To establish justice, we often must overcome denial, anger, bargaining, and depression to get the changes accepted that must be made to end injustices and to establish justice.

Sometimes we must overcome denial, anger, bargaining, and depression in our own lives. Sometimes we must overcome denial, anger, bargaining, and depression in the lives of others. And sometimes we must overcome denial, anger, bargaining, and depression in an entire civilization.

From the experiences of Elijah, we can see how bargaining with people who worship power and money fails to get the permanent, sweeping changes accepted that must be made to end injustices and to establish justice.

The geographic setting for Elijah’s version of “Let’s Make a Deal” was Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The political and religious setting for this confrontation between one prophet of the LORD (Elijah) and 450 prophets of Baal was a drought and famine that had lasted three and a half years.

Elijah had prayed for this drought—an ancient form of “economic sanctions”. (1 Kings 17:1; James 5:16-18). Why?

Israel’s King Ahab worshipped Baal and built a temple for Baal. His wife, Queen Jezebel, was a foreigner who worshipped Baal instead of the LORD, the God of Israel. (1 Kings 16:31-32).

Baal was a fertility God. He supposedly controlled the dew and the rain.

By worshipping Baal and building him a temple, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel expected Israel would receive more dew and rain, increasing their power and their wealth.

But exactly the opposite happened.

Now, Elijah was offering to end the drought and famine—the “economic sanctions”. He told King Ahab: “[S]ummon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal . . . who eat at Jezebel’s table.” (1 Kings 18:19).

In response to King Ahab’s summons, the people of Israel and the prophets of Baal came to Mount Carmel.

Elijah began the bargaining. He “went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’” (1 Kings 18:20-21).

“[T]he people said nothing.” (1 Kings 18:21).

Therefore, Elijah proposed a test of who was truly god. The LORD, the God of Israel? Or Baal?

Elijah said to the people:

“I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.” (1 Kings 18:22-23).

So what was the deal?

“[Y]ou call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The God who answers by fire—he is God.” (1 Kings 18:24).

The people agreed to this test. “[A]ll the people said, ‘What you say is good.’” (1 Kings 18:24).

The 450 prophets of Baal tried. They failed!

This is not surprising. Because, if they’d been able to get Baal to answer, they would already have ended the drought and famine.

But you have to give it to those 450 prophets of Baal. They tried!

They “called on the name of Baal from morning to noon. ‘Baal, answer us!’ they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.” (1 Kings 18:26).

Elijah turned up the heat on the prophets of Baal. Like fans at a baseball game when the other team keeps striking out, Elijah started trash-talking.

“At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Shout louder!’ he said. ‘Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.’” (1 Kings 18:27).

Elijah’s taunts hit home. The 450 prophets of Baal tried even harder.

“[T]hey shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.” (1 Kings 18:28-29).

Nothing worked. Nothing happened.  “[T]here was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29).

Baal wasn’t paying attention. But Elijah and the people of Israel were paying attention. And they were ready to try something new—calling on the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

“Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come here to me.’ They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down.” (1 Kings 18:30).

Before praying for the LORD, the God of Israel, to send fire to burn the sacrifice, Elijah had the people pour so much water on the wood that the water ran off the altar and filled the trench around it.” (1 Kings 18:33-35).

Elijah prayed: “Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:36-37).

The result was spectacular. “[T]he fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.” (1 Kings 18:38).

What a way to close the deal! “When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!’”. (1 Kings 18:39).

Elijah then commanded a bloody retribution against the 450 prophets of Baal. They had killed all the LORD’s prophets except Elijah. So Elijah ordered the people to seize the 450 prophets of Baal and slaughter them. (1 Kings 18:40).

Since I totally disagree with killing people for following a different religion than mine, I want to emphasize that Jesus rebuked his disciples when they wanted to “call down fire from heaven to destroy” a Samaritan village that refused to welcome Jesus. (Luke 9:51-56).

It is interesting to note that Ahab and Jezebel ruled the portion of Israel that became known as Samaria. And that the disciples of Jesus wanted to bring down fire from heaven, much as Elijah brought down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel.

But in order to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, Jesus believed in turning the other cheek, as he taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is an example of Jesus “fulfilling the Law and the Prophets” by following the spirit of the Law and the Prophets when it conflicted with the letter of the Law and the Prophets.

The letter of the Law and the Prophets permitted taking an eye for an eye—the way Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel in retribution for them killing the prophets of the LORD. But the spirit of the Law and the Prophets commands us to do to others what we want done to us. (Matthew 5:38-39).

This means turning the other cheek.

This means rebuking those who want to rain fire down on people.

This means saying to those who torture and kill us: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”—as Jesus said while he was being crucified. (Luke 23:34).

This means saying to those who sin against us, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”—as the first martyr, Stephen, said while he was being stoned to death.

Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets in this Way of Jesus is the way that fully turns people’s hearts back to the Law and the Prophets. Just ask the Apostle Paul.  He confessed: “[W]hen the blood of [the] martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.” (Acts 7:54-8:1; 22:20).

Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets is also the way to end physical and spiritual droughts, in God’s good time and in God’s good way.

Therefore, “Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” (1 Kings 18:42). After seven tries, a small cloud appeared “rising from the sea.” Soon “the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, [and] a heavy rain started falling.” (1 Kings 18:43-45).

This description of winds blowing and heavy rains falling is also found in the final illustration by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Such storms that strike our lives—or  that strike our civilization—reveal whether our lives and our civilization have been built on rock by putting the Law and the Prophets into practice in the Way of Jesus.

Lives and civilizations that put the Law and the Prophets into practice in the Way of Jesus will not fall.

But those lives and civilizations that do not put the Law and the Prophets into practice in the Way of Jesus—those lives and civilizations that worship Baal, power or money—will fall “with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27).

Unfortunately, despite Elijah’s spectacular display of the LORD’s power on Mt. Carmel, most of the people in Israel did not turn their hearts to the LORD—at least not for more than a day or so. Soon, Elijah had to run and hide again to save himself from the vengeance of those who worshipped Baal, including Queen Jezebel. (1 Kings 19:1-4,9-10).

Why did Elijah’s bargain fail? Why did such a spectacular display of God’s power fail to turn most people’s hearts back to the LORD, the God of Israel?

Because the deal that the people wanted was “to have their cake and eat it, too.” They wanted to serve both the LORD and Baal! They wanted to serve God and power and money! They wanted to “hav[e] a form of godliness but deny[ ] its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5).

Truth be told, most of us want that same deal. We want to have our cake and eat it, too.

That’s why Jesus warned us in his Sermon on the Mount:

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24).

The same is true of serving injustices and serving justice.

We and our civilization cannot have our cake and eat it too.

We could not say we loved freedom for ourselves while loving the power and wealth that came from enslaving people.

We cannot say we love peace while loving the power and wealth that come from building weapons and using them.

We cannot say we love Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness while building enough nuclear weapons to destroy within one hour all the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness on Earth forever.

Such a hypocritical civilization will fall “with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27; Psalm 1:1-6; 37:1-40; 73:1-28; Revelation 18:1-24).

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To learn how Jesus bargained with people after feeding them and how most people wanted to follow him to obtain physical food rather spiritual food, please read my book Hoping in the LORD, at 139-169.

To read more about ending injustices and establishing justice, please read my blogs “Establishing Justice: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance” and “Establishing Justice: Denial and Anger—Elijah”.

To read more about putting into practice the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, please read my blogs “Building Houses on Rock: Mission Impossible?”, “Building Houses on Rock: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, “Building Houses on Rock: Mercy and Forgiveness”, and “Building Houses on Sand: Specks and Planks”.