1 Kings 18:21, commentary and pictures

On Carmel Elijah set all Israel before the two altars to decide once for all who is truly God, the Lord or Baal, with fire to prove the choice and vindicate His name.
The call demands an immediate, wholehearted and undivided following with no neutral middle ground, no blending of loyalties and no waiting to see results: if the Lord be God follow Him fully, if Baal follow him.
When the people answered not a word their silence was guilt and indecision, for neutrality and halfheartedness in such a crisis are themselves unfaithfulness and grievous sin.
Baal worship is not only bowing to stock or stone but whatever takes the heart apart from God, and in modern form it exalts the human above the divine, mammon, science and human reason above revelation.
So the choice now divides commandment-keeping worship of the true God from obedience to human commands, tested especially in keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and it requires thorough repentance, dying to self and wholehearted service in honesty, purity and separation from the world.

Carmel Confrontation Setting

Elijah summoned all Israel together with the prophets of Baal and of Ashtoreth to Mount Carmel for public confrontation. Carmel was chosen as a conspicuous place where many could witness God's power and the vindication of His name amid the dishonor of Baal worship. The people gathered sensing that something unusual was about to happen, with the broken-down altar of the Lord and the assembled multitude forming the setting for a solemn public appeal.

The two altars represented the contest between worship of the Lord and worship of Baal. The challenge opened the test by demanding that the people decide once for all who is God and then follow Him alone, to be proved by fire showing who is truly God. The drought itself put Baal to the test, for if Baal could provide dew and rain and make the land flourish without the Lord's gifts from heaven, the people would have reason to worship him.

Elijah stood there before Ahab, the assembled people, and the 450 prophets of Baal apparently alone as the sole witness for the true God. He was commissioned to stand before the idolatrous priests as God's instrument, a preacher of righteousness guided by the Holy Spirit, who through God's direction fought the Lord's battles. Though apparently alone before thousands including the king and Baal's prophets, he was protected by angels. He had maintained trust in Jehovah through the years of drought and famine and stood undaunted and long and valiantly for the right.

Later that day fire consumed the sacrifice and the people's silence gave way to a declaration of allegiance to God, recognizing the Lord as God and showing Him superior to Baal. The prophets of Baal were slain, idolatry supported by Ahab and the heathen Jezebel received a decided check and was cast down, and Elijah was vindicated as God's instrument for the overthrow of gigantic evils. The whole people were deeply stirred and many returned to the worship of God, with Elisha left as Elijah's successor to guide Israel in safe paths by careful, patient instruction. The rain that followed testified to blessings awaiting Israel, yet the response did not produce the lasting reformation hoped for.

Elijah prayed strongly and earnestly for that rain with faith sorely tried. He continued in earnest prayer bowed with his face between his knees in a painful, humiliating position until rewarded by tokens of rain and great rain.

Even after that signal triumph, which opened the way for still greater victories, Elijah became afraid when weary and fled for his life before Jezebel's threats. Strength failed and will power weakened and faith ceased to repose in God, proving that one who stood long and valiantly for the right can be overcome in greatest weakness when faith lets go its hold upon infinite power and Satan assails in that time. His failure of faith and unbelief cut short the work he had begun and turned him away from opportunities he had not yet learned to trust God wholly to complete.

Demand for Wholehearted Choice

Elijah's question demands an immediate, wholehearted, undivided decision to stop halting between two opinions and follow fully the one who is truly God. There is no neutral middle ground and no blending of loyalties, for Christian nature, tastes, and pursuits differ from those of the world and the two cannot be blended imperceptibly. The surrender called for does not wait until results, way, or future are seen, but is present surrender to God in humility and contrition day by day. It is heart service and obedience, not mere assent to truth, and full surrender brings true happiness.

Its form is conditional and absolute: if the Lord is God, follow Him; if Baal is god, follow him. A person must be one thing or the other, serving God fully or serving the opposite fully, for no one can serve both God and Satan, just as no one can serve two masters. Those taking part in actions wrong in principle are therefore called to decisive change and thereafter to walk humbly with God. Even when family pressure tempts otherwise, duty is to follow the course God designates as right.

Neutrality, indecision, and halfheartedness are themselves unfaithfulness bringing God's displeasure. Christ's professed followers have no place in neutrality and must not stand undecided between opposing loyalties, but take an open, courageous stand rather than concealing allegiance or trying to serve both. An open enemy is more hopeful than one who remains neutral. In God's work the undecided person who acts only when sure of losing nothing is not fit for God to use; those serving Him must be committed to doing right under every circumstance.

The choice must be made now and openly declared, with thorough repentance in humiliation and contrition before God, so it is clear who will follow the light and God's people can work together in harmony. All who choose to serve Him are called to stand on the platform of eternal truth, with no halting between two sides. Those who have brought about division are to stop, think seriously before going further, and change course. It means generous, noble confession of Christianity and avowal of belief in the validity of truth, refusing to be turned aside by what others have said or done, since each bears responsibility for his own course and appointed work.

The deliberate choice made after careful thought shapes character, becomes a lasting influence, and molds deepest life. No one is compelled to serve Him; each freely chooses whom to serve and bears the full results, with present happiness, future well-being, and future destiny depending on that own course of action. Choosing and upholding God's principles makes them part of life and shapes the person in the divine likeness, as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Those in the valley of decision, facing decision for or against God with eternal destinies at stake and with the issue one of life and death, need a direct, urgent appeal to decide.

Continuing unchanged without deciding leaves a person not on the Lord's side. Halting must end in conversion and a final reckoning as on the Lord's side, with sympathies no longer with those who make of none effect the light God gives. Those on the Lord's side stand with His work, while those on Baal's side stand against it, for God sifts His people and separates rebels so the faithful can move forward. There must be no halting between two opinions but going forward in faithfulness rather than turning back into darkness or yielding to corrupting influence, following God rather than one's own ideas when greater light comes, since divided allegiance hinders spiritual progress.

Silence and Danger of Delay

When put to the choice between following the Lord if He is God and following Baal if he is god, the people left the challenge unanswered and answered not a word. Their silence showed guilt and indecision and a refusal to take a stand for God, for before the assembled thousands with the king and the prophets of Baal, where Elijah stood apparently alone yet guarded by angels, no one dared speak for God or declare loyalty to Jehovah. Choosing Baal in that silence was departing from God and forsaking the Lord's way for one's own, the religion of apostate Israel. That silence was religious neutrality in a crisis, not innocent middle ground, for indifference and neutrality were grievous sins equal to hostility against God and a failure of loyalty to the Lord.

Their blindness and refusal to declare for God had not come suddenly but had grown gradually as they ignored warning and reproof through pride and sin. Each departure from right-doing and each refusal to repent deepened guilt and carried them farther from God and from heaven, even while the crisis demanded decision. In the face of known duty delay is not harmless, for neglected opportunities and unvalued blessings darken light already received, pervert mind and judgment, weaken good purposes, and lessen resistance to temptation and presumptuous sin. Worldly influences and habits that weaken spiritual life must therefore be broken through Christ's grace instead of being neglected unto unbelief and departure from the living God.

Those who halt throw away valuable opportunities and privileges to gain an experimental knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and perish undecided away from Christ while their time of visitation is rejected. Unseen agencies contend over them, with angels of God holding back the armies of darkness and showing intense interest in their salvation, while Satan works by earthly advantages, obstacles, and other means to defeat God's purposes and intercept every ray of light from God's messengers. If halting souls could see with restored spiritual vision the conflict going on for them, they would stop delaying and make decided advance movements, throwing their whole influence without delay on Christ's side. Remaining undecided between two opinions is terrible indecision that puts the soul in imminent peril of being lost, and it is not a light matter in the Lord's sight. Those who feel secure from deception yet refuse the warnings of His Spirit given to save from the enemy's snares remain in an atmosphere that beclouds spiritual senses and keeps them snared.

Halting means constantly vacillating between Christ and the world instead of making Christ first and last and best in everything. It is holding the theories of truth while self remains the mainspring of action, working for selfish purposes and advantage and leaving the soul uncleansed and duties unfaithfully performed through negligence and carelessness. It is refusing to come into harmony with the requirements of God's Word by giving up all ambitions and desires for the will and way of Christ and by laying aside every weight and the easily besetting sin to follow the Lord faithfully and unselfishly. Such striving is without purpose, God cannot bless it, and the peace of Christ cannot abide in the heart, but great loss follows and the enemy enters to lead the mind to unholy devices. It is like one striving for the mastery yet cumbering himself by clinging to heavy weights.

Ancient and Modern Idolatry

Baal was the Phoenician sun-god, and in Elijah's day Israel stood divided in loyalty between the Lord and Baal under an idolatry supported by Ahab and the heathen Jezebel who had seduced the nation. Elijah was God's instrument for the overthrow of these gigantic evils, and his stand gave that idolatry a decided check when Baal's prophets were slain. The whole people were deeply stirred and many returned to the worship of God, leaving the need for Elisha as successor to guide Israel in safe paths by careful, patient instruction.

Elijah's call was to vindicate God's glory, to show the Lord superior to Baal, to restore true worship, and to lead Israel back to Him. That same choice between serving Jehovah and serving Baal tests loyalty to God and truth, asking whether the standard is upheld or lowered. The people's confession after fire consumed the sacrifice showed they recognized the Lord as God.

Idolatry does not require bowing to stock or stone but is whatever takes possession of the heart and commands its service apart from the dictation of the Holy Spirit. It is as easy to make an idol of cherished ideas or objects as to fashion gods of wood or stone, and thousands with a false conception of God and His attributes are as verily serving a false god as the servants of Baal. Such idolatry includes making a false picture of God from one's own ideas, mind, and will, conceiving of God in a false character with attributes He does not possess, enthroning a philosophical idol in the place of Jehovah, and deifying nature while denying the God of nature. As in Elijah's time, people may turn from the living God to false gods by worshiping a false idea of God or by making nature, philosophy, or other human ideas into a substitute for Jehovah.

Modern Baal worship follows the same pattern in different form in an age of apostasy and idolatry where people turn from God toward worldly pursuits and exalt human wisdom above divine revelation. Following Baal today means exalting the human above the divine, praising popular leaders, worshiping mammon, and turning to worldly wealth, fame, pleasure, or false ideas of God. It means placing the teachings of science above the truths of revelation, substituting the theories of men for the oracles of God, exalting human reason above the teachings of the Word, declaring the law of God, the divine standard of righteousness, to be of no effect, placing human institutions where God should be, and forgetting that which was ordained for the happiness and salvation of mankind. Rejecting truth rejects its Author, and trampling the law of God denies the authority of the Lawgiver, for men make an idol of false doctrines and theories as truly as an idol of wood or stone.

The god of many professedly wise men, philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, polished fashionable circles, colleges and universities, and even some theological institutions is little better than Baal. The true God as revealed in His Word, in Christ, in creation, and in the works of nature is worshiped by but few.

The true God is truthful, just, merciful, loving, compassionate, patient, and long-suffering, tender and sympathetic rather than cold, heartless, or dictatorial, as represented in Christ and revealed in Jesus Christ. To follow the Lord means worshiping the true God as He is revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in nature, and seeking to be assimilated to His character and to imitate Him. Following Him means accepting pardon through the merits of the crucified and risen Christ and righteousness by faith in Him, made fruitful in good works through the Holy Spirit, with Christ coming to save people from their sins and cleanse them from unrighteousness so that accepting Him means turning from sin rather than continuing in it.

Idolatry is specified as concentrating the mind on distinguishing self, coming under covetousness which is idolatry, betraying truth to obtain money or to be first, turning the whole being to accomplish some great thing, thirsting to spread self and gain glory as Nebuchadnezzar did, and binding up with worldly men while forsaking the fountain of living waters. Worship of self leaves no room for Jesus and presents a choice between life and death, requiring dying to self and following God rather than selling eternal interests for a cheap price. The call is to turn from idols, including self-serving plans and ambitions, to serve the living and true God with no safe middle ground, for every heart emptied of self will have the quickening energy of the Holy Spirit. Nothing but humbling of the soul to the light of the Word of God with the Sun of Righteousness penetrating every chamber of the moral being will break the fog and dense darkness gathered about such a soul.

Final Test of Allegiance

The call draws a sharp line with no middle ground, demanding a choice between serving God and following Baal and refusing all wavering between them. It marks the present division between God's commandment-keeping people and worshipers of false gods, each required to decide whom to follow. That same division reaches to the final test, when loyalty to God's commandments will stand directly against obedience to human commands, including observance of a false sabbath.

Those who have long halted must now take a decided stand for or against the law of God. The two courses are truth against error, the firmly established Word sealed by the Holy Spirit against seductive theories that misinterpret it and undermine its foundation. The time has come to call things by their right names, for truth to triumph, for old truths to be revived, and for false theories brought in by the enemy to be intelligently met and uprooted, since there can be no unity between truth and error and unity with the deceived is possible only through their conversion. That firm stand requires discerning where light is now shining and distinguishing it from darkness, refusing to cherish doubts about God's past leading and refusing a mind leavened by false statements that bring perplexity and doubt, with clear discernment given under the Spirit of truth while good and evil contend for the soul, without entering into controversy with men.

The choice falls concretely on the Sabbath, obeying God's command to keep the seventh day as the memorial of creation rather than accepting the first day in its place. The false sabbath exalted in its place functions as an idol, and the third angel's message restores the true Sabbath to its rightful place as a test of faithfulness in the last days, even where obedience may bring loss of work and livelihood, imprisonment, or death. Halting here meant those who had not yet decided to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, whose decision to keep it marked commitment to the truth. So a man who knows what is right must halt no longer but decide firmly and brave consequences by accepting truth for Christ's sake and obeying all God's commandments, as seen when a policeman chose to take his stand to keep the Sabbath and cast all upon God despite risk, with others likewise deciding to serve the Lord and leave Satan's sway.

The appeal belongs to the work appointed for the last days. It urges an undivided choice for the Lord rather than wavering between Him and Baal, with no more delay but a return to the God-given mission and service in purity and holiness. It presses preparation of the heart for what is coming upon the earth.

Those entrusted with the truth of the Word must decide fully for God and refuse to be swayed by one who has departed from the faith once believed to give heed to seducing spirits and who shows little evidence that truth controls mind and heart. Instead they are to stand with the truth while praying for the Holy Spirit to rebuke the deceiver and set captives free. All who claim to be children of the Most High must be on the Lord's side and serve Him with full purpose of heart, elevating the standard continually not for a day nor only in meeting but as long as time shall last, putting away sin and exercising living faith to bring heaven's richest blessing.

Faithful Living and Service

Serving God cannot be combined with self-serving schemes for gain, and missionary work is incompatible with dishonest or grasping business conduct, for counting gain as godliness endangers spirituality. Covetous hopes and financial enterprises that draw a person away from serving God damage spiritual life and God's work, since no one can serve both God and mammon. If the Lord is God He must be followed completely, with principles of righteousness brought into both business life and religious life by doing one's best with accuracy, diligence and faithfulness rather than in a lazy, half-hearted, lax, slipshod way. Half-hearted service is following Baal, and the Lord wants no Baal followers in His army, so the choice between serving God and pursuing selfish gratification or worldly gain must be made and not avoided. Obedience to God leads to regaining what was lost through sin, while sin brings loss, and the call is to stop wavering between loyalty to God and another master and give God wholehearted service and live for the better world.

The choice means following the course God designates as right even when family pressure tempts otherwise, including temptation to disregard spiritual or physical health. Principles and example must be settled by truth, not by impulse or appetite, because they shape work and influence others, and wavering or wrong principles misrepresent the truth and harm both others and the holder. God's servants must follow the light received about healthful living in both teaching and practice rather than give mixed signals through inconsistent conduct, and must not profess loyalty to God while acting by contrary principles.

After long delay in heeding the word of the Lord, acceptable service requires deciding fully to follow God by thorough work in carrying out His instruction for publishing houses. Following the Lord means cutting away lines of business that have no relation to the cause of God, refusing commercial work that God does not require, leaving the business of the world to worldlings, and devoting time and talents in whole-souled, diligent work to the publication of the truth. Continuing the plans that have been followed is following Baal and will result in losing heaven. Those bearing responsibility in God's institutions must reject binding pledges, documents, combinations and codes of man-made laws that God has not planned or endorsed, because to carry out selfish human will and purposes is to follow Baal. To follow the Lord is to refuse human policy that exalts self, restricts religious liberty, denies the right to worship God according to conscience, and works evil to the heritage purchased with His own blood.

Halting between God and Baal must end in a decided, costly choice for God alone, with repentance from all compromising with worldly principles, for serving both is impossible, God will not sanction it and will surely punish it, and eternal interests are at stake. Truth and error cannot stand in co-partnership, and until God's people stand forth separate and distinct as His own, He cannot be glorified in them. Leveling God's institutions with worldly institutions by calling them undenominational and cutting them away from their true foundation destroys the sacredness of the work before unbelievers, humiliates God's law-keeping people by representing them as one with worldlings, and seeks unity on conformity to worldly policy and union with the popular churches. In God's work a person who is undecided and acts only when sure of losing nothing is not fit for God to use, and those serving Him must be committed to doing right under every circumstance with decided, quick moves to bring things into order by sanctified ready workers. Taking the Lord's side means praying much, refusing any word that will irritate a fellow worker, provoking one another to love and to good works and not to anger, taking hold of the arm of infinite power, walking humbly before God while standing as giants against discouragement and difficulty with increased faith, and praising God as strength, shield, defense, front guard and rearward.

Medical missionaries and ministers who have accepted teachings that deny God, including soul-destroying delusions, scientific sophistries, bewitching fables and theories that do away with God, must stop wavering between competing beliefs and abandon those delusions to take a clear stand for God. Ending the halting means leaving the black banner of the prince of darkness and, as Christ's soldiers on the battlefield where Satan with all his host is arrayed, rallying around the blood-stained banner of Emmanuel and taking position with the Prince of heaven, so the world knows where they and Seventh-day Adventists are standing. For Brother Paulson this demanded serving the Lord by heeding every word of counsel given, no longer sustaining by influence one who has received great light yet for years has hindered the advancement of God's work, breaking the long-continued spell of infatuation, no longer grieving the Spirit of God by accepting Dr. Kellogg as firm in the faith, and becoming a free man. One who has wavered, spoken inconsistently and remained under evil influences must break with the enemy and choose to follow the Lord, since this decisive break is his only hope.

God with His hand stretched out calls a wavering man to stop halting between two choices and decide whether to acknowledge the truth or give heed to seducing spirits, no longer remaining in uncertainty but fully accepting the messages of the Lord, standing firmly for the truth on vantage ground, and exercising a decided influence for the truth. Unless he does he will soon take his position with those who have refused to believe the testimonies God has given. The call means rejection of infidelity sown in words, false statements, unsanctified influence of mind over mind, and oft-repeated false theories that appear inviting like the forbidden fruit yet destroy souls, and acceptance of the situations God prepares. It requires holding up the light of truth by exposition of the Word to saints and sinners, stationing faithful watchmen at Battle Creek where God is dishonored, and distinguishing eating of the forbidden tree from eating the fruit of the gospel message.

Choosing God requires separation in heart, spirit and principle from those who do not fear or love God and the truth, for refusing that choice leaves a person open to Satan's influence and resistance to the Spirit's reproof. Such association with worldly, ungodly societies and secret gatherings fosters their customs and unbelief and weakens faith, profanes sacred things, and makes faithful uniting of Christ with their gatherings and practices impossible, with Christ present as a witness just as God was present at Belshazzar's feast where revelry and profanation were followed by a message of doom. Parents cannot serve God while following the world's standards and the pursuit of wealth, dress and display, but must choose God's way and train their children in obedience, purity and holiness rather than conformity to the world. God's professing people halt between two opinions when they claim to be His yet fail to bring true religion into the home, into the church and into business transactions, with dealings that do not stand out pure and clean and fragrant and do not give Christ the honor due Him in righteous works. This applies especially to those in responsible positions in the Lord's work, who must beware of laying the least stumbling block before those watching for flaws in the lives of Seventh-day Adventists, for to halt between two opinions and then go over to the side of the world causes Satan and his angels to hold a jubilee.

Following God means more than agreeing with the truth, requiring heart service and obedience, wholehearted surrender and obedient service, with surrender fully to God bringing true happiness while refusing His claims leaves a person insensible to His voice and the Spirit's power to awaken and elevate the mind. Following Christ requires making Him first in everything, first and last and best, laying aside selfish ambitions and desires and choosing God's will without holding on to the world. A person who makes self-interest the mainspring of life may hold true beliefs and theories of truth yet fail to bring life into harmony with God's Word, allowing selfish aims to control the uncleansed soul, striving without purpose without God's blessing and without the peace of Christ abiding in the heart. Such halting is like one striving for the mastery yet cumbering himself by clinging to heavy weights, instead of laying aside every weight and the easily besetting sin to follow the Lord faithfully and unselfishly with exactitude in all that hands and head do. To serve the Lord as God means dying to self and letting Christ into the heart, and Christ thus received heals the poor, sick mind and body.

That consecration is owed to the Redeemer who gave His life, who clothed His divinity with humanity and came to make humanity whole and bring it into touch with divinity, becoming poor and laying aside royal robe and kingly crown in human nature because of the helplessness of the fallen race to make it possible to unite humanity to His divinity. People are saved by acknowledging Him as Saviour and practicing His life, and the choice is between heaven and the companionship of evil angels. Those for whom Christ gave His life must not waver between loyalty to God and the opposing work of Satan, must not give God only a small share of abilities and powers entrusted to them, but must show allegiance by striving to be Christlike and giving God abilities, powers, reason, knowledge, affection, speech and property in grateful response to Christ's gift. For the baptized this means keeping the baptismal vow to devote reason, knowledge, affection, speech and property to Christ's service and seeking those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. No one is compelled to serve God, each chooses of his own free will and bears the full results of that choice, and choosing the principles of God and respecting and maintaining them makes them a part of life, molding character according to the divine similitude as a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Halting appears as being undecided whether to give efforts to the work of soul-saving or to enter worldly business, and the call not to halt means deciding to take up the work the Lord has for a person to do, with God in providence leading the halting person to hear truth, light shining on the pathway, and decision bringing thankfulness and confidence to follow Him. It demands obedience due to the Redeemer who gave His life, answering His call to go work today in His vineyard, refusing to stand in rebellion before the heavenly universe and the world, refusing to continue to offend God by continuing in transgression while seeing the truth but fearing results of obedience, and showing colors decidedly as appreciating Christ's infinite sacrifice by loving Him through keeping His commandments, which is the will of God. People halting between opinions are urged to decide whether the claims of God's law are true and to stop opposing what God is building. There must be no halting but going forward in faithfulness or turning back into darkness, standing firmly for what is right instead of yielding to corrupting influence. Halting also meant remaining undecided whether to remain in local work or travel to Tasmania until the decision was brought to conclusion and the journey planned, wavering over where to place workers as with sending Brother Burden to Australia, while Jennett had been wavering in faith but gave decisive testimony, rejoiced in the truth and thanked God for the third angel's message, and others stopped wavering, rejoiced in truth and the third angel's message, and obeyed all commandments.

The choice demands deciding whether to follow good or bad examples and turning away from low principles, turning around and considering the course when weak religious principles and bad examples pull toward a low standard. Following God means building a character that can endure trial, making Christ its foundation, and living self-denyingly and purely even amid corrupt surroundings. Men whose conduct dishonors the Christian cause by prideful, divisive ways must turn and follow God, or their continued course shows they are not connected with Him. Each person bears responsibility for his own course and appointed work, another's failure does not make it one's own sin, and the call means making a generous, noble confession of Christianity, avowing belief in the validity of the truth, and refusing to be turned aside by what others have said or done. For ministers this asks whether they serve Jehovah or Baal as they work and whether they uphold or lower the standard, requiring decisively breaking with evil influences and with seducing spirits and selfish ambitions rather than continuing under their control.

Halting means failing to make a firm choice for God when His work calls for humble service and sacrifice, where worldly interests must not decide the matter and the choice must be made with eternity in view, since following Christ brings trial and persecution and must be chosen even when it carries a cost. Balaam could no longer halt between two opinions: he rejected mercy, chose the wages of unrighteousness over God's favor, and was counted among God's enemies, a warning to those who know divine things to depend on their Redeemer rather than let other interests draw them from God. Each person must choose whom to serve, God or Baal, and Christ supplies strength for this choice through His abiding word, with serving God meaning allowing His words to remain in the heart and bear fruit.

Professed followers of Christ must not neglect the light and opportunities God gives, but heed them rather than reject them through unbelief and depart from the living God, for failure to respond to Christ's warnings and mercies repeats the sin of rejecting a time of visitation. Neglecting the light God has given is failure to choose faithfully and can lead to unbelief and departure from God, and opportunities to respond to God's call are limited and must not be ignored or rejected. The call is to stand firmly on eternal truth and choose to serve God amid confusion, for service to God and service to Baal are opposing choices and people cannot serve both but must choose whom they will follow with a whole, undivided heart. Halfhearted service to God is displeasing to Him, and Philip is urged with others to serve God wholeheartedly and stop wavering between serving God and serving an idol, since divided loyalty cannot help others find a straight path.

Further points

The call to stop wavering between two loyalties demands an undivided following of the Lord as God instead of turning away from His word. Adam faced that same test and failed it when he set aside God's command and listened to Satan. His disobedience cost him Eden, and the same course of transgressing God's commandments will cost human beings heaven and eternal bliss.