And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks 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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
It's going to be gentleness week at church as we're in the home stretch of a Fruits of the Spirit series.
This passage struck me as very counter-cultural. When I watched the Lions game yesterday, Fox was advertising a Friday pro wrestling slate with an ad that has everyday people going into hulked-out body-slamming, mike-dropping, braggadocio-mode; the ads are one of the reasons I'm severely curtailing my sports intake these days.
God doesn't roll that way. That's not to say that God didn't apply a can of whuppin' to Israel's foes, but He isn't in the can of whuppin'.
God's voice wasn't in the thunder (to borrow from an old Phillips Craig and Dean song) or the wind or the earthquake or a fire. It's a gentle whisper that God rode in on. Jesus came in on a peace-projecting donkey colt, not a warhorse.
Death Cage Match: Mr. Rogers versus Hulk Hogan. In the long term, put your money on the guy in the cardigan.
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