If you are anything like me, you sometimes struggle to get your BBQ lit. I used get through countless matches, firelighters, rolled up bits of newspaper and even twigs, trying to get the thing lit – especially on a wet and windy British summer’s day! Discovering those ready-made bags of charcoal that are impregnated with firelightiing fluid has been a revelation to me!
Our Bible reading this morning describes something of a BBQ. A mountain-top BBQ, with beef steak on the menu. Actually there were two BBQ’s, to be precise. One had been prepared by 450 prophets of Baal, while the other had been set up by Elijah – the prophet of the LORD.
Like me on a wet and windy day, the prophets of Baal comprehensively failed to get their BBQ lit. However hard they tried, they couldn’t get Baal to burn their fire. The prophets’ pieces of meat remained raw.
But Elijah had no such problems – because he had the one the true God, on his side, and fire from Heaven was on hand to help him. So by the end of the day, Elijah’s meat had been cooked and consumed, but the prophets of Baal were left exhausted and humiliated.
False prophets v faithful Elijah
So why did this strange competition on Mount Carmel take place – and what can we learn from it today?
The year was about 850 BC, and the nation of Israel was in trouble. It had a dreadful king named Ahab, and his even worse spouse, Queen Jezebel. The people of Israel were supposed to be God’s people. Under their rule, and with their blessing, the nation had begun to worship foreign gods with names like Baal and Asharah. False gods served by hundreds of their own prophets and priests.
Only Elijah and a few others were brave enough to stand firm against the tide. Elijah and his followers can be described as a “faithful remnant” in the midst of widespread apostasy and idolatry.
As Christians in the Western world today, we know a little bit what it was like for Elijah. We too live in a society where the one true God is ignored, overlooked and even blasphemed. People worship all sorts of idols, like money, popularity or possessions, rather than Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or they follow other religions, with their competing claims about the divine.
But rather than giving up on the one true God, we should be encouraged by the example of Elijah. Elijah knew he was right – he knew that Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel was real – and he was confident in the Lord’s capacity to intervene in aid of his people.
And so Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel. He set up a competition on Mount Carmel. Both sides would set up a woodpile with meat on top. Both sides would then pray to their god to set the wood alight. If the prophets of Baal could get their BBQ going, then Baal was the true God. But if Elijah’s prayers were answered, then his fire would be lit and it would show that his God – our God – was real.
As you would expect, the prophets of Baal were desperate to win. They spent hours running around and shouting – even cutting themselves with swords and spears – invoking Baal to set their fire alight. But nothing happened. The meat remained raw. Elijah even made fun of them, and said that Baal might be asleep, deaf or even indisposed on the loo!
Elijah, however, was totally confident that the true God would show up on Mount Carmel. The Lord would set light to his fire. Elijah was so confident that he had his woodpile drenched in water. Only a miracle from God could set it alight. Its ignition would be a surefire sign of divine intervention.
When everything was ready, Elijah prayed a short simple prayer. He knew God would hear him, so there was no need to shout!
If we are Christians, we can pray like Elijah. We can pray short simple prayers to our Heavenly Father, because he knows us and he loves us. He can hear us whenever we pray, so there’s no need to babble or shout! We don’t need to try and persuade God to do what is right – we don’t need to twist his arm to act. Like Elijah, we can trust that God is good. We can be totally confident he will always do what’s right.
Fire from Heaven!
Sure enough, Elijah’s prayer was answered. God sent down fire from Heaven. A fire that burnt up not just the wood, but the meat itself and the water it had been soaked in.
Everyone who saw the fire from above knew who had won. As Elijah’s sacrifice lay smoking and smouldering, they knew that his God was real. Elijah’s Lord was God, and Baal had been exposed as a fake. The crowd were left in no doubt that Elijah’s God was the one they should love, trust and obey – the same God we Christians seek to serve today.
Conclusion
The competition on Mount Carmel is a great story, isn’t it? Full of action and drama. And there is no doubt that Elijah is an inspiring hero for us today. He should inspire us to remain faithful to God when others ignore or oppose him. And Elijah should inspire us to pray confidently to the Lord who made heaven and earth – who always hears us, who always knows what we most need.
But there is more to the events of Mount Carmel than that. Because the miracle on Mount Carmel also points us towards Christ.
You see, the fire from heaven that consumed Elijah’s woodpile was an undeniable sign of God’s presence and power. But an even greater sign was yet to come a few hundred years later – because by raising Jesus from the grave, the God demonstrated his power even over death. The resurrection of Christ and his subsequent appearances to his disciples (like the one described in reading from Matthew 28 today), were compelling proof of God’s presence and power in the person of Jesus. The resurrection represents the vindication of all that Jesus said and did. A visible endorsement of Christ’s claims to be the second person of the Trinity – to be “Emmanuel”, God’s Son with us.
If Elijah’s claims were vindicated on Mount Carmel, we can say even more confidently that Jesus’ claims were vindicated when he appeared alive again to his disciples after his resurrection
And so we can trust all that Jesus said to his disciples on that mountain in Galilee:
- It means that all authority does indeed belong to him – he is worthy of our loyalty and love.
- It means we are to be obedient to his command to make disciples from all nation – to indiscriminately share our faith with all we know.
- And it means that, on this Trinity Sunday, we can be confident that the name of the one true God is indeed “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”