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Holy Fools: Elijah

Holy Fools: Elijah

Holy Fools: Elijah.

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.” (Flannery O’Connor).

There probably aren’t many people at the “Prophet” display at your career development conference. God expected a lot of His prophets, and they tended to pay the price. Sometimes they acted out God’s messages, street theater and performance art. They were called to demonstrate an object lesson, they were visual aids to illustrate the Lord’s actions. Other times prophets were instruments for God’s miracles. They were used of God to do something supernatural and extraordinary. These miracles certainly came from God, but they often came through His messengers, the prophets. So prophets could be living symbols, miming God’s thinking. Or they could be exercising God’s power in reality, not symbolically. They could be talking about God’s intentions, or they could be literally enacting His purposes in real time. Either way, prophets had to swallow their pride and go out on a limb, perhaps looking foolish in the process. Prophets, no matter their method, had to learn to trust this limb they were crawling on. They developed a  relationship with God that helped them do something that just might appear outlandish to all appearances. Prophets were the holy fools of Scripture. What would God have done without them?

Elijah. He thundered into town as a country bumpkin from Gilead, on the other side of the tracks. He was a unique character, one of the great personalities in the Hebrew Bible, who enjoyed an unusual personal relationship with God. He was known around Judah and Israel for wearing a cloak made of fur and animal hair, a cloak that became famous and was given to Elisha to carry on the prophetic tradition in Elijah’s absence. He also wore a leather loincloth, a homemade piece of underwear that made him that much more a distinctive person when he walked down the street. He was a shaggy outdoorsman, a loner, and he often felt abandoned as a result. He often felt discouraged, if not depressed. Sometimes he literally ran from trouble, but often enough he ran right into the middle of it. He was unafraid to confront the evil king Ahab, for example, but then ran from Queen Jezebel. Elijah was a prayer warrior, a religious reformer, and a miracle worker. Strangely enough, he was once fed by ravens in the wilderness, and another time he was fed by an angel. As James says in the New Testament (5:17-18), “Elijah was human, just like us.” On the other hand, he was not like us at all. Some of his miracles included causing a drought through his prayers, and then three years later causing it to rain; multiplying food and oil for a poor widow, and then raising her young son from the dead. You don’t see that every day, even in the life of a prophet.

There came a time during Elijah’s ministry when he tired of seeing double-mindedness among the fickle faith of the Israelites. They can’t seem to choose who they want to worship. Should it be the Canaanite gods of Baal and Asherah, or should it be Yahweh, the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or maybe an interesting mix of them all would be best. So Elijah confronted king Ahab, who was responsible for much of this idolatry, and issued his challenge. Elijah demanded that Ahab bring all his pagan prophets, all 850 of them, to Mount Carmel. Let’s have a duel of gods, says Elijah, and see who wins. We’ll see who has true divine power, so the people can see once and for all who to follow after.

What would be the betting odds if Las Vegas was running this contest? Elijah, all by himself, was challenging 850 prophets to a spiritual duel. It doesn’t seem like a fair fight at first glance. Some might be thinking that Elijah always liked the spectacular and dramatic, but maybe he went a bit overboard in this thing. Elijah, on the other hand, pities the pagan prophets. He thought that since he had God on his side, those prophets didn’t have a chance.

So there they all are, standing uncomfortably on a plain on the top of Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). The pagan prophets were there, and so were all the people of Israel. They were anxious to get the show started. In the beginning Elijah laid out for the Israelites the main reason for this contest… “If Yahweh is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” The people didn’t know what to say to that challenge, so they remained quiet. Elijah then asked two bulls to be brought to sacrifice on the constructed altar. He told the prophets to butcher one of the bulls and lay it on the altar. All that was needed was for the wood to be fired up so the sacrifice can be offered. And then  later Elijah would do the same and lay his bull on the altar, and he would need for his wood to be kindled as well. Elijah proposed that the prophets pray to their gods, and Elijah would pray to his God, and whoever’s God lights the fire is the true God. Elijah is obviously going out on quite the limb here. He is assuming Yahweh is going to answer the challenge. Throughout this contest, Elijah is full of confidence and has no doubts whatsoever.

Elijah told the prophets to go first. So they laid the butchered bull on the altar and fervently prayed to Baal to light the fire. They prayed, they danced their special pagan dances around the altar, and still nothing happened. Elijah then started in with his trash talk. C’mon, shout a little louder! Dance a little faster! Maybe Baal is daydreaming! Maybe he is busy doing something else! Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to wake up! One translation has it said that Elijah was wondering aloud if Baal is going to the bathroom! The desperate prophets then started to cut themselves with knives and swords until their blood was everywhere. They thought this would show Baal that they are really serious about this request. By the time the middle of the afternoon arrived, after almost the whole day had been spent trying to get Baal to light the fire, the prophets were exhausted. All their feverish work had no effect. There was no reply. No sound. No fire.

So Elijah called the Israelites over to him so they could see him rebuild the altar with twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. Then they dug a trench around the altar. Elijah then had the bull butchered and placed it on the altar over the wood. Having a flair for the dramatic, Elijah revealed that nothing is too difficult for his God. He had the people pour large jars of water over the bull pieces and the wood. Elijah didn’t think it was all soaked enough, so they poured water over everything two more times. There, Elijah said, that should do it.

After all this preparation, Elijah lifted his eyes to God and prayed a simple, straightforward prayer. “Yahweh, 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. O Yahweh, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Yahweh, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” (1 Kings 18:36-37).

Immediately a roaring fire descended from heaven and burned up everything, the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, even the dust. The fire was so intense that it licked up the water filling the trenches. Yahweh has been declared the heavyweight champion. This astounded the people of Israel, as one would imagine, and they all fell face down on the ground and cried out, “Yahweh is God! Yes! Yahweh is God!” Elijah then revealed that this whole episode was indeed a holy war, and the pagan prophets were combatants. So instead of trying to convert all those prophets, Elijah took charge of executing every single one of them. Evidently, there was no mercy for those responsible for leading the Israelites astray.

At the end of his life some time later, Elijah, true to his life and ministry, went out with a bang. Instead of dying, the Lord sent down from heaven a fiery chariot and fiery horses, and took him home to heaven that way. But that’s still not the end of Elijah. That’s not the last we see of him in Scripture. He is mentioned again in the last lines of the Hebrew Bible (Malachi 4:5). It was prophesied that Elijah would come and prepare the way for the Messiah. Jesus explained that one had indeed come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and that was the prophet John the Baptist (Matt. 11:14). Unbelievably, Elijah still makes another appearance in a dramatic scene during the life of Jesus. During the Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses were seen discussing the coming passion of Jesus, and were engaged in deep conversation with Him. Moses represents the Torah and all that was written down for the benefit of the believers and the Hebrew community. And Elijah represented the prophets, God’s messengers who helped keep the Faith alive. I don’t know how God could have found better representatives to have a talk with Jesus.

Elijah, sometimes fearful, sometimes fearless, sometimes strong, sometimes weak. But always a man of prayer and faith, and willing to trust in His God in trying circumstances. Elijah was a unique personality and a dramatic holy fool who risked everything many times over to speak God’s message and prove that Yahweh is truly the one God.

Judy Jacobs – Days of Elijah (No God Like Jehovah) – YouTube