Elijah challenged the 450 prophets to call on their gods and he would call on his God and the one who answered by fire would be the one that was to be worshiped. The prophets set up their altar and began to call on the names of their gods. They called...they wailed...they began to cut themselves and bleed...and all the while Elijah the prophet sat there and watched all of this take place. Then, after a while, Elijah began to mock these prophets. After all, they had been going through their exercise for quite a long time. He began to hurl insults at them: “Hey! Why don’t you cry out a little louder! Maybe Baal is still in bed!” or “Hey! If you cut yourselves some more maybe he’ll respond to you better!” Can you see it? He’s up on Mount Carmel making fun of these guys.
And then it was Elijah’s turn. He built an altar and placed a bunch of wood on the altar of the Lord. He dug a trench around the altar and had the people fill up the trench with water. Then he told them to pour a bunch of water over the sacrificial bull. But he didn’t stop there! He had them pour even more water over the altar to the point that the bull and the wood was soaking wet. Wait! Elijah had them do it even a third time to ensure that it would not spark and catch on fire if he was trying to start it himself.
Read what Elijah then 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” (1 Kings 18:36, 37). A simple request with a simple recognition of who the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel is. What was God’s response? He came down in fire and consumed all of the water, the bull, the wood and the stones that were placed around the altar of the Lord (18:38, 39).
It’s an amazing story, isn’t it? It never ceases to amaze us to read stories like this from the Scriptures. But something gets in the way of realizing that the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel is the same LORD God of us today. For some reason we forget this to be our reality. What is it? For what reasons do we forget? Perhaps what we ought to do is read these stories and make those simple requests of the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and give Him the recognition for who He is—who He has always been. As Elijah, what we ought to do is to seek to give Him the glory in everything. After all, He is the One who has made it possible for us to do anything for Him in the first place. The last time I checked I didn’t just happen to have the ability I have apart from His gifting or His blessing or His provision or His righteous choosing to bless and have compassion and mercy. Let’s be thankful to Him for the great things that He has done...is doing...and intends to do in the future.
