Episode Transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Radiating Faith: The Ministry Podcast. It's so great to be here. And this is now Radiating Faith as its own podcast. For those who have been following it, it was actually a ... It, it was originally its own podcast. It became its own miniseries on the Couple of Nooks podcast, and now I've relaunched it as its own podcast. It's been a whirlwind journey. So glad to have it back as its own podcast. And this is the first official episode. Everything else was, uh, done as part of the sub-series on Couple of Nooks. So welcome to the first official episode of the relaunched Radiating Faith podcast. Today's sermon is gonna cover a couple different topics, and ironically enough, you know, you can't see it and you probably can't hear it, uh, pending the microphone settings, but it's pouring rain outside. I mean, it is like a tropical storm out there, thunder. I mean, it is raining really bad. I'm looking at it right now, and it's ... it is pouring down tremendously. And how poetic/ironic, today we're gonna be talking about drought and rain, and ooh- Now there's lightning. You may have ... If you're watching the video, you actually could see it. But anyway, ladies and gentlemen, here to talk about one of the most famous passages of scripture. Dare I call it Elijah confronting the Baal worshipers on Mount Carmel. Now, what's interesting about this is, uh, first and foremost, I wanna start by saying Baal, you know, some people say Baal as the English translation. You can spell it B-A-A-L. I spell it, uh, one of the ways you see it, B-A-'A-L. I pronounce it Baal. Now, Baal is a false deity. It was a, uh, god that people worshiped falsely. Uh, one that was associated with, you know, agricultural productivity, with storms, with rain, with drought. And I'm bringing that all up because... And let me take a backtrack. I've read this section of scripture, that is 1 Kings 17 and 18, uh, quite a few times before. In fact, it's one of my favorite scenes in Bible as a young man who partakes in Bible humor. Again, we have to tread the line very carefully with that, and this is a great example. This passage of scripture is famous because of Elijah's mockery of the unbelievers. He is well known for his, "Pray louder. Perhaps he is relieving himself or sleeping." And that term relieving, you know, there's a ... The, the Hebrew word, uh, in some English translations is busy. In other words, it's not. It's a complicated Hebrew word, and there's multiple studies on it. But a lot of people like to make the joke that he said, "Perhaps Baal is relieving himself," uh, that is, using the restroom. That's what made this particular scene famous. People would jokingly share how Elijah mocked the unbelievers. Of course, that has, uh, you know, garnered some criticism of how we are to treat, uh, you know, unbelievers and people worshiping false idols and gods. But we know what happened on this day was very important for history. And because of that joking line, or what we take as humorous and what we joke around with, many of us has overlooked some of the important parts of this passage. I had to review this passage. I chose it as part of a college assignment where I was assigned to look at how the context and historical context and history of God and the false religions mentioned in the Bible, why does it matter that God is compared to these false religions, and what does the poetic language and comparison of those false gods toward our true living God, Yahweh, mean? And this example is very true if you look at 1 Kings 17 and 18. We're not gonna read all of it, but we are gonna read the bulk of it To give you the long story short up front, God directly opposes the proclaimed and associated powers that Baal supposedly had when it came to drought, rain, and agricultural productivity. And so what we see in the Bible, in other parts of scripture as well, is God will do exactly what these false gods say they can do or what their worshipers believe that they can do that they actually can't. And now my power just flickered, so we might lose power here. So that would be, uh, very unfortunate if Satan tried to cut this sermon short, so let's get to it before I lose power here. It starts with a drought. In 1 Kings 17, I'm gonna read it verbatim here from the New International Version: Elijah announces a great drought. "Now Elijah, the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel lives'" All right, ladies and gentlemen. So the f- the weather knocked out the power and the Wi-Fi, so this is take two, and we're back at it. So let me get back to where we were, you know, right before the power went out here and the Wi-Fi. I was talking about Elijah announces a great drought. "Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.'" We know from there Elijah has his journey where he's later fed by ravens. Of course, later on, Elijah and the widow at Zarephath, and then we fast-forward to Elijah and Obadiah, and then I wanna get us to Elijah on Mount Carmel. Now, to give pre-context again, there was the drought said to Ahab. Ahab is one of the most condemned kings of the Bible, considered the most wicked, and of course his wife Jezebel. We know Jezebel was extremely wicked, probably the most evil woman in all of scripture. So her and King Ahab, two of the most wicked and condemned people according to the biblical narrative and the history we have documented here. And so we fast-forward to Elijah on Mount Carmel. Again, this is after they were killing the prophets of the Lord. "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah he said to him, 'Is that you, you troubler of Israel?'" And may I just pause and say what a name to call a prophet of God. You troubler of Israel. But how was Yeshua, that is Jesus Christ, received? Certainly no different. "I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied, "but you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commandments and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel, and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said ... And this is important, ladies and gentlemen. I want y'all to take note right here. "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, follow him." And we're gonna talk about that in a minute here. But the people said nothing. Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal's prophets choose one for themselves and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire, he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good." Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "Baal, answer us," they shouted. But there was no response. No one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder," he said. "Surely he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice, but there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. Elijah took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces, and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. Do it again," he said. And they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered. And they did it a third time. The water ran down the altar and even filled the trench. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God and Israel, and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and they cried, "The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God." Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away." They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. And Elijah said to Ahab, "Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bo- bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. "Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. Then he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back." The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea." So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab. Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you." Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds. The wind rose. A heavy rain started falling, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. And then line 46, one of the coolest parts in the Bible, and we're gonna leave that for a different sermon. Now, there's a lot to unpack here. I wanna go back to the first thing, what I find so important here. Now, again, mind you, I already gave you the historical and biblical context of, of Baal as a false deity whose abilities, so to speak, that he supposedly had were around the rain, the drought, agricultural productivity, right? And what do we see here? Elijah declares drought. Through the word of God, through him speaking, Elijah stops the rain at God's command. So it is by God's will that the drought begins, and it is also here we see at Mount Carmel it is by God's command that the drought stops. Baal was unable to start or stop the drought, nor the rain, because he is a false god. God is directly challenging those powers, and that's really important because it's a battle of truth. Let's look at something though. Let's look at what I find a really important part here- Right here when Elijah says to the people, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is god, follow him." Right? And then he does this whole demonstration to prove which god is real. But here's the thing, wavering between two opinions. This is an important part. He didn't say, "How long will you worship Baal," who is a false god. He says, "How long will you waver between two opinions?" Here's the ordeal, and this is very important to modern ministry and evangelism. Looking at our society, looking at the podcast culture, the church culture, the social media culture, all of this, right? Wavering between two opinions People at this time throughout 1 and 2 Kings, what do we have? We have people who are still going to the temple and worshiping and proclaiming God as Lord without meaning it, and then going and participating in pagan worship. We've got people who are putting Bible quotes or wearing a cross now in modern times or going to church, but also participating in pagan culture or conforming to this world, wavering between two opinions. But as Elijah says, either you follow God or you don't. There is no in between. But a lot of us are living the in between life. That's, that's point number one I wanna make. Number two, we see again, what do we see here? "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Ba- Baal has 450 prophets." Throughout biblical history, what do we have? The people of God being down to a very small number and the, and the pagan worshipers or the enemy army, hundreds of people. But then what do we have behind this one man, Elijah? God. What do we have in another scene where God's, you know, Elijah says, "Open up Elisha's eyes," and he sees, wow, look at the celestial spiritual army of God. And so this is important to note as well. You have one man versus hundreds. One man of God versus hundreds of false prophets, and that's how it feels nowadays. There's, there's many more false prophets than there are those of us left as the Lord's prophets, as the... And, and prophet being us who are believers proclaiming the word nowadays. Now, fast-forward to how does he summon the fire? This is probably the most interesting part, and as I said, this is the part that gets overlooked the most. "Shout louder. Surely he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought or busy," in some of the translations, "relieving himself or traveling. Maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened," right? We have right here the mockery of Elijah, which is what people focus on so much. They think it's funny. They think it's cool. There's all these terms for it. But look at what's really important. All right? You scroll down. This is the part people overlook. 1 Kings 18:31, 32, 33. "Elijah took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come saying, 'Your name shall be Israel.'" This is so important. He is reminding them of their covenant identity, right? Hold that thought for a minute. And then he says, this is what he says, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God." And this is the important part right here. This is the hinge pin of the conversation I want y'all to focus on. "That you are turning their hearts back again." Again, turning their hearts back again. Number one, throughout Biblical history, the people had gone astray and gone back to God, back and forth, and a lot of the Biblical history covers that. Back again also means that they had a covenant relationship with Him that they strayed from. That is why he says, he doesn't just say the Lord. He builds the altar using 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, and then he says, "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel." Why does he say that? Yes, people commonly referred to God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob or Israel. But also here he is compounding this with the 12 stones as a reminder of covenant identity and relationship, turning their hearts back again People overlook this part. People read this, and what they see is, "Okay, God proves he is real with this miracle. I wish I could see the Mount Carmel fire myself," right? That's what people say. And, "Oh, Elijah's mocking them. That's funny," or, "That's not very, quote, Christian of him," right? This is what people pay attention to. And we're overlooking the fact of two things. Number one, that God doesn't just prove he's real through any random miracle. He purposefully mimics and mocks the supposed powers associated with the false deity Baal. Then Elijah doesn't just say, "Hey, look at this miracle. God is real." He's emphasizing not only is God real, but we have a covenant relationship with him. We are called to be in a covenant relationship with him, and we are in violation of that. Why? What's the first commandment? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," right? God's covenant relationships are built on a promise between him and people. At this time, the people have violated that in many ways, but especially by having other gods, false gods, and worshiping to them even if they're also worshiping God. And that's why that wavering between two opinions is so important because some of us think we can waver between two opinions and mix the black and the white together to make gray in a morality sense, and that's not how it works. If God is God, follow him. If you wanna believe in Baal, follow him. Only one is the true God, and only one of them has a covenant relationship with us that we are in violation of. And so when you hear people quoting, "Perhaps he's relieving himself," or, "Pray louder," if you wanna get your chuckle in, that's great. I certainly do myself. But use it as a evangelistical opportunity to also say, "Hey, did you know that at Mount Carmel it goes deeper than just God proving he's real? It's more than just Baal versus God in contest for the worshipers' belief," right? We know that knowing God is real is one thing- Turning your heart back or for the first time to God is a different thing. Knowing that God is real is one thing. Having a covenant relationship with him is another thing. And so today this sermon is short and simple, but I wanted it to be a callback to slow down and look at the contextual history and biblical meaning on a deeper level, right? Mount Carmel isn't just Elijah mocking false believers. He is calling back covenant identity and relationship. He is reminding people of who they are in God. He is telling them that their practice of God and false gods cannot coexist together, and that they need to choose. And he's essentially saying, "Are you gonna choose between heaven and hell? Are you gonna choose between the spirit and the flesh? Are you gonna choose between life and death?" Right? That's what he's saying. You cannot waver between two opinions. And then he calls them back to the 12 tribes, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Israel, to the blessings that God has proclaimed generationally through those individuals and through covenants and through covenantal relationship with the people, that now has led us to the new covenant through Yeshua for all people. Ladies and gentlemen- Elijah did much more than just mock some prophets that were false believers. And I'm glad that that passage of scripture circulates around the internet and that people remember it notably. But you have to remember the truth of why that happened, of why that was necessary. It was because Ahab and Jezebel, two of the most wicked people in history if not the most wicked, were leading the people astray. They were violating all of God's love and mercy and rules and covenant relationship and identity, not just in- as two individuals leading kingdoms, but as all the people who follow them. We need to remember that in this day and age it is no different. We cannot waver between two opinions, between what the Bible says and what social media says, between what the Bible says and what our church says, between what the Bible says and people online say. We need to follow the real true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. We need to remember our covenant identity in Yeshua, that is Jesus Christ, and in God, and we need to be discerning with the Holy Spirit. And we need to know that it's not about the unbelievers being condemned. It's about turning their hearts back. It's about opening their eyes to the truth, that they have to make a decision. And we have a role to play to help inform them of the truth. And too many people are afraid to say the truth nowadays, so I just pray that you would be strengthened by this sermon, that you would be reaffirmed in your covenant identity with Yeshua, Jesus Christ, and with God. Uh, and that you would have the knowledge of both the Old Testament and New Testament, meditate on it day and night, and keep it hidden in your heart like a sword, that you might go forward and evangelize and make disciples of all nations. And I want you to think not just about this scene on Mount Carmel, but where else in scripture is it so popularized that you're missing the main points because you're caught up by the cinematic scenes? The mocking of the unbelievers in the fire on Mount Carmel was just one example. But think of Jonah. One of my favorite sections of biblical history, one that I have read probably more than any section in the Bible. It's a short read. It's straightforward. Everyone knows the appointed fish that swallows Jonah. Everyone knows Jonah ran away. But how many know of the plant and the bug, of the dry, scorching heat, and of those who can't even tell their left from their right in Nineveh? This isn't just a call back to covenant identity and to understanding our enemies, the false deities and worships. This is also a reminder to slow down and look at all the context, not just within the Bible itself, but the historical and biblical context that matters when it comes to talking about false religions, when it comes to Hebrew poetic language, when it comes to the events at that time, and for us to look past just the cinematic parts, just the funny parts, just whatever is most attention-catching, and to look at the real minute details that are not accidental but are very divinely crafted. Amen.
