In Old Testament stories, the name Baalis mentioned a lot, but do you know what it means?
It is a word that was used in Canaan. It was used to refer to masters or lords, but also to false gods people invented.
Canaan’s Baal was called Hadad; it was the god of storms who, according to the Canaanites, made it rain so there would be a big harvest in the fields that had been planted. However, there was not only one, but many baals—for each phenomenon in nature, people invented a false god to worship.
Since Canaanites were the children of Israel’s neighbors, many times the Israelites forgot to worship the one true God, and believed that these baals could help them.
God always had to show them that He was the only true God.
One day, the prophet Elijah defied more than four hundred priests of Baal on a mount called Carmel. There, God showed that only He has power. Do you know how He showed it? While those hundreds of priests yelled and cried out to their false gods to send fire to light the altar, God sent fire down from heaven, but only to the altar that the prophet Elijah had built. What’s more, Elijah had made sure the altar was soaked with water, to show even more the power of the God of Israel.
Everyone acknowledged that the Lord was God and that Baal had no power and was only a statue. You can read the story in 1 Kings 18:20-40.
Praise God in your Prayer Journal, because He is the only true God.