1Ki 19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:11 And he 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 brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
1Ki 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1Ki 19:13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
In this passage we see Elijah again on the move. I won't go into all the details previous to these verses but what was happening was Elijah was discouraged. The Lord had just shone himself the One, True God on Mt. Carmel (1Ki 18:21-39). Elijah than slew all 400 of the prophets of baal. After the fact, Ahab king of Israel at that time, went and told queen Jezebel all that Elijah had done. When she heard she wrote a message to Elijah that said,basically, I am going to kill you just like you killed my prophets.
When Elijah heard that, he ran. This is where we pick up the story. In our passage Elijah is talking with God. First thing, God did not ask Elijah why he was there because he didn't know. He asked to let Elijah know where he was. God knew, Elijah needed to know that he was not exactly serving any purpose sitting in a cave. God had done great thing for and through him. Why was he hiding from mere humans when he had God Almighty on his side. That was just a side thought, now down to what I wanted to talk about. In the passage we see God showing Elijah just a smidgen of his awesome power. Then we see something strange, we see God using a still small voice to talk to Elijah. Just a small voice so quiet you'd miss it if you weren't listening. All of God's amazing power to create and destroy and change but yet he uses a quiet voice to speak to his servant. God wasn't in the great wind, He wasn't in the earthquake, He wasn't in the fire. He was in the still small voice. God was showing Elijah his method to reach man. God could just make man believe, snap his finger and have the President preaching like D.L. Moody in five minutes, but he doesn't. God made man with a will of his own, he didn't want a couple of robots that would serve him without question. He wanted to make a creature that could make a choice good or bad. We might not always understand God's plan, we just have to have faith and trust his decisions. As humans it is our natural tendency to want to see mighty works of God but that is just not the way it works. The next time man will see God use his power will be when man is being judged. Until then God sees fit to use his still small voice to reach us and convey to us his great love for them. One question, Are you listening?
