1 Kings 18:17-39
This chapter tells us how fire from the Lord came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering that Elijah had laid on God’s altar (vv. 30-39).
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” (1 Kings 18:30-39)
This whole chapter describes the clash between the Lord and Baal, between the true faith and idolatry. But it is more than that: it is an account of revival, of the turning of a whole nation, of all those who became witnesses of the “contest” between the Lord and Baal. All the Israelites confessed that the Lord is God. What can we learn about revival from this passage? A great deal. We can learn both what hinders revival and what we must do in order to have revival.
WHO ARE THE ENEMIES OF REVIVAL?
WAVERING
Revival has quite a few enemies, but the first of them is wavering. When Elijah called the people to a decision for the Lord, the people “said nothing” (v. 21). They were divided – whom should they serve, the Lord or Baal (1 Kings 18:1-21)?
1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria, 3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. 4 While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) 5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.” 6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another. 7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” (1 Kings 18:1-7)
8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’” (1 Kings 18:8)
9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? 10 As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. 11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ 12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth. 13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. 14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!” (1 Kings 18:9-14)
15 Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.” (1 Kings 18:15)
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:16-17)
18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” (1 Kings 18:18-19)
20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. (1 Kings 18:20-21)
Notice that when Elijah called the people to make a decision for the Lord, they kept silent. What does this silence tell us? It speaks of wavering. Mediocrity and wavering are a most unsteady and losing condition.
- The one who wavers will not receive an answer to his prayer (James 1:6-8).
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:6-8)
- The divided will fall suddenly (Proverbs 28:18).
18 The one whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but the one whose ways are perverse will fall into the pit. (Proverbs 28:18)
Mediocrity, lukewarmness, and wavering are things that God hates. In Revelation 3:15-16 the glorified Lord Jesus says to the church in Laodicea:
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16)
God does not love half-hearted things. That is why in Revelation 22:11 He says:
11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy. (Revelation 22:11)
This attitude of God’s, calling for full surrender and decisiveness for God, is revealed in the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:30:
30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Matthew 12:30)
The indecisive have no place in God’s kingdom. In Luke 9:62 the Lord Jesus said:
62 No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
On the contrary, instead of being indecisive, we ought to be decisive for God and for what is good. Our attitude toward wavering and being divided should be like that of the psalmist in Psalm 119:113:
113 I hate double-minded people, but I love your law. (Psalm 119:113)
CONFUSION
The second enemy of revival, after wavering, is confusion. Notice what Ahab calls Elijah when they meet (v. 17):
17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17)
Ahab called Elijah the “troubler of Israel.” Did he have any right to call him that? Who was to blame for the drought – Elijah or Ahab? Ahab was to blame, because he was the one leading the people into idolatry, not Elijah. Yet even though he was the guilty one, he laid the blame for the drought not on himself but on Elijah. This created confusion among the people. Public opinion was manipulated, and society looked with a suspicious eye upon God’s servant. Today Satan keeps doing the same thing, smearing the name of the church before society. We, however, must not keep silent about the truth. In v. 18 Elijah answers Ahab:
18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.” (1 Kings 18:18)
The blame for the drought did not lie with Elijah, but with Ahab and Jezebel, because they had led the people into idolatry. So when Satan tries to bring a false accusation and reproach against the church in order to create confusion in society about what is right and what is not, the church must not keep silent, but must defend itself.
CORRUPTION
The third enemy of revival is corruption, depravity, and sin. They keep a person from repenting, because he enjoys living in them. People want to live far from God so that they can do whatever they please. John 3:18-21 says:
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:18-21)
To be set free from sin, we must call it by its true name, confess it, and forsake it.
HOW DO WE HAVE REVIVAL?
And so we have seen the obstacles to revival – wavering, confusion, and corruption. Now let us turn to the question of what we must do in order to have revival in our lives. There are four basic principles we can draw from this text.
CHANGE
First, in order to have revival, we must carry out a change, a revolution in our lives. In the account we see a development in the position of those who were gathered. Whereas in v. 21, when Elijah challenged the people to a decision, they were wavering and did not answer, in v. 24 we see that they are ready to change their opinion if Elijah shows them who is the living and true God.
22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” (1 Kings 18:22-24)
If we want revival, we must get rid of wavering, confusion, and corruption. Revival is something radical. It is a rebirth of New Testament Christianity. It includes conversion. It requires a spirit of repentance. It means drawing a line from which there is no going back. It means making decisions that bind us and that we then carry out. In Matthew 6:24 the Lord Jesus Christ said:
24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24)
We cannot serve God and someone else at the same time.
25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:25-29)
To have revival we must change. This change must be a transition – a transition from wavering to certainty, from unbelief to faith, from confusion to clarity, from corruption to consecration.
REPAIR
The next thing that must happen for us to have revival is repair, or restoration. Before he called on God, Elijah repaired the altar (v. 30).
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. (1 Kings 18:30)
The word “repaired” in this verse is, in Hebrew, “rapha.” It is also interesting that Elijah built the altar from exactly twelve stones – stones that were a symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel.
31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. (1 Kings 18:31-32)
Building an altar of twelve stones was in fact a prophetic act – an action symbolizing the unity of the nation – every stone, every tribe had to come into its place. So it is with the church. In order to have revival, our relationships within the body must be healed and restored. How? Through forgiveness and reconciliation. Just as we became one with God through the forgiveness of our sins, so through forgiveness we must maintain unity among ourselves. In order to have revival, there must exist among us harmony, solidarity, and accord. And that can happen only if we love one another with the love of God. Only love “covers over all wrongs” (Proverbs 10:12) and “covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
PREPARATION
The next principle for revival, after change and repair, is preparation. Revival will not come without our laboring for it. In our text we see that Elijah worked hard before God’s fire came down. First he dug a trench (v. 32).
32 And he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. (1 Kings 18:32)
Then Elijah laid the sacrifice on the altar.
33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. (1 Kings 18:33)
The sacrifice reminds us of our spiritual service. What is it? Romans 12:1 says:
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)
Revival will not come without cleansing, consecration, and sanctification.
Then Elijah poured water over the sacrifice (vv. 33-35):
33 Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. (1 Kings 18:33-35)
By pouring the water over the sacrifice, Elijah set the stage for a miracle. After twelve barrels of water had been poured over the bull, no one could say that it had caught fire by some trick or in any other way. What Elijah did is an astonishing expression of faith in God’s almighty power. Nothing is impossible for God. If He can set the sacrifice ablaze, then He can burn up even the water!
PETITION
After he had repaired the altar, arranged the sacrifice, and drenched it with water, Elijah prayed (vv. 36-37).
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:36-37)
Prayer is a key to revival. As it is recorded here, this prayer is quite short, but before it Elijah had been praying for change for three years. Every revival is preceded and sustained by earnest prayer. A classic example of this is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Before He was given, He had to be prayed for (Acts 1:14). Then He was poured out upon the apostles while they were praying (Acts 2:1-4). And afterward the abundant spiritual life in the early days of the church was again sustained by prayer (Acts 2:42; 4:31).
The importance and the contribution of prayer to revival cannot be overstated. Two things stand out clearly in Elijah’s prayer. First, the focus of the prayer is on the glory of God. Elijah says, “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel,” and then, “Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God.” What Elijah prays for is the glory of God. This is a very good test for our prayers as well. Is what we pray for for God’s glory, or only for some personal needs of ours? And, on the other hand, do we ask of God the things that would glorify and magnify Him?
Second, Elijah’s prayer and actions were according to God’s Word. In his prayer Elijah asks God to confirm that everything Elijah has done is “at His command,” according to His Word. Today God speaks to us through His Son and through the Holy Scriptures. Let us, like Elijah, live and do our works according to God’s Word.
FIRE FROM HEAVEN
God answered Elijah’s prayer with fire from heaven (v. 38).
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. (1 Kings 18:38)
The people responded to the miracle with humility and worship – they renounced the false gods and confessed the Lord as the one and only true God (v. 39).
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” (1 Kings 18:39)
But notice how v. 38 begins – “Then.” “Then”! The fire did not fall until the four principles of revival had been applied.
- Change – the fire did not fall until there was a change in the attitude of the people. It did not fall until they stopped wavering and agreed to make a final decision about God. Let the God who answers by fire – let Him be the God of Israel (v. 24). Revival will not come for us either, until we move from wavering to decisiveness.
- Repair – the fire did not fall until the altar was repaired. The fire of revival will not come upon us either, until we set our relationships right and the unity in the body of Christ is restored through forgiveness and reconciliation.
- Preparation – the fire did not fall until the sacrifice was placed on the altar. Revival will not come until we return to our first love and until a genuine and lasting consecration to God is born again in us.
- Petition – the fire did not fall until the petition was offered. Once revival has been prepared, it is prayer that unlocks it.
Do we want revival? Then we must know that its price consists of four simple but unavoidable things – decisiveness, unity, consecration, and prayer. Do we want to call down God’s fire? We must rid ourselves of wavering, confusion, and corruption, and be ready for change, repair, preparation, and petition. I believe that if we apply these four principles of revival that we find in the Scriptures, God will not disappoint us, but just as He answered Elijah, so He will answer us too, sending a spirit of revival upon our lands. Revival will come, and our people will confess His Name (Acts 4:12)!
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)