Daily Devotional For Wednesday, April 10, 2024
In yesterday’s devotional, I asked you at the end of it to meditate on 1 Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, `How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.' And the people did not answer him a word” (ESV). To me the shocking part of this verse is not the choice Elijah asked the people to make, but their response to that choice. It says “the people did not answer him a word.” That means not one person stood up and said, “I will follow God because He is the only true God.” Not one person stood up and as Joshua said in Joshua 24:15 said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I wonder why?
The people are noncommittal at best. They “limped” along without conviction, wanting to follow halfheartedly one god and then the other. To me this is shocking because Elijah asked the people this question just prior to the contest on Mt. Carmel. Remember, Baal prophets numbered 450 and God had one prophet. Elijah challenged them to a contest to prove to the people whose God was real and most powerful. Here it is in 1 Kings 18:23-40:
Elijah said, “Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. (24) Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed. (25) Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.” (26) So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made. (27) About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!” (28) So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. (29) They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. (30) Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. (31) He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, (32) and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons. (33) He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood. Then he said, “Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood.” (34) After they had done this, he said, “Do the same thing again!” And when they were finished, he said, “Now do it a third time!” So they did as he said, (35) and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench. (36) At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that You are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at Your command. (37) O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God and that You have brought them back to yourself.” (38) Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! (39) And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God! (40) Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there” (NLT).
Did you notice that Elijah never doubted God would do this. Never. He built an altar from 12 stones to symbolize God’s covenant with the Abraham and the 12 tribes of Israel. He had his bull soaked 3 times with so much water that if filled the trench. He prayed that God would prove to His children He is God and win them back. When Baal does not perform, Elijah taunts his 450 prophets. This drives them nuts with fanatical behavior — thinking this will get Baal to perform. Nothing. And around 3:00 in the afternoon, when the sacrifice in the Temple would be offered to God, Elijah prayed to God to prove before all He is the only God and God did in such a spectacular and dramatic way.
There was nothing left that anybody could turn into a relic or a shrine. The altar to Baal still stood as a monument to a lost cause. The prophets of Baal were stunned, and the people of Israel fell on their faces and acknowledged, “The Lord, He is God!” I really love what Joseph Ezell writes in The Biblical Illustrator below:
“And in this matter God has not left us without evidence of His superiority over Baal. Still the infallible test is “The God that answers by fire let Him be God.” If you will sit down and compare the claims of God and the claims of Baal, you will soon see which God has the sole right to your worship. If we translate Elijah’s speech into nineteenth-century English, it simply means this, Will you have Christ or Barabbas; God or self? God can do what Baal cannot!” (Source: Joseph, Ezell, The Biblical Illustrator, p. 213).
The bottom line is we can either be more like Barabbas or more Jesus. Just as Barabbas rebelled against the Romans, the crowd rebelled against God by rejecting Jesus. He was the Messiah whom no one expected or wanted but everyone needed. Barabbas was never chosen, but Jesus was rejected. Even today, we’re still rejecting Jesus. Why?
Because we want a Jesus like us. We want a Jesus who votes likes us, is passionate about our causes, excuses our sin and understands our animosity towards others. It comes down to greed. Instead of choosing to do the godly thing, we choose to do our thing. Instead of choosing to follow the only Righteous One — Jesus — we choose to follow our heart, or our feelings, or our experiences or the crowd.
Crowd? But when we follow the crowd, we will choose Barabbas over Jesus ever time. Or as in the days of the prophet Elijah, we will choose our Baal rather than our Blessed Redeemer — Jesus Christ. Jesus said this in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (our Baal today) (NLT).
Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 16:5, David wrote, “My choice is You, God, first and only. And now I find I'm Your choice!” (MSG).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know that I do not always choose You first over other people, things and etc. I do not want to choose my own form of “Barabbas” over You. I choose You. I thank You that You chose me to become like You. Please forgive me when I choose anyone other than You to be first in my life. I want my life to honor You, bring You glory and show to others that I reject Baal, I reject Barabbas, but I will always choose You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! — Pastor Kelly