“How Long Will You Hesitate Between Two Opinions?” – I Kings 18:21

by Chris Simmons

We read in I Kings Chapter 18 that Obadiah told King Ahab that Elijah wanted to see him. Due to Elijah’s dedication to only speak the truth from God, when Ahab met Elijah, he referred to him as the “troubler of Israel” (verse 17). Elijah rebutted by pointing out that what had “troubled” Israel was that the King’s leadership had “forsaken the commandments of the Lord” (verse 18) and instead had followed after Baal. He then tells Ahab to bring all of his so-called prophets (850 in all) and assemble at Mount Camel and he then sends the word throughout the land for all of the Israelites to assemble also. Elijah then begins his address to the people by asking, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (verse 21). The American Standard Version translates verse 21 as “How long go ye limping between the two sides?” The idea is that of someone trying to straddle a fence. It’s like going to a ball game and claiming to root for both sides. The Israelites were trying to serve God while at the same time serve the idols as well. So what was their answer to Elijah’s question? “The people did not answer him a word.” It’s time to choose!

This is the same issue that Joshua challenged the Israelites with in Joshua 24:15, “And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." It’s one or the other. Oftentimes, men will make the choice to serve God and then spend the rest of their lives looking back to what they left behind. We are commanded to put our hands to the plow (Luke 9:62) and not look back as Paul who forgot the things left behind and pressed forward to what lay ahead (Philippians 3:13). It’s the choice that Moses made when he chose “to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, (rather) than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26). We will go on limping and hesitating until we are convinced that all that we might have to suffer in this life is not worthy to be compared to the “glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). We will never stop vacillating until the “eyes of your heart” have been “enlightened” so that we “may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19-20).

This is the same issue that Jesus discusses in Matthew 6:19-24 where He teaches that we are to choose to lay up treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth and that “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Here, the choice is not between God and an idol but rather between God and the things of this world. It’s interesting that in Colossians 3:5, we are taught “greed…amounts to idolatry.” How long will we go on trying to straddle between the things of this world and the things which are pleasing to God? Jesus said we are either working for the food which perishes or we are working for “the food which endures to eternal life” (John 6:27). Do we invest our time, money and talents for God or for the physical things of life for ourselves?

Lives that go on limping between serving God and serving self are lived by those whose minds go on limping between the “things above” versus the “things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). The true battle is in our minds (II Corinthians 10:5) and unless we are able to get our minds set, we will continue to limp and hesitate between the two camps. It is for this very reason that Paul commands each of us to “think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

This is a question that not only the Israelites needed to answer, but so do we. And it is a question that we truly answer not with words, but by how we live our lives. Following the contest between God and Baal, God responded to Elijah’s prayer by consuming “the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (I Kings 18:38). We then read that “when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God’” (I Kings 18:39). Yet, their words were not supported by their lives and just one chapter later we read that there were only seven thousand who had not bowed their knee to Baal. Words mean little without faithful obedience. To coin an expression used today, we must “walk the walk.” We should have no expectation of entering heaven if our words are not followed with faithful obedience in our daily lives (cf. Matthew 7:21-23; James 2:20-24). We not only deny the Lord by our words, but we can also deny the Lord by our actions (Titus 1:16).

How long will each of us continue to hesitate and go on limping between the two sides? Each of us must answer that question every day.