1 Kings 19:12

ELIJAH, no doubt, expected that after the wonderful display of God's power on Carmel the nation would give up its idols and would turn unto the only living and true God. Had they not confessed as with a voice of thunder, "Jehovah, He is the God! Jehovah, He is the God!"? The Prophet trusted that the heart of Ahab might, perhaps, be touched and possibly, through him, the heart of Jezebel. If she did not become converted, at least the manifest interposition of Jehovah might check her hand from future persecution. The Prophet hoped that by an influence thus established over the king and queen, the whole land would speedily glide back to its allegiance to Jehovah. Then would his stern heart have been glad before the Lord. When he found out that it was not so, his spirit fainted within him. The message from Jezebel, that he would be slain the next morning, was probably not so terrible to him as the discovery that came with it that his great demonstration against Baal was doomed to be a failure. The proud Sidonian queen would still rule over vacillating Ahab and, through Ahab, she would still keep power over the people—and the idol gods would sit safely on their thrones. The thought was gall and wormwood to the idol-hating Prophet. He became so despondent that he was ready to give up the conflict and to quit the battlefield. He could not bear to live in the land where the people were so blindly infatuated as to honor Baal and to dishonor Jehovah. He resolved to leave right away. But where shall he go? He traverses the land in hot haste. He flies into the wilderness. He will not lie down till he reaches a solitude where foot of man has not defiled the sward. But in which direction shall he hasten? He, the great Law-vindicator thinks of the spot where once stood the great Law-Giver and so he hastens off to Horeb, to the mount of God.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 12 and 13, is #1668, Volume 28—THE STILL SMALL VOICE.] THERE may be a great deal more teaching in what Elijah saw and heard in the cave than I shall be able to bring out this evening. Indeed, I shall not attempt to exhaust the very wonderful practical sermon which was preached to the Prophet on the side of Mount Horeb, but in the still small voice I hear four messages. I. And first, THERE WAS A MESSAGE TO ELIJAH HIMSELF.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 12 and 13, is #1668, Volume 28—THE STILL SMALL VOICE.] THERE may be a great deal more teaching in what Elijah saw and heard in the cave than I shall be able to bring out this evening. Indeed, I shall not attempt to exhaust the very wonderful practical sermon which was preached to the Prophet on the side of Mount Horeb, but in the still small voice I hear four messages. I. And first, THERE WAS A MESSAGE TO ELIJAH HIMSELF. He had, apparently, conceived the idea that the whole nation of Israel would be converted from idolatry by one grand display of Divine power. If it could once be indisputably proved that Baal was not God and that Jehovah, alone, was God, then he thought that, surely, the people would be convinced and would loyally return to their old Covenant with the one living and true God. But he found that it was not so. Although the fire of the Lord had fallen from Heaven and had consumed Elijah's sacrifice, burned up the very stones of the altar and licked up the water in the trench. And although the people had cried out, "Jehovah is God! Jehovah is God!" yet for all that, they forsook not Baal, nor the other idols that had been set up in the groves and on the high places—the sun-god was still worshipped and the God who made the sun was forgotten! Elijah seems to have also thought that a display of terrible severity was necessary to bring these people back to their allegiance to Jehovah. Hence he took the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves and slew them at the brook Ki-shon, not allowing any of them to escape.

ELIJAH was a man of like passions with ourselves. We all know that when we have passed through any great excitement of high joy there almost always comes following, a corresponding reaction and depression.

ELIJAH was a man of like passions with ourselves. We all know that when we have passed through any great excitement of high joy there almost always comes following, a corresponding reaction and depression. Elijah had gone to the top of Carmel and had pleaded his cause, and the rain floods had come in answer to his prayer He had taken the prophets of Baal, and had slain them, and gained a glorious victory for his God; and so full of excitement was he that he girded his loins as though he had been a young man, and ran before the chariot of Ahab, like the royal footmen. It was almost inevitable that after an excitement so high, and strong, that he should be desponding and depressed in spirits, and we find that he was so depressed. If the like should ever happen to any of you' my brethren and sisters, count it no strange thing, nor suppose that some extraordinary trial hath happened unto you. It is but a physical result from physical causes. The mind has operated upon the body. It has strung the bow too tightly, and now, unless the string be relaxed, there is a danger of its breaking altogether. Now as Elias was a man of like passions with us, we may conclude that the way in which God dealt with him is very much the way in which he would deal with us. With a similar case, and the same physician, we may look for the same treatment. As, therefore, the Lord spake to Elijah not by earthquake, nor wind, nor fire, but by the still small voice, so in all probability will he speak to us. It may be, it is just possible it may be, that here to-night there is some worker for God very much in the same condition as Elijah. You, my dear brother, have been working for God in a neighbourhood where you have met with little but opposition and disappointment, and you have almost resolved that you will go away from the place. "The soil is hard," you say, "and breaks the ploughshare.

Elijah described it as a still, small voice (see 1 Kings 19:12-13). I had previously listened for an inner audible voice, and God does speak that way at times. However, I have found that usually God's voice comes as spontaneous thoughts, visions, feelings, or impressions.

I have always maintained, quite seriously, that the Lord is not in the wind or thunder of the waste, but if anywhere in the still small voice of Fleet Street. I sincerely maintain that Nature-worship is more morally dangerous than the most vulgar man-worship of …