Elijah Encouraged

(1 Kings xix:9-i8.)

I. The Analysis.

1. The Interview in the Cave (verses 9, 10).--Elijah was in the wrong place, but God sought him where he was. It reminds us of the first question in Scripture, the "Where art thou" of Gen. iii:9. A God forsaking saint is not a God forsaken saint.

2. The Interview on the Mount Before the Lord (verses 11-14). (See below.)

3. Elijah Again Brought into Service (verses 15-18).-- Elijah is not expelled from Jehovah's service, but is sent upon the highest of embassies. The Lord does not reject His servants because of their seasons of despondency.

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

The might of quietness--the truth that God's work is best done in the world when men have learned the way of the peaceful heart--that is evidently central in this lesson. The Lord was not in the wind, though it brake in pieces the rocks before Him; He was not in the earthquake, though it shook Horeb like a reed; He was not in the fire, though it may have swept the mountain as with a besom of wrath. But He was in the still small voice.

Here is a message to this age of noise and clamor and lust for "power," and display of fleshly energy and wordy enthusiasm, and mighty conventions which proclaim that they are going to "take the world for Christ"--by committees! Elijah had been a man of the earthquake, the wind, and the fire. Perhaps there are times when such men must be, but God would not let Elijah pass from the scene without making it forever clear that such men and such methods are apart from His customary ways. His work is ever after the way of the building of Solomon's temple: "There was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building" (1 Kings vi:7).

For no student of Scripture can doubt that the Lord is ever in the still small voice. What are the great prophetic messages? "The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever " "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow up as the lily." "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." Think of the great words of Jesus, the words most central in His message. They are rest, peace, joy. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." "These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace." And, as all know, these are Paul's great words, and John's.

And how blessed they are to the heart aweary of the hortatory whips and spurs under which God's dear servants are driven in these days to that over-organized, overstrained thing which, as if in irony, is called "the Lord's work." Is it indeed the work of the Lord? Did the Lord hold shouting conventions, and multiply presidencies, and secretaryships, and committees? The true work of the Lord is done when restful and quiet hearts trust Him to work through them. "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how." The seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee unto Baal were Jehovah's converts, not Elijah's. Indeed, he did not know of their existence.