And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”
Two altars stood on Mount Carmel. Each held a bullock laid on wood, with no fire under it. Elijah's terms were simple enough for a child to check. Yet they settled the deepest question anyone can ask: who is God, and how does He show it?
The decision taken out of human hands
Elijah stood alone against 450 prophets. He would not settle the question by argument or by counting heads, so he asked for a verdict from above.
Hamilton SmithAlone though he is, Elijah does not hesitate to challenge the crowd of false prophets. He has rebuked the king; he has convicted the nation for its half-hearted wavering. Now he will expose the folly of these false prophets and the emptiness of their gods. Who is the God of Israel? is the momentous question. Elijah boldly proposes that this great question go to the trial by fire. The appeal is to God. The decision shall not rest with the one lonely prophet of the Lord, or with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. God shall decide.
The terms were too plain to refuse, and the people said so.
The Christian's FriendThe people of Israel were there too, and they had to be made to understand the conflict and the question to be decided. Whatever their secret thoughts, they stayed silent when the prophet called them to declare for the LORD or for Baal. Then Elijah proposed a test. No one could refuse a test so easy to check, and so the people answered, "It is well spoken."
Two altars that looked identical
Nothing on the outside told the true from the false. Both sides had an animal, wood, and prayers.
H. L. RossierTwo religions meet face to face: Elijah's and Baal's, for the third, Israel's, is party to both. Publicly these two religions appear to have the same sacrifice. How are they to be distinguished? One of the bullocks must be consumed by fire from heaven, but not the other. In this way people will be able to recognise the true God. In this way too they will learn to know themselves, so that they may be turned to repentance.
Fire on the sacrifice, not on the people
Fire from heaven can fall on people in judgment. Elijah asked for something else.
H. L. RossierHe proposes to the people a sign that the Lord alone could produce, and it had a deep significance. This is not fire from heaven falling on men in judgment, as would happen later at the prophet's call. It is fire falling on the burnt offering.
The prophets of Baal did offer blood that day — their own, cut from their bodies — and it achieved nothing.
H. L. RossierThe blood of the false prophets flows. But neither their blood nor the blood of any man can atone for Israel's sin or open heaven to this poor people!
The picture drawn on the altar
Elijah soaked his sacrifice with water before he prayed. One writer sees the death of Christ pictured there.
A J PollockThere was no natural link between fire from heaven and a water-soaked victim. There was no natural link between the judgment of God and the holy Saviour — nothing in Him to invite wrath. But He took the sinner's place. The fire came down and He bore the judgment, just as the fire came down on Elijah's sacrifice. It consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the water and the very dust — levelling all to the ground.
Fire as God's mark of acceptance
One writer brings the sign down from the mountain to the individual soul.
The Bible TreasuryThe highest evidence of our God and of His truth is the acceptance He certifies to each soul who knows Him in atonement. That is, to each soul He has received. God answers by fire. In this answer, pictured by fire, the accepted soul senses that God receives him, and does so in all the strength and terribleness of holiness.
A sign that will one day be copied
Fire from heaven can also be copied. One writer looks ahead to a deceiver who will do it.
W. W. FeredayAmong other marvels, he will be permitted to use the very miracle that Elijah used on Mount Carmel to call Israel back to Jehovah. Compare Revelation 13:13 with 1 Kings 18:24. His works are called "powers," because they are clearly superhuman. They are called "signs," because they have meaning and teaching. They are called "wonders," because they are meant to attract attention and admiration.
Summary
- Fire decides. Elijah gave the verdict to God, not to debate and not to numbers. Both altars looked the same. Only the fire could tell the true God from the false, and show the people themselves so they might repent.
- Fire falls on the victim. It came down on the burnt offering, not on men in judgment. The blood Baal's prophets cut from themselves could atone for nothing.
- Fire pictures the cross. Fire consumed a soaked sacrifice that had nothing to draw it. So judgment fell on the holy Saviour, who had nothing in Him to invite wrath.
- Fire certifies. God still answers by fire when He receives a soul that knows Him in atonement, and He receives it in all the strength and terribleness of holiness.
- Fire will be imitated. A coming deceiver will be allowed to work the very miracle Elijah used on Carmel.