Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, November 5, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I loved this story as a kid. Elijah was such a punk, calling out the priests of Baal, making an extra-dramatic show of things by soaking his offering and the wood and even digging a trench to hold extra water, knowing full well that God’s fire would consume the lot of it and put the priests of Baal to shame. Of course, as a kid, I never got to read the next part where the people rounded up all the priests of Baal and Elijah slaughtered them (yikes!). I just delighted in the prospect of the bad buys being thoroughly shown up in public.
I sometimes wish something this dramatic and decisive would happen today to get people to change their ways. Except we learn later in 1 Kings that the people actually don’t change. Most of them, anyway. And Elijah is forced to flee for his life in spite of his demonstration of God’s power. And then I wonder if, even if something this dramatic did happen today, would anyone really change? Or would we explain away what we don’t want to acknowledge, so we can just keep right on doing whatever we want? I kind of think we would, which is a bummer.
Are there definite signs of God’s will for me that I choose to ignore because it’s easier not to have to change?
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
