Classic Episode - The Wind, Earthquake and the Still Small Voice

Today’s classic episode is, The Wind, Earthquake and the Still Small Voice . As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

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Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

Today’s classic episode is, The Wind, Earthquake and the Still Small Voice . 

The stage is set. Confrontation had reached its climax. Baal the god of Jezebel verses Yahweh the God of Elijah. Yahweh is Hebrew for ‘The Self Existent’ or ‘Eternal One.’ In the English it is translated as Lord. 

This a classic high drama of evil verses good.

Jezebel had identified herself with pure evil and become one with it. Her name means, ‘Baal exalts" or "Baal is husband to" or "unchaste’. 

Elijah had identified himself with good, the one true God, Yahweh. His name Elijah means, ‘God is Yahweh’ or ‘Yahweh is God’ or ‘My God is Yahweh’. 

Elijah heard Yahweh’s voice and spoke for Him in a time when people did not hear directly from Him. Many had distanced themselves from Him. As Elijah was Yahweh’s prophet he declared many things. A drought over the land, the breaking of the drought with rain and in an ultimate demonstration of Yahweh’s power called down fire from heaven onto an altar. 

When we come to such text we need to surrender our preconceived ideas and remember this is God’s love story. He reveals Himself in a way that each one needs and understands. Let me encourage you to listen to our podcasts from Close Encounters series to see how God reveals Himself in very different ways.

God didn’t want to cause distress with a drought over the land. His desire was and always is to set people free from the bondage of the flesh and evil. Knowing the truth about God and self breaks the chains of false and destructive beliefs. 

Baal was believed to be the warrior god of thunderbolts and lightning, rain and fertility. Worship of Baal involved self mutilation, ritual prostitution and infant sacrifice. Everything was done in an attempt to manipulate or appease Baal, so the people could get what they wanted. Ironically they attributed power to Baal through their belief, yet were continually were trying to gain power over it. Instead they became trapped in a cycle of fear, falsehood, manipulation and pure evil. 

At the spectacular demonstration of Yahweh’s power in the fire on the altar the bondage of fear and the power they gave to Baal was broken. As a result those who saw, heard and believed declared, ‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God.’ For the full drama please listen to our podcast power  Encounters - Fire from Heaven.  

Jezebel hearing the news of the defeat and humiliation of Baal, instead of turning to the one true God sought to kill Elijah. 

The battle was now personal. Let’s pick up the narrative. 

1 Kings 19:1-18 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly 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; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

What must have been going on in Elijah’s mind. Was he like Jezebel making this personal? The fact the she would never bow to Yahweh effect him so greatly? Did he feel his reputation as the great prophet of God had been challenged and needs to justify himself? Or was he simply tired, burnt out and has withdrawn inwards? 

And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

Elijah said the reason why he wanted God to take his life, for he is no better than his fathers. Elijah was confronted with his own pride. To realise he is the same as everyone else in the sense of the human condition must have been a shock to someone who was called, anointed and a prophet of the one true God. How did Elijah define success and failure? Is it from people’s responses or by being led by God in His will? 

Elijah is fighting the battle within. The realisation that he is not better than his forefathers, conflicting with the fact he has seen and experienced the power of God flowing through like no other. He reasons he must be the only faithful one left. We cannot be certain what was going through Elijah’s mind but the New Testament writer makes it clear Elijah is a man just like us. 

God sent an angel to supernaturally provide food and water in Elijah’s wilderness for the journey was too long. Elijah was not the saviour of the world. He was not the anointed One, yet he had an incredible part in God’s tapestry of deliverance and salvation. Elijah, like us was an agent for the One true God, the saviour of the world. 

Elijah was sustained for 40 days with the food provided in the wilderness by the angel of God. yet it was not enough.

God asked Elijah twice, what are you doing here? God being intimate and personal gives Elijah respect and uses his name. Reminding Him of their relationship. Remember Elijah means ‘God is Yahweh’ or ‘Yahweh is God’ or ‘My God is Yahweh’. 

God is the Eternal One, ever present, ever knowing, all powerful. He knows the whole situation and why Elijah is there. Yet He pursues Elijah in love and engages with him asking the question of Elijah to give him an opportunity to pour out his heart to God.

Elijah twice as if some memorised ritual gives the same answer, word for word. I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.

Elijah seems to be going through an identity crisis and relational issues. He seems compelled to respond to God justifying his own commitment and zeal. His flesh has attached his identity with  performance instead of relationship. He adds that he is alone, the only one. Is this Elijah’s way of saying even tho there is a part of me that has come to realise I am no better than my forefathers I am however the only one who has been faithful?

Elijah’s statement shows the false perception he has of God, himself and others. The deceptions of the heart. Had Elijah forgotten the great multitude at mountain Carmel that declared Yahweh was God? Or Obadiah who risked his own life against Jezebel rescuing 100 prophets of God? Needless to mention all others throughout the land that had not bowed to Baal that he knew nothing about. In his own pride he presumed to know more than God. 

The more his perception and perspective had become clouded the more and more he would withdraw and turn inward. 

It is the flesh justifies what it wants, feels rejected it justifies itself in that it deserves to get what it wants because it has done this or that. This is not God’s way. Was Elijah falling into the trap off the surrounding world culture and belief? 

Yet in between God asking the same question twice and Elijah answering the same way something extra ordinary happens. God steps down into Elijah’s darkness and they have a close encounter like no other. 

Verse 11-13 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. 

Elijah was not alone. God was there, not just in the fire on the altar, or in the heavens of the rain but with His intimate presence. In a gentle whisper, a still small voice, just like a refreshing little breeze. At Elijah’s weakest moment God reached down and spoke to Him intimately and personally. 

In the physical realm to hear the gentle whispers of someone you need to be close to them. Physically close. To be changed by that experience, be one with them there needs to be a spiritual and emotional exchange. In that moment Elijah heard and experienced the gentle whisper and breathe of God, intimately and personally. 

The people who believed in Baal needed to see and experience Yahweh in the way they falsely attributed to Baal. Yet Elijah needed to see and experience God intimately and personally. The God of the fire, the heavens and all things good came down to Elijah and graciously listened, spoke gently and revealed the truth of the situation to him. Gave him an eternal vision beyond his own existence and performance. 

One of the greatest moments of vulnerability is after a great victory or a great failure. It is amazing how either can cause discouragement, depression and loss of an eternal perspective. Elijah had forgotten the eternal and was focused on the discouraging circumstances surrounding him. No wonder he was feeling he needed to justify himself. His flesh was feeling threatened. 

But when God revealed Himself in the power and stillness of His presence, Elijah was empowered to see through God’s eyes into the eternal. Away from the inward uncertainty and deceptions of the flesh. As a result the crippling cloud of depression passed. 

We too like Elijah can loose perspective. Be motivated by performance or fear instead of relationship and love. We can even project our own stuff onto God. 

Yet God reaches down into our darkness, even when we are feel we are drowning in our stuff and says, listen to Me and hear my gentle whispers of love. If you feel unworthy to receive My love, come close and look at my nail pierced hands. I have paid the cost for you to receive and believe. 

Let me give you eyes to see into eternity and ears to hear My gentle whispers of love. 

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!