A Whisper

I spoke with a man from California who had recently moved to the Midwest.  “I don’t know how you people live with tornadoes!”   I said “I can hide from a tornado in the ground (basement); where do you hide from an earthquake?”

Elijah was threatened by Jezebel after she heard how all the prophets of Baal were killed – and he believed her!  So he fled to Beersheba, left his servant there, and went another day’s journey into the wilderness, and said to God  “Go ahead and kill me.”  Then he laid down under a bush and slept.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

⁷ The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. ⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night.  (1 Kings 19)

The Lord said to Elijah “What are YOU doing here?”  And Elijah said “I’ve been doing your work, but no one is listening, They tore down Your alters, and all the prophets have been killed and now they are going to kill me, too.”

Suffice it to say Elijah was a bit discouraged.  But 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?”

And Elijah said the same thing he said before:  I’m the only one left; no one listens; they tore down Your alters; they killed Your prophets; no one is left but me, and they’re going to kill me, too!

Now consider this:  A wind so strong it broke rocks; an earthquake; and a fire that most likely wasn’t a small fire; and suddenly it was completely silent.  Then the still, small voice from the Lord:

“What are you doing HERE, Elijah?”

God knows us, He knows our hearts, our fears, our strengths, our limits; but He asks us to tell Him about them; then He can guide us to the place He wants us to be, doing what HE wants us to do.