Can I Have Just a Little Consistency Here Please, Week 15 Day 2, 1 Kings 19

Can I Have Just a Little Consistency Here Please, Week 15 Day 2, 1 Kings 19

So, in the last chapter we had Elijah winning the Battle of the Prophets.  He was bold.  He was boastful.  And he was audacious.  He took on the 450 prophets of Baal taunting them, beating them and ultimately killing them.  He was larger than life.

And now he’s hiding in a cave.

What gives?  How did Elijah go from larger than life to hiding in fear at Horeb, the mountain of God?  God has the same question for Elijah.  “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  And Elijah’s answer, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.  The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

What happened?  Life happened.  But he was so bold.  And now he’s so scared.  So I guess it’s fair to say that Elijah, The Prophet of his time was only human after all.  Just like me.  Just like you.  Some days I’m so bold with my faith I want to just stand back, watch myself and take notes.  Other time’s I just pray that no one is watching or even worse making a video.  If they were I’d end up on Americans Funniest Believers, if there were such a show.  Yeah, a major face plant of faith.  Elijah, bold fighter for the faith on one mountain, hiding in fear on the next mountain.

So that’s one contrast.  Bold and full of faith versus afraid and hiding.  Both in one mighty follower of God.

The other contrast is God.  This is a pretty famous passage.  There’s the mighty wind, but God wasn’t in the wind.  There’s an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake.  There’s the fire, but God wasn’t in the fire.  Then there’s the gentle whisper, and God IS in the whisper.

We like to grab a hold of that verse; God is the God who is in the whisper.  God the Whisper.  And we think this is how God speaks.  This is how He must speak, because that’s how he spoke to Elijah.  He’s not the God of the special effects.  He’s the God of the whisper.

But in just the last chapter He WAS the God in the fire.  He sent down the fire that burned of offering, the wood, the alter and everything else.  He was God in the fire when He spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  He was the God of the earthquake when He opened the ground to swallowed those who rebelled with Koarh in the desert.  (Numbers 16)  So, is He the God of the whisper, the wind, the earthquake or the fire?  And the unsettling answer is that He is both all of those and none of those.

We would like to know how God works.  We would like a set of rules for how God behaves.  We’d like a set of steps that we could follow every time and know exactly how God will respond.  A twelve step program.  Three points and a poem from a sermon.  Five points for an effective prayer life.

But the amazing reality is that God will be the God that I need Him to be at the time and place where I am in my life right now.  Sometimes I’m bold and God is big and bold with me.  Sometimes I quiet and hurting and God is that still quiet voice that whispers into my heart.

Does that make God inconsistent?  Does that God mean that God isn’t the same “yesterday, today, and always”?  No.  It means that the God who is the same from the beginning to the end is not a one dimensional character that must fit outline of who He is.  He doesn’t have to fit the outline that I or anyone else created.  God is complex beyond my ability to completely comprehend.   He won’t fit in the box I’ve made for Him, or the circle, or the triangle, or the star or any other shape.  He won’t fit into the last sermon I hear, the last book I’ve read, the last class I took or even the master’s thesis that I wrote.  But He will most definitely fit in my life.  Or more accurately, my life can fit in Him.  My life will fit in Him regardless of the shape my life is in at the moment, because He is bigger than me, more complex than me.  And He’s exactly the God that I need Him to be.

Fire when I need to burn with passion. Earthquakes when my world needs to be shaken up.  A wind when I need to be blown about.  And a whisper when I need that still small voice.  One God who meets me where I’m at and in the way I need to hear Him.

God, not sure what I’m going to face today.  And I’m not really sure exactly how I feel.  God, please come to me in the way that I need You hear from You today.  Shout or whisper.  Shake me up or hold me steady.  Sooth and calm me or make me jump with excitement.  You’re still the same God, but today let hear from You in the way that draws me closer to You and best helps me to proclaim You to the world.  Amen

Leonard