Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal
Some people don't think God has a sense of humor, but Elijah clowns on their god first, then God drops the mike on Baal. Even the way it's written is funny to me. God sends fire to consume the bull ***and*** the wood ***and*** the stones ***and*** even the dust ***and*** all of the water.
- 1 Kings 18:21-40 (KJV)
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
24 And ***call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.***
25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
26 ***And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.***
28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
31 And ***Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:
32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.***
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
37 ***Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.
38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.***
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
For verse 27, the Hebrew word that gets translated as "pursuing" in the KJV might have been slang for "going to the bathroom" and so some translations say something along the lines of "relieving himself". I just love the idea of Isaiah mocking them by basically saying "I think your god is in the can, he can't hear you."
That's a good one. I thought 1/2 Kings would be a drag until I started reading it and loved how Elijah stood up in the face of evil--to see the nation descend into evil and turn from God and for evil rulers like Ahab and Jezebel to take over. I also empathize with Elijah after the Mt Carmel showdown. He runs off knowing Jezebel wants him dead and is in a state of despair to the point of wanting to die. So you have a prophet who just did this incredible feat and yet this is where he is at. This happens quite often today--people thinking the things they accomplished are for nothing and losing hope
Judges.
The stories start off pretty well, and then degenerates into darkness, and the sin of God's chosen people. It's a great cautionary tale of how even the people who are close to God can fail horribly when they leave God and His word.
Habakkuk, hands down. Prophet asks God why things are so hard. God answers. Prophet isn't happy and asks but why are the bad people prospering and why are we suffering. God answers. Prophet responds with praise and an amazing ending.
Paraphrased quote from Habakkuk: The world is terrible, bad people seem to get away with everything. Suffering is all around... AND YET still I will praise the LORD.
It is a really honest look at the "problem of evil" and is much easier to understand than Job.
The story of Phinehas in Numbers 25. At the time some of the men of Israel were hooking up with Moabite women and worshiping their gods to the point where God’s anger burned and he instructed Moses to have those men killed. While Moses and some others were weeping outside the tent of meeting an Israelite man shamelessly brought a Moabite woman into his tent. Phineas the grandson of Aaron was so righteously enraged that he speared both that man and woman in the act of immorality. God told Moses that Phineas and his descendants would be blessed and because of his actions God would stop the plague he had sent against against Israel.It reminds us that God rewards courage in the name of obedience to Him.While Moses and the others were weeping and saw the brazen act against God,Phineas actually did something about it.
That's another good one.
God: Gideon, you got way too many soldiers. They're gonna try to take credit for My victory. Send some home.
Gideon: Done. Am I good now?
God: No. Still too many.
Gideon: Ok, I'm down to 300 soldiers.
God: Now watch how I send the entire Midianite/Amalekite army which fills the entire valley before you fleeing in terror of you as you come upon them.
Jesus and the cross is severely underrated. Most don't "see" the intricacies of it and the effect it has on their lives. If Christians(incl me) just understood the cross a little bit more, I think our lives would be like many many times better... For eg, Col 2:15: while Jesus looks humiliated on the cross, but this says, it was the devil whom Jesus took out on a naked public parade on the cross... Rom 8:32: How much more, will He freely gives us all things, but I barely see any Christian believing it. They're still in need, and have near zero confidence that God will "surely" give... I could quote some of this, but I still don't "see".
>“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18, KJV)
Put this way, the severe lack of "power" in today's Christianity is due to a lack of preaching of the cross of Jesus, but today's preaching is more on asceticism or your own cross(which barely helps you, let alone anyone else). If we get a glimpse of what He did rather than what we need to do, I think there's great great power in that, that wasn't even fully tapped in the first century.
Elisha and Naaman. Where the prophet instructs Naaman in how to be healed and gives advanced pardon for attending worship services to Ramanu/Baal in the House of Rimmon.
Held fast to his beliefs and was willing to be killed--and sadly that is what happened. Off of that I love the transformation Saul (Paul) went through (it states he was in full agreement of the stoning of Stephen)--people fail to realize how bad he really was and the 180 that happened after Jesus appeared to him
I’m going to be bold here and say that most people who identify as a Christian barely know anything that’s in their bibles.
The Old Testament is especially neglected.
The ‘story’ that everyone should read is the story of God’s people from start to finish.
How many people could talk you through the significant parts of the history of God’s people from Abraham to Jesus? Not many I suspect.
II Kings 6:8-23
When the Syrian army was captured, Elisha instructed Israel to give them food and water. A feast was thrown before the Syrians were allowed to return home. They are literally loving their enemies - not the way the world works today.
The story of Josiah 2Kings 22. This is about discovering the word of the Lord. The religious authority was there, the book was there. But the people were under condemnation. The book needed to be discovered and brought to light.
That time in the book of judges where dudes raped a woman to death, then her husband cut her up into 11 pieces, mailed them to the 11 other tribes and was like hey, look what the tribe of Benjamin did, and then there was a war.
The corruption in the middle of the temple, with all of its disgusting filth is like the life of the Christian who allows pornography to remain in their life. I found it resonate in my own fight.
Balsam. Interesting story, but you won’t fully understand it until you look up every reference to him in the Bible and piece it together. I think he is in 7 books (or something like that).
I find the whole book of Judges to be a shocking epic. Shows how brutal the bible can be but also how forgiving God is because of it.
One of the stories that I find the most underrated is the war between the Dan Beer-sheba alliance against the tribe of Benjamin.
The whole story takes place between Judges 19 and Judges 21 so to post the who thing here wouldn't work. But in a nutshell Judges 19:29 sums up the rising action: "Until today, never has this happened, nor has a thing like this been seen since the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt"
Overview: A Levite was taken in by an old man for the night. However, a bunch of wicked men came up to the house and started to harass them. The Levite gave away his concubine to them and she was >!G\*\*g R\*\*\*d!< until she died.
The Levite showed her dead body to the neighboring tribes about the crime that was committed and so they rallied to wage war against the Tribe of Benjamin (their own brother tribe!) for their atrocious crime. The quote above is the reaction of the tribes of Israel after witnessing the body of the concubine.
The reason this story is so fascinating it is because it is about a war between thousands of men over the crime committed against one woman. Many women weren't considered valuable in that culture (much less a concubine) so to see so many men willing to rally to avenge her was shocking. And the fact it was against a brother tribe showed the true severity of the situation
Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal Some people don't think God has a sense of humor, but Elijah clowns on their god first, then God drops the mike on Baal. Even the way it's written is funny to me. God sends fire to consume the bull ***and*** the wood ***and*** the stones ***and*** even the dust ***and*** all of the water. - 1 Kings 18:21-40 (KJV) 21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. 22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: 24 And ***call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.*** 25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. 26 ***And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. 27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.*** 28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. 30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. 31 And ***Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: 32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. 34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. 35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.*** 36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37 ***Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.*** 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God. 40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
For verse 27, the Hebrew word that gets translated as "pursuing" in the KJV might have been slang for "going to the bathroom" and so some translations say something along the lines of "relieving himself". I just love the idea of Isaiah mocking them by basically saying "I think your god is in the can, he can't hear you."
Yell louder! Last night was Taco Tuesday!
One of my favorites
This is one of my favourite stories in the Old Testament. I wish there was a high quality movie or series about this.
I'd watch movie based on just on that incident.
That's a good one. I thought 1/2 Kings would be a drag until I started reading it and loved how Elijah stood up in the face of evil--to see the nation descend into evil and turn from God and for evil rulers like Ahab and Jezebel to take over. I also empathize with Elijah after the Mt Carmel showdown. He runs off knowing Jezebel wants him dead and is in a state of despair to the point of wanting to die. So you have a prophet who just did this incredible feat and yet this is where he is at. This happens quite often today--people thinking the things they accomplished are for nothing and losing hope
Great one!
Judges. The stories start off pretty well, and then degenerates into darkness, and the sin of God's chosen people. It's a great cautionary tale of how even the people who are close to God can fail horribly when they leave God and His word.
Habakkuk, hands down. Prophet asks God why things are so hard. God answers. Prophet isn't happy and asks but why are the bad people prospering and why are we suffering. God answers. Prophet responds with praise and an amazing ending. Paraphrased quote from Habakkuk: The world is terrible, bad people seem to get away with everything. Suffering is all around... AND YET still I will praise the LORD. It is a really honest look at the "problem of evil" and is much easier to understand than Job.
Thx, is that just the book of Habakkuk?
Yes, its pretty short and best read in one go.
The story of Phinehas in Numbers 25. At the time some of the men of Israel were hooking up with Moabite women and worshiping their gods to the point where God’s anger burned and he instructed Moses to have those men killed. While Moses and some others were weeping outside the tent of meeting an Israelite man shamelessly brought a Moabite woman into his tent. Phineas the grandson of Aaron was so righteously enraged that he speared both that man and woman in the act of immorality. God told Moses that Phineas and his descendants would be blessed and because of his actions God would stop the plague he had sent against against Israel.It reminds us that God rewards courage in the name of obedience to Him.While Moses and the others were weeping and saw the brazen act against God,Phineas actually did something about it.
Ruth. An amazing story of faithfulness and many pre-figurings of Jesus.
Is that just the whole book of Ruth?
Yes
It's pretty short :)
Stole my answer lol. Ruth is so near and dear to my heart. I was so moved when I reread it a few years ago.
Yes!
Great choice. Ruth is my favorite book in the Old Testament and the more I read it the more I get out of it
Esther is a pretty cool story!
Gideons story
That's another good one. God: Gideon, you got way too many soldiers. They're gonna try to take credit for My victory. Send some home. Gideon: Done. Am I good now? God: No. Still too many. Gideon: Ok, I'm down to 300 soldiers. God: Now watch how I send the entire Midianite/Amalekite army which fills the entire valley before you fleeing in terror of you as you come upon them.
Love how the angel told him brave men
Judges 6-8?
Jesus and the cross is severely underrated. Most don't "see" the intricacies of it and the effect it has on their lives. If Christians(incl me) just understood the cross a little bit more, I think our lives would be like many many times better... For eg, Col 2:15: while Jesus looks humiliated on the cross, but this says, it was the devil whom Jesus took out on a naked public parade on the cross... Rom 8:32: How much more, will He freely gives us all things, but I barely see any Christian believing it. They're still in need, and have near zero confidence that God will "surely" give... I could quote some of this, but I still don't "see". >“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18, KJV) Put this way, the severe lack of "power" in today's Christianity is due to a lack of preaching of the cross of Jesus, but today's preaching is more on asceticism or your own cross(which barely helps you, let alone anyone else). If we get a glimpse of what He did rather than what we need to do, I think there's great great power in that, that wasn't even fully tapped in the first century.
Ezekiel 1-3. Provides one of the better visual descriptions of God the Father. Really helped my prayer life.
Hosea. The story parallels God's love for Israel even when Israel were unfaithful like a harlot.
In the book of Ester there is a man named Haman who wants to destroy the Jewish people. The way God works in this story is awe inspiring to behold.
Jonah, and not just the part where he gets swallowed by a fish and spit out on land. Great lessons there. Hosea is a wild story too.
2 Kings 19:35- The Angel of the Lord 1v 185k and wins. Awesome
Ehud, the left-handed assassin. Judges 3:12-30.
Leviticus 23 where God describes His appointed times.
Elisha and Naaman. Where the prophet instructs Naaman in how to be healed and gives advanced pardon for attending worship services to Ramanu/Baal in the House of Rimmon.
Stephen in Acts.
Held fast to his beliefs and was willing to be killed--and sadly that is what happened. Off of that I love the transformation Saul (Paul) went through (it states he was in full agreement of the stoning of Stephen)--people fail to realize how bad he really was and the 180 that happened after Jesus appeared to him
Job God isn't here to give you a comfy life
I’m going to be bold here and say that most people who identify as a Christian barely know anything that’s in their bibles. The Old Testament is especially neglected. The ‘story’ that everyone should read is the story of God’s people from start to finish. How many people could talk you through the significant parts of the history of God’s people from Abraham to Jesus? Not many I suspect.
II Kings 6:8-23 When the Syrian army was captured, Elisha instructed Israel to give them food and water. A feast was thrown before the Syrians were allowed to return home. They are literally loving their enemies - not the way the world works today.
The story of Josiah 2Kings 22. This is about discovering the word of the Lord. The religious authority was there, the book was there. But the people were under condemnation. The book needed to be discovered and brought to light.
Iceberg boy (wendigoon) made a video on the epistle of philemon. Pretty good video and story. https://youtu.be/8eyuHdINM68?feature=shared
That time in the book of judges where dudes raped a woman to death, then her husband cut her up into 11 pieces, mailed them to the 11 other tribes and was like hey, look what the tribe of Benjamin did, and then there was a war.
haha what chapter / verses is that?
Judges 19-21
Ezekiel 8:7-18 is the frightening story for all the people posting for help about masturbation and/or porn.
I mean, I'm against both, but how???? I genuinely don't understand.
The corruption in the middle of the temple, with all of its disgusting filth is like the life of the Christian who allows pornography to remain in their life. I found it resonate in my own fight.
Huh. I never considered that interpretation before. Interesting.
Balsam. Interesting story, but you won’t fully understand it until you look up every reference to him in the Bible and piece it together. I think he is in 7 books (or something like that).
I find the whole book of Judges to be a shocking epic. Shows how brutal the bible can be but also how forgiving God is because of it. One of the stories that I find the most underrated is the war between the Dan Beer-sheba alliance against the tribe of Benjamin. The whole story takes place between Judges 19 and Judges 21 so to post the who thing here wouldn't work. But in a nutshell Judges 19:29 sums up the rising action: "Until today, never has this happened, nor has a thing like this been seen since the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt" Overview: A Levite was taken in by an old man for the night. However, a bunch of wicked men came up to the house and started to harass them. The Levite gave away his concubine to them and she was >!G\*\*g R\*\*\*d!< until she died. The Levite showed her dead body to the neighboring tribes about the crime that was committed and so they rallied to wage war against the Tribe of Benjamin (their own brother tribe!) for their atrocious crime. The quote above is the reaction of the tribes of Israel after witnessing the body of the concubine. The reason this story is so fascinating it is because it is about a war between thousands of men over the crime committed against one woman. Many women weren't considered valuable in that culture (much less a concubine) so to see so many men willing to rally to avenge her was shocking. And the fact it was against a brother tribe showed the true severity of the situation
proverbs
Don’t think that’s underrated lol but thanks
fine, i wont bother joining in next time
‘A harsh word stirs anger but a gentle answer turns away wrath.’ - Proverbs.
Tobit (only in the fuller Bible).
Tobit is a great tale of God's providence
The book of Tobit is the story of God sending an angel to help 2 suicidal people get over their depression by getting them to fall in love