Who is God?

Few days back, I posted about Baal, a fertility pagan god. In the article, I mentioned the land of Canaan was fertile and the people living there were predominantly depended on agriculture. Hence they made a god to follow, which was Baal. During the time of king Solomon, the children of Israel intermingled with the surrounding nations and followed other gods. Years passed and kings changed. Now we see Ahab as the king of Israel. This was what is recorded about him: "...did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him", also "...and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria...Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." People began to follow their new king. After giving so much of years to repent and come back, it is now time for God to act.

Next we see God sending Elijah the prophet to Ahab and he declares..."As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word." This was a direct challenge to the fertile god, Baal, which he was serving. Sure enough, there was no rain, and the famine in the land was severe. After three years Elijah went and presented himself before Ahab. But rather than repenting the acts which he has done, he calls Elijah "The troubler of Israel". Elijah asks him to bring all the prophets of Baal and the people of Israel to Mount Carmel. There, he challenges the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty of them, to prove their god by preparing a bull for sacrifice but without fire, "and the God who answers by fire, He is God." The prophets of Baal cried to their god from morning till evening, but there was no answer. Now it was Elijah's turn. He dug a trench around the altar, asked the people to pour water on the prepared bull, and water was poured till it ran around the altar. He prayed saying, "Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again". The Bible says in the next verse, "Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench". The people around saw the things, fell on their faces and acknowledged that He is God. The prophets of Baal were seized and killed. Then we see there was rain in abundance.

We may not see such an amazing act now, because God is giving the time to come back to Him as He gave to the children of Israel. But the time of judgment will come as it came to the prophets of Baal. You may think, why is the Old Testament filled with animal sacrifices? Does God become pleased when he sees the blood of animals? No. Bible says,"Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them". Rather, He sees the sacrifice as the symbol of the ultimate sacrifice which was going to come, and which has now happened. This is the sacrifice of Jesus, which he made at the cross of Calvary in which God was pleased. The fire of judgment came down from heaven upon him, when he took yours and my place and stood for us. The cross, which was a shame in those times, now symbols God’s unfathomable love towards us. All we have to do is to accept Jesus and acknowledge that He is God. Then there will be rain in abundance in our spiritual life.

You can read the above mentioned interesting story from the Bible. IKings 17 and 18.