1 Kings 18
Showdown on Mount Carmel

This Bible Study is also available on Audio Tape

 

Introduction

Last week, we started a series on two of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament--Elijah and Elisha--and we met Elijah.  Today, we will study the defining moment of Elijah's life--the showdown on Mount Carmel.

Before we read this dramatic account, let's briefly review the historical setting.  It's about 870 BC, 60 years after the divided monarchy--and Israel is at a pivotal point spiritually.  Their first king, Jeroboam, had allowed the worship of Canaanite gods in fundamental violation of their covenant with YHWH.  But Ahab, their fourth king, took it to a whole new level.

He married the Sidonian princess Jezebel, a cult priestess for Baal-Melqart (16:31).

Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria and established Baal worship as the religion of Israel (16:32).

Jezebel began persecuting followers of YHWH, and murdered many of his prophets (18:4).

Their daughter would marry Jehoshaphat's daughter (2 Kings 8:26), thus paving the way for Israel and Judah to be re-united under Baalism and threatening God's plan to preserve Israel under him until Messiah came.

In this dire situation, God raised up Elijah to call the Israelites back to himself.

17:1 was not only the public announcement of God's enactment of  Deut. 11:16,17--it was also a direct challenge to Baal, who was (among other things) the god of storm and rain.

After 3.5 years of drought and hiding for Elijah, God says it's time to bring things to a head . . . 

Narrative

Read 18:1,2a.

Summarize 18:2b-15.  Elijah runs into Obadiah, who works for Ahab but is a follower of YHWH and has hidden and fed 100 YHWH prophets for the last 3.5 years. 

Read 18:16-19.  It’s time for a public showdown on Mt. Carmel (MAP: next to Haifa; 1740 feet up from sea level).  (The 400 Asherah prophets wind up being no-shows.)

Read 18:20-24a.  Elijah polarizes the opinion leaders of Israel, and proposes a contest to determine who they should follow.  He stacks the sides in Baal's favor:

They get the "home field advantage," because Mt. Carmel was an abandoned YHWH alter (18:30), now a favorite site for Baal worship.

Baal gets 450 prophets to call on him, while Elijah is the only YHWH prophet.

Baal was the god of lightening and fire, so this test plays to his strength.  And they get to go first, when Baal (god of the sun) is ascending in strength (18:26).

Read 18:24b.  The people say this sounds like a great contest.

Read 18:25-29, emphasizing Baal's non-response and noting Elijah's mockery ("gone aside").  He could have added rape, murder, theft, treachery, etc.--because Baal (like all idols) is merely a projection of fallen humans.

Read 18:30-35.  Elijah insisted that the sacrifice be made humanly unburnable.  (The water probably came from the Mediterranean.)

Read 18:36-39.

Read 18:40-46.  The people repent, delaying God's judgment (exile) for another 150 years.  Elijah outruns Ahab to Jezreel, probably anticipating Ahab's repentance and Jezebel's surrender.  But that's another story . . . 

3 Lessons

What can we learn from this passage?  I see three hard-hitting lessons . . . 

It's interesting how people's initial reaction to this passage changes over the years.  Twenty years ago, in a modernist culture that rejected the supernatural, most people stumbled over the main event--the fire consuming the sacrifice, wood, stones, dust and water (18:38).  This rarely bothers people today.  Most people are outraged by the fact that Elijah executes the Baal prophets (with the evident approval of God).  How intolerant can you get!  So this passage has something to say about the limits of religious tolerance.  Consider the following observations:

First of all, we should remember that Israel had a different arrangement with God than the church or America has today.  During the Old Testament period, the people of God was a nation, and Israel was a theocracy.  God was their official king, and their civil law code therefore forbade the worship of other gods as treasonous.  In the New Testament, the people of God is the Church, which is an international entity who is to live under the civil laws of whatever nation they inhabit.  America, of course, is not a theocracy.  It expressly upholds freedom of religion, which is a principle that derives ultimately from the New Testament.

Second, we need to realize how horrible Baal worship was.  Two practices were central to Baal worship, both of which are capital crimes in many states today.

One was ritual prostitution.  Since Baal and the Asherah were fertility gods, Baal needed to have sex with the Asherah in order to cause crops to grow and livestock reproduce.  In order to induce Baal to do this, male worshippers needed to have sex with cult prostitutes (sympathetic magic).  This made Baal worship pretty popular with the men, but cult prostitutes were sex-slaves who were carried off against their will and horribly abused by the men who used them.  What if this happened to your 12-year-old daughter? . . . 

The other practice was child-sacrifice.  Baal and his Ammonite counterpart, Molech, both required worshippers to offer their first-born children through a nightmarish ritual.[1]  God was angry about this (read Jer. 32:35)!

What if we discovered something like this was going on in central Ohio?   Kidnapping for sexual slavery and child murder are (in many states) capital crimes, even if they are done in the name of religion.  A religious rationale for them only makes them more (not less) heinous and inexcusable.

So this execution is not the cruel deed it may have looked like at first glance.  But even after we have qualified it, there remains a lesson for us that resounds throughout the Bible: We do not live in a universe of unlimited religious tolerance.  Just as God set limits to religious toleration in Israel, he sets limits to his own religious tolerance in our lives.

Who or what you choose to worship is the most important decision you will ever make--because one day you will give an account to the one true God.  And he will pass a verdict on your decision--either eternal life or eternal condemnation (Dan. 12:2; Jn. 5:28,29), depending on how you respond to his offer of mercy through his Son Jesus (Jn. 5:24).

God is "tolerant" now in the sense that he is patiently giving you the opportunity to come to know him.  But this patience is temporary, not forever.  And its purpose is not to lull you into a false sense of security that there will be no final judgment, but to lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4,5).

There is a second lesson we learn from this passage.  When Elijah called the people of Israel together, he did not say: "Congratulations on your enlightened spirituality!  You have graduated from primitive religious absolutism to the realization that all religious paths lead to the same destination.  You have created a wonderful religious smorgasbord that appeals to your own tastes--a little YHWH worship here, a little Baal worship there, etc."  He said 18:21 (read).  They were "limping between two opinions"--trying to worship both God and Baal by combining features of each (which is called "religious syncretism," a form of religious relativism)--and Elijah says they look ridiculous doing it.  One of the main points of this passage (and throughout the Bible) is that religious relativism is out of bounds.  It is not "both-and" in spirituality; it is "either-or."  It is not "YHWH plus;" it is "YHWH only."  What's wrong with religious relativism, besides the fact that the Bible condemns it?

First of all, it is intellectually untenable.  There is nothing inherently contradictory about mixing foods from different countries--but this doesn't work with religions because they are each making absolute truth claims. 

It was this way with YHWH and Baal.  YHWH claimed to be the only God who existed; Baal was merely the most powerful of a whole pantheon of gods.  YHWH was morally perfect and required people to approach him via the blameless sacrifice he provided; Baal was amoral at best and could be stimulated into action by ritual prostitution or placated by child-sacrifice.  These are not superficial differences; they are profound and foundational differences.

It is this way with all major world religions today.  They have major differences in their views of God, the human dilemma, salvation, and how to achieve salvation (SEE CHARTS).  Steven Turner is not only humorous, but accurate when he says, "We believe that all religions are basically the same . . . They all believe in love and goodness.  They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God and salvation."[2]

If religious relativism is contradictory and dismissive, why is it so popular?  Because it provides a socially acceptable excuse for spiritual laziness and man-pleasing.  Why do you suppose most of these Israelites were "limping between two opinions?"  Was it because they were sincere seekers--or was it because they wanted to stay out of trouble with Ahab and Elijah while they did their own thing?  This is what I see today.  Religious relativism is usually a cop-out.  It often masks a desire to avoid investigation and decision about religious truth-claims.  Maybe the most honest thing to admit is “I’m too apathetic to investigate and decide, but I want to be viewed by my peers as tolerant and enlightened.”

But out of love, Elijah confronts them and calls on them to choose: "If YHWH is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him . . ."  And he graciously provides them with evidence upon which to make their choice.

This is what God calls on you to do.  He loves you enough to tell you that religious relativism is a lie, that you need to choose between very different views of God.  And he provides you with plenty of evidence to make an informed choice for Christ (EXAMPLES).

Those of us who are Christians should take a cue from Elijah.  We need to gently goad our non-Christian friends and family members on this issue, and urge them to make a choice.

The third lesson we can learn from this passage concerns how the true God wants us to relate to him.  There is an unmistakable contrast between the way the Baal prophets relate to Baal and the way Elijah relates to YHWH.  Sadly, many people imitate the Baal prophets instead of Elijah!

The Baal prophets related to Baal through CHANT (18:26a), RITUALISM (18:26b "limp"), and SELF-ABASEMENT (18:28).  They did all these things to get Baal's attention, to merit his favor, to manipulate him into doing what they wanted.

How sad it is to see people all around us who think this is how YHWH wants us to relate to him!  How infuriating that they think this because people have taught them that these practices are essential forms of Christian spirituality--especially when the New Testament expressly states that God doesn’t want us to relate to him in these ways (paraphrase Matt. 6:7; Gal. 4:9,10; Col. 2:18,23). 

Instead, we should imitate the Elijah relates to God (18:36,37). 

He talks to God PERSONALLY.  Not 9 hours of chant and ritual, but 63 sincere words.  Elijah uses his own words because God values heart-honesty, not superficial stuff learned by rote (Isa. 29:13).

He approaches God under GRACE.  Not punishing himself so God won't have to punish him, but trusting in God's unmerited favor.  By addressing God as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel," he is recalling God's promise to Abraham to bless him and his descendants.

He relates to God submitting to his WORD.  He doesn't try to manipulate God into doing his will; he trusts the goodness of God's will and asks him to perform what he has promised so others will turn to him.

NEXT WEEK: 1 Kings 19 - Spiritual Discouragement