God surprised Elijah by taking him on a journey. Elijah had already taken a journey. He ran the 100 miles to Beersheba. From there, he went a day’s journey into the wilderness. That is when God surprised him by saying, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” What journey? Elijah was not planning to go anywhere. He had arrived at his wilderness destination far away from Jezebel. He was clueless about the journey until he got away from the noise.
Our heavenly trip planner has planned for each of us to journey into the silence and meet him there. Do you get excited about that? When we think we are done he has an experience waiting for us. How often has God planned the glorious details of a journey into the silence to experience healing, forgiveness, freedom, and guidance and, because we were unaware, we never showed up?
In part 1 covered the first movement of the story. Here in part 2, we will consider the 2nd and 3rd Part 1 was about turning down the noise. Part 2 is about tuning into the silence to meet with God. Silence is both a discipline of abstinence and engagement. We abstain from the noise we don’t need and engage with the voice we do need. How do we tune the sound of silence?
2nd Movement: The Journey into Silence
Silence is a journey. God’s inviting us to go there with him. As we follow Elijah’s journey place yourself in the story.
The journey happens alone with God!
1 Kings 19:3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
That poor servant. While Elijah was ultra-marathoning all over Israel that servant had to keep up. He was happy to be told to stay in Beersheba (“take your time in the desert master Elijah”).
1 King 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.
Much of our spiritual experience happens in community. Silence happens alone with God. It’s a coming apart for a time from people, stresses, work, technology, and whatever else might be a present with you. As wonderful as his servant was, he had to leave him and journey into the wilderness.
The journey brings to the surface whatever lies just beneath it!
1 King 19:4 And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Good for Elijah for praying when he felt horrible. But what a depressing prayer. This was his mental state when he left the noise. His ideal solution was not to hear the still small voice but to end his life. His summary of all the miracles that had taken place was that he was a failure.
Why was Elijah so emotional? Isn’t silence supposed to promote emotional health?
Imagine this scene. You are in a room by yourself. And you must sit silent for 15 minutes. If the silence becomes too uncomfortable you have the option to hit a button to receive a mild electrical shock. Strong enough to take your mind off the silence for a bit. Would you hit the button? You would still have to sit there. It just wouldn’t be so silent. A psychologist at the University of Virginia named Timothy Wilson actually conducted this study. All of the participants indicated prior to the study that they would pay money to avoid being electrically shocked (sounds reasonable). But during the 15 minutes, 67% of the men and 25% of the women chose to shock themselves at least once instead of just sitting in silence. Now, some of those numbers could be curiosity shocks. But some actually preferred the physical discomfort of the shock over the emotional discomfort of silence.[i] What’s up with that?
When we turn off the external noise we are forced to listen to the internal noise. If anxiety lingers just beneath the surface, undetected with all the noise, that what comes to the surface in silence. Maybe it is fear, maybe shame, maybe insecurity or maybe it’s clarity of direction or peace. Whatever is in there comes out when we linger in the silence. The discomfort is a normal part of it. Hang in there.
We can stuff all that down and cover it with noise. But it leaks out. It shows up in our actions and attitudes. Silence does cover it; silence confronts it. That why people prefer the electrical shock.
The Journey is slow!
1 Kings 19:5-8 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
Elijah wasn’t ready for the still small voice. He was weary and needed to be prepared. So, he slept, and ate, and drank. Several times. There are times of exhaustion when the things our soul needs most in order to connect with God are a good night sleep, some healthy food, and adequate hydration. This journey is not fast, it’s wholistic. Scheduling five minutes of silence will benefit us. But it could be that we don’t hear the still small vice until day five or eight or forty.
Then Elijah and God went for a really slow long walk. Elijah was already a day’s journey into the wilderness form Beersheba. He walked to Mt. Horeb, roughly 250 miles. He took 40 days and 40 nights to do it. That is a little more than 6 miles per day. If Elijah was walking day and night, he was walking slow.
He traveled the first 100 miles to Beersheba at a superhuman pace. The further he got away from the noise, the more he slowed down.
Forty days and nights was the amount of time Jesus was in the wilderness before his ministry (Matthew 4:2). It was how long Moses spent on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18). God’s pace could be more efficient, but it couldn’t be more transformational, intimate, or healing.
The journey clarifies our perspective!
1 Kings 19:9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
What are you doing here? What an appropriate question for self-reflection. In this journey of silence God asked questions before he gave answers. The noise of the world tells us who we are and what we are doing. It shouts it’s agenda for our lives. Before the still small voice shows up, God leads us to clarity about what we are doing here.
1 Kings 19:10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Oh, so that is what he really meant when he asked God to kill him. His first prayer was a poorly articulated death wish. His perspective was not yet correct, but it did accurately articulate how he felt. He could name the emotions that before only overpowered him. That was the result of extended time in silence.
3rd Movement: The Sound of Silence
Elijah had journeyed into the silence. It was now time to hear it’s sound.
1 Kings 19:11-12 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke 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. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Verse 8 identified the mountain as “Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God”. It’s other name is Mt. Sinai. God has planned that the journey into silence will take us to a sacred place.
There is no formula for how to hear God in the silence. It is not always on the mountain. It is not always in the silence. He wasn’t in the wind, the earthquake or the fire. But not because God doesn’t work that way. He just wasn’t working that way that time.
There was another holy moment on that same mountain when God did speak like that.
Exodus 19:16-20 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
Later Elijah would be taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1). God walks upon the wings of the wind (Psalm 104:3). The Spirit does come with the sound of a might rushing wind (Acts 2:2). On Mt. Carmel, he answered by fire. He can appear in a burning bush (Exodus 3). He can scream over the noise. He can speak through books, sermons, nature or friends. Seek God and let him decide how best to speak. And remember that, sometimes, he saves his voice for the silence. We shouldn’t seek a formulaic experience. We seek a holy God.
1 Kings 19:12 …and after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
It all built up to this, the sound.
Do you know what the song The Sound of Silence is about? After looking into, I’m not sure is Paul Simon knows what it’s about. I find many explanations online. But none agree. Some think it was a tribute to the JFK assassination. Others say it is description of the societal disconnection of the 1960’s. Other theories tell how it speaks of the hesitancy of Americans to say what they really felt about the Vietnam war.
The sound of silence is a mystery.
Nobody really knows how to translate this phrase used in verse 12. The phrase is three Hebrew words; the common word for “voice” or “sound”, a rare word that means something like “whisper” or “silence”, and then another rarely used word that means something like “small”. The NIV says, “a gentle whisper”. The NASB says, “a gentle blowing”. The CEV says, “a gentle breeze”. The KJV translated it as “still small voice”. This phrase has worked its way into English vocabulary to refer to our conscience. It’s deeper than that. It is not just Elijah’s personal values echoing in his own head. It’s God. It’s mysterious. It’s holy.
The climax of the story could be seen as an anticlimax. The sound came, the one we have all been waiting for, and we don’t even know what it said. It is an untranslatable interaction with God. And if any word were shared, they didn’t get recorded.
Still, Elijah felt it.
1 Kings 19:13And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Do you need that experience? When is the last time your morning devotions ended with you covering your face in awe?
There is something mysterious, personal, and indescribable that happens in the silence with God. It might not say any words. It doesn’t need to. We couldn’t articulate if it did. The moment is bigger than words. We just need to experience it.
1 Kings 19:13-15And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Same question. Same answer.
But this time God did respond with word.
15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
In these words, God spoke to every point of Elijah’s concern, and he corrected it. Elijah said he had been jealous, God said go back to your jealous mission. Elijah said the people had forsaken God’s ways. God said he had new righteous people to anoint (2 Kings 9-Jehu reformed Israel after Ahab. Elisha succeeded Elijah). Elijah said they killed the prophets with the sword. God said that none of them would escape the sword of the people he appointed. Elijah said he was the only one left. God said he had preserved 7000 others who had not bowed to Baal. God concisely spoke the exact message Elijah needed to hear.
Then he sent him back. The whole trip, the whole 40 days and nights, it was all justified by the value of that moment. There was no other business. He went there to meet God in the silence. And it was worth it. But he didn’t stay. We are sent from the moments of silence with God to reenter society on mission for God. There are some incredible examples of past Christians, like the Dessert Fathers, who found God in the silent place. Some forgot to return. Others learned that we are to not to retreat from the world, we are to retreat for the world. We come back into the noise changed and able to bring change to the world around us.
The song 4’33 is three-movement composition by the American composer John Cage. It was first performed in the summer of 1952 by the accomplished pianist David Tutor at an outdoor concert hall in Woodstock, New York.
Mr. Tutor walked on the stage and closed the cover over the piano keys. He sat there in silence for 30 seconds. The first movement was complete. For the second movement he opened the piano lid and closed it again. He sat in silence. This time for 2 minute and 23 seconds. Finally he opened the lid and closed it again for another 1 minute and 40 seconds. Then he rose and walked off stage. The sheet music for all three movements instructed him to play a musical rest. He played it perfectly.[ii]
John Cage’s interest in silence led him to visit anechoic(free of echo) chambers to listen to the silence. Anechoic chambers are what NASA astronauts train in to prepare them for the soundlessness of space. The silence is startling. The soundlessness of space makes audible the blood pulsing through your veins, the functioning of organs, bones rubbing each other and skin sliding over top of them. This fascinated Cage. Not for the silence but for the sound.
His inspiration for 4’33 was that every performance of it was entirely different. It sounded like the place it was performed in. The song of silence focused the listener on whatever sounds were already there.
God invites us into our own performance of 4’33. It is an invitation to turn down the noise to tune into the silence and meet God there.
[i] People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts | Science | AAAS (sciencemag.org)