Elijah’s Challenge to Ahab

“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?  And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.”  I Kings 18:17-18

Elijah promised Obadiah that he would not leave the area where he met Obadiah and would be there when Ahab came to meet him.  When Ahab arrived, the first words out of his mouth were to accuse Elijah of being responsible for the drought and famine, asking him if he was the one who brought this trouble on Israel.  This is a typical political maneuver.  We see it all the time in those who supposedly lead our nation.  We could call this “projection”, that is, when one who is guilty of something “projects” the sin or crime upon another who is not guilty, a form of the “blame game”.  After all, who better to recognize a sin than one who has or is committing it?  The only real cure for guilt is repentance, but folks have so much pride that they find it difficult to admit their sin.

Elijah refused to be intimidated by Ahab.  He was even bold enough to lay blame squarely at Ahab’s feet, siting the fact that it was his abandonment of the LORD, God’s commandments, and Israel’s turn to the false gods of Baalim that prompted the LORD to send a drought.  In order to prove his point, Elijah had a plan.  He requested that Ahab gather all Israel, the 450 Baal prophets, and the 400 prophets of the idol worship centers called “groves”.  Ahab did as Elijah requested bringing them all to Mt. Carmel.  Elijah was about to prove to them that God was the only true LORD.

The first thing that Elijah did was to ask those gathered to make up their minds.  If they believed that Jehovah God was LORD, then they should follow him exclusively.  If they thought that Baal was the god to worship, then serve him only.  They had been worshiping both, God to please His prophets and Baal to please Jezebel to get on her good side.  (Jezebel and “good” do not belong in the same sentence!)  This dual worship was not OK with the LORD.  James 1:8 tells us that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways”.  Elijah was not encouraging the people to follow Baal as if it was a viable choice.  Quite the contrary–he was about to show them the futility of worshiping false gods.  The people did not answer Elijah but remained silent.

Here was the plan: Ahab’s side was to bring two oxen, one for him and one for Elijah.  The oxen were to be cut in pieces like any other sacrifice and laid on dry wood, one altar for Ahab and one for Elijah.  No fire was to be started.  The people were to call on Baal, and Elijah would call on God to start a fire under the oxen.  Whichever sacrifice was consumed by fire would be displayed by the one true God.  The people agreed to this test.  Elijah told the people to prepare their ox.  Since the people far outnumbered Elijah, they likely assumed that multitudes calling on Baal would produce the desired result, the consuming of the ox sacrificed to Baal.  They placed their ox on the wood and began in the morning until noon crying out to Baal, but nothing happened.  Baal was basically a figment of their imagination which was influenced by Satan, who could not generate a fire because he can only do what God allows him to do.

Elijah began to mock the idol worshipers.  They even began to cut themselves in the hope that their blood would wake Baal up to respond to their sacrifice.  Of course, he didn’t, but they would not give up.  They kept up their loud pleas to Baal until the time of the evening sacrifice.  How futile to believe in a god that doesn’t exist.  Elijah stepped in to interrupt their pointless pleas.  Attention was now turned to Elijah.  He had repaired one of the former altars which had been used to worship the LORD.  He gathered twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel, to build up the altar, digging a trench around it.  He then prepared his ox, laid it on the wood on the altar, and called for four barrels of water, likely sea water due to the drought.  He soaked the altar and the ox with this water.  He had water poured on the altar two more times, and the trench was also filled with water.

Elijah then prayed to the LORD, not with shouting and screaming like the people did, but with the confidence that God would hear him.  It was also a prayer to remind the people that if they repented, God would receive them back again.  After waiting a long day, the people finally saw an absolute miracle.  God sent fire upon the drenched sacrifice and altar, burning up the ox, the wood, and even the stones around the altar.  The water completely evaporated.  There was nothing left except a burnt hole in the ground.  Not only did God show His power and His acceptance of Elijah’s sacrifice, He showed His disapproval of any altar constructed outside of the one in Jerusalem in Solomon’s temple.  The people responded by falling down on the ground with their faces in the dirt ad exclaiming that the LORD was the one true God.  But, as usual, most of them did not fully repent with some returning to idolatry.  If one repents yet returns to his or her old sinful lifestyle, has he or she truly repented?