One of the most exciting passages in the Bible is 1 Kings 18. It is filled with action, but not the sort of a movie thriller … rather one of the Real Deity, Yahweh stamping His authority and superiority as the “Only, True God”.
So far we have seen Elijah, God’s prophet challenge the 450 prophets of Baal to prove Baal the true God. He was empowered to do this because of his communion with His God which gave him total confidence in His God to rise to the occasion proving Himself to the YAHWEH (JEHOVAH – LORD). Yesterday, we analyzed Elijah’s prayer which taught us how to exercise confidence when we pray to God.
Now we will see Elijah’s God’s conquest.
Let’s read …
1Ki 18:38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” 40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
Did we expect anything less than this? Only if we are truly Born Again! People who have not experience new life in Christ would not have expected the results Elijah knew his God would provide, but anyone who has been redeemed through the Blood Sacrifice of Jesus understands the God of Elijah and the God of Calvary are the same God and able to bring about the most miraculous works according to His express will for His people’s encouragement and for his enemies demise.
God Responded to His Prophet’s Plea
In answer to the plea of Elijah, God responded by sending powerful fire proving that the prophet did not manipulate this event. Unlike so many so-called “prophets” today who use trickery to produce what they call miracles or the supernatural, what happened here is nothing but Divine. Even 450 prophets of Baal doing the most horrendous rituals could not get their idol god to respond to their shouting and demanding … even with all the blood that flowed. One must never forget that the devil is able to what “appears” to compare to God’s working (Acts 16:16-18; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). These are counterfeit … nothing comes close to what God does!
Right here a true believer’s prayers show how great and mighty the true God is! Look at what God’s fire did … “burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.” In our age we would expect the fire to consume the wood and meat (sacrifice) … but the complete altar, stones, soil and even the trenched water were burned up.
Because of the greatest miracle of all, we don’t need miracles in the shape Elijah experienced because both the Cross and Tomb are empty … Jesus rose from the dead and through faith in Him and what He did and why He did it, anyone may be forgiven of sin, experience the miracle of salvation and be able to live a life of repentance. However, there are miracles happening all around us each day. Why don’t we see them? The first reason is we are not spiritual enough because we are not prayerful enough. The second is because we are not the people of prayer God requires us to be, we don’t expect the miraculous from God. This is why we don’t see spiritual revivals in the church and large numbers coming to true repentance and faith.
The People Saw
Another answer to prayer was that the people (all the people) saw what God did and were convinced this was from the True God and responded as all people in the Bible did who experienced God at work … “they fell prostrate”. Today the false prophets have people standing behind those falling backwards to catch them. That is a sign of counterfeit experiences! Genuine acts of God causes people to fall forward … to prostate themselves in wonder, humility and acknowledgement that what they experienced was from YAHWEH, the Covenant God of Israel.
Look at their cry … “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” “LORD” is the English for the Greek, Jehovah, translated from the Hebrew, YAHWEH. They acknowledged that YAHWEH and not Baal is God. That was one of the elements to Elijah’s prayer. He had an evangelistic heart and sought that people be turned back to his God. That was his passion. He wanted God glorified and prayed for that … for people in their masses to return to their Covenant God. Is this not what we ought to be seeking in prayer today?
There are thousands of people all around us all the time. Most of them might be religious or even Christianized. Church members, baptized and confirmed but not Born Again. Good people but not God’s people. Maybe we ought to pray like Elijah did … for the lost (religious and Christianized) to be saved so that God would be glorified!
The Vindication of God
One might wonder why God “takes His time” to vindicate Himself … but He does and He will prove He is God. Wait until Jesus returns, calling and end to the world, bringing Judgment and its consequences for the spiritually living and dead.
What Happens to False Prophets
1Ki 18:40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
The prophet of YAHWEH “commanded” the new creatures in God to capture each of the 450 prophets of Baal and kill them … eradicate them from the face of the earth to prevent being led astray again. This is what God expects of all His children … not to kill false prophets but to circumcise them from our lives including any form of idol from the past that could entice us back to the old ways. Remember … the God of the Bible is LORD … Jesus is LORD!
O Lord our God, the results of true prayer expose our weak prayer life. Lord as the disciples asked You to teach them to prayer, we today come asking that You will teach us to pray. Show us Lord, how to enter the holy place communing with You in spirit and truth, in Jesus’ name. Amen.