1 Kings 18:23, commentary and pictures

Elijah proposed a fair public test with two bullocks laid on wood with no fire under either, Baal's prophets to prepare one and he the other, and the God who answered by fire to be acknowledged as God. Alone on conspicuous Mount Carmel before the nation, Ahab and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, he left the answer to God, with no human fire allowed so Satan restrained could not kindle a false answer. Fire consumed Elijah's sacrifice and the water upon it, displaying Jehovah the Creator of heaven and earth as God, giving His name a decisive triumph over the Baal worship upheld by Ahab and Jezebel, stirring the people to return to Him and opening the way to rain. It stands as an undaunted example of one man through faith standing alone for the right in life-and-death contest with kings, priests and people in the midst of apostasy. The same contest is repeated today, for the age is as idolatrous as Elijah's, with thousands without outward image following riches, fame and pleasure, and many enthroning false conceptions of God and false doctrines in place of Jehovah.

The Test on Carmel

On conspicuous Mount Carmel, chosen so that God's power would be displayed publicly and His honor vindicated, the contest belonging to this verse took place. On that trying and terrible day Elijah stood before the whole nation of Israel as the sole witness to the true God. He stood undaunted before King Ahab and faced the whole nation with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal at their head. He did so after maintaining his trust in Jehovah during the years of drought and famine.

The verse proposes a two-altar test with two bullocks. Baal's prophets were to choose one bullock for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood, and Elijah would dress the other bullock and lay it on wood. No fire was to be placed beneath either offering, with each side to prepare a bull on wood without fire.

The test was fair: each side was to prepare a bullock on wood without lighting a fire and call on its god, and the God who answers by fire was to be acknowledged as God, leaving the outcome to show which God answers. The people accepted the terms as reasonable and fair, so that they could see which God answers. They could not reasonably reject the proposal, Israel dared not evade it, and the prophets of Baal dared not refuse it.

Withholding fire meant the answer must come from God, so the answer would reveal which God could send fire. The absence of fire also made the test decisive, because Jehovah restrained Satan's power so that he could not kindle Baal's sacrifice.

God's Decisive Triumph Revealed

The proposal of the two bullocks was work God commissioned Elijah to carry out as His instrument, standing before the idolatrous priests on Carmel on a mission given him by God. In that dark period of idolatry and wickedness he acted as a preacher of righteousness chosen and guided by the Holy Spirit. The test he proposed confronted the Baal worship that, supported by Ahab and the heathen Jezebel, had seduced the nation. It was arranged by God to expose idolatry, to give that gigantic evil a decided check, and to bring a decisive triumph to His name.

Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia, stands here as an example of the idolatry that existed among God's people, a false conception of God set in place of the true God. The contest exposed Baal's failure and displayed the power of the God of heaven. That wonderful exhibition of power showed that Jehovah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is God, and it ended with the slaying of the prophets of Baal. Fire consumed the sacrifice and even the water poured over it, leading Israel to acknowledge the Lord as God and declare allegiance to Him, though God's power thus revealed was followed by Elijah's disappointment at the result.

The contest became a turning point against Israel's idolatry and a signal triumph on the heights of Carmel for those seduced into Baal worship, overthrowing the idolatry backed by Ahab and Jezebel and opening the way for still greater victories. Through faith Elijah stood alone for God, Baal's prophets were slain, the whole people were deeply stirred, and many returned to the worship of God. That groundwork Elisha as Elijah's successor must follow with careful, patient instruction to guide Israel in safe paths.

The verse belongs to the account in 1 Kings 18:20-42 that leads to rain, in which Elijah challenged the people's idolatry and demonstrated that faith in God could overthrow it. He went up to the top of Carmel and cast himself down upon the earth with his face between his knees in strong, earnest prayer for rain. He continued bowed in a painful, humiliating position with sorely tried faith until rewarded by tokens of rain, followed by heaven black with clouds and wind and great rain. That ensuing rain testified, through faith standing alone for God, to the blessing awaiting Israel when idolatry is overthrown.

Courage and Warning Today

The proposal of two bullocks without fire was a contest between life and death in which Elijah triumphed over the king, the priests, and the people through undaunted courage and faith standing alone for God. Each side was to prepare a bull on wood without setting fire to it, so that the answer must come from God and show who was the true God. That record of standing for the right in the midst of apostasy brings inspiration and courage.

After the false prophets were slain and the people declared their allegiance to God, with God's power revealed, Elijah was disappointed by the result and fled for his life before the threats of idolatrous Jezebel. His flight proves that those who have stood long and valiantly for the right are overcome when strength fails and faith lets go its hold upon infinite power. Satan assails in the time of greatest weakness to shake confidence in God and tempt, and weakness gave him opportunity against Elijah after Carmel. To complete the work opened by that signal triumph on the heights of Carmel and open the way for still greater victories, Elijah had to learn to trust wholly in God and to understand the weakness of his present position compared with the vantage-ground the Lord would have him occupy.

Elijah's life-work of standing for the right has special significance for those upon whom the ends of the world are come because history is being repeated. The world today has its Ahabs and its Jezebels, and the present age is one of idolatry just as in Elijah's day. There is no outward shrine or image, yet thousands follow the gods of riches, fame, pleasure, and pleasing fables that permit following the inclinations of the unregenerate heart.

That same Baal worship of ancient Israel, whose sun-god of Phoenicia confronted Elijah, exists in a different form in the Christian world today. 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. It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. In rejecting truth men reject its Author, and in trampling upon the law of God they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. Satan leads men to conceive of God in a false character with attributes He does not possess, and a philosophical idol is enthroned in place of Jehovah. Multitudes have a wrong conception of God and His attributes and are as truly serving a false god as the worshipers of Baal, and many who claim to be Christians have allied with influences unalterably opposed to God and His truth by turning from the divine to exalt the human. The true God as revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in creation is worshiped by but few, while thousands deify nature and deny the God of nature.