THE STILL SMALL VOICE

The mountain quaked, the earth trembled, the wind whipped - hot and piercing - a suffocating darkness prevailed and nobody, including animals, could touch the Holy Mount lest they die. Such is the description of the events that happened at the giving of the law in Exodus 19:12 and 20:18-21. The text is loud, unforgiving, imperious, harsh, graceless, and down right scary. It hits the sensitive reader right between the eyes. Only the self righteous read it with delight. What was to be Israel’s guide for living has become their nightmare. Hoping to draw closer to God, Sinai pushes Him farther away. Who would want to go near that place? And if that is where God dwells, who wants it? The meteorological events speak volumes about the law. It is holy, just and good. It tells us of God’s supreme ‘otherness’… or holiness. It makes Him untouchable. Its demands are unattainable. What do we do now?

If the book were to end here we might as well crumple it up and toss it into the file labelled ‘despair.’ “Let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” is the apostolic suggestion. Israel is doomed and so are we so why care about anything?

Turn the clock forward 700 years and we return to the same spot. We have the story of a frightened prophet who has run from a bloodthirsty queen. After 40 days he has arrived at that same foreboding mountain, Horeb, another name for Sinai (1 Kings 19:8). Once again God will speak. He takes the prophet outside and asks him to stand on the mountain. Oh no, doesn’t he know? …. this spells doom! It is certain that Elijah’s insurance policy is about to be cashed in. True to form, God blasts Elijah with a great wind, an earthquake and a fire. We wait for the smoke to clear to witness his charred body.

But Elijah still stands.

Not only is he standing, but God comes again to him… this time in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).

What? What is this? Where is the heavy hand of judgment? Where is the angry God who hates presumptuous prophets?

Yes, Elijah still stands.

Now we have figured out that something inexplicable and radical is going on. Elijah should be dead. Instead God speaks softly to him. How can this be?

Did God change? Not possible.

Could it be that God looks at the mountain differently? Evidently so.

In Exodus the mountain spoke of God’s inflexible law that must be kept perfectly. His own justice is a barrier to all comers. And anyone who tried to cross the line would meet instant death.

But now God speaks to Elijah from that same mountain and uses a very forgiving voice. Has Elijah kept the law?

No, not even close,….. but In a manner of speaking, yes. And that is the only explanation,. Only when we keep the law does God speak to humanity in a very gracious, doting, tone.

So what has happened? Elijah has not kept the law perfectly… but someone has. We turn up the clock another 700 years. We read about God is speaking to us in that still, small voice. It comes in the form of a baby’ s prattle. Yes, God is speaking to mankind through a child. There He lies … and cries… in a manger. And through this voice God is saying to us as He did to Elijah “you may enter my presence.” Have you kept His law? No, not in yourself. But this child will live the perfect life, earning for Himself the right to walk on Sinai, and He will give you that life as a gift. So God speaks to us in that still, small voice of Jesus: “Come unto Me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And in the life of that child all humanity is now able to dwell in that Holy Mountain. Elijah dwelled there by promise and anticipation. And you, dear Christian, walk that mountain because you are in the One who walked it perfectly. It is all God’s work.

“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).

God has reached out to humanity from His throne of perfection — from Sinai— in a still small voice. The earthquake and the wind no longer haunt us. We know that we could never walk that mountain on our own. But in Jesus, God speaks to us in that still small voice and offers all mankind to come and dwell in His presence. That baby in the manger is that still, small voice of God which enables us to freely and without fear walk before Him forever.