Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 31 – August 1990

 

The Lord, He Is God!

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on 1Kings 18:21

Readings: 1Kings 16:19-17:1; 18:16-40.

 

Beloved congregation,

All of us have to make important decisions at times.  What job will we take?  Where will we live?  Who will we marry?  And sometimes even more fundamental issues: What direction will our lives take?  What will we live for?

Some people find it very difficult to make these decisions; so difficult that they never make them.  They just muddle along, avoiding making clear choices.  They spend their lives without a clear sense of goal or purpose.

Sometimes nations too face important decisions: What will we do with the welfare state?  What direction will the economy take?  How can the various ethnic groups live in harmony and peace?

Or again the more fundamental questions: Where will we go as a nation?  What religious direction will we take?  What values will shape our society?

Every civilisation has stood at these crossroads and asked these questions.

The nation of Israel faced this choice of direction in the days of Elijah.  Were they going to follow God or Baal?

To appreciate how crucial this choice was we need to see where they were in their history as a nation.

You’ll remember that following the death of Solomon Israel had split into two sections in 922BC.

Benjamin and Judah continued with Rehobaom.
The Northern 10 tribes went with Jeroboam.

Jeroboam however did not remain faithful to God.  As the years went on things became worse and worse, reaching their lowest point in the reign of Ahab.

The writer of Kings tells us that, “Ahab, the son of Omri, did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who were before him.’ (16:30)

One of the worst things he did was to marry the daughter of the king of the Sidonians.  Queen Jezebel led the people of Israel even further away from God and deeper into the religion of the Baals.  Never had there been darker days than these for the faithful in Israel.

Into this situation steps one of the greatest prophets of the O.T.!  Dressed in his rough cloak, Elijah appeared suddenly one day in the courts of Ahab.

God sent him to call the people of Israel to a decision.

To set the stage for this decision Elijah announced that there would be no rain until he said so.  Then he promptly disappeared.

The rain was the life of the people of the Middle East.  No rain meant no crops.  No crops meant no food.  No food meant death.

It wasn’t long before the whole region was feeling the effects of the drought.

They needed to have rain.  So Ahab sent people searching all over the country for Elijah.  He even had people searching the countries around Israel.  Elijah became a household name.  A legend.

Then as suddenly as he appeared the first time, he appeared again.  This time he came to put the question to the people of Israel.  The last three years had made the issue quite plain.

Baal, you see, was regarded as the god of fertility.  The people thought that it was Baal who sent the rain, Baal who made things grow, Baal who gave life and productivity.

Elijah however knew that it was God who gave all these things.

So the first question that had to be faced was the question of power.  Who really was God?  Who was in control of the rain?  Who did make things grow?

The next question was one of allegiance.  Whom were they going to follow?

Some were following Baal.  Others had remained true to the Lord.  But the majority of people in Israel could not make up their minds!  They weren’t sure whom they wanted to follow, and so they worshipped both gods.  They worshipped the God of their fathers and they worshipped Baal.

Today we call this syncretism.  A synchromesh gearbox is one in which the gears mesh together.  A syncretistic religion is one in which the two or more religions are mixed together.

Elijah called the people to make a choice.  “How long will you hesitate (NIV: waver) between two opinions!?”  The word hesitate can also be translated as dance.
“How long will you dance between Baal and God?”
“How long are you going to dither around?”
“How long do you think you can go muddling along?”

A choice had to be made.
“You shall have no other gods before me”.
God had told his people:
The maker of Heaven and earth didn’t want a divided worship.

The people had to decide who was God, and whom they were going to worship.
If the Lord is God, follow Him, if Baal is God, follow him.

We face this choice as a nation today: Are we going to worship God or ourselves?  Are we going to serve and follow God or are we going to seek our own pleasure and fulfilment?

We face this choice as a church.  Sometimes the church has been drawn into positions of compromise.  The church has been turned into a marketing exercise, using all sorts of gimmicky techniques to sell the gospel.  Or the church has been represented as a social welfare institution, or an entertainment showcase, or a money making machine.

Today we face the choice of keeping the church focused on God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus or following the fads and fashions of the world.

We face this choice as individuals.

Are you trying to serve the God of the Bible and at the same time the gods of this age?  The god of getting high in the company and having a good name in the organisation.  The god of having a fancy home with all that opens and shuts and every material thing the magazines and the TV.  have to offer.  The god of living for ourselves and our own ego and ambition.  The god of living for parties and pleasure and a good time.

These words of Elijah come to us today as they did to the people of Israel.  You cannot have it both ways.  You cannot take the best of both worlds.  No man can serve two masters!

You have to decide!  There is a choice to be made!  Who are you going to follow?

The word of God calls us to get off the fence!  To make a decision!  To follow the Lord with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind.

This is a choice that needs to be made once and for all.  But we also need to make it again and again.  Every day again we need to renew our commitment to follow God with a singleness of mind.

With a flair for the dramatic Elijah highlighted the issue with a contest between the gods.  Let’s see who is really the most powerful God.

He staged this contest on Mt. Carmel which is on the coast of Israel.  It juts out on a promontory and commands a view of much of the land of Israel.  From the peak of Mt.  Carmel they could look across the plain of Sharon and further down the coastline of Israel.

This high mountain peak was the scene of one of the most startling contests the people of Israel would ever witness.  Which God was going to answer by fire?  Which God was the most powerful?

The priests of Baal began, slowly, walking around and around their sacrifice in their dance, chanting as they went.  As the morning wore on they became more and more excited.  They began to shout louder and their dancing became more vigorous.

But nothing happened.  There was no fire, no voice from heaven, nothing!

At noon in the heat of the day Elijah begins to mock them; urges them to shout louder.
– Perhaps he’s busy taking a trip somewhere.
– Or perhaps he’s asleep and you have to wake him up.

There is real sarcasm in Elijah’s voice which is not lost on the priests of Baal.  So they become more excited!  They shout louder!  They go into the frenzied dance and prophetic raving that marked these Canaanite religions.  They began to cut themselves with their spears and their swords until the blood flowed.

But still nothing happened.  There was no sound or movement or fire from Baal.  The very time they wanted Baal to show his power he wasn’t there.

Isn’t this true of all the gods that people trust in today?  When you lie on a hospital bed with your body full of cancer, what use is a high position in a company?

When your child dies in a car accident, what comfort is it to have all the material things ot money can buy?  When you are deep in depression and despair no amount of the good life and parties will cheer you up.

When the crunch comes, when the chips are down, then the gods of this age offer little hope or power or comfort.  Not so with a faith and a trust in God!

Late in the afternoon Elijah calls a halt and has his turn.  He carefully rebuilds the altar of God which had fallen into ruins over the years.  He prepares his sacrifice.  And then pours water over it again and again until the whole thing is saturated and drenched.

Elijah wants to be sure that the people realise the power of His God.  Humanly speaking it is impossible for this sacrifice to catch fire!

Then he prays.  He calls on the God of the covenant!  The God who has been their God for all of their history.  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And as he concludes his prayer, fire falls and burns not only the wood and the sacrifice, but the stones of the altar and the dirt around it and the water in the trench!

The Bible tells us that when the people saw this they fell on their faces and said:

The Lord, he is God!
The Lord, he is God!

Here was the demonstration of the power of God!

Here was a revelation of His glory and greatness!  Here was the God they ought to follow!

Today we probably won’t see a spectacular revelation of God’s power on some nearby mountain.  We won’t see fire descending out of heaven to demonstrate the majesty of God.  God doesn’t usually reveal himself like this today.

Because God has revealed Himself in His Son.  God has demonstrated His power and authority in the victory of Jesus on the cross.  There Jesus contested the power of darkness and evil.  There he engaged the forces of Satan and defeated them.  And the proof of that victory is seen in the resurrection of Jesus..

The power of God seen in Jesus confronts us with a choice too.  Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow Him.  He challenges us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

He commands us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.

Not only today, but also tomorrow and on through this year, and the rest of our lives.

Don’t hesitate between two opinions.
If the Lord is God, then follow Him!

AMEN