041. The Prayer Of Elijah On Mount Carmel.

The Prayer Of Elijah On Mount Carmel. The Prayer as recorded.—1 Kings 18:36-37. The Lord’s Answer.—1 Kings 18:38-39.

Elijah seems distressed at the wavering conduct of his people; sometimes they worship Jehovah and then again turn back to their idols or to Baal. He calls upon them to decide whom they will serve—if Baal be the true God, he exhorts them to worship him, but if not, he would implore them to worship the Creator of the world. The prophet’s language is full of sarcasm, and even pours ridicule upon them, while they are going through ceremonies as absurd as they prove fruitless; and then he requests them to come with him, at the evening hour, to call upon the God he served.

Before them stood the altar, and upon it the burnt offering prepared for the worship of Baal, the god to whom the people’s prayers had been offered; but in the expressive language of Scripture, “There was no voice, or any that answered.” In this prayer Elijah beseeches God to show to his people, that he was indeed the God of their fathers and their nation, and that all he had done, even in regard to the famine, was in direct obedience to the command of the Almighty.