Silencing the Voice of Doubt: 1 Kings 18:17-39 - All Saints Sunday

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…”

If it is broken, however, you have three options: repair it, replace it, or live without it. 

Cost usually dictates these decisions, unless, of course, the item in question is irreparable and irreplaceable.

Some things, however, are easily replaceable; maybe too much for our own good.

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Take King Ahab. He and his infamous wife Jezebel ruled over the northern kingdom of divided Israel. They are widely considered two of the bible’s worst villains for their violence and greed.

They were also downright fanatical in their worship of Ba’al, the rain and fertility god, and its wife, Asherah. When Ahab came to power, he erected an altar to Ba’al in the capital city of Samaria, and a sacred pole for Asherah. Their idolatry spread throughout the kingdom like a plague because people worshiped Ba’al by indulging the lusts of their flesh, instead of through sacrifice and righteousness. 

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Then a drought struck, followed by a famine which lasted for three years. God sent the prophet Elijah to confront King Ahab for his idolatry, and to declare that it would not rain again until God said so.

One would think this would motivate Ahab and Jezebel to repent of their idolatry and return to the God of their ancestors. But quite the opposite happened. 

Jezebel goes on a murderous rampage, hunting down God’s prophets and killing them. When Elijah confronts Ahab a second time, Ahab calls Elijah “a troubler of Israel,” as if the famine was his fault. 

Elijah responds by challenging Ahab to assemble the 400 prophets of Ba’al and the 450 prophets of Asherah, with all of Israel watching. Whichever god answers by fire will be proven to be the true God.

It comes as no surprise to us that God answered by down fire and Ba’al did not. When the people saw what God did, they fell on their faces and said, “the Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” Elijah then orders the people to seize the 850 false prophets and put them to death. 

Elijah then tells the stunned Ahab to get ready, because it’s going to rain. 

You’d think that by now, Ahab and Jezebel would abandon their idols and worship God. But that’s not what happens. Jezebel swears an oath to kill Elijah in revenge for humiliating her.

It’s baffling that Ahab and Jezebel refuse to worship God, even though they’ve seen God’s mighty acts with their own eyes. Meanwhile, Elijah trusts and obeys God, even when it means risking his life.

Do you remember how I said that some things are easily replaceable? The essence of sin is replacing God with other things. 

Ahab and Jezebel tossed the true God aside in favor of gods who gave them power, pleasure, and riches. They replaced righteousness and justice with greed, cruelty, and murder. They were so consumed with lust that they couldn’t see the truth, even when it was staring them in the face.

Those of us who are not royalty, however, will find it just as easy to abandon or replace God, particularly when the way of trust and obedience does not bring you to a life of ease and security.

There are few things as devastating as the death of a loved one. We prayed for every single saint we remember today that God would deliver them from death. And God may have spared these loved ones from death, for a time, but not permanently. Sometimes, we have prayed for God not to spare someone from death because they were suffering so much, and there was no possibility of recovery.

In the wake of such disappointment and devastation, you will be tempted to give up on God and perhaps seek out other gods which you hope will give you what the real God did not. You might lose yourself in your work. You might turn to substances or other things to dull the pain. You might cut yourself off from the world and hide away in fear or shame.

When Elijah learns that Jezebel is determined to kill him, he suffers a total breakdown. He actually prays for God to take his life, because he’d lost the will to live. The only other person from the bible who reaches this level of agony was Jesus Christ. But God didn’t abandon Jesus, and God didn’t abandon Elijah. 

It was in that moment of agony when God’s power was strongest for Elijah and Jesus. Not when God sent down fire from heaven, but when God gave Elijah the strength and the grace to keep going.

The challenge for you today is to hold onto faith so that you will see God’s salvation when God sees fit to bring it. 

God did not fail any of the loved ones we prayed for when they departed this life. Jesus Christ made death the gateway to their salvation. And God did not fail you when you prayed for them. God gave you the strength to endure your life’s worst trials, and God will never stop being good to you no matter what side of eternity you’re on. When there is death, there is resurrection. On earth, as it is in heaven.

Sometimes, you just don’t know how good God is until God’s goodness is all you have. Faith is all about learning to see all of God’s wonders, both great and small, and remembering that if God doesn’t move mountains, God will get you over them. There is nothing you will face in this life that God cannot overcome. When there is no way, God will make away.

God will do whatever it takes until you see with your eyes, take hold with your hands, and proclaim with your lips: “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”