No Sound, No Reply, No Response

They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. [1 Kings 18.29]

[Reader, please bear with the thoughts below - they are the result of a revelation of something I have never considered before - it is both exciting and scary - you will see why...]

"They" above is referring to the prophets of Baal.

You know what's interesting about this encounter with Elijah and these prophets of Baal? I did a quick internet search and found one place that said Baal was a god of the weather.

How interesting is that? The god of the weather, unable to bring fire (lightning) down from heaven to light a sacrifice to him!

What's more, when Elijah later went up on the mountain, all the "weather" stuff it says God was not in!

Here's the deal: in history, there are some references to Baal and God that seem similar. In the original Hebrew texts of the Bible, there are uses of Baal and God almost interchangeably! (I know, it is all very troubling and confusing, but bear with me...) But what we see here today is Elijah making a distinction between Baal and God - between Baal's followers and God's followers.

My thoughts are going bonkers right now - the revelation of this is fantastic - the message of it is for us today!

The prophets of Baal really thought Baal could and would answer. In other words, maybe they thought Baal "could" answer if he wanted to, but perhaps it wasn't 'his will'. Sound familiar????

Like this story in the Bible, we today are struggling with whom we are worshiping. We may "think" we are worshiping God, but, like Elijah we should put our faith to the test! Don't we want to know we are worshiping correctly?

The point is, regardless how "right" the Baal worshipers thought they were, there was no indication of their god's power to do anything!

On the other hand, God, the LORD (Yahweh) answered by sending fire.

Here's the scary thing: many of us today pray and cry out to God, like the prophets of Baal, with no response whatsoever - no sound, no reply, no response. 

Does anyone besides me see the problem here? Is anyone, besides me, concerned that we may have a problem?

The problem is not with God. The problem is what we "think" God is! The proof however, is in Who is in control of everything, and who is not! But will we go with the proof? Will we conclude that our unanswered prayers have been praying to an unknown god who is unable to respond to our prayers? Will we strive then to "know" the One True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob evidenced by the fact that He is in control of everything and proves it all the time?

Here is where we need to be very careful about concocting doctrines of 'unanswered prayer'! Those doctrines sure sound good and make us feel better, but about what? That the one we worship is incapable of answering prayer? Really? Are we going to say that about God?

When we pray to "God" and there is "no sound, no reply, no response," perhaps we would do well to re-consider who we are praying to! Are we praying to God Almighty or someone similar to Him who we think is God because we like his way better, but is powerless to answer our prayers?

Father, I will spend much more time considering this today! No doubt, it is time that Your people are distinguished from the people of the world.