|
1. Come and See How God Works
Elijah had still not completely recovered from the blow his faith took on the heels of the Mt. Carmel winner-take-all showdown between God and Baal when God did a little Almighty muscle-flexing. Instead of the reformation Elijah expected, all he saw was rejection. What was the use? All his efforts seemed to be in vain. He had just about had it. Frustrated and disillusioned, he hit the road, tramping southward, looking for a good place to hang up his prophet’s mantle and go to meet his Maker. This morning, we make the trek to the deserts below the borders of Israel way down on the Sinai Peninsula at Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai, where in days gone by, God had laid down the Law to another of His great prophets -- Moses. There, we find God’s once-fiery prophet secluded in a wilderness cave, licking his wounds and still feeling sorry for himself. Through the pages of Holy Scripture, we are privileged to sit in on the lesson as God rebuilds Elijah’s bruised and weakened faith. Our own faith will be strengthened as we witness firsthand just How God Works.
Master Teacher that God is, He begins the lesson by throwing the ball into Elijah’s court and gets him to do some pretty heavy soul-searching to discover why he was on the run. He asked Elijah: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ‘Hold on there,’ God is saying to him. ‘Face your problems instead of running away from them.’ The first step in facing his problems was to decide just what those problems were. It didn’t take long. His words fairly flew out of his mouth as he vented the frustrations and fears that were built up and bottled up inside him. “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken 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.” The sunshine and joy of doing God’s work had departed; darkness and gloom had engulfed his soul.
Right away, we can see Elijah’s problem, can’t we? He was looking to himself. He told God about his hard work and about Israel’s sin, but he forgot that God had something to say in the matter. He forgot to let God be God. His faith had been weakened to the point where he let God become much too small. Saints, how often have we let God get too small in our lives, that same God who says with Him we can move mountains, that same God who says: “With (me) all things are possible?” That is the God whose help we often spurn as we give in to our doubts and despairs or succumb to our fears and frustrations. How often have we forgotten to let God be God and looked to ourselves or to others for help instead? Like Elijah, when we’re lost and wandering in the spiritual wilderness it’s because we failed to follow the Lord, to keep our eyes on Him.
God had diagnosed the problem, too. He pointed Elijah away from himself and to Himself. “The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” God was going to give His prophet a little divine refresher course in theology in who God is and how God works. “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 was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” For most of Elijah’s career, he had to work primarily with God’s Law. When the windows of heaven were shuttered for three and one-half years; when fire fell from heaven to consume the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel; when the priests of Baal were slain -- these were all stern Law sermons preached to Israel. Yet where were the results? The people had shouted on Mt. Carmel: “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” but very quickly settled right back into their old idolatrous ruts, which resulted in Elijah being hurtled into the depths of depression and his granite-like faith being fractured. He felt God had deserted him.
But God patiently deals with His depressed and doubting prophet. On Mt. Sinai, where God had given His Law to another of His prophets, He now, in a most wondrous way, teaches Elijah about the nature and limitations of that Law. First came a violent, mountain-shaking wind, next an eerie earthquake, and finally a furious fire, but God was in none of them. When the wind dropped, the earth stopped shaking, and the fire fizzled out, a profound stillness settled in, and in that stillness was the “gentle whisper” of the voice of God. Look at Elijah’s reaction. Before the fury of nature, he stood fearless and unflinching, but when he heard the “gentle whisper,” our text says, “He pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.”
What was God’s point? What was God impressing upon Elijah? Well, the wind, the earthquake, and the fire were all symbols of the terror-producing Law. God’s Law jolts sinners out of their sleep of apathy and indifference. God’s Law sets consciences a-quivering and hearts a-shivering. God’s Law rips apart complacent consciences and tears apart hardened hearts, but it cannot change those sinful hearts. It can only show sin and its consequences; it can’t deliver from sin. Only the gentle whisper of God’s Gospel warms cold hearts, breaks up the stony ground of unbelief, and turns people to faith in the Lord. Only the gentle whisper of the Gospel soothes and heals those seared consciences and mends torn hearts. Not the fierce thunder of God’s judgments, but the gentle whisper of God’s grace wins people to Him. God’s Law works in the service of God’s Gospel. It prepares the ground for the planting of the precious Gospel seed. God’s point? The fiery and passionate prophet was to let God be God. He was not to despair but to wait for God’s Gospel to do its work in the hearts of Israel.
Nothing has changed. Today, God’s power is still found in the gentle whisper of the Gospel. Like Elijah, when we feel deserted by God and very much alone, accompanied only by doubts and fears, He invites us to go and stand on another mountain called Calvary and see God pass by there and see God die there. There was an earthquake and terrifying thunder and lightning that Good Friday as Jesus hung on the cross, but God was in none of them. His power was in the gentle whisper of His Son as He hung on the cross, praying for forgiveness for a world whose sin had put Him where He was. And He bids us come out of our caves of depression and despair and stand before another cave: the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. When darkness overtakes us and despair overwhelms us, we need to go back to Elijah’s mountain and Calvary’s crest to hear God’s gentle whisper. That’s where God’s power lies. As He speaks to us in the Gospel, He dispels the gloom and darkness from our hearts. He soothes the troubled conscience, and He heals the sin-broken heart.
The gentle whisper of the Gospel has a power unmatched by the thundering of the Law. The gentle whisper from the cross is the only power on earth that can free people from the chains of slavery to sin. Today, while critics scoff and the unbelieving world goes unheeding by, God’s Gospel power sounds forth from the Word in the splashing water of Baptism, in the bread and wine of Communion, and on the pages of Holy Scripture, healing people’s wounds, giving faith where there is doubt, hope where there is hopelessness, and courage where there is fear. May the Lord teach us to trust its power as He did with Elijah.
2. Go and Do God’s Work
On that mountaintop, God did more than give His prophet a lesson on how God works. Through that lesson, He strengthened Elijah’s faltering faith. He then immediately put that renewed faith to work. God knows that an active faith is a healthy faith, so He didn’t let Elijah return to his cave and brood. Now that Elijah had gotten a glimpse of how God works, God readdressed His opening question to Elijah: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” In other words: ‘This place is not for you, Elijah. Leave your cave and get back to the front lines in your battle against sin and unbelief. Just do your work and leave the results to me.’ God still had vital work for His prophet to do. He had kings to anoint and his successor to train to carry on as the Lord’s prophet and spokesman: “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shephat from Abel Mehola to succeed you as prophet.”
This morning, God showed us once again how He works through the gentle whisper of the Gospel. He has already whispered a saving faith into our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit. He now asks you and me the same question: “What are you doing here, Saints?” A healthy faith is an active faith. He wants us to come out of the seclusion of our cozy caves and see God passing by in His Word. Through the Word, He will strengthen our faith so that we can go about the work that He has assigned to us: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Our only purpose for remaining in this sin-darkened world is to share and spread the light of the Son -- the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That is our only reason for being as a school and our number one mission at Crean Lutheran High School: Proclaim Jesus Christ.
Saints, God has work for us to do. He gives us the assurance that He will bless our work. Elijah thought he had failed, yet God said: “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel -- all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” We may feel like Elijah from time to time, wondering if God is still there, if He still cares. Let’s remember to let God be God and not let Him get too small. Our Lord has assured us that when we Do God’s Work and share God’s Word, it “will not return to (Him) empty” and that “our labor in the Lord is not in vain.” He has His own timetable. Let us do His work and leave the results to Him. Like Elijah, we need to leave our comfortable caves and march out into the world with the Word of God. “What are you doing here, Saints?” May our answer ever be and remain the same: ‘I am following the Lord’s will and doing the Lord’s work.’ Amen.
| 
