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This is a sermon based on the account in 1 Kings 18, which records the contest on Mount Carmel between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It emphasizes the specific things Elijah asks God to do in the prayer he prayed over the sacrifice before the fire fell on the altar. These specific requests still have relevance for us today by reminding us of how we need God's intervention in our lives too.
Written Excerpts:
1 Kings 18:36-37 (NKJV) 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. 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."
Introduction:
I
suppose if I would ask, many of you would say we are surely living in dark
times spiritually. We are saddened and even anxious about the rampant departure
from biblical norms for living that is evident in our society.
I
heard a radio personality several years ago commenting on the conditions of our
society. He said that every generation generally believes that the world is the
worst it has ever been. I
suppose that there is some level of truth to his comment, because we have
observed the moral decay and other changes in our own lifetime. Yet, we often
fail to realize that we can only evaluate conditions in comparisons to one or
two generations. We often cannot grasp what conditions were like a century ago. (I
remember being surprised by the descriptions of the horrible conditions
existing in England immediately prior to the Wesley revival that swept across
the nation.)
In
the story that is related in our Scripture reading today, it is easy to
understand that the prophets of God, and others who knew God, could have very
easily believed their day was worse than any other previous time. So
we have read about a dramatic scene in which a prophet of the Lord by the name
of Elijah has challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest in order to demonstrate
that God is alive and deserving of their worship and service.
Today,
I would like to focus on the very brief prayer of the prophet once he prepares
the sacrifice, and I want to emphasize the few specific requests he asks of God
in this prayer.
I. Prelude to the Prayer
If you’re familiar with this story, you already know
that Ahab was the king of the northern kingdom designated as Israel (the
southern kingdom was Judah).
Here’s a scriptural description of the kind of king
Ahab was.
1 Kings 16:29-33 (NKJV) … Ahab the son of Omri
became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in
Samaria twenty-two years. Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil
in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as
though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the
Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then
he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in
Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to
provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were
before him.
Years earlier Israel had already departed from the
true worship of the Lord by setting up calf idols to assist them in their
worship of God. But now, King Ahab has married Jezebel, a daughter of
a foreign king, and she brings to Israel her country’s worship of Baal. Ahab
goes right along with her and erects idols, temples and institutes Baal worship
in the land. Ahab and Jezebel are notoriously wicked. She
orchestrates the slaughter of hundreds of God’s prophets. (See beginning of
chapter 18.)
“Baal” - (The AMG Concise Bible Dictionary) The word baal was a common Hebrew word meaning 'master', 'husband' or
'owner'. When the Israelites entered Canaan and found that the local people
believed every piece of land had a god as its 'owner', baal developed a particular use as a proper noun. It became the title
or name of the god of the land, whether of the land as a whole or of a
particular area of land.
(The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) After the time of Ahab, however, the name
became associated with the worship and rites of the Phoenician deity introduced
into Samaria by Jezebel, and its idolatrous associations accordingly caused it
to fall into disrepute.
The sources I consulted differ slightly in their
description of Baal. The god was apparently believed to be associated with
weather, sun, land/soil, etc. and the worship of Baal included sacrifices,
including human (child) sacrifices.
The nation had apparently fallen into deep wickedness
and immorality as a result of the new religion and the priests and prophets
that promoted it. It was a dark, dark, time. Elijah obviously felt out-numbered (as he stated later
when Jezebel was hunting for him), but he didn’t give in or give up. This time
of great spiritual darkness was the ideal time for the true God of Israel to “show
off.”
It’s not always easy to remember, but “the darker the
night, the brighter the light shines!”
II. Petitions in the Prayer
As I said earlier, Elijah’s prayer is a very brief
prayer. One could argue that Elijah was so close to God and in constant
communication with God that he didn’t need to say much when it came time to
rely on God for His special intervention.
There seem to be 3 specific things that Elijah prays
for:
A. Reveal Your Existence
“Let it be known…You are God.” (36)
“That this people may know You are the Lord God.” (37)
Elijah does not pray
for fire to come down. He merely prays for God to manifest himself and
authenticate His worship. (Adapted from: www. sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/
1-kings-1820-39/)
Elijah prays for God to do such an awesome demonstration
of power that everyone watching will no longer believe that Yahweh/Jehovah is
just one of many gods, including Baal, but they will realize that the Lord,
alone, is the true God. Elijah was not interested in getting a name for
himself or building any kind of religious empire. He want God to be manifested,
glorified and worshiped.
It’s nice to have people compliment my preaching, or
my ministry, but my greatest desire for the people who come to Wayside Church
is for them to sense God is here! I want them to see Jesus. I want people to hear the
voice of the Lord and personally know God.
B. Authenticate My Calling
“I am Your servant.” (36)
“I have done these things at Your word.” (36)
“I have done”
– perfect tense, denotes not only what has already occurred, but what shall yet
take place as certain as it had already taken place. (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary)
Elijah knew that without the authority of the God of
Israel, he had no right or authority to “impose” his faith and form of worship
upon the people. It really didn’t matter what Elijah thought. In
himself, he had no more credibility than any of the false prophets or any of
the common residents.
(Quoted
from www.enduringword.com) “It was no
whim of his to chastise the nation with a drought. [Recorded in the previous
chapter.] It was no scheme of his, concocted in his own brain, that he should
put the Godhead of Jehovah or of Baal to the test by a sacrifice to be consumed
by miraculous fire.” (Spurgeon)
Spurgeon recommended that believers use
the same principle in prayer, especially those who preach the Word of God: “Go
you to the mercy-seat with this as one of your arguments, ‘Lord, I have done
according to thy word. Now let it be seen that it is even so. I have preached
thy word, and thou hast said, “It shall not return unto me void.” I have prayed
for these people, and thou hast said, “The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much”; let it be seen that this is according to thy
word.’”
Every preacher, teacher and prophet of God should want
their hearers and followers to know that they represent the living God. He is
our authority. We do not speak for ourselves, we speak for God.
Therefore we need to be very careful about the risk of mixing our own ideas in
with the Word. None of us will be accountable for what any preacher
thinks, but we will be held accountable for what God says.
C. Revive Your People
“You have turned their hearts back again.”
“have turned” – perfect tense; that which will occur
is written as though it has already happened.
These
few words of Elijah’s prayer get at the heart of what is happening on Mount
Carmel. Yahweh’s primary interest is not in providing a circus-like
display that will impress his audience. Yahweh’s primary interest is the
redemption of the Israelite people—in turning their hearts back to the true
faith—in restoring the covenant relationship that they have broken—in securing
their repentance so that he might forgive their sins. (Quoted from: www. sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/1-kings-1820-39/)
Again, we notice that Elijah is not just interested in
some dynamic display of supernatural power. He is not merely interested in proving he’s right and
they’re wrong. His ultimate goal is to see the hearts of the people
and the leaders turned back to the true God and to give Him the worship and
service He demands and deserves.
Miracles, dynamic demonstrations of spiritual fervor
and everything else associated with them are of no lasting spiritual benefit if
it doesn’t result in people turning their hearts back to God.
Conclusion:
We are living in dark days. We have strayed far away
from God’s standards of righteousness. Deep immorality, drunkenness, drug addiction, human
trafficking, are just a few of the horrible conditions of our society. If there was ever a time when we needed men and women
of God to stand up and be counted, it is now. We need people who will speak up and proclaim God’s
Word in spite of the potential threats it may draw. We need people who will carry the burden of prayer
until we hear from heaven and God brings a revival.
May the Lord help me and all of us to be strong and
faithfully love God and serve Him.
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