“Perhaps he is asleep” is what Elijah said to the prophets of Baal when their god did not answer. He was laughing at them. He meant: “Your god does not hear you. Maybe he is sleeping, and you must wake him up!” The true God never sleeps.
What is this page about?
The story is in the Bible, in 1 Kings chapter 18. The man who writes this site asks a question about it. He is not saying that Christians today worship Baal. Christians worship the true God. His question is about the way we worship.
Baal, prophet, worship
Baal was a false god. Many people in Israel worshipped him in Elijah’s time. A prophet is a person who speaks for a god. Worship means praising God, praying to him, and listening to him, often together in church.
The writer asks two questions.
- The prophets of Baal worshipped in one way. Elijah worshipped in another way. Which way is more like much worship today?
- Can the way we worship teach something about God, even when we use God’s true name?
This page is not about music styles, like old hymns or new songs, organs or guitars. It does not judge whether people really love God.
The first way · this page holds it
Answering GodGod has already spoken and promised to be with us. In worship we receive what he gives, and we answer him. God acts first. We respond.
The second way · this page tests it
Trying to make God comeGod is not here yet. We must bring him near. If nothing happens, we try harder, sing longer and shout louder. We act first, and we hope God will respond.
Six points
- The two groups on the mountain did opposite things. The prophets of Baal tried harder and harder. Elijah prayed a short prayer and trusted God.
- Elijah said their god might be asleep. That was a joke. But it shows what they believed: that their god had to be woken up. The Bible says our God never sleeps.
- Saying words again, or praising loudly, is not wrong. The Bible does both. The question is why we do it.
- The real difference is purpose. Are we answering a God who has already come to us? Or are we trying to make him come?
- The Bible warns about using God’s name in a wrong way of worship. When Israel made a golden calf, they called it “a feast to the LORD.”
- This does not prove anyone worships a false god. But the way we worship can teach things about God.
This is my own opinion. Sometimes in church we sing one song again and again. The leader says, “God is about to move. Press in harder!” The music gets louder each time. I believe the people in the room love God. But I ask: if our God never sleeps, why are we trying to wake him?
I do not think the difference is between loud and quiet, or old and new. It is between a church that believes God has already come to it, and a church that believes it must bring him down.
The story on Mount Carmel
Israel had no rain for three years. The king, Ahab, and his wife, Jezebel, worshipped Baal. There were 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah was the LORD’s prophet. He said to the people:
How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.
1 Kings 18:21 · World English Bible
In simple words: You cannot follow two gods. Choose the true one.
Elijah made a test. Each side would put a bull on wood, with no fire. Each side would pray. The God who answered with fire was the true God. Everyone agreed.
What the prophets of Baal did
They … called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, and nobody answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.
1 Kings 18:26 · World English Bible
In simple words: From morning to midday they shouted, “Baal, hear us!” Nobody answered. They danced around their altar.
Then they shouted louder. They cut themselves with knives until they were bleeding. They went on like this, wildly, until the evening. But nothing happened.
What Elijah did
- He repaired an old altar of the LORD. He did not make a new kind of altar.
- He used twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel.
- He poured water on the bull and the wood, three times. Everything was very wet.
- He waited until the time of the evening offering. This was the time God had set in his law.
- He prayed a short prayer.
Then Yahweh’s fire fell, and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, “Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God!”
1 Kings 18:38–39 · World English Bible
In simple words: God sent fire. It burned up everything, even the water. The people bowed down and said, “The LORD is God!”
Both groups wanted fire. The prophets of Baal tried harder and harder. Elijah obeyed God, prayed once, and let God act.
Saying the same words again and again
The prophets of Baal said the same three words for hours: “Baal, hear us!” Jesus taught about this kind of prayer:
In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.
Matthew 6:7–8 · World English Bible
In simple words: Do not think that God will hear you because you say many words. God already knows what you need.
But the Bible itself repeats words. Psalm 136 says “his loving kindness endures forever” in every verse. Jesus prayed the same words three times in the garden before he died (Matthew 26:44).
So what is different? In Psalm 136, each line remembers something God did. The repeated words answer God. On Mount Carmel, God had not done anything. The prophets repeated words to make something happen.
Two ways to start the same song. First: “Let’s keep singing this until we feel God come into the room.” Second: “Let’s sing this again, because it tells what God has done.” The song is the same. What it teaches about God is different.
Saying words again is not wrong. Saying words again to make God listen is wrong, because God already listens.
Dancing before God answers, or after?
The prophets of Baal danced around their altar to get an answer. The Bible also tells about good dancing:
David danced before Yahweh with all his might.
2 Samuel 6:14 · World English Bible
In simple words: King David danced for God with all his strength.
Look at when David danced. He danced after God had blessed a family, while the ark (the holy box of God) was carried to Jerusalem in the way God had commanded. Miriam danced after God saved Israel at the Red Sea. A man who could not walk jumped and praised God after Peter healed him (Acts 3:8).
In the Bible, good dancing comes after God acts. It is a thank-you. The prophets of Baal danced to make their god act. He never did.
Louder when nothing happens
At midday, Elijah laughed at the prophets of Baal:
Cry aloud; for he is a god. Either he is deep in thought, or he has gone somewhere, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened.
1 Kings 18:27 · World English Bible
In simple words: Shout louder! Maybe your god is busy, or away, or sleeping. Wake him up!
So they shouted louder. They cut themselves. They tried harder and harder. They believed that more effort would make their god listen. The Bible says the true God is different:
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121:4 · World English Bible
In simple words: God, who takes care of his people, never sleeps.
Press in, breakthrough
Some churches today use words like “press in” and “breakthrough.” They can mean: “Try harder, and then God will come.” This page does not say who uses these words. It only asks what they teach.
Does the Bible tell us to keep praying? Yes! Jesus told a story about a woman who kept asking a bad judge for help (Luke 18:1–8). But Jesus said God is not like that bad judge. God wants to help his people. We keep praying because God is faithful, not because we must wear him out. Elijah himself prayed seven times for rain later that day. But he did not shout or cut himself. He bowed down quietly and waited.
Trying harder and harder to make God answer is what the prophets of Baal did. It treats God as if he were asleep. Our God never sleeps.
Wild worship and calm order
In the afternoon, the prophets of Baal went into a wild state. They could not control what they said or did. This was part of how they tried to reach their god.
The church in Corinth had real gifts from God’s Spirit. But Paul still told them to keep order in worship. Only one person should speak at a time. If visitors came in and saw everyone out of control, they would think the church was crazy (1 Corinthians 14:23).
God is not a God of confusion, but of peace … Let all things be done decently and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:33, 40 · World English Bible
In simple words: God brings peace, not confusion. Do everything in worship in a good and orderly way.
Strong feelings in worship are not wrong. But strong feelings do not prove that God is there. A teacher called Jonathan Edwards lived about 280 years ago. He saw a great revival in his time. He wrote that very strong feelings are “no sign one way or the other.” They do not show that God is working. They also do not show that he is not.
Feelings are good, but they cannot be the goal of worship. They do not prove that God has come.
The old altar and the right time
Elijah did not make up a new way to worship. He repaired the old altar of the LORD. He used twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel. Moses had done this at Mount Sinai. Joshua did it at the river Jordan, so that children would ask, “What do these stones mean?” (Joshua 4:21).
Elijah also waited for the right time. God’s law said to give an offering every morning and every evening. Elijah prayed at the time of the evening offering. The prophets of Baal had shouted all day, until that time. Elijah prayed at that time.
Later, the apostles kept the same times. Peter and John went to the temple “at the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1). A very early Christian book, the Didache, told Christians to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.
Liturgy
A liturgy is a set order for a church service. It is often made from Bible words, like “Lord, have mercy” and the Lord’s Prayer. Churches hand it down from one generation to the next.
Elijah used God’s old altar and God’s set time. He did not invent his own method.
A short prayer and a lot of water
Elijah’s prayer is short. In English it has about 60 words. You can say it in half a minute.
Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.
1 Kings 18:36–37 · World English Bible
In simple words: God of our fathers, show that you are the true God. I am only your servant. I did what you told me. Answer me, so the people will know you, and so they will turn back to you.
Look at the prayer. It is all about God: his promises, his word, and his glory. Elijah asks nothing for himself, except to be known as God’s servant.
Before he prayed, Elijah poured lots of water on the altar. Why? So that nobody could say, “Elijah started the fire himself.” He made sure everyone would know that only God did it.
Some churches today do the opposite. They make the room dark, use special lights and smoke, and make the music build slowly. These things make people feel strong feelings, whether God is working or not. That does not mean God is not there. It means the feelings cannot show whether he is there.
Later, Elijah learned another lesson. God was not in a great wind, or an earthquake, or a fire. God spoke in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).
Elijah prayed a short prayer about God, and made sure that nobody could give him the credit. Then God acted.
Who does the work?
Read the story again. In the first half, the prophets of Baal do everything: they shout, dance, cut and rave. Baal does nothing. In the second half, Elijah gets ready, and then God acts: “Yahweh’s fire fell.” Then the people answer: “Yahweh, he is God!”
In the first way, people act and hope their god will answer. In the second way, God acts and people answer him.
Many old churches built their worship on the second way. Martin Luther lived about 500 years ago. He said a church is a place where God speaks to us through his Word, and we answer him in prayer and praise. God speaks first. Jesus promised:
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.
Matthew 18:20 · World English Bible
In simple words: When even two or three people meet in my name, I am there with them.
We do not need to bring Jesus into church. He has promised to be there already.
The right name, the wrong way
God warned Israel not to copy how other nations worshipped their gods:
Be careful … that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.
Deuteronomy 12:30–31 · World English Bible
In simple words: Do not worship me in the way other nations worship their false gods.
Many times in the Bible, people used God’s true name but worshipped in a wrong way:
- Israel made a golden calf. Aaron said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh” (Exodus 32:5).
- Two priests, Nadab and Abihu, offered “strange fire” that God had not commanded (Leviticus 10:1).
- King Saul offered a sacrifice to God because the people were leaving him. He did not wait for God’s prophet (1 Samuel 13:8–13).
Using God’s true name does not make every way of worship right.
Is loud worship wrong?
No! The Bible says: “Clap your hands … shout to God” (Psalm 47:1). “Praise him with loud cymbals!” (Psalm 150:5). David danced with all his might. On the day of Pentecost, the believers were so loud that some people thought they were drunk (Acts 2:13). Old church services also repeat words, like “Lord, have mercy.”
So the difference is not loud or quiet. It is why we do it.
And old, quiet worship can also go wrong. About 700 years ago, during a terrible plague, groups of people walked through towns in Europe and whipped themselves, to make God stop the plague. The Pope said this was wrong. In the same centuries, many quiet church services were held as good works to earn God’s favour. The Reformers said this was wrong too.
Loud worship can be right, and quiet worship can be wrong. What matters is this: are we answering God, who has already come? Or are we trying to make him come?
What does this show?
It does not show:
- that any church worships Baal
- that loud or emotional worship is wrong
- that one music style is better than another
- whether anyone really loves God
It does show:
- that in 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal tried to make their god act, and Elijah trusted God’s word
- that trying harder and harder treats God as if he were asleep
- that the way we worship can teach things about God
Questions to ask about worship
- Is God spoken of as already with us, because he promised?
- When words are repeated, is it to answer God, or to make a feeling?
- When nothing seems to happen, does the service get louder and longer?
- Can you tell what God did from what the music and lights did?
- Does God act first, and do we answer? Or do we act first, and hope God answers?
This is my own opinion. The title is Elijah’s joke: “Perhaps he sleeps.” The prophets of Baal had no answer. Their whole way of worship needed their god to be asleep.
Christians have a good answer. Our God is not asleep. He has spoken, and he has promised to be with us. That is why Elijah could pray a short prayer and then stop. I think the best worship, of any style, could stop at any moment and lose nothing, because it was never holding God up. You may see it differently. This page tries to help you decide for yourself.
Our God never sleeps. In worship we do not wake him up. We answer him.
Check it yourself
- Read 1 Kings 18. Make two lists: what the prophets of Baal did, and what Elijah did.
- Read Matthew 6:5–13. Why does Jesus say we do not need many words?
- Read Psalm 136. What does each repeated line remember?
- Read 1 Corinthians 14:26–40. Why does Paul want order in worship?
- Next time you are in church, notice when something is repeated or made louder. Ask: are we answering God, or trying to make something happen?
Want more?
The quick version has three short exercises. The full dossier has all the evidence and every source.
Quick version →Full dossier →Bible verses in boxes on this page come from the World English Bible, a modern translation that is free for everyone to use. In Old Testament verses it uses the name Yahweh where many Bibles write “the LORD”. Some other verses are given “in simple words”. The full dossier quotes all the verses from the Authorised (King James) Version.