THE SOFT GENTLE VOICE

1 Kings 19:9 (from “And behold”) -18;

Hebrews 12:12-15; Romans 15:5,6

There was reference in prayer last night to the seven thousand men who had “not bowed unto Baal”. I have been reflecting on that, and also on the verse that we read on Lord’s day in Matthew, where it says, “because lawlessness shall prevail, the love of the most shall grow cold”, Matt.24:12. I was wondering why it was that because lawlessness would prevail, it would cause the love of the many to grow cold. I thought we might get some understanding of it through the experience of Elijah.

Elijah was truly faithful; he held things for God in a very remarkable way, but at this point in 1 Kings 19, it would almost seem as if he was overwhelmed by the iniquity and lawlessness that was prevailing. It brought him to the point where he felt that he was left alone. He had clearly held things for God; in the previous chapter he said, “How long do ye halt between two opinions? if Jehovah be God, follow him; and if Baal, follow him” (v.21). He was very clear as to what was due to God and he had held to that, but then he said, “I, only I, remain a prophet of Jehovah” (v.22). He had held things rightly for God, and yet lawlessness was prevailing around him, and it was as if his judgment was getting a little clouded.

Sometimes the circumstances around us, and maybe among us, might affect us in this way, so that we do not see things as God would have us to see them. But I was affected to see what God says here to Elijah, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Jehovah”. He was to get God’s viewpoint of things and God’s appreciation of His people. God brought forth the wind first and then the earthquake, and then the fire. They would all speak to us of judgment, and that was really what was in the heart of Elijah at that point. He maybe felt that judgment was warranted against the unfaithfulness of Israel, and that he alone was left, but God was not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire. No, God was speaking at that time in the soft gentle voice, and He still is today. That was not at all contrary to the maintenance of what was rightly due to God. What a humbling experience it must have been for Elijah, that seven thousand had been maintained and he did not know one of them. He felt that he was left alone, but God had seven thousand. That is not an insignificant number, in fact it is a very large number, enough to ensure that the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah would continue to go through. There were enough to fill the ranks, you might say, and yet Elijah had not known one of them.

God acted in wonderful grace with Elijah. He was wanting to die, but think of the way in which God came in. We did not read it, but at the beginning of the chapter God came in to sustain him. There was food to strengthen Elijah, brought to him by the angel of God, and then he went through the experiences of the forty days and forty nights. How much Elijah had to learn about himself. He really had to learn that what was in the people of Israel was really in his own heart too. Elijah was to get that viewpoint so that he might be helped to be able to view God’s people rightly.

The exhortation from the writer to the Hebrew saints is to help us to be kept right in our spirits and have a right appreciation of one another. He says, “watching lest there be any one who lacks the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you”. One way in which we prove something of that root of bitterness is often in our relationships one with another, and you see the effect of it: “many be defiled by it”. You see how it may affect others, but we would be exhorted to go forward. “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Jehovah”. Elijah was ready to go there, he was ready to come into the presence of God and get a right appreciation, and a right view, of what God was doing. He was to see, not just his own exercises, however right he had been in them, but to see what God was doing and what He was able to secure for Himself. Elisha was going to be brought forward, there was to be continuance. He felt that he was the only prophet left, but there was another one, Elisha, ready to be a prophet after him, and God was securing much without Elijah being entirely aware of it. God in His grace, in that soft gentle voice, would work with him to show him what He was able to do.

I trust that this might be a word of encouragement and exhortation for us, to encourage us to go into the presence of God more, so that our spirits may be right and that we may get His viewpoint, see what He is doing and securing for Himself, and thus be strengthened to go on. These scriptures remind us of the need for endurance. It may be that we seek to go on with what is right, but sometimes circumstances would almost overwhelm us. Endurance flows from liberty as being in the presence of God and getting His view and being held rightly in our spirits in relation to one another. “Pursue peace with all, and holiness”, both things go together. You would not have peace rightly without holiness being maintained, because it says, “without which no one shall see the Lord”. The scripture is very clear in this exhortation, “Pursue peace with all”. This comes from our readiness to be in the presence of divine Persons. Peace is what is in view. There is only one place where we may obtain peace and that is in the presence of God.

I was encouraged by what Paul says in the epistle to the Romans; “the God of endurance and of encouragement give to you …”. What an expression that is, “the God of endurance and of encouragement”. God knows exactly what we need. We are in a day that requires continuance and endurance. There have been great advances in the testimony, but now is a time for maintenance and endurance. God is available to us to be known in this way as the One who is the “God of endurance and of encouragement”. He would give us to be “like-minded one toward another ... that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. That is what He would seek to secure now. We would readily see that the Spirit would serve in that too. The Spirit would have the objective of securing one accord and one mouth. If the Spirit is in a matter, there would be one accord and one mouth; He could never divide Himself. His goal is that there may be glory secured to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. God knows our needs, He knows our circumstances and would readily be known to us as the “God of endurance and of encouragement”.

Think of what was available to Elijah. Circumstances would affect us as they affected him, but God is available to us in that soft gentle voice. We see that God was not in the wind, He was not in the earthquake, He was not in the fire, but He was in the soft gentle voice. That same voice had, in principle, secured those seven thousand, the voice of the One who had spoken to Elijah when he felt that he wanted to die, the One who had brought to him that cake baked on hot stones and that cruse of water, not once but twice. What grace it was on the part of God to sustain His servant. Elijah had been a faithful man, maintaining remarkably what was for God in a day of lawlessness, and God was ready to help him when the weakness that marks us all in the flesh had come in and affected him. That soft gentle voice was available to Elijah. What he learned was that however right he had been, he still needed that soft gentle voice, he was still entirely dependent on God’s sovereign grace. He could not stand the judgment, and neither could the people of Israel. Elijah was entirely dependent, as the people of Israel were, on God’s sovereign grace. His eyes were opened to see this; “Yet I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him”. What a large number God had secured for Himself, enough, using today’s language, to see that the testimony would continue even if Elijah was going to be taken up.

How remarkable it was that Elijah was to be taken up, God marking him out in that way, and yet God had seen to it that the testimony would continue even without Elijah. But he was not to go out as dying in the wilderness; he was to get an appreciation that the testimony would continue. God helped Elijah forward, having impressed him with what had marked Him in His faithfulness. There was Elijah’s mantle that Elisha was to pick up, with all its significance. Elijah was yet to be useful, he was to anoint two kings and then he was to lead Elisha forward. God still needed Elijah, but he was to discover that it was that soft gentle voice that he needed, as indeed we all do.

I just leave these simple thoughts for our encouragement. May God bless the word.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Glasgow

26 December 2017

S. Perret

Edited and Published by John Brown and Paul Martin

36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT

email notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk

Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ Tel: 01277 650 661