Knowing Baal was a man-made idol, Elijah mocked them and suggested that perhaps Baal was sleeping or, worse, busy in the restroom. They shouted, cried, danced, and wore themselves out pleading for Baal to send fire. The real God would be the one who could bring fire down from heaven to consume a sacrificial offering. That’s when Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel. The food supply naturally dried up as a result, and the people were desperate for the rains to return and bring the land back to life. Three years earlier, Elijah had delivered a message from Yahweh that there would be a devastating drought. When Ahab became king of Israel in the ninth-century bc and married a foreign princess, Jezebel, they made worship of Baal the state religion and killed many of Yahweh’s prophets.Īnd so the one true God sent His prophet Elijah to confront Ahab, setting up an epic contest between Yahweh and Baal on Mount Carmel. Despite Yahweh’s many warnings against idolatry, the Israelites often fell to the temptation to worship Baal and erect poles and trees in honor of Asherah. He and his consort Asherah were among the most alluring deities confronting Israel after they took possession of the Promised Land. That is, until they expanded their worship to include human sacrifice and killing their own children.īaal, the pagan god most frequently named in the Old Testament, was the Canaanite god of fertility as well as the lord of rain, dew, and storms. So it’s not hard to sympathize with these “ignorant” people who sought to please the so-called gods of the Sun, rain, weather, and harvest, to appease their anger and solicit their blessing. In the agrarian culture of the time, a fruitful harvest was critical to the well-being and even survival of a community or nation. In fact, polytheistic cultures such as the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks worshiped a different god for just about every facet of life. There were Sun gods, weather gods, fertility gods, and warrior gods. In the Old Testament, we read of people worshiping Baal, Molech, Asherah, Dagon, the Queen of Heaven, and other pagan gods and goddesses. The creed as a whole describes what makes the monotheistic Christian faith especially distinctive from polytheistic religions both ancient and current. Military, Missionary and Minister DiscountsĮlijah 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.” (1 Kings 18:21)Īs Christians, we “believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” This opening statement from the Nicene Creed is power-packed with so much theology.
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