1 Kings 19.9-16: Elijah and the Sound of Sheer Silence

1 Kings 19.9-16: Elijah and the Sound of Sheer Silence

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt so discouraged that you wondered whether you had the strength to go on? Some of God’s most faithful people have felt this way—Jeremiah, Job, many of the psalmists, St. Paul—and even Jesus.

St. Paul wrote that he was so utterly, unbearably crushed that he despaired of life itself (2 Corinthians 1:9).

And Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, told his disciples: “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death!” And we read that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.”.

Today I want to tell you about one of my heroes of the Old Testament who became so despondent that he prayed to God to take away his life.

But he had a remarkable experience that gave him the strength to go on.

The hero I want to tell you about is Elijah.

Elijah was a prophet who lived in Israel about 850 years before Jesus was born.

During this time Ahab was King of Israel. Ahab was one of the worst kings ever to rule over Israel. But Ahab had a wife who was even more wicked than he was. Her name was Jezebel.

Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Sidon, a nation north of Israel.

Jezebel was not only a princess; she was also a priestess of the god Baal.

So when she came to Israel, she persuaded King Ahab to make an altar for her god Baal.

Jezebel then invited priests of Baal to come to Israel to teach the Israelites to worship Baal instead of the Lord.

You may remember the story of how Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel to see which god was the stronger.

The 450 prophets of Baal built an altar to their god on Mt. Carmel, arranged the wood on the altar, and put upon it a bull for their sacrifice.

Then Elijah built an altar to the God of Israel, arranged the wood and put his bull on it.

The 450 prophets of Baal called on their god to come down with fire and burn the sacrifice.

They pled from morning until afternoon and even cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out of them, but Baal didn’t answer.

Then Elijah said to the people, “Come near to me.” He had four jars filled with water and poured on the sacrifice and the wood—to make the miracle even more spectacular.

Elijah called on his God, and immediately fire came down and burnt the sacrifice—and the stones—and the dust—and even licked up the water in the trench.

The people were so amazed that they cried out: “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

But Jezebel wasn’t pleased. She swore that she would kill Elijah.

She sent a message to Elijah informing him of her intentions.

I. So Elijah had no time to savor his victory over the prophets of Baal.

A. To save his life, Elijah took two long journeys that took him far from his native land and from Queen Jezebel.

First, Elijah went to Beersheba—a city in the far south of the country.

1 Kings 19:1-8:

[Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.”

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.”

And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Elijah was so discouraged he wanted to die.

When Elijah said, “O Lord, take away my life!” he wasn’t asking to go to heaven.

The Israelites in those days didn’t know about heaven yet.

Elijah was praying for oblivion. He was really discouraged.

But the food and water the angel brought him must have been nourishing, because on the strength of that food and drink, Elijah continued on his journey south for 40 days across the desert of Sinai to Mt. Horeb.

Horeb is another name for Mt. Sinai, the mountain on which Moses received the 10 Commandments.

B. When Elijah got to the Mt. Horeb, he found refuge in a cave.

1 Kings 19:9-15:

And there he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken the covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away.”

And the Lord said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.”

And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind, an earthquake, but he Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still, small voice.

And when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his cloak…”

He hid his face in his cloak, because—as everyone knew—no one can’t look God in the face and live.

Then God asked his question again: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And Elijah told the Lord how zealous he had been in serving the Lord, and how the people hadn’t listened but had torn down the altars and killed the prophets, and that it was only a matter of time before they caught up with him.

Then the Lord gave Elijah his instructions and Elijah set out on the mission that would take him to the end of his life.

You will probably remember pictures of the chariot of fire that appeared when Elijah ascended into heaven in a whirlwind.

You’ve heard the song, “Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.”

II. For me, the most instructive part of the story is what happened just after God called him out of the cave.

A. At the mouth of the cave Elijah witnessed three spectacular events.

First, Elijah saw and heard a terrific wind—such a wind as broke rocks into pieces. I suppose that the wind was such that it set rocks tumbling down the mountainside. I can’t imagine such a wind. But God didn’t speak in the wind.

Next came an earthquake. But God wasn’t in the earthquake.

Then Elijah came a blazing fire. But God wasn’t in the fire.

Now this is interesting, because when Moses came down the same mountain after speaking with God, God answered him with thunder, and fire, and the whole mountain quaked. Evidently, God spoke to Moses in these spectacular events. But he chose another way to reveal himself to Elijah.

B. What came to Elijah was “still, small voice.” This is the most common translation of the Hebrew phrase.

But people who know Hebrew tell us that a better translation is: “a sound of sheer silence.”

But what could “a sound of sheer silence” be?

Is it a gentle murmuring whisper?

Or is it maybe no sound at all but the total quiet that came after the terrific wind, earthquake, and fire?

We don’t know what Elijah “heard,” with his ears—maybe he himself didn’t know—but we do know that in that “sound of sheer silence,” Elijah had a deep experience of God’s presence.

He was overwhelmed by the presence of God.

And so he was ready to complete his mission.

Oh sure, as I told you, he was still distressed about his plight, but when God gave him instructions, he obeyed and finished the rest of his life strong.

APPLICATION

So what is the lesson from this story for you and me?

We are not Elijah. We are not prophets. We are not mighty people of God.

But we also have work to do, and we also get discouraged.

I suggest that one thing we can learn from he story is that God is in the silences as well as in the spectacular events.

And usually it is in the silences that God makes himself known to us.

I have never heard a voice from heaven.

I have never heard God’s voice.

But I have felt God to be with me.

In silence I have found the strength to go forward.

In silence I have gained sudden insights about the course ahead.

In silence I have felt that God was with me, sheltering me, protecting me, showing the way, giving me light.

God usually reveals himself to us in the quiet spaces of life.

When you are lying in bed at night, wakeful, wishing you could go to sleep, remember that God is with you.

Turn your thoughts to God—not anxiously, but with thankfulness…with your questions…your memories…your requests other people.

In the quietness, think of yourself as resting…resting in the arms of Jesus. Letting him love you.

And when anxious thoughts come crowding in, quiet your heart and say to yourself: “I’m resting in Jesus…resting in Jesus…resting in Jesus.”

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 62 expressed it this way:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation…

For God alone my soul waits in silence,

for my hope is from him.

(Psalm 62:1 and 5)

A beautiful hymn says it like this—

Come to my heart, Lord, like dew gently falling;

Scatter my darkness like breaking of day.

Now in the stillness I list’ for thy calling,

Ready to hear thy small voice as I pray.

Not in the fire, nor yet in the earthquake,

Here but do whisper and I will obey.

(R. Woods)