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The Still Small Voice
Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘Why are you here, Elijah?’ He replied, I am moved by the zeal for the Lord, G‑d of Hosts…’ The Lord said to him, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to
pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire – a still, small voice. (I Kings 19:9-12)
When we think of powerful winds, many of us think of tornadoes, hurricanes, or other destructive forces. The very strength of these natural phenomena, if we are caught up in them, may bring us to our knees, at least figuratively: we pray that G-d will save us from disasters caused by the violence of these forces.
But this biblical verse explains that G-d does not act within or against those forces. In fact, those of us who believe in G-d experience Him in many different ways. There are those who have dramatic and life-changing experiences of G-d, and it moves them deeply; others, like me, experience G-d in more subtle ways. Although I don’t believe I’ve heard the “voice” of G-d, I wonder sometimes if He communicates with me through the words of others. I often experience unexpected ideas about my life or unusual topics on which to write; I have not been contemplating them, and yet they show up in my thoughts. I’ve also wondered about the difference between intuition and insight from G-d: what is the difference, and does it matter? It matters to me a great deal. For one, intuition can be misleading and colored by my own preferences and hopes. If G-d is informing me, however, the idea has legitimacy. So, I contemplate what I have “heard” to consider whether it is true for me or not.
There are also those people who have not experienced G-d at all. Or at least they think they have not. Since G-d is available to everyone, why doesn’t everyone “hear” him? In fact, why doesn’t G-d speak to us often and dramatically as he did on Mt. Sinai? (Remember–many non-Jews joined the Jews on their exodus.) If you recall the story of G-d speaking at Mt. Sinai, the people were terrified of hearing from G-d and asked that Moses be their intermediary; they feared they would die if they continued to hear G-d’s voice, accompanied by blaring horns. I think G-d learned that He needed to communicate with us less dramatically. But I also realized something else about hearing from G-d. If He were readily and easily available to us, how would we respond? Would we expect Him to intervene in our lives whenever we wanted Him to show up? Would we demand that He heal people, make magic and give us everything we want? In other words, if G-d were so readily perceived, would we show Him our worst selves instead of our best? Would we stop practicing the free will that He so generously gave us?
Perhaps G-d is always present and available, but only through that still, small voice. We need to open to Him, seek him out, serve Him willingly instead of expecting Him to serve us. If He exists in every moment, we might also take him for granted, rather than see Him as a blessing and gifted Presence in our lives.
Paradoxically, G-d is indeed in the powerful wind, the earthquake, and the fire; He is everywhere. But He doesn’t relate to us through the dynamics of nature, even though He is there. He shows up to us, personally, without the drama. We may desire for him to appear on our own terms and over time, and because we are expecting certain outcomes, we may be disappointed. But we only need to remember one thing.
He is always available through that still, small voice.
Published in Group Writing
Excellent post, Susan.
“Be still, and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10
I always like that stretch of 1 Kings. After the winds, after the earthquakes, after the fire, a still, small voice repeats the question.
“Now that I have your attention ….”
I really like this post, Susan. It has this minute prompted me to respond regarding a matter that heretofore I had been lacking for the terms to express what I have wanted to say about it. My life has spanned over eight decades and there has been one single event that I would describe in the terms you have used in this post to elaborate on the various forms God “speaking” to an individual might take. When I say one single event what I really mean is something that rises to a level of impression in my consciousness that I recognize it as beyond or outside my humanity. But understand my recognition of the possible nature of this did not occur until half a century of our time had passed.
The single event is my marriage. But it is incorrect, in a sense, to label what was really a process as a single event. I once made a rather lengthy comment on a post here, I think one of yours @susanquinn, in which I described some of the details around how I met and eventually married my wife. There is no way for me to explain this in earthly terms. In my latter days I have become aware of the significance of what happened and that there is no explaining it. So it stands out for me as something resembling an epiphany.
I can treat this no other way except as the direct influence of God and accept it as God having spoken. I went from the point I reached adulthood at the end of my first two decades of life through seven years in the wilderness, so to speak, to asking for my wife’s hand in marriage, and then to these 55 years of joy-filled family life. My guess is that there have been other unrecognized matters where He has spoken in my life but this is the one I can acknowledge.
Yep. Moses needed extra convincing now and then, too!
That is so very beautiful, Bob. You have broadened the understanding of “G-d’s voice” in such a heartfelt and powerful way. I wonder sometimes if my choice to marry a gentile was intended to teach me many important lessons. I certainly know I have learned so very much about love and compassion from him. He has been a gift to my life. And it sounds like that is true for your wife, too. That’s wonderful.
I generally feel closer to God when I feel stupid. When I have it all figured out, I am not really as open to that small voice. Being aware of the contingency of life, being grateful that a mountain of mistakes and sins has not delivered (a not unreasonable) avalanche of bad consequences, and realizing how ephemeral, unique, and spectacular is every moment of life, personhood, consciousness.
Of course, humility does not rear its ugly head all that often, so most of the time I can keep the little voice at bay. But it is getter harder as I get older and reluctantly wiser.
I can always count on your candor, @oldbathos! So up until now you’ve thought that G-d only whispered in your ear when you screwed up? I can identify with that. At the same time, I think he shows up for the good times, too. You just need to listen a little more carefully! ;-)
Candor maybe…
The best time God spoke to us, he used the quiet voice of a woman from the Minnesota Children’s Home society to tell us, “There is a sibling group of three Russian girls available for adoption. Can we send you a video of them if you are interested?”
The video was priceless, and our three daughters are of equal value . . .
Amazing and beautiful. Thanks, Stad.
Ah…reminds me of Job 40:7 –
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:
7 “Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
Yikes! I would be quaking in fear! Sometimes we are idiots and the “small voice” is ignored. The noise of the world drowns it out. Those that meditate on the Word and still themselves to listen seem to have an ear for the “small voice”. I try, oh do I try! The noise and doubt and distraction crash all around me and drown out the small voice. Sometimes a storm is the necessary unwelcome event to drive one deep into the Word and to be still…and listen.
Side note: I love Moses! I think about him leading a bunch of complaining, unruly, ungrateful nitwits in the wilderness (in his senior years!) and just wishing for death rather than being stuck with these ninnies when they are on a tear. He is so relatable.
Numbers 11
10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. 11 He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
DP’s take:
“Did I birth these people?!? Aye yi yi…just kill me now!”
The Jews were definitely a pain in the neck, always complaining. But G-d came through in answering their needs. And that Moses could speak so honestly to G-d, and G-d heard him, is quite wondrous. The quail and the manna and the water; they had those basic needs met for the time being. And the day would come when they would realize that they had to be responsible for their own feeding and wellbeing. But they had to have distance between their time as slaves and becoming a people.
I love your comments, @dominiqueprynne. I sometimes think G-d just becomes exasperated with me and hits me upside the head with the obvious, when I’ll finally “hear” him. Who says he’s not a patient G-d?!
I am not sure I have ever head Him talk to me. I envy those who can feel His presence.
This is an aspect of my experience that seems unusual. I don’t make claims of having Him speak or having a sense of His presence at the point in our earthly time that I now, in earthly time, attribute a change in my life path and my own behavior pattern and life purpose. What I think I see now regarding what was happening then I did not have an awareness of then. I did not realize at that time that a major change was taking place in my life even though I clearly should have because of how differently I was behaving.
I can relate to what you are saying, @bobthompson. Since G-d operates outside of time, and because we tune in to Him in many different ways, depending on the situation and our own attention, I think we may not see His involvement at the time. As I mentioned earlier, there is no set way that people relate to G-d, or a specific experience that a person will have.
People arguing about the existence of God is like fish arguing about the existence of water.
Jordan Peterson hesitates when asked if he believes in God. He says he hopes he lives his life as God would wish but that saying you believe in Him is meaningless without actions to back it up.
And then there is the young student who asked his mentor “Where is God?” and the answer received was “Wherever you let Him in.”
“I don’t believe in God” is a self-explanatory statement. It’s what happens when someone’s “I” takes up so much space that there is no room left for God.
I don’t think I mentioned this earlier in the OP, but many years ago I interviewed a rabbi who had a man who worked for him. One day, the man had a huge enlightenment/awakening experience. It completely changed his life, the way he saw everything and everyone. And it lasted for a long period (I don’t remember the amount of time). Sounds great, doesn’t it? The only problem was that he woke up one day and the world seemed to change back into the ordinary. He was devastated. And he eventually abandoned Judaism. This is a tragic story on so many levels, that when I think of that fellow, I’m reminded of how important it is to live in gratitude of the moment, to not cling to our experiences, and to realize that in life, everything changes.
Excellent points, @joshuafinch. All true.
Pick a fellow human being, an associate and a friend, who has been an important influence in your life. Do you remember everything he or she has said? Did you even pay attention, really, to everything?
The more you interact with one person, the more those interactions blend together. But some moments stand out.
How one expresses oneself changes with the circumstances. The same person you whisper to in one moment you shout at in the next, because a relationship is a dynamic journey.
The Lord is always and everywhere present. How He speaks and how we hear, if we hear, is not always the same.
Also, just as you tend to speak differently to one person than to another because their personalities are different, our individual relationships with the Lord invite individual manners.
Thanks, Aaron. Beautiful.
@flicker asked me if I was a Christian when I experienced the events resulting in my marriage. I would say a more proper answer is that I had always had an awareness and a sense of belief and knowledge of righteous behavior but I had not been living and behaving accordingly. That is what changed. In these latter days I have gained an awareness of what happened. I tell my children now that their mother saved my life.
The Lord is just not visible or a presence. I have to fight for every bit of faith. No amount of reason helps. It is a feeling thing.
I hear G-d regularly. His is the Still, Small Voice. He inspires most of what I write.
I find myself coming back to this verse:
[The boy’s father said,] But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 But Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”
Yeah. He says no to that too
I’m no mind reader, but maybe you have more faith than you know.
This excellent meditation setting the power of a still small voice against the fury of the wind, is part of our Group Writing Series under the March 2021 theme: “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Stop by and sign up today!
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.