A Voice With Four Messages
(No. 3171)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1909.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY
31, 1873.
"And He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And,
behold, the LORDpassed by, and a great and strong wind tore the
mountains and broke in pieces the rocks 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.
Andit was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his
mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And,
behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What are you doing here,
Elijah?" 1 Kings 19:11-13.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 12 and 13, is #1668,
Volume 28–THE STILL SMALL VOICE.]
THERE may be a great deal more teaching in what Elijah saw and heard in
the cave than I shall be able to bring out this evening. Indeed, I
shall not attempt to exhaust the very wonderful practical sermon which
was preached to the Prophet on the side of Mount Horeb, but in the
still small voice I hear four messages.
I. And first, THERE WAS A MESSAGE TO ELIJAH HIMSELF.
He had, apparently, conceived the idea that the whole nation of Israel
would be converted from idolatry by one grand display of Divine power.
If it could once be indisputably proved that Baal was not God and that
Jehovah, alone, was God, then he thought that, surely, the people would
be convinced and would loyally return to their old Covenant with the
one living and true God. But he found that it was not so. Although the
fire of the Lord had fallen from Heaven and had consumed Elijah's
sacrifice, burned up the very stones of the altar and licked up the
water in the trench. And although the people had cried out, "Jehovah is
God! Jehovah is God!" yet for all that, they forsook not Baal, nor the
other idols that had been set up in the groves and on the high
places–the sun-god was still worshipped and the God who made the sun
was forgotten!
Elijah seems to have also thought that a display of terrible severity
was necessary to bring these people back to their allegiance to
Jehovah. Hence he took the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the
groves and slew them at the brook Ki-shon, not allowing any of them to
escape. It must have been stern work for him to be the executioner of
God's Justice, but he did it with a sacred zest, feeling that he was
only slaying those who were the enemies of God–and that every blow he
struck at those idolatrous priests was struck for the honor and glory
of Jehovah! Yet that stern severity did not succeed as Elijah had
expected it would. And one result of it was that Jezebel sent to
threaten him with death. I think that possibly Elijah desired that God
would inflict upon the people some still severer judgment. Yet I know
not what calamities he would have had them suffer, for there had
already been dire distress through the three years of drought! But even
this had not driven the people from their idolatry. Perhaps Elijah
would have had fire and sword sent among them to drive them from their
idols and bring them back to the worship of Jehovah.
But God here teaches Elijah that this is not His way of working. He
does use the wind, the earthquake and the fire when He pleases, but
these are not His most effective instruments. He does not do His
mightiest works by them, but in quite another way–by a still small
voice! Thus the Lord practically said to Elijah, "Gentler means must be
tried with these rebellious people. My Glory will be promoted among
them by other methods than you have as yet used, or than I have used by
you as My servant. I have let them see that I am Lord and Master of the
terrible forces of Nature. I have con-
vinced them that I am a great God who can smite them as much as I
please, but I have not thereby won their hearts– there must be other
methods used. The still small voice must be tried."
You have, perhaps, noticed that Elijah's later ministry–although it
still remained one of fire and although his was still the voice that
cried in the wilderness as John the Baptist's was afterwards to do,
"Make straight in the desert a highway for our God"–became, on the
whole, much more gentle and tender. He seems to have devoted himself to
the work of perpetuating the ministry among the people by founding
schools for the young men who were called the sons of the Prophets.
They evidently recognized him as their master and head, as they
recognized Elisha after Elijah had been carried up to Heaven. The still
small voice of prophetic teaching was to be tried! Judgments had
apparently failed, for the hard hearts of the people had not been
softened and subdued. Men had been terrified, but they had not been
converted. They had been frightened out of their sins for a time, but
they had speedily returned to them as swine that might be washed would
soon be again wallowing in the mire! Satan had been dislodged from them
for a little while, but he had returned and brought other devils with
him–and so made his possession of them the more secure. Now other
methods were to be tried–gentler, softer, quieter methods which would
prove to be more efficient. I think that was the message of God to
Elijah through the still small voice.
II. Secondly, if I understand that voice aright, THERE WAS A MESSAGE IN
IT TO ALL GOD'S MINISTERS.
To all of us who preach the Word, or who try to teach it in any way,
God seems to say, "Do not trust in great displays of force, in
tremendous demonstrations of power–trust rather in the still soft
influences of the distilling dew of God's Spirit and the gentle rain of
the Gospel. Preach the Word to the sons and daughters of men." There is
a temptation which assails all of us who preach to want to do some
great thing. We fancy that if we could preach such a famous sermon as
Jonathan Edwards delivered when he spoke of sinners in the hands of an
angry God, when the people felt as though the very seats whereon they
sat moved under them–and some of them even stood up and grasped the
pillars of the building in their terror–we fancy that if we could but
preach in such a style as that, then we should have lived to some
purpose. Or we think that if we had the eloquence of Whitefield and
could go and stand, as he did, on Kennington Common, and preach to
twenty thousand people at a time–then we should have accomplished
something worthy of our highest ambition! Or it may be that we have
some famous sermons of which we think a good deal. Possibly there is a
fine peroration, like the grand finale of the Crystal Palace
fireworks–or there may be a great display of oratory all through the
discourse. Or if we have been wise enough to leave out all that sort of
thing, we may have tried to make the sermon one that would convince the
judgment of our hearers, or force its way into their understandings by
its sheer sledgehammer power–and we have hoped by preaching thus–to
see our congregations converted.
Now, if we have been long in the ministry, and if the Lord has given us
true spiritual apprehension, we must have discovered how futile are all
such hopes and expectations! There may be a great wind blowing while we
are preaching such sermons, but the Lord is not in the wind. There may
be a great earthquake and the people may shake and quake with terror,
but the Lord is not in the earthquake! Our pulpit may be lurid with the
fire of coming judgment, but the Lord is not in the fire. It is true
that we are to preach the terror of the Lord, but like Paul, because we
know the terror of the Lord, we are to "persuade men." Persuasiveness
is to be one of the dominant notes in our preaching because of the
terrible side of the Truth of God. We are not to conceal the threats
that we find in the Word of God, for the gentle, loving Savior uttered
very terrible words concerning the wrath to come, the worm that never
dies and the fire that never can be quenched. At the same time, our
main reliance must not be on that style of preaching, and our
expectation of blessing must not depend upon our heaping up words full
of alarm and terror and expressions intended to set forth the woes and
horrors of impending judgment, for after all, we may alarm our hearers
until they can be no longer alarmed! And we may make them weep in
terror until they can weep no more! But instead of doing so, they may
even scoff at that which once so greatly disturbed them.
But the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified never loses its
power! The telling over and over again of–
"The old, old story Of Jesus and His love"–
never becomes a mere repetition if with warm heart and loving spirit we
still cry to our hearers, "Behold the Lamb of God which took away the
sin of the world." There may be no excitement in our congregation, no
sensation may be created by our preaching, but the Lord will be in it!
He always has been in such preaching as that and He always will be.
A preached Savior must mean saved sinners before long, but even where
sinners are not saved, if we faithfully, lovingly and earnestly preach
the Gospel to them, we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them
that perish as well as in them that are saved! So let us still be
content to go on, and on, and on, and on–preaching Jesus
Christ–praying for the Spirit of God to rest upon us while we tell
over and over and over again how the Son of God loved us and gave
Himself for us, asking the faithful to pray that God will bless the
Word, seeking to make our own lives to be more like the life of Him
whom we preach and trying by all lawful means to be the instruments
that God will bless in saving at least some of our hearers! And we
shall succeed in such a ministry as this if we have faith in God and
faith in the message we are sent to deliver, for the Lord is still in
the ministry of the still small voice! There have been many kinds of
ministries in this world, but where has God ever been except in the
ministry of the Truth as it is in Jesus? There have been ministries of
learning, ministries of eloquence, ministries of philosophy and
ministries that have made a fair show in the flesh–but, as a general
rule–souls have not been saved by them. The true soul-winning
ministries are the ministries of the still small voice, the ministries
that proclaim the redeeming Grace and dying love of Jesus! And where
those ministries are exercised, seeking souls will recognize the voice
of God and give heed to it. So there was a message in the still small
voice to every preacher of the Word of God!
III. I think there was also, in that still small voice, A MESSAGE TO
THE WHOLE CHURCH OF GOD.
The Lord was not in the wind, nor in the fire, nor in the
earthquake–but He was in the still small voice. Let us learn from this
fact not to desire to see any great judgments fall upon any country,
nor to see any extraordinary displays of Divine power abroad in the
world with the idea that thereby God's Kingdom will come. We sometimes
grow dissatisfied because God's cause is not advancing as fast as we
think it ought to advance. Foreign missions are not as successful as we
should like to see them and home missions do not prosper as we think
they should. Then we remember the times when the cholera was rife in
London and, remembering that the people seemed to be more tender in
spirit, then, and more willing to listen to the Gospel, we have almost
wished that some such visitation as that would come again to awaken the
callous inhabitants of this sinful city and nation! Yet we must not
cherish such a wish as that, for after all, the good that comes in that
way is more apparent than real–and after the apparent softening, there
often comes a hardening of the heart against the Truth. We have
sometimes looked upon the nations of the earth and as we have seen them
besotted with idolatry and given up to gross error, we have wondered,
if war broke out, or pestilence, or there was some other form of the
rod of God, whether there might not, then, be fresh doors opened for
the preaching of the Word, and whether the people might not be more
willing to listen to it when it was preached. It has, no doubt, been so
in certain cases in the past, but let us not, even in our hearts, ever
desire such calamities and chastisements to happen! But let us still
place our confidence where the confidence of the early Christian Church
was placed–in the Spirit of God working through the preaching of the
Gospel by earnest, faithful men who had proved its power in their own
hearts and lives!
A further lesson to the Lord's people in the still small voice is this.
It appears from what God said to Elijah that there was a work going on
in Israel of which the Prophet knew nothing. There were 7,000 people
whose knees had never been bent in the worship of the sun-god and whose
lips had never kissed the idol. It is doubtless true today that there
are thousands of whom we know nothing who are not partakers in the
idolatry which causes us such sorrow of heart. What an accursed thing
it is that idolatry of various kinds is so rampant today in this and
other lands! O God of Elijah, put an end to it right speedily, we
implore You! Yet, all the while that vile idolatry was spreading in
Israel, the worship of the true God was being retained by 7,000
faithful souls–though Elijah did not know that there was even one
beside himself! How were they won to Jehovah? Certainly not by Elijah's
impressive demonstration on the top of Carmel, for they were loyal to
the Lord before that. Possibly they were not converted even by the
three years drought–what, then, had made them so different from the
bulk of their countrymen? The secret movement of the Spirit of God upon
their hearts! Perhaps also the loving teaching of mothers by the
fireside, the gracious influence of godly men and women upon their
companions and of the worshippers of Jehovah upon men of the world who
saw in them what they knew they did not themselves possess–and who so
admired it that they enquired how they might also obtain such beauty of
character–all these things had helped to range these 7,000 idol-haters
on the side of Jehovah. The still small voice had been doing for Israel
what Elijah could not do!
Brothers and Sisters, a similar process is going on now! And I want to
refresh your memories concerning it. Sometimes as we carefully examine
the organized Christianity of the present day, we cannot discover any
progress at all. It is a
great pity and a cause for great sorrow that there should not be any
visible progress. But for all that, let us hope that there is an
underground work going on–a secret work of God's Grace proceeding in
the hearts and lives of those by whom we are surrounded, although we
can see no signs of it. You who put leaven in your bread know that you
do not hear it making a noise during the night, but the leaven is
working effectually although it is working silently. There is still an
open Bible in our land and in many other lands besides. And so long as
that is the case, you need not fear that Protestantism will die out, or
that the lamp of the Truth of God will be put out! There is also more
than an open Bible in this and other lands–there are many praying
people who will take no rest and give God no rest until they see His
cause
and Kingdom prospering in the earth! [There is a very remarkable Sermon
by Mr. Spurgeon upon this subject which ought to be widely circulated
in these days of "arrested progress." See Sermon #2189, Volume 37–A
CALL TO PRAYER AND TESTIMONY.] You may not know them and they may not
be among the great ones of this world, but there are many who are
crying day and night unto God for the preservation and the spread of
His Truth! There are eyes that are weeping over sin and there are
hearts that are near unto breaking for the longing that they have for
the coming of the Redeemer's Kingdom. There are persons whose names
will never be known to fame–some of the very poorest on the earth who,
nevertheless, are speaking softly with their voices for Jesus and who
are also speaking very powerfully by their lives for Jesus–as servants
in the household, as toilers in the workshop, as poor humble bed-ridden
sufferers who patiently endure great pain and privation because the
Lord gives them the Grace to bear it for His sake!
I believe in the power of these still small voices and I pray that the
Church of God may never get the idea that she is to depend upon certain
great orators and distinguished ministers. I fear that many of our
friends across the Atlantic have fallen into most serious mistakes with
regard to this matter, for when certain of their great preachers are
absent, their places of worship are closed just as if God had gone away
to the country or the seaside because Mr. So-and-So or Dr. So-and-So
had gone there. I pray that you, dear Friends, may never put such
confidence in any of us as to think that God could not work just as
well by other people if He pleased to do so, or to imagine that we must
come to you with most elaborately prepared sermons and always charm
your ears with brilliant oratory. As for myself, I abhor all oratory or
eloquence except that which comes straight from the heart! The Church
of Jesus Christ has been greatly injured by the highly-polished sermons
and speeches of famous orators. But let us, Brothers, always speak in
the language that our heart prompts us to use. Let our very soul run
over at our lips as it pours itself out like the gushing stream from an
ever-flowing spring–for this is the best kind of eloquence with which
we can plead with sinners to forsake their sins and turn to the living
God! Let us be willing to be accounted weak and to have our speech
called contemptible, as Paul's was, for God may then be pleased to
bless us as He will not do in any other way.
The point I want to emphasize is this, that the reliance of the Church,
under God, must not be upon the voices that ring out, far and wide,
like a peal of bells, nor upon the tongues that give forth the sweet
music that pleases the ear! We must rely upon the Gospel, itself–upon
the Gospel simply stated, upon the Gospel taught in the Sunday school,
the Gospel explained at the family altar, the Gospel lived and loved by
holy men and women! It is that which will do the work of God
effectually and accomplish His glorious purposes of Grace. And I would
have all of you who are thus seeking to serve your Savior, believe that
His blessing will rest upon your service even though it may only seem
to be as a still small voice! You, my dear Sisters, may not be able to
preach a sermon, but you may do what is far better that that! The
loving words that you may speak to your children. The helpful hymns
that you may teach them as they gather around you. Your evening prayer
with them as you lay them down to sleep and your own holy example will
all be the still small voice in which God will speak to them! And you
servant maids who help in caring for the children and you who teach in
the day schools. And you who are anywhere brought into contact with
your fellow men, can, by your words and by your actions, bear most
important messages for God even though, in the judgment of mankind, you
may be only like a still small voice that seems to have but little
force in it! I wish the whole Church of Christ would realize that her
greatest victories have usually been accomplished by those who did not
seem, from a human standpoint, competent for the task and that she may
still expect to see the grandest results coming to her by the use of
ordinary means, by ordinary persons devoutly exercising, in the name of
God, their ordinary functions in an ordinary way–the workers being,
however, under the gracious influence of the Divine Spirit from whom
all true power must come!
IV. I shall now conclude my discourse by using the text in a fourth
way. I believe there was, in that still small voice,
A MESSAGE TO SINNERS.
Now, in the scene which is here sketched by the Inspired pen, you have
many things that you may well consider. The Prophet saw how the great
and strong wind split the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces. He
felt the earth reel beneath him and saw the valleys lifted to the
hills–and the hills sunk into deep glens by the mighty forces of the
earthquake. And he saw the forests on the hillsides all ablaze with
fire–but God was not revealed to him in any of those terrible sights.
It was only when the still small voice came that God spoke to him! And
it is the same in many of those terrors that some seeking souls
experience. Human nature is there. The devil is often there. But very
frequently God is not there in any saving sense–so you need not, any
of you, wish to feel those terrors! It is a great mercy when God brings
His people to Himself by a smoother road than that. I know that some
are brought to Him by that rough road and if they are, they may be
thankful that they are brought to Him in any manner rather than left to
perish in their sins. Yet if God, in His great tenderness to others,
brings them to Himself gently, why should they regret it? Should they
not be perfectly satisfied and even be doubly grateful to be saved
without having to endure such trying experiences as many others have
had? Beloved Friends, do not crave these experiences for yourselves,
otherwise you may thereby provoke God to anger and He may chasten you
in His hot displeasure. You are refusing to do what He bids you do,
namely, trust His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and you are wanting Him to
make you have these horrible feelings, which, if you did have them, you
would be only too thankful to lose!
Let me further say to you that if any of you have felt these dreadful
terrors, I implore you not to place any reliance upon them! You will
make a fatal mistake if you suppose that you are saved simply because
you have been driven almost to despair! There can be no more insecure
foundation for a hope of Heaven than to think that you are saved
because you have realized that you were lost! It would be a very absurd
idea for a man to conclude that he was in health because he had felt
that he was ill, or for another to fancy that he was rich because he
had felt that he was poor. There is a remorse which is near akin to
repentance, but it is not the fruit of the Grace of God. There is a
sense of sin which arises, not from the work of the Spirit of God, but
from a man's own conscience–from conscience awakened, yet still
unenlightened by God the Holy Spirit! There are few things more
terrible than the awakened conscience of a man who still remains
unbelieving. Yet some have had that dreadful experience and have even
ventured to suppose that they were saved because they had passed
through such a period of alarm and horror. If any of you have thus
suffered, do not place any reliance upon that experience!
When the still small voice, in which God is, really comes to you, do
you know how it will come? Probably in the same way that it came to
Elijah. It will address you personally so that you will begin to feel
the personal bearing of the Truths of God to which you have been
listening Sabbath after Sabbath. As the still small voice said to the
Prophet, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" so will the Truth begin to
question you and you will then hear every sermon for yourself–not for
other people. When you read the Bible, you will read it for yourself,
to find out what it says to you– and through the Truth recorded there,
God will speak to your soul.
But, at first, that still small voice will not comfort you any more
than it comforted Elijah. It will put searching questions to you
concerning your character and conduct. It will make you look at your
past life and cause you to sorrow over it. It will make you look at
your present life and cause you to blush as you see how sinful it is.
It will also make you remember how many years you have wasted in living
for yourself and vanity–and not living unto God. The still small voice
will make you realize at what a distance you are from God and what a
change must be worked in you before you can be put among His children.
It will also make you cast a glance forward to your future life and
cause you to tremble at the prospect that lies before you! It will
remind you that if you remain unconverted, you will go from bad to
worse, you will heap up sin upon sin and your heart will get harder and
harder until you are given up to final impenitence!
After this stern message it will be a blessed thing for you if the
still small voice gives you some measure of hope. It may be that there
is nothing striking about what you are now feeling. It is no alarming
sickness that you have had, it is no wonderful dream that has come to
you in your sleep, it is no singular Providence that you have
experienced–but some way or other, wherever you are, you feel ill at
ease–you are troubled in spirit and cannot rest. Oh, what a blessed
unrest that is which drives a sinner away from his sins! What a sweet
bitter that is which makes a sinful soul sick of the world and makes it
hunger and thirst after Christ! I pray the Lord to give this unrest and
this hunger and thirst to many of you. I have known some who have had
this experience so severely that they could not rest in the
workshop–they have done their work, it is true–but it was with many a
sigh between. Their very meals have seemed to lose the zest they once
possessed. When they slept at night, their sleep was unrestful. And
when they woke, their sorrow was still upon them. They felt that they
could not endure themselves unless they could get right with God. That
is the effect of the still small voice when God is in it!
That voice will, before long, probably change its note in addressing
some of you, for it will talk to you about redeeming Grace and dying
love. It will speak to you about the sinner's Savior, the Savior for
you–and you will be conscious of a blessed, gentle, persuasive
influence inclining you to hear about Jesus, making you attentive to
the Word and moving you to wish to believe in Jesus as your own
personal Savior. And that voice will check you if you begin even to
look back toward sin with any desire to return to it! And it will stir
up within you more and more holy aspirations till, at last, it will
lead you to really look to Jesus and live! And when you have looked to
Him, all your life long you will continue to hear that voice–even when
others do not hear it, you will. If you attempt to put out your hand to
iniquity, you will draw it back with a start because of the warning
that voice will utter. Oftentimes when others are busy only about the
world, your mind will be soaring away to Heaven because that voice will
be weaning you from the earth and wooing you to be up and away to your
Father's house above!
That still small voice will often tell you what to do. "You shall hear
a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk you in it.'" If you
happen to be where you cannot listen to the ministry of the Word, or
are not profited by it, that voice will speak to you. As you read the
Scriptures, that voice will speak to you with such power as no other
voice ever had over your soul, for after all, it is the voice of Jesus!
It is the voice of everlasting love! It is the voice that said upon
Calvary, "It is finished!" It is the voice that said, "Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It
is the voice that pleads in Heaven, "Father, I will that they, also,
whom you have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
Glory."
Do not, dear Friends, be listening for any other voices! Do not be
expecting to have any other Revelation beside that which is recorded in
this blessed Book! You not only have Moses and the Prophets, you also
have Jesus and the Apostles, so listen to them! Let the still small
voice reveal the Truth to you and ask not for any other message. This
is the all-sufficient Guide for you with the illumination of the Holy
Spirit, so do not seek for any other! If you have been saved by it, I
charge you to obey it in every jot and tittle. Alter no ordinance of
God and forget none of His precepts, but follow the Lamb wherever He
goes. Wherever you see the print of His pierced feet, there put down
your own feet. Do as He did. Be as He was. And then, soon, you shall be
where He is! May His blessed Spirit and His still small voice be with
you till you shall see His face without a veil between you, for His
dear name's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 Kings 19.
Verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how
he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel was the chief
patroness of the idolatrous prophets and, therefore, you may imagine
how her wrath was stirred when her husband told her what Elijah had
done to the men who ate at her table!
2, 3. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the
gods do to me, and more, also, if I make not your life as the life of
one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose
andran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and
left his servant there. This is the man who could fearlessly face the
450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the groves–and slay all
of them at the Brook Kishon–the dauntless Prophet of Fire who dared to
call King Ahab the troubler of Israel! Yet now he trembles before a
woman's threats and arises and flees for his life! Verily, the best of
men are but men at the best! And the strongest of men are weak as water
when once the power of God is withdrawn from them. The high-strung
tension on the top of Carmel was now to be followed by a not unnatural
reaction–and the heroic Prophet was to sink into the lowest state of
despondency. He left his servant at Beersheba.
4. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came
and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he
might die. What inconsistent beings men are! Elijah had fled to save
his life, yet, "he requested for himself that he might die"–that he
might die because he was afraid of death–die under a juniper tree in
the wilderness in order to escape death at the hands of Jezebel!
4. Andsaid, It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not
better than my fathers. [See Sermon #2725, Volume
46–ELIJAH FAINTING.] This was the man who never died, yet, "he
requested for himself that he might die." How gracious it is, on God's
part, not to grant the requests of His people when they are unwise, as
this petition of Elijah was! Had he known that he would go up by a
whirlwind into Heaven, riding in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of
fire, surely he would not have prayed after this fashion, "It is
enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my
fathers."
5, 6. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an
angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and
behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at
his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down agai. He was very
sad at heart because of the apostasy of Israel and beside that, he was
very weary, utterly exhausted by the tremendous excitement through
which he had passed and by the long journey which he had already taken.
So he did the wisest thing possible, "he did eat and drink, and laid
him down again."
7. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched
him and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for yoi.
God exercises foresight on behalf of His people which they cannot,
themselves, exercise. He knows when we are to be called either to
unusual service or unusual suffering and He prepares us for it. He not
only gives us spiritual meat to eat because we know that we are hungry,
but He also gives it to us because of our future needs which, for the
present, are quite unknown to us.
8, 9. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of
that meat, forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God.
And he came there unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word
of the LORD came to him, and He said unto him, What are you doing here,
Elijahi'!'"You, Jehovah's courageous Prophet, why have you fled? Why
are you here when so much is necessary to be done for the apostate
people? 'What are you doing here?' How come you are here, in a cave,
when the nation needs your presence? 'What are you doing here,
Elijah?'"
10. And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of Hosts,
for the children of Israel have forsaken Your Covenant, thrown down
Your altars, and slain your Prophets with the sword; and I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. He despaired of
the good cause and this was a great pity, for a man such as he was
ought never to have given way to such feelings. Was not God with him?
And where God is, must there not be victory?
11-13. And He said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.
And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the
mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks 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. And
it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle
and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And, behold, there
came a voice unto him, and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? God
will repeat His questions to His people if they have not due effect the
first time, for He is very tender, full of pity and patient.
14. And hesai. A second time pouring out the bitterness of his soul
before his God.
14. Ihave been veryjealous for the LORD God ofHosts because the
children ofIsraelhave forsaken Your Covenant, thrown down Your altars,
and slain Your Prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left;
and they seek my life, to take it awaj. It was a good thing that Elijah
could thus pour out his complaint into the sympathizing ear of the Most
High. Such bitterness of soul as his is very apt to ferment and to
breed all manner of ills! But when we can tell the Lord all that is in
our heart–then a time of blessed relief is not far off!
15. And the LORD said unto him, go, return on your way to the
wilderness of Damascus. "Get back to your work, be not a deserter from
the field of battle! Return, for you are needed for various duties."
15, 16. And when you come, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu
the son of Nimshi shall you anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha
the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah shall you anoint to be Prophet in
your place. Thus there shall be a successor to carry on your work when
you have done your part of it.
17, 18. And it shall come to pass, that he that escapes the sword of
Hazael shall Jehu slay: and he that escapes from the sword of Jehu
shall Elisha slay. Yet Ihave left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the
knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which has not
kissed hi . How this gracious assurance must have revived the Prophet's
spirit! He knew nothing about those 7,000 faithful Israelites, and he
must have been amazed and delighted to hear of them! There
was no need for him to say, "I, even I only, am left," for there was a
noble band of stalwarts to stand up with him and defend the name and
cause of Jehovah!
19. So hie departed thence. Cheered and comforted, he went back to his
work without uttering another word. And we do not read of his spirit
flagging again. "So he departed thence."
19, 20 And found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with
twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: andElijah
passed byhim, and cast his mantle upon him. Andhe left the oxen, andran
after Elijah, andsaid, Let me, Iprayyou, kiss my father andmymother,
and then I will follow you. Andhe said unto him, Go back again: for
what have I done to you?The Lord wants no pressed men in His
service–His soldiers must all be volunteers. But Elisha was a man of a
true heart and a brave spirit, so we read–
21. And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew
them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave
unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah
and ministered unto hi .