Why Did God Fail?
1 Kings 18:36-40
36 And it
came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your
servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
37 Hear me, O Lord,
hear me, that this people may know that You are the LordGod, and that You
have turned their hearts back to You again.”
38 Then the
fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood
and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in
the trench.
39 Now when
all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord,
He is God! The Lord, He is God!”
40 And Elijah
said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So
they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed
them there.
Why did God
fail? You would think the whole incident
would have won the hearts of the Israelites.
Elijah had commanded the rain to stop three years before and the people
were suffering from the worse famine in their history. Then Elijah shows up and arranges a contest
to see if Baal-Melkart or Ashtoreth were more powerful gods than Yahweh
was. He built a simple alter and placed
the sacrifice on it and drowned it with water.
Neither false god had been able to send fire down on their dry
sacrifice, but Yahweh sent fire from a cloudless sky and burned the sacrifice
of Elijah, along with the wood, the water and even the stones were cracked by
the intensity of the fire. It made an
impression on the people; the Bible tells us it did. But they did not turn their hearts to
God. The test was a success –
spectacularly so. But it did not turn
the people away from Baal worship; they just decided to share their worship
between the Baals and Yahweh. King Ahab
was not convinced nor did Queen Jezebel begin to worship God. In the long view, the incident was a failure.
So Elijah fled
from the Queen’s anger and went to the wilderness to a mountain. There God taught him an essential truth. God sent a strong wind that broke rocks. An earthquake shook the mountain and then a
fire burned the trees and shrubs, but He did not speak to Elijah. Then when Elijah was quiet, he heard a quiet
voice. God spoke from the quiet not from
the violence of the storm, the earthquake or the fire. And He asked Elijah, “Why are you here?” Well, Elijah was hiding from Jezebel, of
course. But God had already protected
Elijah for three years. He hid him, fed
him, and then answered his prayer at Mt Carmel in a dramatic way. He sent the rain after Elijah called for
it. So why had Elijah fled the country
and climbed this mountain? And why was
he whining to God about being the only Prophet left in Israel?
Because he had
never learned that God must be in our hearts.
He is not at home in our emotions nor is He at home in our heads. His home must be in our hearts if we are to
be His people. The people saw the fire
and the then the rain and were impressed, but their hearts were still inclined
towards the Baals. Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually.
The real problem is that when we are
born, we are born tainted by Adam’s sin.
Our hearts are sinful and are naturally opposed to God. We are not born wanting God and His
righteousness: we are born sinful and wanting to fulfill our own lusts. This is why that most church programs to draw
the unsaved into church fail. The world
is not sitting at home waiting for a reason to go to church; they’re enjoying
their sin and might never feel like going to church in their whole lives.
If a person is
going to turn to God, the Holy Spirit must – must – must first have softened
their hearts. If their hearts are not
softened, they will not turn to God. You
can make up signs and hang them around town and hire a big-name worship leader
and a famous evangelist and he can pray and call down fire from Heaven and no
one’s heart will be turned to God unless the Holy Spirit does the work.
God still speaks
in a quiet voice and He is not shouting over the noise and hubbub of the
world. He still works in people’s hearts
and does not try to win people’s minds.
He draws people to Himself and does not try to “persuade” them to change
their ways. Because when He lives in our
hearts, He has us completely. If He wins
our hearts, He will get all of us over time.
Our lives will change from the heart out and will never change from the
head down.
Stephen Cram 2013
Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition
of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with
Christ. Colossians 2:8
Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.
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