WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 when this takes place. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:08.679 And the way that ancient Near Eastern stories are handed down generation after generation 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:14.000 means that there were way too many eyewitnesses for this story not to be true. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.000 This is a true story. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.300 Elijah's Big Day actually happened. 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:21.879 And ultimately this story is about a choice. 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:29.400 It's about a choice between death in the desert lands. 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:31.439 Death in the far country. 00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:33.600 Death in the wilderness. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:37.759 And life in the vineyard. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:41.000 So three things that we have to do today. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.599 We have to see that this passage calls us to first discern the spirits. 00:00:46.599 --> 00:00:48.719 To discern between the spirits. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:52.320 And secondly we have to ask how do we discern between the spirits. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:57.719 And then finally we have to see that the passage calls us to choose life in the face of death. 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:04.359 The first, the passage in the first half is asking you to discern between the spirits. 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:07.599 Or discern between the gods. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:09.280 This is the middle of the Elijah story. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:13.480 This is 850 BC approximately. 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:16.920 A little bit of time ago. 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.439 And the kingdom of Israel had split. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:22.759 There was a northern kingdom and there was a southern kingdom. 00:01:22.759 --> 00:01:25.759 75 years before this moment. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:29.000 Ahab was the king of the north. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.800 And the book of kings says that he was the worst king that had ever lived in all of Israel's 00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:34.800 history. 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:38.719 Which is pretty bad because there were a lot of terrible kings in Israel's history. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:40.560 But he was the absolute worst. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:43.880 And he made it worse because he married Jezebel. 00:01:43.880 --> 00:01:48.280 And even if you didn't grow up in the church or aren't a Christian you've heard of Jezebel. 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:49.280 He married Jezebel. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.280 She was a Canaanite bell worshiper. 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:58.560 And together Ahab and Jezebel built a city called Samaria in the north that you read 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.960 about in the gospels. 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:03.560 And there they built at the middle of the city. 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:08.639 The whole city planning committee was structured around a Baal temple. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:14.039 So Baal was at the center of the entire northern kingdom under this wicked king. 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:21.319 Now it's important to know that Baal is not a specific god. 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:26.680 Because it often seems like sometimes a Baal is a generic term for a god. 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.759 It's a lower case G. And anything can be a Baal. 00:02:30.759 --> 00:02:36.560 A Baal is simply any creaturely object that you take and divinize. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:41.840 You pray to some type of spirit that exists behind that object that gives you the reward 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:43.120 that you're seeking. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:48.319 And so in this culture you can worship a rain bell, a crop bell, a cattle bell, a sheep 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:52.199 bell, a gold bell, a power bell. 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:55.400 Pick your item and put Baal at the end of it and that can be a Baal. 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:56.400 Anything can be a Baal. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:00.599 Any creaturely thing that you desire can be made into a god. 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:01.599 And that's exactly what they did. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:09.120 And so in the kingdom of Israel at this time Ahab and Jezebel especially worshiped the 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:16.079 Baal of Tyre and Sedan, which is the crop god, the fertility god, the god that brings 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:20.400 rain and makes the crops grow and puts food on your table. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.400 So it's a god of life. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.960 That's the god that was their supreme deity, if you will. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:31.200 But at the Baal temple in Samaria you could worship anything you wanted. 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:33.040 It was open season. 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:38.040 If you wanted to go to the Baal temple you could worship crop bell on Monday, rain bell 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:44.480 on Tuesday, gold bell on Wednesday, and even Yahweh, the god of Israel, the god of Abraham, 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:45.480 Isaac and Jacob. 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:50.919 The true god, the biblical god, was also an object of worship in the Baal temple. 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:55.000 And so they would have a shrine to Yahweh and a shrine to the Baal of Tyre and Sedan 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.959 and a shrine to the Baal of X, Y, or Z, Pictur god. 00:03:57.959 --> 00:04:00.079 They worshiped all of them. 00:04:00.079 --> 00:04:08.120 And that means that the kingdom of the north at this time was incredibly pluralistic, that 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:10.919 it was a pluralistic worship setting. 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:15.559 And the basic opinion about the gods was believe in whatever god you wish. 00:04:15.559 --> 00:04:20.599 In fact, it's best that you don't try to set them up against each other, that you believe 00:04:20.599 --> 00:04:24.120 in all the gods and that you worship all the gods and all the spirits. 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:29.719 And at base you fundamentally believe that all the gods are pretty much equal. 00:04:29.719 --> 00:04:31.159 They're pretty much the same. 00:04:31.159 --> 00:04:35.879 And you really need something from all of them, so you worship them all. 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:39.719 So it's a context of pluralism. 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:47.880 And for that reason, in chapter 17, Elijah had pronounced a drought upon the kingdom 00:04:47.880 --> 00:04:48.880 of Israel. 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:49.880 A drought. 00:04:49.880 --> 00:04:50.880 Why? 00:04:50.880 --> 00:04:53.160 Why a drought? 00:04:53.160 --> 00:05:00.880 Because they had set up the Baal of Tyre and Sedan, the rain god at the center of Samaria. 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:03.800 And so Elijah says, well, there's going to be a drought. 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:07.880 And I'm going to pray to Yahweh, the true god, the god of the Bible that we read about, 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:10.040 and God's not going to give you rain. 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:11.040 Why? 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.399 Because he's trying to show that the Baal that you've put in the middle of this temple 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:15.399 is empty. 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:18.000 He can't actually give you what you desire. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:19.279 It's an empty idol. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.000 You pray to him for rain, but it's not him that gives you rain. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.000 It's Yahweh, the god of the Bible that gives you rain. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.319 And so there was a drought for three years. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:31.639 And for that reason, everybody was after Elijah. 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:34.360 He was public enemy number one. 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:35.360 People wanted to kill him. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.160 If he was rid of Elijah, then maybe the rains will come back. 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.560 And so Elijah had gone into hiding for three years. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:49.000 And now in chapter 18, verse 17, he comes back for the first time, three years back 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.360 into the land of Israel. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:54.439 And what happens starts in verse 17. 00:05:54.439 --> 00:06:00.600 Ahab sees Elijah and this encounter is quite Lord of the Rings-ish, you know? 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:02.360 If you know what I mean, well, you'll see what I mean. 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.280 Maybe if you know the books. 00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:11.400 Literally it says this, verse 17, Ahab saw Elijah. 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:16.840 Ahab said, you, the trouble bringer of Israel. 00:06:16.840 --> 00:06:20.199 It could also be translated the chaos causer. 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:28.000 Or it could also be the death wielder or maybe the barrel rider or the ring bearer, something 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.560 like that. 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:33.360 Not the last two, but the ones before that it could be. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.519 He's saying you are the chaos causer of Israel. 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:39.720 You are the death bringer to Israel, the troublemaker. 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:40.720 Why? 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:45.360 Well, what he's saying is this, our kingdom would have been in peace if we had rain and 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.560 our crops were growing. 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:55.120 But because of your exclusive claims, you have actually brought drought and death into the 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:57.519 society. 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:02.799 Because you claim exclusivity that there's only one God that truly deserves worship, 00:07:02.799 --> 00:07:06.399 that's actually what's caused our society to be in such disarray. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:11.799 So if you would accept pluralism, if you would accept pluralistic worship, if you would see 00:07:11.799 --> 00:07:17.120 that all the gods are fundamentally equal, then we wouldn't be in this situation. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:22.279 And so the problem Ahab has with Elijah is that not that he prays to Yahweh, the God 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:24.719 of the Bible, but that he's exclusive. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:30.000 And he only prays to this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.280 And then of course Elijah turns back the same thing in verse 18 around to Ahab. 00:07:35.280 --> 00:07:38.480 I'm not the troublemaker of Israel. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:44.680 You're the troublemaker of Israel because you're not exclusive because you can't worship 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:46.880 all the gods at the same time. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:55.680 And so for that reason, Elijah says, gather the prophets, gather the people at Mount Carmel. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:58.360 We're going to have a confrontation. 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:03.600 And in verse 21, he asked them the question. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:10.040 Elijah came near to all the people and he said, how long will you go limping between two different 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:11.040 opinions? 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:14.399 Now, the word limping there is funny. 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:16.800 Limping actually means dancing. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.680 That's a word for cultic dancing. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:23.840 And so what he's referring to is their temple dances. 00:08:23.840 --> 00:08:26.920 They would have danced in the temple as part of their worship. 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:30.600 And so he's saying, how long are you going to continue to go to the temple and dance 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:32.519 between two different opinions? 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:38.159 In other words, how long are you going to worship your true God, the God of Israel, and 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:40.480 the Baals at the same time? 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.120 How long are you going to choose both? 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:51.120 And so what he's saying is there is no religious neutrality. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:57.879 You can't be both for God, the God of the Bible, and equally for other gods. 00:08:57.879 --> 00:08:59.080 There's no religious neutrality. 00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:00.919 You can't say they're all equal. 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.879 How long will you go dancing back and forth between both? 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:09.080 And it's interesting because the people in this passage in verse 21, they don't answer 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:10.159 him. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:13.719 It says that they do nothing but remain silent. 00:09:13.719 --> 00:09:17.120 And that's because the people don't want to choose. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:19.159 They don't want to make a choice between the gods. 00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:21.559 They don't want to discern the spirits. 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:22.719 They want to remain neutral. 00:09:22.719 --> 00:09:27.039 They want to fundamentally say that all the gods are basically the same, that all the 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:28.839 gods are equal. 00:09:28.839 --> 00:09:35.000 And what that means is that this passage is shockingly modern. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.919 It's incredibly modern. 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:43.159 Because they're living in a pluralistic context where you can worship any number of gods, 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:47.360 any number of deities, and the fundamental claim of the society is that they're all the 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:48.360 same. 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:50.159 They're all equal at base. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:51.159 And so you don't have to choose. 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:53.120 You don't have to discern the spirits. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.719 And what Elijah is saying to them is, no, there is no religious neutrality. 00:09:56.719 --> 00:10:01.439 There's no being with Yahweh, the God of the Bible, and with the other gods. 00:10:01.439 --> 00:10:02.439 It doesn't work like that. 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:09.400 And so I would rather you be for God or against Him, but not with Him and worshiping all the 00:10:09.400 --> 00:10:12.440 other deities alongside of Him. 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:18.360 And today in a city like Edinburgh, in a city like London, and New York, or Paris, or 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:24.920 anywhere that's what we call secular, many people will be very content to believe in 00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:26.160 the supernatural world. 00:10:26.160 --> 00:10:31.480 Fourth this of the population still believe that there is a supernatural. 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:35.000 The secular humanist agenda has failed. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:38.399 Most people still believe in the supernatural and the transcendent. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:44.000 But if you go into a city like ours and say something like, you have to discern between 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:45.200 the gods. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:47.399 You have to discern between the religions. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:50.120 You can't just worship pluralistically. 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:52.960 You have to find out which one is actually true. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:57.399 You have to come up against reality and ask yourself, what claims actually make sense 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:02.840 of the world we live in, which claims actually make sense of the needs of the intellect and 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:06.759 the needs of the heart, that many people in a city like ours will say, but why do I have 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:08.840 to discern? 00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:13.759 Why can't I just at bottom say that all the religions are equal and that all of them are 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:17.079 basically saying the same thing? 00:11:17.079 --> 00:11:23.600 I've been to a number of debates between different religions, a Christian theologian and a Muslim 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:26.240 theologian, for instance, on the stage. 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:30.720 And probably some of you have as well, or you've heard or seen these on TV or something 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:32.360 like that. 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:37.919 And in one of these debates, a Muslim theologian and the Christian theologian both will do 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:43.840 a really great job of explaining the differences between their theologies. 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:48.519 They'll talk cordially and explain that they at base have two different conceptions of who 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:52.919 God is and of what true religion really is. 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:58.199 But it almost never fails if these debates take place in Western societies that somebody 00:11:58.199 --> 00:12:02.519 in the Q&A will stand up in the end and say, look, I appreciate you guys. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:05.799 I'm thankful that you've clearly explained your own views. 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:10.479 But at the heart of it, when I listen to you, what I actually hear is you saying that your 00:12:10.479 --> 00:12:15.399 two religions are fundamentally the same, that at the end of the day, it's about loving 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:17.599 God and loving your neighbors. 00:12:17.599 --> 00:12:21.360 And if you do that, all will be well with you. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:28.039 And any Muslim theologian and Christian theologian that are part of the standing tradition of 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:32.720 their religions would absolutely balk at that claim. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:39.080 Because to claim that the religions are fundamentally the same is actually to not listen. 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:40.919 It's a refusal to listen. 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:45.120 It's a refusal to listen to religions that have been defining themselves and their theology 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:47.680 for thousands of years. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:52.599 And it's a refusal to listen so much that it's not tolerance, as it's often said. 00:12:52.599 --> 00:12:55.479 It's actually total intolerance. 00:12:55.479 --> 00:13:00.159 It's unwillingness to actually come up to grips with the claims of the traditions, of 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.000 the religions. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:12.079 For instance, just to give you an example, in Islam at the core, there can be no visible 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:20.040 representation of God's essence, the image of God, in the material embodied world that 00:13:20.040 --> 00:13:22.560 we live in. 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:31.600 And Christianity, Christianity is the fact that God can be, in essence, embodied, the 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.680 image of God come down into this physical world. 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:39.040 And you see, so at base, there are very two different conceptions of God bumping their 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:40.720 heads against each other. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:46.320 And so to say in the Western culture that all religions are fundamentally the same or 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:52.360 equal at base is to refuse to actually take seriously the claims of those religions. 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:53.360 This is not new. 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:57.960 This was happening in the ancient Near East in Elijah's day. 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:01.220 And Elijah is saying here, there is no religious neutrality. 00:14:01.220 --> 00:14:03.399 You can't be religiously neutral. 00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:06.560 You are for the biblical God, or you're against the biblical God. 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:07.560 You believe in him. 00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:09.120 That's the true God, or do you don't? 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:14.240 And that's the only two options that are available according to the Bible. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:19.799 So we have to look for what's true, and that's what this disputation, this confrontation 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:20.799 is about. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:22.639 So secondly, how? 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:27.120 How do you discern between the spirits? 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:32.639 And basically, quite simply, you actually have to let the religions confront one another. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:36.360 You have to let religions be examined. 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:41.000 You have to look at their truth claims, and you have to ask what makes sense of the world 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:45.600 we live in, what makes sense of the needs of the intellect and the needs of the heart. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:51.039 And in this passage, in this confrontation, you have two religions doing just that. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:58.480 You have, on the one hand, Baalism and biblical religion, what will be biblical Christianity, 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:03.480 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob confronting Baalism in the contest. 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:11.920 And so Elijah says in verse 24, prepare a sacrifice, call on your God to come down and 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:15.519 consume the sacrifice by fire. 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:21.480 And in verse 25, he tells them, you guys go first. 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:24.039 You guys go first because you are many. 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.680 Now why does he say that? 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:34.079 Because they have 850 prophets on that mountain, Baal prophets. 00:15:34.079 --> 00:15:36.839 Elijah is by himself. 00:15:36.839 --> 00:15:42.120 And they think that the religions are fundamentally work in the same way. 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:47.759 And so Elijah is saying, if these two religions, these two views of God work the same way, 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:50.919 then it's 850 to 1. 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:56.559 If the religion is fundamentally about performance and getting God to listen to you and come down, 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:59.079 then the odds are terrible for me. 00:15:59.079 --> 00:16:00.079 You guys go first. 00:16:00.079 --> 00:16:06.279 You've got 850 prophets to me, just me, and let's see how your gods perform. 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:13.319 And so what happens in verse 26 and following is we get a picture of how one religion works, 00:16:13.319 --> 00:16:15.879 the religion of Baalism. 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:22.199 And it works in three steps in this passage from verse 26. 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:32.640 But for four to five hours, they cry out to their Baal, their gods, in a cultic prayer. 00:16:32.640 --> 00:16:38.280 And the text is, this is a poem, by the way, this paragraph. 00:16:38.280 --> 00:16:43.200 They cry out to their gods and then it says, but no voice. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:51.040 And then when you are God, the creaturely object in this world that you have put all 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:57.439 your hopes in, your deepest desires that you have associated your very identity with, fails 00:16:57.439 --> 00:17:04.119 you and doesn't listen to you, you have to intensify your performance. 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:08.399 And so secondly, it says that they limp, which there's that word again. 00:17:08.399 --> 00:17:10.440 It means they danced. 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:15.519 So when their shouts didn't work, they resorted to intensification of their performance and 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:19.960 they started dancing before their Baals. 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:20.960 People worship dancing. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:25.920 And then in a poetic form, the text says, no answer, literally. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.960 So no voice, no answer. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:34.319 And then thirdly and finally, when you're Baal, when the thing in this world that you've 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:39.240 put all your hope in doesn't listen to you, it doesn't give you what you want when you 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:41.559 dance for it. 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:48.960 Then thirdly, your resort to spilling your own blood, giving up your whole life for your 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.559 God, for your idol. 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:57.279 And so they cut themselves and they spill their blood onto the altar. 00:17:57.279 --> 00:17:59.539 And then it repeats the three. 00:17:59.539 --> 00:18:06.360 There was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. 00:18:06.360 --> 00:18:12.000 In other words, Baalism isn't one religion. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:17.319 It describes many religions and it describes the basic thrust of what the Bible means by 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.000 idolatry. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:26.639 It's taking an object, it's assigning it an ultimate value, it's worshiping it by performance, 00:18:26.639 --> 00:18:31.679 by your own success, by trying to get it at whatever means necessary, whatever costs to 00:18:31.679 --> 00:18:36.559 you for the sake of a reward. 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:40.960 In the ancient Near East there are rain baels, crop baels, fertility baels, beauty baels, 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:45.919 money baels, power baels, and everything else. 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:51.880 And to the modern 21st century reader, this passage looks incredibly primitive, incredibly 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:56.080 juvenile and almost silly, but it's not primitive at all. 00:18:56.080 --> 00:19:01.600 It's incredibly modern because we have the exact same thing today. 00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:09.720 Beauty baels, money baels, power baels, family baels, career baels, success baels. 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:16.400 Baalism is taking any creaturely object in this world and making it into your God. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:21.160 And that means potentially anything is a Baal. 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:26.880 Baalism is the religion that takes something that's good, makes it ultimate, and destroys 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:31.360 it by trying to make it into a God. 00:19:31.360 --> 00:19:37.640 One month ago, exactly, I quoted from David Foster Wallace, the novelist that committed 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:40.480 suicide in 2006. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:47.000 This is from his address to Kenyon College, his commencement speech in 2005. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:52.720 This guy was not a Christian, but he nails the point of this passage. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:57.520 In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, he says, there is actually no such thing as 00:19:57.520 --> 00:19:59.720 atheism. 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.360 There is no such thing as not worshiping. 00:20:02.360 --> 00:20:05.560 There is no religious neutrality. 00:20:05.560 --> 00:20:06.560 Everybody worships. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.079 Every choice we get is what to worship. 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:13.639 And the compelling reason for maybe choosing someone like Jesus Christ is that pretty much 00:20:13.639 --> 00:20:17.839 anything else that you worship will eat you alive. 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:22.720 If you worship money and your things, your possessions, if they are where you tap real 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:25.799 meaning in life, then you will never have enough. 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:27.799 You will never feel like you have enough. 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:28.799 It's the truth. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:36.519 Worship your body and worship beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:41.599 And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:43.400 grieve you. 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:47.639 Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid. 00:20:47.639 --> 00:20:52.920 And you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fears. 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:59.119 Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, afraud, 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:01.839 always on the verge of being found out. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:07.079 But the worst thing, he says, about all these forms of worship is that they're unconscious. 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:13.319 They are the natural default of every human being to worship, to put your absolute hope 00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:15.839 in a creaturely object. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:20.679 They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into day after day. 00:21:20.679 --> 00:21:26.159 And Walter Bruggemann, who's an Old Testament commentator that writes a commentary on this 00:21:26.159 --> 00:21:28.919 passage in First Kings, he says something pretty similar. 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:33.600 He describes the contemporary scene as modern balism. 00:21:33.600 --> 00:21:38.880 And this is what he says, modern balism, it reduces the mystery of life to manageable 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:44.840 techniques into a power play at your own success. 00:21:44.840 --> 00:21:48.200 It's a life of independence, not dependence. 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:54.480 And if you live a life that tries to take control of everything by means of your performance, 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:01.079 as soon as you suffer, as soon as you lose that something that you're chasing after, 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:02.920 you will be crushed. 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:05.039 Your bail will fail you. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:11.200 Your God will say, dance for me, and in the end you will be forced to spill your own blood 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:13.200 for it. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:23.400 And that means that balism at the heart is performative religious idolatry chasing after 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:27.160 an idol, some creature in this world. 00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:31.519 And it leads to drought, it leads to death, it leads to blood loss. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:37.440 It makes you spill your own blood for the God that you can never capture. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.680 Elijah is here in this passage to say, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible is different. 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:50.160 That the Christian worldview is different from that religion and from all the other religions. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:54.440 And so thirdly and finally, and briefly, how? 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:59.600 And in this passage, there's a call to choose life instead of death. 00:22:59.600 --> 00:23:03.920 So the confrontation, it's Elijah's turn from verse 36. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:12.240 And he makes it extra hard for God because he pours water 12 times in total all over 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:18.519 the altar, even in a trench, basically saying this is not going to be a trick. 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:23.400 Even if I was to pour a lighter fluid all over this thing, it's soaked in water. 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:26.960 There's no way it's going to burn unless God answers us. 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:34.400 And so he asked God from verse 36 to make God known. 00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:39.720 He asked specifically that God would reclaim the hearts of the people. 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:45.519 And in verse 38, the fire falls down and the people fall on their faces and they say he 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:48.440 is truly the Lord. 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:54.920 Now the basic point, the basic point of this passage is pretty simple. 00:23:54.920 --> 00:23:56.519 Bales are creatures. 00:23:56.519 --> 00:23:58.960 They are not truly gods. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:01.320 They don't accept your sacrifices. 00:24:01.320 --> 00:24:05.039 You can dance for them and they will not answer you. 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:10.720 And in the face of Baalism, it is only the true God, the God of the Bible, that can give 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:13.720 human beings what they desire, what they were made for. 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:15.240 Now that's the basic point. 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:19.960 But there is a bigger picture here. 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:22.880 There's a bigger picture here. 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:27.599 In chapter 17, we have to remember to understand this passage in full that the context was 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:31.960 drought, that death came upon the lands. 00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:32.960 Why? 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:41.000 Because a wicked king brought in, invited in foreign spirits, evil spirits, the spirits 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:46.920 that come from the lineage of the serpent of Satan, evil spirits came into this kingdom 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:49.720 and corrupted the kingdom. 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:54.759 And for that reason, the only man of God, the man of God that's left in the land, this 00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:56.400 is God's land. 00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:58.000 This is the garden of God. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:24:59.480 This is the promised land. 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:02.480 This is the land of milk and honey. 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:09.079 That man, Elijah, he is forced to go east in chapter 17. 00:25:09.079 --> 00:25:12.799 He is forced to go east of the garden of God. 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.799 He's forced to go east of Eden. 00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:20.439 And for three years, he lives outside of the land. 00:25:20.439 --> 00:25:26.919 Three years, the kingdom of God lives under the state of condemnation and death, the state 00:25:26.919 --> 00:25:32.639 of no rain, which means no food, drought, no life. 00:25:32.639 --> 00:25:37.519 And then finally, when the man of God comes back from the east, comes back from the east 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:43.039 of Eden, back into the picture, he comes on a mission of reclamation, and he only goes 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:47.079 to one place, and that's to Mount Carmel. 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:49.240 He goes up the mountain. 00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:56.920 And Mount Carmel, literally translated, is the vineyard or the garden of God. 00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:59.359 That's what Carmel means. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:04.339 And so in the midst of a situation, a context of drought, of death, of no food, of lifelessness 00:26:04.339 --> 00:26:10.319 in the kingdom of God, the garden of God, Elijah comes back in and stakes the reclamation 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:15.639 point of God's kingdom in the vineyard, in the garden of God. 00:26:15.639 --> 00:26:21.079 It's there that he will reclaim the kingdom that had been corrupted, that forced the people 00:26:21.079 --> 00:26:24.759 of God to go east of Eden. 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:29.720 And so the big picture here is actually the picture of Christianity, and it's what makes 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:32.959 Christianity so different from all the other religions. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:40.600 It's this, that God so loved the world, not that he, like the Baals, said, sing to me, 00:26:40.600 --> 00:26:46.920 dance for me, cut yourself for me, spill your blood for me, but because you have corrupted 00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:51.600 the garden of God and turned it into a place of death, I will come down on the mountain 00:26:51.600 --> 00:26:59.759 of God and spill my blood for you, so that you can have steak in the vineyard once more. 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:04.200 And so that means that this passage is not about Elijah. 00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:05.359 This passage isn't about Elijah. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.879 Elijah is a prophet, and prophets point somewhere else, prophets point to things other than 00:27:10.879 --> 00:27:11.879 themselves. 00:27:11.879 --> 00:27:15.799 And in this passage, Elijah is there not to talk about himself, but to point to the truth. 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:17.920 And where's the truth in this passage? 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:18.920 It's not Elijah. 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:20.680 Where is the point of reclamation? 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:23.960 Where is it that the vineyard of God has reclaimed? 00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:28.519 The kingdom brought back, and it's actually at the altar. 00:27:28.519 --> 00:27:30.200 It's the sacrifice. 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:34.639 It's the fire come down from heaven and eat up the sacrifice. 00:27:34.639 --> 00:27:36.319 That's the place of atonement. 00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:39.160 That's actually how this salvation occurs. 00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:45.799 And just to close, in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 11, the crowds come to Jesus, 00:27:45.799 --> 00:27:48.639 and they're asking him about John the Baptist. 00:27:48.639 --> 00:27:50.680 What's up with you and John the Baptist? 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:53.160 How does your relationship work out? 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:54.879 And this is what Jesus says. 00:27:54.879 --> 00:27:57.079 Jesus speaking to the crowds about John. 00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:02.799 Truly, I say to you of all those born of women, there has never arisen one greater than John 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:04.199 the Baptist. 00:28:04.199 --> 00:28:07.119 And that's a big sample size, all those born of women. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:09.159 It's a large number. 00:28:09.159 --> 00:28:13.279 For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John. 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:21.039 And if you today are willing to accept this, John is the Elijah to come. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.159 He who has ears, let him hear. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:28.519 What Jesus is saying is, what's the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus? 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:32.480 He is saying, John the Baptist is the new Elijah. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:36.920 He's the greatest of all the prophets that came not to point to himself, but to point 00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:37.920 somewhere else. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:39.840 John the Baptist was never about John the Baptist. 00:28:39.840 --> 00:28:46.440 He came from out of the wilderness, east of the Promised Land, east of Israel. 00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:54.040 In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is fed by the food of ravens in the wilderness, east of the land, 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:58.240 and just like John the Baptist, who's fed in the wilderness by God through locust and 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:03.839 honey and wild animals, they both come from the west, back to the east, pointing to reclaim 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:09.039 the truth, pointing to the truth of reclamation found somewhere else, not in themselves. 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:14.680 They are both the great prophets of the reclamation of the Garden of Eden, of the victory of God, 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:15.879 of the vineyard of God. 00:29:15.879 --> 00:29:19.039 Just listen to this in Luke 1.17. 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:25.399 John the Baptist will go before the Messiah in the Spirit and in the power of Elijah. 00:29:25.399 --> 00:29:29.039 That's how it pictures him in the Gospels. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:30.960 John the Baptist was never about John the Baptist. 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:33.200 He was there to point to the truth. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:39.200 That means that Elijah, the original John the Baptist, was there to point elsewhere, and 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:43.119 he was pointing straight at the fire come down. 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:46.599 That was nothing but a shadow. 00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:53.439 Hebrews chapter 10, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and 00:29:53.439 --> 00:30:00.439 offerings you have not desired, O Lord, but a body you have prepared for me. 00:30:00.439 --> 00:30:03.599 In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:05.719 It hasn't worked. 00:30:05.719 --> 00:30:12.240 The kingdom has not been reclaimed, not by the blood of this bull or any bull. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:16.680 And I said, Jesus said, behold, I have come to do your will. 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:20.480 I have prepared my body. 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:24.319 And the writer says, by that we have been sanctified through the offering of a better 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:27.559 body, the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 00:30:27.559 --> 00:30:30.759 Now, this is truly the close. 00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:39.160 Luke chapter 9, Jesus has turned his face towards the cross, towards Jerusalem, and 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:46.560 he's coming from the north to the south, and he sends his disciples ahead of him to Samaria, 00:30:46.560 --> 00:30:54.759 the place that Ahab and Jezebel built to announce that the Messiah was passing through. 00:30:54.759 --> 00:30:58.080 But the people did not receive him. 00:30:58.080 --> 00:31:01.720 They didn't receive his prophets, James and John. 00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:07.360 And so James and John come back to Jesus and say, the Samaritans won't have us. 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:14.479 Could we look up to heaven and call down fire upon these people? 00:31:14.479 --> 00:31:16.359 And you see what they were thinking. 00:31:16.359 --> 00:31:18.839 They were saying, we are the new Elijah's. 00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:23.359 We're in Samaria, the kingdom that Ahab and Jezebel built, and they've rejected the true 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:26.039 Lord just like they did in 1 Kings chapter 18. 00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:27.599 And now we're going to do again what Elijah did. 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:31.399 He took the prophets of Baal down to the brook and he killed them. 00:31:31.399 --> 00:31:32.639 He brought justice. 00:31:32.639 --> 00:31:33.639 We're going to bring justice. 00:31:33.639 --> 00:31:36.439 We're going to bring the fire down on them just like Elijah did. 00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:37.840 Who you let us, Lord? 00:31:37.840 --> 00:31:42.480 And Jesus turns and he rebukes them. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:45.080 He says, no. 00:31:45.080 --> 00:31:48.559 Why? 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:53.640 Because a fire will come down from heaven, but it won't be for those people. 00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:59.640 It will be for his body that has been prepared as the ultimate sacrifice for Baal worshipers 00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:05.960 like the Samaritans and for Baal worshipers like us. 00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:08.200 He will go into ultimate exile. 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:10.640 He will go east of Eden. 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.039 He will enter into the far country. 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:19.039 He will be the judge, the true judge that was judged in our place on that cross, the 00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:24.000 true body prepared for a burnt sacrifice. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:27.039 What should have happened to Ahab at the end of this passage? 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:32.360 Ahab, like the prophets of Baal, he was the most wicked king in all of history. 00:32:32.360 --> 00:32:34.200 He should have been destroyed. 00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:37.200 This should have come down on Ahab. 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:45.039 In verse 41 of this passage, at the very end, when the kingdom is restored, after the servants 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:52.880 of Baal are dead, Elijah turns to Ahab and says, in our passage, go. 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:56.920 It could also be translated as an invitation, come. 00:32:56.920 --> 00:33:00.240 Come up, a wicked king. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:04.599 Eat and drink for the rains are coming. 00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:08.519 Come up the mountain with me, the vineyard of God. 00:33:08.519 --> 00:33:12.480 Eat and drink, eat the bread, drink the wine. 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:13.880 The rains are coming. 00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.519 Do you hear life coming back? 00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:23.240 That's an invitation to the one man in this kingdom that did not deserve grace. 00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:30.079 That's an invitation to the prodigal son, to the prodigal daughter, to any Baal worshiper. 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:36.119 To any who place their ultimate hope and some creature in this life. 00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:40.679 Will you choose to come back home from the far country? 00:33:40.679 --> 00:33:41.679 It's an invitation. 00:33:41.679 --> 00:33:42.679 Ahab's invitation. 00:33:42.679 --> 00:33:43.839 It's an invitation for you. 00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:44.839 Let's pray. 00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:50.679 Father, we thank you for the beauty of the Old Testament, for the sign of Christ, the 00:33:50.679 --> 00:33:56.879 shadow, the sacrifice, the body prepared for us. 00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:03.480 We ask that you would give us faith for us as Christians again, that you would give faith 00:34:03.480 --> 00:34:07.000 to somebody here for the first time. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:27.679 In Jesus' name, amen.