When The Fire Of The Lord Fell

When the fire of the Lord fell at Mount Carmel, it marked one of the great turning points in the
history of God's people. Elijah's great jealousy for the Lord's Name among His people had
arrested their decline and turned their hearts back again. The Holy Spirit purposes in the New
Testament to remind us that Elijah was a man that we can identify with as we are assured that he was a man of like nature with us (James 5:17). This means that we are right to put ourselves into this story, and allow its challenge to be applied to us. Who among us would dare to pour on water when we are needing Heaven to send down fire? But the whole story reveals a far greater challenge than this.

The Flame of Initiative

It is important to note that faith holds the initiative. God is neither on the defensive, nor
should His servants be. We are not called to defend God, just declare Him! Our present
circumstances are an opportunity for God to answer by fire. I have discovered that any false
prophet can see the problem; however, it requires a seer, someone who can see through the
problem, to have the courage to present a prophetic answer from God to the condition of things.

Elijah had found that to be really jealous for the Lord made it impossible for him to withdraw
into his shell or bury his head in the sand like some spiritual ostrich; to keep his own quiet walk
with the Lord and let the spiritual condition of the rest of the people take whatever course it
would. He found that his jealousy made him take responsibility. It is our responsibility to
respond to the ability of God. Elijah was consumed with the Lord's interests and integrity.

The departure from the Lord among Israel at this time was so great and so rapid that things
must have seemed hopeless. The hundred prophets hid in a cave by Obadiah, who somehow
managed to be true to the Lord and yet to work in the court of Ahab, and who was able, in
secret ways, to feed them with bread and water (1 Kings 18:4). Indeed, the rest of the seven
thousand faithful believers, wherever they were must have regarded the rest of Israel hopeless
as well. They were grieved at the state of affairs and felt what a pity it was, but clearly were not prepared to do anything about it. We cannot say that they had no faith, but they certainly did not have the kind of faith which we are now considering in the witness of Elijah; the kind of faith that burns like a flame in its jealousy for God's purpose, power and purity in His people. The difference between Elijah and the rest of the people was that Elijah had living faith, but the
people's faith was dead because they had no relationship with the living God. Living faith is
fathered out of a living relationship with the living God.

Israel was intended to be a people among whom God dwelt. Elijah's prayer showed that he
was standing for this: "Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel" (1 Kings 18:36). This is what the people of God are for; this is the purpose for which they have been gathered out and assembled together - that the presence and glory of the Lord might be known among them and through them. If this is not so, then the people of God have no meaning. In Elijah's day this was the tragic truth. They had ceased to count for anything. They had lost their testimony. The glory of the Lord had been crowded out by their own idolatry. Elijah's faith made him stand for recovery. If we do not stand for something we will fall for anything! Elijah insisted that God must come into His own again among His people. It may be helpful to consider something of their departure from the will of God. It so happens that the three main features all start with the same letter. They are referred to at the close of chapter sixteen of 1Kings: Jeroboam, Jezebel and Jericho.

The Way of Jeroboam

Ahab walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (1 Kings 16:31). By this time there had been quite a succession of kings in Israel, and almost without exception they are described as walking "in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities" (1 Kings 16:26).

Now Jeroboam, in his beginnings, was marked out by Solomon as an able and devoted leader
(1 Kings 11:28). Moreover, he was later informed by the prophet that the Lord was entrusting him with the kingdom (1 Kings 11:31,35). As events developed, the Lord let the kingdom be divided and took the ten northern tribes away from Rehoboam, that they might be governed by Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:20). So far so good. No sooner had he received this trust, however, than he embarked on a course which led the people away from God. Not (let it be observed) because he was a man of low morals or deliberate ungodliness. No, his fault was the very common one of substituting reason for revelation!

God, who had given him the kingdom, had also ordained that Jerusalem should be the central
place of worship. Quite excusably from a human point of view, Jeroboam felt that it was
dangerous for the people to have Judah's capital as their center, so he set up his own places of worship in Bethel and Dan. From then on he began a series of departures from the expressed mind of God, all reasonable enough, but fatal in their outworking. He thought, as many have since, that a spiritual relationship with God is not sufficient, but that the people needed what was visible and earthly, so he made two golden calves. It was not convenient for him to have the divinely appointed priesthood, so "he made priests from among all the people, which were not of the sons of Levi." He did not keep to the feast days which God had chosen, but made a new one "even in the month which he had devised of his own heart" (1 Kings 12:28-33).

We are so familiar with this sort of thing that we can almost hear the arguments he used: that
it was not possible to obey the Word of God, that things were different, that times had changed, that obvious perils must be dealt with by these human safeguards. So all kinds of ideas and innovations were brought in, manmade and man-glorifying, not by one who was in open revolt against the Word of God, but by one who revered it when it suited him, and altered it or brought in something of his own when it did not. This goes to the root of Israel's departure, and it explains much of the spiritual powerlessness of today. It involves the substitution of reason for revelation.

The Rule of Jezebel

"Ahab took to wife Jezebel .... and went and served Baal, and worshipped him" (1 Kings
16:31). This represents the substitution of compromise for separation. Ahab's sin was not of
the reason but of the heart. Instead of keeping his kingdom true to God, he allowed this evil
influence to have a place because of disloyal affections. Doubtless, he did not intend to let it
dominate him (compromisers never do). Before long the evil companion had become the ruling
partner in their unholy alliance. When the Lord's people compromise with the world, they never intend to be conquered by it; indeed, the usual expectation is to influence it for good. Did Ahab reason like this? Did he really expect to fit Jezebel into a place in God's Kingdom? We do not know. We do know, however, that by Elijah's time it was Jezebel who had all the influence. The real reason why the prophet later almost despaired was that royal orders were still being issued not by Ahab, but by Jezebel. The compromising element always takes charge in the end. The one who yields on the matter of separation will finish by finding himself a virtual slave. What a disgraceful state of affairs this was, that the prophets of false worship were actually sustained by the court and given a place of honor there!" ... the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty ....which eat at Jezebel's Table" (1 Kings 18:19). No wonder that the faithful prophets were hiding for their lives! No wonder Elijah felt absolutely alone in his stand for the Lord! The more honor to Elijah, then, that he determined (even if he were alone) never to accept Jezebel. Concerning Jezebel, the risen Christ said: "And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent..." (Revelation 2:21). Even Ahab repented. No doubt to Elijah's surprise, he "fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and wept softly" (1 Kings 21:27). Jezebel, however, could not and would not repent.

The Rebuilding of Jericho

Now we arrive at the matter of Jericho. "In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho" (1
Kings 16:34). This rebuilding was done in defiance of Divine judgment, and Hiel had to pay a
great price for it, as Joshua long before had said he would (Joshua 6:26). God's principles do
not lose their power with the passing of time. In the case of Jericho, a solemn curse had been
pronounced, so that to rebuild it was to defy Heaven. This, then was a further feature of Israel's departure during Ahab's reign. It was an illustration, surely, of the Apostle Paul's words in the letter to the Galatians: "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor" (Galatians 2:18).

In the Cross, God said, even more emphatically than He said about Jericho, that there is a
realm of human effort which He has placed under a solemn and lasting curse. It has been
destroyed, and it must never be built again. Our "old man" is corrupt; it has been judged. We
must accept this sentence against the "old man" and put it off. This is the true message of the
Cross, the message which tells us that we must know union with Christ in His death, if we are to know the power of His resurrection life.

It is not difficult to see the close comparison between Elijah's day and our own. This is not
merely an ancient story of a man who prayed down fire from Heaven, but an abiding message
concerning those who will burn in holy jealousy for the Lord. Elijah loved the people of God, so that when he found to his distress that they were being governed by human reason like that of Jeroboam, by corrupt compromise with Jezebel, and by the fleshly energy associated with a
rebuilt Jericho, he felt impelled to make a stand for the honor of the Lord's name, and to have the heart of the people turned back again.

The Flame of Faith

If our imagination can capture the moment when all the frenzy of the Baal worshippers were
hushed into silence, as one man stood forth and prayed a simple prayer, we may realize what it means to be a man of faith. Perhaps we can be helped to appreciate the true nature of his prayer if we contrast it with those that Baalites had been praying all day long. They were, of course, praying to the wrong god, but they were also praying in a wrong manner; their approach was wrong, their basis was wrong, and they had wrong motives. Leaving aside for the moment the fact that they were praying to Baal, we may find between them and Elijah two wholly contrasting methods of engaging in prayer.

The Impurity of Self Effort

Theirs were self-conscious prayers. They knew nothing of the one to whom they were
praying. Elijah mocked them with this, so that for them everything depended on the human
element. They regarded one another, they danced with one another; they had no awareness of
a Being to whom they could direct requests, but were trying to bring something to pass by the
mere fact of their praying. Their idea was that prayer changes things. It does not! Only God
can do the changing, and He will do it in answer to prayer. Neither does great numbers affect
the issue. "Ye are many," said Elijah, and they were. He was outnumbered eight hundred and
fifty to one. Doubtless they felt a good deal happier for this very reason. Naturally we feel
better when we are together in a crowd.. But remember, "More are they that are with us, than
those that are against us." If for a moment Elijah had taken his eyes off the Lord, he would have been overwhelmed by this great superiority of numbers. Faith can never survive if it becomes self-conscious.

Their prayers were full of self-effort. All the crying and shouting, the leaping and dancing,
and finally the cutting of themselves, was their way of trying to bring the fire down, yet "there
was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded" (1 Kings 18:29). If prayers are heard by our much speaking, if prayer can be made successful by the zeal and energy of those who pray, by the time spent or by the painfulness of the effort, then theirs would have been mighty prayers. But it was nothing of the sort. They took the whole day, and Elijah let them have it, for he knew that all this concentration of carnal effort, with its long hours of sweating could have no effect.

Furthermore, their prayers were full of self-interest. They were not crying for the honor of
their god, such as he was. They were certainly not concerned for the good of the people. It was their own position which mattered. Clamoring for that which would meet their own need and minister to their own importance. How different was the spirit of Elijah! The kind of heart which lay behind the prayer was revealed when, after his deep despair under the juniper tree, he was sent to anoint Elisha in his place. Though not fully understood, it satisfied him. The work was to be handed over to another. This was quite all right with Elijah. His objective in prayer was not self-advancement but the glory of the Lord.

The Flame of Identification

Elijah was a separated man: he had to be, if he was to help the rest. Yet we must observe how
careful he was to identify himself with the people of God. His first words were to the crowds,
when he called them to come near to him. He had kept himself pure from the compromise in
which they were all so deeply involved, yet there was no suggestion of superiority or of desire
to keep them at a distance. The man of faith will be separated but he must not be sectarian.

After rebuilding the altar in the name of the Lord, with twelve stones "according to the
number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob" he offered in sacrifice an atonement for the sins of
the people. He took a stand against the division of the kingdom of Israel, against the false
worship of Jeroboam, and brought them back to the original basis of the people's redemption,
claiming that God could still accept them righteously because of sacrifice. For him, as for us, it
was God's altar which really mattered. At that moment, and on that basis, the fire of the Lord
fell.

The Flame of Resurrection

We now come to the last important feature of this story: the pouring on of the water. With
Jericho the rebuilders were working for resuscitation, dragging back to life something that ought to have been dead. God's alternative, and the proof of His power, is that death should really take place and then be followed by what He alone can give the energy of resurrection life. For this reason Elijah ordered the twelve barrels of water to be poured on the sacrifice. Even that was not enough, though, for still "he filled the trench also with water". This clearly chows that Elijah was really making things harder for God. After all this water, it must be God or nothing.

That was Elijah's true position. He wanted it to be either of the Lord or not at all. This was
not only for the people to witness; it meant something vital to his own commission with God.
He did not want an accident, even a helpful or timely one, and therefore he so to speak saturated the thing with the impossible, so that it could not be unless God alone did it. He did not try to keep it warm. He did not even try to keep it dry. He poured on water, and more water, not in reckless folly but in calculated faith. Can we, dare we, follow his example? Are we prepared to say that if the thing is not of God we do not want it?

Yes, that was the idea: something not only of God but all of God. How often we are tempted
to do the opposite of what Elijah did, to put in some human effort and mix it with what God is
doing; to try as it were, to help God out. Not seldom does disaster come to God's work because men try to make it easier for Him. Elijah did the opposite. He deliberately made it harder for the Lord. And he did so with the assured faith that it would result in something mightily effective because it was all God.

Elijah's flame burnt on. Jezebel could not smother it. The juniper tree experience did not
quench it. The anointing of Elisha did not finish it. It burnt on until the whirlwind experience of
resurrection came lifting him beyond death. And its aflame today as a people are anointed with
the "spirit and power of Elijah".

This article was submitted by: Bishop Jim Dutton - New Covenant Christian Center - 3875 Wrightsboro Rd. - Augusta, GA 30909 Telephone: 706-860-1223