Choosing A God
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
For sheer drama, there is little in fact or fiction that can surpass the stories of Elijah in 1 Kings. For interesting characters, unusual twists of plot and action, for excitement and adventure, one would be hard-pressed to find anything more entertaining. Elijah could star in an incredible mini-series.
The Bible gives little background on this majestic prophet other than to mention his hometown, Tishbe in Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan. We are abruptly introduced to him in 1 Kings 17 as he appears on the scene to announce a drought that would afflict Israel as a judgment against them for neglecting Yahweh and worshiping Baal (something the nation did with some regularity). Elijah then escapes to the wilderness, camps out for a while, moves in with an impoverished widow and her son, then miraculously restoring the boy after a life-threatening illness. Finally, after lying low for three years, at God's instruction the prophet comes out of hiding and confronts the king whose marriage to the wicked Jezebel precipitated all the trouble in the first place.
King Ahab and Elijah meet. Ahab accuses Elijah of ruining the nation; Elijah accuses Ahab of ruining the nation. Elijah tells Ahab to gather all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel for a confrontation. Once and for all, they would determine just who the God of Israel would be. It would be a fight to the finish with the entire nation as witness.
The word went out and the people gathered at the mountain. "How long will you waver between two opinions?" asked Elijah. "If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). Short and to the point. The word of the prophet was, "Choose a God."
Of course, they would have preferred not to. They would have been content to let things just continue going on as they had. They would have liked to see a little rain after three years of drought, but other than that, no major changes. After all, Baal was a fun god to serve. Baal did not require much in the way of real sacrifice, and the ritual of worship was a delight since Baal was the god who signified the life force, the one responsible for not only the fertility of the crops but humanity, as well. To worship Baal was to reenact the very beginning of life -- that's why they had temple prostitutes. Now that was worship! No wonder the people did not want to have to choose.
Then the practicality of the choice began to sink in. Even if Baal could give life, there was not much he could do to keep it going without rain. After all, this was desert country, and the presence or absence of water was a critical question under any circumstance. Since it was the word of Elijah that had started the drought in the first place, it made sense to listen to what he had to say.
And so they did, as they listened to the rules of the contest he was proposing.
All right, it is 450 of them to one of me. No problem! Get us two bulls up here. They can even choose which one they want. Then we will each slaughter one, cut it in pieces and prepare it for sacrifice to our god. They can use that shiny new altar of theirs over there, and I will use that old broken-down altar over on the other side. We will each prepare our altars with an appropriate amount of wood, then lay our sacrifices on top. But there will be one thing different than normal -- no fire. We will simply call on our gods to provide the fire, and the god who answers by setting the sacrifice ablaze, that God will be the winner, the real God! Fair enough?
-- 1 Kings 18:22-24 cf
The people thought so. So the bulls were brought to the mountaintop. Good as his word, Elijah gave the opposition first choice. They picked one and prepared it in their normal fashion, leaving lots of fat that would ignite quickly. Elijah stood off to the side as he watched the opposition work. Then he said, "Since there are so many of you, why don't you go first? I will just wait over here until it is my turn" (1 Kings 18:25 cf).
And so it began. Quite a panorama -- 450 prophets dressed up in their most exquisite robes surrounding a high altar on which had been placed a pile of raw beef. Then they began to sing and chant their prayers to Baal as they danced their way around the meat. Hey-hey-hey! Their faces were cast toward heaven, eyes tightly closed as they implored their god to get on with the business at hand. Every so often, they would sneak a peek at the altar to see whether or not the fire had started. But nothing, so they just repeated the process all over again.
Elijah sat there on his rock. He was quiet; he did not taunt, for a while, at least. But finally, around noon, after they had been playing this scene for a couple of hours, and the meat was beginning to dry out and turn green and smell in the heat of the sun, he could not hold his tongue any longer.
Hey! What's the matter? I don't see any fire. Maybe you're not praying loud enough. Is your god deaf? Maybe he's tied up. Maybe he's deep in thought and doesn't want to be disturbed. Maybe he's busy -- something else is going on and he hasn't had the time to do what you ask. After all, gods have work to do too; you can't expect him to just drop everything because you let out a little whimper. Heh!
-- 1 Kings 18:27 cf
Then the people began to chuckle. The prophets of Baal and Asherah just glared at Elijah and went back to the business at hand. Hey, hey, hey! But Elijah could not help himself: "Hey, listen guys, maybe your god is off on a trip. Maybe you can leave a message on his answering machine, and he will get back to you. Could be he's asleep -- you had better yell louder if you're going to wake him up. I sure hope he's not the kind of god who's in a bad mood when he gets up. Heh, heh, heh. Then Elijah just sat back and roared with laughter, and the people began to join him.
The opposition did not give up. Elijah's jibes just made their dancing and chanting all the more furious. They began slashing themselves with knives and spears, hoping that the sight of their blood would spur Baal into action. But nothing.
Now it was Elijah's turn. First, he repaired the old broken-down altar of Yahweh that had gone for so long unused. He built it up with twelve stones, one for each of the tribes. Then he dug a trench around it. Once that was done, he placed wood on the altar, then arranged the pieces of meat he had prepared from the slaughtered bull. All was ready, but Elijah had one final touch. He called for four large jars of water to be brought and poured over the sacrifice. When that was done, he called for four more, then four more after that. The whole area was thoroughly soaked with so much water that even the trench he had dug became filled up looking like a moat around a castle. Gravy. Now, Elijah was ready.
He stood quietly for a moment. All eyes were on him. He did not rant or rave. In the normal tones one might use for conversation with a nearby friend he prayed.
O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God....
-- 1 Kings 18:36-37
There was a moment of dramatic silence. The people's attention turned from Elijah to the altar to see what would happen. They did not have long to wait. In a flash, fire came down from heaven as lightning. It struck the meat and turned it to charcoal; it turned the wood to ashes; it scorched the rocks Elijah had set up for the twelve tribes; and in its heat, it evaporated all the water that had been poured out even to the extent of lapping up the overflow in the trench turning it into nothing more than a moat of steam. Elijah had won! The Lord had won!
For the people, they knew what choice they would have to make. They fell on their faces and cried out, "The Lord -- he is God! The Lord -- he is God!" (1 Kings 18:39). Elijah had told them to choose a God, and they had chosen Yahweh.
It is a choice every generation must make: either the God of heaven or the gods of this world, the modern Baals. At the conclusion of Peter Marshall's famous sermon on this text we hear Elijah's cry echoing once again, but with a slight addition: "If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him ... and go to hell!"
The Bible gives little background on this majestic prophet other than to mention his hometown, Tishbe in Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan. We are abruptly introduced to him in 1 Kings 17 as he appears on the scene to announce a drought that would afflict Israel as a judgment against them for neglecting Yahweh and worshiping Baal (something the nation did with some regularity). Elijah then escapes to the wilderness, camps out for a while, moves in with an impoverished widow and her son, then miraculously restoring the boy after a life-threatening illness. Finally, after lying low for three years, at God's instruction the prophet comes out of hiding and confronts the king whose marriage to the wicked Jezebel precipitated all the trouble in the first place.
King Ahab and Elijah meet. Ahab accuses Elijah of ruining the nation; Elijah accuses Ahab of ruining the nation. Elijah tells Ahab to gather all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel for a confrontation. Once and for all, they would determine just who the God of Israel would be. It would be a fight to the finish with the entire nation as witness.
The word went out and the people gathered at the mountain. "How long will you waver between two opinions?" asked Elijah. "If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). Short and to the point. The word of the prophet was, "Choose a God."
Of course, they would have preferred not to. They would have been content to let things just continue going on as they had. They would have liked to see a little rain after three years of drought, but other than that, no major changes. After all, Baal was a fun god to serve. Baal did not require much in the way of real sacrifice, and the ritual of worship was a delight since Baal was the god who signified the life force, the one responsible for not only the fertility of the crops but humanity, as well. To worship Baal was to reenact the very beginning of life -- that's why they had temple prostitutes. Now that was worship! No wonder the people did not want to have to choose.
Then the practicality of the choice began to sink in. Even if Baal could give life, there was not much he could do to keep it going without rain. After all, this was desert country, and the presence or absence of water was a critical question under any circumstance. Since it was the word of Elijah that had started the drought in the first place, it made sense to listen to what he had to say.
And so they did, as they listened to the rules of the contest he was proposing.
All right, it is 450 of them to one of me. No problem! Get us two bulls up here. They can even choose which one they want. Then we will each slaughter one, cut it in pieces and prepare it for sacrifice to our god. They can use that shiny new altar of theirs over there, and I will use that old broken-down altar over on the other side. We will each prepare our altars with an appropriate amount of wood, then lay our sacrifices on top. But there will be one thing different than normal -- no fire. We will simply call on our gods to provide the fire, and the god who answers by setting the sacrifice ablaze, that God will be the winner, the real God! Fair enough?
-- 1 Kings 18:22-24 cf
The people thought so. So the bulls were brought to the mountaintop. Good as his word, Elijah gave the opposition first choice. They picked one and prepared it in their normal fashion, leaving lots of fat that would ignite quickly. Elijah stood off to the side as he watched the opposition work. Then he said, "Since there are so many of you, why don't you go first? I will just wait over here until it is my turn" (1 Kings 18:25 cf).
And so it began. Quite a panorama -- 450 prophets dressed up in their most exquisite robes surrounding a high altar on which had been placed a pile of raw beef. Then they began to sing and chant their prayers to Baal as they danced their way around the meat. Hey-hey-hey! Their faces were cast toward heaven, eyes tightly closed as they implored their god to get on with the business at hand. Every so often, they would sneak a peek at the altar to see whether or not the fire had started. But nothing, so they just repeated the process all over again.
Elijah sat there on his rock. He was quiet; he did not taunt, for a while, at least. But finally, around noon, after they had been playing this scene for a couple of hours, and the meat was beginning to dry out and turn green and smell in the heat of the sun, he could not hold his tongue any longer.
Hey! What's the matter? I don't see any fire. Maybe you're not praying loud enough. Is your god deaf? Maybe he's tied up. Maybe he's deep in thought and doesn't want to be disturbed. Maybe he's busy -- something else is going on and he hasn't had the time to do what you ask. After all, gods have work to do too; you can't expect him to just drop everything because you let out a little whimper. Heh!
-- 1 Kings 18:27 cf
Then the people began to chuckle. The prophets of Baal and Asherah just glared at Elijah and went back to the business at hand. Hey, hey, hey! But Elijah could not help himself: "Hey, listen guys, maybe your god is off on a trip. Maybe you can leave a message on his answering machine, and he will get back to you. Could be he's asleep -- you had better yell louder if you're going to wake him up. I sure hope he's not the kind of god who's in a bad mood when he gets up. Heh, heh, heh. Then Elijah just sat back and roared with laughter, and the people began to join him.
The opposition did not give up. Elijah's jibes just made their dancing and chanting all the more furious. They began slashing themselves with knives and spears, hoping that the sight of their blood would spur Baal into action. But nothing.
Now it was Elijah's turn. First, he repaired the old broken-down altar of Yahweh that had gone for so long unused. He built it up with twelve stones, one for each of the tribes. Then he dug a trench around it. Once that was done, he placed wood on the altar, then arranged the pieces of meat he had prepared from the slaughtered bull. All was ready, but Elijah had one final touch. He called for four large jars of water to be brought and poured over the sacrifice. When that was done, he called for four more, then four more after that. The whole area was thoroughly soaked with so much water that even the trench he had dug became filled up looking like a moat around a castle. Gravy. Now, Elijah was ready.
He stood quietly for a moment. All eyes were on him. He did not rant or rave. In the normal tones one might use for conversation with a nearby friend he prayed.
O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God....
-- 1 Kings 18:36-37
There was a moment of dramatic silence. The people's attention turned from Elijah to the altar to see what would happen. They did not have long to wait. In a flash, fire came down from heaven as lightning. It struck the meat and turned it to charcoal; it turned the wood to ashes; it scorched the rocks Elijah had set up for the twelve tribes; and in its heat, it evaporated all the water that had been poured out even to the extent of lapping up the overflow in the trench turning it into nothing more than a moat of steam. Elijah had won! The Lord had won!
For the people, they knew what choice they would have to make. They fell on their faces and cried out, "The Lord -- he is God! The Lord -- he is God!" (1 Kings 18:39). Elijah had told them to choose a God, and they had chosen Yahweh.
It is a choice every generation must make: either the God of heaven or the gods of this world, the modern Baals. At the conclusion of Peter Marshall's famous sermon on this text we hear Elijah's cry echoing once again, but with a slight addition: "If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him ... and go to hell!"
