Bible Men: Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

1 Kings 18

In my first post of Elijah, we learned that Elijah was a Tishbite, who lived in Gilead, and that he was a prophet proclaiming the word of the LORD God of Israel.   We learned that it was Elijah who told the wicked king Ahab that there would be no rain but by Elijah's word. And in that study we learned how the LORD God sent Elijah to the brook Cherith, and how the ravens were sent by God to feed Elijah.  After that Elijah was sent to the widow of Zarephath where she, her son and Elijah were sustained. And we learned how the widow's son died, and Elijah prayed fervently for him, and how, by the grace of God the child was raised to life again.

 Now in the third year, the LORD God spoke to Elijah again and said "go, shew thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth." There was a famine in the land by that time.  When Ahab learned that Elijah was coming, he went to meet him and greeted Elijah with these words, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" (V17) and Elijah responded "I have not troubled Israel; but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and hast followed Balaam" (V18)  The cause of Israel's problems rests on the king's shoulders because of his disobedience to the commandments of the LORD God.  But there is about to come a mighty demonstration of Sovereign God's awesome power and the answering of Elijah's prayers.

Elijah tells Ahab to "gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table"(V19) Jezebel is Ahab's wicked wife. And so Ahab gathers together all that Elijah asked for.  And Elijah addressed the congregation  with a question that reverberates down through history, even to us today. "How long halt ye between two opinions.?  If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him". (V21) Just as in Matthew 6:24 the Lord Jesus said "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon."  And just as the apostle Paul said  in Galatians 1:10 "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
When the people heard Elijah ask this question, they "answered not a word"(V21) and no doubt wondered why they had been summoned there.