March 16
Verse of the Day for March 16
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.1 Kings 19:12 KJV
The Key of Stillness · Day 16 of 31
Reflection · 4 min read
A Still Small Voice
Elijah has run for his life and is hiding in a cave. God tells him to stand on the mountain, and then three enormous things happen in sequence.
A wind strong enough to break rocks. An earthquake. A fire. And the text says, with unusual insistence, that the Lord was not in any of them.
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
And after the fire a still small voice. The Hebrew is stranger than the English — a sound of thin silence, or the voice of a gentle whisper.
Elijah's whole ministry to this point has been the loud kind. Fire from heaven on Carmel, drought announced and ended, prophets confronted in public.
So this is a correction aimed precisely at him. The God who had just answered by fire in front of a nation is not in the fire on the mountain, and Elijah has to learn to listen at a different volume.
He wraps his face in his mantle and goes to the entrance. You cannot hear thin silence from the back of a cave.
Not in the wind or the fire.A sound of thin silence.
If God has only ever spoken to you in dramatic moments, a quiet season can feel like abandonment when it is actually a change of register.
Come to the mouth of the cave. Some things are only audible there.
Carry this today
Are you listening for God at the wrong volume?
Pray
Read 1 Kings 19:11–13
11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.