THE UNREASONABLENESS OF INDETERMINATION IN RELIGION.
1 Kings xviii. 21.
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
It is the manner of God, before he bestows any signal mercy on the people, first to prepare them for it; and before he removes any awful judgments which he hath brought upon them for their sins, first to cause them to forsake those sins which procured those judgments. We have an instance of this in the context.—It was a time of sore famine in Israel. There had been neither rain nor dew for the space of three years and six months. This famine was brought upon the land for their idolatry. But God was now about to remove this judgment; and therefore, to prepare them for it, sends Elijah to convince them of the folly of idolatry, and to bring them to repentance for it.—In order to this, Elijah, by the command of the Lord, goes and shows himself to Ahab, and directs him to send and gather all Israel to him at mount Carmel, and all the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves that ate at Jezebel’s table, four hundred, that they might determine the matter and bring the controversy to an issue, whether Jehovah or Baal were God. To this end, Elijah proposes, that each should take a bullock, that he should take one, and the prophets of Baal another, that each should cut his bullock to pieces, lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and that the God who should answer by fire should be concluded to be God.
The text contains an account of what Elijah said to all the people at their first meeting, and of their silence: 1 Kings xviii. 21.“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” To which the people, it seems, made no reply. In these words, we may observe,
1. How Elijah expostulates with the people about their halting so long between two opinions; in which expostulation may be observed,
(1.) What the two opinions were, between which they halted, viz. Whether the Lord were God, or whether Baal were God. The case in Israel seems to have been this: there were some who were altogether for Baal, and wholly rejected the true God; of which number, to be sure, were Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. And there were some among them who were altogether for the God of Israel, and wholly rejected Baal; as God told Elijah, that “he had yet left in Israel seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal, and whose mouths had not kissed him,” 1 Kings xix. 18.
But the rest of the people halted between two opinions. They saw that some were for one, and some for the other, and they did not know which to choose; and, as is commonly the case when difference of opinion prevails, there were many who had no religion at all; they were not settled in any thing; the different opinions prevalent in Israel distracted and confounded them. Many who professed to believe in the true God, were yet very cold and indifferent, and many were wavering and unsettled. They saw that the king and queen were for Baal; and Baal’s party was the prevailing party; but their forefathers had been for the Lord; and they knew not which were right. Thus they halted between two opinions.
(2.) In this expostulation is implied the unreasonableness of their thus halting between two opinions. 1 Kings xviii. 21. “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Which implies that they ought to determine one way or the other.
2. We may observe their silence on this occasion: 1 Kings xviii. 21. “And the people answered him not a word,” as being, convicted in their own consciences of the unreasonableness of their being for so long a time wavering and unresolved; they had nothing to reply in excuse for themselves.
doctrine. Unresolvedness in religion is very unreasonable.
I. prop. Many persons remain exceedingly undetermined with respect to religion. They are very much undetermined in themselves whether to embrace religion or to reject it. Many who are baptized, and make a profession of religion, and seem to be Christians, are yet in their own minds halting between two opinions: they never yet came fully to a conclusion whether to be Christians or not. They are taught the Christian religion in their childhood, and have the Bible, the word preached, and the means of grace, all their days; yet continue, and grow up, and many grow old, in an unresolvedness whether to embrace Christianity or not; and many continue unresolved as long as they live.