BOXING fans think that only Pacquiao vs. his current foe is the thing to watch. Basketball fans think it’s Kobe vs. whoever.
So, Elijah who was a great prophet of God, my God, the God of Moses and Israel, Who sent His only and beloved Son, Jesus Christ to us, and Who willingly suffered and died for us on the cross after He became incarnate through the Blessed Virgin Mary, to give us salvation from the consequences of sin, so that we may be able to have eternal life with Them in paradise, thought that competition was the thing to do. The great prophet became a promoter of a match, just like Bob Arum promotes the fights of Manny Pacquiao.
Elijah was promoting a match between the one true God, Yahweh, the God of Elijah, Moses and Israel, my God, and the false gods baal and asherah.
King Ahab was the 7th king of Israel since the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt in 1250 B.C. The first king was Saul, followed by King David, followed by David’s son, King Solomon. King Ahab was “more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who were before Him” (1 Kings 16:30). Ahab had turned away from the one true God who forced Egypt’s pharaoh to release the Israelites from 400 years of slavery with natural calamities ending with the death of the first born sons of Egypt, including the first born of pharaoh, culminating in the parting of the red sea to allow all of the Israelites the escape from the pursuing Egyptians, fed them with Manna from heaven everyday for 40 years, and led them to the promised land of Canaan.
Ahab married Jezebel, who was a high priestess of the fertility god asherah and the false god baal, who had the head of a bull and the body of a man. Children were sacrificed to baal, and men and women had public sex to worship asherah. So, Ahab, being the retard that he was, turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel who performed numerous miracles to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and started to worship baal and asherah. He erected many temples to worship baal and asherah, and he turned the people of Israel into worshipping baal and asherah.
Elijah went to Ahab’s court and there announced that “No dew or rain will fall on Israel until I say so.” For 3 years there was no dew or rain in Israel and a famine had set in. Animals were dying from hunger and the Israelites started to think about what Elijah had said. Ahab sent soldiers to look for Elijah but they could not find him.
Finally, Elijah came forth and challenged the 450 prophets of baal and asherah to a duel between Israel’s God, Yahweh and baal and asherah. All of the people of Israel were invited to the duel. The prophets of baal and asherah would make their offering to baal and aherah. Elijah would make his offering to Yahweh. Whichever offering was consumed by fire from heaven would prove whose God was real.
The prophets of baal made their offering of a bull on a gold platform. The prophets of asherah made their offering of a hundred horse’s penis on a silver platform. They started crying out to baal and asherah in the morning until noon. The baal prophets cut themselves with knives. The asherah prophets cut off their genitals and offered them to asherah. Nothing happened.
Elijah told the prophets to shout louder maybe baal and asherah were on vacation. Elijah then had his sacrifice of a lamb placed on a wooden platform. He had his people dig a ditch around the platform. He told his people to douse the lamb and water and to fill the ditch with water. Elijah then prayed to God. Immediately fire from heaven consumed the lamb, the platform and all the water in the ditch!
The people of Israel shouted, ‘Yahweh is the one true God!’ And the people of Israel turned back to worship Yahweh and became faithful to Him once more.
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Lawrence Bautista Yang specializes in bankruptcy, business, real estate and civil litigation and has successfully represented more than five thousand clients in California. Please call Angie, Barbara or Jess at (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S Fremont Ave Bldg A-1 Suite 1125 Unit 58 Alhambra, CA 91803.