Did Not Answer Him A Word

Did Not Answer Him a Word

1 Kings 18:21

21 And Eli’jah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Ba’al, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

KJV

Commentary by Brian Johnson, Ph.D.

Seldom will one receive confirmation from others about a God-given purpose for your life without some tangible sign or demonstration. Even the man of God, Elijah, experienced the same.For before the fire of the Lord fell upon Elijah’s burnt sacrifices in his competition with Baal’s prophets, “the people did not answer him a word.” To be sure, such demonstrations here within our own time need not be equally miraculous. Yet and still, whosoever would desire to have others to sign on or confirm a God-given purpose that has been assigned to you and no other, let this man or woman be prepared to show forth signs, wonders and evidence that demonstrate to all involved (including one’s opponents) that what he or she speaks is so. Consider Moses and Aaron.

The two went first–not to the people–but the elders, for in doing so, they would not usurp the authority of those who were in leadership. These elders had been laboring as leaders while the people were suffering in bondage, and deserved such honor. (If one has been truly sent by God, he or she will need no “gimmick,” but a plain demonstration of what God has spoken and done (words and works) and it will be all that is necessary to convince mature elders who had to acknowledge that what Moses and Aaron had spoken was so. Lastly, having their vision (bore witness to, not approved) by men, they proceeded to the people, for it would be their willingness to follow that is the single most important value for he or she that makes a claim about their own visionary leadership. (For God ideas are vision, and good ideas are simply good ideas.)

“And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Eli’jah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O LORD, art God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back.” 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. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”