The still, small voice. Year One, Proper 19, Sundar

If there were ever anyone who ought to have had confidence that he knew God's voice, Elijah was that man. The lone prophet of God, he challenged his competitors, the prophets of Ba'al, to a contest, and they lost. He killed them. He confronted their master, Jezebel, and escaped when she threatened his life. Elijah's life was one adventure after another, each one demonstrating God's favor towards him.

And yet, when Elijah finally heard God's voice, today's reading makes it clear that he did not do so in the hurly burly of religious competition and triumph, much less in the slaughter of Ba'al's prophets or a belligerent confrontation with Jezebel.

In today's reading, Elijah is on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. God led Elijah there after he fled from Jezebel. While he was on the mountain, Elijah witnessed the power of God in fires, storms, and earthquakes, but he did not hear the voice of God in those powerful phenomena. Instead, after all these had passed, he heard the voice of God in what I have seen translated as "thin stillness."

There is an interesting parallel between the tumult that Elijah experienced before coming to Mt. Horeb and the wild natural phenomena he observed while on that mountain: the text is very emphatic that Elijah did not hear the voice of God in the fire, the storm, or the earthquake, even though we may reasonably assume that God caused all of those to happen. The parallel seems to suggest that Elijah did not hear the voice of God in his confrontations with the prophets of Ba'al and Jezebel: he heard the voice of God in a small still voice.

The lesson for our own lives is so compelling, yet difficult to take to heart. At the very least, we have to seek out stillness, and we have to be careful of believing that we hear the voice of God when we are doing what we firmly believe he would have us do. And, in those fortunate moments when we find that stillness, we have to listen.