Looking for God in All the Wrong Places: Reflections on 1 Kings 19

 I begin today with a caveat: it is exceedingly dangerous and foolhardy to announce just before making a sweeping claim that “the Bible says…” Indeed, the Bible does say…many things about many things. It is a fantastically diverse collection, written over 1500 years (From Ps.29 to the Pastoral Epistles), and is therefore certain to say many things about many things. It has perhaps no one thing to say about anything. Even Jesus is diverse, remembered to have said superbly loving things and any number of rather dark and unsettling things. So, let us be doubly careful as we fling Bible verses around to prove this or that.That being said, I now turn to one of the most intriguing and downright mysterious passages about God that one is likely to find in the Bible’s pages. It is rich stuff, and has been misquoted for centuries, though I am happy to report that the NRSV has finally gotten it right. Allow me a moment to praise those translators, whom I have too often trashed in the past, however much I think they deserved the trashing. Job 42:6? Really?! But I digress.

Here is the context for Elijah’s confrontation with YHWH on the sacred mountain. After he has soundly defeated the 450 prophets of Baal in the Super Bowl of prophecy on Mt. Carmel, and has murdered each one of them, one at a time, at the Wadi Kishon (1 Kings 18:40), surprisingly, with his bloodlust high, he is so fearful of Jezebel, the great Baal sympathizer and wife of Ahab, king of Israel, that he flees for his life from her wrath. 450 Baal prophets are nothing, but one enraged woman is too much, so he heads for the hills, literally.

Upon arriving at the sacred mountain, the apparent abode of YHWH, Elijah spends the night in a cave on the mountain. Then, from we are not told where, comes the voice of the word of YHWH, which bluntly asks the terrified prophet, “What are you doing here, Elijah” (1 Kings 19:9)? In the past in other writings on this scene, I have noted that the emphasis in that question could fall in several places. If it lands on “what,” YHWH may be asking Elijah to give an account of just what he proposes to do now that he has come to YHWH’s hill. If it lands on “you,” it may carry a hint of surprise, suggesting that YHWH is amazed to see Elijah, of all people, on the mountain. If it falls on “here,” it may connote a rebuke that Elijah is not where he needs to be. Any and all of these emphases may exist in the question, but Elijah’s answer suggests what he has heard YHWH ask.

“I have been very zealous for YHWH, God of the armies, because the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, destroyed your altars, killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to snatch it away” (1 Kings 19:10). This answer might be paraphrased as follows: “I have been single-mindedly fixed on you, YHWH, precisely because your people have broken covenant with you, have smashed your proper places of worship, have murdered your prophets, the last of whom I am, and the jig is up for me, too.” Elijah says, “I am scared to death, though I am the only righteous man left in the country.” This is an answer of sorts to YHWH’s question, but its focus is on Elijah’s immediate terror at his imminent death, though it does not fail to point out that death should not be close for such a paragon of prophetic and pious virtue.

I can conceive of several sorts of divine responses to that rant. “There, there, Elijah. You are quite right that this prophetic gig is dangerous, but never forget that I am always with you. Keep your heart fixed on me, and all will be well.” Or how about this? “”Just who do you think you are, little man? And just who do you think I am? Don’t you think I already know what is going on among my people and my prophets, yet you dare to lecture me about how great you are and how bad they are? Get off my mountain, and get back to work!” Or maybe you like this better. “Elijah, it may be hard to be a prophet of God, but think about how hard it is to be God! Let’s take a break, and share a drink.” All possible, I suppose, however odd they may sound, but the answer that YHWH does offer is the most peculiar of all.

“Come out of the cave, and stand on the mountain, for YHWH is about to pass by!” This command by YHWH announces that YHWH is about to show up, so Elijah, and we, had better pay careful attention. “Now there was a powerful wind, striking, smashing mountains, and shattering rocks before YHWH; YHWH was not in the wind” (1 Kings 19:11). It is true that in numerous places in the Bible, YHWH is precisely “in” the wind, or at least the author of it (Gen.1:2; Ps.29, where YHWH’s voice obviously stands for wind; among many others. But not here. “After the wind, an earthquake. YHWH was not in the earthquake” (1 Kings 19:12). YHWH was certainly in an earthquake in Amos 1:1, but not here. “And after the earthquake, a fire. YHWH was not in the fire.” YHWH was surely in the fire at the burning bush that called Moses to work, but not here. “And after the fire, a sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:12). The famous reading, “a still, small voice” is plainly wrong, however ubiquitous and clichéd it has become. In sharp contrast to the wind, earthquake, and fire, massive and unforgettable activities, often said to have been caused and directed by YHWH in the traditions of Israel, here in 1 Kings 19, YHWH is finally “heard” in sheer silence.

“When Elijah heard it (the silence, that is), he wrapped his face in his mantle (suggesting that he now knew that YHWH was near and must not be seen), and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave” (1 Kings 19:13). The fact that Elijah now comes out of the cave suggests that in the face of the former loud displays of wind, earthquake, and fire, he has quietly edged his way back into the cavern for safety! And from the silence emerges YHWH’s voice again, asking precisely the same question as before: “What are you doing here, Elijah” (1 Kings 19:13)? And the fact that Elijah answers YHWH in exactly the same way as before (1 Kings 19:14) indicates that the prophet has learned nothing from the strange and mysterious actions of YHWH on the mountain.

And neither have we. Why on earth do we listen to those mountebanks who tell us that God is sending flood and fire and wind to punish us, or to teach us, or to warn us? I know as well as my fundamentalist friends that there are places in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that suggest that very thing. But what do they do with 1 Kings 19? There God is in the silence, in the mystery, not readily to be seen or known or understood. Is it not possible that there was at least one ancient writer who had had her fill of those who ascribed every act in the world to the power and demands and warnings of God? Could some events of wind, earthquake, and fire not be only events that occur due to human contrivance (global climate change?) or perhaps occur for no clearly discernible reason at all? The Bible says many things about many things. In the end, there is no way that any one thing may summarize or categorize or hem in our God. The God who comes in silence, and hence in mystery, is biblical, too.