1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 10

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-10
Elijah Against Baal
Lesson Transcript

As I said in the previous lecture, the Elijah narratives are designed to tell us how Baalism was thwarted, and Yahweh remained, at least technically, the king of Israel. We saw in chapter 17 that conflict between Baal and Yahweh, and how, in a rather subtle way, without stating it formally, we saw how Yahweh is the life giver, not Baal. Yahweh is the one who brings the reign. Yahweh is the one who brings the food. Yahweh is the one who gives life. That, of course, then becomes very, very upfront in chapter 18. And again, the details of the story are so interesting.

The famine, the drought, is terrible. The horses are beginning to die because they have no grass to eat. And horses and chariots were the ultimate weapon in those days. Now, cavalry was beginning to come in and the Assyrians were using cavalry, which was ultimately even more successful and powerful than chariot tree. But at this point, a horse and chariot, that was a main battle tank. That was something that was almost, almost indefensible. You could not fight the thing off.

So, to lose the horses, oh my goodness, you are in a position of great weakness. So Ahab picks out this man whose name is Obadiah, and Obadiah is the palace administrator. We talked about this before. I don't think this is just the guy who's the steward in charge of the palace. This is the prime minister. This is the guy who's next in charge of the kingdom after the king. So, Obadiah is, to go out with Ahab, they're to go in different directions and look for grass.

Obadiah is one of the faithful remnant that Yahweh is going to remind Elijah of in a later chapter. No, not everybody has bowed to Baal. There are people. So here's a man at the very highest level of government who is still serving the Lord. Jezebel is trying to kill God's prophets. Obadiah has secreted some away, and is providing food for them.

Obadiah makes me think of the book of Ruth. When we read the book of Judges, we tend to say, "Oh, my goodness, everybody in the land was a pagan. Everybody in the land had sold out. Everybody had given their faith away." Then we read the Book of Ruth and we say, "Ah, no, no, not everybody." That's the same here with Obadiah. Obadiah is a man who at the highest level of government is still choosing to serve Yahweh. Yahweh has his people everywhere, praise his name.

So God says, "Okay, Elijah, you've been in hiding because Ahab certainly didn't like what you've been doing. Now, I want you to go and show yourself to Obadiah." And Obadiah says, "Oh, my goodness. Why are you doing this? You want me to get killed? What have I done wrong that you were handing your servant over?" "No, just go tell him I'm coming. It'll be all right."

So again, the power of the narrative, these little vignettes, these little stories that give us the sense of what's happening, and where it's happening, and how it's happening. Elijah says, "I'll show up." Obadiah says, "I'm afraid the spirit will take you somewhere." And when I say to Ahab, "Here he is, you won't be there," Elijah says, "I'll be there. I'll be there." So Ahab says, "No, it's you, the Troubler of Israel." Isn't it interesting how often we project our sins on other people? Ahab is the Troubler of Israel, but he blames, he blames someone else for the problems. And Elijah says that. "You and your father's family, you've abandoned the Lord and followed the Baals. So, let's set this up."

And they set it up on Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is right out here on the Mediterranean coast. It is sort of the tip of this ridge structure, looking out over the ocean from which the storms must come. There it is. And perhaps you remember the story, it's a well-known one and famous. But Elijah says, "How long are you going to limp between two positions?" Now, paganism basically says, "That's no problem. You can worship Yahweh and you can worship Baal. You can worship Azura. You can worship the son. They're all the same." And Elijah is forcing them to say, "No. Ultimately, there is one God, and you've got to choose."

So, the God who answers by fire. One of the reliefs of Baal is in the Egyptian style. It's a king who's standing and the face is profile, but the body is full on. And he is holding in his hand lightning. And his other hand is raised with the mace, again, this is typical Egyptian, the mace of thunder. The God who answers by fire. So, the Baal priests attempt to get Baal to respond. And it's clear that they're going through all the rituals that will make the God respond. Ultimately, they come to the point of slashing themselves. Baal is the storm God, but he's also the God who dies in the fall, the vegetation. And you've got to give him a good funeral, or maybe he won't come back in the spring. How do you show that you're really, really sorry that he has died? You cut yourself. That's what they're doing. They're going through all these rituals that will make the God do what they want, that will give them control over him.

And Elijah has no mercy. He says, "Well, why don't you yell a little louder?" Maybe he's on a journey. Or maybe he's in the bathroom. Most of our contemporary versions choke at that point. But what the text says is maybe he's moving himself. Again, you have made him in your image. So he is subject to all that you are subject to. And I want to emphasize that point. The Gods are us. They are, excuse the bad grammar, gooder than us, but they're also better than us. They're more reliable than us, but they're more fickle than us. They're everything we are written large. Yahweh is not.

And Elijah makes the thing harder, even though it's been a long drought, the spring at the bottom of Carmel, the Kishon, is an ever flowing spring. So they get water from down there, drag it up the mountain, drench the altar, and the bull, and the ditch around it with water. Elijah prays. That's all he does. No rituals, no attempts to manipulate Yahweh. He prays.

"Lord..." This is chapter 18, verse 26, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, the God of the covenant, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that these people will know that you Lord are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. That's all."

Surrender and trust. I lay myself on the line for you, Lord. I trust that what you have done for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, for our history is true. And that you will manifest yourself. Boom! The fire falls. Lightning. And again, I've said for many, many years to students, I hope there are instant replays in heaven. I want to see some of these pictures. I want to see that shaft of lightning shoot out of the sky and consume the bull, the altar, the water, the whole thing. And the people say, "Oh, yes, oh, yes." The Lord, Yahweh, he is God. Yahweh, he is God.

Yes, we humans are easily convinced by very dramatic pieces of evidence. But ultimately, that's not faith. Faith is when the days are dark, and your stomach is empty, and your heart is breaking and you say, "He is God. He is God." But thank God for moments like these, moments when the evidence is irrefutable. Thank God for that moment. But we're not done yet. He's got a little boy with him. And they're not quite at the peak of the mountain. He says to little boy, "Go up on the top of the mountain and look out over in the Mediterranean there, and see if you see any clouds." Little boy comes back, "Nope." "Okay, let me pray. See anything?" "Nope." "Let me pray. See anything?" "Nope." "Let me pray." No rituals, no attempts to manipulate God, just prayer. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back." The seventh time the servant reported, "Well, there's a cloud about as big as a man's hand out there." Elijah says, "Go tell Ahab. Hitch up your chariot. It's going to rain."

Who produces rain? Baal? Yahweh. Yahweh. When I was in Sunday school class a few years ago, each month we had a large picture in the Sunday schoolroom, and the student that the teacher thought acted best was permitted to take that picture home with them. Well, there's a picture that I desperately wanted. I think I got it. I don't remember for sure, but I remember the picture. And the picture is an old man with a flowing beard back over his shoulder. He's got his skirts up around his knees. He's running down the road as fast as he can, and behind him is a three-horse chariot. And the king is standing up in the chariot whipping those horses. And the old man is out running the chariot.

The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. That's about 25 miles. The power of the Lord came upon him. Yes, yes. But then what happens? Ahab tells Jezebel. And Jezebel sends out the word, "May I be cursed? May the Gods deal with me? Be it ever so severely, if by this time I do not make your life like that of one of those Baal prophets that you killed or you had killed on the mountain."

Why didn't she just kill him? She could have. If a messenger can go to Elijah and tell him that the queen is going to kill him, why couldn't that messenger just kill him? Again, this is speculation. But I think she wanted Elijah to do what he did. She didn't want to make him a martyr. She wanted him to run. And he did. He wasn't afraid of the king. He wasn't afraid of 450 prophets of Baal, but he was afraid of Jezebel. I won't pursue that one any farther. Except to say, I think maybe I understand a bit.

When you're in the public eye, when you are under pressure, there's an adrenaline rush. I'm told that this is one of the reasons that sports figures are particularly susceptible to drugs, is because they're trying to recreate that adrenaline rush when the game is not on. But after the adrenaline rush, there is a crash. I think he crashed. I think he was worn out, he had been living at such a pitch, and he ran. And it's interesting, once you begin to run, it's hard to stop. He ran down through Israel, he ran down through Edem, he ran down through Sinai, all the way, all the way to Mount Sinai. It's a couple of hundred miles.

He stopped partway along and he said, "Lord, just kill me. I can't take it anymore. I've had enough." This is chapter 19, verse four. "Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors." I suspect that the enemy was saying to him, "You know perfectly well, Elijah, all those people on the mountain. Oh yeah, they were swept away. 'Oh, Yahweh is God, Yahweh is God.' You know, you know how people are. You know that was for a moment, and it's gone today. You haven't accomplished anything."

Now, you say, how do you know that? Well, because I've heard that word. I've heard that word. "So just take my life, God. I haven't done anything. I haven't accomplished anything. Let's just be done with it." And I've heard a number of pastors talk about burnout. What does the angel say? "Eat something and go to sleep. Rest, rejuvenate, recover." Good advice. He did. He got up. He traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Mount Horeb.

Now again, one of the great things about narrative, good narrative, is that it doesn't tell you everything. Why did he go there? Why did he go to the mountain of the covenant? Why did he go to the mountain of the 10 Commandments? Why did he go to the mountain where God appeared to Moses? I think he understands, "I've got to go back to the roots here. I've got to go back to where this whole thing started. I've got to recover that sense of who we are and who I am in the middle of all of this. I've got to go back to the beginning."

Remember that God did the same thing with Jacob. When Jacob had gotten diverted, he was supposed to go home to see Isaac. That's what God had said. But he stopped and check him. And God then says to him, "Go back to Bethel. Go back and remember how I spoke to you at that place, how I set you on the road. Go back. Go back." I think that's what Elijah understood he had to do, and that's where he went. And God spoke to him. And again, it seems that the symbolism here is crystal clear. "Where's God? Haha. He's in the earthquake." "No." "Where's God? He's in the fire. The fire that fell off heaven onto the altar." No, God is not in any of those things. God cannot be captured in any of the forces of this world. He is a voice.

And it's interesting, the Hebrew, you're going to have a fairly literal translation. There was the subtle sound of silence. And Ivy says there was a gentle whisper. Maybe there was the Zephyr of a breeze. God's power is displayed in what we call weakness. For God's weakness is greater than any power of the earth. And God is the one who speaks. Again, I am tempted to divert too far here, but you see again, paganism is the worship of the world's forces. Biblical religion is the worship of the person who reveals himself in speech. And so God spoke. He says, "What are you doing here? Why are you here?" "Well, I've been very jealous for Yahweh, God, the Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword. I'm the only one left. Now, they're trying to kill me too." The Lord said, if I can put it in the Living Oswald version, "Get out of here. Go back the way you came."

"Go to the desert of Damascus." God gives him a new commissioning. Now, it's interesting. We know nothing of his first commissioning. Remember chapter 17, verse one. He just shows up in Ahab's Court. Says, "It's not going to rain." But here he's commissioned, and he's given a three-stage commission. Number one, you are to anoint a new king in Syria. Number two, you are anoint a new king in Israel. And number three, you are to anoint your successor. Or maybe I should say, your continuance. As I've tried to say, this is a single ministry. It's not Elijah's ministry, and Elijah's ministry. It's the Elijah Elijah ministry.

Notice all three of those are anoint. That is, give each of them a divine commission. It's the idea of anointing. Give each of them a divine commission. How are we going to bring this thing about? And again, I think Elijah is saying, "I've done all this. And what good has it done? It hasn't done any good at all. It hasn't got Ahab off the throne. It hasn't got Jezebel off the throne. It hasn't got the Baal temple destroyed. I haven't done a thing."

God says, "Here are three steps." Now, it's interesting. He doesn't tell him how are these going to be effective, except he's going to say, "Jehu will put to death any who escaped the sword of Hazel. Elisha will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu. And I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, whose mouths have not kissed him. And so Elijah is recommissioned. And we know from the end of the story that as that commission is fulfilled, that is what is going to bring Baal worship to an end as an official expression in Israel.

Now, some commentators say, "He didn't obey, he didn't anoint Hazel, he didn't anoint Jehu. All he did was anoint Elisha." Now, I say again, I think it's a single ministry. In anointing, Elisha, he was anointing those two, because that's what Elisha did. So I don't think he was disobedient. In fact, I think he did the most important thing first, and that was to anoint Elijah.

I keep talking about the power of the narrative, but again, here it is. Elijah is walking down the road. And here is Elisha plowing in the field. There are 12 teams of oxen there. That was a big operation. Elijah just throws his cloak over Elisha's shoulders and walks on. That seems to me to be so Elijah. He was a man who was alone. He was a man who was rather inexplicable. He was a man who simply stood out. And here it is. Elisha understands exactly what is happening. "Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye," he said, "And then I will come after you. I will walk after you," in fact is what it says. Elijah said, "Go back. What have I done to you?" There's no sense of compulsion here at all. "You want to walk after me. Okay, it's all right. I haven't done anything to you except call you."

In chapter 20, we then see a new phase occurring. And we'll talk about that in the next lecture.

Dr. Oswalt, as we look at the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal, what are some things we can learn about prayer from that?

One of the things that we see here is the persistence of prayer. It's interesting that in the first instance, when Elijah prays that God will show himself and will demonstrate who he is by fire, the answer is immediate. But then, when Elijah asks God to send rain, it takes seven times. Why does God answer immediately in the one case, and why does he not answer immediately in the other? And I have to say, I don't think I can answer that question. But I can say that one of the remarkable things is the difference between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. When Baal does not answer, the prophets become more and more frantic, they engage in more and more ritual activity to try to force the God to act. And we don't see any of that in Elijah. In Elijah, "Do you see a cloud?" "No." "Well, let's pray." "Do you see a cloud?" "No." "Let's pray." Seven times.

And it seems to me that this is an illustration of faith. One of the difficulties in the Christian life is the whole issue of persistent faith, persistent prayer, excuse me. Why does God, if he intends to answer the prayer in the first place, why doesn't he answer it immediately? Why are we required to pray and pray and pray, and ultimately we receive the answer? I don't think there's an easy answer to that. A famous writer, P.T. Forsyth says, "We have to wrestle with God, and we have to wrestle him to our position." Personally, I find that, I'm tempted to use strong words there, and I don't want to do that, but I don't think that's true. I don't think we force God to do what we want.

One of the things I think is, sometimes we have to pray persistently in order to get God's mind on the issue. It's not a question of what we want, it's a question of what God wants and what he wants to do in the circumstance. And sometimes it takes us a while to come to that position.

I think another issue though is the issue of developing faith. That as we are praying, we are saying, "Lord, as best I know, this is what you want." And I pray in faith, I pray believing, I pray with confidence. In the story of the unjust judge, we find a judge who doesn't want to give this woman what she's asking for. And finally, because she's so persistent, he says, "Oh, well do it." Well, I don't think that's a good picture of God. But I see in the context Jesus asking the question, "Will the Son of man find faith on the earth when he returns?"

And it seems to me that that really is the issue. It is, "Am I praying in faith? Am I praying in real faith?" It's not a question, I don't believe of forcing God to do something he doesn't want to do, but we finally make him do it because we just keep hanging on him. I don't think it's that at all. I think it is, as we continue to develop and express our faith, God then is enabled to act in ways that he wants to. Now, that's a very personal approach to this issue. It's certainly not an easy one. It's also complicated, of course, by the issue of humanity.

And again, there are theological issues here, but I don't think God forces somebody to do something because we've prayed about it. One of our sons was a long way from God for many years. And we prayed. We prayed and we loved. But I don't think either Karen or I had the confidence, "Oh, he's going to come to the Lord." But we prayed, and he came to the Lord. And we say, "Thank you, God." So it's complicated. But I do believe that one of the things that we see clearly in this account is the faith of Elijah, as opposed to the ritual attempts to manipulate Baal among the prophets.