"Perhaps he is Asleep"

“And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.  And at noon, Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:26-27 ESV)

This is one of my favorite Old Testament scriptures; Isaiah mocks the false God Baal and the priests who worship it. Throughout the Bible, there are revelations of false Gods. Like Baal, people worship them. Molech wanted the murder of their children as a sacrifice. In fact, most false Gods, like Dagon and Chemosh, required human sacrifices to appease them. Like the priests of Baal found in the challenge of Isaiah, they never answered.

Religions of works require that one must contribute something towards one’s salvation. However, scripture does not say good deeds erase sin. In the Mosaic Covenant or “Sinaitic Covenant,” there was the sacrificial system. Here, the sacrificial system was laid out for the Israelites. The Mosaic Covenant, also known as the 'Sinaitic Covenant,' is a significant part of the Old Testament. It was a covenant between God and the Israelites, where the sacrificial system was laid out for the atonement of sins.

A Jewish coworker wanted to ask me some questions about Christianity, which I answered. In turn, I asked him questions about modern Judaism, specifically: If the sacrificial system was no longer in place, and his atonement for his sin is based on the sacrificial system, how are his sins atoned for? He went exactly where I expected to go to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. So, I reminded him that the Mosaic covenant requires sacrificing for the atonement of sin, and prayer does not atone; the question still stands: By what means are Jewish sins atoned? Again, he could not answer, at which point he received the Gospel of Jesus Christ with love and teaching.

When Christ was buried, the Pharisees had Rome seal the tomb—not to keep Jesus in but to keep his followers out. During the night, the soldiers were overcome with sleep, and the stone was removed from the tomb—not to let Jesus out but to let his followers in. Jesus did not need to remove the stone to exit the tomb, just like he did not use the door to enter the house where the apostles stayed when he revealed himself to them.

The Pharisees did not believe Jesus was the Messiah; they thought he was a blasphemer and evil.  However, they knew he raised Lazarus; if He raised Lazarus, He might raise himself. Just like they feared Jesus was resurrected, so much for keeping Jesus in the tomb.

False gods, a theological concept, required human sacrifices for them to do anything and everything, and even with the sacrifices, they did nothing at all. In contrast, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a reference to the one true God in Christianity, needed one sacrifice. In that sacrifice, not only would the sacrificial system, designed to reveal to everyone that they need God to atone for their sins as they are unable to on their own, would their sins past, present, and future be atoned for, but God would be glorified and reunited with his creation.

What does the one living God require you to do to receive salvation? Believe, that is all. To hear, understand, accept, and have faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God. To believe that He went to a tree, was crucified, and died for your sins. That He died a physical death and was buried only to be resurrected in an eternal body, not a ghost or spirit but alive, and to believe He sits at the right hand of God the Father, our brother, our intermediary, our Lord, and our King. Best of all, God gives you the ability to do all that when you seek Him.

Seek Him; He is waiting, and in this simplicity of belief, find relief from the burdens of false gods and their sacrifices. Yes, those false gods are still hanging around. They just have different names now.

Grace and Peace!