A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

                                  THE RUNAWAY PROPHET PART XVI

I, Elijah, the prophet of God, had prepared the altar on which I was to sacrifice a bull.... I had put wood on it and had put the cut bull on top of it.... I had as well dug a trench around the altar.... Everyone was wondering what I was going to put in the trench..... It was time to let them know what I was going to put in the trench..... So I asked some of the people to fill four large jars with water..... They did so.... They brought the jars to me.... Only to be told that they were to pour the water on the offering and the wood.... They wanted to ask me if they had heard right..... But they dared not.... They just poured the water out as I had told them.... I then told them to fill up the jars with water again....They did so.... I told them to pour the water on the offering and the wood a second time.... They wanted to ask me if I was sure... I was sure.... I knew what I was doing, even if they did not.... I told them to fill the jars up for the third time.... And they did.... This time they poured the water on the sacrifice and the wood right away.... And they then understood why I had dug a trench around the altar..... I had dug a trench so that it could catch the remaining water that had run down from the altar....The people looked at me.... They did not say anything.... They knew that only a miracle could bring fire down on the altar... I knew that too.... It was time to pray to my God."... Please read the typed out attachment when the prophet Elijah tells some of the people to pour water on his offering before praying to his God....


         ATTACHMENT A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

                             THE RUNAWAY PROPHET PART XVI

Having prepared the altar for sacrifice, the prophet Elijah does something very unexpected as you can read in I Kings 18:33b-35

Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood. Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water run down around the altar and even filled the trench.

What Elijah does next is very unusual; he order for water to be poured over the wood and the sacrifice and he has it done not just once but three times. You may well think. "Why do you do that, Elijah? Don't you know that it is now impossible for your sacrifice to be burned? Do you want to be laughed at by the Baal prophets? Don't you realise that they are waiting their turn to humiliate you as you have humiliated them?" if that is what you are thinking, then Elijah would like to say to you, "It is true that, naturally speaking, it is impossible for this sacrifice to be burned. But just wait and see what God will do in this impossible situation.

After all, Luke writes in Luke 1:37
For nothing is impossible with God.