“Which god do you pray to?”
This question, posed to me many years ago by a Hindu acquaintance at a family gathering, bewildered me when I first heard it. Though I knew little of God in those days before faith, I understood that God, whoever He was, must be one; and thus even to speak of choosing one god among others jangled loudly against my reason. If we understand God to be the Creator of the universe, how could anyone reasonably consider multiple gods?
God is One
In ancient times before the Judeo-Christian tradition, people developed a framework of many lesser gods that they could imagine in some form, but which was divorced from the eternal God governing reality. Some people adopted one particular god, other people another, and each was equivalent. Nothing real was at stake.
Enter, then, the God of Israel. Over the course of history, He revealed Himself to the patriarchs and the prophets, demonstrating that He was not one among many, but the one living God through whom all things exist. He could not be parsed into multiple forms or clothed in different stories. Rather, this God had one Name, one Heart.
Elijah’s Wager
Today’s reading extols this one God with the story of Elijah’s contest with the priests of Ba’al. As one of the few remaining prophets of the Lord amidst a throng of idolatrous priests, he steps forth to challenge them before the people: let each side call upon God in his turn and let the true God declare himself so that the people may choose.
Elijah’s wager is a bold one. On one side, a mass of 450 priests of Ba’al call upon their god with sacrifice and fervent petition but receive only silence. Desperately, they resort to slashing of wrists, yet even then nothing happens: “no one answered, and no one was listening.” Finally, they cease, and then Elijah takes his turn. He carefully builds a simple altar of stone encircled by a small moat of water. Then, placing his sacrifice on the altar, he raises up a simple but powerful prayer to the Lord. “Answer me, O Lord, so that the people may know!”
Imagine the suspense of those few moments when everyone waits to see what will happen. Then, in one of the great dramatic flourishes of the whole Bible, God’s presence comes forth as a burst of fire consuming the whole offering. Seized with awe, the people then cry out, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”
God Who Makes Himself Known
Let us consider that peculiar statement, “The Lord is God.” What does it mean to say the Lord is God?
By appealing to “the Lord,” the people were naming the God who had revealed Himself through the prophets and the patriarchs, most powerfully in Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. Though they dared not speak the holy name of Yahweh, they called Him Lord, or Adonai, gathering up in that name the whole story of His love for the people of Israel. Accordingly, now when they shout with joy that “The Lord is God!”, they are identifying the Lord they know with the one God of the universe. There is no other.
As we enter prayer today, let us consider the contrast between the false gods and the one true God, the Lord. Deep down, the pagans must have perceived that their gods could not really hear or see them. Their prayers were met with a silence that was devoid of any substance. In contrast, we who follow the Lord know the One who sits with us in loving quiet. He is not mere abstraction, but a living God who tenderly cares for his people in history. If He has so listened to us, do we, too, listen to the One we are speaking to? Have we taken time to get to know Him?
