire there will be no fire and you need fire to present a sacrifice it needs to burn it will be then the God who answers his worshipers with fire from heaven to burn the sacrifice will prove himself to be the real God people liked the idea so the contest is on by the way why is fire from heaven an appropriate test for bail he’s the god of storms he’s the god in control of the heavens fire from heaven should be his wheelhouse in his wheelhouse it’s appropriate for him it’s even possible that fire from heaven may actually refer to lightning I mean that’s exactly what he’s supposed to preside over remember they don’t have a concept of electricity so what is lightning well its a bright flashing fire so perhaps the idea of fire from heaven is simply lightning whichever God answers with fire or lightning from heaven and certainly lighten lightning would cause something to burn that will be the real God this should be bale strong point and the prophets the veil go first what do they do to try and get bail to send fire we can actually see a progression and what they do what’s the first thing well first it says they call on him we don’t know the intensity of that call but they call on him then they start leaving around the altar then what do they do before they cut themselves says they cry with a loud voice oh they’re getting more intense in their call and then they cut themselves cut themselves gash themselves with swords and Lance’s till the blood gushes out and then finally says that they rave they’re getting more and more what’s the word not eccentric they’re going more and more crazy trying to get trying to get bail to answer ecstatic i think is the word i was looking for now how long do they try to get bails attention how much time goes by the entire morning into into the evening or technically the afternoon says the time the evening sacrifice which as best we understand is about three o’clock but no morning begins at 6am so how many hours is that six to three in the afternoon nine hours nine hours but what is the result nothing the text tells us this twice verse 26 but there was no voice no one answered and verse 29 there was no voice no one answered and no one paid attention talk about awkward and embarrassing nine hours of 450 prophets crying out leaping gashing themselves for nothing Elijah even mocks them suggestion they should cry louder because well maybe your God’s occupied a verb suggested meditation maybe he’s deep in thought you gotta cry loud to shake him out of his trance or maybe he’s gone aside the verb suggests private withdrawal even has the connotation of removing waste so can be translated maybe he’s relieving himself it’s actually the way the ESV translates this verse or maybe he’s on a journey the gods were said too often journey to various places in the world better hope it gets back in time shout so that he hurries back or maybe he’s asleep the gods were said to take time to sleep too maybe your God is snoozing better shout to wake him up well there’s absolutely no response there is useless and it soon becomes Elijah’s term Elijah repairs an altar of Yahweh that was at the site an altar that had been torn down he repairs it using 12 stones one stone for each tribe of Israel Elijah kills and prepares the sacrifice at the time of the evening offering but it goes even further what is he order to be done to the wood and sacrifice douse it with water now is it three times with four pitchers of water this is a fair amount of water there’s so much water poured over the sacrifice the water flows all over the altar and the trench around the altar is also filled with water either filled with additional water or whether runoff from the altar now how well do wet things burn not very well in fact I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to burn things that are wet as long as it’s wet it’s not going to burn you have to dry it first so the odds are stacked against Elijah and Yahweh but allowed to simply praise what for desires is Elijah express in his prayer god make yourself known as the true God of Israel what else doing yeah he says answer me so that’s his most basic desire but why why does he want him to answer him well one reason we’ve said is to make yourself known as the one true God what else then I’m your servant I’m you’re true prophet what else the people may see what yeah so he does actually say that twice but as we mentioned show yourself to be the true God show yourself to be the real existent God what else that’s right I’m not only your true prophet but everything I’ve done has been in obedience to you and then one more thing one surprising thing he wants the people to know yes notice that last one let me see if I can find the verse again yeah 37 answer me that this people may know that oh that you o lo o Lord our God and that you have turned their heart back again you have turned their heart back again we’ll come back to that a little bit later now God does answer is prayer what burns up everything burns up the wood burns up the sacrifice burns up the stones of the altar burn up and those are not flammable the dust of the ground burns up and even the water in the trench is licked up there’s basically only a crater left where the ultra was God didn’t just sent fire he sent fire how did the people react and he confessed the Lord be God they fall on their faces and proclaim the Lord he is God Yahweh he is God just as it was emphatic that there’s no one home for bail it was repeated twice so it’s in fata cod is true and his presence is there I am he is god I am he is God Elijah then orders all 450 prophets of bail sees they take it to the book the brook kishan which on the map flows here on the eastern side of Carmel the carmel mountain range so it would have been nearby take them to the brook Kishan and the prophets are killed there we’re not pulled what happens to the 400 prophets of Asherah we don’t seem to a feature in this account but they probably would recognize this false prophets and kill do after telling a happy and drink Elijah goes back up to Carmel puts his head between his knees it then tells the servant to go up and look at the sea seven times remember caramels right here on the coast so had been totally doable to look towards the sea and he asked him to report what he sees doesn’t see anything but the seven time he sees a small cloud Elijah then tells the servants la have you better go home and your chariot now because the heavy rain is coming a HAP sets out for Jezreel which is right about here about 15 to 25 miles from Mount Carmel this has been the winter capital of a hab in the Northern Kingdom sets out with his chariot but what amazing detail closes the chapter I’ll lie to you outruns the chariot the Jezreel the hand of the Lord was upon him and he’s able to outrun him I tell you Elijah is the runner he’s always running anyways let’s take all these observations and interpret and work through some basic ones and then gets us some more complex ones what is Elijah doing at the end of the account with his head between his knees he’s praying it’s not stated directly but that’s certainly what he’s doing he’s praying and what is he praying he’s praying for the rain to return because it’s right after he does all this that the rain comes by the way if you’re looking for biblical prayer postures here’s one we can call the elijah head between the knees james 5 17 18 by the way backs up our conclusion here speaking about elijah james says elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and did not rain on the earth for three years and six months then he prayed again in the sky poured rain on the earth and produced its fruit and that’s exactly what we’re seeing here at the end of his chapter backing up a little bit why does they have call Elijah the trouble er of Israel how was allied to troubled Israel yeah he says you brought the famine you proclaim the famine it’s your fault you brought the lack of rain you brought the drought you brought the famine cut Elijah makes clear the blame for the drought belongs to the wicked King not God and God’s holy prophet by the way this is a typical response of the proud heart of man is it not rather than facing up to the consequences of his own sin the sinner blames others especially God for example a child violates class rules gets a detention but he blames the teacher for being me not my fault the rules are too strict the teachers to me or a husband pays no attention to his wife and when she confronts him about it he excuses his behavior by saying why would I want to be around you when you only complain we’ll admit the fault blame someone else or even more generally many people say if God were really good why is there so much suffering in the world ah a problem is not God’s lack of goodness or his lack of love it’s man sin it’s not God’s fault it’s our fault we did this to ourselves God’s not the one responsible we are the ones responsible it’s the same way they have in Elijah a hab is responsible with his sin for the judgment on Israel not Elijah and not God now why does elijah have the false prophets killed isn’t that a little brutal a little extreme okay that’s certainly true just from a practical standpoint it’s a it would be better for these prophets to die than for the people to persist in their idolatry and a whole nation to be killed but there’s a more direct reason that we can justify Elijah yeah it’s commanded in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 13-5 but the prophet of that dreamer of dreams speaking of the the one who is proclaiming other gods shall be put to death because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought from the land of slavery and redeemed you from the house of slavery to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk so you shall purge the evil from among you now remember we’re not Israel this is not a prescription for us today or not to go around killing false prophets or false teachers this was God’s provision for that special nation at that special time with three years of drought with the contest of fire from heaven and with the reintroduction of rain into Israel what does God show about bail he is not a real God and he has no power I mean you can’t have arranged a more comprehensive exposure of Bale’s impotence let me think about it when the people start worshiping the god of rain and storms and turn away from Yahweh they get three and half years of no rain then when the god of the sky is called upon to send fire our lightning from the sky which he should be able to do he can’t do it but Yahweh can do it and he does it emphatically and finally when the people turn away from this sky God and they kill his prophets and it turned back to Yahweh what happens rain returns to the land the conclusion is clear bail is not god yahweh is god couldn’t have been made more clearly now of course bail is not the only impotent God also call gods and art and idols are just as powerless and useless as bail we don’t have time to explore this today but I think you’ll find it very evident at affine if you do a word search on the word idols in the Old Testament look at the passages in which they appear so often especially in the prophet looks like Ezekiel Jeremiah you hear the writers decry vain idols or mute idols as being totally useless these idols and their gods they can’t see they can’t hear and they can’t speak they can’t move that can’t even prevent their idols from falling over they can’t save they can’t do anything the Bible even literally calls idol worshippers stupid the people who go after idols are stupid it says totally useless now Elijah mocks the profits of bail our Christians to imitate are Christians free to mock false religions adherence the false religions and false teachers how do you think yeah joe yeah I think that’s a good cautious stance and I may explore a little bit I don’t know if we want to go so far as to say mock but certainly we want to expose the folly of false religion we should note looking at elijah’s behavior here god remember that principle of interpreting historical narrative just because a person does it or just because the righteous person does it does not mean that you should necessarily do it too they’re just reporting that it happened not saying that you should do it however if we look at the example of Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament we can see some interesting things they’d never speak rudely or harshly to any unbeliever except i’m going to use the word rudely they do speak harshly to false teachers they speak harshly to and about false teachers for example Jesus calls the Pharisees you may remember blind guides whitewashed tombs among other things Jude and his letter calls false teachers wandering stars and wild waves full of sea garbage Paul expresses in the book of Galatians a wish that there was teaching circumcision as necessary for salvation would go all the way and emasculate themselves why these severe words all’s because of the dangers that these false teachers present not only to themselves but also to others people need to appreciate the level of evil and danger connected with these teachers they need to be exposed with severe words now these words are never juvenile or flippant in order they denigrate someone’s appearance or speech they are thoughtful denunciations of grave evil of the behavior and teaching of false teachers now what about mocking religions or religious practices here’s my opinion it is right for us to point out the absurdity folly an inconsistency of false worship but we want to be very cautious about how we do so because worship is serious it’s not a subject to be approached rudely flippantly or cavalierly so I think when we think of mocking we think about people being simply rude or um flippant I don’t think that’s really what we’re too that’s the really the way we’re supposed to act we should expose falling but not in a way that is shameful or unhelpful final question interpretive question I want to ask why did God choose to send rain again to Israel because right at the very beginning says go see a hat and afterwards i will send rain why that’s right we remember that detail he says Elijah says let them know that you have turned their hearts back now why is God turning their hearts back have they done anything to deserve it yeah it’s a great point a great observation they the reminders in the text and in a light is prayer they point back to the Covenant that God made with Abraham and by extension his descendants a covenant of love a covenant of faithfulness God is remembering his covenant and choosing to act and compassion but not simply x to send ring he’s not going to violate his holiness he’s not going to violate his the other part of his covenant which says when you turn away from you I’m going to judge you he’s going to fulfill both his compassionate and his holy nature by granting repentance and then granting rain now this is just the start of a movement toward repentance Elijah probably thought that everything was going to turn around all at once and so he gets extremely discouraged we don’t see it here but it comes in the next chapter chapter when he finds out that Jezebel undeterred by the death of her profits is actually still trying to kill Elijah but revival is starting here in the Northern Kingdom and it would later culminate under Elijah and a later king gee who as a result of this revival Bale worship is almost entirely purged from the Northern Kingdom this was a gracious act of God now this devotion of God doesn’t last in the Northern Kingdom and not even everybody is on board surely at the start or throughout it but it is a period of mercy it is a act of compassion from a holy God to this particular generation and moving their hearts back towards him and an N sending rain none of this was deserved none of this was even to be expected but God out of his kind heart determined to send relief to Israel through rain and thus determined first to send repentance to make that rain possible so we’re seeing once again like with Jonah we see the compassionate beautiful holy heart of God questions about what we’ve looked at yes Joe you okay very good question we won the time to fully explore this today but I will try and say something about it he’s asking what about the demonic power behind bail is there what kind of power is there because Joe didn’t say it specifically but the bible does associate idols with demons is there demonic power behind idols well it’s really interesting that if you examine what the Bible says about idols it has two strands of thought they’re not contradictory they’re just I guess two ways of looking at it one is that idols are completely powerless they’re useless there’s no one home another’s that idols are associated with demons even in the book of first Corinthians you can see that in one chapter he says an idol is nothing it doesn’t matter if eat food sacrificed idols but then in a later chapter he says I don’t want you participating in idolatrous feasts because they’re ademas associated with idols I don’t want you to partake with demons how can those things be true at the same time again without getting full fully into it I think that there is an association with demons but that doesn’t mean that there is a demonic power to idols at least not in the sense of those idols being able to do anything for you there is a dangerous nature to idols because of demons there’s a bitching character to idols which is why we have to flee from idols but it’s not the demons have some sort of power that Idol worshipers get to tap into no the idols are still useless I mean even if we think about even if we were to say oh the demons are there they might give some power to the idol or the idol worshippers remember who’s under cruising control the demons god they can’t do anything without God allowing them to and they can never accomplish anything except for God’s own purposes now again he’s not responsible for the evil but he allows it for its own purposes any way you slice it idles don’t have power demons ultimately don’t have power it’s god god is the one with the power he’s the only one that can help you he’s the only one that can save you so we could probably say more about that there’s an association with the moon with idols but it’s still nonetheless true that idols are powerless false gods are powerless they cannot do anything for you other questions alright let’s consider just a couple of application questions as we close the passage makes clear that physical idols provide no true help or ability how is this truth directly relevant today physical idols provide no true help or salvation how is this directly relevant today are their physical idols in the world yes there are where I mean various religions have them yes d oh wow wow okay I didn’t know about that so it just repeat what he was saying on route 27 there’s a Buddhist temple I guess with a what someone’s backyard okay someone’s that God with a huge image of Buddha there and certainly we know that Hinduism Shintoism various other religions they include idols actual idols but the Bible makes clear those idols have no ability those gods are not home there’s no one there they can’t help you there’s also another relevance though for some some statues that are not called idols some images that are not referred to as idols even in Christianity there are sex that pray to or honor images like Roman Catholicism Greek orthodoxy the same word about idols needs to be declared there as well the saints are not home no one hears no one understands no one pays attention Mary and the Saints have no ability to help you you’re not listening you’re one who has the ability to help you as Christ and really Saints are just relabeled versions of ancient Greek and Roman gods in the first place these are useless and vain idols people need to turn from them but it’s not just the physical idols how is this text relevant for idols of the heart we’ve only got about a minute left we don’t have full time to explore this but it’s true in the same way take any Idol of the heart for example wealth it is deceptive and then it seems to have power oh look what I can do with wealth look at how it’s going to satisfy me look at how it’s going to secure me no it’s not true the more well if you have the less satisfied you are with it and the security it seems rev I to you can be taken away at any moment and there’s some things that wealth just can’t help you with most notably your own sin and death wealth can’t stop that but Yahweh he can do all the things that wealth can’t do he can satisfy you he can provide for you he can make you secure until your time on earth is done and he can deal with the most important thing he can save you you can save you from your sin and give you a turn alive all idols with their heart conform to the pattern that physical idols do they seem to offer power they seem to offer satisfaction but they don’t actually yahweh does and finally we’ve already broached this so we don’t have to spend time on it now if eyes are empty and useless why is it so important to stay away from them well they don’t have power to save they do have the power to cause one to stumble they can capture you they can bewitch you they are extremely deceptive because they play on the flesh or the fleshly nature that remains with us and they use false promises to appeal to that fleshly nature so even though an idol is powerless it doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous we must unmask idols for what they are and if we’re involved with an idol we need to get as far away from it as possible because it will has like a gravity to it it’ll try and keep us with it alright that’s all we have time for today we’ve talked about Elijah next time we’re talking about Elijah Elijah successor let’s pray father thank you for this amazing truth the way you expose idols and show yourself to be the only one with power the only one with true power the only one who can truly help thank you that you have helped us continue to help us provide for us god and cause us turn our hearts to you we pray in Jesus name Amen