1 Kings 18:20-46 - The LORD, He is God!

1 Kings 18:20-46

Elijah’s Mount Carmel Victory

20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”

So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”

25 Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”

26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

27 And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve 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.” 32 Then 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 seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.

36 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”

40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.

The Drought Ends

41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.”

So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”

44 Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’”

45 Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. 46 Then the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

The LORD, He is God!  This cry was not heard for many years under the rule of idolatrous kings, yet was to reverberate through the land of Israel from Mount Carmel after a long drought from hearing and following the word of the LORD.  Evil Ahab had agreed to meet Elijah and so he called all the children of Israel together with the false prophets of the lifeless Baal on Mount Carmel.  The real prophet Elijah confronted the crowd to turn back to the LORD God from the sins they had chosen under misleadership, but they were stone-faced in the face of the confrontation with their God through His messenger.  This response is one dulled by sin as if it were the only way to live, and we see this same response in the ministry of God’s Son on earth as well as times when we bear witness of God’s word in the gospel even today.  The challenge that Elijah presented was for the followers of Baal to call on the name of your gods followed by the only real prophet calling on the name of the LORD.  The proof would be seen by the God who answers by fire.  He is only God who can call down supernatural fire from above as no mere imitation is capable of doing.  The Baal followers went first, crying and pleading into the deaf ears of the air as Elijah mocked them.  He suggested that their false god might be busy and couldn’t be bothered, deep in thought, or that he was asleep, or on a trip somewhere else since he is not almighty and not omnipresent as the true God.  When they vainly wound down these futile efforts, it was time for Elijah to show them the one and only  true God in the sacrifice.  At the end of the day, there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.  To demonstrate the true power of the real and living God with whom nothing is impossible (1 Chronicles 29:11, Luke 1:37), the prophet had the people construct a stone altar and then had buckets and buckets of water poured over the sacrifice and the fuel for the fire.  He called out to heaven above to the LORD God that He would turn their hearts back to Him again.  Then the Almighty sent down fire from heaven and consumed the acceptable sacrifice along with the very stones of the altar, all the wood, the water, and the very dust left behind.  Only when the crowd saw this miraculous display of power did they fall to their knees and cry out, “The LORD, He is God!  The LORD, He is God!”  Elijah then dealt with the false prophets of the lifeless god of man’s imagination by having them rounded up and executed.  He then prayed for rain (James 5:17) until it poured out from heaven on the land at last after three and a half years of drought for hearing the word of the LORD.  Ahab was sent home and God caught up Elijah like Phillip (Acts 8:39-40) to get there before him for the next event.  The lesson of this passage is to worship God alone and cry out from the heart (1 Corinthians 12:3, Philippians 2:11), “The LORD, He is God!”  For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus (John 1:1, 14, 1 John 4:2) and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  This is what it means to be truly well spoken.