1 Kings 18:21 - Meaning and Application

Ahab and the people expected Elijah, in this solemn meeting, to bless the land and pray for rain. But he had to deal with a deeper problem first. The people needed to repent and change their ways before they could expect God to remove the judgment on the land. That is the right order. God first prepares our hearts and then hears us, first turns us to himself and then turns toward us (Psalm 10:17; Psalm 80:3).

People who have wandered away from God should not expect his favor until they return to loyal obedience. Elijah could have prayed for rain many times and still seen none, if he had not begun in the right place. Three and a half years of famine would not bring them back to God by itself. So Elijah tried to convince their minds, and he did so under clear direction from heaven, by bringing the question between God and Baal into a public test.

It was a great mercy from God that he allowed such a clear matter to be examined openly, even letting Baal seem like a rival. In this way, God would silence every mouth and leave all people still before him. God’s cause is so plainly right that it does not fear close examination.

Elijah first rebuked the people for trying to mix the worship of God with the worship of Baal. It was not just that some Israelites worshiped God and others worshiped Baal. The same people sometimes worshiped one and sometimes the other. Elijah calls this “halting between two opinions,” meaning they were wavering and unsure in their loyalties (1 Kings 18:21). They worshiped God to satisfy the prophets, but Baal to please Jezebel and gain favor at court. They tried to keep both sides happy, like the Samaritans who mixed worship in a confused way (2 Kings 17:33).

Elijah shows how foolish this is. He does not begin by arguing, “Is not Jehovah your God, the God of your fathers, while Baal is only the god of the Sidonians?” (Jeremiah 2:11). Instead, he goes straight to the main issue: there can be only one true God, one supreme Lord, and one all-sufficient helper. Nothing needs to be added to what is already perfect. If Baal were proved to be that one true, all-sufficient God, then they should leave Jehovah and follow Baal alone. But if Jehovah is that one God, then Baal is a fraud, and they must have nothing more to do with him.

It is a very evil thing to waver between God and Baal. In matters where there is no deep conflict, it may be wise to stay neutral. But where there is real opposition, as between God and Baal, the person who is not with God is against him. Compare (Mark 9:38-39) with (Matthew 21:30). The same is true of the service of God and the service of sin, or the rule of Christ and the rule of our own sinful desires. People halt between these two when they are not settled under conviction, when they are unstable in purpose, when they make fine promises but do not carry them out, when they start well but do not continue, or when they are cold and careless about what is good. Their heart is divided (Hosea 10:2), but God wants all or nothing.

We are fairly put to our choice about whom we will serve (Joshua 24:15). If we can find someone who has a better claim on us than God, or who will be a better master, we may follow that one, but we do so at our own risk. God asks nothing from us that he cannot rightly claim.

When Elijah set the matter before them so plainly, the people had no answer. They could not speak to justify themselves, and they would not speak to condemn themselves. So they stood silent, confused, and unable to reply.

Elijah then proposed a fair test, and it was even fairer because Baal had every outward advantage. The king and court supported Baal, and most of the people did too. Baal’s side had 450 prophets, who were well fed and comfortable (1 Kings 18:22), plus 400 more to support them (1 Kings 18:19). God’s side had only one man, and he had recently been a poor exile, barely kept from starvation. So God’s cause had nothing to support it except its own rightness.

Still, Elijah said they should each prepare a sacrifice and pray to their god, and the God who answered by fire would be the true God. If neither answered, the people should give up both sides and become atheists, or if both answered, they could keep wavering between them. Elijah surely had special command from God to do this. Otherwise, it would have been tempting God and insulting true religion. But this was an unusual case, and the result would help not only then but in later times too.

Elijah’s courage shows in that he dared to stand alone for God against such great numbers and such strong power. The outcome encourages all who witness for God never to fear human faces. Elijah does not ask for the God who answers by water, though rain was what the country needed. He asks for the God who answers by fire, because sacrifice had to come before judgment could be removed in mercy. The God who can forgive sin and show it by consuming the offering must also be the God who can relieve the land of its trouble. The one who can give fire can also give rain (Matthew 9:2, Matthew 9:6).

The people agreed. They said, “What you say is good” (1 Kings 18:24). They accepted the proposal as fair and beyond complaint. God had often answered by fire, and if Baal could not do so, then he should be cast out as a false god. They were eager to see the test and seemed ready to accept the result, whatever it might be. Those who were truly for God expected it would honor him. Those who were undecided were willing to be settled. Ahab and the prophets of Baal did not dare oppose the plan, because they feared the people. They may also have hoped they could somehow get fire from heaven, though they had never done so before. Some think they worshiped the sun in Baal, and may have hoped that would help their case. Or they may have thought Elijah could not succeed because he was not at the temple, where God usually showed his glory in that way. If they could only force a draw, their other advantages might still give them the victory.

So the contest went forward. The prophets of Baal went first, but their effort failed. They wanted the first turn, partly for honor and partly so that, if they gained even a little advantage, Elijah might not be allowed to continue the test. Elijah let them have the lead, which would only add to their shame. But knowing that Satan can work with lying signs, he made sure there was no trickery: no fire was to be put underneath.

Now observe in their attempt how eager and loud the prophets of Baal were as they called on him.

They got their sacrifices ready, and we can imagine the noise 450 men made as they cried together with all their strength, “O Baal, hear us! O Baal, answer us!” They kept it up for hours, longer than the worshipers of Diana did when they shouted, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” (Acts 19:34). Their way of praying shows how foolish and wild they were.

First, they leaped around the altar like fools, as if they might become sacrifices themselves along with their bullock, or at least to show how eager they were. Some think they danced about the altar, hoping their movements would please their god. They acted as if a god could be won over by tricks and excitement, like Herod, who was pleased by Herodias. Like madmen, they also cut themselves with knives and blades (1 Kings 18:28), either out of frustration because no answer came, or in a kind of false religious frenzy, hoping to gain favor by offering their own blood when their bullock had not worked.

God never asked his worshipers to honor him that way. Yet the service of the devil, though it may at times flatter the body, is cruel in other ways, as in envy and drunkenness. This was the custom of Baal worshipers. God clearly forbade his people to cut themselves (Deuteronomy 14:1). He does call us to put to death our sinful desires and corruptions, but bodily punishments and harsh acts, such as those used in some false religions, do not help with that. “Who has asked this from your hand?”

Second, Elijah spoke very sharply to them (1 Kings 18:27). He stood by while they prayed to an idol for hours, and he heard them with patient contempt. Then at noon, when the sun was hottest and they were expecting fire most of all, he mocked their foolishness. Though he was a prophet and had serious work before him, he said, “Cry louder, for he is a god. Maybe he is talking, or thinking, or busy elsewhere, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

Elijah meant, in effect, that their god was too busy, too careless, or too weak to answer. The worship of idols is a truly foolish thing, and it is right to expose it to scorn. That does not justify making fun of people who worship God in Christ just because they do not worship in the same way. Baal’s prophets were not corrected by Elijah’s rebuke. They only grew more wild and more ridiculous. Their deceived hearts had led them astray, and they could not save themselves by admitting, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Third, Baal stayed silent the whole time. Elijah did not stop them, but let them continue until they were worn out and had lost all hope, which was not until the time of the evening sacrifice (1 Kings 18:29). During those hours some prayed while others prophesied, and some likely sang hymns to Baal or encouraged the others to keep going, promising that he would answer at last. But there was no answer at all, and no one paid attention. Idols can do neither good nor evil.

If God had allowed him, the prince of the power of the air, Satan, could have brought fire down from heaven on this occasion, and he would gladly have done it to support Baal. We see something like that in the beast who deceives the world, who makes fire come down from heaven in front of people and so deceives them (Revelation 13:13-14). But God would not let the devil do that here, because the matter had been agreed to as a test.

Then Elijah quickly received an answer by fire from his God. The Baal worshipers had to give up their case, and now it was Elijah’s turn to present his. We now see whether he will succeed better.

First, he repaired an altar. He would not use theirs, because it had been polluted by prayers to Baal. Instead, he found the ruins of an older altar that had once been used in the Lord’s service and rebuilt it (1 Kings 18:30). This showed that he was not bringing in a new religion, but restoring the faith and worship of their fathers’ God and calling them back to their first love and first works. He could not bring them to the altar at Jerusalem unless the two kingdoms were reunited, and God had not chosen to do that now. So, by prophetic authority, he built an altar on Mount Carmel and acknowledged the one that had stood there before.

When we cannot carry reform as far as we would like, we should still do what we can. It is better to allow some faults than to fail to do all we can to drive out Baal. He repaired the altar with twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel (1 Kings 18:31). Even though ten tribes had turned to Baal, Elijah still counted them as belonging to God because of the covenant with their fathers. Though those ten tribes were sadly separated from the other two in political life, they were still one in the worship of the God of Israel.

The text mentions that God called their father Jacob by the name Israel, a prince with God (1 Kings 18:31). This shamed his degenerate children, who worshiped a god they could plainly see could not hear or answer them. It also encouraged Elijah, who was about to wrestle with God as Jacob had done. He, too, would be a prince with God.

He built his altar in the name of the Lord (1 Kings 18:32), by God’s direction and with his eye on God, not for his own honor. Then he prepared his sacrifice (1 Kings 18:33). There was the bullock and the wood, but where was the fire? (Genesis 22:7-8). God himself would provide the fire. If we truly offer our hearts to God, he will light them with his grace and kindle holy fire in them.

Elijah was not a priest, and his helpers were not Levites, meaning men from the tribe set apart for temple service. Carmel had no tabernacle or temple, and it was far from the ark of the covenant and the place God had chosen. This was not the altar that made the gift holy. Yet never was a sacrifice more acceptable to God than this one. The special Levitical laws were so often set aside at different times, such as in the days of the judges, in Samuel’s time, and now, that one might think they were mainly meant as pictures pointing forward to gospel truths, rather than laws to be kept only in the strictest sense. Their passing away in use, as Paul says, pointed to their complete end after a little while (Colossians 2:22; Hebrews 8:13).

Then he ordered plenty of water to be poured over the altar, and he had dug a trench around it to catch the water (1 Kings 18:32). Some think he even made the altar hollow.

Twelve barrels of water, probably seawater since the sea was nearby, were poured on the sacrifice. In that drought, fresh water was too valuable for Elijah to waste, so seawater is the likely meaning. He poured it over the offering three times over to remove any suspicion of hidden fire, and to make the coming miracle even more impressive.

Then Elijah turned to God in prayer before the altar. He humbly asked God to burn up the burnt offering, as the psalm says, and to show that he accepted it (Psalm 20:3). His prayer was not long. He did not use empty repetition or think God would hear him because he spoke at length.

Still, his prayer was serious and calm. It showed a steady mind, very different from the excited frenzy of Baal’s prophets (1 Kings 18:36, 1 Kings 18:37). Although he was not at the temple in Jerusalem, he chose the time of the evening sacrifice to show his worship was joined to the worship at Jerusalem. And though he expected fire from heaven, he came near the altar boldly and was not afraid of it.

He spoke to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. By doing this, he trusted God’s old covenant promise and reminded the people of their bond with God and with the patriarchs. He asked for two things. First, he wanted God’s glory to be seen, so all would know that the Lord alone is God in Israel, and that Elijah was only God’s servant, acting by his command, not by his own feelings or ambition. He was not seeking his own fame, only what was needed to clear his name and honor God.

Second, he prayed for the people’s good. He asked that they would know the Lord and have their hearts turned back to him through this miracle. The miracle would be a means of bringing them back, so that God might return to them in mercy.

God answered at once by fire (1 Kings 18:38). Elijah’s God was not sleeping or absent, and he did not need to be stirred up. While Elijah was still speaking, the fire of the Lord fell. It did more than burn the sacrifice and the wood, showing that God accepted the offering. It also licked up all the water in the trench, drying it out and drawing it up like vapor, preparing for the rain that would soon come. That rain would not be the result of natural causes alone, but the fruit of this sacrifice and prayer.

This also reminds us that God makes the clouds rise and sends lightning for the rain (Psalm 135:7). He did both here. But for those who fall under the fire of God’s wrath, no water can protect them, not even briers or thorns (Isaiah 27:4, Isaiah 27:5). And the miracle was not finished yet. The fire burned up the stones of the altar and even the dust, proving it was no ordinary fire. It may also have shown that, although God accepted this one altar for this special occasion, the people should destroy the altars on the high places and use only the altar in Jerusalem for regular sacrifices.

Moses’s altar and Solomon’s altar had been honored by fire from heaven, but this altar was destroyed because it was no longer to be used. We can only imagine the fear that seized guilty Ahab and all the worshipers of Baal, as they ran from the fire and cried out that it would consume them too, echoing Numbers 16:34.

The result of this test was clear. The prophets of Baal had failed completely and could offer no support for their false god. Elijah, by the clearest proof, had shown the truth on behalf of the God of Israel. Now the people, like a jury, gave their verdict. They all fell on their faces and said together, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God” (1 Kings 18:39). The case was so plain that they did not need to deliberate.

One would hope that they would have gone on to say, “If he is God, then he shall be our God, and we will serve him only” (Joshua 24:24). Some likely did turn their hearts back to God, but most were only convinced, not converted. They agreed that God is the true God, but they did not enter his covenant as their own God. Happy are those who have not seen what these people saw, yet have believed and been changed more than they were. This should stand forever as a settled judgment against every false claim: after a full hearing, even against one of the boldest rivals ever to challenge the God of Israel, it was proven that the Lord alone is God.

Then the prophets of Baal were seized, condemned, and put to death according to the law (1 Kings 18:40). If the Lord is the true God, then Baal is a false god. These Israelites had turned away from the true God and led others into Baal worship, so the law required their death (Deuteronomy 13:1-11). No further proof of their guilt was needed, since all Israel had witnessed it. Elijah, still acting under special divine authority that cannot be made into a general rule, ordered them to be killed at once as men who had troubled the land.

Ahab was so shaken by the fire from heaven that he did not stop it. These were the 450 prophets of Baal. The 400 prophets of the Asherah poles, probably Sidonians, had been summoned too (verse 19), but it seems they did not come, and so escaped this execution. Perhaps Ahab and Jezebel thought that was fortunate. Yet in the end it only meant they were being kept for another time, when they would help bring about Ahab’s downfall by urging him to go up to Ramoth-gilead (Deuteronomy 22:6).