One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18-19). Even though I’m more than a little familiar with the passage, even having written about it in Uninvented, it continues to amaze me. Because of the supernatural element, this story would be rejected out of hand by those who come to the text with an anti-supernatural bias, but if you don’t come to the text with such a bias, it reads so real. We call that, as you may know, verisimilitude.
What makes it so believable are two things. One is the psychology displayed by all the characters involved, from Elijah himself, to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, to the prophets of Baal, and the people of Israel who witness and respond to this contest of the spiritual forces of darkness and the living God. It’s also funny, with more than a little sarcasm and mockery that makes it even more realistically compelling.
The other reason it reads real is because of how perfectly it fits in the scope of redemptive history, illustrating in dramatic fashion the entire history of Israel’s struggle with idolatry. This struggle starts from the moment of the Exodus when the people of Israel come out on the other side of the parted Red Sea. As soon as the Israelites get a little impatient with Moses, they pressure Aaron into making a golden calf and say, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” And that was just the beginning.
The Lord through Moses made it clear he was bringing them into the land of promise to rid it of false gods and the wickedness associated with them. Even though Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal was a kind of culmination of hundreds of years of Israel’s rebellion, it didn’t end it. It’s interesting that in the intertestimental period, the 400 or so years from Micah when prophecy stopped, to John the Baptist, there is no indication of the Jews worshiping other gods. I’ve been reading I and II Maccabees (c. 150 BC), and the Jews of the time wouldn’t think of sacrificing to Baal, but consistently called on the Lord, and the same is true of the Pharisaical Judaism of the gospels.
Prior to that, however, the people of Israel looked to heathen idols, and like our modern versions of false gods they can’t deliver. It is the futility of idolatry which makes the narrative so powerful. Baal was one of the most prominent false gods throughout Israel’s history, and one of the nastier. At this period, Israel was ruled by the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel who gave Baal and his worshippers free reign in the country. Basically, Israel was no different than all the heathen nations that surrounded it. Throughout Israel’s history, the odds were always stacked against those faithful to Yahweh, the true Elohim (God) of Israel, and in the days of Elijah it was as stacked as it gets.
Being a prophet in ancient Israel was a tough job because speaking truth to power often resulted in torture or death, while being a false prophet was a good gig because it meant telling those in power what they wanted to hear.
Elijah went to meet Ahab, and his greeting indicates which kind of prophet Elijah was: “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” Elijah replied it is not he who is the troubler, but Ahab who has “abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.” That was gutsy, but Elijah decides to put it to the test, to see who the real Elohim of Israel is. The Bible is often sparse in details, so we don’t know how this challenge was put to Ahab, but Elijah said:
19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
And then:
21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
But the people said nothing.
We have to fill in the blanks, but I can imagine the people thinking to themselves, Elijah, why rock the boat? Things are going fine, the economy’s doing well, no big wars, why don’t you just leave it alone. A true prophet of God can’t do that, so he explains the challenge to them, and they reply, “What you say is good.” I can also imagine them thinking, Baal has served us well all these years, I’m sure he’ll do fine.
Elijah tells the prophets of Baal to prepare a bull for sacrifice and call on Baal to rain down fire to consume it. If he’s really Elohim, should be a piece of cake. They call on him for hours, “But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.” Then at noon, Elijah started to taunt and mock them. He suggested maybe they should shout louder. It almost verges on comedy when he says, “Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” After doing this most of the day, they get desperate and slash themselves as they danced “until their blood flowed.” The next sentence is pure sarcasm:
But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
Oh, how that is the story of all false Gods! Elijah said, ok, it’s my turn. The way that scene is set up is narrative perfection. Needless to say, fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering; God is no false, worthless idol. When the people saw this, in today’s vernacular we might say, they freaked out, fell on their face and cried out, “Yahweh, He is Elohim! Yahweh, He is Elohim!” Maybe Baal ain’t so great after all.
You’ll have to read the rest of the story to see what happens next, but it reads so very uninvented, especially as Elijah flees for his life from the king and queen, goes out into the desert and prays that God would just kill him and get it over with. God doesn’t answer his prayer, and in fact, Elijah is one of only two men in the Bible who doesn’t taste physical death, but maybe that’s a topic for another post.
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