The power of god manifested in virtual silence
1 Kings 19:9-18 ~ Ted phillips
February 17, 2019
Throughout Scripture we’re given a number of examples of men who failed the Lord, in one way or another, to one degree or another, men who love the Lord -- and yet, at least for a season -- they failed Him. There’s a lot of examples of this in Scripture. Abraham certainly is one of them. We know that the overall direction of his life was one of following the Lord. We’re told that when Abraham…or when God called Abraham, by faith Abraham followed Him, and followed Him not knowing where he was going. He did so by faith. But more than once as we read in the Scriptures, Abraham failed the Lord. David was called, a man after God's own heart -- and he was. He certainly was. And yet there were times in his life when he also failed the Lord. You recall, of course, his sin with Bathsheba. We studied that this last Friday with the senior youth group. The Lord chose Peter as one of the 12 apostles, in fact he became one of the foundations on which the church was built and his failures are recorded as well.
Each of these men walked with the Lord. Each of these men trusted the Lord in some very difficult circumstances, and yet there were times in their lives when they walked by sight and not by faith. There were times when they feared men rather than fearing God. And in the case of each one, regardless of their failure, the Lord did not forsake them. The Lord did not abandon them, did not turn away from them in contempt. He did not turn away from them in some sort of disgust. In first Kings chapter 19 we have seen this very truth played out in the life of Elijah, and of course, when confronted with the threat of his life by Jezebel, instead of seeking the Lord, instead of trusting Him as he had for the last 3 1/2 years -- Elijah acted according to his own human instincts, and he ran in fear of a woman who God had already defeated. But just as he did with Abraham and David and Peter and each and every one of those for whom His Son died, the Lord again, did not abandon His servant Elijah. Just as He has promised to never ever abandon those who trust in Him. This wonderful truth, the wonderful truth that affirms this, this very fact -- we read, “the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” What a wonderful promise. What a wonderful truth that is. This is a truth that we should never take lightly. Should never allow ourselves in any way to take this for granted. I want you to consider this just for a moment -- if God's love was not eternal, if God’s love somehow was limited, each one of us would have been abandoned long ago, right?
Every one of us has failed the Lord at some point in our walk with Him, and if His love was not from everlasting to everlasting, we would have been cast aside long ago. But that is not the kind of affection that God has set upon us. That is not what His word tells us, and it is not what God's people have experience and come to know. It's not what you and I have come to know, the nature of God's love is eternal. It does not diminish. It is indeed unceasing. This eternal lovingkindness of God is on full display for us to see in the life of Elijah, we began to look at this a few weeks ago. At the very height of his failure, even when he wanted to die, we saw that the Lord demonstrated His love towards Elijah by seeking him out. He did not leave Elijah to his own miseries for an indeterminate amount of time. The Lord pursued him. He pursued after His wayward servant. He pursued after him out of love and He did so in order to correct him, and to bring him back to Himself.
The second way that the Lord showed His lovingkindness to Elijah -- is that He cared for his needs. If you remember in verse five, an angel of the Lord is sent when he awakens Elijah in his sleep and he feeds him. And to me, one of the things that stands out here is that the Lord made it obvious that it was His hand that was providing for Elijah. There's no mistaking this. The Lord always cares for those who belong to Him. But what great encouragement it is when He does so in a way that makes it very clear that He has taken notice of His people. He’s taken notice of our struggles and of our deficiencies in His mercy, He supplies what’s lacking in us.
The third way that the Lord made His love evident to Elijah -- was by exhorting him, by way of exhortation. The word of the Lord came to Elijah, this is what we read. As I mentioned last time, there really is no greater evidence of God's love for us than this very thing. The power of divine revelation - eternal truth given to men to mere men. In verse nine, and then again in verse 13, the Lord says to Elijah, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” What are you doing here? It’s a very revealing question and to Elijah, He says, how long will you continue to be self-absorbed? How long will you wallow around in your bruised pride? How long will you look at your circumstances with a temporal mindset? A limited and a faulty mindset at that. See, this is the thing-- if Elijah was ever going to escape the prison that he had built for himself, if he was ever going to be released from the grip that self had on him, it was the word of God that had the key. Think how often you and I find ourselves in the same condition as Elijah. Where we’re held captive by our own flesh—by our own selfishness. It's only God's word that can lay bare the inner struggles of our hearts. He reaches down and exposes the very motives the underlying motives and the primary desires that we really have. When we find ourselves in the same state that Elijah was in -- this is where we have to start if we’re going to be set free. We have to see the reality of our own hearts. We have to see the reality of what is inside and only God's word can reveal that. It's only the truth of God's word that can then restore our thinking to what our attitudes should be—in fact, in what they can be, if you think about it-- what they can be in Christ. That which is conformed to an eternal perspective, thinking that is conformed to righteousness and holiness. That is freedom-- that is freedom from self.
This morning I want to… I want for us to look at one more of the ways in which the Lord demonstrated His eternal love to Elijah. I want to begin reading in first Kings chapter 19, we’ll read verses nine down through verses 18.
“And he came there to a cave, and he lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and He said to him, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, they seek my life to take it away.” So, He said to him, “go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by and a great and a strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire a sound of the gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice came to him and said, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, but the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” The Lord said to him, “go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escaped the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
The fourth way that God demonstrated His everlasting love to Elijah -- is that He revealed Himself to Elijah. He revealed Himself to Elijah. We have seen Elijah's response to the threat that was made against him by Jezebel, walking by site and not by faith, fearing men, fearing her. What we must also see here is that underlying all of this is a sense of failure on Elijah's part. It's a sense of failure in his mission to bring about the repentance of Israel. On Mount Horeb, Elijah’s response to the word of the Lord in verse 10, and I’ll read this one more time. He says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they have torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, they seek my life to take it away.” And of course, he gives the same response and as we just read in verse 14.
I think it’s worth pointing out here that the Lord does not rebuke Elijah's words, He doesn't rebuke the way in which Elijah responds to Him. His response certainly does not merit his running away as he did, but at face value, what Elijah says to the Lord is true. He had been zealous for the Lord. He had been very zealous for the Lord. We saw that the last two chapters, and Israel indeed had rebelled against the Lord. Their rebellion was great. They had abandoned Yahweh for Baal. But what had become of Elijah's zealousness for the Lord? What had become of it? He had gone before the Lord in prayer with great earnestness, the Lord had performed miracles in response to those prayers. Elijah alone had stood on Mount Caramel before the enemies of God, and he had confronted them with the truth of their rebellion. He didn't hold anything back. He had followed every direction that the Lord had given him. But what was nearest to Elijah's heart had not been accomplished. Ahab had been virtually unaffected by what he had witnessed on Mount Caramel. Israel, the nation of God -- they acknowledged God on Mount Caramel but they didn't repent. Jezebel was more defiant than ever, the enemies of God were still prevailing. All of this in spite of Elijah's zeal for the Lord. Have you ever been in that situation before, that Elijah was in chapter 19 here? The Lord perhaps has given you an opportunity to serve Him, to bear witness to His name. And despite your excitement, despite your efforts, nothing seemed to change. Hearts remained cold and unyielding to the truth.
In those situations, I think, if we’re not careful, if we’re not careful we can get frustrated and that frustration can even be pointed towards the Lord. Most of you here know AJ, who was here for a number of years. She's Edwin’s niece. You know, the fact that she had a very difficult background growing up. For three years she had many who poured their lives into her. She sat underneath the truth of God's word on a regular basis. She made a profession of faith, and her life even seemed to change, it did. But sad to say, today she's pursuing unrighteousness. It’s a hard thing…it’s a hard thing to see. It's easy when you think of this, it’s easy to see Elijah's discouragement. But I want you to notice here that a great deal of discouragement that Elijah had was from the fact that Elijah had taken much of this upon himself. Think about this, he had been the lone standard of righteousness on Mount Caramel. In his mind, he seems to bear a great deal of responsibility to what he sees as a failure. This is highlighted by what Elijah says and back… if you remember back in verse four. If you remember he sat down underneath the juniper tree after he had begun to run away and he says, “it's enough now, Lord, take my life.” Why? And notice what he says, “for I am no better than my fathers” I’m no better than my fathers. Elijah was lamenting the fact that he was just like his forefathers. Those who had gone before him, and they also were unable to remove the worship of Baal from Israel. In his demoralized state, what Elijah was missing is that it was never in his power to reclaim Israel for the Lord. It was not within his power to bring about their repentance. Neither was it in the power of his forefathers. It was not in the power of any mere man. The problem with Israel -- it was a spiritual problem and therefore it could only be accomplished by the work of God. And in this sense, Elijah had not failed, and God certainly had not failed. Israel had failed. The nation of Israel had failed, they continued in their rebellion. But once again we see the lovingkindness of the Lord with Elijah. I mean, what patience He had with him. What patience He has with you and I.
In verses 11 and 12, the Lord demonstrates a very important lesson to Elijah, He reveals to him that He is sovereign, that He is sovereign. That He is sovereign over all things, and in particular, he is sovereign over His dealings with men. Verse 11, the Lord says to Elijah, “go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord”, and behold, the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.” I mean, can you just envision this for a moment… the display of God's, God's power over nature. “After the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” Other translations have it – “a sound of a still small voice” In this demonstration, it seems to me that the Lord really teaches a number of things to His servant Elijah, and He hopefully is teaching these to us as well.
I want to just mention three lessons that I think the Lord teaches us here. The first lesson is -- that all power, all power and all authority belong to the Lord. There is nothing that is not under the authority, under His authority and power. Scripture declares that He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. As the only Sovereign, God is not limited to any one method in accomplishing His will. He has the power over all of nature as He demonstrated here on Mount Horeb, but not only that, He has power over the hearts of men. He has power over the hearts of men, and He exercises that power through a small still voice. A second lesson that we can learn here from this demonstration, is -- that according to His infinite wisdom and eternal purposes, God chooses when, He chooses how, and through what means to exhibit His power and authority. See, Elijah had it in his mind that he alone was God's instrument in dealing with Israel's rebellion. But the Lord makes it very clear through this demonstration that this is not the case. The Lord has other arrows in His quiver. Everything, everything is at His disposal. If you think about this, the Lord rarely, if ever uses only one of His servants to accomplish His work. This is especially true when it comes to the salvation of those who are lost. The apostle Paul addresses this very thing in first Corinthians chapter 3, verses four through seven. If you recall, the Corinthian saints at the church at Corinth -- they were struggling with divisions and factions among themselves, and Paul addresses this in his letter to them and in verse four he says, “When one of you say, “I am of Paul” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God causes the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God, who causes the growth.”
See, the Lord has given a variety of spiritual gifts to the church-- He's given through the power of His spirit, He has given spiritual enablements to everybody. Each one of his children, and those enablement's are for the purpose of building up and edifying the church. No one man or woman has all of those gifts. No one man or one woman can be everything to the church-- that was never meant to be that way. Just like a human body has many members to it, so does the church, that is how God has composed it, that is how He has designed it. Each part is different and each part is necessary, and collectively, they labor together to carry out His purposes. I think this very thing shows the very wisdom of God's design, but in all of this, we must always remember, despite the gifts that we have been given, despite the zeal and the effort that we put forth in utilizing those gifts -- it is God who causes the growth. It’s God who causes the growth, we are servants, we’re just instruments in His hand, but it is by His power alone that the hearts of men are changed.
I think this is a truth that has been lost on much of the church today. Today we see mere men lifted up into almost like a godlike status in their churches. Men who captivate people with persuasive words of wisdom, and they tickle the ear rather than appeal to the heart. I want you to listen also to what Paul tells us in the book of Corinthians, in chapter 3, starting in verse two he says, “You are our letter…” --he’s of course speaking to the Corinthian Saints. —“You’re written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifest that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.” and what a statement Paul makes. And then he goes on in verse five, he really gets to the heart of the matter. He says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves by our adequacy is from God.” By His mercy, and by His grace the Lord -- He gives us a part in His eternal work and that's what He did with Elijah. Whatever seemed to be accomplished by our efforts, whatever seems to be accomplished by our words and our… even our deeds. It is the result of God making us adequate. We cannot forget that. For all that was accomplished by the apostle Paul-- and as you and I both know, it was great, a great amount of things that Paul did. He was well aware that he was not adequate in himself and he goes on further and he says he was not adequate in himself to consider anything, anything as coming from him. He fully realized the weakness of his flesh. It was God who was working in him and then it was God who was working through him. His confidence was fully in Christ and not in himself, that is the man through whom God works-- a man who understands that. It’s the one whose adequacy comes from the spirit of the living God. the Lord is not dependent on any man, let alone any one man, such as Paul or Elijah, or you or I. But by His grace He works through us. He enters us into the power of His redemptive work. What a privilege that is-- what a privilege. As servants of the Lord, Elijah's labor… as a servant of the Lord Elijah's labor had not been in vain. He had been but one instrument in God's hand, and God had made an adequate, and as Apollos was to Paul, others would then soon be entered into Elijah's labors as Lord would very soon show him.
There’s one last lesson that we learn from this demonstration -- when it comes to exhibiting His power, God most often chooses the discrete and subtle, rather than the grand and the conspicuous. I think this is one of the obvious teaching points here that God demonstrated before Elijah. In contrast to that, men gravitate to those things that are showy and extravagant. We see this all the time. Men love to be dazzled, they love to be impressed. They always have, and this is true not only in the things that pertain to this world but its truth in the realm of religion and perhaps even more so. The Lord God, Himself exhibited His power in ways that were miraculous even, even overwhelming at times. He parted the Red Sea, I mean can you imagine that? We take it for granted, we read it over and over again but God parted the Red Sea, and He did so in order to deliver His people from the Egyptians. He provided manna from heaven for them. He made water from a rock to supply their needs in the wilderness, but in both cases, though, the result, was continued unbelief. The Pharisees and the people of Israel were continually asking Jesus for a sign, we read that in the New Testament and He performed many signs and wonders, many of them are recorded for us. He healed a blind man, He made a lame man walk again, He turned water into wine, He rose from the dead, but more so than not unbelief persisted. All of these signs and wonders, these manifestations, these physical manifestations of God's power -- they validated that Jesus Christ indeed was a Son of God, and that was necessary, that was the main purpose of them. And in like manner God demonstrated His power on mount Horeb in the presence of Elijah, but the wind subsided, the earth ceased from shaking and the fire died down, and then notice what we read in verse 13, “And when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice came to him and said, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” We are told here in this verse that Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle. In other words, he covered his face with his cloak. This same thing we see of the seraphim in Isaiah chapter 6, if you remember. The Seraphim who attended the Most-high God -- they covered their faces with two of their six wings. And they did this in order to shield themselves from the very light of God's glory. They did this as a sign of reverence to Him. This is what Elijah does on Mount Horeb, he covers his face.
But I want you to see when it was that he did this, when it was that he covered his face -- in verse 12, it says, “After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of gentle blowing.” When Elijah heard it, it was then he wrapped his face in his mantle. Elijah humbled himself before the Lord, not after the grand display of God's power over nature. It was after he heard the still small voice of God. The Hebrew calls it – ‘a voice of gentle silence.’ Spurgeon makes a comment on this. He says, “as if silence had become audible.” It did! It was the voice of God speaking to Elijah. And Elijah responded by covering his face, shielding his face in reverence and humility before God. I think there's something very important that we need to take away from this, the greatest display of God's matchless power has never been through His miraculous signs and wonders. It is always been through a still small voice. I want you to think about this -- it is when the Holy Spirit of the living God speaks truth to the heart of a sinful man and that heart is then cleansed – it’s is made new. That is, sovereign power. That is sovereign power. I mean, think about that-- sovereign power and it manifests itself in virtual silence. And at the onset it is not even visible to the human eye, it takes place within the soul of man. It’s not accompanied by the earthshaking or by fire that comes out of the sky-- It's accomplished in obscurity, but it is divine power, the likes of which man does not know, and it changes a man for all of eternity. That's the power in it.
Acts chapter 16, and verse 14 gives us a wonderful example of this. You remember the woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, we’re told that she was a seller of purple fabrics, she was a worshiper of God, and she was listening to Paul as he proclaimed the truth of the gospel and then says, “the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul”. The Lord didn't perform some miraculous sign that opened Lydia's heart to the truth of Jesus Christ, He used the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through His servant Paul. This is how people are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, it’s how their lives are transformed for all eternity.
I wonder if you and I realize that this same gentle voice -- the voice of the Holy Spirit of God -- It does not go silent once a person has been made a new creature in Christ. The voice of the Holy Spirit is still active. In fact, He seeks to converse with us and to speak with us daily. That is His desire. That gentle and small voice is still the power of God, and it’s realized, and its audible within the souls of His people. It has not ceased. The Holy Spirit is seeking to strengthen us in the inner man. And the question is -- are we listening? Are we listening, are we putting ourselves in a place in which we can hear? In Psalms 46, and verse 10 the Lord exhorts us to – “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still and know that I am God. In other words, I think what the Lord is saying here is -- cease from all your striving in this world, set aside those things that control you, set aside those things that are continually restraining your time and taking away your strength, put away your fears and your anxieties and come before the Lord and be still and listen. I think what this means is that we are to take hold of God's word and we’re to read it, we are to study it, we are to meditate upon it, to chew on it -- If you will, to pray over it. All of this with the intent and the desire that we might hear the voice of God’s Spirit who resides within us. We’re to be like the psalmist who cried out to the Lord, “O God, do not remain silent!” Do not be quiet. Oh God, do not be still. He's imploring the Lord, that he might hear His voice. He longs for it, he’s dependent on it. You and I do not need to be anxiously waiting to see and to know and to experience the power of God revealed through something that knocks our socks off. The power of the living God is available within us, it’s the voice…it’s the very voice of the Spirit of God. We’re given a promise, a very wonderful promise in Psalms chapter 25, verse 3. It says, “Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed.” What a promise that is. “Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed.” The voice of God spoken in the inner man by the Spirit of God, never disappoints, it never disappoints. Let’s bow our head and close our time together.
Each of these men walked with the Lord. Each of these men trusted the Lord in some very difficult circumstances, and yet there were times in their lives when they walked by sight and not by faith. There were times when they feared men rather than fearing God. And in the case of each one, regardless of their failure, the Lord did not forsake them. The Lord did not abandon them, did not turn away from them in contempt. He did not turn away from them in some sort of disgust. In first Kings chapter 19 we have seen this very truth played out in the life of Elijah, and of course, when confronted with the threat of his life by Jezebel, instead of seeking the Lord, instead of trusting Him as he had for the last 3 1/2 years -- Elijah acted according to his own human instincts, and he ran in fear of a woman who God had already defeated. But just as he did with Abraham and David and Peter and each and every one of those for whom His Son died, the Lord again, did not abandon His servant Elijah. Just as He has promised to never ever abandon those who trust in Him. This wonderful truth, the wonderful truth that affirms this, this very fact -- we read, “the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” What a wonderful promise. What a wonderful truth that is. This is a truth that we should never take lightly. Should never allow ourselves in any way to take this for granted. I want you to consider this just for a moment -- if God's love was not eternal, if God’s love somehow was limited, each one of us would have been abandoned long ago, right?
Every one of us has failed the Lord at some point in our walk with Him, and if His love was not from everlasting to everlasting, we would have been cast aside long ago. But that is not the kind of affection that God has set upon us. That is not what His word tells us, and it is not what God's people have experience and come to know. It's not what you and I have come to know, the nature of God's love is eternal. It does not diminish. It is indeed unceasing. This eternal lovingkindness of God is on full display for us to see in the life of Elijah, we began to look at this a few weeks ago. At the very height of his failure, even when he wanted to die, we saw that the Lord demonstrated His love towards Elijah by seeking him out. He did not leave Elijah to his own miseries for an indeterminate amount of time. The Lord pursued him. He pursued after His wayward servant. He pursued after him out of love and He did so in order to correct him, and to bring him back to Himself.
The second way that the Lord showed His lovingkindness to Elijah -- is that He cared for his needs. If you remember in verse five, an angel of the Lord is sent when he awakens Elijah in his sleep and he feeds him. And to me, one of the things that stands out here is that the Lord made it obvious that it was His hand that was providing for Elijah. There's no mistaking this. The Lord always cares for those who belong to Him. But what great encouragement it is when He does so in a way that makes it very clear that He has taken notice of His people. He’s taken notice of our struggles and of our deficiencies in His mercy, He supplies what’s lacking in us.
The third way that the Lord made His love evident to Elijah -- was by exhorting him, by way of exhortation. The word of the Lord came to Elijah, this is what we read. As I mentioned last time, there really is no greater evidence of God's love for us than this very thing. The power of divine revelation - eternal truth given to men to mere men. In verse nine, and then again in verse 13, the Lord says to Elijah, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” What are you doing here? It’s a very revealing question and to Elijah, He says, how long will you continue to be self-absorbed? How long will you wallow around in your bruised pride? How long will you look at your circumstances with a temporal mindset? A limited and a faulty mindset at that. See, this is the thing-- if Elijah was ever going to escape the prison that he had built for himself, if he was ever going to be released from the grip that self had on him, it was the word of God that had the key. Think how often you and I find ourselves in the same condition as Elijah. Where we’re held captive by our own flesh—by our own selfishness. It's only God's word that can lay bare the inner struggles of our hearts. He reaches down and exposes the very motives the underlying motives and the primary desires that we really have. When we find ourselves in the same state that Elijah was in -- this is where we have to start if we’re going to be set free. We have to see the reality of our own hearts. We have to see the reality of what is inside and only God's word can reveal that. It's only the truth of God's word that can then restore our thinking to what our attitudes should be—in fact, in what they can be, if you think about it-- what they can be in Christ. That which is conformed to an eternal perspective, thinking that is conformed to righteousness and holiness. That is freedom-- that is freedom from self.
This morning I want to… I want for us to look at one more of the ways in which the Lord demonstrated His eternal love to Elijah. I want to begin reading in first Kings chapter 19, we’ll read verses nine down through verses 18.
“And he came there to a cave, and he lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and He said to him, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, they seek my life to take it away.” So, He said to him, “go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by and a great and a strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire a sound of the gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice came to him and said, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, but the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” The Lord said to him, “go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escaped the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
The fourth way that God demonstrated His everlasting love to Elijah -- is that He revealed Himself to Elijah. He revealed Himself to Elijah. We have seen Elijah's response to the threat that was made against him by Jezebel, walking by site and not by faith, fearing men, fearing her. What we must also see here is that underlying all of this is a sense of failure on Elijah's part. It's a sense of failure in his mission to bring about the repentance of Israel. On Mount Horeb, Elijah’s response to the word of the Lord in verse 10, and I’ll read this one more time. He says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they have torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, they seek my life to take it away.” And of course, he gives the same response and as we just read in verse 14.
I think it’s worth pointing out here that the Lord does not rebuke Elijah's words, He doesn't rebuke the way in which Elijah responds to Him. His response certainly does not merit his running away as he did, but at face value, what Elijah says to the Lord is true. He had been zealous for the Lord. He had been very zealous for the Lord. We saw that the last two chapters, and Israel indeed had rebelled against the Lord. Their rebellion was great. They had abandoned Yahweh for Baal. But what had become of Elijah's zealousness for the Lord? What had become of it? He had gone before the Lord in prayer with great earnestness, the Lord had performed miracles in response to those prayers. Elijah alone had stood on Mount Caramel before the enemies of God, and he had confronted them with the truth of their rebellion. He didn't hold anything back. He had followed every direction that the Lord had given him. But what was nearest to Elijah's heart had not been accomplished. Ahab had been virtually unaffected by what he had witnessed on Mount Caramel. Israel, the nation of God -- they acknowledged God on Mount Caramel but they didn't repent. Jezebel was more defiant than ever, the enemies of God were still prevailing. All of this in spite of Elijah's zeal for the Lord. Have you ever been in that situation before, that Elijah was in chapter 19 here? The Lord perhaps has given you an opportunity to serve Him, to bear witness to His name. And despite your excitement, despite your efforts, nothing seemed to change. Hearts remained cold and unyielding to the truth.
In those situations, I think, if we’re not careful, if we’re not careful we can get frustrated and that frustration can even be pointed towards the Lord. Most of you here know AJ, who was here for a number of years. She's Edwin’s niece. You know, the fact that she had a very difficult background growing up. For three years she had many who poured their lives into her. She sat underneath the truth of God's word on a regular basis. She made a profession of faith, and her life even seemed to change, it did. But sad to say, today she's pursuing unrighteousness. It’s a hard thing…it’s a hard thing to see. It's easy when you think of this, it’s easy to see Elijah's discouragement. But I want you to notice here that a great deal of discouragement that Elijah had was from the fact that Elijah had taken much of this upon himself. Think about this, he had been the lone standard of righteousness on Mount Caramel. In his mind, he seems to bear a great deal of responsibility to what he sees as a failure. This is highlighted by what Elijah says and back… if you remember back in verse four. If you remember he sat down underneath the juniper tree after he had begun to run away and he says, “it's enough now, Lord, take my life.” Why? And notice what he says, “for I am no better than my fathers” I’m no better than my fathers. Elijah was lamenting the fact that he was just like his forefathers. Those who had gone before him, and they also were unable to remove the worship of Baal from Israel. In his demoralized state, what Elijah was missing is that it was never in his power to reclaim Israel for the Lord. It was not within his power to bring about their repentance. Neither was it in the power of his forefathers. It was not in the power of any mere man. The problem with Israel -- it was a spiritual problem and therefore it could only be accomplished by the work of God. And in this sense, Elijah had not failed, and God certainly had not failed. Israel had failed. The nation of Israel had failed, they continued in their rebellion. But once again we see the lovingkindness of the Lord with Elijah. I mean, what patience He had with him. What patience He has with you and I.
In verses 11 and 12, the Lord demonstrates a very important lesson to Elijah, He reveals to him that He is sovereign, that He is sovereign. That He is sovereign over all things, and in particular, he is sovereign over His dealings with men. Verse 11, the Lord says to Elijah, “go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord”, and behold, the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.” I mean, can you just envision this for a moment… the display of God's, God's power over nature. “After the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” Other translations have it – “a sound of a still small voice” In this demonstration, it seems to me that the Lord really teaches a number of things to His servant Elijah, and He hopefully is teaching these to us as well.
I want to just mention three lessons that I think the Lord teaches us here. The first lesson is -- that all power, all power and all authority belong to the Lord. There is nothing that is not under the authority, under His authority and power. Scripture declares that He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. As the only Sovereign, God is not limited to any one method in accomplishing His will. He has the power over all of nature as He demonstrated here on Mount Horeb, but not only that, He has power over the hearts of men. He has power over the hearts of men, and He exercises that power through a small still voice. A second lesson that we can learn here from this demonstration, is -- that according to His infinite wisdom and eternal purposes, God chooses when, He chooses how, and through what means to exhibit His power and authority. See, Elijah had it in his mind that he alone was God's instrument in dealing with Israel's rebellion. But the Lord makes it very clear through this demonstration that this is not the case. The Lord has other arrows in His quiver. Everything, everything is at His disposal. If you think about this, the Lord rarely, if ever uses only one of His servants to accomplish His work. This is especially true when it comes to the salvation of those who are lost. The apostle Paul addresses this very thing in first Corinthians chapter 3, verses four through seven. If you recall, the Corinthian saints at the church at Corinth -- they were struggling with divisions and factions among themselves, and Paul addresses this in his letter to them and in verse four he says, “When one of you say, “I am of Paul” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God causes the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God, who causes the growth.”
See, the Lord has given a variety of spiritual gifts to the church-- He's given through the power of His spirit, He has given spiritual enablements to everybody. Each one of his children, and those enablement's are for the purpose of building up and edifying the church. No one man or woman has all of those gifts. No one man or one woman can be everything to the church-- that was never meant to be that way. Just like a human body has many members to it, so does the church, that is how God has composed it, that is how He has designed it. Each part is different and each part is necessary, and collectively, they labor together to carry out His purposes. I think this very thing shows the very wisdom of God's design, but in all of this, we must always remember, despite the gifts that we have been given, despite the zeal and the effort that we put forth in utilizing those gifts -- it is God who causes the growth. It’s God who causes the growth, we are servants, we’re just instruments in His hand, but it is by His power alone that the hearts of men are changed.
I think this is a truth that has been lost on much of the church today. Today we see mere men lifted up into almost like a godlike status in their churches. Men who captivate people with persuasive words of wisdom, and they tickle the ear rather than appeal to the heart. I want you to listen also to what Paul tells us in the book of Corinthians, in chapter 3, starting in verse two he says, “You are our letter…” --he’s of course speaking to the Corinthian Saints. —“You’re written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifest that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.” and what a statement Paul makes. And then he goes on in verse five, he really gets to the heart of the matter. He says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves by our adequacy is from God.” By His mercy, and by His grace the Lord -- He gives us a part in His eternal work and that's what He did with Elijah. Whatever seemed to be accomplished by our efforts, whatever seems to be accomplished by our words and our… even our deeds. It is the result of God making us adequate. We cannot forget that. For all that was accomplished by the apostle Paul-- and as you and I both know, it was great, a great amount of things that Paul did. He was well aware that he was not adequate in himself and he goes on further and he says he was not adequate in himself to consider anything, anything as coming from him. He fully realized the weakness of his flesh. It was God who was working in him and then it was God who was working through him. His confidence was fully in Christ and not in himself, that is the man through whom God works-- a man who understands that. It’s the one whose adequacy comes from the spirit of the living God. the Lord is not dependent on any man, let alone any one man, such as Paul or Elijah, or you or I. But by His grace He works through us. He enters us into the power of His redemptive work. What a privilege that is-- what a privilege. As servants of the Lord, Elijah's labor… as a servant of the Lord Elijah's labor had not been in vain. He had been but one instrument in God's hand, and God had made an adequate, and as Apollos was to Paul, others would then soon be entered into Elijah's labors as Lord would very soon show him.
There’s one last lesson that we learn from this demonstration -- when it comes to exhibiting His power, God most often chooses the discrete and subtle, rather than the grand and the conspicuous. I think this is one of the obvious teaching points here that God demonstrated before Elijah. In contrast to that, men gravitate to those things that are showy and extravagant. We see this all the time. Men love to be dazzled, they love to be impressed. They always have, and this is true not only in the things that pertain to this world but its truth in the realm of religion and perhaps even more so. The Lord God, Himself exhibited His power in ways that were miraculous even, even overwhelming at times. He parted the Red Sea, I mean can you imagine that? We take it for granted, we read it over and over again but God parted the Red Sea, and He did so in order to deliver His people from the Egyptians. He provided manna from heaven for them. He made water from a rock to supply their needs in the wilderness, but in both cases, though, the result, was continued unbelief. The Pharisees and the people of Israel were continually asking Jesus for a sign, we read that in the New Testament and He performed many signs and wonders, many of them are recorded for us. He healed a blind man, He made a lame man walk again, He turned water into wine, He rose from the dead, but more so than not unbelief persisted. All of these signs and wonders, these manifestations, these physical manifestations of God's power -- they validated that Jesus Christ indeed was a Son of God, and that was necessary, that was the main purpose of them. And in like manner God demonstrated His power on mount Horeb in the presence of Elijah, but the wind subsided, the earth ceased from shaking and the fire died down, and then notice what we read in verse 13, “And when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice came to him and said, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” We are told here in this verse that Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle. In other words, he covered his face with his cloak. This same thing we see of the seraphim in Isaiah chapter 6, if you remember. The Seraphim who attended the Most-high God -- they covered their faces with two of their six wings. And they did this in order to shield themselves from the very light of God's glory. They did this as a sign of reverence to Him. This is what Elijah does on Mount Horeb, he covers his face.
But I want you to see when it was that he did this, when it was that he covered his face -- in verse 12, it says, “After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of gentle blowing.” When Elijah heard it, it was then he wrapped his face in his mantle. Elijah humbled himself before the Lord, not after the grand display of God's power over nature. It was after he heard the still small voice of God. The Hebrew calls it – ‘a voice of gentle silence.’ Spurgeon makes a comment on this. He says, “as if silence had become audible.” It did! It was the voice of God speaking to Elijah. And Elijah responded by covering his face, shielding his face in reverence and humility before God. I think there's something very important that we need to take away from this, the greatest display of God's matchless power has never been through His miraculous signs and wonders. It is always been through a still small voice. I want you to think about this -- it is when the Holy Spirit of the living God speaks truth to the heart of a sinful man and that heart is then cleansed – it’s is made new. That is, sovereign power. That is sovereign power. I mean, think about that-- sovereign power and it manifests itself in virtual silence. And at the onset it is not even visible to the human eye, it takes place within the soul of man. It’s not accompanied by the earthshaking or by fire that comes out of the sky-- It's accomplished in obscurity, but it is divine power, the likes of which man does not know, and it changes a man for all of eternity. That's the power in it.
Acts chapter 16, and verse 14 gives us a wonderful example of this. You remember the woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, we’re told that she was a seller of purple fabrics, she was a worshiper of God, and she was listening to Paul as he proclaimed the truth of the gospel and then says, “the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul”. The Lord didn't perform some miraculous sign that opened Lydia's heart to the truth of Jesus Christ, He used the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through His servant Paul. This is how people are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, it’s how their lives are transformed for all eternity.
I wonder if you and I realize that this same gentle voice -- the voice of the Holy Spirit of God -- It does not go silent once a person has been made a new creature in Christ. The voice of the Holy Spirit is still active. In fact, He seeks to converse with us and to speak with us daily. That is His desire. That gentle and small voice is still the power of God, and it’s realized, and its audible within the souls of His people. It has not ceased. The Holy Spirit is seeking to strengthen us in the inner man. And the question is -- are we listening? Are we listening, are we putting ourselves in a place in which we can hear? In Psalms 46, and verse 10 the Lord exhorts us to – “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still and know that I am God. In other words, I think what the Lord is saying here is -- cease from all your striving in this world, set aside those things that control you, set aside those things that are continually restraining your time and taking away your strength, put away your fears and your anxieties and come before the Lord and be still and listen. I think what this means is that we are to take hold of God's word and we’re to read it, we are to study it, we are to meditate upon it, to chew on it -- If you will, to pray over it. All of this with the intent and the desire that we might hear the voice of God’s Spirit who resides within us. We’re to be like the psalmist who cried out to the Lord, “O God, do not remain silent!” Do not be quiet. Oh God, do not be still. He's imploring the Lord, that he might hear His voice. He longs for it, he’s dependent on it. You and I do not need to be anxiously waiting to see and to know and to experience the power of God revealed through something that knocks our socks off. The power of the living God is available within us, it’s the voice…it’s the very voice of the Spirit of God. We’re given a promise, a very wonderful promise in Psalms chapter 25, verse 3. It says, “Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed.” What a promise that is. “Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed.” The voice of God spoken in the inner man by the Spirit of God, never disappoints, it never disappoints. Let’s bow our head and close our time together.
