The Gentle Whisper
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
1 Kings 19:9-14
Jezebel had threatened Elijah with death and Elijah ran from Jezreel in the northern kingdom of Israel to Beersheba in the most southern part of the southern kingdom of Judah. From there, he continued his journey south to the Mount Horeb, the same mountain on which the law had been given to Moses.
What was going through Elijah’s heart? In the desert near Beersheba, Elijah expressed a desire to not continue living. At Mount Horeb God asked a simple question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 King 19:9) And the pain of Elijah’s heart poured out: “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1 Kings 19:10)
His words are almost a challenge: Elijah had been “very zealous for the LORD God Almighty” and yet God’s covenant had been broken, God’s altars broken down, God’s prophets killed with the sword. And now Elijah, God’s servant and prophet, was alone and his own life was threatened. Elijah knew that God was real, he had seen fire fall from heaven, and yet the question in his heart must have been: “Where are You?” “How could you let this happen?
Where is God? How often do we ask that question? We are told that He is always with us, but we cannot see Him. And when things go wrong, a job lost, a healthy problem detected, a relationship broken, we long for His presence.
We might wish that He would appear with fire and thunder, like a giant fireworks display, offering instant solutions. God can appear like that, but more often it is with the gentlest of whispers that God speaks to us. Then we know not just His presence, but a new understanding: Without words, that whisper tells us about our God: patient, loving, kind. Our problems might still be there, but we can face them with a different heart.
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Prayer:
• God’s whisper is often wordless, but it tells us more than words ever could.
Do you need to hear that whisper?
Turn to God in prayer. Whether it is through scripture or circumstances, or friends, trust that the whisper will come.