A STILL SMALL VOICE BECKONS Photographs with Scriptures by John Howard Graphics. Recently, after an evening reunion in Mission Viejo with fellow travelers who had gone to Israel. I drove all the way home, (south and about 80 miles south) to Santee (near San Diego). It was quite late at night and I had had a long, long day. I was tired, but my mind was nevertheless pre-occupied. Traffic was heavy; not too bad on the 5-lane highway traveling south, but traveling north, it was practically bumper to bumper. I tried in vain to settle my busy mind. It was a fruitless effort. I’m sure glad I’m not in those northbound lanes, I thought. I’d never get home! Where are they coming from, I wondered, and…where are they all going at this time of night? The question begged answers, but I certainly didn’t have any. However, the question provoked a deliberation in my mind regarding my own life and direction. I posed my question to God. “Hi, God…it’s me again. I’m asking the same old question once more. Where am I coming from, Lord, and where am I headed?” I had been asking God to speak to me about some serious questions and concerns for weeks, but...my highly active mind had always been interference. I realized that, but busyness plagued my thoughts and interfered with my ability to listen for God’s answer or direction. I was really quite stressed over this, but I asked the Lord again as I drove along the darkened freeway. The Pacific Ocean was to my right….I just couldn’t see it. Camp Pendleton was to my left, but except for a small-sized metal road sign, I wouldn’t have known it was there. That’s how my life seemed to be that night as I contemplated the next direction in my life. Thinking, thinking, thinking… I was still thinking about everything and anything and soon forgot that I had asked God an important question. I asked again: “Lord, please help me. I want to hear from you. I’m sorry I was distracted so easily in my thinking…there are important things I wanted to discuss with you which could affect my future.” Hush! I thought I heard a still, small voice, more like a thought which usurped all the other notions going on in my head. Be still and know that I am God. I tried to be still, but my mind returned to our reunion and recent trip to Israel. Again I heard: Be still and know that I am God. Why am I continually hearing those words, I wondered…and then my mind wandered again. For some reason, my thoughts seemed to center on one of the locations we visited on our tour of Israel…Mt. Carmel I thought about the rugged climb we made to Mt. Carmel on an incredibly hot day. At that time, my mind was divided between cautious steps (I tripped), the need for water…and the prophet Elijah. We’ve all heard about his prayer for water when atop this mountain, but did we really understand what was at stake that day? I need to gain knowledge about Elijah, I thought. I’m going to study more about him and I want to know more about the mountain, too. In doing some preliminary research, I learned that Mt. Carmel is not considered a high mountain, but hey! It’s 1750 feet above sea level…so not a low one, either! Ordinarily, it is verdant with greenery and trees due to its elevation and yearly rainfall, but when Elijah climbed it to do battle with the prophets of Baal and Asherah, there hadn’t been any rain for over three years! This was a drought of major proportions! We climbed. The heat was intense. We became parched and thanked God for water. Leg and back muscles cried out a bit for more oxygen…so did our lungs! Of course, we did not climb the entire mountain, but here’s a fact you will find interesting. Did you know that Elijah climbed Mt. Carmel four times on that crucial day (a 1 ½ hour walk up in dry, rugged rocky country)? Once there at the top, he could have seen the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the immense Jezreel Valley to the east, but that day, although water of the great sea was visible miles away, where he was located, there were only barren trees and brush and the dusty cracked earth…NO WATER! That is what this battle of the gods he was about to take part in was all about! NO RAIN! The 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah were all about praying to their god Baal for rain! Elijah had given them a choice…my powerful God or your weakling god. They chose to pray to their own god, Baal. The showdown on Mt. Carmel was bigger than we could ever imagine! This was not like the famous “Gunfight at the OK Corral!” Oh no, it was far bigger and deadlier than that! There were 950 prophets plus all the people of Israel (as many as could get there)! 1 Kings 18:19 This was going to be a colossal fight with a vast audience…most all of the citizens of Israel were there! There was no rain…sacrifices were offered to their god, but there was no reply. Our God answered with a fire that consumed not only the bull Elijah had offered, but also the altar, the stones, the wood, the dust and all the water he had ordered to be poured into the trough around the alter. (Ever wonder how Elijah got those barrelsful of water up the mountain?) At this, the people fell down shouting, “Jehovah is God!” They changed their minds in a hurry after that display of power, didn’t they? Later, Elijah went to the top of the mountain, got down on his knees and prayed. He didn’t leave that spot, but told his servant to go and look toward the sea. His servant did as he was told, each time returning to say he had seen nothing. This happened six times! Finally—the seventh time—Elijah’s servant returned to tell him, “I see a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.” A tiny cloud that size certainly wouldn’t be considered a sign of rain, but Elijah had so much trust in God—even then—that he told his servant to run to King Ahab and tell him to get down the mountain quickly…before the mighty rainstorm! Hard to conceive of this, isn’t it? Elijah based that admonition on the fact that his servant had seen a single, tiny little cloud rising from the sea! Here, from the Bible, is the victorious climax to the story of Elijah on Mt. Carmel: “And soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab [King of Israel] left quickly for Jezreel. Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.” 1 Kings 18:45-46 NLT Looking back on this event, we see that Elijah waited on his knees until God answered. He trusted God beyond the sight of a cloud the size of a man’s fist. Oftentimes, we are required to have the faith of an Elijah, to expect, in faithful trust, for God to speak long before the answer comes. Does God’s response have to come in the form of a thundering, violent windstorm atop a mountain? Not necessarily. Those few words of Scripture which echoed in my mind as I drove home fed my spirit strength enough to plow through the muddle of my mind’s extraneous thoughts that night as I drove home. He wanted me to be quiet before Him and wait. “Be still and know that I am God.” These words were not audible, but they were persistent enough that every time a bothersome or trivial thought came into my head, I repeated the Scripture out loud. This helped me to be quiet and patiently wait for what God had to tell me. No, He didn’t tell me anything that evening. I am confident He will provide my direction, one step at a time, each one at the perfect moment. I must remember to be still for God just may choose to speak to me in the form of a “tiny cloud of thought,” Remember the following which Elijah experienced after the rainstorm. He was exhausted and discouraged, hiding out from his enemies not long after his victory. (King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were bent on his destruction for killing all of her prophets!) God told him what to do next. “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:11-12 NLListen for the whisper of the still, small voice of God. © Carol A. Krejci August 15, 2014
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 23:42:40 +0000
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