SALT 10.8.03 1 Kings 18:17-40
17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is
that you, you troubler of Israel?" 18:18 "I have not made
trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's
family have. You have abandoned the LORD's commands and have followed
the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me
on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal
and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."
20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets
on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, "How
long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow
him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.
22 Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets
left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls
for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into
pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare
the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then
you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the
LORD. The god who answers by fire--he is God." Then all the people
said, "What you say is good." 25 Elijah said to the prophets
of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there
are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the
fire." 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then
they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal,
answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered.
And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began
to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is
a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he
is sleeping and must be awakened." 28 So they shouted louder and
slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until
their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic
prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was
no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 30 Then Elijah
said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him,
and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. 31 Elijah
took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob,
to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Your name shall
be Israel." 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of
the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs
of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid
it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with
water and pour it on the offering and on the wood." 34 "Do
it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third
time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water
ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time
of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and 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. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people
will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their
hearts back again." 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned
up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked
up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell
prostrate and cried, "The LORD--he is God! The LORD--he is God!"
40 Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't
let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought
down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
A football at my feet is worth about £5.
A football at David Beckham's feet is worth about £20 million.
It depends whose hands it's in.
A tennis racket is useless in my hands.
A tennis racket in Pete Sampras' hands is a Wimbledon Championship.
It depends whose hands it's in.
A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal.
A rod in Moses' hands will part the mighty sea.
It depends whose hands it's in.
A slingshot in my hands is a kid's toy.
A slingshot in David's hand is a mighty weapon.
It depends whose hands it's in.
Two fish & 5 loaves of bread in my hands
is a couple of fish sandwiches.
Two fish & 5 loaves of bread in God's hands will feed thousands.
It depends whose hands it's in.
Nails in my hands might produce a shelf.
Nails in Jesus Christ's hands will produce salvation for the entire
world.
It depends whose hands it's in.
Whose hands are we in? Whom do we really trust
in?
Last week we saw how Elijah trusted in God. He had just delivered a message of judgment to the sinful King Ahab and God provided food and drink for Elijah using ravens and by using the faith of a foreign widow. Her faith was tested and rewarded when Elijah successfully prayed to God to restore life to her son.
In today's reading we have discovered that we
can trust God rather than anything or anyone else. That anything or
anyone who claims the allegiance that God requires is a sham, false,
fake, an imitation, artificial, bogus, spurious, counterfeit, untrue,
fraudulent...
God can burn a soaking wet bull steak and the stones around it, whereas
Baal or any other god is false and has not the power to do what God
can do.
So that's it. Today's sermon. Shorter than my
usual one but I want to make the point about how powerful and true God
is, and that we can therefore wholeheartedly trust in him.
That's it ( go to sit down ).
( Return ).
As well as this passage being about the faith
of Elijah and faithfulness of God, as we saw last week it also has other
things to say.
21 Elijah went before the people and
said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD
is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people
said nothing.
The reason that the people were gob smacked
is that the idea that you had to choose between two gods was foreign
to them. They lived in a pluralistic culture where you had a collection
of gods. The Roman Empire in the time of Jesus was like this, too.
This is why God said in Exodus 20:2 "I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You
shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not
bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third
and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
God gave these commands first. This shows that they were of primary importance. The reason why God gave them, just as he gave commandments not to steal, murder, covet, dishonour parents and commit adultery, is that when unrestrained people tend to do these things which are contrary to His perfect will.
These commands are still relevant today to Christians. MT 22:37 Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbour as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
We live in a multi-cultural, pluralistic society, too. Children are educated about all the world major religions. We need not be afraid of this because it is often when we are challenged about our faith that we are led to discover more about it, and seek the treasures hidden within it.
We live in a free, relatively tolerant society where the rights of people to freely practice their religion is seen as fundamental. This is good. What I am about to say does not disagree with this, seek to undermine this, or demean people who have other religious views. It is not to suggest that we cannot have good relationships with them.
But there is only one God. There is only one way to God, Jesus Christ. John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." People have the choice. To be covered with the blood of Jesus and be forgiven. Or to be covered with their sin and be condemned.
God is uncompromising and cannot tolerate sin. The slaughter of the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal illustrates this ( verse 40 ). God does not require these kinds of measures today because the relationship between God and man has altered with the coming of Jesus to the world. However, God was equally uncompromising when he poured his wrath for the sins of the world upon his only Son. Jesus experienced the separation from God that this deserved when he cried out from the cross (Matthew 26:46) "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Just as the burning of the sodden sacrifice
on Mount Carmel resulted in the worship of the people, verse 39, so
the sacrifice of Jesus on the hill of Calvary demands people's worship
and devotion.
Amy Carmichael, missionary to India
"Lord turn our eyes upon the cross,
Counting all else not gain but loss;
For this we pray, this is our plea
Lord, keep our eyes on Calvary."
We see from today's reading that God is in control,
He is powerful, he can defy laws of nature. The rest of the Chapter
tells of God sending heavy rain after this had been withheld by Him
for three and a half years.
Jesus, God and man had power over nature. To still a storm that frightened
experienced fishermen. To walk on water. To multiply loaves and fishes.
Jonathan Edwards, who was a leader in a revival
in America preached a sermon called, "Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God". He said, "The bow of God's wrath is bent, and
the arrow made ready on the string, and justice aims the arrow at your
heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure
of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation
at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your
blood."
He preached this in his church, in Enfield Connecticut, July 8th, 1741.
The entire town of Enfield was up throughout the entire night screaming
in agony of conscience and the fear of God. They vigorously called upon
Him for mercy. During the night, Pastor Jonathan Edwards was awake,
at home, listening to the cries of the towns people. Somebody sent to
him and asked him to please come and comfort the people and pray with
them.
Pastor Edwards replied, "All these years I have had to endure their
mocking of God, all alone. Let them endure this night of dealings from
Him, all alone."
By the time the sun rose next morning, over Enfield Connecticut, all
screaming and crying was gone and now the soft singing of hymns and
rejoicing was heard from every home.
Just because God acted in a spectacular way then and in today's passage doesn't mean that he will always behave in a supernatural way when we feel that he ought to. Whilst God often discloses himself in a variety of ways this does not mean that we are to provoke or test him to intervene when it is not His will.
Jesus illustrates this for us when he was tempted
by the devil...
MT 4:5 Then the devil took him to the
holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 "If
you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For
it is written: " `He will command his angels concerning you, and
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your
foot against a stone.' "7 Jesus answered him, "It is also
written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "
Perhaps, if we are honest, the danger is not that we are tempted to use God to do 'magic tricks' but that we do not give God the opportunity to show his power in our lives.
We are like that physics experiment that we all did at school, where you have to generate electricity by turning a small generator that produced enough electricity to power a small light bulb. The faster you turned it the brighter the light became. We need more electricity than that to live for God so we turn it harder and harder until we get tired and disillusioned. Yet we can plug things into the mains socket. we can access the power of God through prayer. The revival that I mentioned earlier was preceded by intense prayer. Before he walked on the water Jesus prayer ( Matthew 14:23ff ).
We are to pray that God will take us and use
us to display his power in our lives. This is a struggle. C. S. Lewis
describes the exchange between self-will and God's will in Beyond Personality:
"Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your money
and so much of your work - I want you. I have not come to torment your
natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't
want to cut off a branch here and there, I want to have the whole tree
down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, stop it, but to
have it out. Hand over the whole natural self instead. In fact I will
give you myself, my own will shall become yours.
However 'wet' and unresponsive we are God can
set us on fire like the sodden bull presented to him in worship by Elijah.
PRAY:
Amy Carmichael;
"Give me the LOVE that leads the way,
The FAITH that nothing can dismay,
The HOPE no disappointments tire,
The PASSION that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me thy fuel, O flame of God."