14 Days in the Company of Elijahનમૂનો

Day 5: The Lord or Baal? (1 Kings 18:20–40; 1 Kings 16–17)

We’ve already seen in 1 Kings 16 and 17 how Elijah stands as a stark contrast to the figure of the king. Even the foreign widow shows up Ahab’s failings! Alongside the man of God and the woman with a growing faith in Yahweh, the monarch seems shadowy, weak, and even irrelevant.

Unlike the later prophets of Israel (such as Isaiah, Amos, or Micah), who address both the king and the people in roughly equal measure, in the books of Kings the prophets speak almost exclusively to monarchs and to those who want to be kings. There is a notable exception in 1 Kings 18, when Elijah turns from King Ahab to address the people directly. With 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah assembled behind him, summoned by Elijah for one of the most dramatic confrontations between truth and falsehood in the history of humanity, the man of God speaks sharply to the people of God. He pierces to the heart of their spiritual condition with an accusatory question: “How long will you waver between two opinions?” (1 Ki 18:21, CSB). There is a rich variety of translations of that verb “waver”; if we put them together, we get a good sense of the force of Elijah’s question. The NRSV leans toward a literal rendering: “How long will you go limping along with two different opinions?” The CEB is similar: “How long will you hobble back and forth between two opinions?”

Elijah’s “how long” captures the reality that their current condition: they have failed to go wholeheartedly after a singular loyalty to the Lord. That divided heart is an untenable and unsustainable condition. Limping, hobbling, wobbling—their divided loyalty is a position of inherent weakness. They must make a choice, and Elijah implies they ought to make it now; they don’t need dramatic confirmation of the truth about to unfold on Mount Carmel. They know the truth; they just haven’t acted on it. Elijah follows up his accusatory question by throwing down the gauntlet: “If the Lord is the true God, then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” (1 Ki 18:21b, NET). The people’s response is a deafening, disheartening silence.

It is instructive that Elijah offers the people the chance to choose. He respects their agency and responsibility; they do not have to go blindly after their king’s bad choices. Elijah’s question and challenge resonate as word of God to the people of God in our day, just as they did in his. Neither weak hobbling between two loyalties nor tragic silence in the face of evil is an acceptable option.