“He’s Just a Whisper Away”

1 Kings 19:12-13


Today, in the midst of a pandemic, life has changed for many of us. For those of us living in Maine, we have not had to face the stark reality of thousands of people being so sick at the same time, and not enough medical personnel to assist. For those living in New York City, not so good.


Taken from an article, “Two Coasts. One Virus…” Joe Sexton and Joaquin Sapien write, 


As of May 15, there were nearly 350,000 COVID-19 cases in New York and more than 27,500 deaths, nearly a third of the nation’s total.”


And we are not over it yet. 


Add to the pandemic, the recognition of how discriminatory our country is towards each other, and then add on to that a presidential election and to top it off a strike at BIW, and if you are like me, I am sure you could add a few more items on your personal level. If we have ever needed a word from God, it is now. 


The prophet Elijah was once in a similar situation. He was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. He had just spent all of his time and energy battling with the top 450 prophets of Baal, in order to prove to King Ahab, that God was who He said He was. Now mind you, King Ahab and his wife Queen Jezebel were the most wicked and evil rulers Israel had ever known. Makes sense if they had 450 prophets of Baal, and Elijah claimed he was the only one of God’s prophets left. Although unbeknownst to Elijah, the prophet Obadiah had hid a hundred prophets in caves and was secretly feeding them so Ahab wouldn’t know they were alive and try to kill them. 

Anyway, Elijah thought he was the only one and when you think you are the only one, you tend to give more of yourself and put more of yourself out there. Which is what Elijah had done. You may remember the story, Elijah set up a contest to see which God was able to light the fire for their sacrifice. The 450 prophets were unable to get their gods to do anything. Elijah even soaked down the sacrifice with overflowing water, and you know the end of the story, God lit the fire, in fact, He set it ablaze. The people believed, and Elijah had the 450 prophets killed. King Ahab went back to his wife and told her the story. She was livid. She flew off the handle and with total disdain in her voice proclaimed she would have Elijah’s life before another day had passed. 


This is where the story gets confusing. Elijah hears this threat and chooses to run for his life. We read he was afraid. The reason his response seems confusing is because he just finished demonstrating to everyone who was watching that God was in charge. 

How does the threat from Jezebel become more powerful than his God? Basically, Elijah had become mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted and there is a direct correlation between those things and one’s spirituality. We know this happened because after Elijah runs as far as Beersheba in Judah, he finds a place for himself and says to God, “I have had enough, Lord,Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 1 Kings 19:4b And then out of exhaustion he falls asleep. He had to have been physically exhausted because we read then an angel of the Lord brings him bread and water, not once, but twice. He gathered enough strength to manage a 40 day and 40 night walk, until he arrived at Mount Horeb, the mountain of God and went into a cave to spend the night. 


Poor Elijah was so discouraged at this point. He can’t even see the light at the end of the tunnel. He’s given up and given in. But God didn’t give up on Elijah. God knew that what Elijah needed was to hear from Him. 

God also knew that Elijah had been spending too much time focusing on the spectacular. God gives Elijah, and us, a valuable lesson on how to recognize the voice of God. 


God asks Elijah what he thinks he is doing, in the cave. Here is Elijah’s response, 


“I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

1 Kings 19:10


Elijah has just enough truth in that statement that he believes all of it. Again, Elijah’s eyes were focused on the spectacular. So much so, Elijah was sure he was the only one left, who was following the Lord.


God told Elijah to get ready because He was about to pass by. 

Elijah sees a violent wind, so powerful it broke apart the mountain and shattered rocks. But the LORD was not in the wind. Next Elijah experiences an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake Elijah sees a fire, and like before, the LORD was not in the fire. Following all these loud, powerful events, Elijah hears a gentle whisper, that was the voice of God. 


The world tries to get our attention with the loud and spectacular. The world tries to convince us that in order to be heard, we too need to be loud and spectacular. 


More often, 

God is speaking, 

to the world and to us, 

but we are just too busy, 

too loud and 

too occupied to hear Him. 


Elijah’s story is encouraging. God speaks in all kinds of situations, including when we are worn out and too discouraged even to know what we need. And to top it all off, the all powerful God speaks to us gently. 


Let’s not wait until we get to the end of ourselves to practice listening to God’s voice. Let’s discipline ourselves to push aside the loud and the busy, so we can hear God’s still small voice. 


May we also be reminded, that although it may seem like there are not enough Christians out there, like with Obadiah, God has numerous followers, hidden in caves, waiting. God has not forgotten us and He has a plan. The world may like to shout and proclaim its winning, so loudly we may even begin to believe it, but Elijah’s story reminds us, God is just a whisper away. 


Let’s pray.