#17. The Lord Vindicates His Name

Published by Ben Stahl on April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

I Kings 18:38

From the garden of Eden to the porches of Pharaoh’s palace, to the cross on Calvary itself and to the present day, the gods of the world and their followers have been at war with God Himself. Yes, they will persecute His prophets, enslave His people, profane His sacraments, and mock His Word but they do these things for the primary reason that they hate God. But God will not be mocked and His name will not be polluted. He made Dagon to fall over on his face before the ark of the covenant (I Samuel 5); the Assyrian army to lose 186,000 overnight (II Kings 19); Herod to be eaten by worms (Acts 12:18-25); and fire to come down from heaven on Mount Carmel.

The great test had come. Who is the true and the living God, Baal or the Lord? Baal had been proved utterly worthless and less than nothing by his own priests. Elijah had prepared an elaborate sacrifice, but the Lord had not yet done anything. Would the Lord demonstrate His glory on Mount Carmel? Elijah prayed for the people to know that the Lord was God and that He still heard the cry of His people in Israel.

The fire of the Lord immediately fell (vs. 38)! It did not start on the altar, it fell from the heavens. The fire did not merely consume the sacrifice of the bull, it consumed the wood, the stones, and the dust. All the water that was in the trench and over the sacrifice was licked up. This altar that was broken down would not be used again, for it was consumed on this day.

The contrast between the Lord and Baal is obvious but warrants emphasis. The prophets of Baal ran, leapt, shed their blood all day crying out to Baal and he never answered. The Lord God of Israel immediately answered with prayer. He was not “out for a walk” or “using the toilet” or “sleeping.” He who neither slumbers nor sleeps answered the cry of His servant in dramatic fashion.

As the fire came down from heaven, the fear in Ahab and the prophets of Baal in particular must have been great. With such a consuming fire, Elijah who was close to the altar (vs. 36) was not harmed in the least. The Lord’s name was publicly vindicated again in front of a great jury – the whole nation of Israel.

The Lord’s name will again be vindicated with great fire like the fire on Mount Carmel. It will not be a fire that consumes only an animal sacrifice and its altar but a fire that will consume the whole world. “But the day of the LORD will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!”  (2 Peter 3:12)

Will we be like the prophets of Baal and continue holding to our vain hopes or will we confess our sin before the Lord in faith looking with eagerness to the great day of the Lord when Jesus Himself will descend?

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