What does God want to say to me today?

Happily, God will not be turned from His purpose by reason of our not understanding Him. He would speak with the still small voice, and with it He has spoken most distinctly for now nearly two thousand years. It came from heaven with Him who could say, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to the weary one; he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned." And thus He spoke to the weary and heavy laden in Matt. 11:28-30. Thus He speaks to His sheep from the moment they follow Him, the Good Shepherd; and though, alas, they may be dull of hearing, yet will He say in His untiring grace, "They follow him: for they know his voice." It is not usual that a shepherd speaks to his flock. This tells of intimacy, "and he calleth them by name." How sweet the still small voice that says to one who stood, bereaved and broken-hearted, by His empty grave, "Mary!" and how quickly she heard and how well she knew the voice that thus called her by her name. Such is the manner of His love. His voice gladdens the heart that knows that love. And it is now as it was then. The sorrowing soul that seeks His companionship He will minister to in the words of the "still small voice." "O patient, spotless One, Our hearts in meekness train, To bear Thy yoke and learn of Thee, That we may rest obtain. O Lord, Thou art enough The mind and heart to fill; Thy life to calm the troubled soul; Thy love — its fear dispel. P.C.

All this has been written "for our admonition." God afterwards honoured His faithful prophet. Like Enoch, he did not see death, being caught up to heaven in the fiery chariot. But before that he had to learn a humbling yet blessed lesson on Horeb, the same "mount of God," at whose foot the "God of glory and grace" had appeared to His servant Moses in the "burning," yet not "burnt," bush. God, Who on Sinai, the mount of the law, had caused "all His goodness" to pass before Moses, when Moses asked to see His glory, causes on Horeb, the "mount of God," the heralds of His power — the "great and mighty wind," the "earthquake," and the "fire" — to pass before the terrified prophet, who was glad "in the crushing sense of his nothingness" to hide himself in the farthest corner of a cavern before the terrible effect of the power of these mere heralds of divine majesty. But God Himself was neither in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire. But after the fire there came a "still small voice," the voice of God's grace. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." No sooner does the terrified prophet hear that "still small voice," than he wraps his face in his mantle, and comes to the entrance of the cave, to approach God.

Is it not the same tender voice that speaks to the sinner penitent and crushed, but believing, "Your sins will I remember no more," after this world had rejected and crucified Him, Who in His own Person was that "still small voice" when "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing trespasses?" And does not the same "still small voice" bid the once rebellious sinner, but now worshipper and saint, who, through the blood of Jesus has liberty to enter the holiest, to "draw nigh with a true heart?" Blessed be His glorious and gracious name!

But the full grace of God in Christ was unknown to Elijah, though he felt the sweet attraction of that gracious voice, and, in an outward way, approached God, freed from fear. Again, that voice of longsuffering grace spoke, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" It was the same voice that said in Paradise, "Adam, where art thou?" Alas! Elijah's heart had been only delivered from fear, but not softened, by that "still small voice." Again we hear the same lamentable reply, "I have been very zealous," etc. The prophet had learnt little or nothing. He could make the fire come down from heaven upon the enemies of God and of His truth, but had not yet understood that after the fire comes the "still small voice" of grace, and that judgment is God's "strange work," but grace His "natural work." Alas! how much does the religious natural heart in its graceless Jehu-zeal resemble that of Elijah, even in the two brothers Boanerges, the "sons of thunder!" (Luke 9:54.) No sooner has the same answer the second time escaped Elijah's lips, than Jehovah commands him to return on his way to the wilderness of Damascus, and anoint not only two kings for Syria and Israel, but also another prophet in his (Elijah's) stead. Like Moses, the founder of the law, so Elijah, the restorer of the law, had fallen short of the glory of God and of His grace. Like Moses, Elijah was no longer to remain in his office, but had to transfer it to a successor, who better knew how to enter upon the grace of God and to act in the spirit of it.

Elijah has to learn another lesson if he is to be consciously brought into the presence of the Lord. He had seen the fire descend on Carmel, he had seen the heavens "black with clouds and wind" at the coming of the rain, and Elijah had connected the presence of the Lord with these terrifying manifestations of nature. He had thought that, as a result of these mighty displays of the power of God, the whole nation would turn to God in deep repentance, and for the moment, indeed, they did fall upon their faces and own, "The Lord, He is the God." But no real revival had taken place. Elijah has to learn that wind and earthquake and fire may indeed be God's servants to awaken men, but unless the "still small voice" is heard, no man 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. God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in the still small voice.

What took place with Elijah at Horeb is very instructive. He goes into a cave, and the Lord comes and says to him, 'What doest thou here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9). He ought to have been standing in Israel, still witnessing for God, instead of hiding himself. "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:11-12). It is the still small voice that touches him. When he hears it he hides his face in his mantle and comes forth. There usually comes the moment, if a servant of God has got a little bit away, when the Lord speaks to him, in a still small voice, and he is restored. So was it in this case.

In 1 Kings 17 God was leading Elijah and telling him where to go, and Elijah obeyed. But in 1 Kings 19 Elijah, fearing Jezebel, flees away and does not wait for the Lord's commandment to go into the wilderness. See therefore what a sad message is sent to him, as recorded in verse 13, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" In verses 11 and 12 we read that a wind, an earthquake, and a fire are sent; but Elijah did not find. the Lord in these things, and they could not bring comfort nor strength to his soul. God was appearing in His grandeur and power; but what Elijah needed was the still small voice, what he wanted was the manifestation of grace and communion with his God. When, therefore, Elijah had heard the still small voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and stood ready to obey the Lord. By the power and strength that he had found in this voice he was once again enabled to obey the commandment of the Lord.

God spoke again to Elijah. "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Jehovah." Great manifestations of divine power followed. "Jehovah passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah; but Jehovah was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake: but Jehovah was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:11-12). Manifestations of power are from God, but they must not be confounded with God himself. Elijah had witnessed His power at Carmel; but because he no longer beheld such displays, it seemed difficult for him to realize that God was working at all. But he presently learned that a quiet gracious work was proceeding in many hearts in Israel of which he was unaware. God had use for the whirlwind, for out of it He spoke in majesty to Job and his friends (Job 38:1; Job 40:6) and Nahum tells us "Jehovah has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm." He has use "for the earthquake": What blessed results followed the shaking at the midnight hour in Philippi (Acts 16). An earthquake was one of God's witnesses to His Son at the moment of His death (Matt 27:51). He has also use for the fire, as the people of Israel had so recently proved on Mount Carmel. But although Elijah witnessed at Horeb the great and strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire, it was the still small voice which made him feel that he was having to do with God.

But this is more fully brought out by the "still small voice" which came after the fire. It does not say that the Lord was not in it; on the other hand, the effect on Elijah proved that the Lord was there, and that the still small voice was His. When Elijah heard it, "he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave." Unmoved in the presence of the displays of God's mighty power, because they were in harmony with his own mood of soul, he was evidently touched by, and brought under the constraint of, the grace exemplified in the tender and gentle voice he had heard. Again, therefore, the question is borne in upon his inmost soul, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Once more he was thus invited to challenge the cause of his flight, and to discover the root of his desertion of his field of service. True, he answers the question in the same words as before, but assuredly not in the same tone, for light from God had entered and disclosed to him the unbelieving workings of his own heart. He could scarcely have failed to learn from what had passed before him, that instead of counting upon God for His people, and of understanding that grace was still waiting upon them in longsuffering mercy, he had been looking for some fiery judgment to consume his adversaries. He knew now that he had been out of communion with God's mind and heart.

I have no doubt that this twofold eating had a deeply mystical meaning, and illustrates to us the peculiar supplies which the Lord vouchsafes to our souls as preparatory to a season of deep exercise. Such a time forty days in the wilderness typify, when the sensible connection between all things of human interest and support are palpably suspended. Moses and our Lord went through this experience, but without the previous preparation accorded to Elijah; but the latter represents to us the way common to man. At the outset, supplied and strengthened, he went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights. These forty days in the wilderness without food or human sustenance is the path that must be traversed by the soul that would learn God in His great reality to ourselves and His purposes on earth. At Horeb, the Mount of God, all things are naked and open; and the soul of Elijah has to do with God, and God alone. These individual communications are opened on the part of the Lord by the searching question, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" He was then instructed to "go forth" from the cave where he had retreated, and "stand on the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by." Elijah's own true state is now brought out. The Lord is not in the whirlwind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire. These were the demonstrations of God; but for Elijah there was something deeper, holier, more personal; he learns the superiority of the still small voice of God to all the outward demonstrations; a lesson which he needed much, for doubtless the wondrous scene at Carmel had unduly filled his vision at the expense of that personal link which would have sustained him under subsequent disappointment. To re-establish this link was the interesting scene under the juniper tree and the ministry of the angel; and to lay bare his soul, was the forty days' journey to Horeb, apart from the region of humanity, terminating in this blessed instruction, which brought God Himself so very nigh to his soul. Well might he wrap his face in his mantle and listen. And if he could not satisfactorily reply to the question, again repeated, "What doest thou here?" he is instructed to "go, return," and execute his Lord's counsels. Wilful as he had been, now, brought to Horeb, the still small voice of God will unfold to him His purposes on earth: the wicked king was to be replaced, and the sword was to be drawn in Israel; but seven thousand souls, a faithful remnant, were still left to testify for God. This was to silence all Elijah's self-consequence: he had said, "I, only I, am left." But the Lord now shows him that He had seven thousand more witnesses, and, still further, another prophet was to be anointed in his room. Great as had been his services, God's truth and power did not depend on him; but though his earthly testimony was to close, God was purposing a higher and more blessed portion for His servant, which, however, is not disclosed to him here, as far as we see. What wonderful education was all this! With what different ideas of God towards himself and towards man must he have departed from that sacred mount! Truly humbled he was, truly interested for God, truly linked to Him in his secret soul, and esteeming others better than himself.

"Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God gives the increase." And so Elijah had to learn that the Lord was not confined to him. He had other shafts in His quiver, which He would discharge in due time. The wind, the earthquake, and the fire must all do their work, and then the still small voice could be heard distinctly and effectually. It is the sole province of God to make Himself heard, even though He speak in "a still small voice." Elijah remained in the cave until this voice reached his ear, and then "he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave."

Elijah goes on till he reaches Horeb. But coming before God to speak well of himself and ill of Israel is a very different thing from forgetting self through the power of the Lord's presence, and setting Him before the people in His power which is patient in mercy in spite of all their evil.* People sometimes come before God because they have forgotten Him in the place where they ought to have stood and borne testimony for Him. And thus God asks Elijah, "What doest thou here, Elijah? "Terrible question! like those addressed to Adam, to Cain, and now to the world with respect to Jesus. The answer does but betray (as is always the case) the sad and fatal position of one who has forgotten God. The voice was not a voice of thunder, but one that made Elijah feel it was the voice which he had forgotten. Wind, fire, earthquake, these heralds to man of the power of God, would have suited the angry heart of Elijah as instruments of divine power against Israel; but these manifestations of His power were not God Himself. The still small voice reveals His presence to Elijah. That which would have satisfied his will, and that which would perhaps have been just towards others, did not awaken his own conscience. But the still small voice by which God reveals Himself penetrates Elijah's heart, and he hides his face before the presence of Jehovah. Nevertheless the pride of his embittered heart is not yet subdued. He repeats his complaints, unsuitable as they were at the time when he had himself just destroyed all the prophets of Baal, and proving that his faith had not been able to find, by the light of his testimony, all that God saw of good in Israel.