ON THE VANGUARD

MAKE UP YOUR MIND
“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.’”
I Kings 18:21

So the prophet Elijah lays down a challenge to King Ahab. He tells Ahab to gather the people from all over Israel to meet him on Mount Carmel. This includes the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah. And once they are all gathered together, Elijah posses this question. “How long will you waver between two opinions?” You see, the people of Israel were not necessarily trying to rid God from their lives, but were moreso trying to mix a blend of God and other gods into their daily practices. They wanted to combine a worship of both.
Elijah then challenged the prophets of Baal to choose a bull and prepare it, call on the name of Baal, and request that he send fire on the altar. So the prophets spent the morning preparing and calling out, even dancing around their altar, yet no fire came. Elijah taunted them by saying that maybe their god was asleep or traveling, and that they should shout louder and work harder to get his attention. And the prophets did, cutting their bodies, screaming louder and continuing frantic prophesying until evening. When there was still no response, Elijah stepped up to the plate.
Elijah took twelve stones and built an altar, dug a trench around it to hold about five gallons of water, fixed his wood and meat, and then had four jugs of water poured on the altar three times. By all accounts the wood was soaked and should have been too wet to even burn. Then Elijah lifted a simple prayer. “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God.”
“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” (18:38). God came down in a mighty force and showed himself true. How could those who watched this event deny that God existed? How can you and I, who read this story and the countless others in the Bible, deny God or still try to mix God with sin in our own life. Years before this event, Joshua said pretty much the same words. In Joshua 24:15, we read, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”The challenge here is easy to see. We must choose between God or the gods that steal us from Him. The choice is not so easy, though. Sure, the temptations of life call our name and beckon us to follow and give in. And I admit, I have given in many times myself. But it is time that we make up our mind and consider the words that Joshua and Elijah dared challenge us with. Stop wavering and make up your mind.