Can I Have Just a Little Consistency Here Please, Week 15 Day 2, 1 Kings 19

Can I Have Just a Little Consistency Here Please, Week 15 Day 2, 1 Kings 19

So, in the last chapter we had Elijah winning the Battle of the Prophets.  He was bold.  He was boastful.  And he was audacious.  He took on the 450 prophets of Baal taunting them, beating them and ultimately killing them.  He was larger than life.

And now he’s hiding in a cave.

What gives?  How did Elijah go from larger than life to hiding in fear at Horeb, the mountain of God?  God has the same question for Elijah.  “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  And Elijah’s answer, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.  The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

What happened?  Life happened.  But he was so bold.  And now he’s so scared.  So I guess it’s fair to say that Elijah, The Prophet of his time was only human after all.  Just like me.  Just like you.  Some days I’m so bold with my faith I want to just stand back, watch myself and take notes.  Other time’s I just pray that no one is watching or even worse making a video.  If they were I’d end up on Americans Funniest Believers, if there were such a show.  Yeah, a major face plant of faith.  Elijah, bold fighter for the faith on one mountain, hiding in fear on the next mountain.

So that’s one contrast.  Bold and full of faith versus afraid and hiding.  Both in one mighty follower of God.

The other contrast is God.  This is a pretty famous passage.  There’s the mighty wind, but God wasn’t in the wind.  There’s an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake.  There’s the fire, but God wasn’t in the fire.  Then there’s the gentle whisper, and God IS in the whisper.

We like to grab a hold of that verse; God is the God who is in the whisper.  God the Whisper.  And we think this is how God speaks.  This is how He must speak, because that’s how he spoke to Elijah.  He’s not the God of the special effects.  He’s the God of the whisper.

But in just the last chapter He WAS the God in the fire.  He sent down the fire that burned of offering, the wood, the alter and everything else.  He was God in the fire when He spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  He was the God of the earthquake when He opened the ground to swallowed those who rebelled with Koarh in the desert.  (Numbers 16)  So, is He the God of the whisper, the wind, the earthquake or the fire?  And the unsettling answer is that He is both all of those and none of those.

We would like to know how God works.  We would like a set of rules for how God behaves.  We’d like a set of steps that we could follow every time and know exactly how God will respond.  A twelve step program.  Three points and a poem from a sermon.  Five points for an effective prayer life.

But the amazing reality is that God will be the God that I need Him to be at the time and place where I am in my life right now.  Sometimes I’m bold and God is big and bold with me.  Sometimes I quiet and hurting and God is that still quiet voice that whispers into my heart.

Does that make God inconsistent?  Does that God mean that God isn’t the same “yesterday, today, and always”?  No.  It means that the God who is the same from the beginning to the end is not a one dimensional character that must fit outline of who He is.  He doesn’t have to fit the outline that I or anyone else created.  God is complex beyond my ability to completely comprehend.   He won’t fit in the box I’ve made for Him, or the circle, or the triangle, or the star or any other shape.  He won’t fit into the last sermon I hear, the last book I’ve read, the last class I took or even the master’s thesis that I wrote.  But He will most definitely fit in my life.  Or more accurately, my life can fit in Him.  My life will fit in Him regardless of the shape my life is in at the moment, because He is bigger than me, more complex than me.  And He’s exactly the God that I need Him to be.

Fire when I need to burn with passion. Earthquakes when my world needs to be shaken up.  A wind when I need to be blown about.  And a whisper when I need that still small voice.  One God who meets me where I’m at and in the way I need to hear Him.

God, not sure what I’m going to face today.  And I’m not really sure exactly how I feel.  God, please come to me in the way that I need You hear from You today.  Shout or whisper.  Shake me up or hold me steady.  Sooth and calm me or make me jump with excitement.  You’re still the same God, but today let hear from You in the way that draws me closer to You and best helps me to proclaim You to the world.  Amen

Leonard

Cut Throat Kitchen – The Biblical Version, Week 15 Day 1, 1 Kings 17-18

Cut Throat Kitchen – The Biblical Version, Week 15 Day 1, 1 Kings 17-18

There’s this new (or at least new to me) cooking show that I’ve watched only a couple of times, Cut Throat Kitchen.  The chefs are competing against each other.  (Why does everything on TV need to be a competition now, especially when we live in an age where little league teams aren’t even allowed to keep score?)  So the idea of the show is that the chefs have a certain amount of money.  They use the money to buy bonuses or to sabotage their competition.  In one of the shows I saw they were making a dish with shrimp.  They were then given a bowl of shrimp tails on which to bid.  The winner got to pick an opponent that lost his nice juicy whole shrimp to be replaced with the tiny shrimp tails.  Yeah, the guy lost.

Well, today’s story is the original celebrity barbeque cook off / religious competition.  I’m not sure that Elijah understood the rules of the game.  He does everything he can to stack the odds in favor of hise opponents.  He challenges not one to two other prophets to a prophetic barbeque cook off.  No, he challenges four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.  And the rules of this cook off are bit strange as both teams will be working with a bit of a handicap.  Seems they aren’t allowed to light the barbeque / alters.  Indeed, the challenge is actually between Elijah’s God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel verses the god Baal.  And the winner is going to be the god who lights the fire. 

Let the competition begin.  Prophets of Baal go first.  Baal’s prophets call on their god from dawn until noon.  They dance, they shout.  And Elijah taunts them.  “Shout louder!”  Maybe he’s busy?  In thought?  Traveling?  Asleep?  If this was an NFL game Elijah would have gotten a 15 yard penalty for taunting his opponents.  The prophets even start cutting themselves in an effort to get a response from Baal.  Finally at evening they give up.

Now it’s Elijah’s turn.  Not understanding the rules of Cut Throat Kitchen he actually gives himself a further penalty.  He has them douse his alter, wood and offering with water not once, not twice, but three times.  After this he prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He will answer his prayer and the people will know that the Lord is God.  And fire falls from heaven, consumes the offering, the wood and alter and even the water that had been poured out on the offering.  And the people who had been following Baal now declare that “The Lord – He is God!”

And Elijah, in a move that today would surely get him a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, kills the 450 prophets of Baal.  I know I’ve said this before, but very different rules for a very different time.  And in the day of Elijah, Cut Throat Kitchen was really cut throat. Both sides would have known the stakes going in. 

So, what are we to make of this brutal story of competing gods and terrible penalties?

First, it’s easy for us, especially in “modern day’s” to act as though all these thoughts of God or gods don’t matter.  There is no god or God.  And IF there is a god or God, it really only matters at the end of our lives.  And if there is a god or God, then he or He must be nice and let everyone into heaven.  But this story says that the struggle between God and everything against God is real and has real consequence, not just at the end of lives, but in the here and now.  In the game of “Who are you going to follow?” you’re answer makes a very real and profound difference, today and everyday.

Second, the story tells us that what’s right or wrong isn’t decided by polls, opinions, or the number of people on one side or the other.  There is a real standard for right and wrong and that standard comes from God.  We can disagree.  We can choose to not follow.  That doesn’t change what’s right or wrong.  If the current opinion is 1 verse 450, that doesn’t make the 450 right.  Of course, it is possible for the 450 to be right and the 1 to be wrong, when the 450 agree with God and the 1 stands against Him.  It ain’t the numbers that make right or wrong.  It’s where right and wrong come from.

Third, and I’ll confess that I’ve read ahead, even when you’re right don’t get cocky.  Elijah won the completion, but his killing of the 450 prophets of Baal will not be without consequence.  Believe in God.  Depend on God.  Rely on God.  But don’t get cocky. 

God, help me to know what’s right and what’s wrong.  Help me to remember Your Word, Your Truth and Your Standards.  Give me the strength and character to stand for what You have shown to be right.  But God, please let me stand with grace and humility and not get cocky.  Amen

Leonard