Friday, June 14, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Elijah and the still, small voice
Elijah didn’t stop in Beersheba. He left his servant and headed into the desert. His body and mind were exhausted after the incredible 100 mile journey from Jazreel. Elijah’s spirit remained, and God guided him.
He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord, please take my life.
God listens, but suggests another way. Angels come and minister to God’s friend Elijah.
Get up and eat, the angel said. There by his head was bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate, he drank, and he lay down again to sleep.
We are, all of us, God’s friends. God will minister to us just like this, although we might think we have to heat up the bread ourselves. Get some sleep. Eat some food. Drink some water. Drink some more water. When I do this, I feel better. God made my body and he knows how to take care of it.
When I feel forsaken and in despair, God says, “Eat.” Nourished, my spirit awakens.
The angel returned a second time. “Get up and eat.” So Elijah got up and ate and drank. Strengthened, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. He went into a cave and spent the night.
It has been six weeks since God answered Elijah’s prayer and sent fire down to chasten the prophets of Ba-al. Elijah got ahead of God and slaughtered those men, those misguided children, and he has been running ever since, afraid of Jezebel and eventually afraid even of his own shadow. Afraid even of Yahweh. After being God’s friend, God’s prophet, and God’s son, now he is afraid of his own Father.
What are you doing here, Elijah?
You would ask me that, wouldn’t you? And you insist that I tell you, don’t you? I am afraid to speak, I am afraid even to open my mouth.
I have been very zealous for you, Lord. But all are gone, and I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.
Stand up on your feet, Elijah. God ignores Elijah’s fear and self-pity. I’m coming, God said. Come out of that cave and wait for me.
A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. But the Lord was not in the wind.
Okay, I think that’s enough. Are you making fun of me? I’ll just go back in the cave now. Maybe an angel will heat me some bread. Elijah did not move. He sat still, waiting.
After the wind there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
Elijah kept on sitting there. Still as a churchmouse, hoping for more baked bread. He had no idea what else to do. God did say he would be passing by.
Right?
After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
In fact not Yahweh, but Satan. The devil was in the fire, wasn’t he? And the devil tore up rocks in the earthquake, and the devil sighed in the great and powerful wind. Pay attention to ME, the devil screamed. I am Satan, the great and powerful. Who are you?
I am Elijah, the small and meek.
After the fire there came a gentle whisper. A still small voice. Silence inhabited. Elijah heard God in the quiet. He covered his face with his cloak, went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
My friend had a moment like this at the end of our talk yesterday. She asked me, “You can feel it, can’t you? God is all over us right now. He is pouring in, and I am so happy.” Sitting just a few feet away, I noticed a ring my cup was making on the table. I heard the fan blowing. I felt happy for her.
Sometimes, I guess, God touches one of us but not the next. God gets to do that, since He’s in charge, the Maker.
What are you doing here, Elijah?
That question pursued Elijah, and it pursues me. What AM I doing here? I am listening, Lord. Give me ears to hear. Elijah ranted again about how bad things were. And this time, Yahweh sent Elijah to anoint his replacement. As the angel had told Elijah earlier, “This journey is too much for you.”
Go back to Damascus. Anoint Hazael as king of Aram. Anoint Jehu as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha as prophet to succeed you. These men will kill many, yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel for myself.
This journey is too much for all of us. We yearn for our original blessing, but we have lost our way. We were not made to live and then die, mortal and full of painful years. But we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life, and so we do all live and then die, and the journey is too much for us.
Still, on occasion in this mean time the angel bids us eat, drink, lie down to sleep. And the Lord makes us dwell in safety.
(1 Kings 19, Psalm 27, Philippians 2, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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