The God Who Answers - 1 Kings 18:17-39

A few years ago, I had to sort out one of those boring administrative issues with the government department. I won't say which government department it is, because guaranteed, like it's Canberra, someone here is gonna work there. And then you will feel like it's your fault, and I know it's not your fault. Government department unnamed. I had to fix one of those really annoying administrative issues. And so I went online and I thought a quick phone call should do it. That was my first mistake. I called the number, I found the number online, I called it, and it rang. And I thought, this is great, do you know how it gives you the ringing noise? And I thought, fantastic, someone's gonna answer. And then it was answered, but it was answered by an automated voice. And that automated voice told me how much they valued my call. I mean, not enough to answer it, but they valued it all the same. And it told me I was in a queue and that they would pick up soon enough.And then it played me some jazz. And I'm not a huge fan of jazz, and it was this very irritating jazz tune. It played me that for five minutes, and then the phone rang. And I thought, praise God, this is awesome. And I got the voice again. We value your call. You're in the queue. We will answer it shortly. And then I got five minutes of jazz, and then that went on for hours. I'm not exaggerating. I could see the time on my phone, and it went on for hours. And then the phone rang again, and I thought, this is it. Like after two hours, this is it. And then in some act of great mercy, the phone line went there.

And I didn't call back. I called the next day, and we played the same game again. This day, I was a bit smarter. After half an hour, I hung up. And in the end, I discovered after days and hours of being on hold that I'd actually found the wrong number. That I wasn't even calling the number for that department. It was some number for some team that must have disappeared. I don't even know how I found it or where I found it. I should have been more careful. But they were never going to answer. They weren't there. They couldn't answer my call. I suspect we've all felt that similar feeling. We've all been on hold before. We've all known what it is like to listen to that irritating jazz music on repeat. I suspect we all know what it's like to be calling out and to not have an answer.I think on a deeper level, we probably know what it's like to put our hope in something, to wait on that thing and feel like it's always just out of reach. And feel like it's always just out of reach. That's exactly when we come to One Kings 18, where a whole nation finds themselves. They haven't stopped calling out. They've just been calling out to something that was never going to answer them. And they've been calling out for years. Last week when we left Elijah, he was in Zarephath. He was with the widow. And God had miraculously provided for him there.Three years have passed. Three years since Elijah first went to Ahab and said, "There's going to be a drought." And now three years later, the drought, the impact on the land and on the people has been catastrophic. And God speaks again and he says to Elijah, "Go once more to Ahab and tell him the rain is going to come soon."

But before the rain comes, there's going to be a confrontation in front of all the people. It's going to be a moment where they get to see which God answers them. And so as we turn to One Kings 18, you can turn there if you have a Bible with you. Otherwise, the verses will come up on the screen behind me.(...) We're going to see three things this morning as we work through the passage. Firstly, we're going to see the blame laid on the faithful. Then we're going to see the trouble of divided loyalty. And then third, we're going to see the mercy of the God who answers. And so turn to verse 17 and to our first point. "When Ahab saw him," speaking about Elijah, he exclaimed, "So is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?" "I have made no trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshipped the images of Baal instead." Ahab at this point has spent three years searching for Elijah. Elijah has been hidden by God at the brook, Kerath, and then he was moved to Zarephath. But notice that when Ahab sees him, he doesn't say, "Elijah, where have you been? I've searched the entire land and I haven't been able to find you. Where have you been hiding?" He doesn't say that. Instead, he says, "You troublemaker of Israel." You troublemaker of Israel.

Remember, Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He is the one who is responsible for leading God's covenant people to be faithful to God. Now he looks at the prophet of God through whom God is speaking and he says to him, "Elijah, you are the problem. You are the problem."The word he uses here is the Hebrew word "achah." It means to bring disaster upon. He says, "Elijah, you are the reason this is happening, this drought, this catastrophe that has hit the land. Elijah, it is your fault. You have brought this down on us."

But it's exactly the opposite that's actually happening. Ahab is the one who has led God's people into the worship of Baal. We saw in week one back in Deuteronomy that God had said, "If you follow idols, if you worship idols, this will be the consequence, the covenant people of God, of the Israelites, that they would face drought as a consequence for their idolatry."

So Elijah hasn't caused the drought. He simply said, "God is going to do what he has said he will do. As a judgment for your sin, this is the consequence. God has declared it, he's spoken it, and now it's going to happen. "And so it's judgment, but we also saw in first one, it's also mercy. It's God's mercy to bring the hearts of the people back. And so Ahab blames Elijah. And that shouldn't be a surprise to us because Elijah's faithfulness, his faithful life, made Ahab's unfaithfulness really obvious and made his unfaithfulness really visible.

I wonder if you've seen that in our world today. I wonder if you've ever seen that a life lived in light of the truth of God's Word will often make the lives around it visible as well. And when people feel that, when they see it, they'll often look for someone to blame. The world loves a journey of self-discovery. They love a journey of self-discovery. They love it if you were to go to your next door neighbors today and say, "I'm searching for meaning. I'm searching for truth." They'd probably think, "This is great. This is a noble task." And so the world loves the search just as long as you never say you've found it. Just as long as you never say that you've found meaning, that you've found truth, the moment you say you've found it, you're making a claim about what faithfulness to God looks like. And sometimes people will see that and they'll condemn you for it.

This morning, maybe some of you are feeling that way. And if you are feeling that way, you are in good company. And the reason you're in good company is because it happens here to Elijah. He's condemned for his faithfulness to God. But we also see it in Jesus too, don't we? When he's on trial, the accusation that's made against him is that he's causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes. Jesus speaks the truth and it causes a riot. Then we have Paul. In Caesarea, Paul is called a troublemaker who's stirring up riots because he's faithful to the gospel. The New Testament tells us that you and I should expect this same treatment. Peter speaks about it. John speaks about it. Paul tells Timothy, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life will face persecution."

And there's something important there for us this morning.

And I want to say this really clearly. Facing persecution is not the same as going looking for it.There'll be Christians around you, and I've met plenty of them, who will claim they're being persecuted. But actually what they're doing is they're being offensive. They're using their words in a way that is unkind. They're not speaking truth in love. They're being unkind. They're being careless. They're not having a compassionate heart. And when that happens, the offense is not at the gospel, it's at us. So how do we respond then when we're like Elijah and we face condemnation for our faithfulness? Paul actually gives us a model that's in 1 Corinthians 4. He says, "We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us." Now those are all the opposites of how my human nature wants to respond. I don't know, maybe it's just me or probably sitting there thinking I can tick all those boxes. But I tell you what, when I'm feeling abused, when I'm feeling like people are saying evil things about me, the last thing I want to do is respond with kindness, respond with blessing, respond with patience. Appeal gently in reply.

But Paul gives us that model. He says, "This is how the faithful believer in Christ responds to being condemned." We respond with gentleness, with blessing. We appeal gently. And so Elijah, he responds to Ahab. He isn't defensive. He's not argumentative. He isn't rude. He speaks the truth plainly and courageously. He says, "Ahab, you've got it all wrong. It's not me. It's you and your family. You are the ones who have made the trouble for this land because you refuse to obey the commands of the law."

You see, Ahab is wrong about who has caused the trouble, but he's not wrong that they're in trouble. And Elijah shows him what the cause of the trouble is in front of all the people there in verse 19. Let's turn there. Elijah says, "Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who were supported by Jezebel." So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel.

Ahab wouldn't have been used to people telling him what to do, but Elijah comes and says, "Hey, Ahab,(...) go and get all the prophets and bring them together, all the prophets that Jezebel has been providing for everyone that is on your side. Bring them along and go and call all the people together. We're going to have this showdown on Mount Carmel." And that location is not an accident. It's not like Elijah just pointed at the nearest mountain. Instead, he says, "Go to Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is in the north. It's on the border between Israel and Phoenicia." Remember, Phoenicia is Jezebel's homeland. It's like this barrier between Israel, the promised land that God had given his people, and Jezebel's country, the land of Baal in the north. On that mountain range was an altar to Baal that had been set up, and there was also an altar to the Lord which had been torn down. And so Elijah says, "Go get them,"and Ahab does it. And then Elijah speaks in verse 21.

Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How much longer will you waver?"(...) Hobbling between two opinions, "If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him."(...) But the people were completely silent.

This week, I took our middle child, our 11-year-old Judah, I took him to Sydney for a couple of days, and we went and did some stuff that he was super keen to do. We went to the Lego store. If you've been there, it's a pretty impressive place. He loves his Lego. We went to the Maritime Museum. We also did some stuff I wanted to do. It's his birthday present, but he got to spend some time with Dad. And so we went to the football at Brookvale Oval. I hope you've been to Brookvale. It's one of the wonders of the world. We watched the mighty manly seagulls, our team, who were abysmal. It was the first time in 33 years that they have played at home and not scored a point. That's how bad it was. But Kyle mentioned to me this morning that this is like a historic game that we got to be there for. Not the kind of history that I want to watch. But Brookvale is just a small ground. And so there isn't much room for the supporters of the opposition. So it's like 95% manly supporters, which is great. These are good people. 5% dolphin supporters. But there is always, at every game, it's probably the same across sports, there was always one person who's wearing a jersey for a team who's not even playing.(...) And that really annoys me. I don't know why, but it just annoys me. They put the jersey on, they've turned up like, I'm always like, did they forget who was playing? Did they come to the wrong ground? Are they disappointed? There's always that one person who is wearing a jersey for a team who's not playing and then supports whichever team is winning. And again, that annoys me. So there's the manly fans cheering for manly, not much cheering to be honest. There was the dolphin few that were cheering. And then there's that one random person who's cheering for whoever has the ball.

This is the picture that Elijah is painting. He is saying to them, you are hobbling between two gods. He uses that word hobbling. And in the Hebrew, it literally meant to walk on uneven legs. So to have one leg that was over an uneven length and to limp from side to side, to lurch from side to side, so much so that you couldn't walk in a straight line.(...) And this is what he says to the people. He says, this is what you're doing.(...) You've got one foot in either camp. And as a result, you're not living like you should be. So he says to them, how long are you going to go on living like this? How long are you going to go on living like this? It has been three years without a drop of rain, three years of praying to Baal who was supposed to be in charge of the weather and nothing.(...) In effect, Elijah is saying, how many more times are you going to ask Yahweh, your God, to prove himself? He brought your ancestors out of Egypt. He gave you this land. He told you through Moses exactly what would happen if you turn to other gods and you're standing in the middle of the consequences of that. How long are you going to go on living with a foot in each camp?

It's compelling, isn't it? The people, they stand there, we're told, in silence. They don't respond with rage. They don't say, how dare you, Elijah? They don't respond with grief for the shame of living a divided lives. They just stand there silent. Elijah has given them two options. Choose Baal if you want to follow Baal or choose God and put your hope in him and the people choose neither. But here's the thing. No decision is a decision. Because while they're standing there in silence, nothing changes. I don't think that's just their problem. I think some of us struggle with that as well.

Some of you here this morning, maybe you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, to actually put your hope and your trust in Jesus. If Elijah was here, I wonder if he might say, how many more Sundays? How many more Sundays do you need to hear God's word? Do you need to feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart(...) before you make a decision?(...) Before you don't just walk out the doors and let the weight of this week wash it away?(...) For those of us who know Christ, like the people there knew Yahweh. I wonder if Elijah might say to them,(...) to us, how much longer will you keep living with one foot following God and one foot in the world. How many more times will you hear God's word and you feel the Holy Spirit convicting you, saying choose? And yet you go on chasing the idols of this world, whether it's success or it's comfort or it's your calendar or it's your ambitions. And you let those things decide how you live. And that's the challenge for us.

In verse 22, Elijah, he lays down the challenge to the prophets of Baal. He says, go in(...) and get wood, get two bulls. You take the one you want, build an altar with the wood, lay the bull on there. And in verse 24, he says, then call on the name of your God. And I will call on the name of the Lord of Yahweh.(...) The God who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God.(...) And all the people agreed.(...) This is not a magic show.(...) This is not a magic show. This is a covenantal challenge. It's saying(...) who is the God who will answer?(...) That word answer there in the Hebrew is a key word.(...) It's "ana," which means to answer. It's not about which God is more popular, which God is more convenient or easier to follow. It's about which God is going to answer.(...) Baal, remember, is the storm God. He's responsible supposedly for the rain, but he's also responsible for the lightning. Fire from the sky is Baal's specialty. So the prophets take their bull and we read that they cry out from Baal from sunrise until midday. And the text says they receive no reply of any kind. And so they increase their efforts. In verse 26, it says that they start dancing and hobbling around the altar. It's the same word for hobbling that Elijah has just used about the people. They're dancing, hobbling around the altar.

Must have looked ridiculous because Elijah starts saying to them, hey, maybe you need to shout louder. Maybe your God can't hear you. Maybe his daydreaming or his busy, maybe he's on the toilet, he says, or he's asleep and needs waking up, shout louder, and so the people shout. They even start cutting themselves until blood is gushing from them. And verse 29 says, they raved all afternoon until the time of evening sacrifice. But still there was no sound, no reply, no response. You see three times in those verses, we've had that phrase repeated, there was no response. You can look through scripture and that is the verdict that the Bible gives to every idol. They are powerless to answer you.(...) See, Elijah mocks them not because he's being cruel, but because he's dismantling the people's(...) faith in this idol that has taken a hold of them.

You know, just because our idols aren't wooden for the most part, they're not golden statues. It doesn't mean that people in our community and our families, maybe even in our homes, aren't stuck worshipping idols that can't answer them. You know, you see it around you every day. The idols of our world don't ask us to dance around altars, but they ask us for our time and our focus, our money, our affection. But just like Baal, they can't provide the fulfillment that people are desperately seeking. But then in verse 30, we see the God who does answer.

It says, then Elijah called to the people, come over here. They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. He took 12 stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons.

Elijah goes to the altar that had been dedicated and built for Yahweh, for the Lord, and he carefully repairs it. It tells us that he takes 12 stones. If you're with us in week one, remember the people of Israel, they've split, and we've got Judah in the south, two tribes, and Israel in the north, ten tribes. But as far as God is concerned, there is no division in his people.(...) And that's represented here. They are one covenant people.(...) Then Elijah does something that probably looks crazy. He says, go and get a heap of water. Go and get all of this water in the middle of a drought. Take those four large jugs and fill them up, and we're going to pour it on the altar. And so they do that. He says, go again. They bring back more water. He does it again. And he says, let's go a third time. And so they go and they get water a third time until water is completely drenched the altar, and it's filling the trench around it. Water was the most precious thing in that country. But Elijah still pours it out because there was something here. He was like, when God answers, I want the people not to be able to claim it was some kind of trick, some kind of magic that I had put in place. I want them to have nowhere else to look but to God. And so the altar is rebuilt. It's drenched in water. The wood in the bowl is there. And then Elijah prays in verse 36.

At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed. Oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. Oh Lord answer me. Answer me so that the people will know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.

Look at how short that prayer is. The prophets of Baal have been at it for hours. In the Hebrew, Elijah's prayer isn't even 40 words. It's about 15 seconds long. Now that's important. None of this is Elijah. It wasn't that he had the right combination of words to move God. It wasn't that he had some incredible stamina. He doesn't even have to hype God up. He simply prays. I love the fact that he also doesn't pray. God punish these people. Like if I was him and I'd been chased for three years for declaring the word of the Lord. I think that's what my heart would want to pray. But Elijah doesn't pray that. He says God answer me so that(...) the people might know that you are God. That their hearts might turn back to you(...) and God answers.(...) In verse 38, immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones and the dust. Everything.(...) It even licked up all the water in the trench. When the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out. The Lord, he is God. Yes, the Lord is God. The people who are silent, they're not silent anymore. Fire falls down and it burns up everything and they shout in Hebrew, Yahweh, he is God.(...) In week one, we saw that Elijah's name shouts the same truth, Eliyahu, which means my God is Yahweh.

I wonder if as they watched that altar burn, whether they knew that that fire of God should have fallen on them. I wonder if when they saw that altar burning, they realized that that maybe they deserved the judgment, the fire of a holy God, the God they had turned their back on, that they had chased after an idol that couldn't answer them, that never fulfill them. But the fire doesn't fall on them. The fire falls on the altar, the bull that is there, the sacrifice is burned up in their place.

Church, you and I have experienced the same mercy from God.(...) Hundreds of years later on the cross, the Son of God, Jesus hung there, taking the consequence of our sin and our rebellion on his shoulders so that our hearts too might be turned back to God.

As we close this morning, I want to go back to where we started. I want to go back to where we started. I wonder(...) if there's something that you've put your hope in(...) that can't answer you,(...) maybe that won't satisfy you. For some people, maybe that's Jesus. Maybe today is the day that you need to put your hope in Jesus. For those of us who know Jesus, maybe you're sitting there this morning feeling like your focus, the attention of your heart is a little bit like the people that's hobbling. Hobbling between God and hobbling between the idols of this world.

I love the fact, and it's easy to miss, I love the fact that Elijah doesn't go and build a new altar. He doesn't go build a new altar. He goes to the one that hasn't been cared for, that hasn't been worshipped out, that hasn't been maintained. He goes there and he lovingly rebuilds it.(...) He goes to the one that the people have stopped coming to and he restores it.

I wonder if for some of us this week, we need to go about restoring things in our lives that we haven't maintained. Whether we need to go and restore things and rebuild things(...) that we've lost or we've forgotten about along the way. Maybe for you that is getting into God's Word each morning,(...) maybe it's praying with your family again, prioritizing that time of going to God. Maybe it's being an active part of God's people, of connecting in and serving. Maybe it's about being back in church with a community alongside you regularly.Whatever it is, I would encourage you this week to(...) consider what is it that you might need to rebuild so that your heart and your focus might be fully on Yahweh, the covenant keeping God. We've seen that this series, haven't we, that the people have stopped listening but God hasn't stopped speaking.He hasn't stopped answering them. Despite how(...) unfaithful they've been, He is still the God who answers in mercy. He answered on Mount Carmel. He answered on the cross and this morning He is still speaking to us through His Word by His Spirit.

Let's pray.

God, we thank You for Your Word this morning. Lord, we pray that wherever it's convicted us today, that You might help us not to walk out of here and let the weak wash that away, but we might set about reordering, realigning our lives. That You might, where it's needed, turn our hearts back to You.That we might not be hobbling between idols, that we might not be dancing and calling out to idols that can't answer us, but that we would put our full focus and our full attention on You.Lord, we thank You that You are the God who answers.(...) We thank You that we can come to You knowing that You love us and that You respond to us in mercy. And so we come to You now. We pray this in Jesus.Amen.