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Jan 23, 2024 06:00am

Water and Fire

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All they wanted was water.

It had been three and a half years since God’s prophet Elijah had decreed there would be a drought. It had been three and a half long years since a drop of rain fell from the heavens. The land had grown dry and barren.

The crops had died out. The animals lowed for sustenance. The people craved abundance.

After warning His people for years about their idolatrous ways, God, through Elijah, pronounced a famine in the land. Yet, their hearts didn’t change…they remained dry as a bone for God and His commands.

So when they heard about Elijah’s call to an assembly, their hearts might have raced with thoughts of No more drought! or It’s about time, Elijah! Instead, Elijah proposed something else: a showdown at Mount Carmel. On one side of Mount Carmel, there was King Ahab and his 450 prophets of Baal and Asherah, and on the other side, there was Elijah. In the middle of this showdown were all of God’s people.

The challenge? Each side builds an altar and the real God will answer by fire. Before this challenge began, Elijah turned to the Israelites and asked them a question…a very important question: “How long will you be paralyzed by indecision? If God is the one true God, follow Him. If Baal is, follow him.”

And the people didn’t say a word.

At this point, I am thinking, “Come on, guys! You are God’s people! How could you follow a statue after all that He has done for you? Choose Him!”

Perhaps the questions of Where’s the water, Elijah? We don’t need fire – we need water! or even Where is the God of our ancestors in all this? resounded in their hearts and minds. Perhaps it had been so long since they experienced Him, that they forgot how to turn back to Him. Perhaps it was easier to believe in a statue they could see rather than hope in a God they couldn’t see.

Perhaps it was all of the above.

At some point, God’s people stopped believing God; as a result, they stopped experiencing Him. And though they knew they were God’s chosen people, they walked by sight, and their sight only showed drought, drought, and more drought. If God is good, surely He wouldn’t let them face such adversity, right?

Baal’s prophets went first in this showdown. This was an all-day event of them trying to evoke Baal through dancing, shouting, raving, and cutting themselves. Baal’s response to such theatrics was deafening: nothing. Not a sound nor a spark of fire.

Silence.

After this anti-climactic day, Elijah began his work. He took his time building his altar; he saturated it with water – that precious water – not once, not twice, but three times. Then, he said a simple prayer: “Lord, answer me. Let these people know that you are real so that they can turn back to you.” It was a simple, but powerful prayer. And though God’s people were silent, God was not. It was a prayer that God answered in a big way.

Fire fell from heaven, burning everything up. Not even a rock remained in the water-drenched altar.

This is the point of the story I feel like God’s “mic drop” might have quickly convinced his kids that a) He is still around, and b) they need to get right with Him. Post haste. You see, fire is God’s thing. It’s mentioned nearly 500 times in Scripture, almost always connected with God’s power and might. It’s also a picture of how we are called to follow God: a fiery heart of passion and zeal.

So when God’s kids’ hearts are covered with layers of doubt and indecision about if God is real, He shows them what faith looks like: fire.

What they wanted was water…what they got was fire – a fiery revelation of Him.

Sometimes, we can be so much like our Israelite friends, focusing much on the “droughts” of life that we often miss what we truly need: God and His presence. It’s a fiery faith that follows God amid the dry seasons of life. It’s a fiery faith that shakes us out of our apathy and compels us to walk forward in obedience to God. It’s a fiery faith, amid indecision and doubt, that chooses God and says, “I don’t see you, but I am believing you.”

Oftentimes in life, we get the revelation of God before the provision of God. He gives us what we need first. For the Israelites, they needed to know God was still there and very much real. After God’s fiery revelation, He graciously gave His kids what they wanted: water. God’s wandering kids got the downpour of their lives. They didn’t deserve it – they had been bowing down to idols for three years. It was out of His great love and grace, that He revealed Himself in a life-altering way.

Perhaps this time of wait had a bigger purpose: to prepare their hearts for an experience with God.

Friends, if your water hasn’t come yet, there’s a reason. Lean in closer. Trust Him. It may be that God wants you to be satisfied with Him, the giver of great blessings, before getting the blessing. It may be that He is getting you ready to experience Him in a whole new way.

A fiery sort of way.

So, next time you ask for some water, just be prepared for fire.

It might just ignite something in you you didn’t realize you needed. It might just create a firestorm of zeal for the Lord.