Context No. 4017 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 18:36-40: in context

36At the time of the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.” 38Then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!” 40Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Don’t let one of them escape!” They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.

On Mount Carmel, after the prophets of Baal have failed all day to call down fire, Elijah prays a simple, God-centered prayer: LORD, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all this at your word; answer me, that this people may know that you are God and have turned their hearts back.

And the fire of the LORD falls, consuming the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, even the water in the trench. And the people fall on their faces crying, the LORD, he is God! Two things stand out. Elijah's prayer was not for his own vindication but for God's honor and for the people's hearts to turn back. And the decisive moment it produced: faced with the undeniable answer, the people could no longer straddle the fence between two gods; they had to declare, the LORD, he is God. There is a call here to the same decision. God confronts us, in the end, with the question of who is truly God, and there is no lasting middle ground between the living God and the idols we are tempted to serve.

Have I truly decided, like the people on Carmel, that the LORD alone is God, refusing to straddle the fence between him and the idols I am tempted to serve, and does my life declare it?

Sources

1 Kings 18:37: "Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again."
1 Kings 18:38: "Then the LORD's fire fell and consumed the burnt offering... and it licked up the water that was in the trench."
1 Kings 18:39: "When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!"