Elijah and the gentle whisper.

Elijah and the gentle whisper.

In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah is forced to flee for his life into the desert, where he wants to give himself up to death, but is visited by an angel who gives him water and bread to strengthen him, twice, so that Elijah could make the long journey of 40 days to Mount Horeb, following the angel's instructions, to a place where the Lord himself appeared to him, not in person, but as a gentle breeze that caressed him, for before Jesus Christ no one could look directly at the Lord. But Christ is the secret goal of this meditation, indeed, our goal in general. 

That God came to the prophet Elijah as a gentle whisper, then spoke to him and gave him important instructions for the future of the people and their faith, would not be anything special in itself, if the Lord, as we read in 1 Kings 19:11-12, had not shortly before, on Mount Horeb, where Elijah was seeking Him, sent a storm, an earthquake, and, as the third violent event, a fire upon Elijah's head. 

What could these three powerful and destructive natural phenomena, caused by God, mean for the prophet and now for us? Imagine the scene: a man, filled with the Spirit of God, finds himself alone on Mount Horeb in the midst of such events, which probably lasted for hours. He had fled from the death that Jezebel had promised him in revenge for his actions. Then the world came to an end before him, with storm, breaking and fire. 

Elijah was certainly deeply impressed and perhaps even expected his death as God's punishment for having executed hundreds of prophets of the Baal religion (1 Kings 18:40). A terrible storm crushed the rocks on the mountain but did not carry him away; an earthquake could have swallowed him up, and finally a huge fire spared him. Elijah did not run away, he remained faithfully on Mount Horeb, obeying God until it was all over, because he had trust in the Lord, a trust stronger than the rocks that lay in pieces around him. And his trust was rewarded.

For then, perhaps a whole day and night had passed in which the end of the world visited the prophet, silence fell, and only after some time did a light breeze blow toward him; a sweet air that kissed him and allowed him to breathe deeply, and yes, Elijah recognized the Lord, who had neither killed nor abandoned him. This gentle breeze is the confirming sign that the Lord protects and approves of him, but how does Elijah know that God was in this whisper? 

The answer to this question is simple: the prophet recognizes God thanks to the great love he feels for Him. Elijah draws his faith from his love for the Lord. And the Lord comes to meet him with the greatest gentleness, corresponding to his faith built on love. It is an encounter between God and man, in love. The gentle wind that caresses his face is a sign of the Lord's love for a son. 

But there is a second big question: why does all hell break loose in front of this son, just hours before? This is not explained in the slightest in chapter 19 of 1 Kings. But according to Scripture, this is how it was meant to happen, which is certainly not a meaningless coincidence, but an important part of the story about a critical moment in the life of that great prophet, who had to pass a test that is undoubtedly a valuable lesson for each of us. Yes, this lesson is deeper than one might think, for it goes far beyond our fears of God's power and our subsequent relief when, in the end, a light breeze blows and no new natural disaster unfolds upon us!

However, to fully understand this lesson, we need to cooperate by putting ourselves in the shoes of the prophet, but also in those of the Lord, which is not heresy, but His intention, because trying to understand God also means being able to love Him better. That is why He gives us these revelations through His Word, which must be understood spiritually. So what is the spiritual meaning behind the storm, the earthquake, the fire, and the whispering? 

Everyone who believes in God knows that His Spirit is almighty and omnipresent. So, despite the claim in 1 Kings 19:11-12 that the Lord was not in the storm, earthquake, or fire, nothing happens without Him and His will. The logical conclusion would therefore be that the Lord was also present there, for His Spirit permeates all creation. The statement that the Lord was not present during the three terrible events on Mount Horeb must therefore have a specific reason. Recognizing this reason is the key to 1 Kings 19 and, at the same time, the key to the nature of the Lord Himself! 

So we are faced with a great mystery, or perhaps not, for the Lord has revealed much about Himself in the Scriptures. His revelations lie before us in great abundance, not only in the Bible, which has been shamelessly manipulated for almost two thousand years. The Lord reveals Himself to those who have eyes and ears, and speaks to those who seek Him earnestly, with the language of the Spirit, which lies deep in the Word, safe from all those thieves who call themselves clergy but have no insight into the truth, and when they do, they hide it from the believers in their community. However, the truth that the Lord conveys to us speaks of the path of salvation, and it lies in important chapters of divine revelation, such as 1 Kings 19. Connections can be made between different events in order to grasp the deep spiritual meaning of such a fundamental message. 

Yes, even for chapter 19 in 1 Kings, there are messages that help us to look deeper into the events instead of simply reading them and keeping them in our minds word for word without recognizing the broader spiritual meaning that speaks of God's boundless love for us. Personally, after reading 1 Kings 19 several times, a story that fascinates me and is one of the best known in the Old Testament, the wars of Jehovah came to my mind as a link to what Elijah experienced on Mount Horeb. Those wars are mentioned very briefly in Moses 4:21 as the wars of the Lord, but are recounted in detail by the angel Raphael in the work "The Great Gospel of John," volume 7, chapter 19, by Jakob Lorber, where God is introduced through seven great spirits who are active throughout creation. The seven spirits of God are seven powers or divine attributes which, beginning with love, passing through wisdom, will, order, seriousness, patience, and finally back to the love of the Lord as mercy. They can be found in all processes of creation, which in nature is often associated with powerful phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, and fire, among other things, where God can be found in the natural elements as an all-transforming force. 

So when we think of Jehovah's wars and the tremendous forces that the Lord uses in the creation of the earth to make it ripe for man through six long periods, which science has confirmed, with great upheavals, we can arrive to an explanation of why God, according to 1 Kings 19, did not come to Elijah in a storm, nor in an earthquake, nor in fire, but only as a gentle, weak wind. This explanation lies in God's love for His children, the humans, for whom He created the ancient suns and then shattered them to ignite new suns that warm and illuminate life on all worlds in the universe. For this unimaginably great creation, God has always stood as the Almighty Judge and acted so, to maintain His order. But before His children, to whom He has given the universe for their spiritual development and joy, God is pure love, showing Himself patient and merciful, even weak as a soft breeze, and becoming a loving Father. He, who with His omnipotence has rescued us, as the Fallen, from the death of an eternal night with all His power, in a creation that required countless storms and earthquakes, fire and lightning, and thus awakened our souls, now comes to us as a gentle breeze, for we are all Elijah. What happened before Elijah's eyes was only a reminder of the Lord's battle for our lives! 

Elijah knew all this, because he was filled with the Spirit of God, a spirit of love, not of judgment. That is why he recognized the Lord in the gentle wind. Elijah knew the true God, Jehovah our Father. 

But it gets even more wonderful, because everything is connected and planned by the Lord, and Elijah, as the greatest prophet of his time and perhaps of all time, was to prepare the way for God Himself for His holy and healing arrival on earth. Yes, we are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So when I think a little deeper within myself about this gentle breeze, and then take Jesus Christ to heart, this whispering that approaches Elijah on Mount Horeb is a prophecy of the Savior's arrival on earth, and for a new era on the path to our complete redemption, in which, instead of destruction by the omnipotence of God, only the love of the Father for the Son, and through the Son for us, will reign on earth as the sole power that will sustain life, in a new covenant between humanity and God, thanks to Christ, which is why the Lord said to Elijah: 15 “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 You shall also anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 

This was the last mission of the prophet Elijah before Elisha became his successor. The gentle whisper in which the Lord appeared to Elijah was also a sign from the Father to a servant whom He reassured, saying, "You have fulfilled your task in My name; all is well." 

New kings for Israel, who stand in the true faith and thus in the order of God and will carry out His will; worldly kings whom a prophet, empowered by heaven, has anointed, which was probably the last great sign of God's omnipotence before Christ, a power that had already been expressed as a sign of the new future on earth, instead of in thunderstorms, earthquakes and fire, but in a gentle breeze from heaven over Mount Horeb and Elijah, as a harbinger of the greatest coming condescension of the Lord in the entire universe, in which His entire boundless omnipotence humbled itself before us, out of pure mercy for His children, in His incarnation on earth. Amen.  

René Bijloo. L'Alfas del Pi, July 27, 2025.