Elijah – its time to get off the fence
I Kings 18:20-22
There are breaches in the walls of Christian values and many are seeking to destroy Christianity. As it is today, so it was true in the days of Elijah.
The people have been gathered to Mt Carmel, meaning “garden landâ€. The prophets of Baal are confident in their 450 to 1 majority, Ahab is probably somewhat apprehensive, but willing to do anything to get rain and there stands Elijah trusting and sure.
There also are many people waiting to see what happens. To them Elijah issues a challenge, “if the Lord is God than follow Him, but if Baal then follow himâ€. In other words get off the fence. The people did not want to totally reject Jehovah but rather wanted to serve both. That cannot be. Not neither then nor today.
Today we are pulled by two competing systems that are diametrically opposed to each other. We come to church on Sunday but the rest of the weeks we are dominated by other concerns and commitments. The Holy Spirit tugs at us to maintain our godly values, while at the same time the world with its values beckons us, and many times we try to serve both God and the world, which results in our indecisiveness.
Matt 6:24, warn us of half hearted commitments, “no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and moneyâ€.
Matt 12:30, tell us that we are either for Him or against Him, there is no middle ground.
We need to evaluate our life style and the sources of our trust. When we straddle the fence we become instable (James 1:5-8).
When the reality of the true God and His claims on our lives grip us, we will then find that we have no logical or sensible choice but to trust Him to the degree that we then commit our live totally to Him.