Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen.
1 Kings 19:9b-18 Then the word of the LORD suddenly came to
him, saying, “Why are you here, Elijah?”
10 He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God
of Armies, but the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and killed
your prophets with the sword. I alone am
left, and they are seeking to take my life.”
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the
presence of the LORD, for the LORD is passing by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the
mountains and shattered rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the
wind. After the wind came an earthquake,
but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12
After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was
not in the fire. After the fire there was a soft, whispering voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he
wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance to the
cave. Then a voice came to him and
said, “Why are you here, Elijah?” 14
He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Armies, but the
people of Israel have abandoned your covenant.
They have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the
sword. I alone am left, and they are
seeking to take my life.” 15 The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came and go to
the Wilderness of Damascus. When you get
there, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16 You will also anoint Jehu son
of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah as
prophet in your place. 17
Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the
sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18
But I have preserved in Israel seven thousand whose knees have not bent to Baal
and whose lips have not kissed him.”
(EHV)
Dear fellow redeemed,
He wasn’t
the first, and he won’t be the last prophet to be threatened with death by his
government. Truth be told, many prophets
have been killed by unbelieving earthly rulers.
In fact, Israel eventually earned a reputation for killing God’s prophets. But, here, one of the greatest of all God’s
prophets was on the run apparently fearing for his life, and the Lord God came
to him asking why. So, why did Elijah
run? Why was he hiding so far from
home? Why was he in despair?
The Bible doesn’t tell us why Elijah so feared
Jezebel’s threat, but perhaps we can speculate.
Elijah had just seen the greatest display of God’s power in
centuries. Elijah had challenged King
Ahab to test the prophets of Baal and Asherah, two of the idols Ahab, and especially
his wife Jezebel, were pushing on the tribes of Israel. The test was set up, the idols proved
themselves as silent and useless as we would expect, and God displayed His
divine power in a flash of heavenly fire.
Upon seeing this great display of God’s power,
the people of Israel fell prostrate in worship crying out, "The LORD,
He is God! The LORD, He is God!" (1
Kings 18:39) Elijah immediately called
for the people to seize the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, which they
did, and taking them down into the Kishon Valley, they slaughtered all of those
workers of iniquity.
The victory seemed complete. But, at the end of the day, nothing really changed
in Israel. Ahab didn’t move to drive the
idolatry out of the land. Instead, Jezebel
threatened Elijah’s life, swearing she would kill him within twenty-four
hours. Thus, the idolatry continued
firmly in place.
So, did Elijah run just because he was afraid
of Jezebel’s threat, or was Elijah also despairing because he thought his work
for the Lord hadn’t accomplished what he had hoped it would? We can’t answer with certainty, and maybe it
doesn’t matter, because the Lord doesn’t reprimand Elijah as much as simply
point him to the truth of the way God operates in this world.
There was another time when one of God’s great prophets
had been frustrated with the slowness of people to believe. After Moses dealt with Israel worshipping a
golden calf, he went back up on the mountain to receive again the law of the
Lord. But first, God had a message for
Moses; He passed before Moses on the mountain declaring, "The LORD, the
LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with
mercy and truth, maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion
and sin. He will by no means clear the
guilty.” (Exodus 34:6-7) In our text, God reminds us of the same
thing. He is not a God who just wants to
condemn the sinner; rather, He wants to save.
Yet, it is not through power that God works salvation, but rather
through humble, unexpected means.
Furthermore, God doesn’t save anyone be wreaking judgment on the
sinner. Rather, it is through the soft,
whispering voice of His holy Gospel that God works salvation and a change of
heart in sinners. We might say that still
today, God comes in a gentle whisper.
After God spoke to Elijah, He caused three
powerful forces outside that cave. There
was a violent wind that tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks
there. That was immediately followed by
an earthquake, and we can all imagine how destructive and terrifying that might
be if we were hiding in a cave. Finally,
there was a fire. We’ve all seen how
fire can rage through a wilderness destroying everything in its path. Yet, with each display of power we get the
same message, “the LORD was not in” it.
Certainly, the Lord was passing by that place, but he wasn’t in the
powers of destruction.
Yet, that wasn’t the end of God’s message:
“After the fire there was a soft, whispering voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in
his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.” Elijah then understood. He wrapped his face in the cloak because He
knew God was in that soft, whispering voice.
If Elijah wasn’t reminded of Moses’ experience on the mountain, he
surely got the same message. It isn’t
God’s desire to destroy the wicked. That
isn’t what God wants, even though His righteousness demands it in the end. However, “God our Savior…wants all people
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) And, “The Lord is not slow to do what He
promised, as some consider slowness.
Instead, He is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but
all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
This is one of those Bible stories that we all
need to take to heart. It’s very easy
for the Christian to begin to look forward to God bringing judgment and wrath
upon the wicked. We might wish we could
stand and cheer as He rains fire and brimstone down on those who hurt us and
persecute His Church. However, that
isn’t what God wants.
God sends believers out in this world almost
like defenseless sheep. St. Paul
recognized this when he wrote, As it is written: "For your sake we are
being put to death all day long. We are
considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (Romans 8:36) Christians appear to be defenseless before
the rampages of the wicked. Likewise, to
the unbeliever, God’s Word doesn’t seem all that powerful. Yet, it is through that small whisper of the
Gospel that any of us are saved.
Jesus, too, doesn’t look like a great
King. How could He? He was a penniless preacher to the Jews who
was falsely accused by His own people, then led helpless to a cross to be
slaughtered for crimes He didn’t commit.
Who would follow such a teacher?
Well, in fact, you and I do. Why?
Because that Teacher is God’s Son who
works through the humble means of water and the soft whisper of the Gospel to
give us faith, and forgiveness, and eternal life.
Now, many people say that the miracles of the
Bible are hard to believe. Likely, many
of your friends and neighbors will doubt that God created the world in six
days. Vast populations on earth refuse
to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin.
Most modern scholars mock those of us who believe all the miracles recorded
in the Bible. They say it’s just
mythology or propaganda.
Yet, it is through that soft whispering voice
that you and I were changed. We aren’t
the same as when we came into the world.
Then, we too had no knowledge or respect for God. At birth, we thought only about ourselves. We didn’t care about sin or hatred or even
death. We just wanted to feel good. As we grew older, feeling good sometimes
meant we wanted to see revenge—pay back for our hurts.
That’s what is so astounding about the God who
created the world and everything in it.
Every one of us has hurt and offended God. Every one of us has at times gone against what
He would wish for us and for those around us.
All of us have betrayed Him, so God’s holy righteousness would naturally
seem to demand that we be paid back the punishment we deserve for those times
we hurt Him. But, such is the love of
God that He wants to make peace with us instead, and He did that by taking our
sins, our shameful conduct, our rebellious thoughts, words and actions—He took
all our guilt upon Himself. That is why
God’s Son, Jesus, went willingly carrying His shameful cross to the top of the Golgotha
hill—because He would rather die on our behalf than see us suffer the eternal
punishment of hell.
The second time God asked Elijah why he was
there, the prophet replied word for word the same as the first time, but the
tone of his voice seems to change. Yes,
Elijah had seen some trouble, the same trouble he had faced his whole life of
prophetic service. But now, he
understood how merciful God is.
Therefore, God sent Elijah back to work, back to the same antagonistic
neighbors he had been trying to reach before.
Now, don’t be mistaken, judgement would come
upon that nation, just not yet. The
LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came and go to the Wilderness of
Damascus. When you get there, you are to
anoint Hazael as king over Aram. You
will also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of
Shaphat from Abel Meholah as prophet in your place. Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu
will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. But I have preserved in Israel seven thousand
whose knees have not bent to Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”
Despite what his feelings told him, Elijah was
not alone. Furthermore, saving faith
isn’t a product of what we humans do.
Yes, the majority of the people in those ten northern tribes had
abandoned the God of their forefathers, but God Himself was still preserving
seven thousand believers. There would be
a time of judgment, for sure. But for
the time being, God wanted His message of repentance unto salvation proclaimed
to those struggling tribes. Faithful
Elijah had work yet to do, and first on that list was preparing his
replacement.
The same could be said for you and me. The world we live in doesn’t always like to
hear what we teach. We may lose friends
because they don’t like to hear what God says in His Word. We may even yet face persecution far greater
than any of us have faced thus far. But,
we are never alone, and while we journey through this sin-broken, Satan-led
world, we can be sure that God is working through His soft, whispering voice in
Word and Sacrament to bring His mercy and forgiveness to thousands more. He will use us to share His Good News. Yes, there may even come a time when God uses
us in martyrdom, but He will never abandon us to the devil or the devil’s
followers. The Lord will never leave us
alone. We have Jesus’ promise on that,
for when Jesus told His disciples (including all of us) to go to work sharing
His message throughout the world, He promised, “And surely I am with you
always until the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)
Dear friends, do not be afraid of what the
world might do against you. Rather, be
confident in what Jesus has already done for you. Then always remember the message given to
Elijah that day, God comes in a gentle whisper. Amen.
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