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‘And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, bear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.’
1Ki_18:26
I. Notice, first, their zeal.—They were willing to suffer and cut themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out. The zeal and self-devotion with which idolaters will act on their mistakes ought to put us to the blush for the lukewarmness and cowardice which we often display in acting on our truths. The men who cheerfully acted on the precepts of a sanguinary religion are confronted with those among us who will not submit to the precepts of a mild one.
II. Notice how the idolatrous priests persevered, in spite of the keen ridicule of Elijah.—In the matter of religion there is nothing which men find it so difficult to bear as ridicule. It can never be said that the priests of Baal had better reasons for being staunch in their adherence to their idol than the servants of God for confidence in His power and protection. They may be brought up as witnesses against us at the last if we show deficiency either in zeal or courage.
III. These priests furnish us with another lesson by their importunity.—They persisted in praying, though no answer was vouchsafed. The silence of their deity appears to have been with them nothing but a reason for greater importunity; they were all the more earnest because they had obtained as yet no answer. Thus they seem to have held fast the principle that the Divine unchangeableness is not an argument against, but for, the possible utility of importunate prayer. We must bring the supremacy of our God to the test to which the idolaters were ready to submit that of Baal. ‘The God that answereth by fire, let him be God.’ There are those amongst us who have other gods than Jehovah. But can they answer by fire? It is the promise, the characteristic, of the dispensation of the Spirit. Ask, and ye shall receive.
Canon Melvill.
Illustrations(1) ‘There is nothing which men find it so difficult to bear as ridicule. They can brave a frown, but be quite daunted by a laugh; and a sneer will appal them, when they would not have shrunk from a sword. When we deal faithfully with the young, and set honestly before them the difficulties they will have to encounter, if they separate from the world and give themselves to the duties of religion, we always lay our main stress on the ridicule which they must expect to excite, requiring them to examine, before making their decision, whether they stand prepared to be counted “fools for Christ’s sake.” And it is mainly because this point is imperfectly examined, and the decision prematurely made, that we have so many instances of a falling away amongst the young—those who have begun to all appearance well, and with good promise of perseverance, relapsing, after a while, into the habits and associations which they had resolved to abandon. You will find that, in the majority of cases, the lapse is to be traced to the power of ridicule.’
(2) ‘Will not the very heathen rise up against us in the judgment, and condemn us, if they inflict upon themselves excruciating torments, and wear down the body by incessant exactions, just because they find themselves so directed by a fabulous theology; whilst we, with all the advantages of a full revelation, grudge those sacrifices which are to be a thousandfold compensated, and throw off those restraints which, after all, would but make us masters of ourselves?’