A Gentle Lesson for a Tired Servant: Elijah and the Still Small Voice - 1 Kings 19

0:37The motivation for tonight's message is just something I feel over and over again that often we get to where we believe that everything depends upon us. I don't know if you've ever been there, no matter what station of life that God has you in, we often want to see God do great things in and through us, whether that's related to ministry at large. Certainly we have a burden here at Emmanuel to see God's name glorified and spread rapidly. And we give ourselves to those tasks that God has placed us in. And sometimes we can get discouraged because We don't see the results that we would like to see. Sometimes we can get very discouraged and we can get very tired when things don't turn out like we thought they would. And it can lead us to sometimes a crisis and great discouragement.

1:52And so I want to look tonight at the life of a servant, a noble, noble, noble servant. His name is Elijah. And I want us to learn the lesson that God wanted Elijah to learn. So, with that, I want you to look at 1 Kings beginning in verse, or chapter 19, beginning in verse 11, and I'll just read a portion of this to verse 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 at the entrance of the cave.

3:13And there he's going to meet with God. There's something that Scripture reveals about God that we often overlook, and that is the gentleness of God. Scripture reveals God to be a gentle God from the very first to the very last. From the very moment that God walks with Adam in the cool of the day, to when he walks among us on the earth and he picks up the little children, to the time he walks on the road to Emmaus, to the time where he ascends to a place to receive and prepare a place to receive his people someday. All of it speaks of the gentleness of God.

4:09Isaiah 40, 11 says this, he will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. There is a gentleness about God that I want you to focus in on tonight and remind you. Of because our minds are often we get accustomed to focusing on the spectacular. Even in scripture, we focus on the spectacular, and sometimes we miss the numerous subtle revelations of God's gentle nature.

4:48And I can tell you, as I, the older I get, and the more I experience in life, the more I marvel at God's power over Himself. The gentleness of God is as infinite as His power. And putting those two together is an incredible combination, right? The God who has all power, absolute power and authority, and yet He's as gentle as He is powerful. That's a God I want to serve, that's a God I want to know, and that's a God who calls us to know Him.

5:38All-powerful, and yet at the same time, infinitely gentle in how He applies that power in our lives. Have you ever prayed some of these crazy prayers? Or actually, you've probably prayed them, they never really thought about how crazy they are. Have you ever prayed, Lord, humble me? Have you ever thought about that? The older I get, the more I realize how insane that prayer is, right? It's a rookie prayer. It's a rookie prayer, right? But it's right. It's the right prayer, you know, isn't it? What's the problem with that prayer?

6:19You don't want to go through the humbling process. You don't want to be humiliated, right? Lord, humble me. And that's a good prayer. But you might want to add, and Lord, do it as gently as possible. Lord, or have you ever prayed, Lord, make me learn absolute dependence upon you and you alone? Right? Same thing, right? Lord, refine me completely. All those are good prayers. But we like to add at the end, and Lord, please do so as gently as possible, right? Well, tonight, I want you to see the gentle hand of God upon a very tired servant so you will appreciate God's gentleness towards us.

7:11And there's nowhere where we see God's gentleness more on display than when God dealt with Elijah on Mount Sinai. At a time when one might expect a thundering rebuke, God was extremely gentle with his exhausted servant. At a time we might expect A harsh word. We find instead a gentle lesson. So I want you to meet this tired servant, and then I want us to learn this gentle lesson. And I will just paraphrase some of the scripture as I go through, but I will read as much to give you the picture. But it's really a walk through 1 Kings 16, 17, 18, and 19. But first, I just want you to meet the tired servant. God put this servant Elijah in a difficult situation. The culture of Elijah's time, let me give you just a little bit of, just read to you a little bit about what that culture was like. 1 Kings 16, 29. In the 38th year of Asa, the king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel. And he reigned 22 years. Now Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

8:32And it came to pass that it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, that he took the wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbael, which means Baal lives. And he went into the and served the Baals and worshipped them. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more. To provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So he took wickedness to a new level.

9:12It was a culture of gross immorality, gross idolatry, and God placed Elijah there. Why? To be light in the darkness, to confront the difficult situation. And so a collision is going to occur, right? Light and dark, they tend to collide. So it's no surprise that the political and cultural situation of the day and the prophetic situation of the day were going to collide. We think about two massive storm fronts, right, colliding. And what happens when they collide?

9:52What's that? You get some storms, right? Well, that's what you have here. You've got two big entities, two big weather patterns on a collision, and a violent storm certainly comes. So, 1 Kings 17 and verse 1, you can see it there. Elijah the Tishfite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years except at my word. So, Ahab, there's going to be a drought. Okay? So, you go over to 18:1.

10:30And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, that is, in the third year of the drought. You can see that James 5:17 says it was three and a half years. That God says, Go, present yourselves to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab, and there was a severe famine. So then in verse 17 of chapter 18, it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, Is that you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the beals. Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. That's her female consort of Baal. And these are the ones who ate at Jezebel's table. And so God places him there. A confrontation, right, between the God of Israel and these Baals.

11:48And so God puts him there in this collision. And why does he do that? Well, for a number of reasons. But one of the things that I believe that God Wanted Elijah to see. And one of the things that he wants us to see vicariously through Elijah is the hard-heartedness of humanity and what it takes to break and to change the hearts of humanity. So, the hard-heartedness. You can see it of Elijah's time. So, you can see this in 1 Kings 18. So, what happens? All of the prophets of Baal come, 450 of them. You see that in 22. Therefore, let them give us two bulls and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay the wood, and put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it. Then you will call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. So, all the people answered, said it is well spoken. So, let's put a challenge here.

13:02You've got an altar over here, and all you 450, I guess the Asherah prophets, this didn't really show up for this battle, period. So, you got, anyway, so you got all these, you got one altar, and all the 450 prophets of Baal, and you've got another altar with just Elijah. And so, you know the story if you have spent any time in reading. In 1 Kings 18, it came to pass at the time of the offering. You remember, they called day and night.

13:38Elijah even kind of mocks their gods. Well, why don't you call your God down? They call, they cut themselves, they dance around. Come, answer by fire, answer by fire, and complete silence, right? And Elijah even kind of mocks them. Well, maybe your God's indisposed. Maybe he's out on a journey, you know, maybe he's not paying attention. And so, after all that big show, nothing from the Baals. They left alone. No fire from heaven to consume. Well, then you pick it up in verse 36, chapter 18, that now it's Elijah's turn. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are the God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Then fire, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifices and the wood and the stones and the dust and the. Licked up the water that was in the trench. Now, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Gishron and executed them there. Okay, so there you go. Big deal, big showdown. God proved himself to be the Lord over all. So surely this must have changed the hearts of the political structure of Israel and the hearts of the people. And then you go on in verse 45, guess what? Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezebel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and he ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So Elijah's excited. I mean, he runs. And this is about 15, 20 miles. And he gets up and he outruns Ahab and his charioteers or whatever. And he outruns all the way to Jezreel. Why is he, what is he hoping for? Right? Now the rain is coming, right? After three and a half years, surely now the hearts of these people have been changed, right?

16:30Surely this will turn the political situation. Maybe even Jezebel will surrender. Or maybe she will turn. Maybe some kind of change in the face. They will recognize a true prophet. They will recognize a true God. And so what happens? You come to chapter 19 and verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and 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 at this time. In other words, may God kill me if I don't kill you by this time tomorrow. Verse 3, and when he saw that, he arose, this is Elijah, and ran for his life, and went to Bersheba, 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 he said, it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life. I am no better than my father's. So here's Elijah. The spiritual hardness of the people had caused Elijah to be severely discouraged.

18:01To the point of dying, he had done everything that he could imagine that could be done to accomplish what God wanted him to do. Have you ever been there? You ever feel that way? Like, oh, God, I don't know what else to do, right? Well, that was Elijah. He did everything he knew, what he thought God had wanted him to do, and he was good at it. He did it. But the shock and awe did not turn Israel back to God. And now Elijah is depressed to the point of dying. I mean, what else can be done?

18:46So, this is the tired servant that I wanted you to meet. Now, I want you to see the gentle lesson that God teaches his tired servant. God does not come down hard on Elijah, right? He knew Elijah was faithful, he knew that Elijah loved him, and he knew Elijah was very jealous for God's honor. And one might expect a rebuke here, right? What in the world are you doing being afraid of Jezebel? We just took out 450 prophets. Why are you? Afraid of this woman?

19:34Right? I mean, that's if he's talking to us, that may be what we'd say, right? You're like, Elijah, man up. Come on, get with it. I mean, did you forget? You're like, the people of Israel just came out of Egypt. You know, are you acting like that? But he doesn't. He doesn't put Elijah away in anger, but he begins this gentle work upon restoring Elijah's heart to revive him, to restore him. And God wants Elijah to learn what he's going to teach Zechariah in another generation. It's not by might, it's not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Zechariah 4:6.

20:24Articulated there, but certainly illustrated here in Elijah's life. And it's a lesson we all had to, we need to learn, right? It's not by might. It's not by our power. It's not by our ingenuity. It's not by our wisdom. It's not by our great effort. It's something that transcends all of that. And that is God's Spirit. Notice the tenderness and gentleness with which God begins to revive Elijah. You look at 19, first of all, he's mindful that Elijah is tired, he's but a human. He's got a weak frame, so what does he do? He dispatches an angel in chapter 19 and verse 5 to touch him, to cook for him, and to give him something to drink, not just once, but twice. And this food revives Elijah's tired body, and it strengthens him for another 40 days, long enough for this discouraged prophet to make it to Mount Horeb. And Mount Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the very place where Moses received the law and retreated. Remember, Moses retreated at that whole golden calf incident, right? After all that had happened, the people still, their heart was still hard after all of that that had happened in Egypt. And so Moses retreats up to this mountain. And it's this very same mountain that Elijah comes.

21:58And he went to the cave and he spent the night there. And then in verse 9, the Lord asks Elijah, Elijah, what are you doing here? And in verse 10, Elijah says, This, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel. I have forsaken your covenant toward, they 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. So, somewhere along the line, Elijah came to believe: hey, it all depends upon me. I'm alone in this battle, and I want to turn the heart of this nation back to you, and I am giving myself completely to no avail. I alone am left, and now Jezebel wants to kill me. Well, that's nothing new, but somehow it got to him at this moment. And so, then in verse 11, Elijah is told to go out of the cave and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And so, here's the situation: the Lord had graciously and lovingly brought this tired servant to this point so that he could teach him this gentle lesson. And it's the lesson of the age. And he's brought us here tonight to this point that we could learn this same lesson. And here's the lesson: God's Spirit is at work even though we may not realize it. God's Spirit is at work in our lives, even though we may not realize it. In fact, He's at work in this church, He's at work in our society, He's at work in the earth, even though we may not realize it. And so, first of all, comes this loud display of the supernatural, right? Verse 11, this is what we read a minute ago. Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by. A great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire.

24:19And it's interesting to note that Elijah was not alarmed or moved by any of these. Elijah was one of these guys who was just born in the storm. That was just his life, right? I love Spurgeon's, how Charles Spurgeon described this scene, and I'm not even going to try to improve on it. I'm going to just read it. It's a bit long, but it'll give you a sense, as only Charles Spurgeon can give you a picture of what it's like to be there. But picture the scene. The prophet comes to the opening of the cave, and then a tremendous windstorm of tornado proportions sweeps down the rifts and the valleys with such force that it tore the mountains and brought down great masses of granite from their lofty summits. The great and strong wind seemed to shake the mountains to their foundations, and huge columns of rocks, which had long withstood ordinary storms, began to shake and fall about the lone observer with a thundering crash. And yet the prophet was not at all alarmed, for this had been the story of his life. Then came the next scene. Of the spectacular. He, as he stood at the mouth of the cave, and the earth gave way beneath his feet, it shook and quivered, for now the earthquake was passing by, and it seemed as if nothing was stable around him. But this does not alarm the prophet either. He lived in times of great political and spiritual upheaval. He was accustomed to the swaying and fracturing of everything around him. And then the final scene, the spectacular fire. Fire! The fire flamed over the whole heaven, displaying a brightness and intensity such as the man of God had never witnessed before. Not even on Mount Carmel did the fire from heaven come with such a blaze. From crevice to crevice, the fire burned till the whole sky blazed with the fire of God. Yet we do not find that the prophet was in the least bit frightened, dismayed, or bowed down. He was a brave spirit, calm amid the storm. He was like the eagle that soars in the center of the lightning and rises on the wings of the storm. He may have been awakened by the fury of the elements, but he was not afraid, and nor was he bowed down.

26:45So such was the loud display of the supernatural. But then comes what I call the quiet breath of the subtle. And look at this in verse 12. 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. Going back to Spurgeon's description, picture the scene again. The mighty wind has ceased, and the lightning and the fire was gone, and the earth was still, and the shattering sound of rocks was hushed, and there was a dead calm, a deafening silence. And out of the mist of the still air, they came what the Hebrew calls a voice of gentle silence.

27:40The noise of the wind and the earthquake and the fire were not so quickening to Elijah as the still small voice by which the Lord called him near. Notice what Elijah did. He covered his face, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood to listen, for the still small voice had won the solemn attention of his soul. So the effect of this still small voice, what did it do? It subdued Elijah. It got his attention. It brought him to the point, it brought him bowed down, covered his face, and he came to the mouth of the cave with full attention.

28:29What is The voice say? What did it say? Beginning in verse 13 of chapter 19, voice, what are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very zealous. We've already read that. I alone am left. 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 Assyria. Also, you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshe, as king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, you shall anoint as your prophet in your place. And it shall be, whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to the Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. So what comes out of this still small voice? Well, first of all, some instructions. Anoint Hazael, anoint Jehu, and anoint Elisha.

29:40And it's interesting. Elijah only does the third. He anoints Elisha, and then Elisha goes and anoints Hazaiel and Jehu. He's tired, he's worn out. So he gives them instructions, but then he also gives them some information. And in verse 11, 17, you know what he says? He says, Look, Elijah, this is my issue. And he says, Elijah, Baalism is going to end. Baalism, the worship of Baal, is going to end. Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, they're going to bring it to an end. It's going to come to an end.

30:32He says, I got this thing. This is mine. And then he goes on in verse 18 and says, and there's one more piece of information. You're not alone. I have reserved 7,000 others. And, you know, and many of these 7,000 others, we can imagine were influenced by Elijah's ministry. But the significance of all of this is that which effectively wins humans' hearts to God is not the extraordinary display of power. You see, we intend to associate the activity of God with the spectacular, don't we? And if we do not see strong evidences of answered prayers or displays of the miraculous, we can easily conclude that God is not doing anything, right?

31:24But he is at work. He is at work in our lives. He is at work in your life. Even now, right now. I appreciate the words of Maurice Roberts here. Perhaps it is one of the besetting sins of fallen human nature that we all put too much store by the dramatic, the sensational, and the impressive. It comes out very often in the way we give our testimony or the value we put on others' testimonies. It comes out, too, in the raw notions we sometimes hear about when men claim to be filled with the Spirit. The feeling which comes naturally to us is that God cannot be doing anything important if it is not done according to the noisy standards which we set for Him. It is all too easy for us to equate life with excitement and bustling activity. But the most important acts of God's power are those which are all unnoticed by man. They touch the secret springs of his soul and heart. Regeneration, sanctification, repentance, growth, and grace are all the product of divine omnipotence acting with marvelous gentleness and love upon man's inner being. These do certainly issue at times in violent praying, striving, and crying, but the most vital and central aspect is not that which results in much noise, but that which results in much delight. In God for his own sake. You see, what God is doing by his Spirit is He is becoming larger. If you are a follower of Him, He is becoming larger and larger in your life. And sometimes that growth is imperceptible, but it's happening and it's real. And He's going to complete, and He's going to do and complete what He has begun. And if you are not a believer, He calls you tonight to belong to Him. Even in the orchestration of the events of this night, in the orchestration of the events of your life leading to this point, God is calling, drawing. He is at work.

33:54See, Elijah didn't know what was going on. Sometimes the greatest work of all is that which is quiet. In fact, the incarnation of God into human flesh just kind of quietly slipped into the stream of humanity, didn't He? It was the still small voice that moved Elijah. And it's the still small voice that still speaks today. God is quietly. Working out his purposes on earth. And his servants do not always have the whole picture. In fact, I would say most of the time we don't have the whole picture, right?

34:43Elijah didn't know what was going on around him. He was limited to his perspective, and so are we. But God calls us to be what he wants us to be. He puts us in our place, in our time, just like he did Elijah. And there is a collision. He puts you as light in the world of darkness around you, and there is a collision. But do not be discouraged. Do not think it all depends upon you. It's his doing. Leave the battle to him. Do what God has called you to do in your station of life.

35:23Do what he calls you to do. Do that which is most pleasing, which you already know is most pleasing to him. Give yourself to that and know he is working it out for his good, for your good, for his glory. So the lesson: do not be discouraged at the events around you, but rest. God's Spirit is at work, even though you may not realize it. That's the lesson that Elijah needed to learn. And I'll say this: do not confuse gentleness with being unwilling to rebuke.

36:09God's gentle way with Elijah rebuked him actually with tremendous force. And gentleness stems from a heart that is genuinely concerned with another's well-being. That's what gentleness does. It stems from a heart that wants another person's well-being and seeks to use all power in a way that will gently bring about his glory and his desires. So it comes down to the questions. I just want to finish this and close as we reflect on Elijah's life. Very practically, how do we cultivate the habit of listening to God?

37:04How do we cultivate this? How do we listen to that still small voice? And I tell you, one of the first things to do is to resurrect this archaic thing we used to call quiet times. Get alone with Him. We're so busy in our lives. And even when we do have time, we fill it with noise and so many distractions. Whether it, I mean, we're so plugged in that just getting alone. How do you expect to hear anyone, hear the voice of the still small voice if everything around you is busy and active?

37:45You know, practice the habit of getting alone. That still small voice cannot be manufactured. It's not the inner voice of your own heart. Don't confuse it with that. No, it's the voice of God coming through that which He has revealed. Listen to this, and I'll close with this. Again, this is Charles Spurgeon. I think he says it very well. The Spirit is surely at work with you when your converse is with the Lord alone. When you want nobody to hear what you have to say, but are glad to enter into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father that sees in secret. This is real work, the work of God. When you feel every line of the Word of God as you read it, as if it were written for you and you alone, when you think that nobody else in the world can enter so fully into it or into your judgments as you do now, for the sentences seem shaped for you, and there are little words dropped into the threatening and the promise exactly adapted for you, then it is at that point, the story. Still small voice is executing its sacred office. This is a main point: this contact of the soul with God, this breaking down of the barriers of things visible, this closing in with God, the unseen. Oh, it is a sight such as angels delight to behold when a man bows before the Most High and listens to his great Father's voice, and then tells out to him all his heart without attempting to hide anything.

39:33This is never produced by whirlwind, fire, or earthquake. It is the effect of a voice of gentle silence, for God is in it. Vain are eloquence, argument, music, sensationalism. The Spirit worketh all holy things, and He alone, and this He worketh in the solemn silence of a soul subdued by love. I'm just going to end there. Heavenly Father, help us to be quiet before you. Help us to learn the lesson of Elijah: that you are indeed active, busy at work. Father, and that we can rest in the knowledge that you have this. This is about you, it's not about us.

40:30Father, that we can simply come before you, subdued by your great love, quiet before you, eager to be your people, and engaged in the relationship and walk that you have set out for us to walk with you. And Father, we just thank you for this evening. We thank you for this body. We ask you to go with us now this week. In Christ's name, amen.