2. The Lord - He is God (1 Kings 18)

The days and the weeks and the months had passed and still there was famine and drought in the land. The historian who wrote down the story of those days did not say how long the famine lasted but James the Lord's brother somehow came to find out, and he said that Elijah "prayed that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months" (Jas. 5. 17) so that Elijah must have stayed with that widow woman at Zarephath and shared with her and her son the ever-continuing meal from the jar and the oil from the cruse for at least two years. And meanwhile because of their sin the people in Israel suffered from hunger and thirst and watched their cattle die and their crops wither. Like the men of Isaiah's day a century or so later it could be said of them "They will pass through the land greatly distressed and they shall be hungry, when they are hungry they shall be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward or they will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish and they will be thrust into thick to darkness" (Isa.8.21-22 NRSV). The famine is pictured in the narrative, coming as a punishment from God for apostasy. It is probable that much of its severity was due to the inordinate ambition of King Ahab and the self-indulgence of his subjects in spending too great a proportion of their time and energy in the pursuit of commercial gain and selfish pleasure. It was so apparently easy and desirable in this time of close alliance with the merchant people of Tyre. The penalty of that pursuit of riches and ease had to be neglect of their lands and their pastures, their crops and their flocks. They had failed to maintain the water-courses and aqueducts which alone could preserve their water supplies under that fierce Palestinian sun. They had been ruthless in despoiling the forests to provide timber for their ornate city buildings, only to find, too late, that when the forests go, the rain goes also and the land quickly turns to desert. Have not later peoples done the same thing and incurred the same consequences? And are not men even now despoiling this fair earth, heedless of the inevitable retribution which must come upon them and which a few far-sighted men can perceive, while the masses go ever more feverishly after the worship of Baal which they have set up?

In the days of Ahab, the Lord did not intend to let the situation get out of hand. So, one day when Elijah was sitting outside the little house in Zarephath, the familiar inner voice came to him, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth" (1Kings 18. 1). So the prophet collected his few belongings, bade goodbye to the widow and her son, doubtless leaving her with the heartening news that the famine would soon be ended and life become normal again. So he set out to retrace the hundred miles that lay between him and Ahab's palace at Jezreel.

Now in the meantime the people in Israel were reduced to desperate straits. This wicked King Ahab was more concerned at the prospect of losing his prize horses and mules, the mainstays of his military power and the adornment of his pageants, than for the welfare of his people, the preservation of the flocks and herds, the wheat and the barley. So he called his chief steward Obadiah to his side to join with him in an expedition through all the land, searching all places where water might yet linger, to find "grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts". He cared not that his subjects were slaying their sheep and cattle in desperation for food, leaving nothing or next to nothing wherewith the land might recover when the rain should return. Though the nation perish, he must cling to the empty grandeur of his personal glory and his military might, and in this he was not so very different from many a ruler and statesman in the world to-day.

So they set out, Ahab with his attendants in one direction and Obadiah with his attendants in the other. Ahab was an unbeliever and an apostate, but Obadiah was devoted to the Lord God of Israel. Without doubt he mourned greatly in spirit as he traversed the countryside and perceived how the Lord's curse had blasted field and forest, flock and herd, and knew how well-merited had been the calamity. And as he went, and as he mourned, he came suddenly face to face with a terrifying apparition, a fierce giant of a man, shaggy of beard and wild of appearance, clad in goatskins and grasping a stout staff. Obadiah fell on his face in the dust before him for he knew who this strange man must be and he feared for some new calamity to fall upon suffering Israel. So in submissive tones he asked "Is that you, my lord Elijah?" Swift and uncompromising came the incisive reply "It is I. Go tell your lord, that, Elijah is here."

But this command put Obadiah in great fear, for although he was a sincere and devoted believer in the Lord God of Israel he was not the stuff of which martyrs are made. If he carried such a message to Ahab, and then whilst he was gone Elijah took himself off again, Ahab would vent his chagrin upon Obadiah. For, said he tremblingly, "there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you my lord hath not sent to seek you…As soon as I have gone from you the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he shall kill me…". Then to make the best case he could for himself he protested to the grim-faced man before him "I your servant have revered the LORD from my youth. Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred of the prophets in a cave and provided with bread and water… and now you say, Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here; he will surely kill me". The future looked very dark to this doubting Thomas son of Israel. Caught between the unpredictable king and the redoubtable Elijah, he felt that circumstances were altogether too much for him and probably wished heartily that he had taken the other road so that Ahab himself had been the one to make this unfortunate encounter.

But Elijah, for all his forbidding exterior, was a kindly man at heart, and he reassured the fearful steward. In the most solemn and binding words known to Israel he gave his pledge. "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today". So Obadiah went to find Ahab, and Ahab came with haste, and there was Elijah, standing in the middle of the highway where Obadiah had left him.

Ahab was inwardly greatly quaking, for by now he had realised the truth of Elijah's prediction of more than three years ago. But he was a proud man and he professed an air of arrogance that he did not really feel. He thought he would take the offensive and try to put the blame upon Elijah, and so he advanced towards the silent prophet with a supercilious air."Is it you… troubler of Israel? came his insulting question. Sharp as a sword-thrust, loaded with condemnation, came the reply. "I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father's house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and followed the Baals." That quickly wiped the cynical sneer off the king's face. More meekly now, King Ahab listened to the prophet's instructions; he was to gather all Israel to Mount Carmel, and all the prophets and priests of the false god Baal, and attend himself, and Elijah would meet them there. The king, even although he was the king, and normally took instructions from no man, felt he could do naught else but obey, and he turned and went back the way he had come, and all his attendants with him, to do as the prophet of the Lord had commanded.

So the people came, and the prophets and priests of Baal, and King Ahab with all his court, and they climbed mount Carmel, which is not much of a mountain really and can be climbed to the top in less than an hour, and there was Elijah, waiting. He looked upon them and they gathered around in a wide circle ready for whatever the man of God was going to do. Although in Elijah's command to King Ahab he had told him to gather all Israel to mount Carmel it is hardly likely that he intended all the millions throughout the land to leave all their pursuits and come. Much more probable it is that there were representatives present from every tribe and every part of the country. When all were present and all was ready there was made a great silence, and it was then that Elijah spoke. "How long will you go limping with two different opinions" he demanded of them. "If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And there was none that made answer, or opened the mouth, for some of the people were afraid of Elijah and many indifferent as to which god they should worship, and some believed secretly in the God of Israel but served Baal outwardly because of the king's command. Not many were there who really believed in the reality of Baal, and so for a variety of reasons the people were ashamed in the presence of this champion for the true God. They looked at one another and away from the piercing gaze of the prophet and shuffled their feet and held their peace.

When Elijah had waited, yet no man spoke, and the prophets of Baal looked on, and moved not, he made his proposal. Let the prophets of Baal, said he, prepare an altar and a sacrifice, and he would do the same and call upon the Lord to accept it. "And the God that answers by fire" said he let him be God". Then the people found their voices and in unison they responded "It is well spoken".

So the prophets of Baal built an altar, a little pile of rough stones large enough to bear the wood of the fire and dismembered carcase of the bullock which was to be the sacrifice, and they set to work with a will, for Baal was the sun-god and here the sun was shining upon them from an azure sky and the morning heat was already beginning to be felt. So by about nine o'clock in the morning they were ready and that wicked King Ahab looked on from his place in the front as the leaders of the prophets approached the altar. And Elijah stood still, watching.

"O Baal, answer us" they cried "You who are the lord of the heavens and flood the earth with light, send your fire upon this offering and show that you are God. O Baal, hear us; hear us and answer". But there was no voice, and no answer, and no fire. The sun pursued its accustomed way in the skies and climbed steadily towards the meridian but no sign came from heaven and the offering lay on the altar, lifeless and still. So the minutes passed and all the prophets of Baal took up the cry "O Baal, hear us"; and the hours passed, and they worked themselves into a frenzy and leaped about and around the altar, and cut themselves with knives until the blood flowed. And still there was no sign from heaven, and the sun climbed still towards the meridian, and the prophets of Baal cried and implored, and the offering lay on the altar, lifeless and still.

And now it was noon, and the sun was at its zenith, blazing down from a cloudless sky upon a parched and baked earth. The people, waiting still for the sign; that wicked king, beginning to look a trifle apprehensive; those prophets, flagging in their efforts through sheer physical fatigue, still crying  faintly "O Baal, hear us". And Elijah, who had stood immovable these three hours past, now striding across the grass towards the now well-nigh frantic prophets. "Cry louder" rose his stentorian voice in tones of bitter scorn "for he is a god; perhaps he is meditating some important thing and has not heard you. Cry louder!" and in rage and anger they redoubled their efforts. But there was no voice. "Cry louder" came the mocking tones again "he is a god; perhaps he is pursuing the chase and in the excitement of the hunt your cries have not reached his ears. Cry louder" and again their entreaties went up into the silent skies. But there was no sign. "Cry louder" urged their tormentor. "He is a god; perhaps he is on a journey from home and too far away to hear you. Cry louder" and in their frenzy they foamed at the mouth and fell motionless upon the ground. But there was none that regarded. "Cry louder" came the culminating insult, "He is a god, but perhaps he is fast asleep and will have to be awakened". And the sun went on its way in the heavens, declining to its setting, and it was three o'clock in the afternoon and the offering lay on the altar, lifeless and still. And when the prophets of Baal saw the symbol of their god sinking into the western skies and knew it would soon be shedding its dying rays over the land they ceased their supplications, and there was a great quiet.

That wicked King Ahab looked on with sombre eyes as the prophet of the Lord came forward and beckoned to the watching crowd. "Come near unto me" he commanded and all the people gathered around him in a wide circle. The altar of Baal with its useless sacrifice lay behind them, forgotten. Now the prophet was gathering stones, twelve large stones, carrying them one by one to the centre of the circle where he began to build the altar of the Lord. "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel" rose the stentorian voice, calling to the heavens "let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their heart back again ..."

A blinding, vivid flash . . . the lightning drove down from the clear sky, a dazzling sword-thrust to the altar, a consuming fire that burned the offering and the wood in a moment and vapourised the water in the trench into a white mist of steam. The vapour cleared away, and the people saw the stones of the altar lying shattered and scattered, the remains of the offering, cinders on the ground. And when they saw that, those people fell on their faces in fear and in awe, and they shouted "The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God".

Then the prophets of Baal sought to escape, for they knew that their cause was lost. The people, in the swift revulsion of feeling that had been induced by the spectacle they had seen, pursued after those prophets. Led by Elijah, the people took them down the mountain to the River Kishon which flowed hard by Carmel on its way to the sea, and there they slew all the prophets of Baal the false god and joined themselves anew to the covenant of the Lord. And that day was the greatest day Israel had known since the day in which Moses the Lawgiver had led them out of Egypt to find the Promised Land.

But Elijah was back on the top of Carmel, wrestling with God in prayer that the rain might now come and the famine end, and his servant on the crest of the headland looked westward across the Great Sea. Thus he presently saw arising out of the sea a cloud no bigger than a man's hand and that was a signal to Elijah that his prayer had been answered and that the rain was coming. So the prophet told Ahab to get himself back to Jezreel before the rain overtook him, and the people to disperse to their homes in faith that God would turn his face towards them again. Soon "the heavens were black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain", and Elijah, that stalwart man of God, girded up his loins and ran in that rain, ran before Ahab's chariot to the gates of Jezreel.

(To be continued)

AOH