1 Kings 19:11

So the Lord speaks to Elijah again: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord." These words reveal the secret of his failure. Elijah may give many plausible reasons for fleeing to the cave, but the true reason is that he had failed to keep the Lord before him. One thing lay behind his bold witness before Ahab, his power to raise the widow's son, and his power to bring down fire from heaven and command the rain. He moved and acted in faith before the living God. The secret of his flight, on the other hand, was that he acted in fear before a dying woman. Before the king who had turned away from God he can say, "The Lord before whom I stand". But when he thinks about the wicked queen, it becomes: Jezebel before whom I flee.

After forty days the prophet reached Horeb, the mount of God — a place of unusual interest. There the Lord had dealings with Moses, forty years after he had tried too soon to rescue His people. At Horeb Moses learned precious lessons that fitted him for his future service in Israel (Ex. 3). In the same area was Mount Sinai, where the Lord had dealings with the nation and set His holy law before them (Ex. 20). It is significant that Elijah, angry as he was with the people, should have gone there. It was as if he wanted judgment on them for their unfaithfulness.

The strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire are all symbols of God's power at work in devouring, destructive judgment. God displayed them before Elijah for a plain reason. Elijah had been longing for God to step in with judgment like this in the middle of Israel, to back up his own mission and to defend the name and authority of the Lord. But he was now to learn that the Lord was not in these things. His zeal — which so easily turns into merely human energy — had drifted away from communion with the Lord's mind and heart. The moment this happens — and how often it does — the servant becomes completely unfit for his work.

Displays of power come from God, but we must not confuse them with God Himself. Elijah had seen His power at Carmel. But because he no longer saw such displays, it seemed hard for him to believe God was working at all. Yet he soon learned that a quiet gracious work was going on in many hearts in Israel that he knew nothing about.

God's power is not to be measured by what He does, but by what He is. He is beyond all His acts.

So the prophet was taught that he must be content to be an agent, and one of many. He might have thought that he had to do all the work himself. He came with all the terrible force of a mighty wind. He supposed he would sweep away every obstacle and bring the nation back to its place of glad loyalty to God. The most devoted, the most gifted and the most highly placed are only stones in the building, screws in the vast machine. Whoever supposes that he is the instrument will find himself much mistaken.

Elijah has to learn that wind and earthquake and fire may indeed be God's servants to wake men up. But unless the "still small voice" is heard, no one is really won for God. The thunder of Sinai must be followed by the still small voice of grace if the heart of man is to be reached and won.

It is the still small voice that touches him. When he hears it he hides his face in his mantle and comes out. There usually comes a moment, if a servant of God has drifted a little, when the Lord speaks to him in a still small voice, and he is restored.