Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
November 4, 1984
How Does God Speak to You?
1 Kings 19:8-14, Exodus 3:1-6, KJV
Has God ever spoken to you? I'm not talking about a vague feeling but literal, audible words. I never have, though I think it would be interesting. Even in the Bible only a few people can claim to have heard the voice of God. It may seem like a lot but over a four-thousand-year span it amounts only to a handful. Fewer still in the Bible are the people who can say they have experienced God through a miraculous display.
Nevertheless, the Bible says God reveals himself to everyone who tries to follow him. God reveals himself in various ways and often it is in a way we don't anticipate. Elijah had a real problem with this. He had a predetermined idea about how God should do things and he became very discouraged when it didn't work out that way.
In our previous passage Elijah was so depressed he wanted to die. After the confrontation on Mount Carmel the spiritual conversion of the people had proved to be shallow. Queen Jezebel herself wasn't even fazed. So Elijah had headed south into the desert. When he got there God even gave him food but Elijah was still discouraged. Eventually he set off toward Mt. Horeb. Mt. Horeb is usually called Mt. Sinai. Hundreds of years earlier it was here that God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. About forty years later, Moses returned to Mt. Horeb and received the two tablets with the Ten Commandments. When Elijah came to the mountain he found a cave to live in. Even this parallels the experience of Moses. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 33:18. It reads:
"And Moses said: I beseech thee show me thy glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee...."
Go down to verse 20:
"And God said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put there In a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by."
The cleft, or cave, that Moses was hidden in is probably the same one Elijah found but there was one key difference - Moses came to Mt. Sinai to pray for God's mercy on Israel, while Elijah came to grumble. When God asked what he was doing there, the prophet answered with self-pity and despair. He begins with, "I've been very jealous for God" and ends by saying, "I'm the only one left."
If I were God I would not have been pleased with my prophet. But all the Lord says is: "Go stand out on the mountain." At this point the traditional displays of God's power occur. First there was a violent wind that blasted the mountainside and threw rocks all around, but God wasn't in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, just like when Moses brought down the Ten Commandments, but God himself wasn't in the earthquake either. The third wonder was a display of fire. Elijah could relate to this because this was how God revealed his presence on top of Mt. Carmel, but this time God wasn't even here.
The standard earth-shattering displays had occurred yet they were empty of what Elijah really needed. They must have been scary enough because in verse 13 we find Elijah back in the cave. It's there that he hears something he doesn't expect - a still small voice. The Hebrew is even more picturesque. It says he hears a "sound of gentle quietness." It was in gentleness and not violent displays that God chose to reveal himself.
Elijah discovered what people down through the ages have found - the God of the Bible doesn't fit in anyone's box. If you determine how God is going to speak to you he usually chooses another way. This is especially true of conversions. I often find people who want to become a Christian but are waiting for something concrete to happen, like a miracle. Like the Apostle Paul, they want to be knocked off their feet by a bright light.
A number of years ago when I was searching for God, I had this expectation. Some people I knew were saved because they had a vision of Jesus or a supernatural encounter with God. I never did. I searched for those things but never found them. One day I laid down on my bed and asked the Lord to save me completely. I knew he was going to levitate me off the bed or give me a vision ... but nothing happened. I figured either God wasn't there or I wasn't good enough. After a few more weeks of Bible study I decided salvation is based on the spiritual fact that Jesus died for my sins. Miracles and visions can't add or subtract from that fact. Some of the most profound conversions have been based on simple encounters with God.
One example would be a Russian Jew named Boris Kornfield. Kornfield was a medical doctor who lived in Russia during Stalin's rule. Although he was innocent, someone accused him of lacking loyalty to Stalin and he was thrown in a concentration camp for political prisoners. Kornfield was not a religious Jew and he soon lost his belief in Communism too.
Eventually, the doctor came in contact with a born-again Christian who explained the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. Since he didn't believe the Bible this approach didn't have much effect. What really got to him was the Christian emphasis on forgiving others and repentance. Kornfield knew he was full of hate. When he operated on guards he tried to sabotage the stitches so they would later come undone. He now realized he was as evil as the guards he hated and he began to pray for forgiveness. He also did something else - he turned in a thief. Kornfield found him stealing bread from a dying patient and reported it to the camp commander. The commander could hardly believe it because stoolies usually got murdered. Dr. Kornfield was not particularly brave but he felt he had to finally take a stand. This decision, which in effect was a death sentence, gave him a new freedom.
He no longer ignored cruelty or stored up hatred for people. He also wanted to share his faith in Jesus with someone. His first opportunity was a young patient with cancer who was empty and miserable. Kornfield began talking to him and described everything that had happened. All day long the patient heard about the doctor's conversion and newfound freedom. The young patient woke up the next day to hear a commotion in the next room. During the night, while the doctor was sleeping, someone had crept in and struck him in the head eight times with a hammer. Although his fellow doctors tried to save him, in the morning he was dead. He did not experience a miraculous deliverance from death but Kornfield's simple testimony did not die. The young patient thought about the doctor's words and became a Christian himself. He survived the prison camp and went on to tell the world what he had learned there. The patient's name was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and through his books the still small voice of God has touched many people.
If God were to come to you and say, "What are you doing here?" what would you say? Elijah's honest reply would be that he was running away, not so much from Jezebel as from God. The prophet's idea about how God should act was a little too narrow and severe.
"What are you doing here?" God's question has nothing to do with physical location. It has everything to do with your relationship with him. Where do you stand with God this morning?
________
Typed on December 8, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Easily create Web Help sites