The still small voice on election day

Today the world waits as the US elects their next president. Amid the noise, the shouting, the accusations and the rage, we need to listen to a quieter voice. Here’s a word of hope from Tim Chester’s Advent devotional, The One True Story, to help focus our hearts and minds. God can and will work in our nations. But perhaps not in the way we expect…

What would you like God to do in your nation? What would you like him to do in your neighbourhood or family?

Tear through your neighbourhood with great power? Shake things up in your family? Purge the nation of evil? The prophet Elijah would have settled for any of those options. But what he got was a gentle whisper and a question.

Elijah’s contest at Mount Carmel is one of the highpoints of the Bible story. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest. Both will ask their God to send down fire on an altar. The prophets of Baal get nowhere. Then it’s Elijah’s turn. But first he makes things harder for himself by having his altar drenched in water, just so there can be no doubt about what is to follow. When he prays, God answers with fire. The Lord wins hands down and the people execute the prophets of Baal.

But just when Elijah thinks he’s carried the day, he gets a message from Queen Jezebel threatening his death (1 Kings 19 v 2). Elijah hits the road. Is he running in fear? Or is he after a showdown with God? His reasons are not made clear to us, but either way he ends up at Mount Horeb.

"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 gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." (1 Kings 19 v 11-13)

Baal was a nature god. But the true God is very different. He can send a wind or earthquake or fire. But he’s not a wind or an earthquake or a fire. He’s not in nature. He’s above nature. He’s not some impersonal force we encounter in creation’s beauty or power. God is a personal God. He’s three persons: Father, Son and Spirit, living in eternal community and open to community with us. That’s the point of the gentle whisper. God speaks. Winds don’t speak. Only persons speak.

God tears apart mountains and shatters rocks in verse 11. But with Elijah nursing his bruises, God is gentle—as gentle as a whisper. He comes near through his word to restore Elijah’s soul.

Twice God asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (v 9, 13) Why has Elijah come to Mount Horeb—or Mount Sinai as it’s better known? Let’s recap. This is what had previously happened at Mount Sinai:

"Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently." (Exodus 19 v 18)

Now God has recreated this moment for Elijah.

At Mount Sinai, Moses had asked to see God’s glory. So God said he would “pass by” and proclaim his name (Exodus 33 v 19, 22). Now he uses the same expression with Elijah (1 Kings 19 v 11). Moreover verse 9 literally says God brought Elijah to “the cave”—the cave on the mountain where God hid Moses to show his glory and reveal his Name:

"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…" (Exodus 34 v 6)

The revelation of God’s glory was not in the might of the wind or fire. It was in the gentle whisper of his Name.

“Compassionate and gracious … slow to anger, abounding in love.” This is the true glory of God.

“Compassionate and gracious … slow to anger, abounding in love.” This is the true glory of God.

God tells Elijah to anoint Hazael, Jehu and Elisha. Hazael and Jehu will be instruments of divine judgment. Israel as a nation will die. And “yet” (v 18), God will save a remnant, the seeds of a new beginning. The nation will be reborn.

In Elijah’s day, there were just 7,000 who were faithful to God. At other stages of Israel’s history, there may have been many fewer. And in the end, the faithful people of God came down to just one single person—Jesus. All his disciples abandoned him and he alone was left. Then he died and the faithful people of God died with him. There was no one left.

But three days later he rose again. And we rise with him. The people of God are reborn.

God triumphs through a faint whisper. God himself in the person of his Son hangs on a Roman cross. The weight of his body would have made breathing difficult. His mouth is dry. Every breath is a struggle. Then, in what must have been the faintest of whispers, he says, “It is finished” (John 19 v 30). To the world it is the finish of a life. But Jesus is declaring the finish of a plan. This is God’s victory. This is God’s glory. This dying whisper is the ultimate revelation of God. This is how God is known.

It’s at the cross that we see “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”

Maybe Elijah was hoping for “a great and powerful wind” to tear through Israel to shatter God’s enemies. But God was not in the wind. Maybe Elijah was hoping for an earthquake to shake things up and usher in a new regime. But God was not in the earthquake. Maybe Elijah was hoping for a fire to purge God’s people. But God was not in the fire.

Instead Elijah got a gentle whisper and a question: “What are you doing here?” God makes himself known not through winds, quakes or fire, but through the testimony of 7,000 people, some hiding in caves (18 v 4; 19 v 18).

If Elijah wants to see God at work, then he must return from Sinai to the chaos and threat of messy life in Israel, and lift up his voice, however faint and lonely it may seem.

How will God reveal himself in your neighbourhood, or your nation? Through a gentle whisper. Through your gentle whisper of gospel hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus. How could you get started with that this Christmas?

Meditate

"What are you doing here?" (1 Kings 18 v 9, 13)

O Word of God incarnate,
O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth unchanged, unchanging,
O Light of our dark sky:
We praise you for the radiance
That from the Scripture’s page,
A lantern to our footsteps,
Shines on from age to age.
(From “O Word of God incarnate” by William Walsham How)

Prayer

O heavenly Father,
the author and fountain of all truth,
the bottomless sea of all understanding,
send, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit into our hearts,
and lighten our understandings
with the beams of thy heavenly grace.
We ask this, O merciful Father,
for the sake of thy dear Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
(Bishop Nicholas Ridley)

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