1 Kings 18:20-39
20 So
Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21
Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you go
limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal,
then follow him." The people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah
said to the people, "I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but
Baal's prophets number four hundred fifty. 23 Let two bulls be given to us; let
them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood,
but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood,
but put no 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 is indeed God." All
the people answered, "Well spoken!" 25 Then Elijah said to the
prophets of Baal, "Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first,
for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it."
26 So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the
name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, "O Baal, answer us!"
But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they
had made. 27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud! Surely he is
a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey,
or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." 28 Then they cried aloud
and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the
blood gushed out over them. 29 As midday passed, they raved on until the time
of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no
response. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come closer to me";
and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord
that had been thrown down; 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the
number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came,
saying, "Israel shall be your name"; 32 with the stones he built an
altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large
enough to contain two measures of seed. 33 Next he put the wood in order, cut
the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, "Fill four jars with
water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood." 34 Then he said,
"Do it a second time"; and they did it a second time. Again he said,
"Do it a third time"; and they did it a third time, 35 so that the
water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. 36 At
the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and
said, "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day
that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all
these things at your bidding. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this
people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their
hearts back." 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt
offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that
was in the trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and
said, "The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God."
I
suppose when most folks think of an old, Western showdown they imagine about
the same scene. The sun has reached its peak in the blue firmament. Two men
square off, facing each other at somewhere around a hundred paces, on some old
main street flanked by brothels and saloons, with tumbleweeds bouncing in
between them, in some dirty town with a name like Laredo or El Dorado. At the
end of that street littered with horse manure and tobacco spit, there’s
probably a courthouse with a clock in the top—way up high and big enough for
everyone to see when both hands strike twelve and hear when the bells peal out
that it’s noon (high noon!). But before the clock has a chance to tell the
time, shots ring out…and there, still on his feet with his six-shooter smoking
in his hand, is the victor of the showdown. He was quickest on the draw (and
usually the good guy in the white hat). That’s likely the sort of scene that
your mind creates when you hear about a showdown, but for me, there’s a
slightly different scene that comes to mind.
Whether
you’ve read it in the pages of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel, watched the classic
film from 1969 starring John Wayne, or the most recent screen adaptation from
the Coen brothers starring Jeff Bridges, the showdown scene from True Grit may be one of my favorite from
any Western. The half-drunk, full-of-grit U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn sits
atop his horse at one end of a meadow overlooked by a bluff. On the other end
of that meadow, the outlaw Ned Pepper and three other men ride up on their
horses. Pepper shouts across the field at Rooster, “What's your intention? Do
you think one on four is a dogfall?” To which Rooster Cogburn replies, “I mean
to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge
Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?” Pepper hollers back at Rooster (who has
only one eye and is wearing an eye patch, reminiscent of a pirate): “I call
that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.” Rooster, filled with a mix of anger,
frustration, and stubbornness, shouts back at Pepper, “Fill your hands you…”
and then makes what I assume is an unfair judgment about the outlaw’s mother as
he calls him a name unfit to repeat in this room (if you’ve seen either movie
or read the book, you know what I mean). With those last words, Rooster puts
his reins in his teeth, draws his pistol with his left hand, while holding his
rifle in the other, and charges full-speed across the ground, shooting and
cussing at Ned Pepper and the three outlaws who are also charging and shooting
back at him.
It’s a
spectacular scene to imagine: one man drawing his guns and bearing down on four
other men. He’s outnumbered four-to-one, yet he still charges on. It would take
enough courage to stand in front of one other person with the expectation that
one of you is going to die, but to charge straight on at four men…? I imagine
that takes courage, faith, and a little hint of crazy. But what would it take
to be outnumbered by, say, a hundred, or better yet, 450? What kind of courage
does a person have to have to stand against 450 adversaries…on a mountain…in
front of all the people, who don’t exactly like them…with the law against them…in
the middle of a severe drought they helped cause? What kind of faith does one
have to have to stand in the midst of such circumstances and risk everything in
a showdown of divinity, all the while taunting and accusing the people who have
gathered to witness the spectacle? It takes the courage and faith of a
prophet…a prophet like Elijah.
Elijah had to
have courage. He had spoken out against the king, Ahab, when he took Jezebel
for a wife and began promoting the worship of idols in the land of Israel. The
other prophets of God that were in the land had been executed or driven out by
Jezebel, and the prophets of the idol Baal (the storm god, “rider on the
clouds”) grew in number and influence. Elijah had to have courage because he
was all that was left of the prophetic caste that spoke on behalf of Israel’s
God. His voice alone spoke the words of YHWH in Israel. His voice alone
proclaimed the judgment of God on the idolatrous people. His singular voice,
amidst the cacophony of the prophets of Baal, was the thorn in the side of the
king and the people as it proclaimed a great drought and the famine that
followed. And now, it is Elijah’s single voice that conjures up the courage to
call out the prophets of Baal in front of all the people to prove once and for
all who is God and who is not. It is Elijah’s courageous voice, provoked by his
faith, which calls out the false god Baal and dares him to prove his existence.
It’s really
quite a scene that develops in these verses we’ve read today. In verse 20, we read that “…
Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.”
In the preceding verse we get a fuller picture of just who shows up on Mount
Carmel in Elijah’s command to Ahab: “Now therefore have all Israel assemble for
me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four
hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.” So it’s a few
more than just 450 who show up for the showdown with Elijah: there are at least
400 other prophets of Asherah (the goddess of fertility) and “all Israel” (at
least a good number of those within walking distance).
Needless to
say, there was a crowd, and Elijah doesn’t exactly try to “kill them with
kindness” in verse 21: "How long will you go limping with two
different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow
him." He’s given the people and ultimatum reminiscent of Joshua’s
last words to the people of Israel in Joshua
24:15: “…choose this day whom you will
serve…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Under
Ahab and Jezebel the people of Israel had developed a sort of pluralistic form
of worship. They would worship and sacrifice to YHWH (God), but they would also
make sacrifices and worship idols like Baal and Asherah. They wanted to “have
their cake and eat it to.” After all, what could it hurt to worship a number of
gods? What if you picked a false god to worship? Wouldn’t you want a real god
to fall back on, you know, just in case? Elijah, however, has had enough, and
lays out a plan that will put an end to the entire scheme in verses 23 and 24: “Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves,
cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare
the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 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 is indeed God."
Elijah has
given the people an opportunity to test God. The two competing deities,
represented by their prophets, will have the opportunity to show up and prove
themselves to the people whose worship is up for grabs. The prophets of Baal
took their bull and prepared their altar and called on Baal to show up all
morning long. They cried aloud, the limped or danced around the altar, but
there was no reply. Eventually, “they cut themselves with swords and lances
until the blood gushed out over them” all in order to prove the existence
of Baal, “but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.”
Then Elijah
stepped up. It was his turn to prove his God, YHWH, was in fact the one true
God. In verses 30-35 we get a rather
detailed account of what Elijah did: “First he repaired the altar of the Lord that
had been thrown down; [then he] took twelve stones…[and] built an altar in the
name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to
contain two measures of seed. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces,
and laid it on the wood. He said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the
burnt offering and on the wood.’ Then he said, ‘Do it a second time’; and they
did it a second time. Again he said, ‘Do it a third time’; and they did it a
third time, so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench
also with water.” Elijah goes to great lengths to make sure everything
is prepared correctly, with meaning, and he even goes so far as to saturate the
altar with water (in the third year of a drought mind you) to prove there are
no hidden pyrotechnics.
Then, once the
altar has been prepared, Elijah calls on the name of the Lord in verses 36 and 37: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day
that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these
things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may
know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts
back." Elijah makes his appeal to God; he asks God to make Himself
known in order to prove Elijah’s words and God’s existence to these stubborn
people. What happens next was surely frightening to those who were gathered
there. In verse 38 it says, “Then
the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the
stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.”
The fire didn’t just catch the wood of the altar on fire; it consumed it—even
licking up the trench of water that had formed around the altar. A simple bolt
of lightning would have sufficed, maybe even a spark and a wisp of smoke from
the center of the altar, but God responds with fire that consumes everything—even
stones, dust and water—leaving no doubt that YHWH is real, alive, and moving
among the people. Elijah called on the name of the Lord, and the Lord showed up
in a big way.
But what about
those times when we call on the name of the Lord and there’s no fire, not even
a little heat? What if Elijah had called on the name of the Lord and received
the same response the prophets of Baal received, the dame response so many of
us receive when we call on the name of the Lord—silence? That is when our faith
is tested. That is when our courage is tried. That is when God truly becomes
real to us.
You see, it
isn’t the victory that gives the gunslinger true grit. It isn’t the scorched
earth where an altar once stood that made Elijah a great prophet. It isn’t a
grand scene of lightning, fire, and smoke that makes God real to us. It is
faith. Faith that says even if God doesn’t show up on my time, I’ll still trust
him. Faith that says even if God doesn’t do things the way I think they ought
to be done, I’ll still follow. Faith that says even after shouting at the
heavens, longing for a sign, tangible proof of his existence, and getting
nothing but silence in return, I’ll still hold on to hope.
It isn’t an
easy faith. This showdown at Mount Carmel seems more the exception than the
rule. But then again, God does make himself known to us in real, tangible
ways—just with less drama and theatrics. God makes himself known to us in the
lives of those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. God makes himself known to us
through the words we speak and the deeds we do for one another out of love. We
may not be able to call fire down from heaven. We may never even witness such a
thing as that. But we have the power to show love to one another, to our
neighbors, to those who are different from in every way. We will witness God’s
presence as we see lives changed by the gospel. We have witnessed the very
presence of God in this room as we have gathered for worship.
Perhaps you are
in this room today, hoping for some dramatic sign from God, hoping to see fire
fall from heaven. You might, though I can’t promise you that you will. What I
can promise you, however, is that you will witness the presence of God in this
place—not in the bricks, wood, grass and asphalt that make up this building we
call a church, but in the flesh and blood of Christ’s church gathered in this
place. And I hope that as you have witnessed God’s presence today that the Holy
Spirit has moved in your heart, calling you into a life of faith, or a deeper
walk of discipleship. I hope that as you have experienced the presence of the
Lord in this place today that you will respond to his presence, and make
whatever decision you feel led to make this day.
Let us pray…