Sermons
The Whisper Of God
Series: Days of Elijah: God’s Righteous Mountain ManTHE WHISPER OF GOD
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / March 11, 2018
1Kgs.18 ends on a high note. Atop Mount Carmel the fire of the Lord Jehovah God proves victorious
over Baal and utterly consumes the altar; God answers the prayers of Elijah (for fire and rain);
the prophets of Baal are slain; the people of Israel are humbled; and King Ahab had to be impressed;
Yet when we wade into the first few verses in 1Kgs.19:1-4 - - we witness three things happening.
(1) King Ahab informs Jezebel as to all that happened on mount Carmel.
(2) Jezebel neither repents nor relents but doubles down on her tyrannical behavior, sending a messenger
to tell Elijah: Just as you killed my prophets of Baal, by tomorrow at this time you will be a dead man.
(3) And (Elijah) was AFRAID and arose and RAN for his life…requested for himself that he might die.
This presents an unexpected twist to the story.
We have become so impressed with Elijah’s steady reliance upon Jehovah God that we expect him to stand
up to Jezebel. “After all the awesome power that God has displayed, do you really think I am afraid of you?”
But he doesn’t. The short and swift journey from Carmel to Jezreel transports Elijah from the pinnacle to the pit.
Like Jonah, Elijah runs away. But unlike Jonah, Elijah does not attempt to run away from God, but TO GOD.
He is physically worn out and emotionally spent (1Kgs.19:5-7).
He is disappointed, discouraged and even distraught.
Maybe he was hoping that the confrontation on Mount Carmel would reap a wide-spread harvest and that a significant change of heart would come over the nation of Israel, King Ahab and even Queen Jezebel, but such wasn’t apparent.
Thus we find Elijah physically drained, mentally fried, messed up, cast down, stressed out and turned inward.
Elijah is feeling alone and has immersed himself in self-pity. Elijah is not now alone and has never been alone.
But he allows his feelings to convince himself that he is alone. cf.1Kgs.18:22 and 19:10 & 14
I suggested last Sunday that Elijah was not thinking straight.
But there is something about the direction of this journey that makes me sense the need to revise that comment.
This brings us to our lesson for this morning.
} Open your Bibles to 1Kgs.19:9-21 |
When Jonah ran, he headed for Tarshish - - as far away from God as could orchestrate.
But in the case of Elijah, he runs to Beersheba (the southernmost extremity of the promised land).
1Kgs.19:7-8 reads as follows: And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched (Elijah)
and said, ‘Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate & drank, and
went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God.
What is a bit fuzzy here is this:
Did the angel reveal to Elijah a new travel destination or did Elijah tell the angel where he was already headed?
My newly-found contention is that Elijah was running to God.
Beersheba was just a pitstop on the way to Mount Horeb (a.ka., Mt Sinai, the mountain of God).
Elijah would have known that Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) was a sacred site where God had met with Moses centuries earlier.
cf. Ex.3:1 tells us that this was where Moses encoutnered God in the burning bush.
Mount Horeb was holy ground, where Jehovah God had cut a covenant with the nation of Israel (Deut.5:2).
1Kgs.19:9 - - Then (Elijah) came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold
the word of the Lord came to him, and (God) said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’
What follows is very reminiscent of Ex.33:18-23. After the golden calf debacle, a discouraged Moses requested that
God show him His glory. God granted his request, saying, You shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about,
while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have
passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.
As we have noted, Elijah is discouraged, disappointed and distraught (downcast in every way).
This assessment is confirmed by Elijah’s response to God’s question, Why are you here?
1Kgs.19:10 / I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of
Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets
with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
So God tells Elijah (1Kgs.19:11) - -
Go forth, and stand on the mountain (rock) before the Lord. And behold the Lord was passing by…
1Kgs.19:11b-13 / First came a great and strong wind, rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks…
but the Lord was not in the wind; And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing
(whisper/quiet gentle sound). And it came about when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’
When God asked the same question a second time, Elijah gave exactly the same answer as he did the first time - -
as if God didn’t hear him the first time. God asked Elijah the same question twice and in both instances
the question was for Elijah’s benefit, not God’s (God is omniscient - - HE knows why Elijah is there).
Before we note the instructions given to Elijah by God, it is worth noting what God didn’t say.
What’s wrong with you? Get your act together! … Snap out of it! Get a grip … Quit whining! … Don’t be a baby!
This time the Lord tells him (1Kgs.19:15-16) - - Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus,
and when 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-me-holah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
We will come back to this assignment in a moment but first let us think a little more about HOW God revealed Himself.
It wasn’t in the great and strong wind. It wasn’t in the earthquake. It wasn’t in the fire.
This time God’s revelation did not come to Elijah in some spectacular manner, as he had previously witnessed.
Being fed by ravens … Sustained by a widow’s pantry that was never depleted …
The miracle of a young lad brought back to life … Fire on the mountain … The rumble of the returning rains.
This time the voice of God is heard in A WHISPER. There is a message here that all of us need to hear.
It is harder to live for God in the ordinariness of daily life than in the excitement of a supernatural revival.
William Petersen (Meet Me On The Mountain, pg.119) writes: “Many Christians would be more willing to die for Christ
in an arena of lions than they would to live for Christ in the routine of the factory or the humdrum on the home.”
Ps.46:10 declares: cease striving/be still and know that I am God.
Ray Pritchard (Fire And Rain, pg.144) confesses of a time when he was complaining about how things were going.
Finally his good wife had heard enough and said to him, “Grow up!”. After he whined a little more, she punctuated
her rebuke by saying, “Stop complaining and open your eyes and see how good God has been to us.”
This is very similar to Ps.42:5-6 - - where the psalmist asked himself,
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?
And then he wisely answers himself: Therefore I remember Thee!
In vs.8 he adds: The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night.
Let us briefly return to Elijah’s new assignment and then we will close.
Elijah returned to “the field” (Damascus).
Before he departed, God revealed to him that there were yet 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
While that number serves to contradict Elijah’s self-pity, it also points to a lot of “sheep” in need of care and feeding.
Elijah quickly throws his mantel to Elisha (1Kgs.19:19), which represents a “call” to Elisha to serve as a prophet of God.
Elisha becomes Elijah’s young protégé - - a devoted fellow-worker in the kingdom of God.
This chapter ends by stating that Elisha arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him (1Kgs.19:21b). cf. 2Kgs.3:11
Our sermon series study of Elijah is drawing near the end - - we will encounter Elijah in just three more settings.
cf. 1Kgs.21 and 1Kgs. 1 & 2.
Over the course of the ten years or so that follow this Mount Horeb experience we will read very
little about the prophet Elijah, but we can be certain that he was busy working in God’s vineyard.
In the last few years of his life on earth, we read no more of an extended drought; no more of being fed by ravens; nothing comparable to that never-ending vat of oil and meal at the home of the widow of Zarephath;
No more resurrections from the dead; and no more fire on the mountain.
I don’t think it’s correct to conclude that Elijah was diplomatically ushered into semi-retirement.
Rather, this last decade of Elijah’s life was Elijah doing God’s important work in ordinary ways during ordinary days.
Write this down in your sermon note box - -
God puts a high premium on FAITHFULNESS, regardless of the size of the task.
I think we need to remember this every day as we live out our lives.
This lesson has been an inspiration to me personally.
My ministry (and your ministry) may not be filled with spectacular events, but we are important nonetheless.
Exciting “fireworks” (good happenings) may be few and far between, but
let us understand clearly that God is well-pleased when we are faithful in the little things. cf. Lk.16:10
