1 Kings 19, The Low Whisper 07/09/2023

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Welcome RefleXion Community!           The Lord is with you!

Last week, when Chuck finished the Meditations on Mark, he offered that the ending, though seemingly truncated, was meant for us to extend by our lives.  I’m reading a book right now, by Parker J. Palmer entitled “On the Brink of Everything.”  His friend had described watching her toddler discover life, and in wonder said that the child was on the brink of everything.  And so are we!  It reminds me of the phrase Jim sometimes uses: “standing on the edge of eternity.” 

It is mysterious and a wonder to be in the meeting place of the unfolding of ourselves and the revealing of each day as it comes to us.  Perhaps the best that we can do is to stay awake and in awareness and to present ourselves as whole and willingly as we are able. 

Or are we striving each day to live the perfect life, and what does that look like anyway?  We believe that Jesus led the perfect life, don’t we?  Well, did He have trouble, temptations, and trials?  Did He have enemies?  Was there chaos and confusion around Him?  You bet. 

I quote Christianity.com here:

“It was fitting that God . . . should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10).

Wasn’t Jesus perfect when he was born in the manger? And didn’t he live a sinless life? Wasn’t his death the death of an innocent man? Yes. He was morally perfect. That is one kind of perfection or completion.

But there is another kind of perfection or completion that comes only by experience. Jesus entered fully into the sufferings of this world and emerged victorious over them. He was completed in his experience on the earth by the things he suffered. That is why he may be called the “author” of our salvation.”

A friend of mine says that when her children were little and she read them the fairy tales—you know, the ones that end with “and they lived happily ever after,” she always said, “and they lived happily ever after, with an occasional argument.”  We are on the brink of everything:  things happy and things very hard.

I’m going to try to remind myself of that every morning this week; I’ll let you know how it goes.

Let’s pray:  Dear Lord, save us from the temptation to be made perfect through anything but Your work.  Open our eyes to wonder and to the mysterious indwelling of Your Holy Spirit and to our own souls.  May this day reveal Your Presence to us and Your work for us.  May we awaken to it, and step in to it, for the sake of the Name of Jesus and His Kingdom come.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: We’re going to spend time this morning with a unique person

Elijah was one of the most gifted prophets in scripture
– in fact, he became the representative of all the prophets,
• right up to and including John the Baptist, who came
in the spirit and power of Elijah (Lk. 1:17)
• Elijah will teach us a lesson on hearing the voice of God

Before we get into his story – two points I find interesting

First, if we look close at our story in 1 Kings 19, we’ll find obvious connections between Moses and Elijah (Ex. 34-35)
– Elijah journeys into the same wilderness that Moses had led Israel
• it will take Elijah awhile to reach his destination–forty days (Moses was there with Israel forty years)
◦ Elijah’s destination was Mount Horeb–the same mountain Moses climbed
◦ on Mount Horeb, Moses experienced God as close as any human could
• God told Moses he would pass before him and he did (Ex. 33:19 & 34:6)
◦ using the same Hebrew word, God passed by Elijah (v. 11)
◦ there is, however, a big difference between their encounters with God! (we’ll come to that)
– the other point of interest, is how the storyteller uses “behold”
• five times, we are invited to look at what is happening
◦ in one place we read that, Elijah looked, and behold
• in other words, we’re suddenly looking through Elijah’s eyes
◦ “behold” alerts us to what deserves our attention

Why do we find Elijah taking an arduous journey?

You probably know this story – if not, you need to hear it
• the queen of Israel was a real Jezebel–in fact, she was the original Jezebel
she had a gift for writing nasty letters
• in a letter to Elijah, she swore, “By this time tomorrow, you’ll be dead”
• Elijah read it and “ran for his life” – south, through Judah
down to Beersheba, which was a small town that bordered the wilderness
it was the last outpost of civilization
• Day one: Elijah walked maybe twenty miles into the desert
towards evening he came to small tree and sat down in its shade
• before falling asleep, he prayed,
“I’ve had enough. I can’t do this any more.
O Lord, kill me – better I die by your hand than Jezebel’s.
I tried, but I can’t succeed any more than anyone before me.”
• like much of our prayer, this was not a complete prayer
it was only half a prayer–he just poured out his thoughts
he was venting, saying the words,
but he didn’t expect God to answer
• at some point in the night or next morning, “Behold”
someone was waking him up – an “angel” touched him and told him, “Get up and eat”
• Elijah looked, and behold . . . cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water
he ate, drank, and fell asleep again
• sometime later, the angel returned – he did and said the same thing
only this time he gave Elijah an explanation for the meal, for the journey is too great for you
• Elijah was back on his feet–and he walked for over a month,
day and night, until he reached Mount Horeb, “the mount of God,” according to the storyteller
that has an ominous ring to it
• Elijah settled into a cave – we’re not told how long he was there before the “visitation”
• while there, “behold, the word of the LORD came to him”
“word of the LORD” has a special significance in scripture
it refers to the way God communicated with his prophets
it’s not like a sermon, reading a letter, or listening to news
the word of Yahweh was a divine power – it came with energy
Jeremiah described it as a fire burning in his heart and bones,
and a hammer that breaks rocks to pieces
in this instance, the word of the LORD came with a question
• “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah replied, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away” (v. 10)
• I don’t know, but to me that sounds rehearsed
it sound like all the thoughts that kept tumbling around inside Elijah’s head
anyway, it doesn’t answer God’s question
an answer to God’s question would have been something like:
“I’m running away–hiding out”
“I’m giving up–handing in my resignation, I failed–I quit”
Or, “I’ve come here looking for answers”
• God’s short response:
“Go out and stand on 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, 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 the sound of a low whisper 1 Kings 19:11-13
• I said before that there’s a big difference in Moses’ and Elijah’s encounter with God
this is it – God did speak to Moses in thunder and fire
the writer of Hebrews tells us, For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. . . . Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” (Heb. 12:18-21)
Elijah did not hear the word of the LORD in the windstorm, earthquake, or raging fire
but if not in the cataclysms, then what?
• what shall we call what Elijah heard?
The King James Version: a still small voice
The New American Standard Bible: the sound of a gentle blowing
The English Standard Version: the sound of a low whisper and in the margin, a sound of thin silence
• when Elijah heard that quiet voice, he covered face with his cloak
then he stepped out in front of cave, And behold there came a voice to him
God repeated his same question – Why would he do this?
• I can only guess, it is because God didn’t accept Elijah’s first answer
Elijah, however, could not come up with a new answer
his brain was stuck in all the same repetitive thoughts
nothing is new, nothing has changed, nothing creative occurred to him
• So God tells him, “Get back on your bike and let’s try it again”
• in this story, what has God done for Elijah?
God fed him, gave him some physical exercise, had him rest for awhile,
and then God gave Elijah new assignments and sent him back to his work

The design of this story is made so obvious that even children can see it

We want to hear from God, have him answer our questions, reveal his will
– we want it to be so real to us, that there’s no room to doubt it’s him speaking to us
• but he chooses to speak so quietly and mysteriously,
◦ that we cannot be certain whether or not we heard him
• the lesson this story teaches us, is that like God’s prophet,
◦ we have to learn how to listen so that we hear
– if we’re waiting for something loud, or big, or audible, we may never hear God
• we have to learn to listen to the sound of thin silence
In the beginning of Revelation, Jesus dictates seven letters to seven churches, and each letter says,
Whoever has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches
• it isn’t enough to read or listen to these letters read,
• people need to be attentive and hear the message in the letters
– sounds enter our ears constantly: animal and human voices
• sounds in nature and sounds of machinery
◦ but if they’re not calling my name, I don’t pay attention
◦ we can listen, but not hear (having ears do you not hear? Mk. 8:18)
• so the key to hearing God’s quiet voice is to pay attention
– when our orange tree is in bloom, I sometimes stand near it
• I want to inhale its fragrance – this releases pleasurable neurochemicals in my brain
• listening for God is like savoring – you slow down
◦ you look and let your eyes receive colors, shapes, and shades
◦ you breathe and smell the aromas of the moment
◦ you swallow and feel how your soft palate and esophagus know how to process your food

This last week I was reading in the Psalms and one morning spent time with this one verse:
I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me (Ps. 131:2)
My meditation: “Every believer needs to learn how to do this! We need to be able to calm and quiet our souls in God. ‘Self-regulation’ is the ability to settle ourselves down when we’re upset, afraid, anxious, sad, and so on. In this psalm the poet self-regulates his emotions by visualizing God holding him as a small child is held in its mother’s arms. Those people who have the most unrest in their souls are the ones who trigger agitation in the souls of others, who incite fear and start fights. Because of all that God is to us, we can learn to regulate our own emotions in him and his loving care, and thereby become the calm and soothing voice to others”

Listening means focusing our awareness
– when we get good at this, all we have to do is ask:
“Am I in awareness right now?” and we’ll know instantly
– try this: without moving, be aware of your right hand
• how it is positioned – whatever it feels
• do this for a full minute
• now shift awareness to your left hand and do the same thing
• do you see that you’re able to focus your awareness wherever you want
– to hear God and receive his peace, know where to focus your awareness
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? . . . And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: the neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Mt. 6:26-30)
• focus your attention on things that are above on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, (etc.), then listen to one of those things with all your senses
Brennan Manning, “Being fully present in the now is perhaps the premier skill of the spiritual life.”

I hesitate to tell you this, but it’s important: Have some kind of Bible reading practice
I won’t say that you need to read through the entire Bible
If it helps, stay in your favorite parts and continue to reread them
Discipline yourself to read with awareness, and hold onto what God says to you
Do not simply listen to the Scriptures in your mind, but hear them in your heart and soul

Conclusion: We can choose to make aware listening a habit

It is so seldom that we listen in this way, that when we do,
we almost always receive an insight from God