Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I am always struck by Elijah’s showmanship in this passage.  The prophets of Ball put on a great show as part of their worship, but Elijah manages to upstage them.  As a first step, Elijah let them go first.  The prophets of Baal sang and danced and  shouted.  They even began to cut themselves to work the people up.  Then comes the key to Elijah’s part of the show: he began to make people aware that for all of the show put on by the prophets of Baal, nothing happened.  Finally, when people were starting to think about dinner, after waiting all day for the sacrificial feast, Elijah calls them over to him.  Elijah starts his part of the show by making sure the people know he did not have any fire hidden in the altar.  Then, instead of a complex ritual to inflame the people’s passions, Elijah prayed a simple prayer which amounted to “God, show Your power!”  I will note that this approach has psychological power to effect people’s emotions.  Elijah put on this show to demonstrate that true worship does not need to be big and showy, that something simple and focused on God can be more meaningful.

In a way, the second part of this passage tells the same message on a more personal level.  Elijah had just put on the show of his life, getting the people of Israel to see the contrast between God and Baal.  Yet Jezebel was still Queen and more determined than ever to have him killed.  So, Elijah fled to Mt Horeb (where Moses received the Ten Commandments.  It is not clear if Mt Sinai and Mt Horeb are the same mountain, or if they are across a valley from each other).  There God appeared to him, but not in a loud, showy way.  God appeared to Elijah in a quiet whisper.  Then when Elijah complained that he was the only one of God’s prophets left, God told him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor (indicating that there were indeed other prophets of God remaining).  Further, God told Elijah that there were seven thousand in Israel quietly living their lives and worshiping Him, completely rejecting Baal worship.  Not all of us are called to loudly and brashly proclaim God as Elijah was.  Some of us are called to quietly live our lives, proclaiming our faith in God by our refusal to take part in the idolatry going on around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.