WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

An international Sunday school lesson commentary

For Sunday March 28, 2021

 

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PROPHET OF COURAGE

(The contest on Mount Carmel)

(1 Kings 18:1-40)

 

   The books of First and Second Kings were originally one book in the Hebrew scriptures. They were named such because they recorded and interpreted the reigns of all of the kings of northern Israel and Judah except Saul, Israel’s first king. Saul was not of the line of the Davidic kings appointed by GOD, but rather, was chosen by the people of Israel in contrast to GOD’s will for them.

    The Septuagint, the first Greek translation of the Old Testament, divides “Kings” into the two parts we still have in our modern translations today. However, in the Septuagint, they are called “Third” and “Fourth Kingdoms”, and the books of First and Second Samuel are called “First” and “Second Kingdoms”.

   The title “Kings” is derived from Jerome’s “Vulgate”, the first Latin translation of the Hebrew scriptures which was written about 600 years after the writing of the Septuagint. Jerome’s translation was commissioned by the Catholic Church for their own personal use, and he titled the writings, “The Book of Kings”.

    First and Second Kings chronicle three major historical periods in Israel’s past: “the United Kingdom” under the rule of David and Solomon, “the Divided Kingdom”, which followed the rebellion of northern Israel (ten tribes) against Judah before they were carried off into captivity by Shalmaneser and the Assyrians in 722 B.C., and “the Surviving Kingdom” of Judah prior to and during their devastating defeat at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian forces in 586 B.C.

    First and Second Kings also chronicles the lives of several courageous prophets, particularly, “Elijah” and his divinely chosen protégé, “Elisha”. In first Kings 18, during the final year of a three-year drought that had been imposed upon Israel by GOD, we see the well-known “prophet of courage”, Elijah, being informed by the LORD to go and pay a visit to the evil king Ahab, who, at that time, ruled over Israel.

    Elijah was instructed by GOD to tell Ahab that the drought would soon be over. This drought and famine had been directed at Ahab and his evil wife, Jezebel, who had killed several of the LORD’s priests, and replaced them with prophets of the male idol god, “Baal” and his female counterpart, “Asherah”.

     When Elijah arrived in Samaria, he instructed “the man of GOD” there, Obadiah, who was in charge of the king’s palace, to go to his king and tell him that he was there to see him. Obadiah reluctantly does so, and King Ahab came out to meet with Elijah. Elijah tells the king to assemble all the prophets of Baal and Asherah (850 in all) at the foot of Mount Carmel.

    Then Elijah proceeds to put on a demonstration that would prove to the king once and for all, that his LORD is the only wise and powerful GOD of the universe. And by the time Elijah had concluded his demonstration, all the people of Israel who watched, were in agreement. Elijah then commanded the people to seize all the false prophets of Baal and Asherah, who had failed miserably in their counter demonstrations, and take them down to the Kishon Valley and kill them all.

    There were obviously many people in northern Israel who still believed in the LORD, however, most of Israel, had apostatized, or rebelled against the LORD and abandoned their faith. This well-known account of Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal and Asherah at the foot of Mount Carmel is of extreme historical importance to Israel.

    First of all, after this confrontation, Elijah had proven himself as the spokesman for GOD, to whom Ahab must submit. Ahab had abandoned the ways of GOD and taken up the worship of the gods of his wife, Jezebel, whose father, Ethbaal III, was widely believed to be the very personification of the idol god Baal himself. Secondly, the extent of the apostasy in Israel as a whole, can be seen in the sheer number of false prophets (850), who were used to service the spiritual needs and demands of the people that had followed King Ahab into idolatry.

    That day Elijah stood in front of the people of Israel and challenged them to end their double-minded practices of “straddling the fence” between GOD and the Baals, a fence that in all reality, belongs to satan. He demanded that they make a choice that very day, and either choose GOD, and hold to HIM entirely, or choose the Baals, and follow them.

    When GOD created man, HE blessed him with the unique ability, among all HIS creation, to choose between “right” and “wrong”. HE could have made us all like “robots” that were compelled to stay within HIS Will. However, HE chose instead to give us “wills that are free”, mortal mental capabilities and freedom to make up our own personal minds about HIM.

    In the years since that time, we have been purchased with the high price that is the blood of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS, the CHRIST. We need only to recall, as Elijah did, the great and wonderful things that GOD has done for us in our undeserving existence. We need to recognize GOD for WHO HE is, and then make “the only wise choice” we have available to us, and that is to love, worship, and serve only HIM, with our whole heart, soul, mind, and physical strength. The choice will always be ours, until GOD says, that it is not.    

 

A Sunday school lesson by,

Larry D. Alexander

 

 

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