Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 1 Kings 18:37-39
“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. You acted justly, Elijah, and quite wisely! Your fire will consume the stones and the worshippers of the stones will blush for shame. It will consume the wood, and those who make their gods out of carved wood will be upset and will turn away from their madness. It will consume the bull so that nobody may ever worship the bull.”
Ephrem the Syrian in The First Book of Kings 18.26-38 in 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures; Downers Grove, IVP, 2008) 111.
I saw something fresh in reading through the Elijah stories linked to generosity. God “consumed” the burnt offering.
He did this in answer to a bold prayer from his servant, so that people would know God and turn back to Him.
God ate it up! God wants people to turn from their madness and acknowledge Him for who He is. He loves it when His servants call out to Him.
So what’s the parallel today? We need to pray boldly not for ourselves but for God’s glory and the salvation of the lost.
We also need to realize that God consumes offerings. God does not need our money. We need to give it to release it’s power over us.
If we hold on to it, we become its slave. When we release it, God consumes it, gets glory, and draws people to Himself.
Pray boldly. Give generously. God will eat it up and be glorified. And people will humble themselves and come to faith.