God in the Whisper

God in the Whisper

Imagine that you are going to encounter the almighty God of the universe, creator of heaven and earth.

You don’t know what to expect when the presence of God is before you on the mountaintop, so you’re ready for anything.

Suddenly, there is a great and strong wind ripping over the mountain top, your cloak snaps at your side and your feet briefly shuffle as you regain balance in the face of the mighty force of the wind. You lean into it, embracing the power of the wind that surely must herald the presence of God Almighty.

But God Almighty was not in the wind.

As the wind around you calms, the very ground beneath your feet begins to quake. You feel the mass of the mountain that you are standing on suddenly feel like a bamboo raft tossed about on the waves. You are no longer confident that your feet can keep you on the mountaintop as it is tossed back and forth…

But God Almighty was not in the earthquake.

Finally, you feel warmth spread across your face as the earth beneath your feet settles, and a pillar of fire descends on the mountain before you, hot and bright and seemingly full of divine power. The heat grows from gentle warmth to a slight discomfort and continues you climb. You begin to worry about every sinful thought that has ever crossed your mind, will the obvious and devouring power of God in the fire consume your sinful soul?

But God Almighty was not in the fire.

Then… a whisper.

When Elijah heard the whisper, he covers his face and steps out to the mouth of the cave he had been hiding in, and hears the voice of God ask “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Man of Action

The Lord has been working on me through this story over the past couple of months. I’m still not sure where He is leading me, but it’s become clear that He is directing my path. First, I happened to join a new men’s Bible study at the church down the street right as they were getting to this story.

Next, I happen to come across it in a few books that I was reading, demonstrating various facets of the story, and then comes Marty Solomon’s The Gospel of Being Human where I really get knocked off my feet.

As much as I had been reading 1 Kings in the past couple of months, I hadn’t noticed one thing that Marty pointed out right away: God doesn’t ask Elijah to do any of the great things he does against Ahab. In fact Elijah challenges Ahab to bring the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel without a single explicit instruction from the Lord, challening them that “The god who answers by fire — he is God.” ( 1 Kings 18:24b, NIV)

But, we learn later, the Lord was not in the fire.

Whispers of Calvary

God was, as Robert Alter puts it, in “a sound of minute stillness.”

I think that God was trying to show Elijah how He really works. Given how often God has brought this passage before me so far this year, I think He’s trying to teach me that as well.

Dr. J. Oswald Sanders is quoted as saying:

The whispers of Calvary are infinitely more potent than the thunder of Sinai in bringing men to repentance.

As humans, we often want to see the thunder of Sinai accomplish what we see as right or good in the world. Jonah yearned for God to smite the Ninevites, James and John sought to call down destruction on Samaritans, Elijah wanted to sway the heart of an evil king with the fire of the Lord, the disciples of Jesus sought a liberator to drive Rome from their land…

and instead they received a crucified rabbi.

It may seem inefficient to use, foolish even, for a God with so much power at His disposal to simply whisper in the hearts of people to draw them in. How much more foolish does it seem to pray for the redemption of your own executioners as they mock you and fix you to a cross?

God’s Desire

Only God’s gentle whisper can reach the heart of the centurion at the foot of the cross who declared “Surely he was the Son of God!”

I don’t want to wait for the whispers of Calvary to change the hearts of my enemies, or those I see as forces of malignity. I want God to put them in their place so that the good guys can win!

But God wants their heart just as much as He wants mine. For now, that is what I’m trying to take away from the story of Elijah in 1 Kings, and as I pray for the hearts of those who I could well treat as enemies, I hope it brings my heart more in alignment with that of Jesus, my Lord.