A gentle whisper can be
heard and a still small voice is calling. Can you hear it? Are you listening?
“11The Lord said, ‘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
there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12After
the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was
not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13When
Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at
the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to
him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” 1 Kings 19: 11-13 (New International Version)
The character that I’m
writing is struggling to know God’s will in the midst of his bereavement. He’s
lost the ability to hear the voice of the Lord and is failing to trust that he
ever will again. When I started gathering myself to write this post I thought
that I would be writing about the compelling story of Gideon because in the
midst of his conundrum my character, PAR, is even considering putting out a
fleece or worse yet in his mind, casting lots as the disciples did while choosing
Judas’ successor. Both of those methods got results and seem to be acceptable
in God’s eyes.
God loves to
communicate with us, wants to communicate His will for us, and is joyful when
we grasp it and run with it. I believe in my heart that the better way is to perceive
God’s voice rather than play craps with Him, or test Him to show us a miracle
fleece. I love the NIV’s translation of it as “a gentle whisper”. The more
popular “a still, small voice” as found in the American Standard and King James
versions is also a fine thing to hear.
While digging around
this and hearing the gentle whisper urging me to have readers consider His
voice I found several other, to me less satisfying, versions; “low whisper”, “soft
whisper”, quiet, whispering voice”, and “a gentle blowing”. So many versions
out there, so many ways to consider God’s word – how do we really know except
by the belief in things unseen, by faith?
The NRSV translation is
a little disturbing to me and one which PAR thinks he is now in the middle of; not
being able to hear the voice that he’d come to recognize and base his walk of
faith on; “a sound of sheer silence”. How spooky is that? And, how does one
translate sheer silence into God’s loving direction?
This gentle whisper,
the still small voice, is something that I covet and strive to hear. I have to
chastise myself when I fail to listen and act within a void instead. The Holy
Spirit is promised to us to show us all things and make the Father known to us.
Could this be the gentle whisper that first came as flaming tongues of fire?
Listen in the dark of
the night as sleep comes to you and the rigors of the day are receding. In the
early morning hours before you’ve completely stirred to meet the new day, reach
out with your heart to hear what the still small voice is saying, where the
gentle voice is leading you.
In His grip, jerry
No comments:
Post a Comment