Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. (...)So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. -1 Kings 18: 26b & 28
For some, the only thing they want to feel is pain and suffering. They revel in it, enjoy in it, bask in it, glide in it, call on it, and live in it. Pain is the biggest Asherah pole blocked within their hearts that enable them to move and think and feel as if the world will bring them a helping of their most favorite drug---pain! Because pain is never unnecessary, it will never be enough. If it involves scratching, hollering, or cutting, it doesn’t matter, as long as Baal could listen. As if Baal were pleased with the ridiculously enormous amount of pain and bloodlust they created by harming themselves.
A moment stopped, the prophet looked with ridicule. In fact, he looked at them with ridicule and pain. What was the matter with them, he thought. Why they are doing that, he thought. He could see, deeply and fiercely inside them, how they called for help, as if something inside them was floating amiss in their hearts and shuttering beyond them saying, “Please, Baal: We need you! Don’t let our failure be the cause of great scorn for your name!”
Midday passed, and then the afternoon and they were forced to extreme measures. If waking the Baal of their pain didn’t work, if pleasuring his noises with gongs and cymbals and tambourines, they were forced to slash themselves like pigs…because they needed Baal of their pain to pay them attention; because, deep inside them, they could never fathom the immense weight of their failure in honoring the Baal of their pain for something, someone, or somewhat better.
If only they knew their Comfort was so close, barely near feet away, he thought! Yet they were so obstinate in honoring their pain, comforting themselves with vicious shrouds and needless masochism if only to make a point that Baal would listen to them in vain! In vain, he thought! Yes, he mocked them, for they were looking to be mocked. But he also longed to call them to attention: their mental masturbation was futile and worthless!
If only these prophets knew they would suffer no longer…!