Our Unexpected God: The God Who Shows Up in the Silence

Life's overwhelming noise can make it feel impossible to connect with God, but the story of Elijah teaches us that divine presence often comes in unexpected ways. After experiencing a great spiritual victory, Elijah found himself exhausted and running from Queen Jezebel's threats. When God met him in the wilderness, it wasn't through spectacular displays of wind, earthquake, or fire, but through a gentle whisper that required stillness to hear. God provided practical care through food and rest, reminding us that sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is tend to our basic needs. The story reveals that God speaks most clearly not in life's dramatic moments, but in the quiet spaces where we stop performing and start listening.

Transcript

All right, church, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to open up into the Old Testament. We're going to start this morning in the book of first kings. We're going to start in first kings, chapter 19. We're going to read verses 1 through 14. I'm going to give you just a second to get your Bibles out.

If you don't have them, that's fine. You can follow along on the screen. I know we don't jump to First Kings very often, so it's kind of back in the back in the Old Testament. And if you need help finding it, you can always go to your index. There you go.

All right, let's read together, starting in verse one.

Here's the word of the Lord for us today. It says, now, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like of one of them. Elijah was afraid, and he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

He came to a broom brush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord, he said, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once, an angel touched him and said, get up and eat.

He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and he ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

There he went into the cave and spent the night, and the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, 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 a sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.

The Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before The Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and he went out and he stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, 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.

Are there ever moments in your life where things get so absolutely hectic that you can't hear anything? Like you can't even hear yourself speak? I bet a lot of us, we're so busy that we're constantly on the go, that for us to just sit and be silent is something that's very tough for us to do. Often there are deadlines and expectations and all the responsibilities of life that keep us on our toes 24 7. There's this constant feeling that we have to do more, be more, fix more.

And sometimes even in church, we assume that God can only be found in the big moments, right? The big attendance. Sundays like Easter or Christmas.

But what happens when you're too tired of the big moments? What happens when you're burned out, worn down, and only running on fumes? What happens when you're doing everything right and you still feel like the loudness of life is drowning your spiritual life? So today we meet a prophet named Elijah. And he's a prophet that says that he has nothing left.

A prophet who has served faithfully, even under the threat of death. It says from his own lips that he has done everything he possibly can in service to God and is at the point of just giving up on life? And in the scripture we just read, we see that God meets him not in the spectacular, but in the silence, in the unexpected. So this morning, the scripture that we read together introduces us to this man named Elijah. And what we didn't get to read is that Elijah, in this moment, when we catch up with him on the run, he has just left one of the biggest spiritual victories in all of his life.

If you know much about the Old Testament, you might know Elijah's story, but it's not one that's super familiar if you weren't raised in the church. So let me set the stage for you. This morning, Elijah steps onto the Scene during one of the darkest spiritual moments in all of Israel's history, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are on the throne. Do you know anything about the name Jezebel? What do you think of when you think of the name Jezebel?

Traitor. Evil. Hussy. That was the word I was thinking. Hussy.

Floozy even, right? But you think of the name Jezebel and obviously, or immediately not great things come to mind because of this story. Okay, so King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are on the throne in Israel. And they're not just bad leaders, they're just bad people. Jezebel has imported the worship of Baal.

You know, the name Baal, it's like this kind of Sumerian God that kind of represents a lot of naturalistic things. It's not good. It's a violent storm. God. And she, in this moment, is funding hundreds of prophets while trying to hunt down all the prophets of Yahweh so that she can kill them all.

She wants to rid Israel of Israel's traditional faith and importing. Wants to import this BAAL worship. So now, in this moment, Elijah is one of the only prophets left, the only faithful voice of God in the midst of all of these other strange religious ceremonies and, you know, prophets and things like that. He's been standing alone against a corrupt government. He's been standing alone against a violent queen and an entire religious system that has turned everything it has against God.

And now he's on the run. He's been hiding in ravines. He's been fed by ravens. He's watched the nation that he loves fall apart because of their unfaithfulness to God and their misplaced faith in political leaders instead of God himself. And then comes the showdown at Mount Carmel.

And if you know anything about Elijah, this is kind of the big part of Elijah's story. On Mount Carmel, there were 450 quote, unquote prophets of this false God called Baal that meet up with Elijah. And for many of us, this is. This is the only part of Elijah's story that we know. And in front of the entirety of Israel, right?

So Jezebel and King Rahab have or not Rahab is that Ahab. They have called together all of Israel. And so Elijah is standing there in front of them. And basically they're having this big competition to see whose God is real.

So they prepare an altar, right? And on this altar, they cut up a cow. And they are. Elijah says, now don't start this sacrificial fire. Because I want you to ask your God to rain down fire on this altar.

And if your God rains down fire on this altar, we will know that BAAL is a real God. And so for hours, these prophets of BAAL are screaming and hollering and they're proclaiming in the name of BAAL that fire come down from heaven and consume this sacrifice. And there's nothing. And Elijah mocks them. It's pretty funny, the things that he says.

Maybe your God is on vacation. Maybe your God is taking a nap and he just can't hear you. Maybe your God needs to turn up his hearing aid just a smidge, right? There's this great fight, funny moment where Elijah just mocks these false prophets.

And then he says, I tell you what, you guys are done. They get so extreme, they're like cutting themselves and they're bleeding all over the place and they're why is God not answering us? Why is BAAL not answering us? And so Elijah says, all right, enough is enough. Don't kill yourselves.

Let me show you how it's done. He says, hey, why don't you go get some water and dump that water all over the altar. And there's so much water that there becomes like a moat around this altar. So now these cut up pieces of cow are soaking wet. There is no way a match is going to light this stuff on fire.

And so he prays and calls down the fire of God from heaven, and poof. It's all consumed. Through this display of faith and God's power, Elijah defeats the prophets of BAAL and he proves that Yahweh is the one and only true God. It's the highest spiritual moment in his life. I don't know if you guys have ever had one of those moments where you know that without a doubt, God is real.

But in those moments, your life reflects it, right? You're excited, your faith is real. And all it takes in that one moment of spiritual high is a word from Jezebel that changes everything. That one threat, may the gods punish me ever so severely if I don't make your life like one of those prophets you killed. Jezebel is saying, I'm going to hunt you down.

You've proved that my God, my religion, is false. You're going to pay for it. And King Ahab, who saw the miracle that God performed that day, told Jezebel everything that he saw. And she asks to kill Elijah because she's embarrassed. 450 prophets of Baal couldn't do the same.

The same thing that One man could do with the power of Yahweh. And that threat from Jezebel makes him spiral out of control, right? This man who has seen so many miracles, he's had so much courage to speak to power, all the faithfulness of his whole life. In that moment, Elijah just collapses. And then it says, he runs away into the wilderness.

He lies under a broom tree and he plays and he prays. Oh, Lord, take my life. Oh, it's just. Just all the trouble I'm dealing with. Lord, I just want to die.

And here's the part that we all need to hear this morning. Elijah doesn't fall apart because he's faithless. He falls apart because he's human. He's exhausted. He's overwhelmed.

He's isolated. He's carrying more than any one person can carry. In that moment, in the midst of his despair and his desire to die, God shows up. But he doesn't show up in the earthquake. He doesn't show up in a fire.

He doesn't show up in the strong wind that cracks apart rocks. He shows up to Elijah in a whisper church. Even the strongest people break when they carry more than they're meant to hold.

And when God shows up to Elijah, he doesn't rebuke Elijah. God doesn't give Elijah lectures. God doesn't say, where is your faith, little one? God doesn't call Elijah a failure, even though Elijah feels like one. Instead, God sends an angel to deliver a snack and a nap.

Right? For some of you, sometimes all you need is a snack and a nap.

All right. All right. Yeah. Okay. Some other people are also owning it.

She does get hangry. It's all right. I still love you.

All of this story of Elijah reminds me. Levi. Reminds me of something I want to show you. We've probably all seen some fun little clips like this. So you guys grew up together?

Yes, since third grade. What are you looking at? I'm not looking at it. We're not good enough for you? You look for something else?

No. I don't know. What are you, big supermodels? Jesus. Supermodels.

What do you model? Gloves? What are you doing? A girl's totally into me. Brad, eat us, Snickers.

Why? Cause you get a little angry when you're hungry. Better. Better. So, ladies.

So lose it. Stacy, relax. I'm sorry. You're not you when you're hungry. Snickers satisfies.

It's like God shows up to Elijah. Hey, you're not like you when you're hungry. Eat a Snickers. Elijah. So the angel says to Elijah, get up and eat something.

To Elijah eats, and then he takes another nap. And the angel comes back and says, no, no, no, that's not enough. You're going to need to eat some more. Because the journey that you're about to face is one of the hardest, and you can't do it on your own. Sometimes the best thing that we can do for ourselves, Church, when we're feeling like we're not ourselves, take a nap, eat something.

Sometimes we don't want to be the jerk to the world, especially when we're representing a faith that says we shouldn't be jerks, right? Sometimes it's better to just take a nap, eat a Snickers, and then get better. All right, so Elijah travels then to Mount Horeb, which, by the way, is the same mountain where God met Moses. But on the mountain, Elijah hides in a cave. And God says, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Why are you standing in a cave? There's so much work left to do. And Elijah, at that point, pours out his heart. I've been faithful. I've done everything you've asked.

Your covenant people, God, the people that you claim are your own, have killed every prophet. I am literally the only one left, and I'm tired. And now those people who killed all the other prophets are after me, and they're going to kill me, too. Elijah doesn't go up to the mountain to hide because he's rebellious. In this moment, this is Elijah being honest.

It's a prophet telling the truth about how exhausted he is. And then to revive his spirits, God tells Elijah, I know that your faith is running on fumes, but in a moment, I'm going to prove that your faith is correct. And he says, I'm going to show you who I am.

So the next thing that happens is Elijah. He kind of pokes his head out the cave, and then he sees the wind with all the trees whipping back and forth. And it says, the wind is so strong, it splits the rocks. That's some powerful wind. But God's not there.

It's just a window.

Next, there's an earthquake that shakes the foundations of the planet.

And God's not there.

And then there was a fire. And I imagine it was a holy fire. Fire that lit up the whole sky. Smoke everywhere. Coughing.

Where are you, God? Not there.

And then there was a moment of silence. The wind stopped. The earth stood still. The fire was put out. And there's nothing.

And then he hears a whisper.

It's soft and it's faint. And I bet he even struggled to hear it after the commotion that had come up before. And Elijah covers his face because he knows that God in that moment, has shown up in the silence. And when he hears God's whisper, he knows instantly that God's whisper can heal all the thunder and the chaos that the world can't heal. So why does God choose the silence in this moment, with all the power of the whole universe at God's disposal, why does God choose to show up in a simple silent whisper?

I mean, if I were God, I'd probably pull a Bruce Almighty, like, show up with a sports car and like, I'm here. But God doesn't do that. God chooses the silence because silence requires us to be vulnerable. Silence requires us to be still. Silence requires us to stop performing and to start listening.

The wind, the earthquake, the fire, those are the things that we expect God to show up in. Those are the things that we chase, right? Like when we show up to church every Sunday morning, we want those moments of holy worship where our hearts just are just so overjoyed. We want the big, loud moments of worship that reveal to us a spiritual thing and an emotional connection.

But God here is saying, I'm not in the noise. I'm not just in the spectacle. I'm not just in performance.

God is in this moment, in the quiet that follows the collapse of the whole system that Elijah had been a part of. God shows up in the stillness after the storm. God shows up when Elijah finally decides that he's going to stop running away.

So, church, hear this. Today, silence is not a sign of God's absence. It's God's invitation to finally see who God is.

So after the whisper, God gives Elijah some instructions. I want us to read this together. This comes from the book of First Kings 19, and it goes on verses 15 through 18. Fifteen says this. The Lord said to him, go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus.

When you get there, anoint Hazel king over Aram. Also anoint Yahu, son of Nimshi, king over Israel. And anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat and Abel Maholah to succeed you as prophet. Yahu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael. And Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Yahu.

But I reserve 7,000 in Israel all whose knees have not bowed down to BAAL and whose mouths have not kissed him.

After this encounter with God, Elijah is asked to do a few Things go back to the place that you came. And friends, I don't know if you're following the theme over the last few weeks, but it seems like God continues to ask us to go back to the things that we've tried to escape.

And that's not easy, is it? Go back the way you came, because I'm not done with you yet. There's something else for you. Then he asked him, anoint some leaders over Aram, over Israel. And then he asked him to appoint the prophet that will come after him.

And then God says, oh, by the way, you're not going to be alone. I am reserving 7,000 people who have not bowed down to Baal, and I will use them to follow you and reclaim my title as the God of. Of Israel, the God of Sarah, Rahab, and Rachel. Elijah, in this moment, thought that he was alone. He felt that he was alone, that he had nothing left.

And he prayed to God, God, I'm only here by myself. In every moment of his life, he thought that he was just. He was done. He was over it. But God shows up and says, no, you're not alone, and you've never been alone.

I just don't show up in the way you're expecting.

And then God gives Elijah a partner.

The one to come after Elijah is another powerful prophet named Elisha. And Elisha will walk with him and learn from him. So in this moment, God is then giving him someone that will help him carry the load, someone to share the journey with. So if we are reading God's word here as a pattern for our own lives, we can see that God heals us in the silence. But God sustains us within a community of other people.

And this is important for us to remember.

Church. We need one another. We need the Elishas to help us in our journey.

So this story is a big, big story. And I'm giving you, like, little slivers of it. So what is this story of God revealing himself to Elijah? What does it mean for us in this room in 2026? What can we take away from this with us this morning as we go out to lunch or, you know, to the pawn shop or wherever we're going?

Why? What? You don't do that. Okay, Friends, this story should be a reminder for us that if we're burned out, God still sees you. If you are exhausted and you feel stretched in a way that is uncomfortable and terrible, God is not abandoning you.

God is there. If you feel overwhelmed, it's not because God is disappointed in you.

God is not waiting on you to shout louder. God's not waiting on you to perform harder. God's not waiting for you to feel spiritual. God is already there. And he reminds us if we listen in the silence, we aren't alone.

All we have to do is stop expecting God to show up in the big spectacle.

God doesn't just show up in places of thunder and fire.

God reminds us here through the story of Elijah that sometimes silence is where we meet the same God that Elijah met. The same God who was seeking Elijah then is still seeking us in this moment here today. So here's your invitation. Church.

Stop following the noise. There are pastors who want to be that noise in your life. They want to tell you all the things that you're getting wrong. They want to encourage you to give to their specific ministry. They want to tell you how you can grow closer to God by following them.

Stop listening to that noise. There's a noise in our lives that's trying to crowd out everything that is spiritual. All you got to do is focus on work. Then all of your lives will be just so much better. It.

It's all junk. We have to stop expecting God to the places of spectacle.

We've got to stop chasing the noise. We've got to stop assuming that God only shows up in the grandiose moments. We have to stop believing that. We have to earn God's attention and church. We have to occasionally sit in silence.

We've got to stop moving and listen for the whisper. We've got to let God. God meet us where we are, not where we think that we should be. Because when the world gets loud, God gets close and he speaks in the kind of voice that you can only hear when we finally stop running.

I still believe that our unexpected God does the best work in the quiet. And today, in this moment, he's already closer than you think.

Let's pray together.