Elijah

A long, long time ago there was a man named Elijah.  He was God’s prophet.  He listened to God and told other people what God said. 

God’s people had stopped listening to God or to Elijah.  Instead, they worshipped a fake god named Baal. 

So one day Elijah challenged Baal’s prophets.  You build an alter to Baal.  I’ll build an alter to God.  Then we’ll both pray.  The god who answers by sending fire is the one true God! 

Then Baal’s prophets (all 450 of them) called out to Baal, “Answer us!  Send fire!”  But Baal did not answer.  All morning long, the prophets called out to Baal, but did he answer? No.  Then they started dancing.  But did Baal answer? No.  They called out louder and louder.  But did Baal answer?  No.  The prophets started hurting themselves, begging and whining and pleading for Baal to answer.  But did he answer?  No.  All day long the prophets begged Baal to answer them and to send fire.  But Baal did not send fire.  He did not hear them.  He did not answer them. 

Because Baal was a fake God, he couldn’t hear them calling out.  Because Baal was a fake God, he couldn’t do anything.  He couldn’t send fire. 

Then it was Elijah’s turn.  He built an alter to God.  Then he prayed, “God, please answer my prayer so that these people will know that you are the one true God." And do you know what happened?  Fire came down and burned up the alter!  God heard Elijah’s prayer.  God answered Elijah’s prayer.  God is the one true God! 

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Themes: God hears.  God is the one true God.

Visuals always help, so we used two candles (an idea I saw here) to serve as “alters” and acted out the story as I told it.  This was really effective with Caleb.

Source: 1 Kings 18:16-39