LEARNING DAILY

 

1 Kings 18:21, And Elijah came to the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

 

You know the story of Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal. The people of Israel believed they could worship both Baal and the God of Israel at the same time. They were guilty of a divided heart, trying to serve two masters, and Elijah called them out on it. He told them if the Lord was all-knowing, sufficient for all things, incomprehensible, good and perfect, if the Lord was God, they should follow Him. He put them on the spot. To choose Baal would certainly cause the prophet who was for God, to do something bad. After all, at Elijah’s word it had stopped raining and he could certainly speak for the rain to come again. But to choose the God of Israel, the people would surely cause Ahab, the king, to be upset and who knew what he might declare! Such a problem the divided heart causes! Do you see their dilemma? They certainly knew they could not abandon God; their conscience told them they could not do that. But their fear of the man in charge made them embrace the religion of the state (from Clarke’s Commentary).

 

Walking the narrow way is difficult. Elijah’s words still cause each of us to choose daily who we are going serve. The choice still tells us there is no room for a middle-of-the-road approach when it comes to walking on the narrow way to eternal life in God’s kingdom. Yet, The Revelation describes the church of the Laodiceans that will have “works that are neither cold nor hot”. This approach, being lukewarm, was sickening to the Lord. Can I just remind you that a lukewarm person is one that compromises with the world and resembles the society around them. The lukewarm person professes Christ as Lord but does not walk the walk. I wonder how many Christians try to walk the narrow way with one foot across the line, with one foot on the broad way and the other on the narrow way?

 

David Jeremiah made a statement that might be fitting here. “Faith is not what matters most. While that might strike you as an odd or blasphemous statement, it’s the object of our faith that makes the difference.” The prophets of Baal had faith but that did them little good because the object of their faith was worthless. It is the things faith is placed in or desires of the heart that mislead and cause us to try to serve more than our Father in heaven. All of us need to be careful of desires, prestige, and the things that might push the Lord Jesus Christ out of the heart by choosing to be neither hot or cold. We must have faith that brings hope in difficult times. It is a faith that has no compromise. Elijah gave the people the choice to follow Baal or drop everything and follow the One True God.

 

Perhaps this is just for me today. Perhaps one of you reading this today needs to consider if you are really going to live for God and be His follower. The choice each of us wakes up to is whether to follow God and be committed to walking on the narrow way or to live for the things that distract you from living the way He wants. Who are you choosing to follow today? That’s the challenge for each of us!