The Nearness of God’s Presence
Last time we looked at how God’s questions led Elijah to genuinely express his feelings and even challenge the validity of those feelings. God did not just ask Elijah questions. He appeared to Him in a new way:
“Then he said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.’
“At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” ”
God has two more commands for Elijah: “Go out and stand.” He calls Elijah out of the cave where he has spent the night—again a symbolic as well as literal call to change like “Arise and eat.” But this time, God doesn’t command a doing but a being: “stand on the mountain.” Mountaintops were often where God met His people in the Old Testament. In fact, Mount Horeb where Elijah ended up is the same Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments in Exodus 19 and 34. This mountain in particular was primed to be a place of revelation. But Elijah’s role is merely to stand—to stay put. Where? In the Lord’s Presence. God would do the revealing while Elijah would do the standing as God’s Presence came down.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah experienced an awesome display of God’s power and presence when He sent down fire from heaven upon the sacrifice at Mount Carmel. Most likely, Elijah expected some similar experience of God’s Presence. Surely the Lord would be found in the great wind, the earthquake, or the fire. These methods are the ways God had revealed Himself in the past. But isn’t it so like the Lord to do something so much larger and so much quieter than we expect?
Elijah hears God’s Presence in the sound of a soft whisper. The Hebrew here is difficult to translate, but some translations call it a still, small voice. Essentially, it means the sound of total silence.[1] Psalm 107:29 uses the same word to describe how the Lord “stilled the storm to a whisper.” Instead of something dramatic and overt, God’s Presence comes to Elijah in the stillness and silence after a storm. How often I have prayed for God to still the storm of depressive thoughts. How often I have sat in the silence feeling alone in my suffering. It is here God would have me stay—in the stillness where His Presence can come through.
The text does not specifically say that God’s Presence was in the silence; however, Elijah’s reaction to this still, small voice implies that He had experienced the Lord’s presence. Elijah wraps his face in his mantle and returns to the entrance of the cave where he started. As we saw in the last lesson, this experience of God’s Presence does not immediately change Elijah’s feelings. He responds in the same manner when God asks him what he is doing there. However, Elijah’s response to hide his face does indicate an acknowledgement of God’s awesome presence.
Depression often lies to us in order to have us believe that our God is small. Too weak to heal us. Too uninterested to change our pain. Believing these lies can cause irreverence in how we relate to God. For me, this concept proved true in my search for pleasure in the world rather than in a deeper relationship with God. The truth of my irreverence came to a head when I went to a residential facility to deal with my depression. I had to give up every crutch I was clinging to and I wasn’t sure I was going to survive without the counterfeit pleasure those idols provided. I had a vision of myself before a giant wall of depression, and I despaired of ever finding a way over that wall. That’s when I recognized a Presence behind the wall. As large as that wall was in front of me, He was that much larger than my wall. God gave me a new perspective in that vision—a perspective that proved how much greater He was than my problems.
I think this perspective shift is similar to what Elijah experienced at Mount Horeb. While it didn’t change his depressive feelings, Elijah could no longer deny God’s nearness or God’s care for him. Elijah was faced with his own unbelief that had limited God and knew the only appropriate response was to hide his face in repentance. When God asked him a second time what he was doing there, Elijah could only answer as he had done before, but this time those excuses did not come from a place of irreverence but from a broken and contrite heart that despaired of changing himself.
Perhaps the experience of God’s Presence is not a comfortable one for you right now. It might involve facing some crutches you’ve leaned upon instead of the Lord. It might involve facing your own unbelief that questions the goodness of God in your circumstances. But once you let God’s Presence come near, however He ordains it to appear, you will know the truth about who God is for you in this moment. Be on the lookout for God’s Presence. Heed His calling to come out and stand in His Presence. Embrace the discomfort of facing your own sin. And allow the truth of God’s Presence to expand your belief.
[1] Gary Inrig, I & II Kings, edited by Max Anders, Vol. 7, Holman Old Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman, 2003).
