The Showdown is Over

O. T. #797  "The Showdown is Over"
July 22, 2016
1 Kings 18-Part 4
verse??

LET IT GLOW

The challenge is on. All day the prophets of Baal prayed, cried, and shouted to their unalive and unreal god, Baal, with no sound, no reply, no response. God was about to make a spectacular and convincing display of His power to everyone present.

What did God's Prophet Elijah do?

• He called the people to gather around.
• Then he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down.
• Elijah took 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, to rebuild the altar in the Lord's name.
• He dug a trench around the altar, which was large enough to hold3 gallons of water.
• Next, he piled the wood on the altar and cut up the bull into pieces, laying it on the wood.
• The prophet instructed that 4 large jars of water be poured over the offering and the wood 3 times. It ran over the altar and filled the trench.

Elijah had made it impossible for man to cause a fire to consume the offering. Only God could do it with all that water around it, plus wet wood.
When things are impossible, are we trusting the God of possibilities?

LET IT GROW

Elijah prayed:

• proclaiming God as the God of Israel,
• asked God to prove Himself as the God of Israel,
• asking God to prove that he was God's servant,
• for God to prove that Elijah did all that at God's command,
• for God to answer his prayer s the people would know He was God and He brought them back to Himself.

How did God answer Elijah's prayer?
Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water trench! (verse 38 NLT)

When all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, "The LORD-He is God! Yes, the LORD is God!

Then Elijah commanded the prophets of Baal be seized, not even one allowed to escape. Elijah too the 450 prophets of Baal down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there.

Whew! The showdown was over and God was victorious. God showed Himself to be God. He had established His reputation for responding by fire. (Gen. 19:24; Lev. 10:2; 2 Chron. 7:1)

God had told Israel in Deuteronomy 13 to kill false prophets. God was about to make one more display of His deity. We will discuss it next time.

LET IT GO

Watch God work around me.