Playing With Fire

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/ytl6rg

Playing with fire can result in serious damage and consequences. Youthful boys, and girls, are often drawn to the amazing qualities of a flame. Curiosity can result in a burn to a skin, damage to some object or worse.

The phrase, “don’t play around with fire,” figuratively means that we should not invite danger into our lives. Don’t play around with, or be curious of, what can harm you.

God’s people didn’t always follow His commands. In fact, God specifically commanded that they should not inquire about or follow the gods of other nations. Yet they eventually did do this.

Moses records a stern warning in Deuteronomy 12:29-32. Part of this (vs. 30-32) says,

“do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

Unfortunately, many of the people did inquire about these other gods and eventually incorporated their ways into their worship. Some simply left God and followed these other gods.

Elijah faced a people who had chosen other gods and had abandoned the real God. He said to them in 1 Kings 18:21, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Baal was a pagan god that had 450 prophets among the people. Elijah stood as the lone representative of the Lord. He was attempting to get the people to see the errors of their way, and he finally succeeded by having the Lord show His power through fire.

The prophets of Baal accepted Elijah’s challenge to have a god to God contest of sorts. Each camp would prepare an altar and place a bull on each one, but they were to put no fire under it. By calling upon Baal and then upon God, whichever altar was consumed by the fire would signify which God was the true God.

The prophets of Baal called up on their god from morning until noon but there was no answer. That’s when Elijah began to mock them in their foolishness. He said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:27.

So the people did that. They cried out louder, jumped around and even cut themselves. But there was no answer. How could there be? Baal was, and is, nothing.

Then Elijah set about to show them the real God. He built an altar and dug a trench around it. Then he commanded that the men bring a total of 12 water pots full of water to drench the altar and fill up the trench.

Elijah then prays openly to God saying, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 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.” 1 Kings 18:36-37.

God did hear and answered Elijah’s prayer. Fire from the Lord fell and not only consumed the sacrifice on the altar, but also licked up all of the water that was in the trench.

When they saw it, the people turned back to God saying, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

The prophets of Baal, who failed to have their god produce the fire for the altar, were all taken and executed. Their loyalty to the false god had cost them their lives and had led Israel away from the true God. They had forgotten the command of God to stay away from other gods and to not even inquire about them. “Don’t play around with fire.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we be reminded that God is the standard of our conduct, not others. May we be ever willing to put our faith and our actions to the test at any moment, calling upon the truth of God’s word to prove us to be righteous.

Our thought for the day: “Man measures success by numbers; God measures success by faithfulness.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.