“850 to 1”                                                                                                                             

1 Kings 18: 16 – 46                                                                                          

Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church                                                                 

October 31, 2010 Reformation Sunday

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab & told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him,                                                “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have & your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord & followed the Baals. ¹⁹Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal & the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” ²⁰So Ahab sent to all the Israelites & assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah then came near to all the people & said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow God; but if Baal, then follow Baal.”

The people did not answer him a word.

²²Then Elijah said to the people, “I, stand here alone a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. ²³Let 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 & lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. ²⁴Then you call on the name of your god & I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.”

All the people answered, “Well spoken!”

²⁵Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull & prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”

²⁶So they took the bull that was given them prepared it & called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!”

But there was no voice & no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made.

²⁷At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely Baal is a god; but maybe he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep & must be awakened.”

²⁸Then they cried aloud & as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords & lances until the blood gushed out over them. ²⁹As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer & no response.

³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; & all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; ³¹Elijah 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”; ³²with 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. ³³Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, & laid it on the wood. Elijah said, “Fill four jars with water & pour it on the burnt offering & on the wood.” ³⁴Then he said, “Do it a second time”; & they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; & they did it a third time, ³⁵so that the water ran all around the altar & filled the trench also with water.

³⁶At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near & said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac & Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant & that I have done all these things at your bidding. ³⁷Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God & that you have turned their hearts back.”

³⁸Then the fire of the Lord fell & consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones & the dust & even licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces & said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

This ends our reading.

There are certain stories in the Bible that have become so well-known that when we mention the person’s name, we automatically think of a particular event. When we say Noah, we think of the flood. We say Abraham, we think Father of a Nation. We say Joshua, we think of Jericho. When we say David, we think of Goliath. When we say Daniel, we think of the lions’ den. When we say Elijah, we think of the crisis on Mt. Carmel.

If you ever go to the Holy Land, your guide will take you to Carmel. It is an enormous mountain by the seacoast overlooking the modern day city of Haifa. From the top of Mount Carmel you have a commanding view in all directions. Carmel was important in the OT for military & geopolitical reasons. Whoever held Mt. Carmel controlled the northern half of the nation. And whoever controlled the worship that took place on Carmel controlled the nation spiritually. The priests & the prophets of Baal knew that. That is why years earlier they had built an altar to Baal on top of Mount Carmel. We know from history that Baal worship was a particularly degrading religion. It was a bizarre mixture of idolatry, perverted sexuality & child sacrifice. The pagans believed Baal controlled the rising & the setting of the sun. He was also considered the god who brought forth the seasons, & the god who brought forth or withheld the rains. Because ancient Israel was an agricultural nation, Baal was an extremely powerful deity.

Men & women who came to worship Baal would offer a sacrifice & then engage in some sort of sexual activity with the priests & priestesses. They believed that if you were joined physically to one of those priests or priestesses of Baal, the power of Baal would be transferred to you. So Baal worship appealed on one level to the mind, on another level to their economic well-being & on a physical level to the desires of the flesh.

So it’s not surprising that even in Israel, a nation dedicated to the one true God, Baal worship became extremely popular. It grabbed the mind, the heart, the body & brought along the soul. Under the reign of wicked king Ahab, Baal worship had virtually swept the northern kingdom. The worship of the one true God had become a flickering candle.

It is against that backdrop that we read the story of Elijah, a mountain man whose name means “The Lord is My God.” One day without warning he appeared before Ahab, a wicked toad squatting on the throne of Israel. Elijah said to the king “I have come to you in the name of the living God, the God of Israel, before whom I stand. And I tell you there shall be no rain in Israel & even no dew until I give the word.”

After Elijah uttered those words by the power of Almighty God, he was sent by the Lord to the brook Cherith, where he stayed in hiding for a while.

Eventually the Lord moved Elijah to the Sidon territory, to the widow of Zarephath where the Bible records the miracle of the flour & the oil that did not run out & the miracle of the raising of the widow’s son.

Meanwhile in the nation of Israel the famine set in. For more than three years there had been no rain. The ground turned brown & cracked. The creeks dried up, the brooks disappeared & the Jordan River became little more than a trickle. All across the land the crops were dying. Animals became carcasses lying in the fields.

Finally God tapped Elijah on the shoulder & said, “Go see Ahab again.” When the king & the prophet met the second time, the king asked, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel” (v 17)? The word for trouble in the Hebrew means snake. You dirty snake. That’s what King Ahab thought of God’s anointed prophet. But Elijah turned the tables & said, “I have not made trouble for Israel, but you & your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands & have followed the Baals” (v 18).

Before Ahab could say anything else, Elijah says, “It’s time for the truth to come out. It’s time for the people to decide.” Elijah says to the king, “Tell all the people of Israel to meet me at Carmel.”

And that was agreeable to the king. Elijah said, “Send 450 prophets of Baal & send 400 priests of Asherah,” who was thought to be the female consort of Baal. That’s 850 false prophets versus one man of God. And it is where the title of the sermon comes from; 850 to 1.

And so a pause to comment that either Elijah was crazy or he was a man in touch with our God; maybe a little of both; because if we challenge 850 people of high standing, we better be pretty sure not to do that kind of thing on a whim or the spur of the moment. We better be sure we’re in touch with the Lord. Elijah was a man who was in touch with Almighty God. Upon the appointed day they met on top of Mt. Carmel. We pick up the story. “So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel & assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people & said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow God; but if Baal is god, follow him.’”

The most important part, I think, comes in the next sentence. “But the people said nothing.”

Note the little word “if.” The word “if” means you have to make up your mind. There is a time to think & there is a time to decide. If the Lord is God? Here is one of the reasons I love Elijah with all my little reformed heart. Elijah made it practical & personal. He did not say if the Lord is God, buy a book & think about it. Elijah said if the Lord is God, get on his team & follow God. And if Baal is god, fine, then get on his team & follow him. But stop sitting on the fence. Make up your mind; decide.

Now Elijah proposed an experiment so the people would know which God was the true God. You can argue all day long about which soap gets you cleaner. If you really want to know, get in the water & take a shower & see who comes out cleaner.

Elijah say, “You take Baal & I’ll take the Lord God of Israel & the one who answers by fire, is God. The people of Israel were halting between two opinions. “We think maybe our God is God. But maybe Baal is God. Hummm, maybe we can mix the two somehow.” A little of this, a little of that. Elijah said, “Forget about it, now’s the time to make up your mind.

The story itself is ancient & gory. The prophets of Baal cut up a bull & laid the pieces on the wood, but Elijah would not let them set it on fire. “Ask Baal to light the fire for you.” He told the prophets of Baal & Asherah to do whatever they thought they needed to do in order to entice Baal to send fire from heaven. To do this according to some scholars the prophets of Baal would dance, they would scream & beat their drums & lower their bodies almost to the ground. They bowed to the ground to show their devotion to Baal. It wasn’t a sedate scene like worship this morning. Think of wild screaming & various sexualized antics up on the mountain. They carried on for hours, calling out, “O Baal, answer us. Answer us.” Nothing happened.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder! Surely Baal is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping & must be awakened.”

When Elijah suggests that perhaps Baal is busy, he uses a Hebrew word that has a variety of meanings. Some scholars say that the word means that he’s gone off hunting or something. Others suggest it means to go to the bathroom. That’s quite an insult if you think about it. Elijah is a mountain man. He’s not afraid of embarrassing people. He’ll say anything that comes to mind.                                                                                                                      

Toward the end of the afternoon, in desperation the prophets of Baal took knives & swords & began cutting themselves as a kind of blood sacrifice to their god. How desperate they were. But the heavens were silent. Baal had utterly failed.

 “Then Elijah said to all the people, ’Come here to me.’ They came to him & Elijah repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins.” Taking twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes, he rebuilt the altar of the Lord. This was a symbolic sign that the nation would now return to its true spiritual heritage. The timing is also significant. Elijah’s rebuilt the altar late in the afternoon, about the time of the evening sacrifice. This was the time God had appointed, but Israel had been completely forgotten about it. Now at the appointed hour for the evening sacrifice, Elijah built the altar, dug a trench& laid the wood in place. Elijah cut up the bull, laid the pieces on the wood & then told the people to soak the wood with four large jugs of water. Now remember it hasn’t rained in three years. There is no water to waste for this sort of thing & yet three times Elijah ordered the water poured. Until that bull is soaking wet. Until the altar is soaking wet. Until there is so much water it fills the trench around the altar. By doing these radical things, Elijah saying, “Our God is a covenant God. God will not turn us away. God will come through for us.” Though the people had forgotten, God still was ready to keep God’s promise.

Elijah steps forward and prays a very simple prayer: “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac & Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel & that I am your servant & have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God & that you are turning their hearts back again” (vv. 36-37).

On one side you have 850 prophets of Baal & Asherah & there has been ten hours of screaming & yelling & whooping & cutting themselves, in  their prayers to Baal. You have all that wrapped up in a big red ribbon of religiosity. And over here you have one man, the mountain man, God’s man. When Elijah prays, he uses few words. Elijah prays for three things: 1) Lord, answer me so they’ll know you are the true God. 2) Answer me so they will know that I am your prophet and doing your will.                           3) Answer me so that the hearts of the people may be turned back to you.

Elijah’s concern was for God & God’s people. “Lord, answer me.” No screaming. No whooping, No hollering. No cutting.

Now the point of this story isn’t about Elijah. And the point of the story is really not about the people & the point of the story surely isn’t about Ahab & the prophets of Baal. They’re just window dressing. This is a story about God. It is not about Elijah. He’s just the instrument through whom God works an incredible miracle. Now we’re almost done! Let’s look at the scoreboard. I’m watching a lot of football & the world series, right now. So the contest is 850 prophets of Baal & Ashtoreth vs. Elijah; or 850 to 1.

Who would the Las Vegas bookies give odds to? But we know who wins. Never ever ever bet against God. The final result: Elijah 2 billion, Prophets of Baal & Asherah 0.

Here the words Elijah spoke to the people of Israel: “Choose you this day whom you will serve. If God be God, follow God; if Baal be god, follow him.”

At some point we make up our hearts & mind to follow God. I remember the day it happened for me. And I hope & pray it’s happened for you & if not that today is the day; that with all your heart you follow God. Amen.