And it came to pass when midday was past, that they prophesied until the [time] of the offering up of the oblation; but there was neither voice, nor any that answered, nor any attention.
On Mount Carmel Israel had to choose between the LORD and Baal, and the test was simple: the God who answers by fire is God. Verse 29 is the end of Baal's turn — a whole day of crying out and cutting, and not one sound from heaven.
Baal's prophets had the whole day to themselves, from morning until the evening sacrifice. One writer traces the hours and their growing desperation:
From morning until noon they cried to Baal. It was in vain. There was no voice and no one answered. Until midday Elijah watches their useless efforts in silence. Then at last he speaks to these false prophets, for the first and only time — and only to mock them. Stung by the scorn of Elijah they redouble their efforts. For three hours more, from noon until the evening sacrifice, they cry aloud and cut themselves with knives until their blood gushes out. Still it is all in vain: "there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention."
Nothing answered, because there was nothing there to answer:
The prophets of Baal call upon their false god. No fire leaps from a cloudless sky. They become frenzied in their call upon Baal. But Baal did not respond. He was only something the devil had imagined.
Yet a real power stood behind that empty name, working on real hearts:
Baal does not answer (vv. 25-29). See with what irony the prophet treats this lifeless object! Satan was using it to exercise his terrible influence on the hearts of men. The blood of the false prophets flows (v. 28). But neither their blood nor any man's blood can atone for Israel's sin or open heaven to this poor people!
The knives had a purpose. These worshippers believed their own pain would move their god, and one writer holds that up against real self-denial:
They took Elijah's advice and cried out more loudly to Baal, also cutting themselves with knives and lances. So idolaters really do injure their own bodies, thinking this is the self-denial that will influence their false god. How different is the true self-denial of a believer! True self-denial makes no show, but involves a sober self-judgment in spiritual reality. The prophets of Baal continued this useless noise all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice (v. 29).
The verse says they "raved on" while no one answered. Men made in the image of God spent a whole afternoon doing it:
Driven on by these taunts, the false prophets cut themselves with swords and spears until blood ran down their bodies! This unholy farce on the part of men made in the image of God was allowed to continue three hours longer.
The silence did not break at a random moment. It lasted right up to the one hour in the day that already belonged to God:
At "the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice" Elijah judged that his opportunity had come. It was 3 p.m. In Jerusalem the evening lamb was being laid on the altar of the LORD, together with its grain offering and drink offering. All of it spoke to God of Christ, whose death at Calvary took place at that hour (Ex. 29:41; Matt. 27:46). It was the hour of divine blessing: compare Ezra 9:5; Dan. 9:21. The hour had struck for Elijah's sacrifice to be offered, and for the blessing which followed.
The scene is not only about an ancient idol. It is about anything a heart leans on instead of God:
How solemn, and how true for all time, are those words of Jeremiah: "Cursed is the man whose heart turns away from the LORD"! It does not matter who or what we put our confidence in — a religious system, a religious ritual, or anything else. It is a departure of the heart from God. A curse follows it. When the final struggle comes, people will call on their Baal in vain: "there will be no voice, no one to answer, no one to pay attention."
- No voice — from morning to the evening hour the false prophets got nothing: no sound, no answer, no attention.
- No power — the silence had a reason. Baal did not exist; the influence behind him was Satan's, and it could not send fire.
- No atonement — their own blood streamed out for hours, but no man's blood can cover sin or open heaven.
- No cover left — Elijah stayed silent and let the farce run its full course. Their failure was complete and public before his own hour came.
- One answer — their religion ran out at the hour of the evening sacrifice. That hour pointed to Christ's death, and it was the hour of blessing.
Then Elijah said to all the people, Draw near to me. And all the people drew near to him. And he repaired the altar of Jehovah which was broken down.
Baal's prophets had called on their god all day and got no answer. Now the one man left on the Lord's side turns from the false altar to a ruined one, and calls a whole nation to watch him rebuild it.
Elijah does not rush. He lets the false system run itself out before he shows anything better.
It is always good to wait patiently and let evil and error find their own level. Time will surely bring the truth to light. Error may dress itself ever so carefully in the respectable robes of age. But time will strip those robes off and show it in all its ugliness. Elijah felt this. So he could stand quietly by and let all the sand in Baal's hourglass run out before he began to show the pattern of a better way. It takes a very real grasp of divine principles to take this patient course. Had our prophet been shallow-minded or badly taught, he would have been in much greater haste. He would have rushed to display his system and stir up a storm of opposition against his opponents.
The call is an invitation, not an order. It comes after Elijah has already reached the crowd in two other ways.
With the false prophets completely defeated, Elijah makes his third appeal to the people. He has spoken to their conscience, he has appealed to their reason, now he will speak to their hearts. He gathers them around him with the gracious invitation, "Come near to me." In response, all the people come near to him. In silence they watch the prophet repair the altar of the Lord. Having thrown down the altar of Baal, he sets up the altar of the Lord. It is not enough to expose what is false; the truth must be upheld.
Elijah works in the open. He wants witnesses at close range.
First of all he called the people to him. He wanted them to examine his actions for themselves, and to make it impossible for them to doubt that the Lord had really acted.
Elijah begins with repair work, not a speech.
Now it was Elijah's turn. He stood alone as the public witness — alone in front of timid people-pleasers, waverers between two opinions, and open, wicked rebels against God. His first act was to repair the altar of the Lord that was broken down. The state of the altar was proof of the state of the people.
There is warmth in the call, and what Elijah rebuilds teaches the people how to come back to God.
"Come near to me," said Elijah to the people, who had been led astray so long like foolish sheep. There is a sound of tenderness in the prophet's words, like Joseph's invitation to his guilty and trembling brothers in Genesis 45:4. Elijah would soon lead the poor misguided people back to their patient and faithful God. In front of them he repaired the long-dishonoured altar of the Lord. He would teach them the true way of approach to God. If blessing was ever to be enjoyed in Israel again, it must be on the ground of the sacrifice God accepts.
Pulling down what is false is not the end of the job.
The first thing he does is to "repair the altar of the Lord that was broken down." This was Israel's centre, and every true reformer turned his attention to it. Those who try a one-sided reformation may be content with merely throwing down what is false. They stop short of laying a sound base on which to build something new. But such a reformation will never last; it carries too much of the old leaven with it to be a testimony. The altar of Baal must not only be thrown down — the altar of the Lord must be set up.
Elijah rebuilds on the ground of what God set up at the beginning, not on the wreckage he can see.
Elijah says, "Come near to me" (v. 30). At that time he was God's representative on earth, which Christ was in perfection. If they stayed far off, Israel would not be able to witness what God was about to do... Outwardly the altar was broken down; that is to say, Israel as a whole no longer existed. But it was enough that one man should bear witness with his altar of twelve stones that what God established in the beginning would remain forever.
- Broken. The ruined altar was a mirror. Its condition showed where the people stood with God.
- Patient. Elijah let Baal's system run itself out first. Haste would only have raised a storm instead of showing a better way.
- Near. He reached their conscience, then their reason, then their heart. He brought the crowd close enough that no one could doubt what God did.
- Repaired. He does not just pull down what is false. Tearing down alone leaves too much old leaven behind. The Lord's altar must go back up.
- Enough. In a day of ruin, one man rebuilding on God's original ground was testimony enough. Blessing could only come through the sacrifice God accepts.