Sermon Text: 1 Kings 19:9–18
Date: August 13, 2023
Event: Proper 14, Year A (The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost)
1 Kings 19:9–18 (EHV)
He came to a cave and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord suddenly came to him, saying, “Why are you here, Elijah?”
10He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Armies, but the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.”
11Then the Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is passing by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains and shattered rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a soft, whispering voice.
13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”
14He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Armies, but the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.”
15Then the Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came and go to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you get there, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16You will also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah as prophet in your place. 17Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18But I have preserved in Israel seven thousand whose knees have not bent to Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”
God Comforts with Quiet Calm
The older I get, the more I find myself identifying with the prophet Elijah. His work was not easy and his response to those difficulties feels very familiar. Maybe they feel a bit familiar to you too. But the underlying truth is that over and over again, God comforted Elijah in his distress. He provided for him, took care of him in miraculous ways, and was exceptionally patient with his prophet. So, too, God is comforting and patient with us. Our Creator and Savior’s quiet calm brings peace and comfort when the world around us or inside of us is nothing but turmoil and upheaval.
Let’s spend just a couple of moments reviewing what led Elijah to the point that he was at in our First Reading for this morning. If you recall last week, our First Reading was from very early on his Elijah’s ministry. God had called him to be his prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel which had broken away from the Southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon. And while both pieces of this fractured nation left a lot to be desired spiritually, the Northern Kingdom was in an especially rough place. Never did they have a truly believing king ruling over them, and eventually they would be completely wiped out by Assyria.
But before we get that far, we see God’s grace over and over again to his unfaithful and apostate people. The existence of Elijah’s ministry is proof of that. Despite the nation largely not caring about what God said or did, he continued to send messengers with his Word to call them back to himself. Whether it was to the individual people or to the rulers, God sought the souls of those people precious to him. He didn’t want them led astray by their sin; he didn’t want their devotion to false gods to be their eternal undoing. So, Elijah and others were sent to bring God’s Word to the people.
We heard that last week. One of the earliest things Elijah had to do was to go and declare to wicked King Ahab that there would be a massive drought—no rain until Elijah said there would be rain, and then God sent Elijah to the Kerith Ravine and provided for his needs there. Eventually, the drought got so severe that the brook dried up and God sent Elijah outside of Israel, to the nation of Sidon, to a town named Zarephath, where he miraculously provided for Elijah, a window, and her son with jars of flour and oil that never ran out.
Eventually, we make our way to one of the tent-pole accounts of the Old Testament: Elijah proposed a challenge to the prophets of the false god Baal at the top of Mount Carmel. He would make an altar on the mountain and place a sacrifice on it and the prophets of Baal were to do the same; then the contest would begin. Both the prophets of Baal and Elijah would call out to their respective deities, and the deity who answered by sending fire to consume the sacrifice would be shown to be the true God. Of course, the fictional Baal did not do anything, but when Elijah called on the Lord, he sent fire from the heavens which consumed the sacrifice, and even licked up the trench of water around the altar! After seeing this, the people proclaimed their faith in the true God, and the prophets of Baal were put to death.
What a victory for the truth! What a high point in Elijah’s ministry! Well, sort of. Because that event is really a direct lead-in to the events of our First Reading for this morning. Queen Jezebel, a devoted follower of Baal and the equally fake goddess Asherah, vowed to kill Elijah after the events at Mount Carmel. So, in fear, desperation, and likely depression, Elijah ran away. In the verses prior to our First Reading, we’re told that Elijah went on his own into the wilderness, “he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, ‘I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’ Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree” (1 Kings 19:4-5). An angel came and tended to Elijah, providing him with food and drink and then encouraging him to sleep more. Then empowered by the rest and another meal from the angel, Elijah was able to journey to Mount Horeb, where we meet up with him in our First Reading: He came to a cave and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord suddenly came to him, saying, “Why are you here, Elijah?” Can you hear the questions behind God’s question? “Why are you here, Elijah? Don’t you have other things to be doing? Didn’t I just work a great victory for you and the message I sent you to proclaim? Why are you afraid of the enemies I’ve conquered for you? Why are you here and not where I sent you to go?”
“I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Armies, but the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.” Now, Elijah’s assessment of the situation is not entirely wrong, but it’s also not entirely accurate. But this is how Elijah’s feeling. In his heart, he is alone; in his heart, God’s enemies have all but won the day (despite the reality of Mount Carmel); in his heart, Elijah sees his faithfulness and dedication to God coming to nothing.
Given the context, we would probably understand if God swatted Elijah like an insolent fly, right? God had given him so much—directly worked miracles to preserve his life time and time again, and here he comes whining about how bad things are? Good grief, Elijah, get a grip on yourself, open your eyes, and see what’s before you! Look at what God is doing!
But that is not God’s response in the least. “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is passing by.” “God is passing by” in this case could be a scary thing. What is he coming to do? What is going to happen? And the first senses that get triggered for Elijah really speak of possible doom, don’t they? Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains and shattered rocks before the Lord, but we are told that the Lord was not in the wind.
Ok, the wind didn’t take Elijah out, but the next event is an even more frightening natural force: After the wind came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then came an even more powerful feeling a looking force—one that we know firsthand how awful it can be whether we think of situations around us in California or this past week in Hawaii: After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Three things that could have led to Elijah’s destruction for his lack of faith and three times the Lord was not in them. But then, the Lord arrives.
The parent holding a crying baby tries to soothe the child. The child is upset; things are really bad from the baby’s perspective. Maybe he’s hurting because he needs to burp or maybe he’s scared because there was a startling noise. But does the parent say, “Stop your whining, there’s nothing to be upset about!” Hardly! The parent will speak softly and kindly, and cradle the child in their arms to calm them. While the parent has the perspective that things are ok and we’ll work through this, the baby likely doesn’t have that perspective, so the parent gently comforts the child, helps them through whatever is troubling them, and maybe even helps them get back to sleep or back to playing or whatever the plan is for that moment.
After the fire there was a soft, whispering voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?” God is not in the powerful wind, the trembling earthquake, or the blazing fire. But this soft, whispering voice? This is where God reveals himself. His question for Elijah is the same as it was before, and Elijah’s answer is identical as well. Nothing has changed; Elijah’s perspective is the same; things are bad.
God knows they are not as bad as Elijah feels they are, but he doesn’t scold Elijah, he doesn’t rebuke him, and he doesn’t chastise him for feeling the way that he feels. He gently, lovingly reassures Elijah. He directs him to the work he had to do—he was to anoint royal and prophetic successors. God had work for him, and he empowered him to get it done.
And what of Elijah’s claim that he was the only believer left in the Northern Kingdom? It’s likely that that was hyperbole even on Elijah’s part, but maybe it didn’t feel like it was that much of an exaggeration. God addresses that too, “I have preserved in Israel seven thousand whose knees have not bent to Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”
Was Elijah alone? No! There were seven thousand people in Israel who did not worship Baal at all. Was this common, though? No, not at all. Seven thousand out of a nation probably numbering in the millions? That’s a minuscule fraction. God often describes his faithful people as a “remnant,” and this would be an example of that. Numerous? No. But completely gone? Never.
So, what about us? To one degree or another, we probably identify with Elijah, seeing God’s greatness and yet finding ourselves unable to trust it. We probably identify with Peter, wanting so much to trust and rely on God’s power to save us, but then we see the effects of the wind and see the waves of the storms in our lives, and we lose our focus and begin to sink into our own personal stormy seas. So, what would God have us take away from these accounts?
We know what this lack of trust deserves. God would have been justified in wiping out his whining prophet. Jesus could have let Peter drown because he didn’t maintain his trust in him. But that’s not how God treats us. He doesn’t come with raging wind, earthquakes, and fire to destroy us. He comes with his quiet comfort.
It’s noteworthy that throughout Jesus’ ministry, he had plenty of opportunity to address people who had clear sin in their lives. Not once does Jesus say this sin doesn’t matter, but he is only harsh with those who are proud of their sin. Most of the time, Jesus gives quiet, gentle encouragement to leave the life of sin behind and instead begin to serve God with their lives.
His message is the same for us too. He quietly but directly points us to the truth—we deserve hell for our sins, but he has saved us. His life and death in our place mean that we have the forgiveness of sins and the assurance of eternal life in heaven. We are not abandoned to the elements, we are not lost to hell, because Jesus has saved us.
And so, when we note a lack of trust like Elijah or Peter, we know that this sin, too, is forgiven. Our God loves us and quietly, gently notes our sin, assures us of his forgiveness, and then points us in the direction that we should go. A quiet calm whisper assures you through his Word, “I love you.” A small piece of bread and a sip of wine that hide Jesus’ true body and blood quietly say, “I forgive you.” The splash of water and the name of Triune God spoken over us serenely reminds you, “You are safe with me—now and forever.”
When it feels like everything is crashing down around you, when you feel like you’re the only one who cares about what God has said and done, when you feel alone and abandoned, when guilt overwhelms you, seek refuge in your God who comforts you with his quiet calm. His still, small voice whispers this most amazing truth: neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). Amen.
