Stop. Look. Listen.
1 Kings 19:9-18
How does God speak to you? Is that a question that you even consider? Maybe you think that God speaks to other people, but not to you? Or maybe, looking for guidance, you have struggled to hear God saying anything at all?
Our reading from 1 Kings raises all kinds of challenges around the idea of God speaking to us. Firstly, we need to remember something of the context; Elijah, God’s prophet – God’s spokesman, through whom God speaks to others – is on the run. Labelled “troubler of Israel” by King Ahab, his messages from God have not gone down well either with Ahab or with his wife, the infamous Jezebel. As is common in the prophetic tradition, Elijah has repeatedly reminded the King and Queen of the consequences of their actions – warning them, in particular, that continued worship of Baal will lead to their downfall.
Sometimes we don’t like to be told what will happen if we continue with certain behaviours. We bury our heads in the sand, ignore the best advice, continue to do what we like. The Prime Minister seems to have recognised this as he has changed his view on obesity; and, on a global scale, the pandemic is making us stop to think about our relationship with the environment. Prophets don’t so much predict the future as warn us about our direction of travel. If we are willing to change, what is predicted may not happen. If we continue as we are, it may well come to pass.
Prophets are God’s messengers – but because they call for change, we don’t always want to listen to them. Elijah, and the people who speak truth to power in our generation, are our first example of how God speaks to us. He speaks through other people. They may not say, with Elijah’s confidence, “thus says the Lord”, but they are moved to speak just as, again and again, he is moved. Are we listening to the prophets in our generation?
Prophets also need to listen to God, if they are going to be guided by God and to communicate God’s message. At the beginning of our passage, Elijah isn’t listening – he’s on the run. Jezebel has threatened his life – and “he was afraid”. Fear motivates him, a basic human instinct that will sometimes save us from danger, but which sometimes confuses and confounds us. Elijah sinks into depression, wanting to die, and sleeps under a tree in the desert. There, he is mysteriously ministered to, fed and watered, before continuing his journey to mount Horeb; he seems to be wandering aimlessly, but he comes to a place of great spiritual significance, where Moses met God in the burning bush.
Remarkably, God sometimes speaks to us and guides us even through the darkest times. It’s rather like the ‘Footprints’ poem; when we are in difficulty, God is carrying us. It may not feel as if God is there, but he is. This is guidance seen in the rear-view mirror, with the benefit of hindsight. After the event, we can see how God was in the circumstances of our lives. In the middle of those events, we may just be able to say ‘trust God’, but we can’t see what is happening. Sometimes it feels as if we are just following our instincts – but sometimes that is all that we can do.
Maybe that is because, like Elijah, we are sometimes being supported by our history – our own, or that of our faith community. Wandering aimlessly, with no clear direction, we too might end up somewhere, like Horeb, where the presence of God is evident, what is known as a ‘thin place’, or somewhere significant for us or our family. Places can be very powerful in helping us to reconnect with God, when we feel lost. That is part of the power of coming back into our buildings; for me, it is the power of the two or three places in the world where I immediately sense God’s presence. They are resonant spaces.
So, Elijah ends up in such a place, guided by God. Periodically we read “the word of the LORD came to Elijah… saying, ‘Go…’” Now when we read “the word of the LORD”, we might think ‘the Bible’ – and that might also have been your first answer when I asked, ‘how does God speak to you? But when “the word of the LORD” comes to Elijah, it is not the written word – although he refers Ahab back to “the commandments of the LORD”. This is more like the New Testament experience of being guided by the Spirit of God, “the word” here being a nudge to do something, or even a message that forms in the mind. There is no indication that Elijah sees the speaker – this is not like the angel who fed him – and he may not hear physically, but there is a very clear question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Such a question might come to our minds when we are faced with challenges and choices, and maybe we wouldn’t even realise that it comes from God. But the question is a good one because it stops Elijah in his tracks, makes him look at his circumstances and helps him to listen to God.
‘Stop, look, listen’, as well as being useful for crossing roads, is good for our spiritual health. Stop what you’re doing – especially if, like Elijah, you’re on the run. Look around you, notice what is happening. Elijah’s response sounds like a bit of a whinge – but it is also his assessment of his situation and it is his starting point – “I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” We need to name what is, to describe our situation, before we are ready to make changes. And having stopped and looked, we are more ready to listen.
When Elijah listens, God seems to be teaching him that guidance doesn’t always come in dramatic ways. His supernatural defeat of the prophets of Baal – read the earlier chapter if you can’t remember that story – may have led Elijah to expect writing in the sky. How often have we wanted that? But it is rare for God to give us guidance in this way. He isn’t necessarily experienced in the drama of the earthquake or fire, but more often can be found in that space that is created when we stop. Some translations offer Elijah a ‘still small voice’, but here we read of “a sound of sheer silence”. This equates to those times when we are aware of the presence of God, a profound presence without words, a knowledge that God is here and that that is more important than the specific answers we might have been seeking. This moment of presence gives Elijah the confidence to continue his ministry. As his words here make clear, nothing in his circumstances have changed, but God commissions him for the next stage of his ministry, which includes securing his successor.
Stop. Whatever you are doing and whatever your struggles might be. Look at the reality of your situation, which may not be as bad as you think, and which certainly includes God. Listen, now you have stopped, to what God might be saying to you.
So, has God spoken to you today? We read the Bible in our worship because we believe it is still relevant to us today. Some passages speak to us very directly – as commands, or advice for holy living – but others, like this, come as stories, inviting us to consider, to reflect. The word of the LORD comes to us as a living word, relevant for today, moulding and guiding our lives on a daily basis. What has this Bible story said to you? Maybe you have picked up on some of the things I have said directly, maybe you have been challenged to think about this passage differently, or maybe God has been speaking to you through this Bible passage, quite independently of what I have been saying. But that is the way God works – so thank God for his word and for his concern for us. And may we, like Elijah, be open to God’s guidance in the days ahead.