“You must decide what you are going to do. How long will you keep jumping from one side to the other?”
Like the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during Elijah’s time on earth, some people can’t make up their minds on whom or what to serve. The world (then and now) is full of religious options. Some people can’t decide one way or another. The people of the Northern Kingdom couldn’t decide between the Lord, who revealed Himself to them by delivering them from Egypt, and Baal, the false god of the area that had been embraced by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
That’s why, when Elijah spoke the words of our verse for today, the people were silent. They fully understood the rationale of Elijah’s words. They fully understood that a decision should be made, but they were unwilling and unsure. They weren’t ready to give up on the traditional God of their fathers, but they weren’t ready to fully embrace Baal either.
Our God tells us He is a jealous God. He is jealous for our devotion as a husband is rightly jealous for the affection of his wife. We see also in other places in Scripture this instruction to choose. Joshua famously tells the Israelites, “You must choose for yourselves today… But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord,” (Joshua 24:15). Jesus also warns that no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). The Apostle John, in his revelation tells the church in Laodicea that the Lord is ready to “spit [them] out of His mouth” because they are lukewarm in their devotion to Him (Revelation 3:16).
As Elijah pushed the people of Israel, so we also must be pushed. But on what basis should a decision be made? It should be made on the basis of revelation. Will you serve a created thing, imagined deity, or the Creator of the universe? The decision should be made on the basis of which actually reveals himself as divine. Elijah provided evidence for the people by calling on the Lord to reveal Himself through fire from heaven. The Lord came through, and Baal failed utterly (1 Kings 18:22-40).
The Lord is still revealing Himself in our own day in powerful ways in the lives of sinners. The Lord is still humiliating the alternatives. Choose today the God who lives!
By John Huisman, Friend of Bible League International
