HITCH UP YOUR CHARIOT

37-3643

TEXT – I KINGS 18:36-46

INTRODUCTION:

  1. I thoroughly enjoy great competition. In days past it was in the effort to win at whatever could be turned into a sport or competition of some sort. It probably goes back to growing up in a large family with three brothers and four sisters and a dad that was determined to get as much work out of us as possible. He had learned a long time before I came along that if you could get a group of boys to compete you could get lots more out of them. So, whether it was picking cotton, hauling hay or pick up football, basketball or baseball it was a competition. At the end of every day the question was who won.
  2. Perhaps that is the reason I love the story of Elijah meeting the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel. There were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, who ate a Jezebel’s table. Elijah challenged them to a duel on the mountain. 900 to 1 seems like pretty sad odds.
  3. Since Ahab had sent word throughout Israel for the prophets to come the word was spread and the crowds showed up for the duel.
  4. Elijah challenged the crowd before anything really started, “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.”

DISCUSSION:

  1. THE RULES OF THE GAME.
  2. Like any good competition there must first be an agreement on the rules of the game. Some folks try to make up the rules as they go and that messes up any game.
  3. Elijah said, “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.” Vs. 22-24
  4. The people said, “That is good.”
  5. Baal’s prophets went first and prepared the bull and began to cry out to Baal to send the fire. They cried out from morning to noon but no response came. They shouted, they danced around the altar, but nothing happened.
  6. Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling.”
  7. “Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
  8. They shouted louder, slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. They continued their frantic cries until time for the evening sacrifice but there was no response.
  9. Elijah said to the people, “Come here to me.” They came and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. He took 12 stones, and built an altar in the name of the Lord and dug a trench around it.
  10. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood.
  11. He had them to pour 4 large jars of water on the offering and the wood. Then he told them to do it again and then again. Water was running from the altar and filled the trenches.
  12. At the time of sacrifice, Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “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 that you are turning their hearts back again.”
  13. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.”
  14. For a competition that seemed completely out of balance it turned out to be the case that the 950 didn’t have a chance against the one.
  15. THE PEOPLE WENT WITH THE WINNER.
  16. Elijah began by asking them to make up their minds that they would serve as God. If Baal is god, serve him. But if Yahweh is God serve him. When they saw the fire of God they made their choice for Yahweh.
  17. Elijah commanded them to seize the prophets of Baal and not let any of them escape. Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered them.
  18. The truth is that there are always gods of our own making. They may sound good and may make us feel better about things. But when it comes to any show of power they have nothing to show for it.
  19. Around the world there are religions of all kinds where people follow ideas that seem reasonable to them. Some of these gods lead people to be peaceful and to submit no matter what is going on around you while others turn the people into warriors that are ready to kill anyone that disagree with them.
  20. What is true is that we tend to become like the God we worship. If we serve a god of war we become warriors. If we serve a god of works we try hard to work our way to heaven and judge everyone who doesn’t work as hard as we do. If we serve a god of prosperity, then our determination of faith is based on how much we make or how much we save and how much stuff we accumulate. If we serve a God of grace and love, we tend to become more graceful in our judgments of others and more loving toward those who are different from us.
  21. Who is the God you serve?
  22. HITCH UP YOUR CHARIOT.
  23. From one of the greatest victories of all time, Elijah turned immediately to the subject of rain. He said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”
  24. Ahab went away to eat and drink. Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
  25. He sent his servant to go look toward the sea. He went and looked and came back to say, “There is nothing there.”
  26. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
  27. The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
  28. Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.”
  29. The sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.
  30. “The power of the Lord came on Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.”
  31. CONCLUSION:
  32. No matter how powerfully we worship, pray or serve if the God we worship and serve isn’t real it leads to futility and ultimately to complete ruin or destruction.
  33. The God of heaven will ultimately overcome and conquer every god that people may serve. The god of nature couldn’t make it rain. The god of fire couldn’t produce fire. But the God of heaven can stop the rain in response to a person’s prayer and start it again in response to prayer.
  34. Even after the marvelous show of power on Mt. Carmel Elijah went to the top of the mountain and put his heads between his legs and prayed. Notice he didn’t get the answer this time immediately but he kept praying and kept sending his servant back to look over the sea.
  35. Notice even in the answer to this prayer the rain came just as rain normally comes with the cloud rising from over the sea, not over the desert.
  36. God answered Elijah that day miraculously and then through nature. It is still God’s answer and actions.
  37. In a day when so many are trying to serve a god of their own making that suits what they think he ought to be, the question really is whether you will submit to the God who is real and follow Him.