Idol Worship

1 Kings 18: 20-39

 Galatians 1: 1-12

If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is God, follow him.

Elijah throws down a gauntlet on this day to all the people who have been worshiping the god Baal because of the drought that had surrounded the land for the last three years. The Israelites were fed up with the drought and decided to follow King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s lead and began to worship their gods in the hope that these additional prayers to another god would bring on rain to their parched land.

However, what they ended up doing is making the Lord very mad. Elijah comes to the King and Queen and asks them to assemble the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah to Mount Carmel. Elijah had a plan, and it was inspired by God. When all the prophets and the people of Israel had come up to Mt Carmel, Elijah stood before them and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is God, follow him.”

For Elijah it was that simple, however it was not so simple to the people. Drought is hard. It makes food scarce and fires rage; it brings doubt and heartache to everyone. If God loves the people so much, why is the Lord letting them suffer like this? Perhaps it is better to worship all the gods in the hope one of them will answer since the Lord seems rather quiet lately in response to all our prayers.

Does this sound familiar?

I’ve prayed and prayed to God about this and I never hear a thing back. Is Jesus really listening? Does God care at all about me and my problems? Is Jesus busy helping someone else and doesn’t have time for me? Maybe I should stop praying and do whatever I have to do to fix the problem on my own.

We’re not so different from the people of Israel. We get fed up with God’s perceived silences as well. We turn to other things to help us cope with our problems, with our issues, with our troubles. We call it being logical and practical and sensible. Elijah wants nothing to do with the practical and logical and sensible. He has ultimate faith in the Lord and he assembles all of the prophets and the people to witness what the difference is between gods like Baal and the Lord God.

First, he tells them he is the only prophet the Lord has left compared to the 450 Baal has standing here today. Then he asks for two bulls and allows the Baal prophets to choose which bull would please their god. So they do and each prepare their bull by cutting it up into pieces and putting kindling around for a fire, but Elijah asks them to not light the fire yet. He tells them that they will each call on their god and see which one responds and lights the fire for the sacrifice.

Everyone agreed that this was a great plan and they began their work. The Baal prophets called upon Baal from the morning until noon for the god to light the fire at the altar with no response. After awhile, Elijah is starting to get a little fed up and begins to taunt the prophets. “Shout louder! Perhaps your god is busy or deep in thought or out travelling! Maybe he’s sleeping and needs to be awakened!”

Elijah did this for two reasons. He wanted them to believe that they had done everything they could possibly have done to make Baal respond if he was a true god, and he was also fed up watching these people worship a god that wasn’t real. They were worshipping an idol.

Sometimes when we are paying attention, we can recognize when others are worshipping idols as well. We see extreme examples in the news and social media all the time. When young girls swoon over singers like Justin Bieber and One Direction, and spend more time mooning over pictures of these young men than they do praying to God. When we see adults posting a constant stream of political hate on facebook instead of praying to God to unite our country. When we see grandparents more concerned with the tattoos and piercings their grandchildren have instead of praying the graduates will get a job after they leave university in this tough economy. When we see a person so engrossed in their smartphone that they miss what is happening around them like their child’s homerun or the hurt on their date’s face because they didn’t hear a word they just said. When a person is so consumed with making money or losing weight or spreading gossip or whatever it else that consumes people instead of being consumed by thoughts of God.

We create idols today just like the Israelites created an idol to worship during the drought. We don’t call them idols or gods anymore, but when we spend more time thinking about those things like what we will watch on television tonight or what we will wear to work tomorrow than we do concerning ourselves with what God wants we have created an idol. We too often think that these things can make us happy and satisfy us. The problem is that they do for awhile. For a little while it is enough to do these things and we will feel satisfied, but it is when the real problems come that we find ourselves turning back to God and wondering when we lost touch with the Lord.

Elijah decides that there will be no more idol worshipping. He is putting a stop to all of this talk about Baal ending the drought and being the true god. After a whole day of the prophets calling out to Baal without a response, Elijah ask them to follow him to the altar that had been torn down. He repairs the Lord’s altar and sets the kindling and meat on it. Then he asks them to pour water over top of it all. Not once, not twice, but three times until water has filled the trench dug around the altar and the kindling and meat are completely soaked.

Remember, Elijah is out to prove a point! He has them soak the altar because NO human could make that sacrifice burn with how much water lay around it. He has them soak the altar because it is a time of drought and Elijah is saying that this precious water will be used because he trusts in God to bring the rain to end the drought just as much as he trusts the Lord to light this fire today when Elijah calls upon the Lord’s name.

Then Elijah says a simple prayer. He calls upon the Lord with a two sentence prayer, heartfelt and plainly spoken. There was nothing fancy in what he said or did. He did not shed his blood as the Baal prophets did. He did not dance around the altar. He did not wear a fancy robe. He did not light candles or listen to certain music. He prayed. The Lord answered.

The fire of the Lord came down upon the altar and burnt everything. The kindling, the meat, the water in the trench, and the stones surrounding it – everything was consumed by the fire. Suddenly, the people fell to their knees and began to worship the Lord again.

God is not going to do the same thing here today to make you let go of your idols. Only you can make that choice. You know the things you worship more than you do Jesus. You know the things that you let consume your thoughts and days. You know the things that you have more faith in than you do the Lord. Someone asked me the other day how I have faith all the time. How did I get so blessed?

The truth is that faith is not something that is given. Faith is an action. It’s hard work. It’s a response to our belief in the Lord. The more we believe in God and what God can do, the more we find faith helps us through the rougher moments of our lives. It does not mean we do not doubt, but we do not let our doubts turn us to idols. And when we do find ourselves worshipping things more than we do God, our deep belief in Jesus is what helps us to recognize these failings and get back on track and back to being faithful to the Lord again.

Elijah asks them a question and I will ask you the same: How long will you waver between two opinions? How long will you try to worship both the Lord and material things?

Amen.