The Contest at Carmel (1 Kings 18:17-40)

This sermon was preached on 14/2/2013

The three years of drought with which God judged Israel for her sin of idolatry are about to come to an end. Elijah has left the home of the widow in Zarephath in obedience to the command of God who has told him to go to King Ahab and announce that rain will soon fall over the arid countryside. We are not told how the Lord conveyed this message to his servant. Inevitably one wonders what the effect of the drought would have been on Ahab and on the people in general. We are about to find out, first with regard to Ahab.

The conscience of a rebellious king

When Elijah met Ahab, something strange happened. Instead of Elijah doing what Ahab wanted, Ahab did what Elijah commanded. Elijah wanted the king to arrange for all the people of Israel and all the false prophets to gather at Mount Carmel, and the king did so. The obvious question one wants to ask is why. I think we have an answer in the accusation made by Elijah to the king during their brief interaction. He charged the king and his predecessors of having abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. This accusation went straight to Ahab’s conscience and somehow caused him to do what Elijah wanted.

What is the conscience? It is an inbuilt faculty within each person that tells him he is doing right or wrong. Everyone has a conscience, so why do we not all agree with one another about what is right or wrong? The obvious answer is that the conscience is not infallible. 

What kind of conscience did Ahab have? It looks as if he had a guilty conscience. Although he had departed from the ways of God, Ahab still recognised the authority of God’s servant. When Elijah stated to Ahab that he had departed from God’s standards, a voice inside Ahab said to him that the prophet was right. Often a person with a guilty conscience will try and do the right thing, but we have to remember that doing something right only from a guilty conscience is not commendable. His guilty conscience did not lead Ahab to confess his sins or to desire to live a life marked by repentance.

Paul reminded the Romans that conscience is active in pagan people. He writes concerning Gentiles in Romans 2:14-16: ‘For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.’ In the heart of each person, his conscience witnesses to God’s law written on his heart. This reality should encourage us when speaking to people about the existence of sin in their lives. And we can safely deduce that if God’s law and conscience work together in the inner lives of pagans, they will also work together in the hearts of people like Ahab who have some knowledge of the law of God.

Conscience in believers

Conscience does not only function in the lives of unbelievers but is also at work within the hearts of Christians. What kinds of conscience can be found in Christians? There is an uninformed or weak conscience as well as its opposite, a strong conscience. 

Paul deals with these aspects in his first letter to the Corinthians when he discusses meat eaten at a meal held in the pagan temples (1 Cor. 8). Before the animals had been killed, they had been offered in sacrifice to the gods. Some Christians had a strong conscience about eating them because they knew the idols did not exist. Other Christians had a weak conscience because they thought that eating the animals meant they would be participating in the pagan ritual. What does Paul say they should do? Well, it all depends on who is there. If a Christian with a weak conscience is present, don’t eat the meat. Don’t try and convince him against his conscience. Don’t make him go against his conscience, because if he does he will be sinning, and so also will the strong Christian. Brotherly love is a higher duty that liberty of conscience. A strong conscience is not always the same as a good conscience. Expressing a strong conscience in such a situation will result in the person not having a good conscience because he will have not shown brotherly love.

What about a meal with a pagan neighbour when the weak Christian is not present (1 Cor. 10:27-28)? Both the Christian and the pagan neighbour who arranged the feast know that the food has previously been offered to idols. If the pagan neighbour does not see any significance in connection with what happened with the animal, enjoy the meal. However, if he insists on stressing that the animal previously was offered to an idol, don’t eat it, even if you have a strong conscience. Christian witness, especially with regard to the worship of God, should never be compromised, even when you know that the pagan rituals are meaningless. A higher principle than a strong conscience is confessing the Lordship of Christ and the efficacy of his sacrifice, which cannot be compromised.

What is important is that a Christian should have a good conscience rather than a weak or a strong one. In order for this to happen he or she must study what God says about it in his Word. A merely strong conscience and a weak conscience will only cause problems. Paul several times mentions that ministers must have a good conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12: ‘For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so towards you’; 2 Corinthians 4:2: ‘But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practise cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God’). He teaches that deacons ‘must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience’ (1 Tim. 3:9). Paul also mentions that Christians should exercise their conscience when obeying the civil authorities (Rom. 13;5: ‘Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience’). The writer to the Hebrews says we should pray for a good conscience: ‘Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honourably in all things’ (Heb. 13:18).

Elijah had a good conscience, not merely a strong one, and we need to remember this as we make our way through the incident and observe what he says and does, especially when directs the process of sacrifice and when he slays all the false prophets.

The challenge to a lukewarm Israel (v. 21)

Previously there had been an altar to the Lord at Carmel (v. 30). It is likely that the altar had been located there before a central sanctuary had been built in Jerusalem by Solomon. Perhaps faithful worshippers had resumed using it when it was no longer possible to go to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. These people would have preferred an authentic site rather than the locations and practices arranged by Jeroboam in Bethel and Dan. There is some significance in Elijah wanting to go there for the contest, which may be its historical connections to God’s worship. Sadly, the altar there had been dismantled, probably by the false prophets or by the civil authorities.

Elijah observed that the crowd were in neutral mode, a very common position when facing a challenge. How did he know they were? Because they limped back and fore between God and Baal. One day they were for God, the next day they were for Baal. In other words, they were without convictions. The image of limping is a very powerful word picture and illustrates how participating in a mixture of worship does not generate spiritual strength.

When Elijah challenged them, they remained silent. We are not told why. Perhaps it was the silence of carefulness, after all the king was there and he could not be offended! And he could mete out punishment on those who offended him. Maybe it was the silence of confusion caused by the possibility they did not know what Elijah was talking about. After all, it does not take long for an understanding of God’s ways to disappear from our minds without regular instruction. Possibly it was the silence of conscience as they felt the truthfulness of Elijah’s challenge and knew they could not defend their previous indifference to the things of God. Maybe all three responses, and others, were present.

But they did like a competition, so they accepted Elijah’s proposed method of having fire come down from heaven from the true God and accepting either the sacrifice of Elijah or the sacrifice of the false prophets. Those who knew the history of Israel would be aware that the Lord had used fire before while those who knew a bit about the religion of Baal would know that he was meant to be like the flaming ball of fire in the sky (the sun). They looked forward, we might say, for clarification from God and not merely the assertions of a strange-looking prophet. 

The contest and its champion

I don’t want to say very much about the absurd antics of the prophets of Baal. Their actions do tell us that earnestness, diligence and perseverance are not sufficient as far as God is concerned. The fact is, we can be wrong enthusiastically or we can be wrong calmly, but what is important seriously is that we are wrong! I suppose the reference to midday highlights Baal’s impotence because that was when the sun was at its strongest (v. 26). Elijah’s irony only makes clear the inability of false gods to do anything.

At the same time, we must remember that there was a battle going on in the invisible world. Behind the religion of Baal was the kingdom of darkness. We know that they are capable of doing some things as was evidence when some of Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate several of the plagues of Moses. But here they are prevented from doing anything, a reminder that the Lord controls the invisible world as well as the visible.

What stands out immediately in the story is the courage of Elijah. There he is, standing alone. When he says that he is the only prophet in Israel, he means the only prophet that is present there in contrast to the large number of false prophets of Baal – it is not clear if the ones that Jezebel entertained at her table had been informed or been allowed to come to the contest). Elijah was aware that there were other true prophets (Obadiah had told him about them). 

Yet we must remember what James said about him, that he was a man just like us. We make a mistake if we try and explain his courage by looking at his natural traits. In fact, soon he will not show courage when he flees from Jezebel. Instead Elijah is an example of a weak individual who found his strength in the Lord. We should think about Elijah when we read Paul’s exhortations in Ephesians 6 to be strong in the Lord and put on the spiritual armour he provides.

The other feature that is obvious is Elijah’s confidence in God and his willingness to prove how great his God is. We can see this when he gets people to pour water on the altar. Of course, we know that even if he had built a canal down to the Mediterranean Sea and flooded the altar with a lot more water, it would not have been harder for God to send down the fire. Yet Elijah wanted the people to see how capable his God was. 

Why did he do this? Because he believed what God said about himself in his Word. His God was the One who had astounded the Egyptians by his mighty acts at the Exodus; his God was the One who had confused the inhabitants of Canaan by his mighty acts under Joshua. So Elijah proceeded to show to the people what God can do. His attitude here is very challenging. Perhaps if we had been there, we would have told him to calm down. But those that know their God will do exploits for him.

There is a third feature that may not be so obvious and that is Elijah’s longing that God’s people would be united. They had been divided into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. How did Elijah show this longing? He did so in three ways. First, he rebuilt the altar using twelve stones, symbolising the twelve tribes of Israel (the original altar probably dated from before the time the temple had been built in Jerusalem). Then he arranged for twelve jarfuls of water to be thrown on to the altar. Thirdly, he offered his sacrifice at the same time as the evening sacrifice would have been done in the temple in Jerusalem.

Elijah models for us the type of people we need to be – courageous, confident in God and longing for God’s cause to be one. That is the kind of church leaders we need, and we should pray that God would raise them up. But it is also the kind of Christians we need, because we don’t want leaders who have to stand alone.