When God asks twice

Sometimes it seems that Elijah was a little slow on the uptake! When he was in the desert he had to be told twice by an angel to get up, now God had to ask him twice why he was there on the mountain.

After Elijah had come to the mouth of his cave to answer God he retreated inside. And then God’s voice came again. How long was it between the two interviews? We don’t know it may have been immediate or there may have been an interval for Elijah to think about what he had said but in any event God’s voice came to him again. This time Elijah was told to go and stand on the mountain before the Lord. When he got there God was putting on something of a light and fire display! There was a hurricane, followed by an earthquake and then fire. But these were just displays, God was not in them. Some considerable period, perhaps even days passed by as these events unfolded and at some point Elijah returned to the cave but when a gentle breeze came back the entrance.

As he stood with his prophetic cloak wrapped around him there he heard again the voice of God. What did he think when he heard that same question “what are you doing here Elijah?” He must have been either thick skinned, incredibly stubborn or convinced of the rightness of his actions because he answered God in exactly the same way as he had before: ‘I’ve done my best, I did everything I could for you and your people, even killed the false prophets and all I get in return is death threats. There is no one left but me, and they want to kill me”.

God had demonstrated to Elijah his awesome power, he had shown him that he was in control of the elements of the universe, there was nothing outside of his scope. God was not trying to impress Elijah; he was giving him an assurance that he was the God who lives and in his hand was contained the future of the world and its nations. Perhaps Elijah didn’t need to be convinced about God’s power, he had already witnessed that, what he was really ticked off about was that God had allowed Ahab and Jezebel to live and carry on as before. If God was so powerful why didn’t he do something about it? Surely he could destroy these pagans along with their idol worship, why should Jezebel be allowed to get away with her death threats and vindictive behaviour?

Often when things go wrong for us we are less concerned with the fact that God is powerful than we are that he lets things happen to us that are just not fair. God is our provider but we suffer financially, he is our healer but we get sick, he is our victory banner but we get beaten up in spiritual battles. And all the time we have been obedient and faithful – it’s just not fair. If God is so big why does he let this stuff happen?  Perhaps that’s what Elijah felt up there in his cave, he didn’t want a fire and light show – he wanted to know why God had let him down. The problem was that instead of acknowledging his own failings Elijah sought to justify himself. But still God spoke to him, this time in the quietness that usually follows the storm, and this time Elijah listened.

God doesn’t need the spectacular to speak to us. He doesn’t need noise, commotion or sensation to achieve his purposes. He wants to speak to us in quietness, when we are still before him. Elijah had witnessed and indeed participated in the spectacular events on Mt Carmel, but they had produced no change of heart in Ahab. The spectacular demonstrations on Horeb had not changed Elijah’s disposition either. God wanted to communicate to him in the quietness and the gentle breeze stood in stark contrast to the tumult that preceded it.

God’s voice came to Elijah after the gentle breeze had got his attention. The same question was asked ‘what are you doing here, Elijah?’ and the same answer was given – one of self-justification. God had graciously provided for him, spoken to him, protected him and revealed his power and still Elijah sought to justify himself. It seems that God done nearly everything possible to get Elijah to willingly bend his will and change his heart, but he just didn’t want to. No amount of logic was going to work, no demonstration of power, no miraculous provision, no act of grace. At every turn Elijah proclaimed the rightness of his actions and protested against the unfairness of the circumstances he found himself in. He just didn’t want to listen, he didn’t want to see, he was going to be obstinate.

It may be that you have come to the point where you want to give up. God has called us to a particular ministry or vocation but it just hasn’t worked out. You may even have decided that the Christian life is just not for you – I mean what’s the point, you deny yourself all sorts of pleasures that you see others enjoying, for what? Are you any more blessed, are you better off, is your marriage any better or your kids more obedient? What’s the point? God may have demonstrated his great love to you in many ways, there may not have been earthquakes, tempests and fire but there will have been other demonstrations of his grace. He may have provided for you – perhaps a job, a family, a home, good friends or even some miracle of healing. But that’s not enough. God may have come to you in the quietness of the moment and spoken to you in a still small voice but you have not listened. It is not because you can’t, but because you won’t. You have convinced yourself that you are right and nothing will change your view.

When God asked him why he was where he was Elijah justified himself. I am here because people want to kill me; in fact it’s your fault because I only did what you wanted and now look what’s happened. All too frequently when we are challenged about our shortcomings we look for someone to blame and often that blame eventually extends to God.

Have we ever blamed God because of the circumstances we find ourselves in? Is God made responsible for the fact that we are treated badly, suffer financial pain or a family breakdown? Do we ever try to justify our actions by referring to the unfairness of the world and all that it contains? When God asks us a direct question it is not because he doesn’t know the answer. When he asked Jacob what his name was, it wasn’t because he didn’t know, when he questioned Elijah and Adam he already knew the answer but he wanted each of these people to do was accept their own responsibility.

Inevitably you and I will make wrong choices; we may make them with the best of intentions and just get it wrong. On the other hand we may deliberately act in such a way that separates us from God. Whenever this happens, God in his grace will come to us and ask us to take responsibility for the choices we have made. We may confess our failing, accept his grace and forgiveness and be restored or we can stubbornly insist that it was all someone else’s fault and remain alienated from God. That too is our choice.

In order for Elijah to be restored he needed to acknowledge his failure and ask God to redirect his footsteps. When God asked him where he was, perhaps he should have answered ‘I’m tired and disillusioned, I’ve done my best but I don’t understand what’s gone wrong. Please forgive me for running when I should have stayed, if you restore me I will, with your grace and mercy return and complete the unfinished business I have left to do’.