1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. The once triumphant spokesman of the Lord has temporarily lost his exuberant faith, and is sunk in dark despair. I am free to confess that I obtain a little comfort even from the prophet's grief. There is something in human nature which makes us feel more akin to men who occasionally suffer defeat. When the Apostle Peter is very bold, daring even death in the presence of the great ones of the earth, be appears very remote to the child of hesitancy and doubt; but in the hour of Peter's weakness, when he shrinks from the foes that beset him, he becomes one of the common crowd. His impulsiveness makes even his martyrdom human. Paul's feelings of wretchedness lend humanness even to his ecstasies, and his unspeakable visions do not lie in lands too remote. Now think of this mighty symbolism being portrayed before the despondent prophet. What would be its significance? Its significance was this, and he learned the lesson: comparative impotence may roar in the guise of tempest and fire; Almightiness may move in whispers. Feebleness hides in the apparently overwhelming; Almightiness hides in apparent impotence. God was in the weak thing! Elijah left the mount with his conceptions entirely changed. I think I can see him descending from the place of apocalypse with this thought filling his life: "The wind is against me, and the earthquake, and the fire, but what of that? The breathing is with me, and the immeasurable voice of God is in the wind." It is well for us to remember that the seemingly feeble, if the ghostly voice be in it, is transcendently more powerful than the massed battalions of the ungodly. When I had written these words I looked upon my study walls, and saw Munkacsy's great picture, "Christ before Pilate." There is a vast, howling, brutal mob, the very incarnation of brutal and irresistible force. It seems as though the violent crowd can carry all before it. Standing before the surging, shouting throng is the meek figure of the Master! It seems as though one hand out of the violent mob could crush Him like a moth! And yet we now know that in that silent Figure there dwelt the secret of Almightiness, and the Lord was not in the mob. Some time ago I was in Stirling Castle, and the guide pointed out to me the field of Bannockburn, and revelled in his description of the bloody fray. I turned from the contemplation of material strife, and I saw John Knox's pulpit! I allowed the two symbols to confront each other, and they enshrined for me the teaching given to Elijah in the days of old. The ghostly power suggested by the pulpit was of infinitely greater import than the carnal power suggested by the battlefield. I remember one day passing along the road, by the far-stretching works of Messrs. Armstrong, that vast manufactory of destructive armaments. I was almost awed by the massiveness of the equipment, and by the terrific issues of their work. Near by I saw a little Methodist chapel; it could have been put in a small comer of Armstrong's works, but it became to me the symbol of the enduring and the eternal! The ghostly breathing was in the plain little edifice, and the creations of its ministries will be found when the bristling armaments have crumbled into dust. Never let us count heads, but let us make sure of God. One man with God is in the majority. The man on the side of the "still small voice" must become at last overwhelming. One man in a workshop surrounded by jeering and sneering mates, moving in an environment altogether invincible to grace, will most assuredly conquer if he has the companionship of the Holy Ghost. A working man said to me a little while ago, speaking of the uncongenial character of his workshop, "I must get out of it!" I told him I was not so sure about that. I told him that he had chosen Elijah's way out of the difficulty. I urged him to believe in the sovereignty of the Almighty, and to remain faithful unto the end. We can wear down the stoutest antagonist. Our contention may be as silent as time, but it will be as invincible. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. |
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