So we're in 1 Kings chapter 19 and we're reading from verse 9. We're speaking about Elijah and this is what it says. And he, that is Elijah, came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What dost thou hear, Elijah? What are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. and I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. 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 break 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. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering inn of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What dost thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain the prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be the king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abimehola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. From the wilderness of Paran near Beersheba in the deep south of Judah Elijah travelled through the Sinai Peninsula to its very tip, to Mount Horeb. Now Horeb is the same as Mount Sinai. And Mount Sinai, you might remember, was where Moses had received the law from God when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. So Horeb and Sinai are the same place. It's actually a large mountain range. Well, it's not a large mountain range. It is a small mountain range. Some people think that Horeb is the name of the range and Sinai is the name of the mountain. Some people think that Sinai is the name of the range and Horeb is the name of the mountain. So it is a little bit confusing, but Horeb and Sinai are effectively the same place. And it was there that the Lord had given Moses and the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. So Elijah was going from Beersheba, or the wilderness near Beersheba, all the way down through the Sinai Peninsula, it's called today, all the way down through this land to a very important place in Israel's history. and why he was going there particularly is not said. We don't know why he was going there. It may simply be that it was about as far away and as remote a place as it was possible for Elijah to reach. as he fled from Ahab and Jezebel. I suspect that was at the root of Elijah's purpose. He wanted to be as far away from Jezebel as he possibly could. Now as we saw last week, Elijah was about done. He did not want to live any longer. Indeed, he asked the Lord to take away his life. However, the work of Elijah, the work of the prophet was not yet finished. God still had more for him to do. And when he reached Horeb, or Mount Sinai, he entered into a cave. Now, again, some people think, we don't know, we can't be sure about these things, but some people have speculated that this was the very cave or the cleft in the rock into which the Lord placed Moses when he showed him his glory on Mount Sinai 500 years or about 500 years before. There Moses had asked to see the Lord's glory and the Lord placed him in a cleft of a rock and passed by. Well here is another occasion, another time when the Lord is passing by this cave and it may well be that Elijah and Moses were in exactly the same place, although that is not specified. So be it as it may, it was the Lord's purpose to reveal himself again to Elijah. And if it's not the exact place, it is a place nearby. Elijah thought that his work was finished, but the Lord was not finished with him. And the nature of this revelation that God intended to give to Elijah is interesting. It takes the form of a strong wind A wind that was strong enough to rend the rocks. So I guess Elijah could hear pieces of stone falling down and cracking into the rock as it fell down the cliff face. And then there was an earthquake, which again must have shaken the earth. It was a demonstration of power. Then there was a fire. and then there was a still small voice. And we're told that while the first three of these were powerful enough to cause damage, the Lord was not in any of them. We're specifically told that. They rather, the wind and the earthquake and the fire, they were like heralds or messengers that passed before the Lord and then the Lord came after. They seem to have been designed to get Elijah's attention and to show him that the power of God was still there, was still to be seen and still to be discovered. You know, sometimes the Lord does shake our lives to get our attention. But what we learn from this passage today is that it takes the still small voice of God's grace and his message to us of the Lord Jesus Christ to change our sinful hearts. Yes, we can see evidences of God's power, evidences of God's glory, but it takes the still small voice of God's grace in Christ to change a sinful heart. As Elijah lay in this cave, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said unto him, that is the Lord said to Elijah, what are you doing here, Elijah? Now, I think that as with Moses, this is what is sometimes called a pre-incarnation revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation was when Christ came to the world as a little baby in Bethlehem. But throughout the Old Testament, there were times when the Lord revealed himself, sometimes physically, sometimes in other ways. in vision or as a voice. And these visions and voices and physical manifestations were pre-incarnation revelations of Jesus Christ. Now I don't know whether there was a bodily manifestation here or whether it was just a voice, but certainly a voice spoke to Elijah. And Elijah gives answer. But when he answers, the Lord says to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah is defensive. He is self-justifying. It's as if he's giving a reason, but it's an excuse as to what he's doing there. He doesn't say, for example, that he's there because he's fleeing from Jezebel, which is patently the reason why he was there. But he tells the Lord, Because I'm a faithful servant. Because Israel has turned against you. Because all the other prophets have been killed and I'm the only one left. And because they're trying to take my life as well. Now I'm not sure how true all that was. to be honest, because although Jezebel had slain all the prophets that she could find, we know and Elijah knew that Ahab's servant Obadiah took 100 prophets and hid them by 50 in a cave. So while it is true that many had been slain, they were not all dead. Elijah was making assumptions here that were not based on fact. And the Lord again speaks to Elijah. He tells him to go out and to stand on the mountainside at the cave entrance where the Lord would reveal himself. And although this is not a revelation in the same way as the Lord showed himself to Moses It is still a powerful demonstration in the wind, the earthquake and fire. In fact, it kind of seems as if before Elijah got to the entrance of the cave that these things started, or maybe he got to the entrance and then when he heard the rocks cracking and breaking around him, he withdrew again into the cave. But something seems to have prevented him from fully exiting this safe place that he was in. The wind and the earthquake and the fire were all signs of God's power, but the Lord himself was not in them. Then in the silence and calm that followed these displays of power, the Lord spoke gently to Elijah in a still small voice. It makes me wonder if the picture being presented here to Elijah was perhaps a view of better days, calmer days, a view of future times, when the Lord no longer spoke by demonstrations of power, no longer shook the earth in these miraculous ways, but rather spoke by the spoken word in the gospel, in the still small voice of love and tenderness. As if to say to Elijah, Elijah, I could destroy all my enemies in a moment, but I want to show you something else. I want to teach you something else. I want to teach you about mercy and grace and the gentle winning of souls as a way of salvation, which is yet to come. Elijah, we're told, wrapped his face in his cloak, his mantle. Perhaps that was a sign of humility on Elijah's part in the presence of God. Nevertheless, he still will not admit that fear of Jezebel is the true reason for his presence in the cave. Again, the question is asked of him by the Lord, Elijah, what are you doing here? The repetition might have suggested that the first answer that he had given was insufficient, and yet Elijah repeats it. So now the Lord corrects Elijah, but first he instructs his servant that he still has work to do. Elijah is given three tasks, Jezebel notwithstanding, He is to return whence he'd come, he's to go back to where he'd come from, and he was to go into the wilderness of Damascus. He was to anoint a man called Hazael to be king over Syria. He was to anoint Jehu to be king over Israel. And he was to anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat, to be God's prophet in his own place. Now actually we will discover this in the coming weeks perhaps. All those things happened the other way around. Indeed, we don't actually know that Elijah ever went into the wilderness of Damascus, he didn't anoint Hazael, he didn't anoint Jehu. Elisha did that. So the first thing that happened was that Elisha was anointed, then Jehu, then Hazael. It happened the other way around. And then we're told that the Lord also speaks to Elijah to tell him that he was wrong about his assumptions. He tells Elijah, you're not alone. Nor indeed has all Israel forsaken the covenant. It's not as you think. It's not as you believe. I have retained a remnant people. who have not followed Baal, who have not bowed down, who have not bent their knees or kissed his idol image. And things might look bad to you, Elijah, but I am still in control and I'm very happy at the way things are going. The Lord would indeed judge the wickedness of Ahab and Israel, which perhaps is what Elijah was desirous of. The Lord would indeed do that, but he would do it in his own time and in his own way. There was work for Elijah to do first. And that's still the case today. Sin will be judged. Sometimes we look around like Elijah looked around and said, look at the terrible things that are happening. Why doesn't God judge? Well, the answer is the same as well. The Lord will judge. Sin will be judged, either in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ or in the individual sinner himself. God must judge sin. and yet he gives time, he gives space. In this day we are in the day of grace and there is still forgiveness to be found for those who come to Christ in repentance and faith. It appears to be that Elijah goes back and anoints Elisha first. And that is what we're going to think about next week. But at Horeb, the Lord gently corrected his prophet, recommissioned him, and sent him back to work. And here's a couple of lessons that I just want to leave with you about what we read today. The first is this. All is not always as it seems. And that's a good lesson for us all to learn. Sometimes we feel as though all is lost. No one understands us. Nothing has turned out the way that we wanted to, the way that we had hoped. That's how Elijah felt. He was alone. He thought he was the only true believer in the whole country, maybe the whole world. Everyone had rejected the truth. It really wasn't worth going on. It's as if Elijah said to himself, woe is me, this is terrible. Except that he was wrong. The Lord had lots of people, thousands of followers. It's simply that Elijah didn't know them or where they were because he didn't need to. He needed to be faithful to what the Lord had taught him. And as we go on in life, people will try to convince us of a lot of things. But let us be careful. Things are not always what they seem. The question is not, what is happening? The question is, who do I trust? Elijah wanted evidence that he could see, that he could touch. And the Lord said, no. He said, I've got it all under control. You need to trust me. You've got work to do. So let's go and get on with it. That's the first lesson that we can all perhaps draw something from. Here's another one. The presence of Christ in the still small voice of the gospel is what is shown to us here as well. There's something very interesting in the method employed by the Lord to speak to Elijah. When the Lord spoke to Moses in the same place hundreds of years before, he had spoken by fire and darkness and blackness and storm. It was a fearsome experience for the people present. And here the noise and shaking was again heard, but this time we're expressly told that these thunderings came and passed. The Lord is still powerful and fearsome, but now he chooses rather to be heard in a still small voice. This is the voice of the gospel in a person's heart. What it teaches us is that neither the anger of the law nor the fear of judgment or hell can save a sinner. Rather, it is the sweet, gentle whispers of grace and it is the displays of God's love in the Lord Jesus Christ that wins the hearts of God's people to Him. The Lord told Isaiah, Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. When the Lord saves his people, don't expect fireworks or brass bands. He saves quietly. He saves secretly. He saves tenderly. He convinces us gradually, gently, and yet emphatically. He says, you are bought with a price. You are not your own. You belong to me. Come unto me and be not ye the servants of men. And finally, Elijah was reminded that this is all the Lord's work. Two kings were to be anointed. A new prophet was to be appointed to fill Elijah's place. It was not for Elijah to question God. He must be ready to do what the Lord instructed and be willing to trust even when he can't explain or understand what is happening. Building the Church of Jesus Christ is the Lord's own business. We all, even Elijah, are just small pieces in the Lord's great purpose and yet we all play a part and he will succeed and accomplish his plan. Not one of the Lord's people will be lost. Not one sin will be left unjudged. He knows each one of us and he is dealing with each one individually. He's dealing with you and he's dealing with me. But he calls us to trust his wisdom and be faithful in his service. He calls us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ May we all do so, for surely he hath done all things well. Amen.