So Elijah said to
the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for
you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”
Then
they took the ox which was
given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning
until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one
answered. And they leaped
about the altar which they made.
It came about at
noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is
a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he
is asleep and needs to be awakened.”
So they cried with a loud
voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until
the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one
answered, and no one paid attention.
Then 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. Elijah took twelve stones
according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of
the Lord had come, saying, “Israel
shall be your name.” So with the stones he built an altar in
the name of the Lord, and he made
a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed.
Then he arranged the
wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four pitchers with
water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said,
“Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a
third time,” and they did it a third time. The water flowed
around the altar and he also filled the trench with water.
At the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your
servant and I have done all these things at Your word. Answer
me, O Lord, answer me, that this
people may know that You, O Lord,
are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt
offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that
was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on
their faces; and they said, “The Lord,
He is God; the Lord, He is God.”
Kings
18:27-30
No comments:
Post a Comment