God at Mount Carmel, Part 3

Part 3 (of 4) of a sermon I wrote for preaching class when I was a student at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville.

Miracles are acts of God contrary to man's knowledge of natural law, but not contrary to God's knowledge of such, and which He works in accord with His benevolent will and purpose. Thus miracles are not only possible but expected.

God, working through Elijah, determined to test the god that Israel was worshipping, and if Baal proved to be worthy of worship then the people could renounce God and worship only Baal, but if Baal failed the test then the people would renounce Baal and worship God.

Baal had the king, his court and the whole body of the people on his side. One lone man stepped forward for the cause of God while 850 supporters of Baal opposed him. One lone man who had been in exile and had been fed by birds to keep from starving.

The proposal was made that each side would prepare a sacrifice and pray to its God, and the God Who answered by fire would be hailed as the one, true God. If neither answered, the people would become atheists. If both answered, then the people could continue to serve two Gods. Elijah served as an example that we can stand alone against great numbers as witnesses and advocates of God without fearing the face of man.

The prophets of Baal were allowed to go first, and were frustrated in their attempts to get a response from their non-living god. They got their sacrifices ready and cried as with one voice with all their might, "Oh Baal, hear us. Oh Baal, answer us." They hopped up on the altar. They jumped up and down hoping they would please their god. Elijah taunted them and suggested that perhaps their god was doing his business and would be along in a few minutes. They cut themselves in pieces with knives and sharp, surgical instruments, hoping to obtain the favor of their god by offering their own blood. On the other hand, our God expressly forbids His worshippers to cut themselves in Deuteronomy 14:1.

They went from morning until noon, when Elijah further picked at their failure and did not even try to spare their feelings, questioning whether or not their god would be able to hear them if they did not make a lot of noise. But they so wanted to avoid being put to shame and convince the people they were right, that they became more violent and acted more ridiculous. Elijah let them carry on until they were tired, until it was time for the evening sacrifice.

Then Elijah prepared the altar for God. He refused to use their altar which had been polluted with prayers to Baal, but instead found the ruins of an old altar that had been built to worship the Lord and proceeded to rebuild it, exemplifying the idea that he was not about to start a new religion but was reviving the faith and worship of their father's God, an old-time religion. He repaired the altar with 12 stones which represented the 12 tribes of Israel. Though 10 of the tribes were now worshipping Baal, God's covenant with Abraham is everlasting, and the nations of Israel still belonged to God.

Having built his altar "in the name of the Lord," Elijah prepared the sacrifice. Elijah ordered water to be poured on the altar, and he had prepared a trench to keep it around the altar. He did this because he did not want the people to believe he was hiding a fire under the altar. He then prayed to God and humbly asked Him to turn the sacrifice to ashes. He was composed, calm and sedate, far from putting on the kind of scene Baal's prophets had rendered. He called upon "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel" to remind the people of their relationships to God and the patriarchs. Elijah pleaded for the glory of God and the edification of the people. God immediately answered by fire, licking up all the water in the trench, and consuming the stones of the altar and the dust of the ground, and likely striking terror in the wicked hearts of Ahab and the Baal worshippers.

Elijah had, by the most convincing and undeniable evidence, proved his claims on behalf of the God of Israel. And the people all fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, "Jehovah, He is the God, and not Baal, Jehovah, He is the God." Hopefully this inferred that if He was the God, He would be their God and they would serve only Him. Some hopefully had their hearts turned back to God, but most were only convinced and not converted, yielded to the truth that God is God but not to the covenant that He would be their God.

Elijah then ordered that the prophets of Baal be seized, condemned and executed according to the law. They were all slain immediately as troublers of the land.