Elijah Part 4: Dear Children, Keep Yourself From Idols

Send us your questions or feedback hereElijah Part 4: Dear Children, Keep Yourself From IdolsToday we find ourselves in 1 Kings chapter 18 at perhaps one of the most famous confrontations that you’ll find anywhere in the Old Testament: Elijah’s showdown between him and the 450 prophets of Baal.You will recall that Elijah was commissioned by God to tell King Ahab that there would be no rain until Elijah said the word. That was three years ago. In the meantime, God has looked after Elijah, feeding him through ravens in a ravine, and then taking him to a widow who lived in the land of the Sidonians, outside of Israel. During that time, Ahab has organised an enormous but unsuccessful man-hunt to find, Elijah, because he needed Elijah to end the drought. And then, one day, Elijah just turned up and announced that he wanted to speak to Ahab because he wanted to confront Israel because it had abandoned the God of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob and followed Baal instead.The story is very dramatic; we hold our breath as we listen to the ebb and flow of the narrative that ultimately leads to the demise of the prophets of Baal as God demonstrates in the most spectacular of ways, that He is God. We sit back and we reflect on those foolish Israelites – how could they be so stupid as to abandon the God who brought them out of Egypt, who brought down the walls of Jericho and who descended in glory onto the temple that Solomon had built for Him, in full view of all the people of Jerusalem?And then we realise that this story speaks into our own lives too. Our idols may not be made of stone, but they are just as powerful and draw us away from God, our creator. Our idols, the things that we pursue above God, are maybe more subtle, but they have the same effect because they replace God and call us to serve them instead. This is a powerful message that speaks to the problem of humanity: we want something other than God to be our god. Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal give us the chance to reflect on the extent to which we honour the first commandment in our own lives: “You shall have no gods before me.”You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at  Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.