THIS MESSY LIFE: BECOMING AN ADULT - PART 1
ALL FIRED UP
Sunday, November 3, 2019
1 Kings 18:20-39; Mark 9:2-4; Ephesians 6:12
Call on the name of your god, but don’t add fire.
1 Kings 18:25
In an “age of outrage,” as author Mark Manson calls it, everybody is quick to get “all fired up.” We stoke fires of opinion and anger everywhere we turn. We love heaping hot coals upon our enemies’ heads, not seeking their repentance as the scripture intends but rather for the purpose of revenge and seeking satisfaction in proving them wrong or even in watching them suffer (Proverbs 25:22, Romans 12:20). We antagonize others so they will turn against us and then claim we are only acting in self defense when we feel we are being persecuted. Never-mind that it was our own passive aggressive behavior that instigated the attacks in the first place.
A man once said that everyone hated him because he was a Christian, to which his wife responded, “Are you sure it’s because you’re a Christian, or could it be because you act like a jerk?”
Elijah was a lone prophet of the Lord in a world filled with idolatry. It didn’t matter how “right” he may have been, nobody was listening. But in the face of impossible odds, Elijah shows us a better way. He reminds us that the battle does not belong to us, but to the Lord.
When the prophets of Baal come against him, he calls them together not to argue but to lay down their arguments, their opinions, and their swords. They built an altar and Elijah says to them, “call on the name of your god, but don’t add fire” (1 Kings 18:25). In other words, let your gods speak for themselves. If you are right, let your gods rain down fire and consume the sacrifice.
As Elijah expected, nothing happened. “Maybe your god’s are asleep,” Elijah suggests.
Finally he repairs the altar and then has the wood and the sacrifice drenched with water so that nothing will burn. He has a trench dug around the altar and filled with water. Elijah takes things one step further. He not only refuses to “add fire” to the argument, but he soaks his own with water so it will be that much harder to light. Nothing he can do or say will win this debate with the prophets of Baal. It is all up to God.
And we know the rest of the story. Elijah prays to the Lord and the altar is consumed with fire from heaven. The sacrifice turns to ash and the fire even licks up all of the water in the trench. The Lord has spoken, where the gods of Elijah’s enemies remained silent.
This is not to say there would be no more bloodshed between the people. Elijah would find himself on the run and his life would continue to be threatened. Nevertheless, he models for us great wisdom in how we approach the battles and arguments we face in life.
As Paul writes to the Ephesians, “we aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12). Elijah, like Paul, understood that the battle belonged to the Lord. It was not his place to wage war against the people. It was his place to step back and let God speak. God does not need our defense.
How might God be calling us to build altars in the world while at the same time refusing to add the fire? Our task is to create spaces for God’s fire to burn but lighting the fire is not our place.
God alone will send for the Holy Spirit and get the world all fired up.