The Day the Rain Spoke
2 Kings 17:1-18:46
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or languagwhere their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV) This is the Scripture Verse for our new Big Idea.
King David wrote these words thousands of years ago. David would look up at the twinkling stars shining out from the black velvet sky; or the radiance of the first beams of sunlight upon the dewy grasses; or the burst of colors splashed across the evening sky in a glorious sunset, and knew that revealed the glorious God who made them. Everywhere on the earth, he knew, people would see the same stars and sunrise and sunsets as he and he praised God for giving us the wonders of the skies to tell us about Him.
Our story today is about another time the Lord used the sky to reveal Himself to people. But this time it was not the stars or the sunrise or sunset that spoke about God: it was the rain.
Our story takes place about 2900 years ago in Israel up in Mount Carmel, a mountain range 1800 feet high, 16 miles long and 4 miles wide, right near the Mediterranean Sea.
The name “Mount Carmel” might not mean much of anything to you, but to the Israelites it was the closest thing they had to paradise. Mount Carmel was one of the only places in all of Israel where things stayed green and lush all year round. All of the rest of Israel was bone dry and almost rainless, except during the rainy season when grass and crops would grow. So, for as long as anyone could remember, men covered the mountain range’s rich and fertile slopes with vineyards (orchards of grapevines) and they named them Mount Carmel, “Vineyards of God,” because certainly God had blessed the mountains with so much fruitfulness.
But, oh my, something terrible has happened to Mount Carmel! Its beautiful mountainsides have lost their greenness. The grapevines are bare and dead; the trees look like withered, lifeless sticks; and instead of grass, there is nothing but dry, cracked mud! What could have brought this catastrophe?
The prophet Elijah knew. It all had to do with King Ahab's sin. “King Ahab,” Elijah said, “the Lord made you king over Israel. He has warned you to worship Him, but you have followed Baal, instead. You have called him the God of Rain and Lightning. You have made him a temple and offered him sacrifices. You have made altars for him on every hill and mountaintop—even Mount Carmel--and led My people to worship at them, too. Now the people do not even know Me, thanks
to your leadership. You worship Baal as the Giver of the Rain for your crops and the water for your thirst. You worship him as the Giver of Lightning and Fire you use to cook your food and burn your sacrifices. But I tell you, it is the LORD who is the Creator of all these things. He made all creation to tell about Him, including the rain and the lightning. You have not obeyed His commands. You do not listen to His warnings and have provoked Him to anger. So now He will let the rain speak for Him. So I tell you, ‘As the LORD , the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’” (1 Kings 17:1, NIV)
And so for the next two years, the rainy season never came to Israel. Dry season followed dry season. Plants did not grow; the wells dried up; people died.
The prophets of Baal cried out to their “mighty" Storm God: “Bring us rain, O great Baal!” Ahab took sacrifices to the Temple of Baal and the people climbed to his altars on the high places of the hills and mountains. “We’re dying, Baal. Accept our sacrifices, hear our prayers. Send us rain!” But no rain came. Day after day the sun scorched the earth and a dry wind swept over the land, until now even Mount Carmel, the Vineyard of God, looked as withered and dry as a raisin.
“Why would Baal send no rain?” everyone wondered. Elijah knew. Baal was not the rain god. He was only an idol. They worshiped Baal as the Giver of the Rain for their crops and the water for their thirst. They worshiped him as the Giver of Lightning and the Fire they used to cook their food and burn their sacrifices. But it was the LORD who is the Creator of all these things! He made all creation to tell about Him, including the rain and the lightning. He was letting them speak for Him, since Ahab and the people would not hear any other way.
At last the LORD spoke to Elijah and said: “It’s time. Go to Ahab and present yourself to him. I am going to make it rain.” 1 Kings 17:17- 39 (NIV): So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
When [Ahab] saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"
"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the LORD's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."
So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
But the people said nothing.
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire-he is God." [You worship Baal as the Giver of the Rain for your crops and the water for your thirst. You worship him as the Giver of Lightning and Fire you use to cook your food and burn your sacrifices. But I tell you, it is the LORD who is the Creator of all these things! He made all creation to tell about Him, including the rain and the lightning. You have not obeyed His commands. You do not listen to His warnings and have provoked Him to anger. He has spoken to you by keeping rain from you these two long years and now He will let the fire speak for Him.]
Then all the people said, "What you say is good."
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire."
So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted.
But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping andmust be awakened."
So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.
Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. [Where was the god of rain and fire? Why didn’t he send his lightning bolt to light the sacrifice? ]
Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD , which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes [of Israel]. With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD , and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold [a half a bathtub’s worth of water] two seahs—seventeen liters--of seed.
He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood."
"Do it again," he said, and they did it again.
"Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD , God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD , answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD , are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."
Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!"
[There was no doubt now. Baal was only an idol. They had worshiped Baal as the Giver of the rain for their crops and the water for their thirst; as the Giver of the Fire they needed to cook their food and burn their sacrifices. But he was unable to give either! With their own eyes they had seen it was the LORD who was the Creator and Controller of these things. He made all creation to tell about Him, including the rain and the lightning and fire.] I Kings 17: 40- 45, NIV:
“Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!"
They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. [They had not obeyed the Lord’s commands for His Word or heeded to His warnings through the prophet Elijah, but they listened when the rain and even the fire spoke for Him. They would not serve Baal any more. They would return to the Lord and serve Him only! Now the same Creator who had withheld the rain from Israel would bring it back to her dry, parched land.]:
And Elijah said to Ahab, "Go, eat and drink—[celebrate!], for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. [He kneeled before the LORD, the true God over all creation, and asked for Him to send rain.]
"Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
"There is nothing there," he said.
[Seven times Elijah prayed to the Lord.] Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."
The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."
So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.' "
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4 NIV)
For over two years the rainless skies had proclaimed that it was the LORD, not Baal who was God. Now as the driving rain soaked and quenched the thirst of the people, the animals and even the dry slopes of Mount Carmel, it proclaimed Him as God, too.
“The heavens declare the glory of God”… as do the birds in the sky, the insect buzzing among the flowers, the mighty mountains and the roaring sea. All were made by God and all tell us about Him. He has filled a of treasures for us to enjoy and from which to learn about Him.
What will we do when we see God’s creations? Will we remember to think about what each of universe full them tell us about God and praise Him; or will we forget Him when we look at them? Too many times, we—like the Israelites, like all people—forget the LORD. That’s because we are all sinners who have chosen to go our own way instead of following the LORD and His good ways. We deserve God’s eternal punishment for this. There would be no hope for us, if God had sent Jesus. You see, God sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life and offer up His life as the complete and perfect payment for the sins of all who would ever say no to sinning, confess their sins to God and trust in Jesus as their Savior. God promises to forgive them and make them His very own special people who will know Him and enjoy Him forever. How kind the LORD is to us! Let’s praise this God, who has revealed Himself in His creation. And, who offers salvation to all who trust in Jesus.
Let’s ask Him to help us know Him better through His creations and always remember to praise Him.
Let’s ask Him to work in our hearts that we might trust in Jesus as our own Savior.
