June 2 2013 *I Kings 18.20-39, Luke 7.1-10 “Biblical Characters – Baal - Lord of the
Flies” Rev. Jacqueline Hines
Ahab was one of the worst kings that
Israel ever had. He was slimy and grimy in every sense of the word. You all
know his wife Jezebel. She was even worse. Their politics were soaked through
and through with every manner of greed, murder, and lust that could be imagined.
Together they made false charges against a man and killed him so that they
could have one of his fields which he refused to sell them. Ahab was supposed
to be serving and representing God as he ruled. Instead he went along with
Jezebel. He had married her for political reasons. She was of the Canaanite
persuasion; the Holy ways of God were foreign to her culture and in her heart
she despised the God of Israel. She married only for money and power.
When the prophets of God – the Billy
Grahams of the day - agitated her with their preaching, she had many of them
killed. Jezebel was a name synonymous with the devil himself. In the Canaanite
language her name sounded like the Canaanite god Baal also known as Beelzebub
which means lord of the flies or lord of the sewage dump.
How tough it must have been to serve
God while politicians like Ahab and Jezebel were in office. The world is just
as topsy turvy today as it was back then in the 9th century. In every area of life we can identify
something that leaves us gasping for air, whether it be political oppression,
natural disaster, family difficulties, health crisis, or employment issues –
the world can be a really crazy place. Our only sanity and centeredness is
found in our faith in God. Malachi 3.16 tells us “I am the Lord your God. I
change not.”
Isn’t it true though that the crazier
life is, the more we are inclined to go to our Creator for help. Trusting in
God makes all the difference in this world, no matter what we have on our
hands. As the Gaither song goes, “Something beautiful, something good, all of
my confusion, he understood. All I had to offer him was brokenness and pain,
but he made something beautiful out of my life.”
Elijah was a very bold prophet,
preacher, and teacher. He was bold enough to say to King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel.
You know you are wrong. You should be serving the true God and putting away
these slimy ideas and tokens that you worship. We all worship the things
that are worth something to us.
Lee Stroebel was an atheist who
learned grew to worship God. (Hear his story –video clip)
Elijah was so confident in the power
of God that he invited the 450 minsters of Baal to a contest in hopes that for
once and for all they would get off the fence and decide to worship a loving
and holy God instead and nothing less. The ministers were highly competitive
and they agreed to a contest. Elijah said let’s build an altar and prepare a
bull for sacrifice. You call your God and I will call my God to light the fire
on this altar. The God who brings the fire will be God indeed.
Fire symbolizes power, the power of
Pentecost that unites us in spite of being worlds apart, the power of praising
God from whom all blessings flow, the power of love to lift us higher than
we’ve ever been lifted before.
Jezebel’s ministers went first in
this contest. They called on Baal from morning to noon, but there was no fire. When
it was Elijah’s turn to call on God to send fire to cook the sacrificial bull
on the altar, the first thing he did was to ask everyone to come closer and be
clear witnesses to what God was getting ready to do. We all need to be as close
as can to witness the work of God. That’s how we grow in faith. The altar needed
repair so Elijah surrounded it with 12 stones, symbolizing the unity of the 12
tribes, the community of the people of God. The stones in the fireplace in the
Bethel grove can remind us of the altar Elijah was preparing. We all need to
bring something that unites us as we wait for God to show up.
Elijah poured 4 jars of water around
the altar to dramatize God’s ability to bring fire in spite of the circumstances
not once but 3 times, so when the fire came, God’s power would be undeniable. We all need to let go and let God, not
worrying about how the odds seem stacked against us or how troubling our circumstances.
As we grow spiritually, we are free inch by inch of being overly concerned
about life, death, the future, the past or anything else. Charles Stanley put
it this way, “God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey him.”
The next thing Elijah did was the
most important. Elijah stood before the altar and said these words: ‘O Lord,
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in
Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your
bidding. Elijah was not putting on a show. He was not making up things to do
according to his imagination, training, or creative instincts. Elijah was
prompted and directed by the Spirit of God!!
Elijah continues praying with these
words: 37Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O
Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.’
Verse 38 says - Then the fire
of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the
dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. 39When all the
people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the
Lord indeed is God.’
May we too affirm in our hearts that
the Lord is God. May we always find it worth it to worship. May we know the
power of God in our lives in spite of dire circumstances. As we sing this next
song, may the spirit turn our hearts back to the things of God that we may have
forgotten along the way. Amen.
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