Fire Competition of the gods: the God of Israel vs Baal

After the 3rd year of drought, the time came where God’s word (Jesus!) told Elijah that the country was about to receive rain, so he should go ahead and approach King Ahab again. (Why did it take 3 years of drought?)

Although Ahab and Jezebel were Baal-worshippers, they had Obadiah in charge of the palace–he was loyal to the God of Israel. When Jezebel was trying to kill all the prophets of God, Obadiah had hidden a hundred of them in caves, and he gave them food and water to save them. (Where were the 100 he saved now? Did they survive and were still in hiding?)

King Ahab and Obadiah split up, searching the country to find grass to keep their horses and mules alive.

On Obadiah’s route, he came across Elijah and was shocked. He fell to his knees, bowing, and questioned if it was really him. (It was probably better that Elijah ran into Obadiah first, Ahab might have been so excited that he’d have killed Elijah on sight.)

Elijah confirmed it was really him, and told Obadiah to let Ahab know he’d seen him.

But Obadiah didn’t want to. He said that Ahab had been looking for him and if he told Ahab Elijah was HERE, Obadiah would be killed! And he didn’t want or deserve those problems after his life of being devout to God. He thought as soon as he told Ahab, God would move Elijah to save his life.

But Elijah promised, “as surely as God of the Angel Armies lives,” he would meet Ahab face-to-face. So Obadiah went and told Ahab, and Ahab set out to meet Elijah. (Why didn’t Elijah just go WITH Obadiah? Was he preparing something for the competition?)

Ahab greeted Elijah as the “troubler of Israel.” (Ahab probably didn’t kill Elijah on sight because he did believe that Elijah had some power to end the drought. Why else would Ahab have called Elijah a troublemaker if he didn’t blame him for the drought–did Elijah do anything besides hang out with the ravens, and the widow and her son over those 3-3.5 years?)

Elijah denied being a troublemaker, he said that it was Ahab himself and Jezebel who brought trouble upon the land by denying God and His commands and following Baal. Elijah challenged Ahab, telling him to gather all of Israel at Mount Carmel–including all of the local prophets of Baal and Asherah. (Mount Carmel was the same place where Moses had talked to God and received the commandments.)

Ahab did so.

Elijah challenged all the people, telling them it was time to make a choice between following God and Baal. But no one responded.

Elijah went on to say he was the ONLY prophet of God left in Israel but Baal had 450 prophets. So he proposed a competition of sorts where the Baals get two bulls/oxen; they pick the one they want, cut it up and put it on wood. He gets the other, prepares it and puts it on wood, and NEITHER side ignites it. They each pray to their god and the god that responds and ignites the bull/ox is the true god. Now, all the people agreed to these terms and found it to be a good plan. (Notice: consistent between translations, it doesn’t say they are to do the same thing to the bulls. Most say the Baals will cut it into pieces, and Elijah will prepare it. Most translations don’t even say that he will cut them into pieces. This reminds me of the challenge between Jacob and Laban where STRATEGY came into play.)

Elijah told the Baals to go first. They could prepare their ox, pray, but not set it on fire.

They took their ox and prepared it for the altar. Then they prayed to Baal all morning long, but nothing happened. They started getting desperate and dancing around the altar they’d built.

By noon, nothing had happened and Elijah started taunting them. They got MORE desperate and started yelling louder and cutting themselves, hoping blood sacrifice would give some result. (Baal worshippers prayed in a different way than followers of God, and they were doing things that perhaps wouldn’t practically help a fire start.)

They tried every religious trick they knew, but nothing happened.

Eventually, Elijah said it was his turn. He repaired the altar for God, gathered 12 stones–one for each tribe of Jacob. He built the stones into the altar in honor of God. Then dug a trench around the altar. Laid wood, cut up the ox, then drenched the ox and firewood until the alter and the trench was filled with water. (The use of stones and trenches shows that he is taking a different approach–like he is using some knowledge of how to build a firepit. But the water seems counterproductive. Since he wasn’t the one to gather the water, I can’t claim it was actually gasoline, but how might drenching everything be beneficial to starting a fire? And does the time of day [it was evening when his turn came] impact flammability?)

Elijah prayed to God, and immediately the fire of God burned up the offering–even the water in the trench. (If the water gave no secret advantage to the fire starting, then it was just an added flex–pure miracle that couldn’t be replicated without God.)

All the people saw it happen and conceded that Elijah won and his God WAS the true God.

With his success, Elijah demanded that all the Baal prophets be grabbed and brought to Kishon Valley where they were slaughtered.

Elijah told Ahab to start celebrating because the rain was going to come now. Surprisingly, Ahab did so. He ate and drank while Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel and prayed. He told his servant to keep a lookout off to the sea. Seven times if necessary. (What is the significance of 7? Ahab was the king, he must have really believed in Elijah and God if he did not refuse the execution of his prophets and put Elijah to death instead.)

Eventually, the servant did see a small hand-sized cloud coming towards them. With that, Elijah knew it was successful and he sent word to Ahab to hurry up and get down from the mountain before the rain stopped him. (Why did Elijah seek to save Ahab instead of letting him get stuck on the mountain?)

Quickly, the sky grew dark and the rain started pouring with Ahab on his chariot heading back to Jezreel and Elijah running AHEAD of the chariot.