The Answer by Fire

“Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them. therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us! But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when mid-day was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him: and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name; and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time: and they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time: and they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. And it came io pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, 0’ Lord, hear me; that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And whe all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ee is the God; the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And th and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew — 1 Kings xviii. 21-40. cong

“THUS HATH THE LorD God SHEWED UNTO ME; AND, BEHOLD, THE LoRD God CALLED TO CONTEND BY FIRE.” — AMOs Vii. 4.:

In the previous chapter, we found the appeal of Elijah to the people on Mount Carmel responded to by “mute expressive silence;” they “answered not a word.” This may probably have been the result of conflicting emotions. In the case of some, who in their hearts were Jehovah-worshippers, it may have been the silence of guilty fear or cringing expediency. They may have been stifling their deep-felt convictions of truth in presence of the king and priesthood. With others, * (the fawning, obsequious creatures of Ahab,) it may have arisen from dread of incurring the vengeance of the Prophet of Cherith; lest he who had manifested such power in material nature might visit them with sudden and condign retribution, should they dare openly to avow themselves the abettors of idolatry.

Let us hasten at once to the sublime sequel. There is no picture in all history, sacred or profane, more thrilling or impressive. No wonder that poetry, painting, and music have conjointly seized on this memorable day and scene as fit theme and subject for their grandest efforts. (Blijah feels, and feels deeply, that ere the clouds of heaven break, and the curse of famine be rolled away from the land, the people, in the aggregate, must be brought back from their wretched

H apostasy, and that, too, by some great public acknowledgment of their sin. As theirs had been a national alienation from their fathers’ God, so must theirs be a public renunciation of their abominable idolatries, and a renewed recognition of the one living Jehovah,

The mighty throng are still hushed, as the Prophet — God’s consecrated minister between the living and the dead — prepares yet farther to speak. Ere we listen to his address, we may in a few words recall, how very peculiarly he himself was situated in the midst of that vast concourse,

Other hearts, as we have already seen, true and loyal to Jehovah, were beating responsive with his at that moment throughout the land. But they were witnessing in sackcloth; they were languishing in dungeons, or hidden in caves and fastnesses. On this consecrated mountain-height — this high altar of nature — the Tishbite stood alone ; — a sheep amid wolves — an isolated beacon-light amid the floods of ungodly men, — a solitary cedar of God wrestling with the storm. It is difficult for us thoroughly to realise the strain on his faith and courage when thus deprived of human sympathy and support. The Waldenses of the Middle Ages, or the hero-martyrs of our own land, were in as imminent peril as he; but they were sustained in their endurance and privations by the words and deeds of fellow-sufferers. Cave and forest,

rabble. The political influence and strength of t were there. Elijah was coming into collision and with the throne and the altar; — with a de based priesthood ; — the court religion — the fashionable creed of the hour. With what intense emotion must he have uttered the opening words, “I, evenI, only, remain a prophet of the Lord.” His proposal is, that the Deity, which either party professes to worship, should decide the great question which has convened them on that high arena; that each should take a bullock, cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood on a separate: altar of burnt-offering. The usual way of consuming the sacrifice was by applying a lighted torch to the fuel or faggots underneath. But the Prophet suggests, on this occasion, an appeal to miraculous intervention ; — that the Baal-worshippers and the Jehovah-worshippers should each invoke an “answer by fire;” and that whichever offering was miraculously ignited, should be regarded as conclusively determining the point at issue. The crowd at once assented to the reasonableness of the test. Their unanimous response was — “It is well spoken.” An appeal which had thus commended itself to the spectators, could not well be resisted by the Baal priests. Indeed, the fairness of the proposal was unanswerable; for Baal being the reputed god of Light or Fire; it was a virtual appeal to his own element — a defiant challenge and reference to his own sacred emblem. Nor-was the proposed method of arbitration strange or unfamiliar to the Jehovah-worshippers — the true Israel of God. Their sacred records and national annals furnished many examples of answers by fire, from the earliest, in the case of Abel’s sacrifice, to the latest, within the memory of that generation, at the magnificent scene of the temple consecration under Solomon.

The moment has come. Elijah concedes the precedence to his 850 antagonists. “Rise, ye priests of Baal; choose one of the oxen, and lay it on your altar!” Forth they come in their gorgeous Tyrian purple and gold. The bullock was prepared, and laid on the wood. It was still early morning when they began their wild orgies. The excitement increased with advancing day. The cry, “O Baal, hear us,” again and again ascended to the brazen sky. Mountain height responded to mountain height, “but there was no voice, nor any that answered.” Amid their frenzied dances, they look up wistfully to the heavens for the appearance of the descending symbol. Louder and still louder rises the vehement imprecation, ‘O Baal, hear us! — ye lords many, hear us! — ye forest gods! — ye mountain deities ! — gods of rivers ! — and, above all, thou blazing Sun — Baal’s burning throne and sacred shrine, — send down a lighted torch, burning coals from thine altar fires!’ Louder and louder, deeper and deeper, waxes the hoarse-voiced chorus: Till noon it continues ; — the maddened priests leaping upon the altar. But there is no answer. The heavens are still ; — the altar is silent ; — Baal’s oracle is dumb ; — the appeal is in vain! And now, as the sun has reached its meridian, Elijah interposes. He has been, hitherto, like the rest, a silent spectator. But at the height of noon, as the orb the others worshipped is pouring his fierce rays on their heads, he calls out, in words of cutting irony, “Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth,

.and must be awaked.” But the fretting sarcasm only increases the mad and frantic ravings and incantations of the ministers of Baal. When noon is past, they begin to “prophesy.” They have wrought themselves now into a state of —

desperation, Drawing their knives and lancets, they inflict

tJ gashes on their bodies, and cover themselves with blood.* Still, all is in vain. Their god will not arise. On the heights of the mountain, the unkindled wood and the untouched altar remain, during the long afternoon of that momentous day, just as they were erected at early morn. The discomfited priests retire bleeding and exhausted to their tents. Their cause is lost. Baal is not God!

Here, however, in passing, may we not well pause and gather for ourselves a lesson of humbling rebuke? How devoted were these abettors of a blinding superstition! We cannot read the passage, and pronounce their part in the gigantie conflict, a heartless formality — a dumb show — the pantomime of hypocrites. No! Self-deceived, as they were, they were, at least, men in earnest. Elijah — himself all earnestness — must have honoured their zeal, though mourning that it was so misguided and misapplied. What a reproof to our ofttimes lagging faith; our lifeless prayers; our cold, negative

* Many ancient writers — Seneca, Lucian, Statius, Apuleius, &e. — notice this custom, from whose statements Movers (p. 682) thus describes the processions of the strolling bands wandering about with the Syrian goddess: — ‘A discordant howling opens the scene. Then they fly wildly through one another, with the head sunk down to the ground, but turning round in circles, so that the loose-flowing hair drags through the mire: thereupon they first bite themselves on the arms, and at last cut themselves with two-edged swords which they are wont to carry. Then begins anew scene. One of them, who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans, openly accuses himself of his past sins, which he now wishes to’punish by the mortifying of the flesh, takes the knotted whips, which the Galli are wont to bear, and lashes his back, cuts himself with swords, until the blood trickles from his mangled body.’ This description perfectly agrees in the main points with the practice of the prophets of Baal here. Here, also, the conclusion or highest degree of frenzy is the prophesying, (v. 29,) which began only when noon was past, and continued till the time of the evening sacrifice.” — Kiel on Kings, p. 281.

zeal in God’s service. These heathen devotees of Carmel, worshippers of a figment, — a dumb idol, — with their knives and Jancets, and self-inflicted tortures, — how will they rise up in the judgment against many lukewarm professing Christians, and condemn them!

But now the time of the evening sacrifice — Israel’s own sacred hour — has come. Elijah had allowed his opponents full time and scope for the required proof. He now comes forward and challenges personally the flagging attention of the crowd. Close by were the ruins of an altar, which had once been erected to Jehovah, but which, probably with many others in the land, had been demolished by one of the exterminating edicts of Jezebel.* Summoning the people to draw near, he repaired the ruined place of sacrifice. There is something impressive in the calm dignity of the Prophet, after these long hours of demonstrative vehemence and delirious excitement. We can picture him, with his sheepskin cloak, and shaggy hair, and stately figure ; — with no noisy clamour, or extravagant gesticulations, but jather with dignified self-reliance, standing amid the fevered multitude, and beginning with reverend hands to uprear the dismantled altar. There is always a quiet majesty about

” % Carmel seems to have been regarded by the Jews as “a holy place:”

/ hence the probable reason of Elijah’s selection of it on this occasion. By

a subsequent reference in 2 Kings iy. 23, the people seem to have been in * the habit of resorting thither on the new moon and Sabbath. The same discriminating writer who has noted this circumstance, adds: — “In later times, its reputation was not confined to Palestine. Pythagoras was led to it” (as a sacred spot.)... “Vespasian, too, came thither to consult the oracle of the god whose name was the same as that of the mountain: itself an oracle without image or temple.” See also “The Land and the

Book,” p. 483. agin truth. How calmly stood Paul before Felix and Agrippa. With what meek, unruffled, expressive silence stood Incarnate Truth Himself before Pilate and Herod, — the Lamb “dumb before His shearers:” it was the same dignified calmness of demeanour which had previously unmanned the assassin band at the gate of Gethsemane: “As soon as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground!” It was so now, on Mount Carmel. Ahab was agitated with conflicting fears. The people were in a frenzy of excitement. The priests were filled with delirium and rage. Elijah alone was unmoved, — confident in the righteousness of his cause. He had everything perilled on the next sunset hour. Failure ! — and his own body, like that of the offered sacrifice, would be cut in pieces, and the Kishon be stained with his blood. Failure ! — and the power and glory of his God would be compromised ; — every altar of Israel would be profaned, and Baal would sit triumphant in his impious shrines. But “Jehovah liveth,’ — his first utterance — was his motto still; and he felt confident that that watchword would be caught up, ere these night-shadows fell, and be repeated from lip to lip by the congregated thousands of Israel. Of the dilapidated altar, he took twelve stones, “according to the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name!” There was much significance in the act. It was a rebuke he read, not to the Baalites; but to the true Israel of God. By this ‘parable in stone,’ he would tell them that the disrupted monarchy — the breaking asunder of the ten tribes from the twelve — was unrecognised by God ; — that it was a sinful breach in their unity as the covenant nation ; — that they were still essentially one in the sight of Jehovah; — having one common altar, though partitioned and dismembered by reason of their own guilty jealousies and strifes. Nay, he would point them on to the time when God’s own purpose would be fulfilled regarding them, “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so they shall be my people, and I will be their God,” (Ezekiel xxxvii. 21, 22.) Would that we had more Elijahs in the midst of us; ever and anon to bear their protest against the unseemly schisms and divisions which mar the strength and beauty and fair proportions of the Church of Christ! Blessed will that time be, when divided churches and divided nations shall become one in heart and one in worship; one in undivided aim for the good of men and the glory of a common Lord. When the distinctions of sect and party, which are now like the separate pools on the rocky shore, shall be swept over by the ocean-tide of Divine love; all united and mingled into one; and the old heathen exclamation become the testimony of an admiring world, “See how these Christians love one another!”

And now the wood is laid in order on Elijah’s altar. The bullock is cut in pieces, and a deep trench is formed all — around; moreover, in order to prevent any possible suspicion

eo of imposture, — such as would throw discredit on the reality of the miracle, — the Prophet gives orders to the people to go down, either to the adjoining well, or to the Kishon, — some have even surmised, though this is inadmissible, to the sea,* —

, and fill four barrels of water to be poured over bullock,

wood, and altar. This is done four times in succession, till the trench is filled. He was cognisant of the fact, that the idolatrous priests of surrounding nations stooped at times to unworthy fraud and artifice in the case of similar answers by

fire; sometimes by concealing torches, — sometimes by kindling the subjacent wood, through excavations under the altar. In order that no such base arts might be attributed to him, he soaks the whole pile with the antagonistic element of water. While the altar is thus dripping and saturated, — he proceeds to take his turn in the great testing struggle.

The period of the day was known to the whole Hebrew nation as “the hour of prayer.” The priests in the Temple at Jerusalem, were at that same moment offering their evening oblation as the sun was sinking behind Mount Olivet, as. now it was going down over Carmel, or hanging like a golden lamp over the burnished waters within sight. Behold the Prophet of Fire, wrapped in his mantle, on his knees in supplication! A breathless stillness — like the portentous quiet which reigns in nature before the bursting of the thunder-cloud — pervades the heterogeneous throng. With bated breath, king, priests, people, look on, while thus he addresses

* The great distance from the sea would have rendered it impossible to go hither and thither in one afternoon.

+ Josephus distinctly states that it was from the neighbouring well (amd rijs kpnyns) the water was obtained. — Ant. viii. 13, § 5. — Quoted in Dr Smith’s “Bible Dictionary.” a his God: “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.” The first utterance in his prayer is “JEHOVAH!” There was but a moment of solemn pause. The prayer ascends ; — the FIRE falls. Bullock, wood, dust, stones, earth, all are consumed by the devouring element. The flame of Heaven has incontrovertibly, in the face of all spectators, authenticated the Prophet’s word and mission, and flashed condemnation on his opponents. The people, on seeing it, fell on their faces; and a mighty shout rends the air, ringing from the mountain-summits, along the plain of Esdraelon, mingling with the rippling waves on the adjoining shores — “Jehovah he is the God! Jehovah he is the God !%,

Sudden is the next step in the drama. Jehovah being re-enthroned; the priesthood of Baal must at once be crushed, — extirpated root and branch — from the land they had so long cursed with their shadow. The recent general reverence of the people for this false worship now turns into rage. Catching up the malison of their great national minstrel, “Confounded be all they that worship graven images,” — they drag, (at Elijah’s command) the ringleaders down the side of the mountain, and the Kishon carries to the sea, in its erimsoned stream, the tidings of righteous vengeance.* Elijah, in this

* Van de Velde mentions, that a knoll is pointed out between the ridge” and the plain, called Tell Kasis, “the hill of the priests,” and that the modern name of the river is Nahr el Mukatta, “the river of slaughter.”

It may be interesting here to give the vivid delineation of the localities in the words of this writer. The more so, as he was the first traveller, we believe, who identified the site of “the Burning,” as confirmed by the subsequent visit and description of Dr Stanley, previously

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apparently harsh and cruel act, only performed what Ahab as theocratic Regent had failed to do. It was not the vindictive massacre of a barbarous conqueror; but the faithful servant and vicegerent of God fulfilling a stringent Divine command; — a command, indeed, which admitted of no evasion ; — for the extermination of idolaters.* {The Tishbite has now attained the fulfilment of his heart’s ardent longing — the glory of

quoted. After speaking of the difficulties of approaching the place, “covered as it was with a dense wilderness of natural timber, trees, and copse,” “the mules painfully struggling forward through the thick jungle,” he proceeds: — “One can scarcely imagine a spot better adapted for the thousands of Israel to have stood drawn up on, than the gentle slopes around. The rock shoots up in an almost perpendicular wall of more than two hundred feet in height, on the side of the vale of Esdraelon. On this side, therefore, there was no room for the gazing multitude; but, on the other hand, this wall made it visible over the whole plain, and from all the surrounding heights; so that even those left behind, and who had not ascended Carmel, would still have been able to witness at no great dis- tance the fire from heaven that descended on the altar.... Here we were certain the place must have been, for it is the only point of all Carmel where Elijah could have been so close to the brook Kishon as to take down thither the priests of Baal and slay them — return again to the mountain and pray for rain — all in the short space of the same afternoon. Nowhere does the Kishon run so close to Mount Carmel as just beneath El-Mohhraka.... Two hundred and fifty feet beneath the altar-plateau, is a vaulted and very abundant fountain, built in the form of a tank, with a few steps leading down into it, just as one finds elsewhere in the old wells or springs of the Jewish times. Possibly the water of this spring may haye been consecrated to the Lord, so as not to be generally accessible to the people even in times of fearful droughts. In such springs the water remains always cool, under the shade of a vaulted roof, and with no hot atmosphere to evaporate it. While all other fountains were dried up, I ean well understand that there might have been found here that superabundance of water which Elijah poured so profusely over the altar.” — Pp. 325-6.

*See Krummacher’s excellent remarks, p. 130; with references given to the Mosaic statute.

God and the good of Israel, All his personal privations had been nothing, to his sorrow of heart on account of the people he was commissioned to teach, and warn, and instruct, being held spell-bound by an evil power, His life-prayer, his lifeadjuration, if they only had had ears to hear it, was this — “O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God, for thow hast fallen by thine iniquity;” and in his earnest, fervent supplication at this hour on Carmel, he tells the reason of I is urgency, (v. 37,) “Hear me, O Lord, hear me! that this — people may know that Thou art the Len God, and ghiat hast turned their heart back again.” His prayer was As they saw the forked flames descending on the Prop sacrifice ;-conscience-stricken at the remembrance of their apostasy, and inwardly marvelling at the Divine patience and forbearance, — the grateful thought must have passed through many hearts in that crowd, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed |”” “Take heed, brethren,” says the apostle “lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” The tendency of the corrupt heart is the same in all ages, — though modified by peculiar circumstances, — t “forsake the Fountain of living waters, and to hew y. broken [leaky] cisterns, that can hold no water.” Let us no. longer act the part of traitor Israel, by calling to our Baa’ whatever the form of the seducer be, — “O Baal, he There will be no answer, There can be none, — if our ery be for anything else than the infinite Jehovah, to fi aching voids and necessities of our natures. May it be rather to make the confident appeal, “Our God is heavens, ‘’hetr idols are silver and gold, the work of hands. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thow in the Lord.” We cannot now expect such miraculous answers to prayer for the confirmation of our languishing faith as were vouchsafed to the mighty pleader of Carmel. But in another spiritual sense, the God of Elijah stll “answers by fire.” Fire! It is the emblem of the work and agency of His blessed Spirit. He still “baptizes with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Moreover, that highest of boons is procured in the same way as was the fire of Carmel; — in answer to prayer. Our Father who is in heaven, gives his Holy Spirit “unto them that ask him.” Spirit of God! descend upon us in Thine enlightening, quickening, refining, purifying influences. In order to insure Thy coming, we have not, like Elijah, to slay any bullock; we need prepare no burnt-offering. Our great Propitiation has already been made. The ’ Son of Man and Son of God, has already offered Himself a bleeding victim. On this priceless sacrifice the fire of Divine wrath has descended. He, our true Elijah, has upbuilt the altar of ruined humanity. His ransomed people are its living stones. Through everlasting ages it will continue, the peerless monument and memorial of the Divine faithfulness, holiness, and love. “Unto principalities and powers in heavenly places will be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.”

And finally, in closing the chapter, let the eye once more rest with admiration on the prime actor in this magnificent drama. Mark his firmness and self-reliance ; — his meek spirit of dependence on Divine aid. Hating expediency ; — resolved to stand or fall with truth ; — superior to the world’s censure — heedless that the majority is against him — with the consciousness of God being upon his side, He boldly confronts the floods of ungodly men, and alone he triumphs. Some who read these pages may possibly be placed in similar circumstances. Standing solitary in the midst of scoffers: stigmatised as “peculiar:” surrounded by those who ridicule Elijah’s God, and who sneer at their blind, eredulous reverence for some obsolete Jewish Scriptures. Fear not. “Quit you like men. Be strong.” You may be in the minority ; — all good men ever have been so. The “broad way” is the crowded way. The true way is the one with the narrow gate. But “them that honour me,” says God, “I will honour.” “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.”

To any who may be guilty of scorning Divine mercy, we cannot say, “Fear not.” Nay, rather, remember ye, too, the God of Carmel answers still “by fire.” Yes, by fire, shall be His awful answer on that day when there can be for you “no more sacrifice for sn!” The Bible speaks of those who are “reserved unto fire.’ It speaks of a time when “God shall not keep silence, when a fire shall go before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.” When “the Lord Jesus, whom you now despise, shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.” Forbid, that when the discovery is too late ; — when all our refuges of lies crumble into dust, and all the gods we have worshipped are proved to have been dumb idols ; — forbid that then, we should for the first time, be awoke up to the conviction, which, during a whole life of sin and apostasy, we have disowned and denied, “That the Lord he is the God, — the Lord he is the God;” ard that our only personal interest in this ‘living Jehovah,’ through an endless eternity, is this — * Our God is a consuming FIRE |”

“Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like FIRE in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.” “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,”