A Still Small Voice

by Peter Blount 5 November 2020

1 Kings 19 (from the Story-tellers Bible by David Kossoff)

Greetings to all in the name of the Lord.

This, to most, will be a familiar story of Elijah, having in the previous chapter defeated the prophets of Baal as God showed his power by completely consuming the sacrifice. Now Elijah feels totally defeated himself and seeks to escape from all that appears to overcome him.

God, however, wants to demonstrate to Elijah that he is not alone or abandoned or defeated. So, as the story develops, Elijah is brought to the assigned place in the desert. Firstly God underlines his unbounded power with a spectacular show of all that nature can do, but, and there’s always a ‘but’ Elijah’s experience of God is not in the noise and spectacle but in the silence that follows.

We seem almost to be in a similar situation now, all the noise and spectacle of ‘normal’ daily life has stopped, all of a sudden it’s stopped! What are we left with? In the gap, in the silence, finally, we have a chance to listen for the ‘still small voice’ of God.

Note that Elijah was given things to do, difficult things, but strengthened and encouraged he was able to carry out God’s will. Perhaps now is a good time to listen to God, receive his instruction and encouragement, hold fast to His promises and be strong in adversity living out His will for us.

Every Blessing.