Chapter 18 God Shows Up ... With Attitude !

June 9, 2018

After a period of time, the drought had taken a big toll. So God sent Elijah with a message for Ahab. The whole purpose of the drought was to punish the Jews for their idolatry and for God to bring His people back to Him. That was all going to happen in a grand fashion !

Ahab and Elijah made a deal : Ahab would bring all 450 prophets of Baal ( a false god that the Jews had been worshiping ) and all the people of Israel to Mt. Carmel and Elijah would bring himself. Each side would get a bull to sacrifice, build their own fire, BUT do not light it ! Then, which ever God showed up .. that is the true God and that would be who Israel would worship !

So the deal was made and the day came for the show down. Elijah told the 450 prophets of Baal to go first. They prepared their bull and the fire without lighting it. Then they started calling on Baal to come and light the fire at around 6:00 am. "And so 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."" So the prophets cried aloud and began cutting themselves ( which was their custom ) with knives and lances until the blood was gushing out of them ! "But there was no voice: no one answered, no one paid attention"

Then it was Elijah's turn. He had them dig a trench around his prepared fire that was not lite. The he had them take 4 large jugs with water and dump them on his dry wood. Then he had them do it again and again until the wood was soaked and the trenches around it was all filled with water !!! When the time of the evening prayer came, Elijah prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. " Then 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."

The people all fell down and worshiped God ! Then Elijah told the people of Israel to capture all 450 prophets of Baal, which they did. He had the people of Israel kill all of them with the sword ! After all of these events God ended the drought !