2/21/10“What Have You Heard Lately?”

Elijah the prophet was still on my mind as I searched for “God’s word for us” this week. After hiding out from King Ahab for about three years as it is told in I Kings 17, we know he finally has a “showdown” with that rascal Ahab in Chapter 18. After exchanging some “pleasantries” like Ahab calling Elijah Israel’s enemy number 1 and Elijah returning the “compliment,” these men get down to business and at Elijah’s directive an all out confrontation is planned between the prophets of Baal and the “somnambulate” Baal himself and YHWH and his intrepid prophet. I’ll spare you the suspense if there was any: Elijah’s God wins, the prophets of Baal lose, Baal never “wakes up” (see 18:27) and his lackeys are literally massacred (see chapter 18). The chapter ends with a three year drought ending with a deluge of rain. But this causes Jezebel, Ahab’s wicked wife, to go ballistic and she signs a death warrant on Elijah’s life. He hightails it out of town, his spirit deeply broken, and heads toward the deep south and ends up on Mount Horeb (19:8), the site of Israel’s much earlier reception of the Law of Moses.

Having been providentially brought back to his roots where he encounters his awesome God who can shake the earth’s very foundations with tornado-like winds and volcanic-like fire but Elijah finds peace and much needed direction in what follows, namely, the “Still Small Voice” (KJV) or the Gentle Whisper (19:12). Through all this Elijah learns that it is not God’s intention to overwhelm us by “putting on the ritz;” but his intention is to speak deeply into our souls and fill us with whispers of love and a gentle voice that calms our frayed nerves and brings us clarity and a newfound relationship with Him. God is not interested in bulldozing us with the truth of who He is (that kind of apocalyptic manifestation of His power is held in reserve for the alien beings (demonic forces) that prey on earth’s recalcitrant rebels who prefer their devilish pursuits to the joy of hearing God’s good news. Some think that they prefer a spectacular demonstration of God’s awesome power, but we have to warn them that “you can’t handle the truth!” God doesn’t want to mesmerize us. “(He) has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7, KJV). He desires to give us a revelation of himself that we can handle. What have you heard lately?