the Small Still Voice

" came a small still voice" 

The Great Prophet Elijah  faithfully proclaimed the word of the Lord God to the people of Israel while it was under the rule of King Ahab and his pagan Priestess wife Jezebel. Many in the land of Israel were turning away from the God of their Fathers, Abrahan, Issac and Jacob. Elijah's ministry is recounted in the Holy Scriptures in the Book of 1 Kings.

The people were forsaking the very Covenant which the Lord God had established with Israel and were ,thru the influence of Jezebel,  profaning themselves in the worship of lifeless idols and the worship of Baal and Asherah.

Even Jezebel's name, which is best translated as "where is the prince?" , this ceremonial phrase is drawn from ritualistic shout of the priest of Baal during their sacrifices to Baal in the times when Baal was thought to be in the "underworld".

King Ahab was weak and ineffective leader who Jezebel manipulated to her own ends and the advancement of the "gods" whom she worshiped. Ahab even commissioned the building of a temple dedicated to the "god" Baal to be erected in order to please Jezebel.Ahab and Jezebel are described in Scripture  as "having done evil in the sight of the Lord".

Baal, who is worshiped as a "god" of nature who sends rain is proven powerless when the Lord God declares that the  rain would be with held due to Israel's continued idolatry and not even due would appear upon the land.

"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said unto Ahab: 'As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."1Kings:17:1

Elijah

In the midst of the Israel and the declining spiritual condition of the nation the Prophet Elijah,who's name means "Yahweh is my God",  lifts his voice with power and  speaks the word of God admonishing and correcting the people encouraging them to return to their God and to be faithful to the Lord who set them free and established them in the land.

Elijah is bold in his proclamations and and challenges all , from Ahab and Jezebel,  her prophets and priest, and the common people to forsake the demon "gods" which have no power and return to the Lord.

Elijah's challenges is so powerful that when Elijah approaches Ahab calls Elijah "the troubler of Israel" .1Kings:18:16b-17

 Mount Caramel

The situation confrontation  within Israel and between Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel comes to a powerful juncture when Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to assemble upon Mount Caramel in northern Israel to determine who is and who is not God. Whether Baal is God or the Lord is God.

“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” (18-20)

Here at the summit of Mount Caramel, Elijah the Prophet of the Lord God challenges not Ahab and Jezebel but the very prophets and priest of Baal. Defeating them thru a display of the very power of God as the fire of the power of God consumes Elijah's water drenched offering and the stone alter on which it has been offered causing the assembled crowd to declare that "the Lord is God" . 1Kings:18:22-40

This display of power leads to the execution of the prophets and priest of Baal thru an order issued thru Elijah.

In to the Wilderness

However, even after so great a display of the power of God and the great victory which the Lord had given to Elijah, we find that conditions did not develop as Elijah as hoped. The Prophet had anticipated a more profound result in the land after his victory, but little had changed.

Ahab then  issues a warrant calling for the arrest and death of Elijah. Elijah now finds things difficult in Israel and with government now searching for the Prophet he falls into a state of discouragement and self-pity , he then becomes fearful and attempts to elude the authorities.

"Elijah was afraid and ran for his life." 1Kings:19:3

Elijah, sitting under a Juniper tree  in the Wilderness of Judah ,  in his despondency  sleeps. The Lord sends and angel to awaken him and there he finds food and water which have been made ready for him Here the Prophet is fed by the Lord .

Then the Prophet departs the Judean Wilderness and after a forty day journey Elijah and his way to Mount Horab, that is Sinai,  the Mountain of God , where the Lord God had enacted the Covenant with Israel,  and here Elijah and enters a cave.

 Alone , Elijah sits in a cave and ponders the events which brought him to this point. He had witnessed the power of God displayed,  the people cried out to declaring that the Lord was God , the prophets and priest of Baal were slain , rain fell from the heavens and the three year drought was broken  , he had been given a great victory,  and the Lord used him mightily.

Elijah had expected a profound transformation in the nation, yet , Ahab issued an arrest warrant and threatened the Prophets life,  little had changed in the land.

Now the Prophet sits in cave alone and disheartened in the Wilderness wondering what would happen.

Display of Power-The Small Still Voice

As Elijah sits alone in the Cave of Horab, the Lord speaks to him in a small  still voice.

"What are you doing here, Elijah?" 1Kings:19:9b

Elijah's responds in a tone despondency and of self-pity.

"He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” (10)

Elijah  is told to go out of the cave and to see the Lord  passing by. As the Prophet stands upon the mountain side he wittiness a display of power as the "Lord passes by" .

"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. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a small still voice. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (11-13)

The Prophet see's a great display of the power of God, Wind, Shaking of the Earth, and Fire.  Yet , the narrative tells us that the "Lord was not in"  these great displays. These great manifestations of power are then  followed by "a small still voice".

After  manifestation of power the Lord address Elijah asking him "what are doing here, Elijah?"

 Elijah, still focused upon himself answers.  

 “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” (14)

 Go Your Way

The Lord responds that there is still work for the Prophet to undertake, to not be entrapped by self-pity and self focus, but to be going and doing the work that the Lord had called him to do and that he is not alone in his service to God. (15-18)

John the Baptist in The Spirit of Elijah

We are told in the prophetic words of the Scripture that before the coming of the Messiah there would be another to proceed him, this one was to come in the very spirit of the Great Prophet Elijah preparing the way for the Lord.

"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."Mal:4:5-6

Before our Lord Jesus came forward and began his public ministry John the Baptist or "Baptizer", lifted  up his voice there upon the banks of that Jordan , declaring that a transformation was under way, that the long sought for Messiah was about to appear and imploring the people to repent and return to their God just as Elijah had done.

John was facing the Ahab and Jezebel  of his day, that is , Herod Antipas and his adulterous "wife" Herodias,  and a host of "religious" leaders who were using their position for their own gain and status at the expense of the people.

 " Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."…Matt:3:1-2

 John's preaching indites both Herod and the religious leaders calling them a "brood of vipers".

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (7)
 
As we look carefully at John's words we see that he believed that there would be sweeping and profound changes at the coming of the Messiah .

The Baptist utilizes  Apocalyptic images of the "ax" , "wrath" , "fire" , the "winnowing fork", the "threshing floor", and the "burning of chaff" and "unquenchable fire" in his preaching which reveals John's belief that the Messiah and his kingdom would come in great power and  demonstrations of that power  radically altering the lives and of each and all and remove the burden of oppression off of the people and cast out those who misrule them, and thereby finally establishing the relationship which God had always intended to have with Israel.


"The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (10-12)

John saw the coming as an Apocalyptic event , an event accompanied by great and transformation power.

 This is the One

John witnesses the the divine signs indicating the Jesus is the very one whom all have been awaiting and the one who's coming John was in preparation for.

John see's there at the Baptism of Jesus the open heavens, the decent of the Spirit and the voice of God all confirming the Messiah ship of Jesus.

"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (16-17)

John's preaching had unnerved the religious leaders  and indited Herod, he has seen the glory of God, and the coming of the Messiah and knew that the kingdom had come, yet that Messiah did not act as John had anticipated.

John, like Elijah , had expected something profoundly different from God. The Messiah did not raise an army and go forth with sword in hand leading jubilant followers to the overthrow of  Herod and the cleansing of the Temple casting out of the "religious" leaders and the establishment of Israel as the greatest nation upon the Earth. 

John not only finds his Apocalyptic hopes unfulfilled,  that is, as he understood them. John is then arrested as Ahab had hoped to do to the Prophet Elijah centuries earlier.

John finds himself imprisoned in the cave of the dungeon of Herod's palace, and there in the darkness the Baptist  has time to think.

Nothing had happened in the way which John believed that they would.

Jesus, the  Messiah,  fulfills none of John's Apocalyptic hopes in the way that John believed that he  would. John had anticipated what Elijah saw in the Wilderness at Horab, Wind, The Shaking of the Earth and Fire.

There was not great wind to shatter rock and stone, nor the shaking of the Earth which rent the land in two nor was there fire which consumed the chaff of oppression and hypocrisy.

John is perplexed and  sends some of his disciples  to Jesus asking him to make sense of his failed Apocalyptic hopes.

John had known that Jesus was God's anointed Messiah but he anticipated something different from Jesus. The Baptist had hoped that all the prophecies would now come to pass, but Jesus' ministry seemed outside of his anticipations.

"Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?" Matt:11:2-3

 Jesus' answer is more like the "small still voice" which spoke to Elijah rather the ,wind, earthquake and fire.

"Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.…"(4-5)

  The Small Still Voice

Jesus brought what may rather be seen as a "small still voice". Jesus brought not the call to an Apocalyptic war in the establishment of God's Kingdom, but  rather the kingdom established thru his acts of love , healing and proclamation of God's forgiveness for any who will but freely receive it.

The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that it is thru Jesus that God now speaks to us.

"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.…" Heb:1:1-2

Jesus' acts of mercy , love, grace, healing had and have, far more power than any wind , or earthquake or fire could ever have. Jesus calls out to as the very embodiment of that "small still voice" who speaks to all humanity of the love which our Creator God has for us and his desire that we know him and come to accept the salvation accomplished for us thru Jesus ,in his life, death and resurrection.

Jesus speaks to us as the very embodiment of the "small still voice" of God who relentlessly speaks to us about God's love, even when we desire to see wind, earthquake and fire. 

  There is great lesson for each and all of us;when we come to believe in Jesus Christ and see him for who he is as the very holy Son of God ,we often hope for great Apocalyptic displays of divine power which will radically transform the landscape of our lives and others.

This can be especially true  in our own  lives or ministries ,  when the Lord uses us in a great way, we see the power of God and we may feel that our lives are about to be  launch in a given direction, we may see ourselves being used by God to undertake great things, we have hopes and anticipations as did Elijah and John, yet when these anticipations do not come to pass we should not as both Elijah and John fall into a state of despondency or self pity, rather all the more,  we should see what God has already done and know that there is yet work to be done and listen all the more to that "small still voice"... 

Benediction: May we each and all ever hear that "small still voice" of God embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ , today, tomorrow and forevermore Amen.


 Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor
The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.
Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org

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