Enter Elijah

1 Kings 17-18

            Elijah dominates 1 and 2 Kings like no other figure. His name means “My God is Yahweh,” and his life’s work is to call Israel back to that confession.

            The great moment of his life is the confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt. Carmel. Elijah is outnumbered 850 to 1, telling us how prominent Baal worship was in Israel. (Elijah’s not the only prophet of the Lord left; earlier in chapter 18 we read how a man named Obadiah had hidden 100 prophets from Jezebel.) Elijah proposes a test: see which god/God answers a prayer and sends fire from heaven first. It’s a comic kind of thing. The prophets of Baal whoop and holler and dance and cut themselves until they’re exhausted, and nothing. Elijah mocks: maybe he’s deep in thought, maybe he’s on the can, maybe he’s asleep. Nothing. Then Elijah has his altar soaked with water and simply asks the Lord to demonstrate that He really is God. And He does: fire from heaven, perhaps a lightning strike, destroys offering, altar, and water.

            The people see and—for that moment, at least—believe. “Yahweh—He is God!” practically yelling Elijah’s name. It’s a sweet moment for Elijah, who had challenged the Israelites, “How long will you waver between two opinions? Choose Yahweh or Baal. Give your whole heart to one or the other.” Now, they chose Yahweh.

            It’s not that Israel had ever completely rejected Yahweh, their ancestral God. It’s that they had made Him one god among many. I think that’s something we should ponder, too. Our “other” gods are not as obvious as little carved statues of Baal in the living room. But we face a thousand competing priorities, each a sort of god. Weekends away, entertainments of all sorts that occupy our Sunday mornings, sometimes work, sometimes chores around the house—all these things would pull us away from the true worship of the Lord. Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism, famously says that an idol is anything that we look to for good more than we look to the true God, anything we trust, anything about which we might say, “This will truly make me happy.” Elijah’s question remains powerful, “How long will you waver between two opinion? If the Lord is God, follow Him!”