In First Kings, chapter eighteen, verse thirty-eight, the Lord miraculously provided fire to consume the sacrifice, as in First Chronicles, twenty-one, verse twenty-six, and Second Chronicles seven, verse one, respectively. The miracle vindicated Elijah as God’s prophet and proved that Israel’s Lord alone was the living God they were to serve. Similarly, believers should pray for and expect the manifestations of God’s Spirit and power.
And not only, as at other times, consumed the sacrifice and the wood, in token of God’s acceptance of the offering, but licked up all the water that was in the trench, exhaling and drawing it up as a vapor, to descend (with other water, to be raised from the adjoining sea) in the intended rain, which was to be the fruit of this sacrifice and prayer, more than the product of natural causes. And this was not all. The miracle was complete fire consumed the stones of the altar and the very dust to show that it was no ordinary fire and perhaps to intimate that though God accepted this occasional sacrifice from this altar, for the future, they ought to demolish all the altars on their high places, and for their constant loss. They should make use of that at Jerusalem only. The consecration of the altar of Moses and Solomon was by fire from heaven, but this sacrifice received consummation. Since it was to be in use no more, we may well imagine what a terror this fire struck on guilty Ahab and all the worshippers of Baal and how they fled from it as far and as fast as they could, saying, in their hearts, Lest it consume us also, as in Numbers sixteen, verse thirty-four. The fire of the Lord fell to show that He is God and no one else.