“A wicked man puts up a bold front,
but an upright man gives thought to his ways.”
After reading this proverb, my wife pointed us to Elijah and the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18, as a perfect example of the ‘bold-front of the wicked’. In it, Elijah called for a showdown between the LORD and Baal, and in verse 21 he said to the people, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” He called for the prophets to build an altar, sacrifice a bull and lay its parts on it, but not to burn it. In turn, he would do the same. He finished his challenge and said in v. 24, “Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Oh, and he dug a trench around his altar and had the people pour 4 large jars of water on it 3 times. It says in verse 34 that the water had filled the trench.
We then explained that the wicked man puts up a bold front because that’s all he has. He has nothing behind it. Elijah was just himself against 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. Their sheer number along with the wavering belief of the people would be enough to silence most, but after Baal did not answer no matter what the prophets did and for however long, the silence was theirs and it was deafening. The text goes on to describe the LORD’s response to Elijah’s call in v. 38, “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.”
We then spoke about the path to Wisdom’s House and how giving thought to our ways keeps us on it. Reflecting on that side of this ‘coin-proverb’, we can see how Elijah stayed on the path and did not abandon his faith or let it waver.
As we considered the ‘upright’ man, I asked my kids where is Jesus, the One who is both just and true, Revelation 15:3? We once again found that in Him, the path to Wisdom’s House was fulfilled. For though we are to examine ourselves as we are also directed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:5, we now do so in the light of Jesus, who fulfilled the law beyond our ability to obey.
The flame God sent to Elijah entirely burned up his sacrifice in the sight of all of the people, as Elijah said in verse 37, “so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again.” In the same way, God sent Jesus, who is so much more than a flame, to turn our hearts to Him and make them new, Ephesians 4:23-24.