The Story of A Whisper
I Kings 19:9-18
As he sits at the foot of this “desert” mountain, he hugs his knees to his chest. Looking at Elijah, you may think he has fallen asleep, or even worse, maybe even died. But don’t worry, he’s not. It’s just that the desert winds have this habit of turning grains of sand into miniature missiles that sting the face. So what you see is Elijah watching for his guest through the thin slits of squinted eyes.
Now I know what you’re thinking: Who is so important that they are worth waiting for in the middle of a desert?
Elijah answers that for us. Not by his words, but by his location. Look where he sits – at the base of Mt. Horeb. You know Mt. Horeb/Sinai. This is the mountain where God talked to Moses through a burning bush (Ex. 3:1). This is the mountain where Israel met their living God for the first time, but they didn’t see him. All they SAW was lightening and thick smoke ushering His arrival. All they HEARD was thunder and the sound of trumpets announcing His presence. All they FELT was terror as the earth shook as God took his rightful place on His mountain.
The very name Horeb/Sinai evoked images of a powerful and awesome God. A God who BREAKS into HISTORY overthrowing kingdoms and working mightily among His people. That is why Elijah is here. He is at the MOUNTAIN of God, waiting for God.
But it could be a long wait. Elijah doesn’t have an appointment. God didn’t call him here, he just showed up. Let’s put it this way, Elijah has come to God the way a disgruntled employee unexpectedly comes to the office of his boss. A boss who is trying to run a Fortune 500 company. But God isn’t running a Fortune 500 Company; He’s running the universe.
So Elijah must sit and wait. And he waits and waits and waits.
After hours of waiting, Elijah has nothing to show for it but an achy back and a painful sunburn. God finally arrives, Elijah is taken back by God’s greeting. There’s no, “Hello Elijah. How’s the wife and kids?” God greets him with a question. A question that intends to hold Elijah ACCOUNTABLE to his calling as a prophet of God.
“Elijah! Why are you here? Elijah, Why are you here and not there? Why are you here and not where I sent you to do my work?”
Elijah was expecting God to provide the answers, not himself. Today was supposed to be the day that God was interrogated, not Elijah. It is then that Elijah begins to tuck his tail. But before he has a chance to run, he remembers what brought him to this mountain in the first place. He’s got a bone to pick with God, and so he vents.
“Lord God Almighty, I have given you the best years of my life, serving you to the best of my abilities. But look where it has gotten me. Your people have broken their contract with you. Your people have destroyed your worship centers, and built churches to other gods. Your people have killed all your preaching prophets with the sword because they didn’t like the sermons they heard. And if that isn’t bad enough, now they are trying to kill me, I’m the ONLY one left.”
Did you hear the feelings of his heart being expressed in his words? We’ve got a prophet of God who is frustrated, who is feeling abandoned by God. You’d feel the same way if you were in Elijah’s shoes?
You see, just a few months earlier Elijah was a hero among God’s people. It’s a great story. One of those underdog stories we love in sports.
As the team rosters were given to the judges, it showed: 450 prophets of Baal against 1 prophet of God.
The way the game was going to be played was that both sides would prepare a bull for sacrifice. The first prophet to get their God to send fire from heaven and burn up the bull wins.
The crowd cheers, they are excited to see how this is going to end. All of Israel has gathered in the stadium to see this take place. Yeah, I said Israel. But remember, they aren’t the good guys in this story. Remember Elijah’s complaint? Israel had abandoned the living God and killed all of his prophets. The Israelites in the stadium aren’t cheering for Elijah, they’re cheering for the prophets of Baal. And they are hoping for a slaughter.
Being a gentleman, Elijah lets the 450 prophets of Baal go first.
It’s about 9 in the morning. They start calling their god to get his attention. I don’t know how it went for sure, but I picture it like this. 225 prophets on 1 side, another 225 on the other side. They start chanting back and forth, “We love Baal, yes we do; we love Baal how ‘bout you!” They continue to yell for a couple of hours, but guess what? No fire. So they start to yell and DANCE.
It is now about noon. As all of this is going on, Elijah has been reading the current issue of “Prophets Today.” Being a competitor like Elijah is hard work. All this sitting around has made him thirsty, so he gets up to get a Gatorade out of the ice chest.
As he walks to the refreshment stand, he sees that nothing has happened to the competitions sacrifice, so he decides to have a little fun.
“Excuse me, gentleman. I see that nothing has happened. Maybe I could be of some help to you, you know, one prophet to another. Maybe you need to shout a little louder. Maybe your god is deep in thought. Maybe he is in the bathroom blow drying his hair. Or even better, maybe he is on vacation. So why don’t you try yelling a little louder.”
This made the prophets mad, no more messing around. It’s time to get down to business, so they keep yelling, but this time they start to cut themselves also. They hope that their SELF-SACRIFICE will convince Baal to take the sacrifice on the altar.
After 8 hours go by, there are 450 prophets lying on the ground exhausted. After all that dancing, shouting and cutting themselves the sacrifice still sits on the altar. All that has changed is that now the dead carcass is attracting flies. The prophets finally cry “Uncle” and give up.
Elijah steps up to the altar and rebuilds it, but he also remodels it a bit. He asks for 12 large stones. As they are brought to the altar, they are stacked one on top of the other. As the crew continues to work, Elijah explains to the audience that each stone represents one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
When the altar is completed, Elijah surprises the crowd by digging a trench around the altar. It was dug deep enough to hold a few gallons of water. He then calls on members of the audience to go and get 4 large buckets of water. When they return he has them pour it on the altar. 3 times they do this. The crowds continue to scratch their heads. They’ve never seen such a strange way of getting ready for a fire. There is now so much water on the altar that the trench itself is overflowing.
There is a reason for Elijah’s madness. He did this so everyone would know that there were NO SPECIAL AFFECTS used here. When this sacrifice goes up in flames it won’t be magic, it will be GOD. So the stage is now set.
Elijah steps back and prays for God to show his power and CHANGE THE Israelites MINDS. No sooner does he say “Amen”, when “BOOM!” Fire comes down from heaven and burns up the sacrifice, the wood, stones, soil and all the water in the trench.
You can imagine the crowd’s reaction. No, there wasn’t any cheering. This wasn’t a football game. This was a battle to see whose God was REAL. When the Israelites saw the results before them, all of Israel dropped to the ground, terrified in the presence of this mighty, living God. Now they yell, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”
With such new found conviction about God’s existence,you can imagine how Israel responded when Elijah command the EXECUTION of the 450 prophets of Baal. They didn’t ask questions. They followed orders.
The whole time that this is taking place, evil King Ahab is watching it all unfold before him and he can’t believe his eyes. From the text it appears, I may be wrong, but it appears that even the King Ahab himself CONFESSED that the Lord alone was God. Elijah can’t believe his EARS. The people of Israel and their King now BELIEVE.
Elijah is so EXCITED that with his adrenaline rush and a little turbo charge from God, he runs the whole 20 miles to Jezreel ahead of King Ahab’s chariot. And you know what he was shouting the whole way: “God Almighty Slaughters Baal.”
Don’t you know that Elijah has been dreaming of this day for years. After all these years of service to Israel, it looks like REVIVAL was finally going to take place. He couldn’t wait until the next Sabbath, when the temple would be packed with standing room only. He couldn’t wait to see thousands of people come to hear about the living God. In fact, Elijah is wondering if they will need 3 services to minister to all the people. He keeps DREAMING about the great days ahead when one of the king’s messengers finds him and gives him a note from Queen Jezebel. Elijah opens it expecting a note of congratulations, but instead he reads this.
“May the gods punish me terribly if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill you just as you killed those prophets.”
SHOCKED, Elijah drops the paper, and it floats to the ground. There is NO MORE TIME for DREAMING. This is no longer about attendance records, and book deals about being a Purpose Driven Synagogue. It is now about LIFE and DEATH.
Elijah realizes that he is NO LONGER a hero, but a wanted man. And so, Elijah runs. He runs for his life.
It is this frustration that brings Elijah brings to the mountain of God. Elijah has been unloading his frustrations on God. When arguments don’t seem to be getting him anywhere, he begins to BEG.
“God, the fire you sent from heaven. It really made a difference. Maybe this time you could send an earthquake. Yeah, an earthquake. That would shake them up a bit. Then they’d believe us.
“Or maybe you could come down in a flying saucer. You walk down a plank that glows like hot metal. I walk up and say, ‘Hey, God it’s me.’ Then You come down and give me a High Five and . . . “
God says “Elijah, Shhhhh! . . .
“Elijah, come out of the cave and stand on the mountain. For I am about to pass by you. See if you can tell when I have passed by.”
Elijah waits.
He then hears what sounds like a TRAIN. It’s powerful and getting closer. He turns in the direction of the noise to see a WINDSTORM blowing that looks like a TORNADOE. As it comes closer, Elijah watches as BOULDERS are picked-up and thrown like stones. Terrified, Elijah heads for cover in the cave. With a shaky voice he asks, “God, was that you?”
“No,” comes the reply.
It is then that the ground begins to shake violently. So violently that boulders the size of horses begin to roll down the mountain. It is a shaking like no man has experienced before.
Again, Elijah manages to WHIMPER out, “God, was that you?”
The answer comes back, “No.”
Then Elijah sees something that looks familiar. The sky opens up. Fire, greater than that at Mt. Carmel, comes down on the Mt. and fireworks fill the sky. Elijah knows he’s got this one right, and he screams in confidence, “Surely God, this is you.”
And again, God replies, “No.”
Elijah can’t figure it out. Since he was a child he heard the stories of how God made himself known to His people, on this very mountain in fact, through wind, earthquakes and fire. At the climax of his frustration he yells, “God, if I can’t tell where you are how will the world be able to figure it out?”
At that moment a gentle LITTLE breeze passes by. Elijah gasps and humbly covers his face. Because it is in this little breeze that Elijah finds the greatness of God. And now he understands.
Dialogue:
1. What did that little breeze teach Elijah?
2. The misunderstanding that Elijah brought to the Mt. of God was that God was only in the loud and showy events and people of history. Now Elijah realizes that God uses, just as powerfully mind you, people and events that are quiet and normal.
3. Let’s see if this is true. Name for me some of the quiet, normal people and events in the NT that show this to be true?
a) A young carpenter and his peasant wife who give birth to a BABY and lay him in a feed trough, in a barn: and yet that baby is the King of Kings, Jesus.
b) Boring shepherds to announce the news.
c) A homeless man to spread the good news—Jesus.
d) Simple, stinky fishermen to be world leaders.
e) Quiet, common, ordinary salt, light to teach some of life’s greatest lessons.
f) A cross.
g) I Cor. 1:27-28
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose what the world thinks is unimportant and what the world looks down on and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.”
4. Has God changed his way of working His will in history today? Do you have to be the President of U.S., Billy Graham or Mother Teresa to change the world for God?
(After the congregation responds in a confident, “No!”)
Then church get out of HERE. Get out of HERE and go out THERE and change the world.
