I Kings 18:36-37

The eyes of all Israel were fixed on Elijah the prophet. He had mocked the prophets of Baal, rebuilt the altar of the Lord, and thoroughly soaked his sacrifice with water. How would Elijah pray to the Lord?

Elijah’s short prayer in verses 36 and 37 teaches us about his actions on Mount Carmel, his desires as a prophet in Israel, and the goal that our prayers should have.

First, Elijah’s great concern as the prophet of God was that the people did not know God as He truly was and is. They offered lip service to him, they acknowledged His name, but they killed His prophets and worshiped idols. They did not “know” God, for if they had known Him they no doubt would have worshiped Him alone.* So Elijah prayed about his concern: “Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel… Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God…”

Second, the goal of the prayer matched the desire of the prophet, that God’s name would be known and revered. This prayer should remind us of the preface and first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Elijah went to the Lord as the covenant God, the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (“Our Father which art in Heaven”), and he called on the Lord to make His name known to Israel that they might worship the Lord God (“Hallowed be Thy name”).

Third, his prayer revealed to Israel that Elijah was not working on his own but that the Lord had called him to be His servant. Even the mocking of the prophets of Baal and certainly the drenching of the sacrifice with water were of the Lord. Because all this was of the Lord and Elijah had done all these things at God’s Word, it meant God had done these things for His people Israel. God had sent Israel a messenger, a prophet, to show again His mercy and His truth to His people who had again wandered from His ways. If the people did not know Elijah was God’s servant, they could not begin to know the Lord God he preached was the only living and true God. The Israelites had left their first love, but God had not left His.

Jesus prayed similarly in John 17, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son also may glorify you: since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (17:1-3).

If one does not know Jesus Christ as He truly is then one cannot know the Father. No one has the Father without the Son or the Son without the Father, for the Father and the Son are one. No one can come to the Father except through the Son. We must know Christ to have eternal life.**

As we think about Elijah’s prayer on that great day on Mount Carmel, may the Lord grant the desire of our heart in prayer to be the glory and knowledge of the Lord. May we see the words of the prophet Habakkuk 2:14 come to pass: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

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*It seems to me we face similar times in our churches. Many are giving lip service to the Lord while giving some measure of devotion to images made with human hands. Many churches have erected paintings, carvings, and other forms of images of what they claim to be the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ Himself. Do we not know the Lord God as He truly is anymore? He who despises worship through or with images, He who is jealous for His own name and glory alone, will He hear the prayer of those bringing idols into the sanctuary of the Lord or into the sanctuary of their own hearts? May God be pleased to use the remembrance of Elijah the prophet to cause His people to cast away every device and imagination of man that would take us from knowing the true God.

**See I John 2:22-23; John 10:30; John 14:6; and John 17:3.

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