1. The choice between God and idols
We are taking lectures on the books of Kings since the first Sunday of this January. Last Sunday, we learned about the 3 years-drought by reading the 1 Kings 17. It was made happen by God as a punishment to Israelites. Though the prophet Elijah predicted the phenomena, Ahab, the king of Israel of the time oppressed him. He hated Elijah because of that very prophecy. The text tells us that Elijah hided himself in a desert to avoid aggression of the king and was fed by Ravens and a widow.

Today¡Çs reading portion concerns the scene of the duel between Elijah and prophets of Baal*1, a deity worshipped in Canaan in that era. The direct reason of God¡Çs wrath was the worship of Baal by Israelites. The story begins in 1 Kings18:1; - During the third year without rain, the Lord spoke his word to Elijah: ¡ÈGo and meet King Ahab, and I will soon send rain.¡É So Elijah went to meet Ahab. By this time there was no food in Samaria.

Then Elijah appeared before Ahab and his men who were discussing who could solve the problem of severe food shortage. And ; - When he (Ahab) saw Elijah, he asked, ¡ÈIs it you—the biggest troublemaker in Israel?¡É(1 Kings 18:17)

Ahab thought that the drought were generated by Elijah¡Çs prophecy itself. He was sure that Israelites were suffering from food shortage because of Elijah. But Elijah rebuffed the accusation of the king, ; - Elijah answered, ¡ÈI have not made trouble in Israel. You and your father’s family have made all this trouble by not obeying the Lord’s commands. You have gone after the Baals.¡É(1 Kings 18:18)

He ablamed the king for ignoring the message of God, which had condemned Israelites for the idolatry. In short, each of Elijah and the king put the responsibility of the calamity on the other. Thus Elijah proposed a duel between prophets of Baal and himself to make clear who was the responsible of the drought. ; - Now tell all Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Also bring the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.¡É(1 Kings 18:19)

Ahab accepted the challenge. Mont Carmel was considered to be the holy place where deities of Canaan lived. Naturally it was the center of worship of Baal and Asherah*2, Baal¡Çs wife. For that reason, Mount Carmel was chosen as the venue of the duel. Elijah addressed to the Israelites before opening the battle. ; - Elijah approached the people and said, ¡ÈHow long will you not decide between two choices? If the Lord is the true God, follow him, but if Baal is the true God, follow him!” But the people said nothing. (1 Kings 18:21)

He said that the real battle must be engaged between God and Baal then Israelite must make decision about the faith. The description ¡ÈBut the people said nothing¡É suggests that it was the question of life and death for Israelites. Because, prior to the event, those who had refused to worship Baal were killed under the order of Jezebel, wife of the king. (see 1Kings 18:4)

During the World War II, Japanese christians were put under the similar situation to those Israelites. All Japanese people were then forced to worship the emperor as the supreme deity of the nation. If anyone refused to obey the order, the authority threatened him or her with imprisonment or even death.

As a matter of fact, in July 1042, the National thought Police of Japan *3 arrested 120 clergies of the Japan Holiness church* 4. Furthermore, 260 churches of the denomination were disassembled. The file of the preliminary examination of Pastor Kanno written by the official in charge is now publicly accessible*5:
- Official - ¡ÈIs that true that the Bible teaches that all humans are sinners?¡É
- Kanno - ¡ÈThat is correct.¡É
- Official - ¡ÈSo, is the emperor also a sinner?¡É
- Kanno - ¡ÈI¡Çm afraid to say but that is correct. As the emperor is a human, he is necessarily a sinner.¡É
- Official - ¡ÈThe Bible says that, without redemption through the Cross of Jesus Christ, no salvation is possible. So, does the
emperor need also the redemption of Jesus Christ?¡É
Kanno - ¡ÈI¡Çm afraid to say but I believe so. As a human, the emperor needs the redemption of Jesus Christ to be saved.¡É

Japanese totalitarian consensus of the time defined the emperor as the sacred who must be never blasphemed. The notion dominated the nation until the end of the War. Consequently, the pastor who rejected the divinity of the emperor was imprisoned. Thereafter, he died as an inmate. The history makes us understand that the expression ¡Èthe people said nothing¡É is revealing the emotion of Israelites at that moment.

Oppressions on the Japan Holiness church affected the life of Nobumichi Tsuji, one of my friends, too. Fathter of Nobumichi was one of pastors of the United Church of Christ in Japan during the world war II. He was also charged in 1942 for breaking the Peace Preservation Law*3. His church was ordered to be disassembled. Believers were scattered away. As a result, his family lost the income which had been payed by the congregation. The family members¡Ç lacked even daily needs. So, Nobumichi¡Çs mother sent him to one of former deacons, who had passed as the most faithful man. But the man said, ¡ÈI have nothing to give you,¡É by shutting the entrance door in front of him.

Even after the War, the family lived by wasted foods of an American army base during the period of severe shortage of foods in Japan. Nobumichi¡Çs father died in a prison in the north of Japan. Nobumichi Tsuji also became a pastor. And his aim of ministry is to establish inside each believer the faith which won¡Çt dwindle under any severe circumstances.

We now admit that the choice between God or idols might be sometimes the choice between our ife and death.

*1 Baal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal
*2 Asherah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah
*3 Peace Preservation Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Preservation_Law
*4 Japan Holiness Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Holiness_Church
*5 ISBN-13: 978-4004200611. ed. Iwanami-shoten ( in Japanese) 1978/10/20, Tokyo

2.Worship God, not idols
The scene of the duel between Elijah and prophets begins form 18:22. But, to begin with, we will take a glance at the following part of today¡Çs reading portion to understand well the whole contents of chapter 18.

Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, ¡ÈChoose a bull and prepare it.” So they followed Elijah¡Çs instruction without starting the fire and prayed to Baal from morning until noon. Besides, they danced around the altar they had built. But nothing happened. (see 1Kings 18:25-26)

Elijah mocked them by saying, ; - ¡ÈIf Baal really is a god, maybe he is thinking, or busy, or traveling! Maybe he is sleeping so you will have to wake him!¡É (1Kings 18:27) And the sky still unmoved.

Then Elijah take actions in his turn. ; - … the prophet Elijah went near the altar. ¡ÈLord, you are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,¡É he prayed. ¡ÈProve that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant. … Lord, answer my prayer so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you will change their minds.¡É(1 Kings 18:36-37)

God responded to Elijah¡Çs prayer by sending fire. The sacrifice of Elijah was burned. And ; - When all the people saw this, they fell down to the ground, crying, ¡ÈThe Lord is God! The Lord is God!¡É(1 Kings 18:39)

The description should be a compilation of several legends and we cannot know what happened then physically. However we can be sure that something amazing occurred, which convinced the people that Yahweh was God. And the more important point is that the writing was addressed to the Jewish people in Babylonia under captivity. The readers of the record were captivated people in Babylon. When Judah was defeated and the temple of Jerusalem was abolished by Babylonian forces, Jewish people thought that Marduk*1, the deity of Babylon, was more powerful than Yahweh. As a result, they began to worship Marduk, an idol.

For that reason, the authors of 1 Kings wrote down the story of Elijah to teach those people :Yahweh, the lord, who defeated Baal would defeat Marduk, too.

Mendelssohn, a famous composer, created the oratorio titled, ¡ÈElijah,¡É by basing on the story. The work is counted among the three biggest oratorios of the world. It was played with great success a few years ago in the concert conducted by Seiji Ozawa during Saito Kine Festival .

When Mendelssohn composed the work, Germans was suffering from severe famine caused by a drought. Numerous Germans died with hunger and whereas survivors were protesting violently against the inflation of crops. It is said that Mendelssohn wrote in a letter the motivation of composition:
— Because I wished the arrival of a prophet like Elijah who should save us by giving God¡Çs words. —

The lyric of the Japanese Baptist hymn 680 is based on the verses of the story of Elijah.

In 1 King 18, God finished the drought after accepting the sacrifice offered by Elijah. Thus the people was saved from death of hunger. Throughout the human history, drought and famine occurred repeatedly all over the world. For example, in Japan during the Edo Period, the people underwent similar calamities 4 times. Or, in more recent time, Japanese who lived in the North region, Tohoku, suffered from a severe famine from 1930 to 34. Poverty of the region resulted in the coup d¡Çétat, called ¡Èthe incident of 2-2-6¡É which was curried out by young soldiers. And many historians think that similar miseries in poor regions pushed Japanese people to invade into China. In short, the poverty triggered the Manchurian Incident. Though drought is natural disaster, famine is not its inevitabe result. Because it might be because of greed of the rich who seek to gain from excessive speculations of agricultural products. Even in todays world, we know that more than 1 million Ethiopians died due to famine generated by drought. The fact shows that the story of Elijah, which happened in an ancient time ago, gives us still an important lesson. We must be concerned with the faithful motivation of Mendelssohn who composed the oratorio. We must appreciate highly the activity of Peshawar-kai*2 in Afghanistan led by Mr. Tetsu Nakamura as a modern fight against drought and famine.

*1 Marduk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk
*2 Peshawar-kai http://www1a.biglobe.ne.jp/peshawar/eg/index2.html

3. In accordance with God¡Çs will
Today¡Çs invocation verses are 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 ; - Even though there are things called gods, in heaven or on earth (and there are many “gods” and “lords"), for us there is only one God—our Father. All things came from him, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord—Jesus Christ. All things were made through him, and we also were made through him.

Japanese people is said to be very open minded with regard to religions. Actually, they practice rites of Shinto*1, Buddhism and Christianity one after another without any hesitation. For example, they go to shrines to celebrate New Year¡Çs Day and carry out funerals in Buddhist style whereas in Christmas time they organize parties only to enjoy themselves. In such a mind, the choice between God and Baal forced by Elijah must seem too categorical. But, in reality, we cannot serve both of God and Baal. And if we interpret the idolatry of Baal as common sense of the society, serving God should mean giving up material advantages and superficial pleasures. At least, when we are forced to choose between the faith and material comfort, we should not make compromise between two.

However human faith is always fragile. The crowd cried, ¡ÈThe Lord is God! The Lord is God!(1 Kings 18:39)¡É after watching the duel between God and Baal. Nonetheless they changed easily the stance when Jezebel ordered to kill Elijah. They turned into Elijah¡Çs enemies and chased him. So Elijah escaped and hid himself in the desert of Sinai. In general, the people change completely their attitudes with regard to formerly praised persons when political or social environments change drastically. For example, Mr. Suzuki, a highly appreciated pastor of a protestant church, lost his congregation during the World War II under the oppression of the imperial authority. Mr. Suzuki told about his experience after the War:
— Since the beginning of the War, less and less believers came to church. The number of attendants at the Sunday worship decreased to 30, to 20 then 7 or 8 towards the end of the War. Then one of elders said that considering actual circumstances, worshipping Jesus Christ was undesirable because he is God of Japanese enemies.*2

Our church too underwent several times the bitter experience of losing members due to inner disagreements. Each time that the pastor was replaced, many believers left the church. Therefore I hope that we take the object of Pastor Tsuji, ¡ÈTo establish firm and genuine faith inside each Christian,¡É as ours too for this 2011.

*1 Shinto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintoist

*2 ¡ÈCompilation of Sermons¡ÉASIN: B000J868OK by Masahisa Suzuki ed. Shinkyo-shuppann( only in Japanese )