The prophet Elijah is an interesting character. He appears out of nowhere during the reign of King Ahab and then dramatically disappears some twenty-six years later as a fiery chariot whisks him off to heaven. But that is not the last that we hear of Elijah. Some eight hundred years later he reappears on a mountain with Moses to talk with Jesus. Who is this man of God?
We have just heard a portion of the Elijah story in our reading from 1st Kings. But in order to fully appreciate this story we need to back up a bit. Elijah was called by God to be a prophet to Israel during the reign of King Ahab. Now Ahab, "did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him." He took a foreign princess named Jezebel, as his wife and started worshipping the pagan god Baal, the main deity of the Ras Shamra and the Canaanites. God was so incensed by Ahab’s sins that he sent Elijah to announce that a great drought was about to descend on the land. During the drought Elijah wandered in the desert from water hole to water hole, until one day God told Elijah to return to Ahab and confront him. Upon seeing Elijah, Ahab says, "So there you are – the worst troublemaker in Israel!" Elijah pointed his finger back at Ahab and said, "You’re the troublemaker – not me! You and your family have disobeyed the Lord’s commands by worshiping Baal." He then challenged Ahab and his god to a contest of power on Mount Carmel. Elijah was so confident that he told Ahab to assemble four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal to vie with him on the mountain. Well Ahab just had to see this, and so he assembled all of Israel to witness the contest. On the mountain two bulls were killed and cut into pieces and laid on wood. The object was to see which god could start the wood on fire to consume the bull. Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first. The prophets call and cried out to Baal as they danced around the sacrifice, but nothing happened. At noon Elijah mocked them, and told them Baal must be sleeping or preoccupied. The prophets filleted themselves with swords until their blood was all over the ground.
Finally Elijah told them that it was his turn, but before he prayed he told them to soak the wood with water. They did this three times, so that even the ground was soaked. Then Elijah lifted up his hands and prayed to God to send fire down to burn the sacrifice. And God sent fire – so much that it consumed not only the wood and the bull, but even the stones that Elijah had used to build an altar for the sacrifice. Elijah then ordered that the prophets of Baal be seized and killed.
When Queen Jezebel heard what had happened she put out a contract on Elijah. When Elijah learned of this he was so afraid that he fled for his life into the wilderness. The confident prophet of God was now panic stricken.
The symbolism of going into the wilderness was that he was not only fleeing from Jezebel, but also trying to flee from God. His wish was not for the strength to face the threat, but resignation to what he perceived was inevitable. It is as if, he had already forgotten the exhibition of God’s superior power, and lost his faith and trust in God.
In the wilderness an angel appeared to him and told him to go to Mount Horeb. It is on Mount Horeb that we find Elijah in our reading from 1st Kings this morning. God sees Elijah and wants to know what in the heck he is doing there. To which Elijah responses, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."
God tells him to leave his cave of hiding and stand on the side of the mountain because he is about to pass by. First comes a mighty wind, then an earthquake, and then fire. I would like to note at this point that all of these are used in the Bible to indicate the presence of God. Remember the wind that moved over the waters at creation, the strong wind that divided the waters of the Red Sea, and the mighty wind a Pentecost? Remember Moses and the burning bush and the tongues as of fire that rested on each of the disciples at Pentecost? Remember at Mount Sinai, when Moses ascended the Mountain the Lord descended upon it in fire and the mountain quaked? But on Mount Horeb God was not in the
wind, the earthquake, or the fire. It is almost as if God knowing that Elijah was afraid, gave him even more to fear.
Perhaps the wind, earthquake, and fire were really not intended to scare Elijah, but can be understood as symbols of what had happened to him. Other things had gotten his attention, they had drowned out his ability to hear the voice of God. Or, maybe Elijah expected God to speak and be present and as strong as a mighty wind, an earthquake, or a wildfire. Maybe Elijah wanted the powerful Almighty to rain down his wrath, to take charge of the situation.
What Elijah found instead was God in the "sound of sheer silence." Or as the Revised Standard Version states, "in a still small voice." God spoke with a voice that reassured Elijah instead of shouting at him. It was a voice that empowered Elijah and quieted his hopeless whimpering. God did not jerk Elijah around like a Yo-Yo like all the other voices were doing , but rather instilled a confidence, trust, and faith in God.
Elijah certainly had a strong faith and was in contact with God otherwise he would not have been a prophet. Yet in this instance when he faced adversity, he did not turn to God, but rather tried to runaway. It is a very easy trap to fall into. Listening to the voices of this world, we can very easily shrink into the pits of despair, feeling that no one or nothing anyone can do will make the difference. Sometimes the voices of this world are so loud that it is difficult to hear the voice of God speaking to us.
I believe that that is what happened to Elijah. Jezebel’s voice was so loud that he could not hear the voice of God or the voice of his faith within him. He allowed God’s voice to be replaced by the voice of fear and hopelessness. In this discouraged state, Elijah was only hearing negative voices, both from the outside and from within himself.
When the voices of the world get so loud and threatening, are we able to hear God? Of all the voices that we hear daily, can we discern God’s voice in any of them? When we are beaten down and have lost all hope, do we listen just to the voices inside of us, or do we seek out the voice of God?
Where do we find God? For most of us, we will have to make an assent – maybe not physically up a mountain, but most assuredly up and away from the chaos and noise of our everyday lives. This is not to deny that God is present in the world and that we can be in touch with him. But what the scriptures talk about this morning are those close encounters, where we are one on one with God. Those encounters are important because it is in them that we are filled with the presence of God and enabled to face the day ahead.