Elijah’s Mt Carmel Victory

I Kings 18:20–29
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On the day appointed a great crowd gathered on Mount Carmel (v. 20). Mount Carmel, which was agreed on by Ahab, was a fitting location since it lay between Israel and Phoenicia, the lands of the Gods in question. Also Mount Carmel was regarded by the Phoenicians as the sacred dwelling place of Baal. No doubt Ahab was highly pleased with this suggested site for the contest because it would have given the Baal prophets a definite advantage; but this did not worry Elijah. It was also a geographically prominent location and thus a good setting for Elijah’s contest. The 450 prophets of Baal were there with their king. Elijah stood alone as a prophet of the living God . He asked, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions” (vv. 21-22)? The crowd of people remained silent and Elijah issued his challenge again to the 450 prophets of Baal.

They took two animals for sacrifice and placed them on the altar (v. 23). Elijah told the Baal worshipers to go first and call fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice (vv. 24-25). They leaped and danced around the altar but there was no fire. All morning Baal’s prophets … called on their god and danced around his altar to arouse him to action. (v. 26). Baal did not respond to their six-hour chanting for lightning, though rain and lightning often come readily to the Carmel mountain range near the Mediterranean Sea. At noon Elijah began to mock them and told them to holler louder (v. 27-29). Baal’s prophets responded by increasing the fervor of their appeals, working themselves into a frenzy. They even took knives and cut themselves but nothing happened. This mutilation of their own bodies was the custom of pagan worshipers for many centuries.

Application

The prophets of Baal cried and pleaded all morning to their gods and there was silence. The gods of power, status, appearance or material possessions that I may have are the same way. When I reach times of crisis and desperately call out to them there will only be silence.