VERSES: 1 Kings 18:1-40
MEMORY VERSE: 1 Kings 18:39 "...The Lord, He is the God,; the LORD, He is the God."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Review the 22 books of the Old Testament until you are confident that your Bible Students have memorized the books well.
PRAYER: Pray for rain.
SPECIAL SONG: Elijah (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #3 on this blog)
VISUAL AID: TV Box #1 (see February - Visual Aid #1 on this blog). This a great visual lesson with great drama. By using the TV Box, you can prepare the pictures in advance, tell the lesson more quickly, without leaving out any of the amazing details, and you can tell it with 'drama' in your voice. It only takes preparation for a good lesson and your students will remember this one for their entire lives.
LESSON POINTS: (Notice that this is a longer lesson than some of our other lessons.)
- At the time of our lesson today, Samaria is going through a severe famine. Do we remember what a famine is? Yes, it is a time that there is no food. Do we remember why there might not be any food in Samaria? That's right! God told Elijah to tell the most wicked king of Israel, King Ahab, that it was not going to rain for a long time, so that meant there was no rain for the crops or the cattle. It was a long, dry time because we know when God says something, it is Truth.
- King Ahab had a good servant named Obadiah who loved the LORD God. He had done good things for the LORD. One time when Jezebel, who was King Ahab's wicked wife, was doing great harm to God's prophets, Obadiah, at great risk to his own life, went and hid 100 of God's prophets in caves and fed them with bread and water.
- King Ahab told Obadiah that they would go out and look for water, so the horses and mules would not die. They divided the lmand between the two of them. Obadiah went one way to look for water and King Ahab went the other. As they are looking for water, Obadiah met Elijah. Elijah told Obadiah to tell King Ahab that he was there to meet with him. After much discussion, Obadiah did as Elijah had asked him to do.
- When Ahab saw Elijah, he asked him, "Are you the one who is troubling Israel?" Elijah told him that Ahab was the one to blame for all of their trouble because of Ahab and his father's wickedness. Elijah said that Ahab had forgotten the LORD God and was following Baal. Elijah told Ahab to send for all the children of Israel, the 450 prophets of Baal that ate at Jezebel's table, and the 400 prophets of the groves and they would all meet at Mount Carmel.
- The first thing Elijah said to the children of Israel was, "How long are you going to stand between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him; if Baal be god, follow him." Do you know what the people said? Nothing. No one said one word!
- Elijah told the people that he was the only prophet of the LORD, but Baal had 450 prophets. So, then Elijah told them why they were there. They had two bullocks that they would sacrifice. He would take one and Baal's prophets would take the other one. They each would kill one bullock and fix it up and lay it on the wood, but they would put NO fire under it. Then the prophets would call to Baal and Elijah would call to the LORD God and the God that answered with fire, then He would be the true God. The prophets of Baal thought that was a great idea.
- So, the prophets of Baal took their bullock and did just as Elijah said. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, but there was answer from Baal. At noon Elijah mocked them and said that maybe Baal was sleeping or maybe he had gone on vacation. That made the prophets cry out even louder, then they started cutting themselves like their habit was which was a terrible thing to do. Soon, they carried on until the evening, and, still, there was answer from Baal.
- Finally, Elijah told the people to come close and they did. He repaired the altar of the LORD that the prophets had broken down. He took twelves stones, one for every tribe of Israel and built the altar in the name of the LORD. Then he did something odd. He made a deep trench all around the altar. He put the wood in order, put the pieces of the bullock on the wood , then he said to fill four barrels with water and to pour the water all over the sacrifice and the wood. Then he said to do it again!! Four more barrels of water! Then he said to do it again! Another four more barrels of water poured all over the sacrifice and wood. How many barrels all together? 4 + 4 + 4 = 12 barrels of water! There was so much water that the water filled up the trench all around the altar!
- Maybe we should talk about water and fire and wood. Does fire burn wood that has water on it? Why do firemen put water on burning houses? That's right! To put the fire out! Let's find out what Elijah is going to do with all that water and wood.
- At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah got close and prayed to the LORD God to let it be known that day that the LORD God was the God in Israel and that Elijah was His servant and that Elijah had done everything that day like God had instructed him. He asked God to hear him, so that the people would KNOW that He was the LORD God and that they may turn their hearts to Him.
- And then do you know what happened???? Fire from the LORD came from heaven, burnt up all the sacrifice, burnt all of the wood, burnt up all the stones, burnt up all the dust, burnt up all the water that was in the trench!!! It was amazing!
- And what did the people do? When they saw what happened, they fell on their faces and worshiped who? Baal? NO!! They worshiped the LORD God and found their voices and said, "The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, He is the God!" Then they rounded up all those prophets of Baal down to the brook Kishon and Elijah killed them there.
- The great lesson in this true story is that the LORD God is God over all heaven and over all of the earth. It didn't take God all day to answer a prayer. He wasn't sleeping or didn't go on a trip. He answered Elijah's prayer instantly and completely! He didn't simply burn up the sacrifice, but he burned up everything--the sacrifice, stones, wood, water, even the dust! How powerful God is!!
- Elijah exaggerated the sacrifice, didn't he? He wanted to make certain that no one could say "that it just happened" or maybe that it had been a trick. With twelve barrels of water, EVERYONE knew that the LORD was God. There was no room for doubt in this lesson.
Materials needed: 12" x 18" white piece of white construction paper, 12 barrel-shaped brown pieces of brown paper, 12 rounded rock-shaped pieces of gray paper, red scraps of paper, long scraps of brown paper, crayons, markers, scissors, glue.
- Because this is a rather lengthy lesson with much to tell, the Bible teacher may want to have barrels and stones pre-cut before the students come to class.
- Hand out white paper.
- Make two brown curved brown lines on each of the twelve barrels.
- Glue barrels around three sides of white paper.
- Number the twelve barrels with a dark crayon..
- Glue three rows of four rocks tp make altar, leaving room for blue trench. (see picture)
- Glue six pieces of brown strips of paper on top of altar. This is the wood.
- Cut 6 or 7 pieces of red paper scraps.
- Glue red paper on top of wood.
- Draw blue water around the bottom of the altar. (see picture)
- Write "Elijah On Mount Carmel" and "1 Kings 18" at the top of the white paper.
- Write " v. 37 'Hear me, O LORD, hear me that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. The the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." on the white paper.
- Underline in red all the of the things that were burned up from the fire of the LORD. (see picture)
