[Elijah] placed the wood on the altar, then they cut the bull into pieces and laid the meat on the wood. He told the people, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it over the meat and the wood.” After they did this, he told them to do it two more times. They did exactly as he said until finally, the water ran down the altar and filled the ditch. – 1 Kings 18:33-35 (CEV)
In the midst of a drought and with his life on the line, Elijah ordered twelve jars of water poured onto the wood. The background of this story is that Elijah was forced into hiding by King Ahab and the prophets of Baal have gained sway with the king. The land endures three years of drought. Then God tells Elijah that the rains will return. Elijah sets up a contest with the prophets of Baal to show that there is only one true God. The contest is that whichever god is able to set alight a pyre of wood is the real God. The prophets of Baal agree, set up their pile of wood, and wait in vain for something to happen. Elijah then prepares his stack of wood and then orders that twelve jars of water be poured onto it. After this Elijah prays to God, and fire comes. It consumes the sacrificed bull, all of the wood, and evaporates the water.
Two things strike me about having all of that water poured onto the wood. First, it was to show that the fire that was to come was not accidental. This was not wood that was ready to burn; it would not catch easily. Pouring that much water over it countered any doubts that could be cast on how the wood caught fire. It was God at work. The second thing I notice is that this was a huge amount of water in a time of water crisis. Given how parched everything was after three years of drought, pouring that much water onto the wood must have seemed wasteful in a time of scarcity.
How often do we respond in those ways to God? How often do we react as if we do not have enough of something? We tend to see our life as marked by scarcity. We don’t have enough time, enough money, not enough people involved – whatever it is that we are doing, we tend to notice the limits that are around us. In these days of restriction, too often our focus is on all of the things that we are unable to do and we are overcome by a sense of loss.
Yet God is a God of abundance. Too often, though, we fail to trust this. Even when God is at work providing the spark we need, we find reasons to doubt that God is behind it. We tend to be quick to criticize the work of others and slow to become aware of how God is at work around us. Doubt and a sense of scarcity go together, because if God is not trustworthy then we need to be sure that we have enough to take care of ourselves.
Too often we don’t believe that God is at work in our life. We insist on finding an Elijah who will pour twelve jars of water to prove that it is God who is at work and not random chance. How is God bringing hope to you in our current version of a three year drought, the ongoing pandemic? How might we be better moved to trust in God’s abundance rather than be focused on a sense of scarcity? I think it is a challenge we face daily on where to set our minds.
Pastor Eric