The LORD, He is God!
Years ago, I adopted the phrase, “I feel strongly both ways.” It is a non-committal phrase that I have very found useful in a variety of situations. I, of course, use the phrase sarcastically because, truth be told, I very seldom feel strongly about anything. Now, I know some of you do feel strongly about certain things. I know some of you have strong feelings about sports – y’all should have seen Andy Brown strut in here last week after Georgia beat Clemson. He had on a Georgia polo shirt, Georgia shorts, and his belt was fastened by a big ol’ Georgia G belt buckle. It is clear Andy Brown feels strongly about Georgia football. I, on the other hand, feel strongly both ways. As strongly as Andy feels about Georgia football there are some of you who have even stronger feelings about politics. Every election year I am always surprised at how strongly some people feel certain politicians. It seems like every time we get a new president chicken little starts running through the barnyard yelling about a falling sky. When people ask me about politics I usually say, “I feel strongly both ways”. These days there are few things that incite a stronger feeling in a person than this (COVID mask). People are like rabid dogs when it comes to these things. Facebook is full of rants about them, people are suing their local schoolboards because of them, and there have been fistfights in grocery stores over them. Personally, I don’t like them, but I don’t hate them either. When it comes to Covid masks, I feel strongly both ways.
I really don’t feel strongly about most things, and I must tell you it is a wonderful way to live life. My opinions don’t drive me to violent fits of rage, I seldom get offended by the things other people say, and for a man of my girth, my blood pressure is really really low. Personally, I think this world would be a better place if everyone felt strongly both ways. Facebook would be far less toxic, politics would be a whole lot more civil, and we would have better things to talk about than Covid masks. I know this sounds rather snooty of me, but, for the most part, I like that about almost everything I feel strongly both ways. There is only one problem, sometimes I feel that way about God… and I wonder if maybe you do too.
Today we are going to take a closer look at 1 Kings 18:21-39. In this section of scripture, we have my second favorite showdown in all of scripture; Elijah verses the 450 prophets of Baal. I am going to walk us through that showdown in a moment but before I do there is something disturbing in verse 21 that I want to point out. In verse 21 we read, “21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.” Elijah wants to know how long the people were going to “waver”. I was teasing my wife about this word the other day. I told her that she helped me see the meaning of the Hebrew word for waver because the word describes a person weakly wobbling back and forth as they try to walk on two broken feet. If you want to see the Hebrew word for waver in motion, ask my wife to crutch across a room for you.
The people were wavering in their worship between the LORD and Baal. A couple quick notes about Baal. The false god Baal was worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern cultures. He was worshiped as the most powerful of the gods and was considered to be the storm god who threw fire from the sky and brought rain to revive the land. Baal eventually becomes known as the Greek god Zeus. Baal was, as I said, a popular deity among many cultures, but he had never been popular among the Israelites until wicked king Ahab’s wife Jezebel, who had a pagan Phoenician background, imported him into Israel.
With the backing of the crown, Baal quickly became the trendy deity of the day but that is not to say they completely stopped worshiping the LORD. I mean, yes, they neglected the LORD (In verse 30 we are told that Elijah “repaired the altar of the LORD”) but they had not completely turned their back on the LORD. An example of a worshiping waverer can be found in earlier in chapter 18 where we are introduced to a man named Obadiah. Obadiah secretly hide 100 prophets of the LORD in caves and yet he also worked for Ahab and Jezebel, the two biggest supporters of Baal. I mean you almost can’t blame a waverer like Obadiah. It had been a really long time since anyone had seen or heard from the LORD and things in Israel were bad. Their king was a corrupt politician, their queen was a pagan, their priests were perverts, and on top of all that, they had been in a drought for quite a while and the economy was suffering because of it.
Seeing no obvious advantage to letting people know about their love for the LORD, People like Obadiah preferred to waver back and forth between their private love for the LORD and their public support of Baal. Elijah confronts these people about their sinful wavering and, here is the really disturbing part, “the people said nothing”. You see, the people felt strongly both ways.
When it comes to God, this is what I see in my neighborhood. Almost all my neighbors like that I am a pastor, they speak well of my profession and the work that I do in our community. However, as I drive out of my neighborhood on Sunday morning there are a lot of cars still in driveways. As a matter of fact, I have noticed the only time traffic is not bad in Atlanta is Sunday morning. You see, my neighbors don’t hate the LORD, it’s just when it comes to worshiping Him or relaxing at home, they feel strongly both ways. I see this wavering in my neighborhood, and I am sure you see it in yours.
It is sad to see so much wavering around us, but it is downright disturbing to see such wavering inside of us. No one here hates the LORD; we are not a bunch of Ahabs and Jezebels. However, we do tend to act like a bunch of Obadiahs. Secretly on Sunday we gather and proudly proclaim, “The LORD, He is God!”. But then we go home where our television remotes wear out faster than our Bibles, we go out into our communities where our lives are virtually indistinguishable from anyone else, we go to our schools and offices where no one would ever suspect that we spend our Sunday mornings worshiping the LORD. I am not saying we should be a bunch of radically religious bible thumpers, but don’t you think it is odd that people tend to know more about what football teams we follow than they do about our faith, don’t you think it’s odd that we are more passionate about a the government’s politician than we are about God’s prophet, don’t you think it’s odd that we are more likely to get into an argument about COVID than we are about Christ? Don’t you think it’s odd that when it comes to God, we feel strongly both ways? My friends, how long will we waver? “…the people said nothing”.
The Israelites didn’t know how to respond to that question either, so the LORD prepared a little demonstration to help them decide. The 450 prophets of Baal and Elijah assembled on Mount Carmel. There a contest was arranged. The prophets of Baal and Elijah were to select a bull which they would prepare for sacrifice to Baal and to the LORD. “22 Elijah said to them, … 24 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.” The prophets of Baal were given every advantage, this was their home turf and throwing fire from heaven was said to be Baal’s specialty. From morning till noon, they shouted, “26 O Baal, answer us!” Elijah let them go on like this all morning so that the people would see what an absurd choice it would be to follow Baal. To highlight the absurdity of that choice even further “27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy (literally in the Hebrew, “maybe Baal is using the potty”), or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” Elijah is a bit of a sarcastic jerk to the prophets of Baal (which is probably why he is my favorite prophet). Elijah offers several laughable reasons why Baal is not answering and suggest the prophets should try harder to get his attention. So, they do. They “shouted”, they “danced”, they “slashed” themselves, they “frantically prophesied” for another 3 hours, but in verse 29 we read, “29… there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.”
At long last the time for evening sacrifice came, it was Elijah’s turn. Just to flex a little bit on the prophets of Baal, Elijah ordered his offering to be drenched with 12 jugs of water. Then “36 the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O LORD, 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. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” And before Elijah had a chance to say an Amen “38 the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice (expected), the wood (anticipated), the stones and the soil (unusual), and also licked up the water in the trench (unheard of). When all the people saw this, they stopped wavering and cried, “39 The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”
In addition to this little demonstration atop mount Carmel, the LORD has provided you with an even greater reason to stop wavering. As you very well will recall, another demonstration took place atop mount Calvary. There, THE greatest showdown in all of scripture took place. There, the future of humanity hung in the balance as Baal-zebub and Jesus came face to face. Baal-zebub had every advantage; he had an emperor, a high priest, and an angry mob on his side. Baal-zebub struck first and his iron teeth sank deep into the hands and feet of Jesus. For several hours Jesus hung on the cross suffering for our sinful wavering and for a moment it looked like Baal-zebub would be victorious when Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”[1] But then the time for evening sacrifice came and Jesus spoke the skull crushing words that proclaimed His victory over Baal-zebub and declared our debt of sin to be paid in full, Jesus said, “it is finished”[2]. Saint Matthew tells us when the people saw this they said, “Surely he was the Son of God.”[3] When we see it, we are reminded that there is no reason for us to waver. When we see it we repent of all the times we have felt strongly both ways about our God. When we see the victory Jesus won for us atop mount Calvary, we realize we do feel strongly about it and we have something to say. We say it in our homes and communities, we say it in our classrooms and offices, we say what the people atop mount Carmel said, “39 The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” Amen.
[1] Mark 27:46
[2] John 19:30
[3] Matthew 27:54