Scripture Daily

Context No. 1323 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 18:25-29: in context

25Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves, and dress it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” 26They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, and nobody answered. They leaped about the altar which was made. 27At noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is deep in thought, or he has gone somewhere, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened.” 28They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them. 29When midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the evening offering; but there was no voice, no answer, and nobody paid attention.

On Mount Carmel, Elijah has challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest: each will prepare a bull, and the god who answers with fire is the true God. The prophets of Baal go first. They prepare their bull and call on Baal from morning until noon, crying, Baal, answer us, and dancing around the altar, but there is no voice and no answer. At noon Elijah mocks them: cry louder, perhaps your god is musing, or away, or on a journey, or asleep and must be awakened. So they cry louder and cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood flows, raving on until evening. But there is no voice, no answer, no one who pays attention.

The scene is a portrait of the futility of serving a god who cannot answer. The prophets of Baal give it everything: hours of frantic crying, wild dancing, and finally cutting themselves until they bleed, a desperate escalation of effort to wring some response from their god. And the refrain that answers all of it is silence: no voice, no answer, no one who paid attention. There is something both pitiable and instructive in the picture, the exhausting, self-wounding labor of people pouring themselves out before a god who is not there and cannot hear. It is worth asking what idols we cry to that answer us the same way. Whatever we have made the center of our lives in God's place, money, status, another person's approval, some pleasure or ambition, will in the end answer our deepest cries with the same silence, no matter how frantically we serve it or how much we bleed for it. The false gods take everything and give nothing back. And the contrast, when it comes on Carmel, will be total: the God of Israel answers with fire the moment Elijah quietly prays. The living God hears; the idols cannot. All the straining and self-harm in the world will not make a deaf god speak, and no effort at all is needed to be heard by the God who is really there.

What idol do I cry to that answers me only with silence, pouring out effort and even wounding myself before a god that cannot hear, when the living God answers those who simply call on him?

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