1
0
Everybody likes a good underdog story. There is just something about when someone defies the odds and triumphs when the deck is stacked against them. When no one else thinks they have a shot. When the result looks to be a done deal before the contest begins. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, what everyone thought was impossible, the impossible happens!
When the underdog prevails, their story becomes legendary. Quite frankly, many times they become the greatest stories preserved and the ones told over and over again. Think about this for a moment. When you consider all the favorites who go on to win, don’t they all run together? Do many of them stick out? Not really. But bring up the underdog who triumphed and watch the conversation thrive. Books get written about them and news stories flood the airwaves about them. Those stories are remembered, some so much so that people even remember where they were and what they were doing when the “miraculous” came to fruition. Like many, I am a sports fan. Sports is full of stories like these. When I think about sports, a couple of stories immediately come to mind for me. I think of the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic hockey team. The team was built with college kids who didn’t stand a chance against the unbeatable, well-oiled, machine Soviet team built with professionals. And yet they won! Or how about James “Buster” Douglas knocking out who many considered invincible, the incredibly feared “Iron” Mike Tyson?
I am about to tell you a real-life story that happened way before any of our cool, modern-day, underdog stories that we can come up with. And when I am done, I will explain why I believe this ties into the theme of this blog series about us, men. So, as I have said in my blogs, please stick around. I believe there is something here for both you and me.
Pulling out my Bible, I am heading to 1 Kings chapter 18, but before doing that let’s set the stage. Elijah is one of the most prominent prophets in the Old Testament. At this time, Ahab was reigning over Israel. At the end of 1 Kings chapter 16, it states that Ahab had ruled Israel for 22 years and he did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. He took Jezebel as his wife and together they served and worshipped Baal. Baal was the predominant god in the Canaanite religion. He was the storm god who provided rain and necessary for the fertility of the land. Ahab had gone so far as to build a temple for Baal in Samaria. To make a long story short, the King of Israel had turned his back on the true living God and now was worshipping this false god. At the beginning of Chapter 17, Elijah comes to Ahab and tells him that by the God of Israel, there will be a drought with no rain or even dew for years until Elijah says there will be (when God directs him). His message was pretty clear. The real God is the one in charge of rain, not the false god the king is worshipping and serving. Then God sends Elijah away in hiding and provides him water and food during this time. Now speed up to Chapter 18 and here’s where the “underdog” story will unfold.
After the third year of the drought, the Lord comes to Elijah and tells him to go back to Ahab because it is time for God to show who the Creator of all things truly is to Ahab and the people of Israel. Elijah does what he is told and goes to confront Ahab. When Ahab sees Elijah, he greets him accusing him of being trouble for Israel. Elijah, pushes back, that it is not he who troubles Israel, but Ahab the King who is the problem because he abandoned the true God to serve and follow the Baals. Then Elijah tells the King, “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” (Asherah was the Canaanite fertility goddess believed to be the consort of Baal. The worship of Baal and Asherah were linked together. So, we have 850 total prophets being gathered here). And now it was time for Elijah to lay down the challenge of all challenges: 1 vs. 850! The “underdog” was way outnumbered…well, ok, or so it seemed!
After King Ahab had gathered all the people of Israel and all the prophets, Elijah confronted them with this (quoting from Scripture): “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” (Which means they agreed to this.)
Elijah has the prophets of Baal go first saying, “Choose for yourself one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” And they did so. Scripture tells us they 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 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.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
Now before we get to Elijah, let’s break away from Scripture for a second and look at what is going on here. Elijah, at God’s direction, has challenged evil. When we serve a false god and not the God of all things we are serving evil. And just like David did, Elijah, who serves the true living God, mocks them…or in my terms…”talks trash” to them. You might think this is wrong in our understanding and how we might think of “trash-talking” but the truth is, it is not, and here’s why. Elijah served the ONE, TRUE LIVING, GOD! There is no other! When we serve the real God of all things, this isn’t trash-talking per se, instead, it is showing confidence in serving the real God and letting that confidence be known all while spotlighting how foolish it is to serve a false god, or quite frankly, serve evil (which is also our sin). And let’s not lose sight of what the prophets of Baal did here. They didn’t give up when their false god didn’t answer. No, they doubled down by shouting louder and then tripled down by cutting themselves until they were bleeding all over the place! They were simply not giving up their evil. All the while, the underdog, Elijah, who watched and egged them on, knew in confidence that he was about to overcome the 450 to 1 odds (actually the 850 to 1 odds when including the prophets of Asherah). He knew this because he served the true God of the Universe and a false god…aka evil…would have nothing on him! (I wrote a previous blog entitled The Powers of Evils vs. The Lion of Judah. I encourage you to go check that out and it will make this point even more clear.)
The story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal reminds me of the underdog story. Everyone else thinks the underdog has no chance, but the underdog knows differently. It is quite interesting that when the underdog overcomes and wins, the only one not surprised by this is…in fact…the underdog! They knew all along that they would overcome. They knew they had something no one else gave them credit for. Let’s finish this out to see how Elijah fits this so clearly.
Picking back up in Scripture let’s see how Elijah responds and more than doubles down himself on the Truth that he knows! Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. (About 4 gallons). And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; The Lord, he is God.” 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. As Scripture goes on, King Ahab would eventually be killed in battle and Elijah would eventually be taken to heaven in a whirlwind by God.
Here is what this story tells us (just like all the other stories in this Real Men series). There is ONE true living God. Those who have a personal relationship with him and cling to him in all circumstances, both triumphs and hardships, ultimately will reap the rewards given to them by Him. Those who do evil, cling to evil, and will not give up following evil, might look like they are winning for a season, but will get crushed in the end. Evil simply cannot stand up to nor hold a candle to the One, True, Living God. In the end, evil simply isn’t even a match for God. And here is the thing for us, men. God has given us example after example after example in his Word. We simply will not have an excuse. The master playbook for our existence is and always has been right there in front of us…story after story…same theme…same result. Evil gets crushed. Those who genuinely love God, He carries them…ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL!
Our human existence is not rocket science. There is no great unknown to uncover in the grand scheme of things. There is no grand epiphany yet to be discovered that will explain to us who we are, why we are here, and where we are going when the short-lived physical casing we live in (our body) dies. Our soul has a purpose and we were created! Sure, there are things in our existence to explore and discover, but the Truth in all of it remains the same. Instead of trying to replace God, we instead, should keep God at the center of our lives and realize the things to explore and discover are things HE has given us to find. These are gifts given to us while we are here in the physical living, not things to find as a replacement for Him. Our soul and our eternity is no mystery. This has been spelled out and given to us. Also, given to us are the rewards that result with God at the center of our lives and the consequences of sin and death when we reject him. Yes, it is that black and white. Once we venture away from that clear foundation God gives us in his Word, we then allow Satan to muddy the waters with sin and deception to carry us away from God. It’s a sick game. It’s a gravely serious game. It is a game playing for keeps which is our soul and our eternity! It has ETERNAL consequences!
NOW IS THE TIME! REAL MEN STEP FORWARD! Men, I believe it starts with us. When we decide to try and replace God with the very fascinating hidden gems in exploration and discover that He gave us to uncover, we are in trouble. Look what happens time after time after time in the Bible for those who cling to their relationship with God and those who don’t. Those who don’t – death and destruction. Those who do – ultimately comes reward and prosperity!
Now please understand what I am saying here. I am not saying that if you have a relationship with God that means no trouble at all will come your way. Don’t misunderstand this. I am talking about the reward and prosperity at the finish line, not the journey! The journey will come with its struggles. It is in those struggles that your relationship with God will grow stronger. Without the struggles, we, in our human failure, would just push God away thinking we don’t need him. So again, this is not prosperity preaching here. That is not Biblical. If you look at all the stories preserved in the Bible, the struggles are there and they are real. But the outcome is the same for those who don’t give up God in their life and that is…TRIUMPH AND ULTIMATE VICTORY!
Now, even though these stories and themes are for every human being, both men and women, the reason I called this series what I did is to encourage men to be better. This includes me. We must be stronger men. To be the leaders we are called to be and to be the leaders we are shown we should be. Men, we should be in this boat together. This isn’t preaching to YOU, this is preaching to US! The Bible is the greatest-selling book of ALL TIME. God has laid this out for us so clearly and has not allowed anything to snuff out his Word to us. No evil empires, no wicked deeds, and no act of Satan have been able to eliminate God’s Word from us. All through the ages, God’s revelation to us has been here all along. When this life is over, if you have chosen to reject God the rush of regret that you will have when you realize you missed it and now have nothing but eternal consequences that can’t be overturned…I can’t even accurately describe in words how horrible this will be! As you did that, the God who has always been was right there in front of you in clear sight the whole time. From giving us his Word, proofs shown in creation, lives that have been changed, miracles that do happen, and on and on…to the underdog stories that prove that you can have the strength to overcome the odds…we will simply have no excuse.
Men, we have to be the leaders God has bestowed on us. The stakes are not just too high, there are no stakes HIGHER! This I promise you. If you are reading this, I plead with you to consider God if you haven’t already. And if you have then I hope this encourages you in your walk with our God.
As I write this, I wonder if I preached too much here. Maybe I did, and if you feel that way, I can’t say that I am sorry. My goal is to reach at least 1 person so I understand many might be turned off by this. But God is sovereign. If He reaches 1 person through my writing I am blessed. If He reaches more I couldn’t even put that into words how great that would be, but if He decides to reach no one and all of this falls on deaf ears, then so be it. In the end, my writing will never go in vain because of this: I still know my God is glorified. It is my worship of Him that I even write at all.
And if that makes me the underdog, well, then LET’S GO! Like underdogs before me, I know something others don’t and that is this…I know the outcome just like the underdogs that overcame did too! After all, I do have a relationship with the Game Changer…The King of kings and the Lord of lords. His record is undefeated. So, I’ll go ahead and ride with Him! As the underdog, I’ll own it. You might not want to talk to me because I might just have to pull some “trash-talk” out of the playbooks of David and Elijah and stand firm on the side of the Creator of All Things! I don’t mean that unkindly, I just mean that positively because of the confidence I have in my King. Make no mistake, He can be yours too! This I can assure you. I welcome you on this side. The confidence over here is through the roof!
May God Bless You! “Seek TRUTH, cling to HONESTY, strive for INTEGRITY” because at the end of it is THEE God waiting for you!
Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
