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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day 169. Man, I've been waiting to get here. Okay, this is First Kings, chapter 17 through 19. We're finally going to get into the thick of the conflict between Elijah the prophet and Ahab, a wicked, wicked, wicked king. So if you've done the reading, everything I'm going to say is going to make total sense. If you haven't done the reading, then everything's going to be out of context and you want to make sure that you do the reading for the day. We got King, First Kings, chapter 17, 18 and 19. We got three chapters, and man, we only had two chapters yesterday, three chapters today, so that I could keep things kind of thematically organized. So, 17, we're going to get the official introduction of Elijah. So I've got a lot of context to throw at you. So let's get into our context clues for the day. Now, in order to really understand everything that's happening now, let me say this. You can gain some spiritual, a lot of spiritual insight without knowing historical or cultural context. Okay? Like, it is possible to read your Bible and not know any geography, history, cultural history, language in the Holy Spirit to speak to you. If we want to unlock the original message to the original audience, then, yeah, we're going to have to kind of recover the what things meant in their cultural context. And that's why I give you context clues. So I think that the stories of Elijah get spiritualized a lot in church. And today I want to kind of just give you a lot of context so that you don't just spiritualize these stories, but that you know what they meant in the original context. So in order to do that, I've got to teach you a lot about baal, the God name baal, okay? And here's something that people may not know is that the Canaanite storm God named BAAL is in charge of the rain. In charge, storms. And when we get into the contest between Elijah and the prophets of baal, the Hebrew, there is not actually fire, but it's actually lightning, okay? Because Ba'al is the Canaanite storm God. Thunderbolts, lightning, rain, storms. All right? And so it is not random that God is going to give Elijah a word. That is not going to rain, because BAAL is supposed to be in charge of the rain. Now, I want you to see this trajectory, because civilizations typically adopt gods from other cultures and they just kind of rename them, okay? And so this is baal. This Canaanite storm God named baal, B, A A B A A L is essentially just going to become Zeus. Okay? So if you look at Greek mythology and you look at Zeus, we got lightning bolts, we got thunder, we got rain, we got all of it. And then Norse mythology is going to adopt that same God and just call him Thor. Okay? So when you are watching Marvel and you're watching Thor, Ragnarok, and you. There's lightning in Thor's eyes, okay? This is baal. This is literally just a recreation of this character, baby baal. So what do we need to know about baal? So here's what we need to know. The Canaanites believed that there was a heavenly battle going on that actually correlated to the seasons that they experienced. Okay? So rainy season was rainy season because BAAL was free from the grave chamber that the God of death placed him in in the dry season. So when there was a dry season or there was drought, it means that the God Mot had actually captured BAAL and put BAAL in a grave. And every before, every spring and summer, the thing that made spring and summer happen, which is what made the rains happen, is Baal's sister lover named Anatomy, would descend into Moat's territory and defeat Moat. And because Anat defeated Moat, BAAL would resurrect from the grave victorious. And the Canaanites would experience rain during the spring and the summer. And then the cycle would repeat itself over and over and over and over again, this endless cycle where there was dry season and a rainy season and a dry season and a rainy season. And even in Egyptian culture, this same cycle happened every day, right where the sun God Ra defeated darkness and death every night by the sun rising every single morning. So these cycles are very, very pagan. They're being daily cycles and seasonal cycles. And this wasn't just the weather. The weather was being dictated by something that was happening in the heavens. Now why is this important? This is actually very, very, very important because Elijah is gonna. We get. We get this grand entrance for this prophet named Elijah. Elijah is going to say that Yahweh is sovereignly in control over the rain. So he's going to announce to Ahab, it ain't going to rain. Not going to rain again till God says so. He's going to say so through me. And this is just straight up proof. Like, hey, if your God is stronger than my God, go ahead, prove it. Let's see if BAAL can make it rain. But not only is a drought a symbol or point to the fact that BAAL is not powerful, it means that BAAL is dead. Okay, so no, rain means that Baal's in the grave. And then once Elijah has proven that God is sovereign by not making it rain, he then visits a widow. What happens to the widow's son? The widow's son? First of all, the widow is experiencing the effects of this drought, okay? And you can hear it in the widow's voice. She's like, yeah, we're gonna die of starvation. Cause your God shut up the heavens. Well, here's what's important. That widow is in BAAL country. That widow is not in Israel. This widow that Elijah has been sent to minister to is not an Israelite. This widow is actually in Phoenicia, in BAAL territory. So I need you to see this. Ahab, the King of Israel, has allowed Jezebel, which is really Jezebel. There's an interesting thing going on with her name. I may tell you later when we get to nerdy nuggets. Actually, we can start Nerdy nuggets. Now I've actually started giving you a bunch of nerdy nuggets. You got all the context you need. Actually, that whole story about the BAAL cycle, that's the context that you need to really appreciate this section of the Bible and other sections of the Bible as well. All right? So I need you to see this, because Ahab brings a priestess, a high priestess of BAAL, into Israel and marries her, and she becomes the queen. Okay? Jezebel, or Jezebel, is a Phoenician high priestess. And so BAAL is invading Israelite territory by sending a high priestess into Israel to marry an Israelite king named Ahab. And since BAAL wants to invade God's territory, God now sends a prophet named Elijah into Baal's territory to bless this widow. Now, the woman is upset, obviously, because the reason that she's starving and her son is starving is because Elijah's God has shut up the heavens. And in the course of time, there's two miracles that are gonna happen. The first miracle is that God is able to provide food even though there's no rain, which is wild. I've heard this story, preached so much, and I've never heard anybody just acknowledge the fact that God doesn't need to send rain in order to provide food for a wid who's starving. Because there's no rain, God is able to make wheat just grow. He's able to make food grow that needs rain, but he doesn't send rain. He just makes stuff supernaturally grow. For this widow and for Elijah, this is woo chef's kiss. Okay, this is just God at his finest. So this is God is stronger than baal number one. God is stronger than BAAL because God can make it rain in BAAL can't. Or God can make it not rain and BAAL can't, and we're going to see later that not only can God make it not rain, he can make it rain. Next, God can provide food without there being rain because he's all sufficient and he's self sufficient. Next, the widow's son's going to die. And remember, what does Anat do every year? Anat, Baal's sister, goes down to the grave and rescues baal. Baal, who's alive but is in the realm of death. In the grave, in being captured or held captive by the God Mote. So what would this pagan widow be thinking? She'd be thinking, my son is dead. Unlike baal, he's actually dead and he's in the realm of Mote. Mot has him. But God wants to show that he's not just stronger than baal, but that he's stronger than Moat. So what happens? Elijah lays himself over the boy and the boy comes back to life. So we get a miracle of resurrection right here in First Kings. Also legitimate, the ministry of Elijah. We're going to get miracles, legitimating the miracle, the ministry of this prophet. So all that's happening, BAAL is invading Israel by sending a high priestess from Phoenicia. God is invading Phoenicia by sending a prophet by the name of Elijah. I'll just throw nerdy nuggets at you by this point. Okay, chapter 18, I believe starts out with Ahab is out looking for water. Why is he looking for water? Well, the same way that modern presidents are judged based on the economy or the strength of the economy. Ancient kings would have been judged. If there's a famine or drought or no rain, people would have assumed maybe the king did something to make the gods upset. And so if the king can't live a life that pleases the gods and protect us from drought and famine, then he shouldn't be king. So Ahab is desperately out looking for water. A man by the name of Obadiah is with him. No, this is not the Obadiah who wrote the book of Obadiah. There's a totally different Obadiah. And this Obadiah is a righteous man. He's actually hiding prophets of God and supplying food for them. Next, Carmel. Okay, so now this is going to lead to a clash, okay, A story, an iconic story, where Elijah on the Mount of Carmel is going to completely come against. There's going to be a conflict with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. So also in the ancient world, here's a good nerdy nugget. Ancient people believed that the more people that were worshiping a God made it more powerful. So 850 people versus one prophet. Everyone would be thinking, of course we have the advantage. Yahweh has no shot. There's just one measly prophet of yahweh and there's 850 of us. And that's not what happens. So what happens is Elijah has a contest. Now, here's what you need to know is that Carmel is on the border of Israel and Phoenicia. The Phoenicians are the people who fully adopt BAAL worship. Okay. If you want to know now, where does BAAL worship come from? Phoenicia. So Carmel is right on the border of Israel and Phoenicia. And Carmel has been dedicated as a hub, as an epicenter for BAAL worship. So Elijah doesn't go to give Yahweh home court advantage, although Yahweh has home court advantage everywhere. He actually goes into the enemy's territory. Even though this is technically Israel, okay, geographically, this is Israel. But because the king of Israel is married to a priestess of baal, they have turned Mount Carmel into a place that is an epicenter for BAAL worship. And this is where the showdown happens. Elijah picks some neutral location. No, he goes right into the belly of the beast. The other thing that I need you to know is that Mount Carmel would be, like, very, very lush green. This is some of the best, just like, fertile lands in Israel. And it hasn't rained in three years, which means all that lush green beauty has now dried, and it is just death and dryness. And so this is going to be relevant in a moment. So they're gonna ask that the God that answers by fire would actually be the real God. And this is where you need to know that it's not fire, but it's actually lightning. It's not. It's. It's. There's a translation difficulty and if you were actually reading it in Hebrew, you'd realize, oh, no, they're talking about lightning. Why? Because this is baal, the storm God. Interesting nerdy nugget, okay? Because Elijah is going to start taunting the prophets of baal and he's going to say, is your God? Because all the stuff that they're doing is not going to work, okay? They're going to call on baal. Baal's not going to answer. And Elijah is going to be like, is he on a trip? Is he studying? What's BAAL doing? And then finally he's like, is he using the bathroom? What's. Is he taking a poop? You know? Is your God? What's your God doing? You know? And the reason that that's relevant is because the Old Testament prophets took the word BAAL and instead of using baal, they would say bull. And BAAL means Lord, but bull means poop. So the way to make fun of people who have the word BAAL in their name is to actually put bull in their name. This is relevant for the New Testament because when the religious leaders are like, to Jesus, they're like, are you casting out demons by the name. By the. By the God Beelzebul? They're actually taking a. A version of BAAL that is not just Lord, but the poop God. So when Elijah's like, is your God taking a poop? He's essentially saying, is the poop God? He's on his throne right at the. At the outhouse. Yeah. Cause he's the Lord of the outhouse. This is so random. But you need to know this. There's a famous book called Lord of the Flies. And what are flies attracted to? Flies are attracted to poop. And so the author of Lord of the Flies is actually making commentary about the human condition. And he's actually using a biblical reference. He's actually using BAAL as a reference in the book. But people don't really know that anyway. If you ever read Lord of the Flies, you know that. So the reason that Lord, It's Lord of the Flies is because flies are tracks of poop. Okay? So Jezebel, the prophets don't use her real name in the biblical text. They don't call her Jezebel. They call her Jezebel because they want everyone who's reading these scriptures in Hebrew to go, oh, yeah, poop queen. Not the woman who worships baal, but the woman who worships poop. Okay? So they're gonna change her name as an indictment against her God. And Her. This is kind of like an inside joke that the prophets are gonna just slightly change the name BAAL to signify that the only thing you're lord over is freaking excrement, bro. Like, you're not a God. This is a dig. This is a massive dig. And when I found this out, I. I laugh now. Every time I see Jezebel, I laugh. Okay? I love this. This is First Kings, chapter 18, verse 36. Now, I need you to remember that Baal becomes Zeus, who becomes Thor. It's the God of lightning, the God of fire, the God of storms, all that stuff. But then Elijah gets up to pray. This is First Kings, chapter 18, verse 36. And he says who God is, because God's not the God of thunder. He's not the God of fire, he's not the God of lightning. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's not the God of some nature, some. Some powerful thing that happened in nature. He's the God of humans. He's the God of people. He's the God of covenant. And no pagan God was the God of people. No pagan God was the God of groups of people or nations of people. No pagan God was the God of a covenant. They were all the God of rivers, the God of lakes, the God of the sun. They were all gods of stuff. And God says, I'm not the God of stuff, I'm the God of you. This is a lot like when Jesus says, hey, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but get to God what is God's. It's a riddle. What Jesus actually saying is, hey, Caesar's image is on the coin, but. So therefore, you should give him taxes, but God's image is on you, therefore give God you. So whereas Caesar is. Maybe, you know, or Rome has a God of money, it's a mammon. God says, I'm not the God of money. I'm the God of humans. So I don't just want your money. I want you. That's why God asked for your heart. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble, or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. That's a cool little tidbit that I think is really, really interesting. All right, let me give you a couple more nerdy nuggets. There's a massive exodus theme that's happening all throughout this book. Ahab is a new Pharaoh. Elijah is actually a new Moses. In order to really understand what's gonna happen in chapters 20 to 22, you gotta really, really, really, really, really understand chapter 19. And so tomorrow, we're actually gonna start tomorrow's content with chapter 19 as our context clue. Because the context of chapter 19 is actually gonna provide all the nerdy nuggets and all the timeless truths for chapters 20 to 22, which is tomorrow's reading. So Thomas Truth for today is the last thing that we actually talked about, that God is not the God of thunder. He's not the God of fire. He's not the God of money. He's not the God of anything. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the God of people. And the thing that God wants to be known by is he wants to be known by his covenant loyalty that he has with you and I. He's the God of human beings, and he has attached himself to us in covenant faithfulness and covenant loyalty. And that is a timeless truth. So you got some context clues. You got a lot of nerdy nuggets today. We didn't get into chapter 19 today, but actually that works perfectly because chapter 19 is actually gonna give us a lot of context for everything that's gonna happen for the rest of the book. So we'll tackle it tomorrow as our context clue, and then we'll get into all the content that we have left for tomorrow. And I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 170 as we close out the book of 1 Kings. And so if you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, what's stopping you from starting one? I know. Nothing. So let's get a streak going. Cause the Bible's good for you. I love you guys. So proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.