WATERLOGGED!
Well, 12th time is the charm, I guess. We’ve had water come into our church facility through the back door a dozen times, but this last time occurred while I was in Seattle for District Conference. The water soaked the carpet along with all the books, financial records, Kids Ministry Materials, binders, and tracts stored on the floor under the shelves at the back of church. 
Others have had more serious loss due to water damage, to be sure. But the finality seeps into one’s thought following the loss of material goods due to flooding. Some of the volumes are out of print. Life affected by flooding stinks! Literally and figuratively—it stinks! There is a certain sense of hopelessness when staring at that which was waterlogged. 
However, as he looked at the waterlogged altar atop Mount Carmel, hopelessness was far from the mind of Isaiah. He had just finished taunting the prophets of Baal because they had prayed, danced, shouted, even slashed themselves with swords and spears until they were bloody. The prophets of Baal were doing all these crazy actions so that Baal, the god they served, would answer their prayers by fire, consuming the sacrifice they had prepared on their altar.
Pretty quiet on Carmel that day—at least if you didn’t count all the squawking by the Baal lackeys. No answer. No fire. As I Kings 18 says, “No one paid attention.” To make sure no one missed the point, Isaiah taunted them: “Shout louder! Maybe he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping!” Nice smack-talk, Isaiah!
At that point, he told the people—the people of the Living God who had been straying—to come. He told them to re-build God’s altar, dig a trench around it, and then he arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then, the altar got waterlogged: “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood.” “Do it again . . . Do it a third time!” Waterlogged. There was so much water, that 14 liters of water filled the trench! But there was not a trace of hopelessness in this battle-royal to see who was the real God. Check out Isaiah’s prayer as he stepped forward that evening:
“O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When the people saw this, they fell down and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”
Wow! God’s powerful presence was felt mightily on Carmel that day yet let not the impact lessen in your heart so many years later. The events are no less fact. The LORD is no less God. Too easily we give our day-to-day troubles and pleasures take the prime of our time, while neglecting the relationship with our powerful and caring God. Could devotion at the altars of money, security, job, or selfishness really deliver when we need help the most? Such foolish misdirected trust betrays the sin in which we were born and with which we will struggle until breath stops.
What a powerful God is the LORD who not only answered Isaiah’s prayer with fire but also answered the fires of hell with the complete and precious sacrifice of his only Son.
The LORD, the one true God has loved you with an everlasting love. Let this be an encouragement to you as you face the challenges of all the little pesky “prophets of Baal” before you today. Pray for God’s help in the difficulties plaguing you right now. Trust in God’s answer given in his way and time. Whoever trusts in God will never be put to shame. Blessings as you live that trust.
Have a blessed week!
--Pastor Dan