Fearing his wife was losing her hearing, a man stood at the back of the kitchen as she was washing dishes in the sink and said “I love you”. Hearing no response, he moved closer, again saying, “I love you”. Again, hearing no response, he stands directly behind her and says, “I love you”. She turns around to face him, and says, “For the third time, already, I love you too.” Applying this to this morning’s message, just because we don’t hear God, doesn’t mean He’s not speaking.
A common complaint from people is that God doesn’t hear them speaking to Him, or that He doesn’t speak to them. The answer to those complaints is, Yes He does! Like the wife at the sink, He hears us, even if we don’t think He has, but it’s us who don’t hear Him. A couple weeks ago, I talked about hearing and listening. That Sunday’s Scripture was about the young Samuel twice hearing a voice he thought was the priest Eli calling him, but was finally told it was God calling, and if he heard Him again, he was to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. When Samuel stopped to listen, as he was told, he heard God talking to him. And God continued to speak to him throughout his life as His prophet, His Voice to the people. But it was critical that Samuel listened to God’s Voice before He spoke for Him.
In today’s world, there is so much noise that may even drown out God’s voice speaking to us. We hear many things, but unless we listen, we may not understand what we’re hearing. Many athletes, warming up before a game, wear noise cancelling headphones that block out the noise around them that would distract them from their preparations. What a blessing if we had spiritual headphones allowing us to block out the world’s noise and just hear God speaking. The world’s noise might be the news or entertainment programs with their agendas of moral decadence and twisted philosophies that slip into our subconscious and begin to take root. There’s an adage “You can’t keep a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest.” We may not have noise cancelling headsets to block the world’s noise, but we can discern God’s Voice by filtering out the noise, by knowing God’s Word, refreshing our faith with daily devotions and prayer, and applying His teachings to our lives.
So, what are some ways we hear might hear God speaking? Our Call to Worship, (from Psalm 29) called for us to ascribe, or recognize God’s strength and the glory of His Name. We can see God in nature, hear His Voice thundering above the mighty waters, and in flashes of lightning. Our Opening Hymn further recognized this as our Father’s world, and the wonders His Hands have brought. Debbie joyfully reminds us almost every Sunday to thank Him for the beautiful day around us. David begins Psalm 8, “O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens”, then expresses his awe for the sun, moon, and stars in God’s Creation. If we ignore Him in nature around us, we miss hearing His powerful, majestic voice. If we ignore Him in all of His Creation, we fail to fully know His Presence around us.
In our OT lesson, God spoke to Elijah, and through him, to others. As a prophet, Elijah spoke God’s words against Israel’s wickedness and idolatry. Baal had become their god. God sends a 3 ½ year drought to get their attention, but Israel doesn’t repent. Then God has Elijah challenge the 450 priests of Baal to a contest to prove God’s power. Two bulls would be killed and each placed on an altar, without setting fire to them. Each side would then call on the name of their god, and the god who answered by fire would be God.
The priests of Baal began, calling to Baal, and dancing around their altar until noon, without any response. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Perhaps he’s deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he’s sleeping and must be awakened.” They shouted louder, even slashing themselves with swords and spears until their blood flowed. They continued their frantic appeals until it was time for their evening sacrifice, without any response. Then it was Elijah’s turn.
Israel’s altar had fallen into disrepair, so Elijah rebuilt it with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, then arranged the wood, then the sacrifice. To make things interesting, he had a trench built around the altar and poured four large jars of water over the altar three times, so that water was dripping from the altar, even filling the trench around it.
Then the climactic moment as Elijah calls out “Lord, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God.” And did God answer! God’s fire not only disintegrated the sacrifice, but the wood and stones, even drying up the water in the trench. God had spoken! When the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God!!” As an exclamation point, Elijah had all 450 priests of Baal put to death.
But God wasn’t finished speaking. He had Elijah tell King Ahab to get food and drink, prophesying that there was the sound of heavy rain coming, ending the long drought. When wicked Queen Jezebel heard that her priests had all been killed, she sends a message to Elijah vowing that by tomorrow she would have him killed. Elijah runs for his life.
Some Biblical scholars interpret Elijah’s running away as cowardice and fear. Seeing God’s power, should have been confident, without fear. He had been jealous for the Lord, that Israel had turned away, and despairs. But Elijah thought he was God’s last prophet in Israel, and now Jezebel had even decreed his death. Then, hiding in the wilderness, depressed, he falls asleep. He’s awakened by an angel, and fed, strengthened for a forty day trip to Mt Horeb, where he spends a night in a cave there.
Then God tells him to stand on the mountain, where He is about to pass by Elijah. A great and powerful wind tears the mountains apart, even shattering rocks...but God wasn’t seen in the wind. A mighty earthquake shakes the mountain, but God isn’t seen there either. Then a fire rages by, but neither was God was seen there. Then comes a gentle whisper, a still, small voice. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Again Elijah explains his zeal for God, but is the last of His prophets and he’s afraid he will now be killed too. God not only tells Elijah to leave there to perform other duties, but that He had preserved 7,000 others in Israel who had never bowed down to Baal.
God is saying two things to Elijah: First, by these displays of power, God was showing He was big enough to tear the mountain apart, to shake the earth, and to consume things with a mighty fire. He could take care of any situation Himself, and didn’t need Elijah to enact His plan. But yet God wasn’t in those powerful displays. He was in the whisper. The soft voice of a parent whose child who had come to Him looking for comfort and healing. God’s gentle way of saying: I understand, and I care, and I will take care of you. Because Elijah had been in effect saying “I’m indispensable, the only one standing up for You, so if something happens to me, God, you’re going to be in trouble!” Elijah had come to the wrong conclusion of his own importance, that God needed to rely on him. But God had corrected him. He had preserved seven thousand other faithful in Israel. Elijah had forgotten who God was, and who he was.
When we forget those things, we can get depressed, and begin to believe everything depends upon us. We forget to trust God and find ourselves believing success is totally dependent upon our efforts. Then, when things don’t go right, we can be overwhelmed because our faith has centered on ourselves. When our focus is centered on us, we will be disappointed, because we can’t do it all by ourselves and any effort based on that concept is doomed to lead us to anxiety, depression, perhaps even panic.
Jesus seems to make that point to His disciples as well in our NT lesson about the Transfiguration. Jesus took His three closest disciples – Peter, James, and John - to a mountain. It would have been natural for the
Disciples to feel protective of their Master, so when they awake to see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, all three appearing in a brilliant white form, they see him (no pun intended) in a new light. God was showing them His Son’s glory, not in the power of a mighty wind, an earthquake, or a consuming fire, but in His divine form and nature, overwhelming the disciples. They had witnessed Jesus’ powers of healing, walking on water, even raising Lazarus from the dead, but they had never seen His divine nature. Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah representing Prophecy, symbolized the entirety of the Old Testament, fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Jesus had taken three disciples – Peter, James, and John – to a mountain, like God had for Elijah. Although Elijah feared his death, believing his death would be the end of God’s kingdom in Israel, God’s still, small voice showed him His plan was never in doubt. Now, Jesus, preparing for his death, was also showing the still not understanding disciples that God had a greater plan that didn’t completely depend on their protection of His Son. The disciples heard God’s Voice in the cloud, telling them that this was His Son, in whom He was well pleased, so therefore “Listen to Him" Hearing the Voice, they fell to the ground, overwhelmed by what they had seen and heard. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Just as God’s still voice whispered to Elijah to relieve his depression and fears, Jesus’ touch was showing His compassion and personal care for His disciples. The act of touching is often associated with healing and comfort. Jesus' touch served as a reassurance of His presence and authority, reminiscent of other instances in the Gospels where Jesus’ touch healed a leper, and restored life to Jairus' daughter.
Elijah had been troubled by the worldly noise surrounding him: Jezebel’s intent to kill him, depression that nothing would change in Israel despite God’s triumph over Baal, and his fear that he had failed God as His last prophet. But God got Elijah’s attention by displaying His power in the earthquake, wind, and fire. Then spoke to him in a quiet whisper, reassuring Elijah he was safe, that he was not alone, and not carrying the weight of God on his shoulders. God was caring for him, even if he wasn’t fully aware of it.
God got the three disciples’ attention by showing them His glory in the Transfiguration of Jesus with Moses and Elijah. Although Jesus told them not to speak of it until after His Resurrection, it had to have had a lasting impact on the three disciples. They would need that powerful experience for their coming trials. The Voice from the cloud testifying of His Son’s special favor, and the command to “listen to him”
God uses various ways to get our attention and help us drown out the noise of this world. But He speaks loudest when we’ve quieted our souls so we can hear Him speaking within us with His still, small voice. Like the reassuring within Horatio Spafford, overlooking the watery grave of his four daughters killed when their ship had sunk there, yet able to write that when sorrows, like sea billows rolled over him, he could still say, “it is well with my soul”.
When we shut out the noise of this world, and listen for God, He speaks to us. He knows our fears, our sorrows, and our pain. He knows we’re human, with our tendency to sin. But He’s always near, listening to us, and speaking to us, especially in His still, small voice. He may get our attention in powerful moments, in the awesomeness of Nature around us, but His whisper to our souls reassures us that He is always our God who loves us, always cares for us, and invites us to Himself as His children. Amen
