WEDNESDAY
This week we are beginning our first of two conference weeks in the devotionals. For these two weeks, I figured we would look at some stories of people’s encounters with the presence of God to give us some perspective on the various ways we can experience the presence of God. We will look at some biblical characters this week, and next week we will explore the stories of some believers’ encounters with God in the history of the church. In the campaign, we saw Moses experience God in various ways: daily in the tabernacle, his glory on Mt. Sinai, the 10 plagues, etc. These experiences we will add to that list.
Next, we come to Elijah’s encounter with God. In the previous chapter Elijah saw the power of God in the defeat of Baal and his prophets. God came down in fire and consumed the sacrifice and dried up the water around it. That was a powerful display of the power of God. Then Jezebel put out a hit on Elijah and swore to have him killed, so Elijah flees in fear. He escapes to Mt. Sinai with the aid of God. That’s where we pick up the story:
1 Kings 19:9–18 (NIV)
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 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.”
11 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?”
14 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.”
15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
Unlike the scenes from Mt. Sinai in the Exodus, the presence of the Lord was not in the wind and the fire. Those are certainly displays of his power, but here he is in the “gentle whisper.” This is a tricky Hebrew phrase to translate and I think the NIV does it well. It’s literally “the sound (noise) of a windless stillness; more freely, the clear, calm, motionless stillness when there is no wind.” (Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 1084.)
Elijah had already encountered God in his power through the fire. Now God encounters him in the gentle whisper, alone, in a cave on the mountain of God. This is where Elijah is recharged and emboldened to continue in his ministry.
The main point that I want us to see this week is that we encounter God in unique ways. We should not put God into a box and define the ways in which God must encounter us or only look for certain ways in which we may encounter God. God has a personality, as we do, and he can encounter us in unique ways and even in different ways at different times depending on our life situations.
Reflection
Listen for God today in the calm silence.