“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.”
1 Kings 18:38
The ancient God-fearing society God had promised to Abraham, established through Moses, confirmed in David, and continued with Solomon, was turned upside down when Elijah arrived on the scene. What began with Solomon’s building of sacrificial altars to foreign gods (1 Kings 11) had turned into full-blown worship of false gods over against the Creator God.
Consequently, God’s people were divided between the north and the south, with most tribes following Jeroboam to the north. Currying God’s favor by manufacturing his own sacrificial system, Jeroboam sought blessings without obedience. His self-sufficient wicked actions were rejected. Moreover, Jeroboam’s actions went beyond his own sphere to create an environment, replacing the one true God who provided rain from the heavens (Deut. 11) with Baal, the Canaanite god of fertility and rain. Now, the northern king, Ahab, picks up where Jeroboam left off: seeking blessings (rain) from an alternative source (false gods).
Piercing the fog of confusion sown in the soil of transgression, Elijah’s words rang out sharply and clearly against Ahab and his superficial sacrificial system, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” The heavens are closed.
Without rain, people will not grow crops. Without crops, there is only pain, anxiety, abuse, and death. Judgment (curse) had fallen on God’s people for their unfaithfulness to His Word (Lev. 26; Deut. 28). The heavens were closed. Rain would not come to the disobedient. Their only hope?
God’s compassion.
In His compassion, He sends Elijah. The location is set: Mount Carmel. The people are in place: God’s people and Baal’s people. The challenge is presented: Which God will consume the sacrifice? Which God will prevail as the one who provides rain and blessing upon the earth? Baal tried and failed. God’s fire fell and consumed the sacrifice. The one true–covenant-keeping–God prevailed.
The result? Confession, repentance, and the removal of the priests of Baal. God’s fire fell, and His name was held in honor.
And then, rain. Not from Baal, the so-called rain god, but from the Creator God, who had set His people apart to trust Him in all matters. God’s blessing came through the fires of judgment.
However, in time, these ancient followers of God reverted to the false gods–seeking alternative paths to blessing–stopped following the one true God and were then exiled, subjugated, and dispersed throughout the earth.
Hope seemed dashed—judgment after judgment, but no lasting repentance. Until… piercing the fog of confusion, Jesus enters the temporal, the human, and the agony of wondering image-bearers…God’s compassion arrives once again.
What is the Gospel Application?
- The location is set: Christ ascended the Mount of the Skull.
- The people are in place: God’s people, the religious people, and the politically powerful people.
- The challenge is presented: Will the false god of Tradition and Power prevail against God’s eternal plan of redemption?
When Christ made His way to Golgotha, He did so willingly. The eternal redemptive plan of God was soon to be realized, but it would come at an infinitely significant cost. God would offer His only begotten Son as the only sacrifice acceptable for the sins of the world and the satisfaction of His wrath that has been reserved since Genesis 3.
The fire of God’s judgment would fall from heaven, like at Mount Carmel, on the sacrifice God had prepared. This time, however, judgment would not fall on the priests of Baal but upon God Himself–“…for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”
The outcome?
Rain. Not the kind of rain that grows crops from the earth, not the kind of rain that religious authorities argue is a means to eternal life, not the rain leading to temporal life, but instead the rain–blessing–that comes from above, becoming a “well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Christ took the fire of God’s judgment (curse) as His sacrifice so that He might open the springs of water to us, leading to eternal life (blessing).
— December 13, 2023