Confrontation on
How
did Elijah respond to King Ahab's accusation?
Though outnumbered and facing the King of Israel, Elijah confronted him with the biblical facts and issues.
"I have not troubled Israel." Note the boldness here.
Elijah had the boldness to confront because his confidence was in the
Lord. He was an ambassador and servant
of the King of Kings, the Sovereign of the universe, Yahweh Elohim,
the One who holds all kings in His hand.
Like
David, he knew his glory, reputation and significance likewise had to come from
God, not people. Psalm 62:7
Faithfulness to the Lord gives us courage to minister and to confront
from right thinking and therefore right motives.
"But you and your father's house have, . . ."
Elijah
could have said, you are the real troubler
of
Elijah indicted Ahab and his father's house for two things that stand
to each other as root and fruit or cause and effect.
Cause: "You have forsaken the commandments of the Lord." In other words, you have ignored and rejected
the Word of God.
This
began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Let's
compare some other passages:
1. Hosea said to
2. Isaiah wrote to Judah, whom he described as a "sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity," and
said: "Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of
3. Jeremiah
had the same message for
Effect: The effect of turning
away from the Word is seen in the next clause of Elijah's indictment of Ahab,
"and you have followed the Baals."
When we turn away from following the Lord through fellowship with Him
in the Word, we experience what we can call the vacuum action of the soul,
which results in the pursuit of life through our own devices and the
substitutes offered in the world around us.
The Bible defines this as vain imaginations or futile speculations of
the heart (Rom.
In James 1:21-27, we are warned about the subtle self-deception of our
being enamored by religious practices.
Man can be very religious.
The
tongue is a good barometer of the heart/mind and its treasures.
They are strategies of independent living.
These
are not actions of faith and dependence on God.
First
Kings 18 not only contrasts two very different personalities, but two different
ways of life.
1. One was a
man of the world. One was a man of the Word.
2. One
walked independently of God in open rebellion.
One walked dependently on
the Lord in humble submission.
3. One depended on the substitutes of the world, the imaginations of his own mind. One trusted
in the principles and promises of Word
of God.
4. One was resentful, bitter, angry, fearful, frustrated, and failing
in his responsibility. One was bold
and effective for the Lord.
One of the
great needs at all times in a society, but especially in times of great
apostasy, is for God's people to step forward and to take a stand for God and
His truth.
Even in
Elijah's day, there was a remnant.
Taking a
stand for the truth and facing a majority who stand against the truth often
leaves us feeling lonely.
This is
always true when we are standing on the word of God. But how often will it be
the popular vpt.?
Later on,
we’ll see Elijah in a state of despair with his eyes off the Lord, this feeling
of aloneness covered Elijah like a cloud and wiped him out.
Here,
however, Elijah was in essence saying to the people, "Look, I stand here alone against four hundred and fifty prophets
of Baal. Unless the Lord is who I claim He
is, what, humanly speaking, can one man do against so many?"
When we stand for the Lord of the Bible, we stand in the sovereign strength and majority of the true God of the universe who surrounds us with His power.
The place
chosen for the contest was
"And
Elijah came near to all the people and said, `How long will you hesitate
between two opinions? If the LORD is
God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' But the people did not answer him a
word" (1 Kgs.
Much of
Christendom today, departing from the message of the Bible, appeals to this
desire for blessing without calling attention to man's real need as set forth
in Scripture.
Let's look
at 1 Kings 18:21 in four parts: (1) the
problem, (2) the question, (3) the issue, and (4) the silence.
The basic
problem is seen in words "hesitate
between two opinions." "Hesitate" is the Hebrew pasach. xs;P' "to
limp, be lame, or be crippled."
It is like a
person who limps and hesitates between steps.
It gives us a striking picture of what we are like when we are
double-minded about our commitment to the Lord.
The Spirit of God and their conscience warned them against Baalism and pulled them toward the Lord, but their fear of men, persecution by the queen, and their attraction to the immorality of the cult pulled them in the other direction.