1 Kings 18

+Once again, we see Elijah's faith in action. This man had faith, not in his own abilities, but in the Lord. In this chapter, he not only presented himself to Ahab, of whom wanted to kill Elijah, but also called out Ahab and all of the prophets of the idol Baal and challenged them on their on ground. The challenge was this: let's each make an altar and call upon our respective gods to bring fire to the altar. Whoever's God is real will be shown by the presence of fire. Elijah then went and mocked the prophets of Baal when there was no fire and then doused his own. Then the Lord sent flames. Oh what faith can do...He trusted in the Lord through it all

+Clearly, King Ahab hated Elijah. While Elijah spoke words of truth from the Lord, Ahab just say it as bad news. Ahab even placed the blame on Elijah when he said "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"(v16). In living in his pride and sincere foolishness, he failed to see that HE was the cause of all of Israel's trouble. He was just too blind to see it as he was living contrary to the commands of the Lord. We should never be so blind as to discount words of truth because of our own pride. It may suck and reveal a lot about our hearts but repentance trumps continuing to live in sin.

+Back to the topic of sincerity: there is no doubt that the prophets of Baal were sincere in their belief that Baal was the true god. This is evident through their actions. Believing in Baal wasn't just some front. They actually believed Baal was real, hence why they accepted the challenge. Once the prayed to Baal and fire did not come, they slashed themselves with swords. Let's be real. That's just crazy talk there. You have to be pretty darn sure that the god that you are praying to is real to think that slashing yourself with a sword (per his commands) will do something. They were completely sincere in their belief that Baal was real. However, they were sincerely wrong. Again, sincerity means absolutely nothing if your sincerity to follow is placed in anything that is contrary to God himself. When it comes to being sincere, we ought to strive to be sincere within the context of the Lord's will as revealed to us through His word.

+We also see the Lord's justice. The prophets of Baal proclaimed that the Lord is real after they got shown up in this little altar competition. Despite that, the Lord, in his justice, allowed all of them to die. It may seem strange because they finally acknowledge that the Lord is the one true God. This is because we have lost sight of the nature of God. We so often associate God with the characteristics of love, grace, and mercy. While that is completely true, God is also wrathful towards sin, jealous when praise goes to anyone but Him, and just in that he punishes us for sin. Stories like this help us realize the fullness of the grace that was shown on the cross. God easily could have slayed all of us in our sin and been completely justified as in this case but He chose not to. He paved a way for people undeserving.