When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’ He answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.’
So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. 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. Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred and fifty. 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.’ All the people answered, ‘Well spoken!’
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.’ 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. 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.’ Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. 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.
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; 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’; 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. 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 round the altar, and filled the trench also with water.
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. 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.’ 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. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.’ Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.’ Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.
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Caleb is a little
more than one year old right now. He only recently started crawling,
which means we have only just begun to use the word that will
primarily dominate the next few years of his life. Some houses ring
with laughter, others with sounds of dogs barking, some with
music—the parents of small children know that their houses resound
with the word 'no'!
As he ages, we get
to move beyond simple 'no's. We get to add a wonderful phrase on to
the end of it. We can ask, 'Why did you do that?'
His answer, most
likely--“I don't know”.
I'd like to believe
that once he begins school he'll age out of that answer, but I know
better than that. I remember using those same words when my parents
asked me why I did stupid things. I still use those words today when
Rachel gives me that quixotic look and wonders why I did something.
“I don't know.”
As adults, we don't
always act with purpose. We're not always aware of exactly why we're
doing something. Sometimes, we're not even sure what it is we're
doing. We don't know what our purpose is in our actions. Often,
this leads to a bit of a mindless walk through hours, days,
weeks—we're acting, moving, alive in the world, but we don't know
why it is we're doing what we're doing. We don't know what our
purpose is in life, and it saps us of energy.
Purpose is sought
by all people. From the CEO of Apple Computers to the guy who cleans
the bathrooms in Apple's offices to each and every one of us, we're
seeking our purpose—what is it that we are called to do? What role
are we called to play? How do we best use the gifts God has given
us? There's a reason that The Purpose-Driven Life
was the second best-selling book ever—people are hungry for
purpose.
God, being the sovereign God of the universe and the source of all
wisdom, isn't immune from having a purpose from his actions. The
difference, one of the many, between us and God is that God knows
exactly what his purpose is in his actions, and every action of God
happens to move that purpose forward. Everything is done with one
loving, gracious action—to gather all people together in worship.
This is God's singular purpose—it is the reason we were created, to
be in a passionate relationship with God, and it is how we best
function.
The problem of sin is that we have deviated from that purpose, and
the devil twists our hearts and minds to substitute other purposes in
our lives, to confuse us and distort our lives. We begin to act with
the purpose of growing rich or powerful, with the purpose of winning
affirmation from our community or love from another person. We begin
to let that purpose guide and define us, but God has not given up on
humanity. God is at work in the world, in our lives, with the
singular purpose of gathering us back from the corners of our
scattered lives, pulling us in so that we fulfill our greatest and
highest purpose, the reason we were made—to worship God.
What never ceases to amaze me about God is that he has a purpose of
bringing people together to worship him, and that he generously
invites us to join in with him. Rather than do all the work himself,
he calls us to join him, to offer our lives and let his singular
purpose define our own lives, so that his purpose then becomes our
purpose. Then, no longer feeling lost, we are sent into the world,
into our communities of influence, and called to help God gather all
people to himself. As disciples, we are called to invite others to
become disciples, multiplying the number of people God works through.
And when we decide to join with what God is doing in the world, it's
clear that it's not about us. It's not based on us acting
perfectly—it's based on our getting out of the way and letting God
work in and through us. God promises us his strength, his grace, his
love, if only we will submit to his will. We stubbornly refuse,
certain that we know best what is good for us, but God, our Creator,
patiently waits for us to recognize that the Creator knows best what
his creations were made for.
When
we come to our story today, there is a lot going on. We'd call this
a busy 23 verses, filled with action and drama and tension. Elijah
summons 450 prophets to a duel, calling all of Israel to come and
witness these events so that they might know which God has power in
the world. The 450 prophets of Baal start early, at sunrise, and
they prepare the bull and then spend the entire day trying to lure
Baal to act, to consume the bull with fire. They cried
aloud to the heavens, but no reply came down. 450 voices were lifted
up to the heavens, and doubtless they made a pretty impressive
racket. They even began to cut themselves, as was their custom, in
the hopes that their blood might draw Baal to act.
Elijah stood by himself, one man before 450 prophets. There were
thousands of witnesses. If Elijah lost this duel, it would probably
cost him his life. There were plenty of reasons to be afraid. There
were plenty of opportunities to doubt himself, to wonder if they knew
something he didn't know.
But Elijah never lost confidence. He never doubted himself. He was
even bold enough to mock the 450 prophets, asking them if their god
was asleep or away on vacation. To display even more confidence,
when he was preparing his own sacrifice, in the midst of the racket
of the prophets of Baal, he even had water poured all over the bull,
so that the people would not think it was some trick by which he
conquered. Water ran all over the sacrifice, and then Elijah called
on God to act.
Notice, Elijah didn't try to do this on his own. This was not the
fruits of his labors. Elijah merely gathered the people and let his
own life be used as a viaduct through which God would work. Elijah
stepped out of the way, asking God to answer his prayers so that the
people may know that the Lord is God, that you have turned their
hearts back, it says in verse 37. Here we find Elijah's purpose, his
mission statement, his vision—that the people will all know that
the Lord is God. That's the reason he does what he does, that's what
leads him to put his life on the line—not for his own benefit, not
that his name would be made great, but that the world would know who
God really was. Elijah wasn't in it for himself.
And what happens?
God acts. God acts with certainty and resolve. God consumes the
offering, every bit of it, even the dust and the stones and the
water. Think about that—the fire that God sent down was so hot the
stones were even consumed. Next time you're around a bonfire, throw
a stone in there and see what happens. Then think about the passion
and fury with which God answered Elijah's prayer. This is how
powerful God is—and this is how God can work through us if we're
willing to step aside.
Notice, too, that we don't have to be perfect. It doesn't say that
Elijah had ever prepared a sacrifice, and this one he covered with
water three times. We often cover our own lives, our living
sacrifices, as they are meant to be, with sins, with water, and we
think we will make it even more difficult for God—but God can work
through our imperfect efforts. God just needs us to make ourselves
available, to let his purpose become our purpose, and God will do the
rest. God will send his spirit to work through you, but you have to
be willing to be available. I'm not going to pretend that it will be
easy, and that it will always be fun—Elijah was outnumbered 450-1
and faced death if he failed. You will almost certainly never face
such long odds, but God will be with you if you're willing to let his
passion consume you.
Stop
living your life for yourself. Stop believing that we'll discover
our own purpose, our own reason for living, and that it will make us
happy. The only thing that will give us the abundant life Jesus
Christ discussed is if we allow God's purpose to take over our own
life, if we allow ourselves to get caught up in God's story, and
decide to let him work through us. If we want to satisfy our thirst
for purpose, we need to drink from the Living Water.
So let God's purpose guide you. May your every waking moment be seen
as an opportunity to let God reign in your life, and to let God use
you to bring others to himself. When we love and selflessly serve
our neighbors, God uses us—it is God working through us. You don't
have to change everyone—you just have to step aside and let God use
you to change one person at a time, that they may know that the Lord
is God.
Let us pray
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