1 Kings 18:21

Elijah made this powerful appeal in front of a mixed audience: a degraded king, a corrupt company of prophets, and a fashionable crowd of undecided triflers. Passing by the king and the prophets, Elijah speaks directly to the people. The king led the nation's turning away from God, and he had already been charged with his sins. The prophets of Baal were the open opponents of God, and were about to be exposed and judged. But the vast mass of the people were undecided, halting between two opinions. By profession they were the people of Jehovah, by practice they were the worshippers of Baal.

The words "the Lord will pass over you" do not mean that He would pass by the door where the blood was. They mean that He would halt before it, and cover everyone inside from all judgment and harm. The use of the word here translated "pass over" in other Old Testament passages will prove this. In 1 Kings 18:21 it is given as "halt," the sense, as the context shows, being to stand still or hover.

Israel lived under the yoke of an idolatrous religion. She followed Baal without ever openly renouncing Jehovah. She was halting between two opinions. This is one of the marks of the world's religion. The number of those walking in open unbelief grows daily. But there are others who renounce neither faith nor godlessness. They find good reasons both for excusing the evil and for objecting to the good. They are the indifferent ones, who refuse to choose between the two sides and who do not answer a word when Elijah speaks to them.

There is another class — the vast mass of Christians in name only, who "halt between two opinions." Sadly, they have no personal faith in Christ, nothing but "opinions." With them, God and His word, Christ and His cross, time and eternity, heaven and hell, are merely matters of opinion. Such opinions produce no settled convictions. About these solemn realities they hold TWO opinions. They would not oppose Christ, but they will not confess Christ. They have no wish to fall out with God, but they would gladly stay on good terms with the world. They would like to escape the judgment of sin, but they are set on enjoying the pleasures of sin. They would like to die as saints, but they prefer to live as sinners.

The prophets of Baal could not contradict it or resist it. The prophet only asked for decision of character. Nothing could be gained on either side by wavering ways. "I wish you were either cold or hot." The Lord's own words to Elijah in the next chapter tell us that seven thousand in Israel had not bowed the knee to Baal. They were probably only waiting for some strong hand to raise the standard of truth, so that they could gather round it.

In Elijah's day men were silenced by this appeal. They "answered him not a word." Every mouth was stopped. They stood before the prophet a silent, conscience-stricken, self-condemned people.

To Elijah's appeal, "How long will you halt between two opinions?" they answered not a word; but the proposal to settle the great question by a trial by fire was so reasonable that "all the people answered and said, It is well spoken."

Things are brought to a point. And now, my friends, if Christ is not worth having, say so. If He is worth having and following, then throw in your lot with Him. How long will you halt? "Well," you say, "I am not in a hurry." God knows that, and the devil knows it too. And he will not let you be in a hurry if he can help it.

The fire from heaven at once confounded the prophets of Baal and confirmed the prophet's faith. It delivered the people from their sad condition of halting between two opinions.