1 Kings 18:20-40
"So Ahab summoned all the people and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!" But the people were completely silent.
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only prophet of the LORD who is left, but Baal has prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it.
Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!" And all the people agreed. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood."
So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal all morning, shouting, "O Baal, answer us!" But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced wildly around the altar they had made.
About noontime Elijah began mocking them. "You'll have to shout louder," he scoffed, "for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or he is asleep and needs to be wakened!"
So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no reply, no voice, no answer.
Then Elijah called to the people, "Come over here!" They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the LORD's altar. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood.
Then he said, "Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood." After they had done this, he

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said, "Do the same thing again!" And when they were finished, he said, "Now do it a third time!" So they did as he said, and the water ran around the altar and even overflowed the trench.
At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself."
Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"
Then Elijah commanded, "Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don't let a single one escape!" So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there."

"Elijah was as human as we are. And yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again." (James 5:17-18) The sentence that precedes this verse says: "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results."
Twenty seven hundred years ago, Elijah, the prophet, was deeply concerned over the spiritual condition of his nation. Israel had promised almighty God they would serve Him only, but now they are steeped in pagan idolatry. The prophets of Jehovah had been slain and replaced with pagan priests. The images of Baal and Astaroth shine in the noonday sun, and glimmer in the pale moon-light. Clouds and thick satanic darkness now cover the land. Soil that had been gifted to the nation of Israel from Jehovah God now was the soil upon which heathen altars and idolatrous temples were built. The stench of burning pagan sacrifices fill the air and the burning smoke contaminates the countryside! The screaming and yelling of heathen priests cutting themselves in pagan rites could be heard throughout a nation which was established by the Creator God who had warned them against worshipping of other gods.

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But out of the silence of the wilderness, walked a praying prophet filled with a consuming passion for the glory of God. "Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, "As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives—the God whom I worship and serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years unless I give the word!" (1 Kings 17:1)
King Ahab...who is he?
"And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him."(1 Kings 16:30-33)
It was into his presence marched this fearless prophet and announced the coming draught. Elijah had knowledge of the ancient words of God!
"Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit." (Deuteronomy 11:16-17)
And listen to proclamation in the presence of wicked Ahab..."As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand..."
Elijah reminded the king of God’s special relationship with the nation of Israel. He was their King, their Ruler, the One in whom they had entered into a special and solemn covenant. And the wicked king was informed that God was still alive, a fact that had been mocked by the wicked actions of Ahab and the nation. This reminder to the wicked king pointed a striking contrast from the lifeless idols whose impotency should now be made apparent—unable to defend themselves and their followers from God’s wrath.
"BEFORE WHOM I STAND!" One of the secrets of Elijah's prayer life was his consciousness of the Divine presence. He lived each moment of each day with that consuming thought that his very next word and action could be surrounded with glory of the eternal and with the next twitching of the eye, he could awake in the very presence of the God of heaven.
Elijah means..."Jehovah is my strength." "BEFORE WHOM I STAND." To stand before the

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Lord is to live with sincere desire above all things that the will of the Lord may be at all times plainly manifested to me, and that I may do nothing, from one moment to another, but what shall please Him and promote His glory.
In Elijah's proclamation before king Ahab, there was the assurance from the word of the Lord that such a chastisement as a season of no rain upon the land would tend to melt the hardened hearts of the people, and to restore the glory of Jehovah's name.
He had prayed fervently that there would be no rain, and the word of the prophet struck, like a fever, into the heart of the earth, withering and scorching; and all that was fresh and green faded and hung its head, every stream and rivulet dried up, and all that had breath lay gasping and languishing on the ground!
"Then the Lord said to Elijah, "Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook at a place east of where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food. So Elijah did as the Lord had told him and camped beside Kerith Brook. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land." (1 Kings 17:2-7)
The challenge which Elijah had flung in Ahab's face was not only a confrontation with his evil conduct, but also an outright attack on the power of Baal. This pagan god of the Canaanites was sometimes called "the storm god." he was the one who allegedly brought rain, showers, mist and dew to the parched land of Palestine. Elijah's fearless assault was made in his own steadfast confidence in God. It was the Lord, Jehovah, who controlled climate.
The net result of this confrontation was for God to direct Elijah to go underground. At the brook, the ravens had been ordered by their Creator to bring food to the prophet! Ravens normally were carrion eaters. They consumed the scraps of offal and putrefying flesh that remained on carcasses left by the jackals and hyenas of the desert. Any discarded fragments of bad food or rotten wastes that were flung outside the village walls were pounced upon by ravens. Their coarse cries were a common sound in the desert wastes. They were bold, black birds surviving on scraps of hide, bits of bone and remnants of rubbish. It was on such frightful fare that Elijah would

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have to survive at Cherith. The ravens of God did not bring him sirloin steak and fresh baked bread...they brought him garbage! Elijah's interlude at Cherith was not altogether just a dark or difficult interval in his life. It had its benefits. In that solitary spot, God’s Spirit communed with the prophet. It was there that God talked with him. One day, God said, "It is time to go and live in the village of Zaraphath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. Have given her my instructions." (1 Kings 17:8-9)
"After many months passed, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, "Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!" So Elijah went to appear before Ahab." (1 Kings 18:1,2)
A man named Obadiah who was in charge of the palace met Elijah walking along the road. The prophet instructed Obadiah to go to his master, wicked King Ahab, and tell him that he was coming to meet him. At first, Obadiah refused, thinking that after he had told his king that he saw Elijah, if the prophet didn't fulfill his word, then the king would kill him for not bringing the prophet in person to his presence. Elijah promised that he would see Ahab, "So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet him." (1 Kings 18:16-17)
When Ahab came near to Elijah, he said, "So it's you, is it--Israel's troublemaker?" And listen to Elijah's reply!
"I have made no trouble for Israel. You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead. Now bring all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel, with all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who are supported by Jezebel." (1 Kings 18:18-19)
It mattered not to Elijah that for him to confront Ahab again was to literally walk into the very jaws of death!
The instant he showed himself, Jezebel would expend her full force and fury to liquidate him. As far as she and her awful Ahab were concerned. Elijah was public enemy number one!
But one man with a deep faith in God would prove to be a majority over all the false prophets summoned to the mount!
Now we have arrived in our story which was described in the opening words of our text.
Ahab responded to Elijah's words and sent for the false prophets.
Upon their arrival, Elijah took command of the situation. "Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How long are you going

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to waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!"
"But the people were completely silent!"
Elijah, having thus faithfully delivered his message, now begins to make preparations for a scene which has not its like in sacred history. Jehovah is about to show, by signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds, that He is God and none else; and Baal is to be overthrown in one day.
The effect of Elijah's words brought dead silence on the part of the assembled multitude. They seem to have felt the power of his expostulation concerning their doubt and indecision. Perhaps, the people had not been able entirely to forget what great things Jehovah had done for their forefathers: they could not bring themselves to renounce entirely all allegiance to their God of history! They confounded Jehovah and Baal together, and invented a religion in which they gave themselves up to all the lusts and abominations of heathenism, but retained the self-complacent notion that they still walked in the way of their fathers. What awful self-delusion!
Little was Israel prepared for a true visitation from Jehovah God that day.
Elijah lifts his voice again and his words are like arrows. "Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The God who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!" and all the people agreed." (1 Kings 18:22-24)
What Israel seemed to have missed this day was the deep significance of the sort of sacrifice upon which Elijah had insisted.
They were totally preoccupied with the fire. They were fascinated with the idea of flames. Man has always been intrigued by divine pyrotechnics: be they true or false, counterfeit or genuine in their origin.
It is noteworthy Elijah demanded that a bullock, an ox, be butchered. He did not request a lamb, a kid, a bushel of grain or a pair of doves. He insisted on a bullock. Therein lies the key and secret to all that was later to take place on this mount on this monumental day!
A priest, a prophet, a man of God, offered

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an ox in sacrifice to God only for his own special, private sins and wrongdoings. It was an atonement made on behalf of just himself and his own immediate household. The sincere, implicit offering of a bullock declared to God his own awareness of his own unworthiness. This was a sacred rite instituted by God Himself for the cleansing and purification and preparation of His own servants. It recognized that even a man like Elijah, like Aaron of old, like Samuel, had need of proper preparation in spirit, soul, and body to stand as an intermediary between God and man. "And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house." (Leviticus 16:6) The bullock was a sin offering and it showed that the true in heart must be made right always with God in utter humility and complete contrition.
Just as Elijah had been most generous in agreeing to confront the gods of Baal and Ashteroth on Carmel, so now he was equally generous in granting their false prophets first chance to call down fire from above. Elijah knew full well that the sacred flame of God’s own divine appointment and presence had been extinguished by Ahab and Jezebel.
It had been ordained of God when Israel was delivered out of Egypt that the celestial fires of sacrifice ignited upon her altars should never be allowed to die! "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out." (Leviticus 6:13)
To Elijah's credit he insisted that not even the false prophets of the false gods had either the privilege or prerogative to place their own peculiar fire under the sacrifice. From morning until high noon the host of the false prophets pranced around the altar they had erected. They prostrated themselves before the sacrifice, pleading and crying to Baal, but their god of thunderstorms, hail, rain and lightning was silent!
Elijah, a bit bored by the whole performance of the false prophets, decided to draw near and taunt them: "Shout louder. Call harder. Perhaps your God is busy in conversation. Maybe he is away on a trip. Perhaps he has fallen asleep. Awaken him to answer you!"
It was not only Elijah who mocked them. Even worse it was their own gods who mocked them. Ahab saw this and so did the multitudes of common people who had gathered to witness this contest. The hot, sun-burned, heat-scorched day dragged on. The noise of the shouting, screaming, wailing and bleeding false prophets rose to an ear-deafening crescendo.

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Now the sun was sinking slowly into the western waters of the shining sea of the Mediterranean. Elijah called the people to come near. "They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. He took twelve stones. One to represent each of the twelve tribes of Israel." He dug a trench around the altar and had it filled three times with water. The water ran around the altar, and overflowed the trench. At the customary time of the evening sacrifice (three o'clock in the afternoon), he began to pray. Listen to his prayer: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant. Prove that I have done all this at Your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God and that You have brought them back to yourself."
"Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out, "The Lord is God! The Lord is God." (1 Kings 18:36-39)
Remember our Scripture passage from James? "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]; and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. And then he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops [as usual]." (James 5:16-18)
A righteous man's prayer reaches heaven! Who is a righteous man? He is a person who is living in harmony with God’s commands, seeking to bring God glory in his living. He seeks forgiveness for his sins. Isaiah says: "listen! The Lord is not too weak to save you, and He is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God, because of your sin, He has turned away and will not listen anymore. Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your mouth is full of lies, and your lips are tainted with corruption." (Isaiah 59:1-3) "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry." (Psalm 34:15)
Righteous living, doing what is right in the eyes of God...this is the secret to effective and fruitful praying!