“…and after the fire, a light silent sound.” 1 Kings 19:12b NAB
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? An ages old philosophical thought experiment to challenge the boundaries of human perception and observation. But what if I were to press into that thought experiment and move the edge of the philosophical boundary just a bit? What if nothing happened in that forest? Would someone need be present to perceive the silence? Naturally we dismiss silence as just that…nothingness. But just as God regularly does, He shatters our limited human ideology of what is possible and instead offers His unlimited potential. And it is here, moving beyond ourselves and into the realm of God’s Word, that we see that God can indeed speak loudly to His servants in the midst of absolute silence.
1 Kings chapter 19 tells a story that has, and always will be, one of my favorites in the Word of God. In it we find Elijah, on the run, in fear, and at the end of his proverbial rope. You would however think otherwise if you had read the previous chapter of 1 Kings. For Elijah, the meek yet mighty man of God, had just called down the true power of God in front of not just 950 false prophets, but the most wicked king to ever wear the Israelite crown, Ahab. As God not only rains down fire upon an overly saturated offering, consuming it all, He soon stirs clouds upon the distant horizon to break the 3 ½ year drought. So after having a front row seat for all of this Godly drama, how exactly is it that in the next chapter we find the same Elijah 200 miles away from the murderous queen Jezebel, trembling, alone, and asking God to take his life in a cave? Oh, the frail spirits of men when confronted with the depths of the work of God.
God first meets Elijah’s physical needs, allowing him the rest and nourishment these human bodies require to function. But it is after meeting those needs that God seeks to have a conversation with his servant Elijah and therefore minister to his greatest need, spiritual. And to usher in that spiritual conversation, God makes one of the biggest points in scripture. You don’t need fireworks and fanfare to hear from God. The silence in your life can and will speak the voluminous voice of God if you are listening well.
So the question posits, if God chooses to speak in the silence of your life, how often are you placing yourself in an atmosphere void of the drama of this world’s noise? How often are you retreating mentally and spiritually to the remote caves in the wilderness outside of Beersheba like Elijah. And no matter what may drive you into that wilderness, the importance is the posture of the heart that collides with your destination. For you see, when God sought to address Elijah’s heart, he did not choose to speak from the mighty destructive wind that tore at the rocks, or from the tremor that split the very earth, or even from the fire that consumed the surface leaving only ash. No, instead the Lord spoke loudly into the soul of Elijah from the very nothingness of His creation. God needs not an audible volume to speak into the hearts of His servants, His silence is sufficient.
Today, if you like Elijah, are on the run from something in your life, I challenge you to simply stop and be still. As you are on your knees praying for the saving guidance of the Lord in your situation, simply withdraw to the nothingness of space and time and commit to meet your maker there. You see, I have personally found that this is where I can most readily find my Lord, not in the busyness of my life, not in the long hours of my missionary ministry, and not in the normalities of operating my life…but in the cleft of the rock as I am desperately seeking the whispers of the Lord. For it is the heart that desperately seeks the Lord in the stillness of this life that will be rewarded with an audible whisper from the silence of His creation. And it is only here that the conundrum manifests…the Lord’s whispers carry the greatest volume.
Today, be still, listen with your heart, and capture the silent message the Lord has for you ~ Dan
“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10 ESV
“Cease striving and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 LSB
Comments