Fear Not

"And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and 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 hearts back to You again.”

I Kings 18: 36 - 37

Sometimes it is easy to look around and think we are alone in our alone service to God or at least in the super small minority. We see evil advance and wicked men and women profit from their wicked schemes. They wield so much power and threaten to silence any opposition to their way of life. Yet, we are not the only servants of God to live in evil times ruled by powerful, immoral, sinful men and women. The prophets of the Old Testament experienced the exact same thing and yet were still required to speak out for God. To not be afraid and stand for God when no one else would. Let’s examine one of those times.

Elijah, the Tishbite, appears mostly out of the blue in 1 Kings 17. He served as a prophet for God in the Northern kingdom of Israel which was being ruled by the evil King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. They had brought the idol worship of Baal to the Israelites who apparently just jump all in with their idolatrous ways. Thus, the entrance of Elijah. He is immediately seen working for God by proclaiming a drought in the land. (This drought would have been God’s first assault on Baal and his worshippers since Baal was the god of dew and rain.) The drought would last for three years. It is during this drought that one of the more famous incidents in the Bible takes place. 1 Kings 18 tells us the story of Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal to a duel to see who served the real God.

The story begins with Elijah appearing before Ahab during the severe famine caused by the drought. When he appears before Ahab, the King describes him as the troublemaker of Israel to which Elijah matter of factly responds – “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have (vs. 18).” This statement alone is so impressive to me. Without fear, Elijah plainly tells King Ahab that it is he who had brought all this trouble upon Israel. But he doesn’t stop there – Elijah has come to the palace in Samaria for a purpose. He then instructs Ahab to gather all the Israelite men and 800 prophets of Asherah and Baal and meet him at Mount Carmel (Elijah commands the King and the King obeys him!) . It is on Mount Carmel that Elijah challenges these so-called prophets to a “god-duel.” This duel is meant to wake the children of Israel up and remind them who the one true God is – something they seem to have forgotten. It has been years and years since God displayed His awesome power to the Israelites. Apparently, they needed reminding. Elijah looks at the children of Israel and shouts “How long will your falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” To which the children of Israel answered him with silence. I can’t imagine that scene. All the men of Israel gathered and Elijah posed the same choice as Joshua had all those years ago – God or idols. But this time, instead of a resounding “We will follow God” shout – Elijah is met with total silence. This greatly distresses Elijah who responds “I alone am left…” but that doesn’t stop Elijah. He begins the challenge anyway. The challenge is straightforward. Baal’s prophets will build an altar and offer a sacrifice then pray to Baal to send fire to lit the altar to burn the offering. After they have completed their end, Elijah will pray to God and ask the same thing. Whichever God responds is the one true God. Thus the challenge begins.

All-day long the prophets of Baal fervently prayed to their Baal. They cried aloud for hours and hours. They even cut themselves and offer their own blood as sacrifices to Baal. For hours upon hours, they prayed and yet total silence. No fire. By noon, Elijah begins mocking them and Baal suggesting perhaps he couldn’t hear, he was busy, he was away, or maybe he was sleeping. I can just imagine Elijah standing and then pacing around these false prophets jeering them as their god was remained silent. Then the sun started to set – Elijah had seen enough. He turned again to the children of Israel and cried out “Come near to me” and the people drew close to Elijah. Elijah then repaired an old altar that had once been used to worship the LORD but was now broken down and abandoned. He then built a trench around the altar and then laid the wood and offering upon the altar. Then, he instructed them to pour four huge waterpots over the altar – not once, not twice, but three times. The water ran down the altar, filled the trench, and the ground was saturated almost bubbling as it was flooded with water. Elijah then turns and prays to God aloud in front of the men of Israel “Let it be known this day that YOU are GOD and I am Your servant…show the people that YOU are the LORD GOD so their hearts will turn back to You.” Immediately, God’s fire rained down from heaven and consumed everything on Elijah’s altar – the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and all the water. The men responded, “The LORD GOD – He is JEHOVAH. THE LORD, HE IS GOD!” Elijah then turns to the prophets of Baal and orders Israel to kill these false prophets. All 850 of them. Not one survived.

I have often wished I could have witnessed this in real-time. What an experience. There are lots of lessons to be learned from the story in 1 Kings 18. For example, God’s hate of idolatry and His judgment of false teachers or Elijah’s obedience in the face of danger. Lots of lessons to learn from the story but there is one I’d like to hone in on this morning. Elijah stood alone against kings and queens, false prophets, and the cowardly masses of Israelites. He alone stood for God. Yet, Elijah was never really alone atop that mountain. He may have stood there alone on earth but he most definitely was not alone. God was with him. God demonstrated His presence and His approval of Elijah by answering Elijah’s prayer and raining fire from Heaven to win the “god-duel.” I can’t imagine the fear and silence that would have overtaken the crowd and the false prophets as God’s fire rained down from heaven. Or, the look on Elijah’s face as he turned to face the crowd. Or, the sinking fearful feeling in the hearts of the Israelites as they were convicted once against of their idolatrous ways. I can’t even begin to imagine – the fear and awe that spread across that mountain top. Elijah’s name after all means “My God is JEHOVAH.” Elijah through his brave obedience stood atop of that mountain and allowed God to use his life to demonstrate HIS awesome power.

Sometimes, I wonder who I would be in this situation. Would I have the courage to do the right thing or would I let fear consume me? Would I stand alone when no one else stood with me as I stood for God? I imagine that there were men in that crowd that probably did want to support Elijah but were silenced by peer pressure and fear. They went along with the masses and stood silent when Elijah first offered them the choice. Would have I stood and walked toward Elijah or remained silent in the crowd. Would I have the courage to stand like Elijah and face evil head-on? Would I trust that the Lord would take care of me even if I stood against the kings of this earth? Who are you on that mountain? I think we all like to hope we’d be Elijah but I fear many of us would ultimately be those who stood in silence against Elijah and God. We like our fear control us. I think about all the times I’ve done that and feel ashamed of myself. I remember the times I should have spoken out for God but remained silent. I can only learn from those times, ask God to forgive me of my cowardice, and stand firm for God the next time around.

Let the story of Mt. Carmel and Elijah be a lesson to us then. We are never alone. God is with us. We have nothing to fear from anything on this earth. The prophets believed this. Elijah believed it. We should too.