The name “Elijah” means “Yahweh is my God.” Elijah prophesied in Israel during a time of dark apostasy. During the days of King Omri, many Israelites began to turn away from their ancestral God and turn to the god of the Canaanites, Baal. With the ascension of Ahab to the throne, the apostasy of Israel became complete. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was an enthusiastic patron of the Baal cult. Under her direction, the prophets of Yahweh were relentlessly persecuted. The prophets of Baal were welcomed at the royal court. Altars to Baal were constructed throughout the land.
Baal is the Canaanite storm god. He is chiefly responsible for the rains and fertility. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that he represented the prosperity of the people. The seasonal rains were the essential lifeline for the agrarian culture of the Ancient Near East. The rains of Baal enriched the land and caused the crops and orchards to bear their fruit. Maybe we can understand the significance of Baal if we make a contemporary comparison. Baal is the god of energy and economic prosperity. The Baal cult has become the economic engine that drives life in Israel.
Suddenly, a prophet appeared whose name was “My God is Yahweh.” Elijah’s very name was a prophetic challenge to the Baal cult, and to the political fortunes of Ahab and Jezebel. To simply speak the name “Elijah” was to speak against Baal. Elijah’s first prophetic words were directed at the heart of the Baal cult. “By the life of Yahweh, God of Israel, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain these coming years unless I give the word” (1 Kings 17:1 New Jerusalem Bible). With these words, Elijah killed Baal. The great storm god was unable to produce a single drop of dew. The great rivers were reduced to a trickle, and the streams were dry. The land was barren, and there was a great famine. Throughout the land, the people approached the altars of Baal. They offered sacrifices and cried out, but Baal was silent. There was still no rain. Elijah boldly provoked a confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Two oxen would be offered: one on the altar of Baal, the other on the altar of Yahweh. Elijah then boldly proclaimed, “The god who answers by fire, He is God” (1 Kings 18:24).
Certainly the great storm god, Baal, could muster a bolt of lightning for the sake of his reputation. Also at stake were the reputations of Ahab and Jezebel. The prophets of Baal offered an ox upon their altar. They prayed for hours, but the storm god could not answer with even a distant thunder. Baal’s prophets danced around their altar, they shouted, and ceremoniously offered their own blood to attract the attention of Baal. All day long they sought to hear, but Baal never answered. By the end of the day, no one was even paying attention. It was obvious that the great storm god was impotent.
As the sun began to set, Elijah prepared to offer his sacrifice. Elijah issued an altar call. Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down (1 Kings 18:30). As the people of Israel watched, Elijah repaired the altar of Yahweh. For the first time in a generation, the descendants of Abraham approached the altar of Yahweh. Before Yahweh could be heard, before the fire would fall, the altar had to be repaired. After the altar was repaired, the sacrifice was prepared. Then Elijah offered a simple prayer: “Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,” he said, “let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God and are winning back their hearts” (1 Kings 18:36-37 NJB).
The purpose of this entire episode is that God wanted Israel back. Yahweh wanted to be heard by the prophets of Baal, and by Ahab and Jezebel. But the heart of God was for the people of God—the sons and daughters of Abraham. Suddenly, “Yahweh’s fire fell!” All day long the assembled multitude waited to see who would prove to be God. Now there was no doubt. With one voice the people cried out, “Yahweh is God… Yahweh is God!” (1 Kings 18:39 NJB). The meaning of “Elijah”—Yahweh is my God—had now become the confession of Israel. Shortly thereafter, “the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents (1 Kings 18:45 NJB). The drought had lasted three years. Baal was proved to be an impotent fraud. Yahweh answered with fire and rain. With the fire, the faith of the nation was restored. With the rain the land was cleansed and restored. But none of this could have happened until Elijah repaired the altar of Yahweh Elohim.
Pentecostals have often interpreted the story of Elijah by which the fire of God signifies the pathos of the movement. Pentecostals often speak of God’s presence in terms of fire and rain. Pentecostals understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to be the “latter rain,” that is, the restoration of apostolic Pentecost upon the last-days church. The earliest Pentecostals often spoke of the “baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.” Pentecostals were often heard to testify of “Fire! Fire! Holy Fire!!!” (G.F. Taylor, The Pentecostal Holiness Advocate, May 22, 1930, 8). Fiery manifestations were often reported in Pentecostal services. A.J. Tomlinson wrote:
At one time as I stepped out to make an altar call, as I lifted my hands, a kind of blue mist was seen by a number of truthful witnesses as it settled down on the congregation, and not a few fell, and either crawled or were carried into the altar. A few times while the words were spoken, the Holy Ghost fell on all that heard the Word. Streaks of fire have been seen as they darted just above the heads of the people in the congregation, like zigzag lightning, and yet not so quick but that it was easily seen by scores of people. (A.J. Tomlinson, The Last Great Conflict, 215).
I wonder if the Pentecostal Movement is no longer driven by the fire of the Holy Spirit. The initial Pentecostal ethos of “love not the world” has been co-opted by a different, world-friendly, gospel. It has been suggested that the single issue that unites Pentecostals is the prosperity gospel (Ted Olsen, “What Really Unites Pentecostals?” Christianity Today, December 2006, 18-19). Some Pentecostals no longer emphasize the salvific encounters of being “saved, sanctified, and baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Instead, popular Pentecostalism is being driven by “kingdom economics.” For these Pentecostals, the goal of salvation is to be healthy, wealthy, and successful. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). During the days of Elijah, the temptation of Israel was to worship at the altar of Baal. It seems that the temptation of our day is to worship at the altar of wealth.
During the days of Elijah, God withheld the rains for three years. Before the rains returned, the altar of Yahweh was repaired, the fire fell, and the people confessed, “Yahweh is God.” Could it be that God will challenge the false prophets of our day? Could we face an economic collapse so that once again the people of God will forsake the false god and meet at the altar of Yahweh Elohim? Could it be that we must hear again the call of the early Pentecostal prophets?
Oh, for a million men who would fear nothing but God, filled with such holy zeal and Godly courage, that we could all together burst forth under the power of this mighty baptismal fire and rush to every quarter of the globe like mad men, declaring the gospel of the Son of God, until every tribe, kindred, tongue and people could hear… (Tomlinson, The Last Great Conflict, 219).
