Turn Back to God Before It’s Too Late- The People of Israel's Turning Point: 1 Kings 18:20-46

Show Notes

Episode 603: 
In this episode, we dive back into the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 18. We recount the dramatic confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenges the people of Israel to choose between the Lord and Baal. The tension builds as we describe how the prophets of Baal call upon their god for hours without any response, while Elijah confidently mocks them, showcasing his unwavering faith in the Lord.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning, good morning. We talked the whole night through. Good morning, good morning to you and you. Man, you started off with some really good rhythm there. Wow. Yeah, and then I lost it a little bit, but I got back to wow. Yeah, that was super cool. Man. I'm not a I'm not a drummer, although I've always wanted to be one. You could have been. You played drums for Christmas. For Christmas. Yeah yeah, for like two seconds, You're like a rock star. Man. Yeah that was Everybody was like wow, yeah, yeah, all I did was hit four tom stuff. Okay, so we have a really interesting challenge today. We've never done this, Momo. No, it's called the Wikipedia challenge. According to Desert it is Yes, that's right. So this says that I me, Jeff, Jeff, I'm going to randomly select a Wikipedia page, and I'm going to read the first paragraph aloud to you, Chris, yes, without telling you the subject, and then you have to guess what the article is about based solely on that paragraph. So the topics that I have to choose from the category is literally the world. The world, everything in Wikipedia to the sudden. Yes, everything. So I narrowed it down to everything that ever. Yes, everything that's ever been put on the internet. Yeah right, yeah, thanks Dezree okay for narrowing it down for me. Okay, so I'm going to give you a hint. It's a person. Oh good, okay, So does it help you that? Yeah? Sure, okay. They were born February twenty second, eighteen ninety and died May twenty seventh, nineteen forty nine. This person was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist. Was known for creating a popular newspaper panel series, television show, and radio show which featured facts from around the world. Wow, that's the paragraph. Can you can you read that again? Oh? Do you need the dates? No? Okay? Ninety nine. Well, now you were thinking the wrong person. Nineteen forty nine. This person was an amateur cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur An American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist who was known for creating a newspaper panel series, television show, and radio show which featured odd facts from around the world. Is it ripley Yes? Robert Ripley there you go. Yeah, nice, good job for me. Ripley's Believe It or Not? Did you like Ripley Believe of course? Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, and the host used to say with the pause, he'd say, he'd say Ripley's Believe It or Not? That's what you would say, yeah, and uh yeah, so that was really popular in the eighties, right, that was Ripley Believe It or Not? Was popper in the eighties, Yeah, yeah, sure, but he was popular. No, I met the show, yes, this TV show, that TV show. Yeah. And then have you ever been to a Ripley's Believe You're Not a museum? Two of them? Yeah? Three of them? Three? Yea, yeah, yeah I have two so yeah. Okay, So you always wonder who's the wirdo who pays the money to go see all the yeah, all the things. It's us. We're the ones I had. I read a biography of Robert Ripley. Yeah, I've got on my shelf. It's one of the better books I've read. Very interesting. Now did you life just think of him? Uh yeah, just now? Yeah, Like when you looked it up, you were like, I'm gonna look up Ripley. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna look up Barnum and then thought, no, no, let's go Ripley. Oh that's interesting. I'm glad I got it. Yeah, good job man, Thank you Grays. Fifty thousand points for you. Wow, Holy Christmas. Yeah yeah, yeah, I'm feeling so magnanimous today. I'm just gonna just fifty thousand. Points for you, and for you, I am so happy I can cry. And our friend, the first listener that grabs it, you can have fifty thousand as well. What there you go, just gave I just willing, he gave fifty thousand point. No, no, somebody else is oh good, yeah, just don't take mine. No, you can have yours, because I'm glad I have them. But I loved Ripley and so very interesting. Kind of a rags to riches story. This kind of a guy who never gave up, who had, you know, just outrageous dreams for his life, found ways to fund it and to make it happen, and hustled and then used his wealth to compound his wealth, and he just kept reinvesting, reinvesting, almost went bankrupt several times. Did I think go bankrupt? At one point? Then was outrageously wealthy in his lifetime and very very popular. Odd guy. You know, he had really buck teeth and all. That kind of stuff in order to have that fascination. Yeah, fact, But. I mean, so have you ever seen a picture of him? No? Oh right, right, yeah, so he had some he had some prominent teeth. That's a good thing. He had money, yeah, yeah, and just really an interest. Yeah. Interesting person. And I just was riveted by the book, Like I think I read it in a day and a half. It was just a I don't know why, but I'm always interested in people that can capture the general population's attention like he did, and then capitalize on the fact that he got some momentum and went because he didn't have the internet back then, how do you capture the At one point he was one of the most famous people in the entire world, and how do you with all of the disadvantagies he had in his life, how do you capture the attention of the whole world. It's just really really phenomenal, really neat story. So he wasn't the best human on the planet, but interesting story. So there you go. Well, good job. I wasn't sure you'd get ripped. Thank you, Robert, very proud of it. Good for you. And speaking of believing or not today, I don't even know if you're going to believe this story. Right or not. That's great, great transition. Was that good strength, pres Elijah believe it or not? Yes? So yesterday we established the fact that Elijah confronts Ahab and says, you are the troublemaker. Yeah. And I got an idea. Once you get Jezebel's profits, the four hundred and fifty prophits of Bail, the four hundred prophets of it a sherah, and meet me up on Mount Carmel. That's where we picked off. Yeah, we're left off. So then in First Kings, chapter eighteen, verse twenty, it says, so Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, how much longer will you waver hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is good, God, follow him. But if Bail is God, then follow him. But the people were completely silent. Then Elijah said to them, I am the only prophet of the Lord who's left. But Bail has four hundred and fifty prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baiale may choose whichever one they wish, and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the world wood, on the fire or on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call in the name of your God, and I will call in the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God. And all the people agreed. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Bail, you go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls and prepare it, and call in the name of your God, but do not set fire to the wood. So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called in the name of Bail from morning until noontime, shouting, Oh, Bail, answer us, But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced hobbling around the altar that they had made. About noontime, Elijah began mocking them, You'll have to shout louder. He scoffed, for surely he's a god. Perhaps he's daydreaming, or maybe he's relieving himself, or maybe he's away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they shouted louder, and following the normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound reply, no response. Then Elijah called to the people, come over here. They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar, large enough to hold about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, laid the pieces on the wood, and then he said, fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering in the wood. After they had done this, he said, do the same thing again. And when they were finished, he said, now do it a third time. So they did as he said, and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench. As the at the usual time for the offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the Prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, O, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. Oh Lord, answer me, Answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have brought them back to yourself. And immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell face down in the ground and cried out, the Lord, he is God, Yes, the Lord is God. Then Elijah command and sees all the prophets of bail. Don't let a single one escape. So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishan Valley and killed them there. He killed eight hundred and fifty prophets. And at that time, at that time, nobody could really stop them. Yeah, well, what are you gonna do, right, Yeah, I mean you're called down fire from heaven. I'm guessing you can pretty much do what you want to do. Yeah, I'm guessing also. And so, first of all, just an unbelievable believe it or not kind of a certain scenario. Ripley's right, Yeah, I mean it's just incredible. And you know what's so great about this is the symbolism of like number one. Three years earlier, Elijah had predicted no rain, which is attributed to bail. Right. It bails the one who's in control of rain quote unquote right, So you know, the Lord God is the one in control of rain, and he's about to Wait, you're supposed to read the rain thing too, You're supposed to read all the way. Yeah, okay, well, let me keep going because this is exciting. In verse forty one, it says then Elijah said, they have go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming. So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees. Then he said to a servant, go and look out toward the sea. A servant went and looked, and then returned to Elijah and said, I didn't see anything. Seven times Elijah told him to go look, and finally the seventh time, as servant told him, I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea. Then Elijah shouted, hurry to Ahab and tell him climb to you into your charet and go back home. If you don't hurry, the rain will stop you. Soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rain storm, and the Haab left quickly for Jezreel. Then the Lord gave special strength Elijah. He tucked his. Cloth into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel. There you go, there it is okay. So the symbolism is, you know, he's demonstrating that the Lord God is the one who has control over the rain, not bail number two. I think it's by no accident that he sacrificed the bull, and you just talked about bulls. Was sort of the symbol of the reality and power. Yeah, and of bail of bail and so, so, you know, and it wasn't it wasn't uncommon to offer sacrifice a bull. You know, a bull is a common sacrifice. It wasn't an unusual animal. However, the symbolism of the bull being slaughtered and how God consumed the bull just like he was consuming all the power of bail, the perceived power of bail. Right, So it's just really symbolic. And then the third thing that we can't overlook is the fact that that you know, after three years of a drought, you and I would probably have no understanding on how precious water would be, right right, that's right. And he says in this moment, because they've been in this drought for. Three years, three years, so he says, take water and drench the offer, drench the wood. And he says, they did it so much. They did it three times to where it filled the trench and the trench was three gallons and so and so, you know, just think about the audacity just you're calling for water and you're in you're and you're wasting it. And then on top of that, think about this, how dry the wood would be after three years of a drought. Right, So, you know, it's it's almost like geez, you could almost expect it to spontaneously spark, right because of how dry it would be. And he gave bail that opportunity. But just in case anybody had any doubt, we're going to douse the wood with water so that it's so that so that there is unmistakably no doubt, and that credit has to be given back to God because God has done this thing that is just so miraculous. So it's just I love the details that are that are placed in here, that that are so symbolic. And again the you know I mentioned yesterday about how rough around the edges he is. So he's the only person in the entire Bible who makes a potty joke, right right. Right right. Maybe he's in the bathroom, Yeah yeah, maybe he's himself, Yeah exactly. So not only not only does he give them the opportunity with you know, highly combustible drywood and all this stuff. And there's there's eight hundred and fifty of you, there's only one of me, So you guys go first. And the Bible says they raved. For hours all day, all day, a full blown rave. They're dancing, they're cutting themselves they're going crazy, and he starts mocking them, mocking, not not mocking them, He's mocking their God, that's what he's doing, right, But. Still, it's just it's so funny. Hey, surely he's a God speak louder. Maybe he's on vacation. Maybe maybe he's just daydreaming. Yeah, maybe he's sleeping. Yeah, yeah, he needs to be waking. And so it says, so they shouted louder, right right, and God's taking a nap. Such a funny, funny segment. That that whole thing I just and you know, in the same way I mentioned before, there were three miracles mentioned, and then his reputation was so strong that Obadiah was afraid, well, if I go tell aheb, you might disappear, God might take you. So how many more miracles happened in Elijah's Elijah's life that made Obadiah think, this guy, you just never know what God's going to do. So it's kind of the same thing that God gives you a few things to just establish Elijah's a man with a tremendous amount of spiritual power from God. So in this one too, you kind of get this hint that it only mentions like five things that he mocks, but they rave all day long, So the trash talking had to have been going on all day. It's not like he only said these four or five things, right, It's that it's letting you know the same way. It's just letting you know these are some of the things he was doing. And so they just get louder and they get more crazy with their worship, and now they're dancing around, they're raving around the thing. Then they get out knives and swords and start cutting themselves, sacrificing their own blood. And it's said, as was their customer, Yeah, yeah, to try to get this bail to answer their prayers. Yeah, And Elijah knows the whole time. He has complete confidence, otherwise he wouldn't be mocking, right, And so he has complete confidence that what's going to happen. And I love how after he does pray that simple prayer, it says immediately the fire came down immediately. As soon as he said, God, show them that you're God. Boom, it happens immediately. And hey, let's not overlook the fact that Elijah gets superpowers and runs faster than a chariot. For I think it may be hundreds of miles. It's a long ways. It's a long way. It's not hundreds of miles, but it's it's miles. Okay, yeah, yeah, Well it looks like hundreds of miles. Well I guess it does, and does it? Yeah, it looks like it's maybe it doesn't matter. From from Galilee to Jerusalem's only like ninety miles. So oh really yeah, So this distance here is we drove it from from Mount Carmel over to Galilee and like, okay, less than less than an hour. Okay, so it's ten miles or less probably probably, yeah, okay, but it's not hundreds of miles south of the United States. But still he out right, he outran well, he out ran a guy in a. Chariot by the way, in a thunderstorm, right in a raging thunderstorm. Because it actually said, what does it say? It says that if you don't leave now, you're going to get caught in the thunderstorm. And it said that hang on, And he brought a heavy wind and brought a terrific rainstorm. That's right. So here's Elijah. He tucks his cloak into his belt and he starts running and it says God gave special powers to Elijah and he's running fast in a chariot in a rainstorm. That incredible. And and by the way, the note on the Life Application Study Bible said that one of the reasons that Elijah could have run to Jezreel is because he wanted, perhaps to make sure that the story that was brought back to the city was the right story, right and then and then perhaps another reason was maybe even to give Ahab his last chance to repent, right to get there before him and just to say, okay, you know, hey, you know before you walk in there and you know, go to go to queen Queen Jezebel. You know this is this is you've seen the works of God, you know. And so either way, though, for some reason Elijah runs back. It doesn't say why, by the way, you know, it just says he runs there, and then we're about to see Jezebel's reaction tomorrow, right, that's right. If we don't read it, we're going to summarize it. Yeah, So it's interesting to me if that's the reason he ran to a have you know, hey, yeah, give him another chance. It's interesting because he did the exact same thing for all the people before this all happened. He said, hey, you need to choose which God you're going to follow, right. Right, there's something about that as as followers of God, it is not unreasonable to in a loving way, which I believe that this is a loving thing that God is trying to get the attention to the people of Israel, and in a loving way, he says, hey, you need to make a choice. A lot of people don't deal with things of faith at all, and they feel like by not making a you know, they feel like by ignoring it, they're not making a choice. But in reality, you're choosing against God until you choose for God, right, Jesus said, if you're not for me, you are against me. It's like whenever you decide not to decide, you're still deciding something. Right, you're deciding not to decide. And so then he challenges them with their own gods and these prophets, I mean, these these ones. The people were pretty indifferent through the whole thing. It's not like they're like. No, our gods are real. It just says the people are silent, right, That's what it says. So they're like, whatever, you know, Well. We know it's loving because it's three years in the making, right right, it's it's it's it's God setting into motion, demonstrating his power, so that when when this confrontation happens, they have a chance to say, absolutely, I choose God. Right, yes, so that but they don't. They don't really respond at all. It just says after he challenges them, it says, but if Bail is God, didn't follow him. If the Lord is God, follow him. But the people were completely silent. It wasn't that they made a choice. They didn't say, oh no, we like bail. They didn't really believe bail either. It was just this this kind of agnosticism, I think. And yeah, the prophets do their thing and Jezebelts seems to take care of everybody, and it's kind of a cool thing. It's a cultural thing we do, right. A lot of people go to church culturally, but they haven't could really placed their faith in Jesus whatever. They were completely silent. They're not choosing bail in this moment. They're just not choosing God. And so then Elijah goes, Okay, God has done whatever he can do to get your attention, and God will you know, the difficult times, the famine, all the drought, all this kind of stuff. God's doing what he can do to get their attention. They don't respond, and so then he he does this incredible miracle. And it's interesting. They're dancing around, they're shouting, they're screaming, they're doing everything they can do, and their gods are completely silent. And this is the beginning of the people going, Oh, my goodness, God, is God right? Because and I've seen this many times you have too. In our day in America, there aren't many people who worship bulls, right, that's not right, worship right. We worship pleasure. We worship our own intellect. Money, we worship our own opinions. We worship money and what it can get us our stuff. We worship our families. We worship you know, our kids are politics, right, that's what we worship. But it's interesting how often people will get to the end of those things and when they're really desperate, those things don't answer. They don't answer. I can't tell you how many wealthy people I've told you say I've had tell me I just thought there was going to be more. I thought I would be more satisfied. I feel like I've wasted my life. I ignored my family, I risked everything, I got what I wanted, and it's just leaving me empty. Well, it's like the quote we did at Christmas from Jim Carrey, the famous African comedian. He said, he goes I would He said, I wish that everybody could become rich and famous and do everything they've ever wanted, just so they can discover it's not the answer. What a great quote, right, right right. And by the way, what I was going to say is so their gods didn't answer them, is what I was saying. Yes, you know, you know this reminds me of It reminds me of what Jesus said in the New Testament, because it's interesting because to your point, there's like an agnosticism there, there's an indifference and then all of a sudden, when the fire comes down, then they say whoa. Then they say, oh, the Lord is God, the Lord is God. And yet at the same time, it's almost a sad statement that it had to come to this, that God had to demonstrate himself in such a dramatic and one of the most dramatic fashions in the whole Bible, you know, Red Sea, Parting, Elijahn, Mount Carmel. I mean, it's up there, right, It's in the top five. And so it's almost a sad statement that the people would have to get to that point in order to believe. But you know what Jesus said. Jesus said, you have seen and believed, But blessed is he who does not see and yet still believe. That's right, that's right, right, And so you know, I think that all of us would say, gosh, if Jesus would just appear in my living room, or if he would just make himself known, why doesn't he just do that? Why doesn't he just appear in a dramatic fashion so that all of us can you know, set the record straight in our lives. But that's not what God has done. From the very beginning. God calls us to have faith. God calls us to you know, basically believe and not see at times because because God has seen in other ways in our lives. Right there's would you say that you have the undeniable evidence of God in your life, absolutely yeah, And you could tell story after story after story, and yet God never has appeared to you physically in a dramatic fashion or ragin fire down probably to that degree. That's right, right, So God calls us to, you know, demonstrate our faith. And that's why it's called faith, because if he appeared in a dramatic fashion, that's that's not really faith. That's that's believing something that we know that we can see. What are you looking up? I was looking up here on Mount Carmel. Oh, there's an old church there, and you look out across the valley, there's a If you look far enough to the east, there's Megiddo, which is Armageddon. That that space Megiddo. There. There's an air force base out in front of you, out in this valley where the river is flowing, the could run Valley river, and they have this statue here and our people can't see it. There's a statue here with Elijah with a sword over his head and one of the prophits of bel Can you see it? I don't know if you can see it there, but well, yeah, it's okay, we'll post it. I'll have I ever post it. But it's just one of those things that you're standing there, and it was such an amazing, oh my goodness moment when because you're like, oh, this is where Elijah did the thing, and then you can the corner there's his giant statue and the statue they decided to have of Elijah's the sword over his head. And there's something to be said when you finally do decide to make the turn back to God, the people go, Okay, you're right. God's God. He proved himself in this moment. Elijah purged the nation of Israel of their prophets. He got rid of all of the representation of that evil thing. And there is something about that, right, this idea of saying, Okay, I've turned the corner. I've decided God is my God, so I'm going to eliminate everything that represents my old gods. And he didn't go halfway. It's one of the things I love about Elijah because even Joshua and the people, David and Solomon, they made peace with the Phoenicians rather than wiping them out. That was all still the Promised Land, and they made peace with them. And so then all of a sudden they have Mary's one of them, and she brings the people back to the most comitted version of their religion. Following bail she's funding eight hundred and fifty prophets. And when the people finally realize God is God, Elijah said, well, the job's not done. Just because God did this miracle, the job's not done. And he he had to do. God didn't wipe them out. God sent Elijah to wipe them out right, and so there was still work to do to decide we are getting rid of every vestige of this former religion. And it took a lot of courage there. And so when I saw that that a statue, I think that was the first time I've ever really thought about that, because there's a plaque there and it's got a Bible versus where he wiped them all out. And I remember thinking the great miracle was fire from heaven. But God didn't wipe out the prophets. God said, no, you have to wipe out the prophets, and you're the one that has to purchase. And so God does miracles in our life. And then still, you know where he rescues us and he brings us to faith in him, but he also expects us to do the work of you know, getting rid of the things that we used to worship. Yeah, that's great, Well, that is definitely our time and so hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible gush h