Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” (verses 36-37, emphasis added) O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. He calls the people to him and, instead of complex 8-part harmony or cutting himself so that blood spurts out, he simply prays to God (Mendelssohn, once again, captures the tone perfectly). A long silence ensues, before a final, feeble, “Hear and answer.” But no one does.Įlijah then has water poured over his altar so that there can be no mistake about the origin of the fire. But as time goes on and their frustration grows, they lose control, demanding that Baal answer them: “Hear and answer!” They repeat the command several times and then wait. The priests of Baal sing initially in majestic and complex 8-part harmony. Elijah mocks them, and they rave all the more.įelix Mendelssohn’s musical version of this story in the oratorio Elijah is very insightful. They even cut themselves so that blood flowed out over them to show their devotion. The priests of Baal go first, and cry out to their god for hours and hours. Do they really believe Baal will answer? Or do they anticipate that neither offering will be burned, and they will win simply by force of numbers? Interestingly enough, the priests of Baal are amenable to this. “And the God who answers by fire, He is God” (verse 24).
Both build altars, kill bulls, and prepare the bulls to be burned as a sacrifice, but neither is to set the wood of the altar on fire. He won’t share the pantheon with other supposed gods.Įlijah therefore sets up a contest on Mt Carmel between Yahweh and Baal through their representatives: Himself on the one hand and the 450 priests of Baal on the other. Yahweh’s claims are exclusive: “Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39). If He is God, follow Him if Baal is god, follow him (verse 21).
So Elijah tells them this makes no sense. The people – though they were chosen as special to the Lord a thousand years previously, and though their very name, Israel, was given by God (see verse 31) – are “limping between two opinions” (verse 21) not really knowing who is mighty, they are trying to cover all bases by worshiping both Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, and the local Canaanite deities. The king of Israel is apostate, worshiping false gods, the Baals and the Asherim. As part of my devotions this morning from the Bible Unity Reading Plan, I read the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal from 1 Kings 18.