Transcription of the Video: Who is God?

Ray Vander Laan: The ancient land of Israel is a testimony and evidence, if you will, of the greatness of what God did in that country, a testimony to the truth of the words that we find in the pages of the Bible. As history went on, it became more and more apparent that the people of God were simply unwilling to live according to the lifestyle that God had called them to. And so God sent to those people prophets - great men and women who came to speak on behalf of God and to call people back to his ways. 

One of the greatest of those prophets was the prophet Elijah. Probably the event that defines the ministry and life of Elijah more than any other was the confrontation he had with the prophets of the Baal god on Mount Carmel.

Welcome to Mount Carmel. The word means God's vineyard. I think if you look at it, you can see why they might name it that. You've got olive vineyards and orchards and fertility all around you. It's a really, really beautiful place. Throughout the Bible, this mountain is often used a symbol of fertility. And when the prophets pronounce judgement on the people, they often say, "Mount Carmel will not be fertile." Or if they're pronouncing blessing, they'll say, "It will be like Mount Carmel in all its glory and all its splendor." So you can understand why they would choose this particular location with all of the fertility that's here. 

Now, geographically, we're not in a particularly strategic place. Although, we're looking at one. If we went here to the east, we would come to those far eastern empires again of Assyria and Babylon. If we go to the south and west, we come to the empire of Egypt. And those two empires needed to be connected, so there was that very important trade route running between the two. Now, somehow, that trade route has to get from here where it comes down along the Jordan River and eventually into this valley. It has to get from here to the coastal plain and on down toward Gezer. Well, there aren't very many places where it can break through this mountain. There are a couple. There's one down below here. There's another one a little bit further around the corner of that hill up there. And guarding those particular valleys that let you through Mount Carmel are very important cities. And so down here, as you would expect, there's a tell right in the entrance of the opening called Joqneam. 

Beyond that is the Jezreel Valley. It's safe to say you could call that the bread basket of Israel, at least in biblical times. From the Christian perspective, it's sometimes called the Valley of Armageddon. Its strategic importance, of course, is tremendous, because that's where the road comes. And the sound of the jet simply reinforces that there's still strategic importance here of this country in relationship to the countries and the rest of the world around. And it only reinforces that nothing has changed, because the geography hasn't changed. 

I'd like to set the stage by talking about three different characters. When Solomon died, the kingdom broke in half. The northern part of the kingdom, of which this was a part, became an independent state called the nation of Israel. Now, into the history a ways to about 850 B.C., the king of these 10 tribes, Omri, had just died. He was the one - a very important man - who came and established a new capitol south of us a ways at a place called Samaria. He has died and his son, Ahab, has just been appointed king. 

I'd like to pick up with that and read to you just a very short report that the Bible gives in 1 Kings about Ahab. It says, "Ahab, son of Omri, became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria for 22 years." That's fairly long as kings of Israel went. "Ahab, son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat," who would be the first king of these northern 10 tribes, "but he also married Jezebel, daughter of Ithobaal, king of the Sidonians and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him."

Now, that sets the stage. The king of Israel is a man that, according to the Bible's account, did more to take these 10 tribes away from God's way and into a different way than all the kings before him. That's a very, very negative stage set.

His wife, whose name was Jezebel, came from Phoenicia. And the Phoenicians worshiped a particularly radical form of the god Baal, and when the queen mother, Jezebel, became a Baal worshiper, at that point, we can say Baal worship became, at least, a very dominant religious form if not the predominant one.

What's interesting, and I'd like to just have you highlight this point about Ahab, is that Ahab didn't sell out entirely. He had sons who had Yahwistic names. For example, we say in English Ahaziah or he had a son Jotham - both of whom have names with part of the name of God-- we say Yahweh or Jehovah-- the name Yahweh in it, which indicates to some extent Ahab was hanging onto his own religious past and combining that with the introduction of that particularly new religious cult that we call the Baal cult.

So that kind of sets the stage from the king's point of view. He's ruling this part of the country, and he's gradually - and his wife probably more radically - introducing the Baal cult into the everyday lives of people. It was a very modern religion in a way, glorifying the cheapening of human life, glorifying human sexuality, but a religion that was very, very attractive to the common people. And we can honestly say as we look up here that archaeology insists, as does the Bible, that the population of this kingdom of Ahab and this part of the country was definitely buying into the Baal cult.

Appearing on the scene for the first time is a new prophet. In fact, you could say it's the first of the great prophets. Now, it's true, Moses is called a prophet. But the first of those that are truly called prophets is Elijah. Now, I like that first of all that he's named Elijah. Because the word means Yahweh, or Jehovah, Yahweh is God. Or God is Yahweh. The question was being asked by people, "Who is really our god? Is Baal the god who is responsible for this or is Yahweh the god who is responsible for this?"

Ahab is saying both. Jezebel is saying Baal. And Elijah comes and his name, simply by pronouncing it, is making a declaration that the god who is responsible for this is only Yahweh. The Bible picks up with a story of a confrontation, then, between the king and Elijah who was saying, "No. It's only Yahweh." And Elijah shows up from Tishbe in Gilead across the Jordan River, and he said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." 

Now, you need to appreciate what he's saying. It's not just a matter of Elijah is saying, okay, God is going to discipline you with no rain. It's a matter of the god that they are seeking out is the god of rain. So what Elijah is doing or what God is doing is taking the ace, the power of Baal and saying, "God is bigger than that." So the best thing Baal has to offer, God is going to prevent. It's not going to rain. Now, for a Baal worshiper, that created an identity crisis. Because if Baal is the god of rain and it isn't going to rain, who or what is Baal? That's really the point.

Finally, after 3 1/2 years, God comes to Elijah, and he says, "Go back. Present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.

And Ahab says, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel? You pest." 

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's command and have followed the Baals. Now, summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table." 

I just want to highlight that. You're talking 850 prophets of that particular religion - 450 Baal prophets, 400 Asherah prophets - and they assembled on Mount Carmel. 

"Elijah stood up in front of the people and he said, 'How long will you waiver between two opinions?'" What Elijah is confronting is not people who have completely rejected the God of the Bible, but people who are adding to the God of the Bible the god of their own creation. And he's saying, "How long will you waiver between those two opinions. If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal is god, follow him."

Now, what I find very interesting at that point, and very sad in a way, is the next line of that verse, which says, "But the people said nothing." The people said nothing. 

I'd like to take you back to an earlier covenant made south of here, not so very far-- twenty miles, shall we say-- by Joshua, where the people assembled on a mountain, made a covenant, and then Joshua said this, "Fear the Lord and serve him with faithfulness. Throw away the gods of your forefathers, which they worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

This is a similar kind of question. But notice two things. Notice, first of all, this time their reaction. "The people answered, 'Far be it from us to forsake the Lord and serve other gods. It was God who brought us out of Egypt. It was God who brought us into this land. We will serve the Lord because he is our God." No question. 

Elijah comes and he says, "How long are you going to go back and forth between this and this?" And the people said nothing.

Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves. Let them cut it in pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god. I will call on the name of the Lord." It doesn't say, "my god". He says, "I will call on the name of the Lord."

"The god who answers by fire, he is God." 

"The people said, 'What you say is good.'"

"So Elijah says to the prophets, 'Choose a bull. You can have whichever one you want. Prepare it first since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.' So they took the bull and prepared it."

"Then, they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon. 'Answer us,' Baal, they shouted.'" There was no response, no one answered. And they danced around the altar that they had made, and Elijah begins to make fun of them. You remember the story.

He says, "Maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he's in a far country." 

"Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for evening sacrifice. But there was no response. Finally, Elijah said, 'Come here to me.' Then they came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. He took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, 'Your name shall be Israel.' With the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it, enough to hold about 10 gallons of water."

Apparently, there was an altar up here to the Lord that had disintegrated. It wasn't even used anymore. And the point I will make in our faith lesson is to realize that what gave Elijah his power was the fact that Elijah established a relationship with God that existed, and that accessed him to the power of God. Whereas, for the people, that altar had been broken down, and no longer was there a relationship existing between themselves and God. 

"So then Elijah said, 'Fill four large jars with water and pour the water on the wood. Do it again," he said. "Do it a third time," he ordered. And they did it. And the water ran down and even filled the trench. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, 'Oh, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and have done these things at your command.'" And then this verse, "Answer me, oh Lord so these people will know that you oh Lord are God."

Now, that's the heart of the issue, that what Elijah is doing is not simply demonstrating his access to great power, but Elijah is saying what's important to know is that, "through me, people know who is God". The idea that God puts people in culture to do what God calls them to do at their time and in their place so that people will know who is truly God.

Then verse 38. I love this, because you have to imagine a day like this almost. There are a few clouds in the sky, but that day must have been very clear, because it hadn't rained in 3 1/2 years. And it's time of sacrifice, which is probably the 3:00 in the afternoon sacrifice, so we're not far off.

"Then the fire of the Lord fell, burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil, and even licked up the water in the trench. Then there's silence. When the people saw this, they fell flat and cried, 'The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God.'"

Now, do you recognize what they're actually saying? Elijah, Elijah. I love that connection, because in a sense, at that moment, to see Elijah in action is to recognize God. 

"Then Elijah commanded the people, 'Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away.' They seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Valley and had them slaughtered there."

"Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go eat and drink for there is the sound of a heavy rain.' So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees."

So Elijah climbs all the way back up here again. He "bends down and prays. 'Go look toward the sea,' he told his servant, and the servant went and looked. 

"'There's nothing there,' he said."

"Seven times Elijah said, 'Go and look.'" 

"The seventh time, the servant reported, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea.'"

"So Elijah said, 'Go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.' Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds. The wind rose. A heavy rain came on, and Ahab rolled off to Jezreel."

"And the power of the Lord came upon Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel." Not only did he climb down and then back up, but now he went back down and he ran clear to Jezreel ahead of the chariot and got there before Ahab did. Are there questions?

Participant 1: I was just wondering what happened to Ahab and Jezebel after their miracle? Were they converted or did they still keep sinning?

Ray Vander Laan: Very clearly from the Bible, neither Ahab or Jezebel were persuaded.  In the very next chapter, Elijah is running for his life. He's down in the Negev, and he's laying under a broom tree, saying, "God, let me die." 

The very next chapter, Ahab steels that beautiful vineyard of Naboth, and Jezebel has Naboth killed, and they take his vineyard for which, ultimately, Elijah condemns Ahab and Jezebel to God's judgement for what they did. So very clearly, neither of them were persuaded or convinced. Nor, interestingly, were the people of Israel. That demonstration of God's power did not do it. So I think we need to realize, too, in some ways that our living out the presence of God is not suddenly going to persuade everybody that he's real. Right here, please.

Participant 2: I guess I was just struck by the filling of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came and left. And after Christ and Pentecost, we can really be filled with him all the time. And I wonder how much we tap into that feeling and in the power that we could have.

Ray Vander Laan: That's convicting to me, that we have access to that power and God's promise all the time. We have all kinds of people here again - mothers, fathers, homemakers, doctor, construction, teacher, nurse, business people of all kinds. All of you having been given a gift from God, and he said, "Now, if you use that gift for me, as you use it, what you do will show people what I'm like." That means, if I'm going to know what God's like, I ought to be able to watch you. If you want to know what God's like, you ought to be able to watch each other. 

Now, unfortunately, honestly, the Christian community has not been particularly good at that historically. There are a lot of times in my history and in yours maybe and certainly in the history of Christianity where we wouldn't want people to watch us to see God. But that's what God wants.

So for you, for me, our calling is to be what God called us to be. Now, we've talked about how that ought to be in the shaping forces in culture. And that would be wonderful. But today's point is more simply to say what God has called you to be, if you do it for him, people who watch you will see him. 

Dear God, I thank you for what happened on this mountain. It's very easy for us to have our allegiance to more than just you. It's easy to trust in ourselves and our own strength and our own power and our own money and our own abilities. But you've shown us here today that there's only one God. and that's you. And I pray that we would live in such a way that what we do, what we say, how we live, and how we act would make clear to people, that you are God. You are our God and you are working through us. And I just pray you would fill us with such a measure of your Spirit that as we leave here today, we can feel, powerfully, your presence in us and the fact that we can be Elijahs to the world we live in.