Third Sunday after Pentecost: Old Testament, 1 Kings 19:9b-21                                      

1 Kings 19:9b-21

Warning! This meditation really isn’t a meditation. It is an opportunity to hopefully help you become a better Bible reader. Instruction around a Bible text serves that text if it helps you to faithfully take away what God intends so here goes.

This is a famous account of a famous dialogue between God and the great prophet Elijah. His ministry is highlighted in this marvelous book. The dialogue pointed to in this text is that famous one where Elijah encounters “the word of the LORD,” (think Jesus). God sends rumblings to Elijah in the “envelopes” of a “great strong wind,” an “earthquake,” and a “fire.” Nothing discernable of the Lord’s word came in those encounters but God was known in what the ESV translates as “a low whisper.” What other translations historically have rendered “a still small voice.” Now here is the point of our instruction.

I have heard, and perhaps you have, too, myriads of Christian preachers and teachers use this passage to teach their people that “God wants to speak to you in a still small voice. So wait for it.” Blunt I will be, but no, no, a thousand times no! Then God’s people invariably sit in stillness waiting for a personal revelation from heaven which would most likely be akin to a digestive upset caused by last night’s extra slice of pizza.

The instruction given to Elijah and the voice of God given to Elijah was just that: given to Elijah. This text has no instruction for anyone else and should not be used to launch an expectation of such a voice coming to us in our lives. God speaks. And when He speaks in this age it is a speech that is meant to be heard and understood clearly by all. God speaks publicly and CERTAINLY through His written Word so that no one may question or doubt. It’s not a popular position to hold when everyone in the culture wants to tailor God and His leading to their specific situations. God is not a genie. And He has already given His final Word in His Son. By the way, that is the Word which came to Elijah. It was enough for the prophet. It should be enough for us.