2020: The Mount Carmel Moment of the Charismatic Movement

Prayer for Illumination and the Aim of the Study

All right, we're going to pray and we will get started. Lord Jesus, as we open up your Word, we ask humbly for your Spirit to help us to rightly understand what your Word reveals, so that we may believe rightly, that we may confess, proclaim, and walk according to what you have revealed there for us.

For we recognize that in the words of Scripture are the very voice of God. Your Word says so, and so we ask, Lord, for you to speak to us through your Word this morning. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, today I've got an axe I'm grinding, and I'm trying to look for a place to put my coffee, and I'll come back to it, so hold on.

So there we go. All right, so what we're going to do today, I've named today's Bible study something akin to 2020, the charismatic movement, Mount Carmel moment. And we're going to grind on that a little bit.

Scripture as Performative Word and False Prophecy

We're going to look at 1 Kings 17 and 18, and we're going to unpack some of the popular ways in which both of those chapters get twisted. And I want to assure you that neither 1 Kings 17 or 1 Kings 18 have anything to do with tithing.

If you've spent time in evangelicalism or any kind of light charismatic church or even NAR church, they turn them into tithing texts. But before we do this, I want to give you, I want to kind of, if you would, take a look at something taught in Isaiah 55.

And this is another passage that makes it impossible, straight out, flat out impossible for somebody to prophesy falsely in the name of God. And let me explain what I mean. Here's what it says in Isaiah chapter 55 and verses 10 and 11.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. So you're going to note that this text, just taken straight on, it is impossible for God's word to go out and for it to return to him empty.

And at the risk of sounding bizarre, I'm going to invoke our latest prophecy, Bingo, for the month of February 2021. And in there, we had Robert Henderson, who is a fellow who famously falsely prophesied that Trump would win the election in November.

His explanation as to why he's not in office right now is because he's redefined prophecy to be an opportunity for the church to pray into existence a future that God wants to have happen, which is nuts.

In other words, it's your fault. If you voted for Trump and you really wanted to be president and he's not president now, it's because you didn't pray into it enough and you missed your opportunity. But the idea then here is that Scripture teaches us that God's word is—and I'm going to use a word that you may be unfamiliar with—that it's performative.

God's word is performative. So, for instance, in Genesis 1, God says, let there be light. Is there a choice for there to remain darkness? No. God's word performs what he sends it to do. So the idea then is that God, when he sends out his word, it will accomplish the thing for which he sent it.

It will not return to him empty. And to say, thus saith the Lord, and then, you know, the thing that you thus saith doesn't take place is absurd, because that's saying that God's word is returning to him empty and that it failed to accomplish the thing for which he sent it.

And that's not a biblical category. So you'll note there are many different ways that you can look at this, many facets, but at the end of the day, anyone who prophesies falsely is a false prophet, and to believe that you can be a true prophet after having prophesied falsely is to then believe, by extension, that God's word does return to him void, and it is incapable of accomplishing the things that what God says.

So if God had actually said, Donald Trump will win the election in November of 2020, Donald Trump would be in the White House right now, because God's word always performs that which he sends it. All right?

Ahab, Jezebel, and the Idolatry of Baal

That's kind of our foundation. Now, turning to the focus of our study today, 1 Kings 17, and we'll do part of 18. 1 Kings 17 and 18, these are very popular stories, ones that I come back to every few years in my teaching, but also ones that everybody's kind of familiar with, the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

And if you always are paying attention, I make a big to-do about the three rules for sound biblical exegesis, and they are context, context, and context. So we're—yeah, thank you. Thank you, Louise. Thank you, Bill.

Yeah, that's awesome. At the risk of sounding like a broken record from the Department of Redundancy department. Anyway, I'm going to back up just a little bit, and I want to set this up. In the tail end of 1 Kings 16, it gives us the account of what's going on in the northern kingdom of Israel.

So this isn't in Judah, this is in Israel, top 10 tribes. And there's going to be a change of monarchy from Omri to Ahav, and I'm going to pronounce his name Ahav because that's how it's actually pronounced in Hebrew.

I know that we English speakers like to say Ahab, but that—it doesn't work on the tomato-tomato thing. When you read Hebrew, it's Ahav, okay? So forgive me for for pronouncing it that way, but here's what it says.

In the 38th year of Asa, the king of Judah, Ahav, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. And Ahav, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. And Ahav, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of Yahweh more than all who were before him.

And if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians. And by the way, Jezebel, you could make a very good argument, and I've read Hebrew scholars on this, that the proper way of maybe understanding her name is that she is named Jezebel, which—and Jezebel means—watch this one—princess of Baal, okay?

In other words, she's a really lovely lady, okay? She's just lovely, okay? So she's the princess of Baal. And so you're going to note then that this is the big change. Ever since the establishing of the Northern Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom had deliberately gone into idolatry, but now their idolatry is ramped up.

And you need to know kind of the religious narrative as it surrounds Baal. Baal means Lord, and Baal is the Lord who is the one who brings the rain. But before Baal is going to bring the rain, the followers of Baal must bring the requisite sacrifices and offerings and perform the proper rituals.

And in Syria, the worship of Baal also included human sacrifices. I like to think of Baal as I think of like that cult in the second Indiana Jones movie, you know, Molaram, you know, and it's that wicked, it's that evil.

That's what we are talking about here. Yeah, the thuggy cult. That's what they're called, you know. So when you think of Baal and those who worship Baal, you have to think that level of evil, because human sacrifice is part of the things that Baal or the Baals require in order for them to open up the windows of heaven and bring the rain, Bruce Byrne says.

So the most wicked and hateful king in history of Israel is named Love. Am I getting that wrong? No, I don't think you are. I actually think you're getting that right. Yeah. Yeah, you could make a case for that.

Okay. But he's the opposite of it. Okay. Now, all of that being said, you now kind of got the inciting incident. And this is where then in 1st Kings 17 .1, we first hear of the prophet Elijah. He comes kind of out of nowhere.

But actually, we know he comes from Tishbe. And that means he's a Tishbite. I'm so glad I'm not from a town that where, you know, if you describe the inhabitants of that town, it ends with bites. You know, I'm glad we don't refer to you folks here from Oslo as Oslo bites, you know.

It sounds like a snapper.

Anyway, all right. So you get the idea. But all of that being said, that Elijah, the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahav. So note, he is speaking directly to the king of Israel. So God has sent him, a prophet is one who speaks for another, specifically a deity.

And here's the message. As Yahweh, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. Now, that's the message God has sent. And I'm sure Ahav went, yeah, right.

You're bothering me. Be gone. Right. And so that was the message. And then the word of Yahweh came to him, depart from here, turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Kerith, which is east of the Jordan.

And you shall drink from the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he did according to the word of Yahweh. He went and lived by the brook Kerith, that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Historical Narrative, Doctrine, and the Brook Kerith

Now, a little bit of a note here. We, a while back ago, did a review of a fellow who did a sermon on this text, and he totally allegorized it. And the idea was that when God gives you a vision for your life, there's going to be opposition.

And so what's your brook Kerith? And don't worry, God's going to send the ravens to feed you. And in hearing that, it was one of those times where I wanted to reach for my computer screen and pinch that guy's head and pop it like a pimple.

And, you know, because just how dare you, you know, twist these texts this way. So I assure you, number one, you do not have a brook Kerith moment coming in your future. And personally, I'm glad about that because even if God sent ravens with meat for me to eat, I would be reticent to eat it.

I'm not a big fan of ravens. And I would make my wife cook that thing to like hockey puck status before I would even consider chewing on it. But that's a whole other story. Okay, so what we're looking at here, this is a historical narrative.

These are historical accounts. And this is where we have to pay attention to one of the distinctions that we see in Scripture. And that is that there are historical events that when they are interpreted spiritually for us, the doctrines regarding those events then are hooked together to them.

But for instance, I like to point out, if I were to travel back in time to Jerusalem, I would travel back in time to Jerusalem. And I was there on the day that Christ was crucified. All I would see with my eyes are the events that are recorded historically.

I would see a man suffering, bleeding and dying. In fact, three men suffering, bleeding and dying on the cross. I would see the sun darkened. I would feel an earthquake. I would hear one of these men crying out, it is finished, and then dying.

But here's the thing, all of that is history. When you then say these words, Christ died for our sins, that's doctrine. Doctrine connected to the historical events. And where so many go wrong is they will read historical events and then read into it whatever doctrines they invent in their own head.

It's completely ungrounded. And the more fanciful you read these things, the more interesting it becomes. And then they'll basically, if you say to them, you're twisting God's word, they basically say, well, that's just your interpretation.

That's just your interpretation. But we'll note then that all scripture finds its terminus in Christ. And the subject that is before us is one that scripture speaks very clearly regarding doctrine. And the doctrine that is at stake and on focus here is the commandment, you will have no other gods.

That is the center and focus and the message here. And in this particular account, we're going to note that God in his mercy, and this is a right way to see it because you'll see it in the prayer of Elijah at the end of this, God in his mercy has chosen to work a miraculous sign for the purpose of demonstrating the falsity of Baal.

That's the issue. So in this account, we must consider it, this is a showdown between the one true God, Yahweh, and the false God, Baal. Now, does Baal exist? No. Remember the old telephones that when you would call somebody and their number had changed or something like this, you'd get that annoying high-pitched, da-da-da, we're sorry, but the number that you are trying to reach is no longer in service or has been disconnected.

Please check the number and dial again. You remember that? So here's the reality of the situation. Every time you try to call Baal, he never answers. And there's a reason, and that is that he doesn't exist.

But it's a little bit worse than that. In 1 Corinthians 10, we get the real origin of where idolatry has its genesis. And I'm going to read out a text that seems a little odd, but it also relates to idolatry as well as to the Lord's Supper.

1 Corinthians 10, 14 says this, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. And you're going to note, this is New Testament. Flee from idolatry. And we're going to talk a little bit more about the implications of what kind of idolatry we face today within the church.

Flee idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. I don't know why he's saying that. A lot of people in church are not very sensible. That's just a pastor's assessment. Sorry. My bad. Judge for yourselves what I say.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? What's the answer to that? Yes, it is. Okay. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Yes, it is. So, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. So, consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

The answer is, yes, they are. So, what do I mean then? That food offered to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. So, this is a sobering fact.

Who is behind Baal? The devil. The demonic realm. Who is behind Molech and Asherah? The devil. Who is behind the false deities that run around the landscape today? The devil. And here's where we're going to take a look at a text that needs to sober us up, because I think we're taking this text just a little bit too lightly in our day.

And I want you to consider this. The same realm that was responsible for Baal, Molech, and Asherah, Shiva, Vishnu, and the thuggies, that same force is behind what's going on in much of the church today.

Paul says this in 1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2. Now, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings, or you could say the doctrines of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

I want you to let that set in for a second. Now, I've already invoked Robert Henderson. Robert Henderson, who spectacularly falsely prophesied that Trump would be re-elected in November, is now blaming you for that not being the case, because you didn't pray in enough for that to happen.

I would note that he is most famous for his teachings regarding the so-called courts of heaven, and that he has been teaching within the charismatic movement for many years now, this idea that if you're not getting the results that you want, it's because the devil has filed lawsuits against you in heaven, and God is not legally able to bless you.

Therefore, you need to learn how to file your own lawsuits in heaven so that God can have the legal right to bless you and to show you his favor. To which I say, where are you getting any of this? I would note that in the comment section of our YouTube channel, recently we had several people who left comments saying, asking the question sincerely, do I need to file lawsuits in the court of heaven in order to get what I need from God in answer to prayer?

No. This is all pure mythology, but I think it's more than mythology. I think that this is a fulfillment of the prophecies given by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, that there would be people who are devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.

So you know that idolatry is alive and well within the church today. And let me give you another quote on this. If we go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, I would note that the Apostle Paul here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 is trying to very delicately diffuse a bomb that was put into the church in Corinth by a group of guys who called themselves, get this, they called themselves super apostles.

Okay, well that Apostle Paul, he might be an apostle, but he's not the best one because I mean, after all, he's not very gifted in his public speaking. And have you seen him? I mean, he's cross-eyed and he has a hook nose.

I mean, that's how he's described by the ancient church. And he doesn't speak very well in public. And have you ever noticed that the Apostle Paul doesn't charge you money when he comes and preaches here?

Well, that's because he knows that nobody would pay a slug nickel for it. But we're so gifted. We're not apostles, we're super apostles. And we're going to charge you top dollar for our services. But don't worry, we will wow you with all kinds of great stuff.

That's what's going on there at the church of Corinth. So Paul then diffusing this to basically get the people in Corinth to wake up to the fact that there's no such thing as a super apostle and that these guys are not bringing them the truth.

He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

And I would note, it is not a small thing for the apostle Paul to invoke the serpent of the garden of Eden. That serpent was working by the power of the devil if it wasn't the devil himself. All of that being said, you can see the implication here.

He says, for if someone comes to you and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

And he's not commending them for being tolerant and open-minded because he then goes on to explain what the fate is of these so-called super apostles. And so he says in verse 13, such men aren't false apostles.

They are deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, and their end will correspond to their deeds.

And he's not saying that they're going to join the choir invisible, praising Christ with a harp on the day of glory. He's saying that their end is hell. That's what we're talking about here. So I want you to consider then, as we look at this Mount Carmel moment, the question that I would like to ask in the context of idolatry, if we were to kind of find an application today, is does the charismatic Pentecostal and NAR movements worship a false spirit?

That's the question. And you'll note here, signs of heresy are not only a false gospel or a false Christ, but 2 Corinthians 11 makes it also clear grounds for heresy on the basis of idolatry is a false Holy Spirit.

So let's go back to our text. That's a little bit of context for where I want to go to today. And I'll get to questions a little bit later. I would like to kind of work through these thoughts without getting too far astride from them.

The Widow of Zarephath and the Performative Word

All right, coming back here then. So here's the showdown. Baal supposedly brings the rain. Yahweh says, uh-uh, it ain't going to rain until my prophet says it's going to rain. Which then does what? Gives objective proof that the claims of those who worship Baal, that Baal is the one who brings the rain, are patently false.

And you're going to note that as we walk through this text, we can see that God will allow Baal to suffer three years of 2020. Okay, it's a metaphor that we all get right now, right? So we'll keep that in mind.

Okay, so depart from here, go to the brook Kerith. So after the brook dried up because there was no rain in then the word of Yahweh came to Elijah, rise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose, went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. Now a little bit of a note here.

If you've spent time in evangelicalism, this is a text that is used as a proof text for tithing. And here's how the theology works. God cannot bless you until you step out in obedience. That's the claim.

God cannot bless you until you step out in obedience, to which I would say scripture says God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. What obedience did you do that caused God to send the Son of God to bleed and die for your sins?

Answer, nothing. For while we were dead, Christ comes, and he bleeds and dies in our place. So this idea that, and you'll see it all over the preaching of these types of churches, is that you've got to do your part, which then gives God the ability to do his part.

And God, his hands are tied. He can't do his part until you do yours. But pay attention to what I just read. I'll highlight a couple of things. The word of Yahweh came to Elijah, rise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded, past tense, I have already commanded a widow there to feed you. Now we're going to see this widow's attitude towards this command of God. But before, before Elijah even left the brook Kerith, God had already spoken to this widow, and she knew exactly who was talking to her, that it was Yahweh.

You can see it in her kind of snarky attitude. Now, of course, she's got nothing, and the famine has impacted her as well. And so she is, as a widow, she's part of the poorest of the poor. You know, let's just say that the life of widows wasn't one that was opulent in the ancient world.

Far from it. Far, far from it. So who does God send Elijah to? The poorest of the poor. And so he had already commanded her to feed Elijah. So Elijah rose, went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

So Elijah, being a prophet, knows that's the gal, and so he strikes up a conversation with her. And he said to her, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And now out comes her attitude.

And she, as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as Yahweh, your God, lives, okay, notice it's not her God. She already knows that Yahweh has spoken to her.

She knows what the name of God is. As Yahweh, your God, lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Now, when I read these words, I think about what, she sounds really annoyed.

She sounds kind of like this is just irritating for her. God has commanded her to feed this prophet, and she's got nothing. And it's kind of like when I come home sometimes, and I look at my wife, and she's not right.

And I say, how you doing, honey? And she says, fine. Okay, that is a four-letter word. And when my wife says fine, I don't make eye contact, because if I do, I'll be dead. Okay, yes, it is trouble time.

Okay, so if Elijah had asked her, hi, how you doing? She would have said, fine. Okay, that's kind of the attitude going on here. All right. And then she says this, and now I am gathering a couple of sticks so that I might go in and prepare it for myself and my son so that we may eat it and die.

Well, that's a great answer. And you're going to note here that Elijah, he doesn't say, oh, don't worry, you're not going to die or anything like that. He says, all right, don't fear. Go do as you said.

Go ahead and die if you want, which I think is just great diplomacy. Anyway, so he says, but first make me a little cake of it, and then bring it to me. Afterward, make something for yourself and for your son.

And I'm going to note here, before this woman has done anything while she's still in the presence of Elijah and their first meeting, the God who commanded her to feed Elijah then reveals to her through the prophet that he will miraculously provide for her the means to sustain the prophet and herself.

And it's given as a gift. It's given as a promise. It is not contingent upon her obedience at all, because before she did anything one way or another, the promise was there. And remember what we read in Isaiah 55.

When God sends his word out, it performs the thing for which he sent it. It is performative. That means since God is the one who said, your flour and your oil will not run out, because he said that, will her flour and oil run out?

Nope, not until the time when he says it will. And so that's the point. It is based upon the God who sends his word, and his word performs that which for which he sent it. It is not based upon her obedience, and it's a twisting of this text to make it otherwise.

For thus the Yahweh, the God of Israel, says the jar of flour shall not be spent, the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day Yahweh sends the rain upon the earth. And so she went and did as Elijah said, and she and her household ate for many days.

The jar of oil was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of Yahweh that he spoke by Elijah. Now you'll note that in their first meeting, is this woman, the widow of Zarephath, a believer in Yahweh?

No, because Yahweh is Elijah's God. And I would note that as difficult as it is to read this next section, we should note that God works this for her to confess Yahweh as her God. What comes next? So after this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill.

His illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me, O man of God? Have you come to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son?

Who does she think is responsible for the death of her son? Herself. Why? Because she believes that her son died because of her sin. And I'm going to note this, resurrections in the Bible are rare. They really are rare.

There's just a handful of them. And in this particular case, we see Elijah now in a way that kind of has echoes that point us to Christ and his work. Because I seem to remember there was a little girl in an upper room that Jesus brought back to life, right?

So he said, give her to me. So he said to her, give me your son. And he took him from her arms, carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, laid him on his own bed. Now, a little bit of a note here.

You're going to see, Elijah is not going to decree. He's not going to declare. He's not going to command. He's not going to control. He's going to ask. And that's an important bit. So he cried to Yahweh.

Oh, Yahweh, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourned by killing her son? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, cried to Yahweh.

Oh, Yahweh, my God, let this child's life come into him again. And this stands kind of in stark contrast to the way Jesus raised people from the dead. You think of that 12-year-old girl, the daughter of Jairus.

Christ takes her by the hand and says, little girl, I tell you to arise. Lazarus, Lazarus, come out. Right? He, on the other hand, like us, we had to pray. Now, it's in this regard I'm going to point something out, and this is a little bit of a digression, but again, we're kind of framing this in the context of idolatry.

The year 2020 was a bad year for the Charismatics and the NAR and the Word of Faith. Not only did all the prophets fail to see COVID coming, we spectacularly watched Kenneth Copeland and others make buffoons of themselves, commanding and controlling COVID -19 and the pandemic to come to an end and the vaccine to come immediately.

How'd that work? And then they prophesied Trump was going to win the election. How'd that go? And they all claimed that despite the fact that it looks like he lost, that God was going to place him into office on the 20th of January.

That didn't pan out. And now some of them are still saying that they refuse to concede and they believe that he will take office sometime in March or April. Cognitive dissonance is strong with them. But I would note this, that their woes didn't begin in 2020.

Their woes began in 2019. If you remember, in December of 2019, that was when the little girl of one of the worship leaders at Bethel died. Her name was Olive. And for two weeks, Bethel refused to bury her.

Her corpse sat in the refrigerator at the county morgue in Redding, California. And it was not in good condition when they buried it. And for two weeks, they were commanding and they were controlling and they were decreeing and they were declaring, what?

For Olive to rise from the dead. And their slogan was, wake up Olive. And I would note this, God didn't hear them. And Bill Johnson of Bethel self-identifies as a living apostle of Jesus Christ. One of the signs of a true apostle is that they have the miraculous ability to raise people from the dead.

Peter did it. Paul did it. Bill Johnson couldn't and didn't. And we ended up doing a video on it while Olive was still sitting in the morgue. And an insider from Bethel contacted me to give me inside information, hoping that if I put that inside information into our video, that that would shame them into finally burying Olive.

And after we put the video out, I got a really sharply worded email from a member of the staff of Bethel wanting and demanding to know where I got that information. But the person who contacted me was a Bethel insider, and they were so disgusted because they had personally seen the state of decay of the corpse of Olive.

I personally believe we are dealing with the demonic. I know this is a sobering message, but something to consider in this regard. Elijah, true prophet of God, he called out to God humbly, asked God to revive this child and for his life to come back to him.

And Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and he delivered him to his mother. Elijah said, see, your son lives. And the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.

Note, this is a sign. It's a sign that Elijah truly is a prophet of God. If, when somebody speaks in the name of God and it comes to pass, God's word never returns to him void, somebody sees what takes place according to the word of that person who's speaking on behalf of God, it's a sign that they're speaking the truth.

What about the converse? They say something's going to happen and it doesn't happen. What does that tell you? They're not hearing from the real God. And it's in this context then that we continue the story.

Mount Carmel, the False Prophets, and the Fire of Yahweh

After many days, the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahav and I will send rain upon the earth. Who's doing the, who's in charge here? God is. How many years?

Three. So in that time the prophets of Baal had three straight years of 2020. Everything they said, everything they did, it amounted to nothing. They would perform their rituals, offer their sacrifices, do their offerings and say, we have fulfilled our duty.

It's guaranteed it's going to rain this year. Did it? No. And it also, we learned from this text that there were at that time prophets of Yahweh. As prophets of Yahweh, what would have been the message of the prophets of Yahweh to Jezebel and the prophets of Baal and to Ahav?

It ain't going to rain until Elijah says so. That's what God said. And how well do you think that message is going to be received? It's not. It's easy to kind of sort this all out. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahav.

Now the famine was severe in Samaria. Ahav called Obadiah who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yahweh, cut off is a polite way of saying she killed them.

Like cut off what? Their heads. Okay. And we can see how this went down. It doesn't take rocket surgery to kind of figure this out. So year one, having not rained for 12 months, they do their sacrifices.

They offer their offerings. They spill their blood. They kill somebody according to the rules of Baal to fulfill his need. And they say it's going to rain this year. Prophets of Yahweh saying it ain't going to rain until Elijah says so.

And guess what? It doesn't rain. Ahav comes home to the palace. Honey, how are you doing? Fine. Right? Fine. I'm fine. Okay. But what's she upset about? She's mad. She's furious because you got the prophets of Yahweh saying it ain't going to rain.

You have her prophets and she's the princess of Baal. Her prophets saying it's going to rain and it's not raining. And here's the thing. You would think that she would sit there and go maybe Baal isn't real.