Confrontation on Mt. Carmel

Passage: 1 Kings 18:20-29

Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel is one of the most dramatic scenes in all of Scripture, one of the most well remembered stories in the OT.

The first question is why all this extra drama?  Why didn’t God just send rain?  Remember we are in the middle of a God-war, God has challenging Baal to a dual.  If God had just let it start raining again the people would have given the glory to Baal, that Baal finally answered.

This event is meant to prove the utter impotence of the false god Baal, the god of rain and fertility.  Sometimes extreme measures are needed to prove the truth.  Extreme sin calls for extreme measures to flush it out into the open.  This is a very public repudiation of Baal and of Jezebel (like on prime time TV).

Answers to pray don’t always come until God has made us ready to receive the answer.  We have be brought to a place to see our need or sin more clearly before the grace comes.

The rod of God’s discipline must first work its will, there must first be the pain of discipline before there can be the fruit of righteousness.

God will have us see how impotent we are, how helpless before He shows us His power.  He will have us learn that apart from Him we have nothing and are nothing.