1 Kings 18
Elijah's Message to Ahab
The Contest on Mount Carmel
1 And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to
Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will
send rain on the earth."
2So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in
Samaria. 3And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now
Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. 4For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the
prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden
them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) 5And Ahab had
said to Obadiah, "Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all
the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so
that we will not have to kill any livestock." 6So they divided the land
between them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went
another way by himself.
7Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he recognized
him, and fell on his face, and said, "Is that you, my lord Elijah?"
8And he answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your master, "Elijah is here."'
9So he said, "How have I sinned, that you are delivering your servant into
the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10As the LORD your God lives, there is no
nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you; and
when they said, "He is not here,' he took an oath from the kingdom or nation
that they could not find you. 11And now you say, "Go, tell your master,
"Elijah is here"'! 12And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from
you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to a place I do not know; so
when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me. But I your
servant have feared the LORD from my youth. 13Was it not reported to my lord
what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one
hundred men of the LORD's prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread
and water? 14And now you say, "Go, tell your master, "Elijah is here."' He
will kill me!"
15Then Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will
surely present myself to him today."
16So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that
you, O troubler of Israel?"
18And he answered, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's
house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have
followed the Baals. 19Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on
Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four
hundred prophets of Asherah,[1] who eat at Jezebel's table."
20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets
together on Mount Carmel. 21And Elijah came to all the people, and said,
"How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow
Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word.
22Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the LORD;
but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23Therefore let them
give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in
pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare
the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24Then you
call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and
the God who answers by fire, He is God."
So all the people answered and said, "It is well spoken."
25Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves
and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god,
but put no fire under it."
26So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and
called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, "O Baal,
hear us!" But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about
the altar which they had made.
27And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud, for
he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey,
or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." 28So they cried aloud, and
cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood
gushed out on them. 29And when midday was past, they prophesied until the
time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no
one answered, no one paid attention.
30Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." So all the people
came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken
down. 31And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes
of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel
shall be your name."[2] 32Then with the stones he built an altar in the name
of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two
seahs of seed. 33And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and
laid it on the wood, and said, "Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it
on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood." 34Then he said, "Do it a second
time," and they did it a second time; and he said, "Do it a third time," and
they did it a third time. 35So the water ran all around the altar; and he
also filled the trench with water.
36And 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. 37Hear 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."
38Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the
wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the
trench. 39Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they
said, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!"
40And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of
them escape!" So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook
Kishon and executed them there.
41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound
of abundance of rain." 42So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went
up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face
between his knees, 43and said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the
sea."
So he went up and looked, and said, "There is nothing." And seven times he
said, "Go again."
44Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, "There is a cloud, as
small as a man's hand, rising out of the sea!" So he said, "Go up, say to
Ahab, "Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you."'
45Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and
wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
46Then the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and
ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
There are those in America and the world that discount this event and claim
that the Old Testament no longer means anything. During Ahab and Jezebel’s
rein many of the priest that they had in their court where practicing
homosexuals* and had the blood of many children on their hands. God used
Elijah to deal with Ahab and Jezebel. He also dealt with the priest that
worshipped Baal. Jesus stated that He came to fulfill the law and not to
abolish it. This meant that he came to provide a way for us to escape from
our sins. It did not mean that we where to continue living in our sins and
all would be ok in the end and no matter what we did we would be allowed to
enter into heaven. To do this is to call God a liar. This kind of reasoning
is to say that God owes Sodom and Gomorrah and the priest of Ahab and
Jezebel an apology. The pro-abortionist and the homosexual community* are
holding on to this belief. Those in America that hold this same belief and
see nothing wrong with any politician supporting these groups are calling
God a liar as well. If we as a nation continue down this path of moral
destruction then we to will face the same consequences that these priest
faced. God has offered America a choice, to choose whom it is that we as a
nation will serve. Does anyone of you think that God is going to apologize
for dealing with the evil that was and is going on in this world? Satan was
kicked out of heaven and no matter what version of the Bible you read it
says the same thing. Satan will be locked up in the lake of fire forever. It
also says that his followers will face the same fate. Jesus came to save us
from this but we have the freedom to choose or reject what He has done for
us on the cross. We as a nation now have a choice to make, to serve God or
to serve Satan. There are only two choices. There is no middle ground on
this. [*Notation
from a reviewer of this article] In regards to the use of "homosexual
community" it is a violation of the commandments of Jesus Christ not to
change one jot or one title of the verbiage which comprises the Holy Bible
or, that is, THE WORD OF GOD! Yet, as so-called fundamentalists and
evanglicals often do... revision after revision of the WORD OF GOD (The Holy
Bible) appears which alters and changes the import, impact and meaning of
that which had originally been handed down to us from the Greek, Aramaic,
Hebrew and Latin languages.... They alter words and even phrases to suit
their own political agenda to brow-beat a non-violent people on the basis of
this life-style or that life-style, forgetting in the process the numerous
kinds of people that Jesus Christ traveled around with... drunkards,
tax collectors, homosexuals, prostitutes and others. Never did He, or
even the Old Testament, in the original languages use the word(s) denoting
specifically "homosexual" even though such existed. What had always
been used was to denote the sin of "Sodomy" which is not exclusively a
homosexual act but has, since the dawn of time, been an act committed by
both Heterosexuals and Homosexuals. The sin was SODOMY! Yet, we see,
as a result of the violations against God, the alterations of Holy Scripture
to suit the political agendas of various so-called religious groups, as has
been accepted by a vast majority of society through out the world ...
certain non-violent groups are singled out for which they suffer a violence
with the mis-use of Holy Scripture.
This notation is not meant as an attempt to
exonerate or to provide an apologetic for a certain class of people.
It is a notation to hopefully thwart the damage being done by those who are
in the majority who have been infected by the Evil One's misuse and abuse
which aids the Evil One's growth in both spirit and fact in this life ...
for indeed the ONE WORLD CHURCH ideals are perpetrated by the tragedy of
these so-called Fundamentalist and Evangelicals who are far removed from the
very term, meaning and implications of what FUNDAMENTALIST and EVANGELICAL
in the times of Jesus Christ and the Holy Apostles. SODOMY IS THE SIN
NOT HOMOSEXUALITY... and SODOMY IS A HETEROSEXUAL ACT too... and they don't
want it to be spoken about for they would have to take the "beam" out of
their own eye while attempting to remove the unseen "plank" from others.... |