I’m visiting Israel at the end of October 2022 with a church tour group. I am meditating on the cities we’re going to so I can grasp something of the history of the place. We are starting at Joppa, next to Tel Aviv, and making a circuit counterclockwise around the land, ending at Jerusalem. Here is one meditation.
MOUNT CARMEL was the scene of two striking choices. Elijah challenged wicked King Ahab in 1 Kings 18 to gather 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah to the mountain. “How long will you hesitate between two opinions?” Elijah told them.
It was a mountain of two altars, one for Baal and one for the Lord. Gross idolatry representing their loss of vision. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob representing their manifest destiny.
Two deceptions were noted on the mount. The rebellion on the part of the idolators and Elijah thinking that he was the lone prophet left (v. 22).
It was also a mountain of two prayers, one of fire and one of water. Elijah called down fire from heaven to burn the sacrifice and judge the false worshipers. He called down rain to relieve the famine and vindicate God’s promise.
The Lord experienced the fiery wrath of God on the cross. When we acknowledge our unbelief and disobedience and confess Christ as Lord, He will wash the stain away with His blood, and lead us beside the still waters.
Carmel means “garden-land,” and Scripture uses the place repeatedly to represent the state of spiritual prosperity of Israel. This probably refers to the location near the Dead Sea, situated south of Hebron, and not the mountain near Haifa.
In that vein, the mountain is a place of possibilities for spiritual growth to those who choose Israel’s Messiah to rule in place of the false idols in our hearts. It’s where the barren heart can flourish again like Eden, where the Lord walks with us in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8), and in that garden-land of His presence we’ll never know loneliness, nevermore.
