01-22-12 Pastor Rob Gerber – Battle of the Gods!!!

This week the teaching will deal with one of the most amazing events in the Old Testament. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah to a duel – a duel by fire. He is seeking to turn God’s idolatrous people back to the Lord. So he proposes a sacrifice by fire – ‘the god who answers by fire, He is God’. Even though the odds were 850 to 1, nothing the false prophets did provoked a response from the heavens. Elijah then prayed to the One True God – Jehovah / Jesus. Fire came down; burned the offering, the stones in the altar, the water and licked up the dust. The people in fear bowed low to worship God.

After dramatizing this battle of the prophets, Rob will then challenge us to see where our hearts are in relation to the people in this story. Please prepare your heart before listening by reading about this dramatic encounter in I Kings 18:17-40.

Ask yourself the following questions as you meditate on this passage:

• In what ways is the church today like the people of Elijah’s time? In what ways is it different?
• Why is there no middle ground when it comes to allegiance to God? What side of the fence is your heart on at the present time?
• Killing the prophets of Baal seems like a severe consequence to our sensibilities. Why was it necessary?