I Kill It or It Kills Me

And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. 1 Kings 18:40

At my weekly recovery meeting recently, I thought about those guys who’ve been through the group who’ve died in their addiction. As if I needed it, I was recently reminded once again of the severity of addiction as a disease. Addiction kills. When it’s allowed to fester, it spreads, metastasizing and poisoning every part of my existence. For some it kills physically. But I don’t have to physically die to experience the lethality of addiction, as addiction eventually kills everything good in my life. Addiction is deadly serious and as such, I must continually be putting it to death or else it will be putting me to death. I cannot take addiction too seriously.

This is the tone and the lesson of today’s passage. In the story, the prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to prove who the real god was. They both sacrificed a bull to their respective gods, but Baal did nothing because he wasn’t real. When Elijah called on God though, fire rained down from heaven, proving that God was God. I’ve always liked the story, but it takes a dark turn as the victorious Elijah commanded that the 450 prophets of Baal be put to death.

To me, this has always seemed to be overly harsh. From Elijah’s perspective though, when it came to leading the Israelites, he couldn’t take the issue of idol worship too seriously. Idol worship was Israel’s addiction – that one behavior that it repeated, despite knowing the devastating consequences. Elijah looked at idol worship and realized that it needed to be killed or it would be killing his people. So, when it came to the prophets of Baal, they simply couldn’t be allowed to survive among the Israelites.

I cannot take addiction too seriously and if I want to enjoy recovery, I must be continually killing my addictions, or they will be killing me. That’s a principle that I must continue to practice every day. The temptation of course, is to let the little things slide. Hey, at least I’m not addicted to opioids or looking at porn, so this little sin isn’t a big deal. Sin kills though and again; I don’t have to die physically to experience the lethality of my self-destructive appetites. Sin eventually kills everything good in my life and so, if I desire the new life God intends, I must continually kill it, or it will be killing me.