I Kings 18:33-35 states, “And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran about the altar; and he filled the trenches also with water.”
On a trip to Canada with my wife, Donna, I pulled along an old wood fishing boat. I knew it leaked a little. When we got out on the lake it was more than a little. I brought along a coffee can to bail with—good thing. We bailed fast and furious, never able to try fishing. We were lucky to get back to shore before sinking.
Reading our text for the first time, I wondered where Elijah got more than twelve barrels of water. I read some comments that said it was only a gallon or two. I don’t believe it. If that was the case, for a gallon or two of water to run about the altar, the bullock must have been the size of a chihuahua being placed over a small campfire. That doesn’t seem likely, when the prophets of Baal had an altar big enough for more than one of them to leap upon. I don’t know how big a barrel was in those days, or if they were called barrels. What were water containers doing up there anyway? I guess we just have to have enough faith to read the account without picking it apart.
The fact is Elijah had to have a lot of faith in God. He knew the lack of rain was due to the sins of Israel. He told Ahab that there would not be rain until Elijah gave the word. God directed Elijah to the brook Cherith to survive the drought, then it dried up from lack of rain. Again, the comments I read said that the famine was not that bad. Maybe they didn’t take I Kings 17:7 as seriously as I do.
None of this water business was easy for Elijah. He had to walk by faith. We see his great statement of faith in I Kings 18:36-37, “…I am thy servant, and I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.” Jesus had a similar prayer before He raised Lazarus from the dead. “…And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 11:41 & 42).
Besides all the children of Israel, there were 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of the groves, and Ahab, in the crowd. Then Elijah cried out, “…How long halt ye between two opinions?” (I Kings 18:21). When no one answered, Elijah declared, “…I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord…” (V.22). Never wavering, he declared that they would turn to the Lord, even before they did it (V. 37).
Though you may not be in the same boat with me when it comes to water, keep walking and believing. Don’t bail out over THE COST OF FAITH!
