1 Kings 19:9-13
And [Elijah] came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.
And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake 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 a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In the phenomena of the mount we may perceive a striking illustration of the vivid contrast between the Law and the Gospel. Thus we may see in this incident a figure of God’s ordinary manner of dealing with souls, for it is customary for Him to use the Law before the Gospel.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): The manner in which God manifested Himself to His prophet on this occasion, resembles, in many respects, the manner in which He now manifests himself to men, when He comes to reprove them for their sins, and thus prepare the way for their conversion and salvation…It is, however, necessary to explain in what sense it is said that God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. It is certain that, in one sense, He was in each of them―they were all the effect of His power; they were all proofs of His presence, and in all of them some of His natural perfections might be seen. But in another sense He was in none of them. They were rather the precursors, the heralds of the approaching Deity, than the Deity Himself. And like heralds they proclaimed, though without a voice, the greatness, the majesty, and the power of Him whose heralds they were.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): These first terrible apparitions might well be to humble the prophet, and to prepare him to hearken more heedfully to the still voice, and to whatsoever God should say unto him.
A. W. PINK: As the plough and the harrow are necessary in order to break up the hard earth and prepare it for the seed, so a sense of the majesty, holiness and wrath of God is the harbinger which prepares us to appreciate truly His grace and love. The careless must be awakened, the soul made sensible of its danger, the conscience convicted of the sinfulness of sin, ere there is any turning unto God and fleeing from the wrath to come.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The field is not fit for the seed to be cast into it till the plough hath broken it up. Nor is the soul prepared to receive the mercy of the gospel till broken with the terrors of the law.
A. W. PINK: Self-complacency has to be rudely shattered and the rags of self-righteousness torn off if a sense of deep need is to fill the heart. The Hebrews had to come under the whip of their masters and to be made to groan in the brick kilns before they longed to be delivered from Egypt. A man must know himself to be utterly lost before he will crave salvation. The wind and fire must do their work before we can appreciate the “joyful sound.” Sentence of death has to be written upon us ere we turn to Christ for life. Yet those experiences are not saving ones: they do but prepare the way, as the ministry of John the Baptist fitted men to behold the Lamb of God.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Terrible judgments appear as if they must convert sinners, yet there certainly are those in many places who have passed through a whole series of judgments and are rather hardened than softened by them!―That which effectually wins human hearts to God and to His Christ is not an extraordinary display of power. Men can be made to tremble when God sends pestilence, famine, fire and others of His terrible judgments—but these things usually end in the hardening of men’s hearts, not in the winning of them. See what God did to Pharaoh and his land. Surely those plagues were thick and heavy—the like of which had never been seen before, yet what was the result? “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,” Exodus 9:7. So it usually is. These things are well enough as preliminaries to the Divine Gospel which gently conquers the heart, but they do not, of themselves, affect the soul.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Not the most dreadful things of God’s wrath, the terrors of the law, the alarms of threatening justice, nor even the apprehensions of hell and everlasting misery, though passing before his view, will compel him to cover his face in shame and confusion, and make him tremblingly cry out, “Lord! save or I perish.”
C. H. SPURGEON: Men are not converted by judgments. They may submit themselves in a false way, but power and displays of terror do not win the heart. What, then, does God use to touch the heart?
GIOVANNI DIODATI (1576-1649): God’s saving revelation of Himself is in the Gospel only, which soundeth grace and comfort, and not in His terrible law.
C. H. SPURGEON: That which conquered Elijah’s brave heart was not a whirlwind, nor the earthquake, nor fire—it was the still small voice!—Observe that where there was a display of power, as in wind, earthquake and fire, we read afterwards, “God was not in it,” but here, in this still small voice in which there was no display of power, God was at work! Here, then, we see the weakness of power, but we learn also the power of weakness, and how God often makes that which seems most resistible to be irresistible—the still small voice succeeds where “terrible things in righteousness” are of no avail.
ROBERT HAWKER: The strong wind rending the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces, the earthquake, the fire―the Lord was not discovered by the prophet any of them: neither did he cover his face in his mantle until he heard the still small voice.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In the same way also does God accomplish His purposes in the souls of men. It is not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, that God manifests Himself to them, but in the still small voice.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Now the prophet perceives the present Deity. Wrapped in his mantle, his face is hid, ashamed, afraid to look upon God, yet standing in the mouth of the cave, attentive to the words of the eternal Jehovah.
C. H. SPURGEON: The Prophet did not come out of the cave until he heard that voice. He was called upon by God to come out and stand in the open before the Most High―but as I read it, he had not done this until the still small voice called him and drew him in the way of the command, so that obedience is a second blessed effect. Shamefaced on account of his errors, he is now resolved to follow his Lord’s word at once. And he stands at the opening of the cave to hear what God, the Lord, will speak. If the Spirit of God shall work effectually upon any of us, one of the first marks of it will be that while we are humbled because of sin, we shall grow earnest to work righteousness. Grace makes us tender in the matter of obedience.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Blessed are the people that hear this still, small, gentle voice―“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance,” Psalm 89:15.
ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! have you heard that voice? Hath your soul passed under the condemning sentence of God’s law, and are you fled from it to the Lamb of God for salvation?
