READ 1 Kings 18

1 Kings 18:21 “Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him’.”

Have you ever watched a child trying to choose an ice-cream flavour: strawberry, coconut, pineapple, cheery, pistachio, mango, chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and the list goes on?  The choices are so many it is difficult for them to make up their mind.  Some even go as far as tasting a couple of flavours to assist them in this effort.   If you are the person next in line to be served ice-cream and you know exactly what flavour you are going to have, it can be very frustrating to watch the toss-up between the two opinions.   You easily want to tell them get on it with as you want my ice-cream too.

Similarly and at a greater intensity in today’s passage we meet Elijah, God’s prophet who said to King Ahab’s constituents: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”   It is clear that this statement from Elijah caused great tension among the people as interestingly they said nothing.  Now given the context that three years before this statement Elijah had proclaimed a no rain, no  dew policy, the people perhaps were wondering what’s up with him.  But Elijah was not afraid of their faces because he had spent time in the presence of God: being fed daily by God’s provision, raising a dead boy to life, bringing God close to a widow and so on.  So when Elijah threw out this challenge he was calling the people to account:  he was essentially saying “Choose this day whom you will serve”, stop playing church, you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold, not fit for use. I wonder why the people said nothing.  Was it because they were ashamed of being called to account or was it that they were bare-faced with their wavering?

The issue of wavering between worship of the Almighty God and idol worship is as critical today as it was in Elijah’s day.  With our mouths, we say that we worship God but our actions demonstrate that we are worshipping other gods: people, houses, cars, money etc.   What are we giving all our time and attention to? How long have we been wavering between the two opinions?  El Shaddai   is not pleased with our lip service and our wayward actions and so He sends out this challenge today: Make up your mind. God is sounding out a warning that He is not going to tolerate the seesaw relationship anymore.  Now is the time to choose what side you are on.  It is time to stop playing! The coming of the Lord is near and He will come in great power.  Do not waste time cutting up yourselves and shouting to gods who have no power to change the existing situation.  Call on the Creator of heaven and earth who can transform the ordinary into the extra-ordinary (fire that can lick up buckets of water).  God is going to do great and mighty things in our day to turn our hearts back to him (v.37).  God is calling us to carry out the commandments that He has given us and He will answer each time we call with great power so that the drought we are experiencing will withdraw at the sound of heavy rain.

PRAYER

Father I come to you confessing my wavering between Your everlasting Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness.  I repent now and ask You Lord to establish Yourself in my heart, soul, mind and body.  You are my God and no other.   I declare that you are God Alone and there is none beside you.  I look to you for the departure of the drought and the coming of the heavy rain, even though all I see is the cloud the size of a man’s fist.  Thanks for calling me to account.  In Jesus Christ’s name I come, Amen.