Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
1 Kings 18:37
“ Hear me, O YHWH, hear me, that this people may know that you, YHWH, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”
Then he prayed that through what was about to happen as a result of his prayer, the people might know indeed that YHWH alone was God, and would know that by this means He it was His intention to turn their hearts back to Him again.
‘ Then the fire of YHWH 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.'
Then at his prayer, ‘the fire of YHWH 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'. One good lightning strike of supernatural force would be quite sufficient to bring this about, but what was mostly miraculous about it was the timing and the direction. And the significance of it was that YHWH had accepted the offering, including the water offering, and had rededicated His people to Himself (by consuming the stones which represented them, and the burnt offering which also represented them). Lightning as the precursor of rain was common around Palestine, although not such lightning as this.
‘ And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, “YHWH, he is God, YHWH, he is God.” '
As we might have expected, when the people who had been waiting disappointedly all day for Baal to act, saw this amazing event, they were astounded and ‘fell on their faces' (compare Leviticus 9:24). They knew now that they were on holy ground. And now they could be in no doubt of the truth and cried out, ‘YHWH, He is God, YHWH, He is God. They would never see things in quite the same way again. YHWH had been vindicated before their very eyes.
‘ And Elijah said to them, “Take the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape.” And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.'
Then Elijah commanded the ecstatic people to seize the prophets of Baal who had proved themselves to be false prophets, and let not one escape. And the crowd seized them and marched them down to the brook Kishon at the foot of Carmel where Elijah had them put to death. They had proved themselves to be false prophets, and the Law required that such be put to death. We are not told what happened to the prophets of Asherah. They would not have been directly involved, and may have prudently slipped away when they saw the failure of their counterparts.