Hearing the Silence

1Kings 19:11-13

The Lord said [to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

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Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

"The Sounds of Silence" written by Paul Simon recorded by Simon and Garfunkel from the album of the same name.

Elijah was running scared. He had just killed about 450 prophets of Baal and Asherah and his death at the hands of Jezebel was on the table. Time to run. A day out though, it was time to sleep. He slept and when he awoke there was a loaf of bread, some water, and a message from the Lord that it was time to get a move on. After forty days and forty nights, Elijah found a cave. This is where we come to this passage. The Lord told Elijah to go out of the cave and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord because the Lord was about to pass by.

Elijah leaves the cave and is met with enough natural disaster to impress an insurance adjuster and a Tornado Alley meteorologist. It begins with a wind tears mountains apart and shatters rock to pebbles. Then came the earthquake. Then fire burned. Of course these natural disasters came with their audio support. The rage of these disasters on the surroundings must have been impressive. But here's what Elijah knew. God wasn't in the noisy disasters.

As I read and contemplate and consider what I see on Facebook, I see that the Lord is not in the rage and the noise. God is in the quiet moments. The Lord wasn't in the storm, but in the silence that followed the storm.

In the anger and rage that consumes us, it's it's time to quit blowing like the wind that fell the mountains and shattered the rocks. It's time to quit shaking the earth. It's time to stop the scorched earth rhetoric. It's time to listen to the gentle whisper that comes after the fire. We'll never hear the Lord's whisper if we keep yelling.

I'm not going to tell you what the whisper says to you. The Lord is sovereign and will tell people what they are to hear I the silence. I'm going to tell you what it says in 1Kings 19:13, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Insert name here. What are you doing?