1 Kings 18:28, commentary and pictures

On Mount Carmel Elijah stood alone as God's witness before Ahab, Israel and 450 prophets of Baal, and after Baal gave no answer from morning to noon the prophets shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lancets till blood gushed out and stained their garments, continuing in wild cries until the evening sacrifice with still no voice nor answer. Their frantic, violent rites done in desperation to gain their god's help brought no response and left them exhausted, exposing the weakness and folly of serving Baal and horrifying the watching people. This frenzy stands in sharp contrast to Elijah's calm, reverent and simple prayer that Israel would know Jehovah is God, which was answered at once by fire from heaven that consumed his sacrifice, defeated Baal's prophets, turned the people to declare allegiance to God, and checked idolatry. God does not require bodily harm, shouting, or disregard for order as expressions of religion, and the same idolatry lives on today when men make an idol of false doctrines, reject truth and trample God's law, and enthrone nature or a false philosophical god in place of Jehovah. The record belongs to an age of apostasy whose history has significance for those living at the end of the world.

Carmel Contest Setting

The verse belongs to the confrontation on Mount Carmel, where Elijah was commissioned to stand before Israel and summoned the nation with the prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth to gather before him. There he stood alone as the sole, undaunted witness for the true God before King Ahab, the whole nation, and 450 prophets of Baal at their head in the dark and troubled time of idolatry under Ahab and Jezebel. It was a contest between life and death in which he showed undaunted courage and triumphed over king, priests, and people.

The prophets of Baal had called on their god from morning until noon, leaping on the altar, with no voice and no answer. When Elijah taunted them to cry aloud, they shouted louder and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets until blood gushed out and flowed upon them. They kept prophesying with wild and incoherent prayers until the time of the evening sacrifice, yet there was still neither voice nor answer nor regard.

Their shouting and self-inflicted wounds left their garments stained with blood. In desperation they mixed curses of their sun god with their pleas. Elijah watched them closely, because he knew that if they managed to kindle the altar fire they would kill him.

Despite the frenzied worship and extreme rites meant to gain their god's help, their cries and wounds brought no answer and no sign of hearing, and the sacrifice remained unconsumed. This stood in sharp contrast to Elijah's simple, fervent prayer to Jehovah, offered so that Israel would know that Jehovah is God and turn back to Him, which was answered at once by fire from heaven. The prophets of Baal were defeated and slain, the people declared their allegiance to God, and many who had been stirred returned to His worship. Through faith idolatry was checked and cast down, and the rain that followed testified to blessing and blessings waiting for Israel.

That signal triumph on the heights of Carmel for those seduced into Baal worship opened the way for still greater victories in Elijah's work. Yet its results disappointed him. After Ahab reported the day to Jezebel, she in hardened idolatry swore by her pagan gods to do to Elijah in the presence of Israel as he had done to the priests of Baal. In weariness after the trying day his faith was tested, fear of death overcame him, and because he had not yet learned to trust wholly in God to complete his work he was turned away from those opportunities and fled for his life before her threats.

Folly of Idol Worship

The cutting with knives and lancets until blood flowed was done after their manner, according to religious custom, as frantic, frenzied, fanatical, senseless and violent worship. The prophets cried aloud and intensified their appeals by wounding themselves, displaying extreme desperation to gain their god's help after he had failed to answer. Their self-inflicted wounds and shouts were desperate, fanatical practices of idol worship.

Those cries and wounds brought no answer, no voice and no regard from Baal, and the vain, frantic rites failed to make their gods respond. The frenzied ritual left the worshippers exhausted and exposed the weakness, inefficiency and folly of serving Baal. The frightful acts horrified the watching people and gave them opportunity to see that folly.

That frenzy stands in sharp contrast to Elijah's calm demeanor and his calm, reverent, simple and fervent appeal to God. The prayers of Baal's prophets through the day-long contest were wild, incoherent, violent and frenzied in gesture, while Elijah's simple, fervent prayer that Israel would know Jehovah is God and turn back to Him was answered at once by fire from heaven. Within the same Carmel account his prayer for rain was strong and earnest, offered cast down upon the earth with face between the knees in a painful, humiliating position, with faith sorely tried yet continued in earnest prayer until rewarded by tokens of rain.

Warning for True Worship

The self-laceration and loud outcry show a worship that afflicted the body and exhausted its devotees in disorder. The verse stands as a warning not to copy those practices in religion. God does not require bodily harm, shouting, or disregard for order as expressions of devotion.

Baal was the sun-god of Phoenicia, and that same idolatry exists in the Christian world today in a different form. Making an idol of false doctrines and theories is as truly idolatry as fashioning an idol of wood or stone. Rejecting truth and trampling upon the law of God is rejecting its Author and denying the authority of the Lawgiver. Satan leads men to conceive of God in a false character with attributes He does not possess, enthroning a philosophical idol in the place of Jehovah, while the true God as revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in the works of creation is worshiped by but few. Deifying nature while denying the God of nature is little better than Baal, and the god so worshiped by many professedly wise men, philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, polished fashionable circles, colleges and universities, and even some theological institutions is the same philosophical idol.

The record belongs to an age of apostasy and idolatry. It is the history of Elijah’s time. That history has significance for people living at the end of the world.