{"id":62752,"date":"2019-09-11T17:25:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62752"},"modified":"2023-04-05T17:29:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T14:29:21","slug":"time-for-a-nation-to-get-off-the-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/time-for-a-nation-to-get-off-the-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"Time For A Nation To Get Off The Fence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[929,858,375,384,539],"acf":{"old_id":"62752","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46656,"related_cahpter":"305","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Elijah\u2019s goal was not to prove the authenticity of a single God; his objective was to heal the nation","content":"

10 chapters ago, in chapter 8, King Solomon allowed his foreign wives to continue their practice of idol worship in his home, and he lost his kingdom for that lapse of judgement. Now a significant populace has embraced this practice, while at the same time pledging their allegiance to the one single God of the Jewish people. It takes a particular mental dexterity to have justified to themselves that there was no conflict in their dual loyalties.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this chapter, Elijah the prophet gathers the people near and asks them \u201cHow long are you going to keep hopping between two ideas (or opinions, 18:21)?\u201d Elijah makes it clear that monotheism and idol worship are mutually exclusive and tells them it\u2019s time to get off the proverbial pot. What Elijah did not say is as important as what he did say: he did not tell the people which was the better choice, just simply that a choice had to be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nation was stunned to be finally called to task and \u201cthe people said nothing (18:21).\u201d They couldn\u2019t comprehend a way forward. They had got themselves so entrenched in a mindset of dual loyalty they simply couldn\u2019t see a way out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Elijah had a plan to help them solve this quandary without imposing a decision on them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elijah lets the prophets of Baal, the idol worshippers, make their case first. They spend all morning in a frenetic attempt to arouse their gods to accept their offering, but to no avail. Using the same language as v. 21 when the Jewish people had no response to Elijah\u2019s challenge, in v. 26 \u201cthere was no voice and no answer\u201d from Baal. By late afternoon, still nothing – \u201cno voice, no answer (from Baal) and no one (from the Jewish nation) was listening (v. 29). \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

Elijah\u2019s goal was not merely to win a contest to prove the authenticity of a single God; his objective was to heal the nation. As he did at the beginning of the day, Elijah again invites the people to approach him. He doesn\u2019t go to them to gloat \u201cI told you so\u201d but instead invites the people to join him – to take the physical leap off the spiritual fence, because he knows they are now ready.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time there is not silence; this time “all the nation approached him (v.30)\u201d because they had made up their own minds.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62754,"id":62754,"title":"1kings18-fence","filename":"1kings18-fence.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/time-for-a-nation-to-get-off-the-fence\/1kings18-fence\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings18-fence","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62752,"date":"2019-09-11 14:25:03","modified":"2019-09-11 14:25:13","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":424,"height":424,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","medium_large-width":424,"medium_large-height":424,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","large-width":424,"large-height":424,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","1536x1536-width":424,"1536x1536-height":424,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","2048x2048-width":424,"2048x2048-height":424,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","post_full_size-width":424,"post_full_size-height":424,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Time For A Nation To Get Off The Fence","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Elijah\u2019s goal was not to prove the authenticity of a single God; his objective was to heal the nation","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":62754,"id":62754,"title":"1kings18-fence","filename":"1kings18-fence.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/time-for-a-nation-to-get-off-the-fence\/1kings18-fence\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings18-fence","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62752,"date":"2019-09-11 14:25:03","modified":"2019-09-11 14:25:13","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":424,"height":424,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","medium_large-width":424,"medium_large-height":424,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","large-width":424,"large-height":424,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","1536x1536-width":424,"1536x1536-height":424,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","2048x2048-width":424,"2048x2048-height":424,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence.jpg","post_full_size-width":424,"post_full_size-height":424,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings18-fence-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62755,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62752\/revisions\/62755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}