The Power of Faith Fully Decided
As a child, I split my chin open while learning to jump into the water from the side of the pool. Every time I tried, I would leap towards my mom’s waiting arms and at the last second, spin around in a hopeless attempt to return to the safety of the concrete. Several times, this happened without incident and, with a warning from my mom, I was back out of the pool and ready to try again.
Eventually, the cycle was ended as my chin collided with the concrete I loved so much like a Tetris brick put in place. One visit to a neighboring plastic surgeon later and my pool time was replaced with a couch and a bandaged chin.
Sometimes I laugh about how irrational and cartoonish it was to think that I could flail my arms and legs mid-air and somehow return to the ground like Bugs Bunny or Wile Coyote. Other times I’m struck by how often this indecision and lack of follow-through still rears its head in my life.
Just like back then, I still struggle with commitments made, with promises, and with the consequences of my decisions. For this reason, as I read through 1 Kings, the words seemed to cut me through to the heart.
The Israelites lived in the Promised Land, a daily reminder that their God was very real, powerful, and benevolent. Yet they corrupted the land with idolatry, cruelty, and injustice. While claiming to be God’s people they had given themselves to Baal, to Asherah, and to worship on the high places.
Speaking to these foolish, weak, and constantly vacillating people, Elijah tore at their indecisiveness with a simple statement: “If Yahweh is God, follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him.”
The people of Israel could no longer pay lip service to religious devotion and relational faithfulness. If Yahweh was real and if He was their God, the only option available was to follow Him alone.
Note the logic behind this statement. There is no place in the kingdom of God for a split heart or co-ownership. If the God of the Bible is real and is who He says He is then He deserves and rightly demands total devotion and unwavering obedience. Nominal, cultural, or compartmentalized Christianity is a farce; it is a deception, empty of the worth it pretends to contain.
On the other hand, if Yahweh is not God, the people were free to worship Baal, the god of the Canaanites, or any deity of their choosing. Again, the logic is striking. Only if Yahweh is not God should the Israelites consider Baal. Even then, Baal is only to be worshiped and followed if he is in fact a god instead!
A lesson we must learn is that only a God is worth following. If we follow money, if we are obedient to the siren song of sex, if we submit to the desires of the flesh, this is not atheism, but a very real theism called idolatry. We establish a new God to follow, one with far less rules and none of the saving power.
Application abounds from a powerful, prophetic statement like this. None so compelling as how this affects both our obedience and our fight against sin. There are times when I love sin. I like praise too much. I enjoy pleasure. I crave leisure.
There are also times when I don’t love righteousness. Sometimes Bible passages are hard to interpret or difficult to apply. Sometimes prayer does not come easy. Sometimes loving my neighbor asks a whole lot from me. If our primary motivation for obedience and for mortifying (putting to death) our sin is feeling, then we are in danger, for our feelings shift and vacillate as much as the Israelites.
What this verse does for us is takes the question of obedience out of the realm of what we want to do, out of the realm of what we feel like doing, and places it in the realm of what is real. If God is real and He is what the Bible says He is, then we don’t have to debate sin or righteousness. If Yahweh is God, we must follow Him.
To the indecisive one, this is a clear call to finally make a decision one way or the other. When you look back on this year, this month, even this very day, are you serving Yahweh or trying to get the most out of both God and the world? I pray you will hear the words of the prophet and stop “limping between two different opinions”. Decide with certainty to follow the only true God, Yahweh.
To the weary sinner-saint beaten down by temptation, look to Christ, who is real, who is true, who is ever faithful, who is your God. Compare your sinful cravings to Him. Can sin offer anything in comparison to your God? Can sin save? Can sin offer love, grace, peace, hope, and assurance? If Yahweh is God, abandon sin and follow Him.
