One on One: challenge

Saturday, March 29, 2025

The Fire Making Challenge

A Lenten series on Mountaintop Moments
– Elijah on Mount Carmel
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
1 Kings 18:16-46

[In this Lenten series, we will be looking at Mountaintop Moments. These mountains are more than just geographical features. They symbolize divine encounters and moments of revelation, faith and transformation. In other words, meeting God on the mountain top.]

At the end of the season of the TV show Survivor, there are four contestants remaining. However, only three will advance to the final. The bottom two compete in a fire making challenge to determine who that will be.

With a million dollars at stake, the competition is fierce, and the pressure is intense. But it pales in comparison to the competition and pressure that Elijah faced in his fire making challenge. His life was literally on the line.

Fifty-six years after the nation of Israel split into the northern kingdom (Israel) and southern kingdom (Judah), Ahab took power as the king of Israel. His reign was marked by significant idolatry and the promotion of Baal worship, largely influenced by his wife, Jezebel. Because of this, the Lord seethed with anger.

As a prophet of the Lord, Elijah confronted Ahab and Jezebel many times. On one such occasion, he directly challenged Baal, the Canaanite god of rain and fertility, when he told Ahab that “there will be no dew or rain… until I give the word!”

For the following three and a half years of the draught, Elijah hid from Ahab and Jezebel. Meanwhile in Israel, things had gotten much worse. Ahab blamed Elijah for the famine and had been looking for him everywhere to punish him. Not only was the famine very severe, but Jezebel had been killing the prophets of the Lord.

In one of the most dramatic scenes in the Bible, Elijah returned to Israel where he challenged four hundred fifty prophets of Baal to come to Mount Carmel for a fire making challenge. “All of Israel” gathered to watch.

²¹Elijah 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. NIV

First, the prophets of Baal prepared their altar by placing the sacrificial bull on the wood, but did not light it. Then they called upon Baal for fire. From morning until noon they shouted, they danced, they cut themselves… but with no response.

Following their failure, Elijah prepared his altar. Besides the wood and the sacrificial bull, he also had large amounts of water poured over everything; not just one time, but three times!

Without performing the theatrics like the prophets of Baal, Elijah prayed a simple prayer. And when he finished, “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”.

Why did Elijah challenge the prophets of Baal? The answer is in his prayer.

^36b“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. ³⁷O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” NLT

This wasn’t just a challenge of the prophets of Baal, or even of Ahab and Jezebel. It was a challenge to the people of Israel. A challenge for them to recognize the power and sovereignty of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; to turn from Baal and follow the Lord only; to understand that “The Lord – he is God!”

How has the Lord challenged you? Probably not miraculously like he did with Elijah on Mount Carmel. But his Holy Spirit is at work in our lives every day to draw us closer to him.

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Saturday, February 24, 2024

Therefore

A Series on Lent
The stories of Passion Week - the religious leaders
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 20:1-26

[Lent is a 40-day season of personal reflection with the purpose to prepare your heart to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. In this series on Lent, we will be looking into the stories of Passion Week. How the people who were directly involved were impacted and how that applies to us today.]

During my junior year of high school, I was the campaign manager for a friend of mine who was running for Student Council President. Since we didn’t have much of a budget for advertising, we used pictures from my parent’s old Life magazines and mounted them on poster board.

In the wisdom that only sixteen-year-old boys could manage, one such picture was of a girl in a two-piece bathing suit. The caption that we decided would make perfect sense was: “My belly button is voting for Pete”.

The next day as we were taping the picture to the wall at school, the principal came up and said, “That would only appeal to stupid people”. My friend who was helping me immediately quipped, “Even stupid people vote”. Without saying another word, the principal turned around and walked away. The poster stayed on the wall.

Like my school principal, Jesus’ authority was also challenged. It was during Passover week. The streets were crowded with pilgrims from across Judea. Jesus had entered Jerusalem like a king. Recently, he had raised Lazarus from the dead and everybody was talking about it, much to the dismay of the religious leaders.

The day after entering Jerusalem, Jesus went into the crowded Temple and drove out the merchants, knocking over tables and scattering coins and animals that were being sold for Temple sacrifice. The religious leaders couldn’t find a way to stop him, so Jesus continued to teach and heal in the Temple defying their authority.

One day while Jesus was in the Temple courts, a group of religious leaders, who were members of the Sanhedrin, approached him. The Sanhedrin was the prevailing authority for all things related to the Jews. They viewed Jesus as a threat. Therefore, they challenged him.

²“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” NIV

Instead of answering their question, Jesus told them a parable about a vineyard owner and his tenants. It was aimed directly at the religious leaders to condemn them. When he was done they tried to find a way to have Jesus arrested right then. But because of his popularity, they were too afraid.

Challenging authority is an age old past time. Students challenge principals. Children challenge parents. Employees challenge employers. Fans and players challenge referees. All of us challenges authority at some time. It all started with Adam and Eve challenging God.

¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” NIV Matthew 28

In his final words to his disciples, Jesus claimed his ultimate authority. He followed this by saying, “Therefore”. This means that because of his authority, he gave his disciples a mission that would turn the world upside down. Therefore, that mission still applies to us.