Immediately following the contest on Mount Carmel in which Elijah is used to definitively and powerfully demonstrate the power of the True and Living God, exposing the pitiful impotence of Baal, we find him fleeing into the wilderness in fear that Jezebel will have him executed for so thoroughly embarrassing her beloved prophets of Baal. There in the midst of the darkness and confusion of his fear the Word of the Lord comes to Elijah:
And the Lord 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. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. (I Kings 19:11-12)
It wasn’t in the elements – the earth, the wind, and the fire – that we, and the world around us, instinctively associate with the power and the glory of the True and Living God. It was in the sound of a low whisper that the glory of the Lord’s power was made known (again) to Elijah. And while we don’t know exactly what the Lord whispered to Elijah at that moment, but we do know the certain promise that he whispers to his people throughout the Old Testament to comfort them in the midst of their darkness and confusion, words that the Psalmist uses:
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)
A theme that could easily become hollow words of cynicism if they are not soon shown to have some bearing on real people in real darkness longing for real vision.
And so Jesus whispers to us, his people, in the midst of dark and confusing days: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John tells us the same thing: “In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men.”
Since in Jesus the promise of vision by the light of God’s glory has been fulfilled so that now we who once wandered in darkness now walk in the midst of darkness as shining lights, let us come together with rejoicing in the name of Jesus, and worship the True and Living God of abounding covenant faithfulness!