Restoration and Revival (Part II)

By Peter Tsukahira

Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel, the place where Elijah’s ministry reached its climax offers us a picture of prophetic, end-time revival. It is where the prophet confronted the false prophets of Baal and challenged the people of Israel to choose between God and idolatry. In 1955, Bible teacher, C.M. Ward wrote, “Mount Carmel could rightly be called the mount of great decisions.” As in the days of Elijah, the world is in a crisis of idolatry and false worship. Mount Carmel again has an important part to play in making ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:17) This biblical mountain is an elongated range that juts into the Mediterranean Sea on the northwest coast of Israel. The Carmel ridge stretches back from the sea and overlooks the port of Haifa at its northern end and the historic Jezreel valley (Valley of Armageddon) at its southern end. Years before Elijah, in the days of Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan under Joshua, Israel’s northern coast was part of the territory allotted to the tribe of Asher. Judges 1:31-32 records that the Asherites never cleared the inhabited coastal areas and that they lived among the Canaanites. By the time of King David, the practice of mingling with the Canaanites had led to the adoption of their religious practices. Idolatry was widespread. Psalm 106 includes the verses:

They did not destroy the peoples, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works; they served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. (Psalm 106:34-38)

More than one hundred years after King David, Elijah was a prophet in Israel, and worship of the true God was under attack from all sides. The nation was divided and in steep moral decline under the leadership of weak King Ahab and his evil wife, Jezebel (daughter of a Sidonian king named Ethbaal meaning “with Baal”). The high places of the Carmel had become centers of Canaanite Baal and Asherah worship. Israel was under God’s judgment, and there were three and one-half years of complete drought. This meant economic disaster and famine. God spoke to Elijah and told him to present himself to the king of Israel. When King Ahab saw Elijah, he called God’s spokesman a “troubler of Israel.” (1 Kings 18:17) Elijah called for a public confrontation with the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

When all Israel was gathered on Mount Carmel, Elijah spoke to the people and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21) The people were silent in response to the prophet’s challenge. They were unable or unwilling to make a choice to return to the God of Israel. Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.” (1 Kings 18:22) Elijah stood alone against evil spiritual forces, social pressures and the threat of personal punishment. He was an example for us all. Everyone who serves the Lord must learn to overcome fear and intimidation. Even if no one agrees with us, the man of God with the word of God is always in the majority!

Elijah said there would be two altars and two sacrifices made. The altar and the sacrifice upon which the fire of God fell would determine the identity of the true God. Now the people were interested enough to agree. This shows that like so many people today, they were an entertainment-oriented culture. There was no heart for a bold decision of faith, but there was certainly enthusiasm for a contest to the death with fire from heaven. The false prophets of Baal built their altar first. They began to shout and dance around it, but there was not even a flicker of fire from God. Their type of frantic activity is typical of false religion. Leaping around an altar demonstrates no final, lasting commitment.

The Lord's Altar

Genuine altars in the Bible were places where the people of God brought real, precious sacrifices for real blessings. If forgiveness of sin was needed from God, or if a petition or an intercession needed to be heard, the man or woman of Israel came to meet God at the altar. He or she did not come empty-handed. Something living, something of value from their flock or herd was required.

Specially trained priests were at the altar to assist in bringing the sacrifice to the Lord. They quickly killed the sacrificial animal and sprinkled its blood on the altar.

It was understood that the animal’s blood was God’s gracious substitute for human life. Because sin resulted in death, there could be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. (Leviticus 17:11) The priests then cut up the sacrifice and placed it on the fire that was burning on the altar. As the sacrifice burned and its smoke rose up into the sky, the Bible says that God accepted it as a “sweet-smelling savor.” What was sweet to God was not the smell of burning meat. The sweetness was the irrevocable nature of the gift. When the fire had done its work, the sacrifice was gone forever. Sin had been forgiven, and petitions and intercessions had been heard by the Living God.

Biblical altars are for sacrifice, and real sacrifice is meant to be final. God’s altars are where people can bring acceptable living sacrifices to the Lord. We give up something of value that represents our life to God, and we don’t take it back. Altars are for an exchange of gifts of love between individuals and the Lord. Real love, God’s love, makes a final, irrevocable sacrifice. Out of sacrifice, covenant relationship is formed and confirmed.

We meet with God at the altar and receive His promise of forgiveness and eternal life. We receive from God healing, wisdom, divine guidance as well as our chosen calling and spiritual gifts. Our sacrifices to God are nonreturnable (they do not come back with us), and we do not leave God’s altar the same as when we came.

The pretentious display of the false prophets was a demonstration of false religion, which Elijah mocked. Then the false prophets cut themselves with knives so that the blood ran out upon them. (1 Kings 18:27-29) They made lots of little, superficial cuts in the flesh. This also is a feature of false religion. Small cuts in the flesh are trivial sacrifices we make in the place of the great offering that pleases God – our unquestioning obedience. The prophet Samuel once said to the disobedient King Saul:

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

(1 Samuel 15:22)

The small cuts in the flesh are like shallow and false repentances.

They are meaningless sacrifices without value to God. The Bible says that the word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword. It is not for making small cuts in the flesh, but rather for penetrating to the very depth of our being and for putting to death our sins!

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

When the false prophets had performed all day with their empty and meaningless display, Elijah turned to the people and called out to them. He invited the same people who would not stand with him in the beginning, the same people who only stayed around for a show, to gather around him.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. (1 Kings 18:30)

Every time I read these words of the prophet I think of Jesus saying, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) In His love, God was reaching out through His prophet to the people of Israel. Then Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. The Hebrew word for repair is “rapha” which is closer in meaning to the word for healing. He healed the altar that had been nearly destroyed by idolatry in his nation. It was not Elijah’s altar, but the Lord’s altar in Israel. Elijah built an altar of twelve stones signifying the twelve tribes or all the people of the Lord. Then he washed the altar three times with water and placed the sacrificial animal on the wood. This is a powerful prophetic foreshadowing of a sacrifice on another mount in Jerusalem generations later. The wood, the bloody flesh, and the water comprise a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This principle of final, irrevocable sacrifice runs throughout the Bible and is the core of the gospel. New life comes through the obedience of offering the chosen sacrifice to God.

This article is an excerpt from the book, God’s Tsunami by Peter Tsukahira. It has been reprinted with permission from the author.

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