1 Kings 18:17-40: Limping along between Two Wings: A Sure
Defeat
We
stand here on this Memorial Day weekend, a weekend when we remember those who
have paid the ultimate sacrifice for liberty in our nation. It is not national
barbeque day as some would consider it; tomorrow rather is a day of reflection
and remembrance, and it comes at such a crucial time. We live in a day when
the culture dishonors God to such an extreme degree that I see no possible way
we will not be judged. We are in the midst of an election. Of course, I suppose
we’re always in the midst of an election. It amazes me how many believers put
so much on this upcoming presidential election and Christianize or
dechristianize politicians. We are not electing a Lord and Savior. An election
does not determine the course of a country; that has already been determined.
In fact, an election is the result of the direction of a country. We will elect
the person that most accurately reflect where we are as a society, and that could
be God justice and his judgment on us. In scripture, God’s judgment was not a
small thing. When God judged his people, it lasted sometimes for hundreds of
years. We, as a generation, have not only disobeyed God but have blatantly run
from his ways as far as possible. We can blame it on those who are not
Christians all we want, but the truth is that the church has grown complacent.
We have lived lavish lives with no regard for honoring God; we have been OK
with allowing evil to creep into our personal lives; and we have not stood for
what is right.
In 1 Kings
18:17-40, we find a familiar story, a story of the prophet, Elijah, and his
triumph over the prophets of Baal. Like our society, Israel had abandoned the
commandments of God and followed after their own selfish hearts and desires. In
many ways, they claimed to honor the one true God, but they continued to
worship other gods. Don’t we do the same though? Don’t we claim to follow
Christ but then grow complacent and OK with simply coming to our worship gatherings,
sitting in our pews, talking about the good old days, and then leave as the
exact same people? At least Israel was more deliberate about it. We try to hide
our complacency under the mask of doing church instead of being the church. We
go through the motions and profess a savior that saves and try to live by a
particular code of conduct but then disallow any change to come from the Holy
Spirit. This is not the life God has called us to. We either give everything or
nothing at all. Elijah poses the question in this passage, “How long will you
go limping between two wings,” or “opinions” in some translations. Let us
examine this scripture and ask ourselves the question, “How long will we go
limping between two wings?” I am taking a different perspective here. Rather
than speaking of a sure victory, I would like to share with you, from this
text, how to assure a defeat, something that we must never desire, yet we
contribute to our lives on a consistent basis in so many ways whether we
realize it or not. You will see from this text that Elijah was assured a
victory for his faith in God, but Israel, because of their actions and
decisions, gained a sure defeat, particularly the prophets of Baal.
1 Kings 18:17-40 (ESV)
17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him,
“Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I
have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you
have abandoned the commandments of the Lord
and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore send and gather all
Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets
of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.”
The
Prophets of Baal Defeated
20 So Ahab sent to all the people of
Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 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. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even
I only, am left a prophet of the Lord,
but Baal's prophets are 450 men. 23 Let two bulls be given to
us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it
on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay
it on the wood and put no fire to it. 24 And you call upon the
name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all
the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 25 Then Elijah said
to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first,
for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26 And
they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon
the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But
there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that
they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry
aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he
is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And
they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances,
until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed,
they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no
voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people,
“Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the
altar of the Lord that had been
thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the
number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your
name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of
the Lord. And he made a trench
about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs[a] of seed. 33 And he put
the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he
said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the
wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a
second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 And
the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.
36 And at the time of the offering of the
oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known
this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I
have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may
know that you, O Lord, are God,
and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire
of the Lord fell and consumed the
burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the
water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw
it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord,
he is God; the Lord, he is God.” 40 And
Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.”
And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and
slaughtered them there.
A
sure defeat…there are four imperatives I would like
to submit to you that if you contribute to, you will be assured a defeat.
Blame Your Problems
on Someone or Something Else (vv. 17-18)
Elijah is simply doing the task God
set out for him. It is certainly a difficult task to tell a people that their
ways are wrong, but this is what God called him to do so he obeyed. It is
interesting that we are assured victory in difficult obedience yet assured
defeat in difficult disobedience. My prayer is that I would always be OK with
obeying God in doing something that does not make sense than to disobey him in
doing something that does. Elijah is simply proclaiming the message of God, and
King Ahab calls him the “troubler of Israel.”[1]
He was blaming Elijah for something that was, in many ways, his own fault. It
was easier to do than to admit his wrong. Blame is so easy to do. We think it
takes the responsibility off of us, but it really does not. It is still there;
we are simply avoiding it. We make feeble attempts at giving excuses for our
sin and disobedience so as to make it appear that we are not responsible. A
repentant heart does not do that though. Part of repentance is seeing ourselves
for who we really are, namely wretched sinners. This causes us to confess that
we are weak and wrong. That is contrary to culture though. Don’t ever
apologize; don’t ever admit your mistakes because it reveals weakness. Blame
goes back to the Garden though. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.
Our natural desire is to avoid any responsibility by blaming problems on
others. When we blame our problems on others, we lose site of the fact that God
is working in and through our circumstances to change us. Yes, we have made
mistakes, but how do you allow God to use those mistakes in your life? We can
spend a lot of time blaming others, or we can get back on track and live in the
grace and mercy of Christ.
Commit Halfheartedly (vv. 19-29)
Another
way to ensure defeat is to commit halfheartedly. The prophet poses the
question, “How long will you go limping between two opinions” (wings in some
translations)? This meant that Israel was fickle and halfhearted in their
commitment to the Lord. They had not totally rejected the Lord, but they sought
to combine his worship with the worship of Baal. We do that too but perhaps in
a more insidious way. We do this by conforming our lives to a code of conduct
rather than the gospel. In other words, we think that checking off a list is
good enough. The reality is that most people who profess to be Christians are
simply moralistic deists. It is professing Christ, abiding in a “good enough”
manner by a particular moral code, yet not being conformed by Christ form the
inside out. Sadly, this is where most Christians are. It is not the gospel, but
it is, in fact, contrary to it. It is not about perfection, but it is about
sanctification. The question that Elijah asks here should be a striking
question to our generation, and I am not speaking primarily of those who are
not Christians but of the church. How long will you go on limping between two
wings, professing Christ but then living a life contrary to the gospel or even
worse, having a mediocre faith? How long will you grieve the Holy Spirit by
claiming his change in your life but denying his power? In Revelation 3:16, God
indicts the church and says, “Because you were lukewarm and neither hot nor
cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” We can conclude that God absolutely
despises a halfhearted commitment.
If
we’re honest, living a godly life is difficult. It is easy to live a
halfhearted life because that is what everyone else does. The danger in that
though is that we allow our own code of conduct to overtake the authority of the
gospel. We begin conforming to our own ideas of what righteousness is rather
than God’s. Israel thought it was perfectly acceptable to worship multiple
gods. Halfhearted commitment to God is no commitment. I firmly believe there
will be many who will be surprised when we stand before the Lord to give an
account of what we made of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Ironically one of the
most misused verses in all of the Bible is found at the beginning of that
chapter. Matthew 7:1 reads, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” That verse is
not an excuse to live however you wish, as many might think. In fact, the
fierce judgment of God is far worse than the judgment of any human. There are
many people in our churches who truly believe they are Christians because they
compare themselves to other Christians who compare themselves to other
Christians. The Christian life is not about how someone else lives except how
Christ lives in and through us. Many people believe they are Christians because
they are doing OK and simply live like other people in the church. This is the
wrong approach. We should not merely compare our lives to others, but rather
our live should be continuously changed by Christ in us.
Elijah
was so confident that the one true God would bring victory that he began to
mock the prophets of Baal. When there was no response in their crying out,
Elijah said, “Perhaps he is relieving himself.” This is comical, but it surely
is the kind of assurance we can have when we trust God for our provisions and
our victories. No victory happens apart from Christ, and no one committed to
Christ serves halfheartedly. We are called to commit wholeheartedly. Elijah
did; Israel did not at this time. If you commit halfheartedly, you will assure
yourself a defeat.
Committing
means not wavering no matter the cost. Forget about the concept of a
town hall meeting to decide public policy. How about this instead? In Ancient
Greece, to prevent idiotic statesmen from passing idiotic laws upon the people,
lawmakers--legend has it--were asked to introduce all new laws while standing
on a platform with a rope around their neck. If the law passed, the rope was
removed. If it failed, the platform was removed.
Sit on the Side (vv. 30-38)
We
will also be assured defeat if we sit on the side, if we are not in the game.
No athlete wants to sit on the side; they want to be in the game because that
is where the action is and where the good things happen. Elijah might have
seemed to be the only righteous person in all of Israel, and in fact, in the
next chapter, he thinks he is. He was not though. Nevertheless, there were many
people simply sitting on the side. They were watching God’s power right before
their very eyes but were not a part of it. It is wrong for us to sit in our
pews each week and leave not having been changed by the power of the Holy
Spirit. We sit on the side in many ways. One common way is through complacency.
We are so concerned with our comfort that we miss the point of the gospel. How
many of us could give up all comfort to serve and honor God? It would be very
difficult for many. I wonder sometimes if the comforts we have in the American
church have hindered us. What would happen if churches lost their tax exempt
status? What would happen if preaching the truth that homosexuality is a sin
becomes a hate crime? Perhaps our comforts have caused us to simply sit on the
side rather than play in the game. Elijah took twelve stones, which signified
the twelve tribes of Israel since this “contest” actually had significance for
both Judah and Israel, and he built an altar. Perhaps to first step to getting
off the bench and getting in the game is to spend time in fervent prayer. The
strength of the church is not found in buildings, money, the education of the
staff, or the size of the children’s ministry. The strength of the church is
found in the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer. We must be careful that
we are not content with simply attending church, but we must continuously pray
for God to constantly change us. “The prayer of a righteous person has great
power as it is working,” says James 5:16. It is time we get off the side and
get into the game.
A young man called his mother and excitedly announced that he had just met
the woman of his dreams. His mother asked, “Why don’t you send her flowers
and invite her to your apartment for a home-cooked meal?” So he did just
that. The day after the big date, his mother called to see how things had gone.
“Mom, the evening was a complete disaster,” he replied. “It was horrible!” “Why,
didn’t she come over?” his mother asked. “Yes, she came over, but she
refused to cook!” He had the wrong idea of what it meant to be in the game. He
was content with sitting on the side rather than putting in the effort
required. We should not be OK with sitting on the side; God desires to use us
for his glory.
There Is Hope: Repentance Wins (vv. 39-40)
Ultimately
Israel repented. They listened to the message of God’s prophet, repented, and
changed their ways. No one is too far gone for God’s forgiveness. He loves to
forgive. It seemed to be an impossibility that the offering would burn,
especially with fire all around it, but the fire even consumed the water in the
trenches. Perhaps you feel at the bottom of a trench as if it is hopeless.
God’s grace and mercy reaches even there. It is not hopeless. The only way to
stop limping between two wings and to stop committing halfheartedly is to allow
the Holy Spirit to change you. We must be changed from the inside out, not the
outside in. Pay attention the following quote:
I will tell you the secret: God has had all that there was of me. There
have been men with greater brains than I, even with greater opportunities, but
from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what
Jesus Christ could do with me and them, on that day I made up my mind that God
should have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of power
in the Salvation Army, it is because God has had all the adoration of my heart,
all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life. – William Booth –
To honor God
and to truly worship him with our very lives, we must be fully committed,
wholly his. God can do more in a few days with a life wholly committed to him
than he can with the smartest and strongest person in the world halfheartedly
committed. Let us not be people who limp between two wings; let us be people
wholly committed to the glory of the Father, through Jesus Christ, and in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
