Remain Committed
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Key Verse: “Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” Selected Scripture: |
CONTINUING OUR PREVIOUS lesson, now in the third year of the drought, the Lord told Elijah, “Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” (I Kings 18:1) Elijah proceeded to obey, and when he met with King Ahab he proposed a dramatic test to demonstrate to the people that Jehovah is the true and living God. He called upon Ahab to summon all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel together with four-hundred-fifty prophets of Baal, supported by Jezebel, to prepare a sacrifice to their God. ‘Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.’—vs. 21
Both Elijah and the prophets of Baal were to select a bullock and dress it, placing it on the altar with no fire under it. The prophets were to call upon the name of their god while Elijah would call upon Jehovah. “The God that answereth by fire, let him be God.”—I Kings 18:24
The prophets of Baal were to proceed first. They took the bullock and dressed it, placed it on the altar with no fire under it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice,” even when they leaped upon the altar. (vs. 26) “It came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice,” nor any answer.—vss. 27-29
“Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me.” (vs. 30) All the people came near unto him and he carefully repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, using twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel. “He put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.” (vs. 33) This was done two more times until the water ran round about the altar, filling the trench also with water.
At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah came near, and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, … that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, … that this people may know that thou art the Lord God. … Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the dust, and licked up the water in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.” (vss. 36-39) The Lord’s anointed people, like Elijah, must also today remain loyally committed to follow the true and living God.