The
following quote is taken from evilbible.com:
"Murder
- "At the customary time for
offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and
prayed, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you
are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this
at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know
that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to
yourself." Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven
and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even
licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they
fell on their faces and cried out, "The LORD is God! The LORD is
God!" Then Elijah commanded, "Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don't
let a single one escape!" So the people seized them all, and Elijah
took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there." (1
Kings 18:36-40 NLT)
This
is part of the larger story of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and of Elijah, one
of God's prophets. You can read the full
story of Elijah's contest against the prophets of Baal here:
(For
the entire story, please see 1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 2).
Elijah was one of God's greatest
prophets. He lived during the reign of
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel (reigned circa 885-874 BCE). King Ahab was one of Israel's worst
kings. He married Jezebel, a Sidonian
princess, and together they instituted worship of Baal, a false god, in
Israel. "Ahab son
of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him"
(1 Kings 16:30, NIV). In addition to
deliberately committing idolatry themselves and leading the Israelites to do
the same, Queen Jezebel murdered many of the LORD's prophets (1 Kings
18:3-4).
In
the verses preceding this one, Elijah presented himself to King Ahab at God's
command, and they gathered the Israelites on Mount Carmel, together with the
450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, another false god that Ahab
worshipped. The intention was to
determine, once and for all, which god was real and which one was false; to
determine which god should be worshipped by the Israelites.
Why
was this such a serious issue? The
charge of idolatry is a very grievous sin, which God does not take lightly (see
Exodus 20:3-6, 23;
23:13, 23-24; 34:17; Leviticus 19:4; 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:15-28; 5:7; 6:14-15;
8:19; 12:31; 17:2-7; 27:15; 29:17-18).
God warned the Israelites on several occasions that if they committed
idolatry, it was a crime that warranted the death penalty. The Israelites' covenant with God demanded that
they worship and serve him only. They
were not supposed to worship other gods or fashion idols for themselves. God had warned them that if they did these
things, it would lead to their destruction: "If you ever
forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to
them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed"
(Deuteronomy 8:19, NIV).
Why is idolatry considered such a
serious crime? The severity of the
judgment, capital punishment, is due to the severity of the sin. God is the only God, the Lord and creator of
all the universe. When anyone bows down
and worships or pays tribute to a false god or idol, they are taking credit away
from God and giving it to something undeserving of that credit. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my
praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8, NIV).
The crime of idolatry was so serious that it was often referred to as
adultery against God (Ezekiel 6:9).
In the contest that Elijah proposed,
he would set up a sacrifice of a bull on one altar, and Baal's prophets would
set up a sacrifice of a bull on another altar.
Then, each would call to their god, and the god who answered by fire was
the true God. The Israelites agreed to this
contest. The prophets of Baal went first
- they spent the entire day crying out to Baal, dancing and mutilating themselves,
but nothing happened. Then Elijah had
the altar with his sacrifice drenched with water three times. He then prayed for God to answer him, and God
answered with fire - it burned not only the drenched sacrifice on the altar, but
also the wood, stones, soil and even the water in the trench. After that, the people fell prostrate and
declared the LORD to be the true God (1 Kings 18:16-39).
The question that has been presented
here is as follows: Why did Elijah have the prophets of Baal killed after this
event? The first and primary reason was
because of their idolatry, and for leading the Israelites into a great sin
against God. The second reason was due
to another sin. It is interesting that the author of
evilbible.com does not mention this, since the website is focused on the
condemnation of human sacrifice: human/child sacrifice was massively performed
by those who worshipped Baal.
Worship of Baal
and Molech frequently involved the sacrifice of infants, particularly firstborn
sons [1] [2] [3]. Sometimes the babies
and children would be immediately burned to death in a fire, other times they
would first be placed on an altar that had been heated by coals, and then
rolled off of it into a burning fire as a sacrifice. This practice was strongly condemned by God:
"They
built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons
and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that
they should do such a detestable thing" (Jeremiah
32:35, NIV; see also Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 23:10;
Jeremiah 19:5). (A common question in
response is, "If God was against human/child sacrifice, then why did he
command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?"
See my earlier article for a discussion of this topic.) Baal worship, besides human sacrifice and
cultic prostitution, also involved self-mutilation (1 Kings 18:28).
With all of this
in mind, we can conclude that Elijah executed the prophets for violating God's
commandments against idolatry and child sacrifice. He was, in essence, doing to them what they
had done to countless victims on their altars.
[1] Exploring the World of the Bible Lands, Roberta L.
Harris, 1995. Pg. 53, 73, 89.
[2] A History of the Ancient World (Fourth Edition),
Chester G. Starr, 1991. Pg. 156.
[3] Archaeology of the Bible: Book By Book, Gaalyah
Cornfield, 1976. Pg. 52, 170.
