"What are you doing here?"

Our text for this morning may be one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture. I would be willing to bet that those of us who have ever prayed to God for an answer to some kind of important decision have wished that the answer would have come with God himself speaking to us, like He did to Elijah and many other prophets of old.

Maybe some of you can say that God has spoken to you. Maybe some of you might say that God has never answered a single one of your prayers. I’ll bet that most of us are somewhere in between. You haven’t heard God’s voice, but God has answered your prayers. You just had to get tuned in so you could hear Him.

Our text for this morning finds Elijah hiding in a cave. Elijah has just challenged the prophets of Baal, to see whose God was the real God. They decided that the God who answered with fire - now that would be proof that he was the real God. So the 450 prophets of Baal and Elijah each got a bull and prepared it for sacrifice.

It turns out that all the prophets of Baal couldn’t get an answer, in spite of their frantic dancing, prophesying, and slashing of themselves with spears and swords. They did this from morning until time for the evening sacrifice. But it says in 1 Kings 18:29 that "there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention." Baal failed to cause even a little smoke, mush less light a fire, even with dry wood around the altar.

As it turns out, Elijah’s God, the real and true God, can start a fire with wood that is even soaked with water. Elijah had twelve large jars of water poured on his altar. Everything was soaked. There was even water standing in the trench around the altar. And with one short prayer, the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice. When the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried – "The Lord – He is God." Elijah then seized the false prophets and took them to the Kishon Valley, and slaughtered them there.

All that seems well and good, but King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were not too happy. Jezebel sent word to Elijah and said; "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."

So Elijah was running for his life and hiding in a cave. And the word of the Lord came to him. "What are you doing here Elijah?" Doesn’t it seem ironic that after the things he has seen – the miracles that God has performed – that Elijah is now hiding from a woman? He has seen the unending oil and flour of the widow at Zarephath, and the resurrection of her son. He saw the dynamic demonstration of God’s power as the Lord vanquished the prophets and worshippers of Baal on top of Mount Carmel. Yet in spite of these firsthand demonstrations of the Lord’s power, we see Elijah cowering before Jezebel.

Of course, it’s easy for us to sit back and see how naïve Elijah appears. But the truth is, we’re shortsighted in our vision too. We are terrified by the things of this world, even though we’ve seen firsthand the power of the Lord in our daily lives. In fact, that’s what makes the opening line of our text a little unnerving. God wants to know "What are you doing here?"

Now you might think that after Elijah’s education of the Lord’s power, it would have been comforting to Elijah to hear God’s voice, calling him by name. You would think that Elijah would be feeling pretty confident about his future. But to think that way would be a significant digression from the facts.

The truth is, is that Elijah’s response is more of a sniveling kind of self -indulgence, because our text tells us the Elijah replied, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life - to take it away."

Now what Elijah said was true. Jezebel had promised to take his life. Maybe he was the only true prophet left. But knowing all that Elijah has experienced firsthand, knowing the Lord’s power like he does, isn’t his lack of confidence in the Lord amazing?

But what is even more astounding is the Lord’s unending patience with Elijah – and with us as well. The Lord could have just given up on Elijah because of his lack of confidence, but he doesn’t. In fact, the Lord goes to great lengths to "resurrect" Elijah and his faith. God doesn’t shame or reprimand Elijah back to where he needed to be. God did it by demonstrating that he comes to him, and to us, not only by showing his power, but even in a soft, gentle whisper.

And in this particular instance, the Lord’s grace is profound. God tells Elijah to "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." And after three earth-shattering metaphors of the power of the Lord, Elijah is even allowed to reiterate his indulgent paranoia with the repetition of "I, even I only, am left."

Which brings us to what I said earlier was one of my favorite stories in Scripture. "And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke 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, the sound of a low whisper." Our text tells us that Elijah, as might be expected, "wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."

It is at this point that the Lord repeats his original question, "What are you doing here Elijah?" Although Elijah repeats his original answer, there seems to be whole new tone. Maybe a tone of confession that suggests that Elijah now understands that what he is about to hear from the Lord lifts him above and beyond the petty little annoyances of Jezebel and others that seemed so life-threatening a few moments ago.

God has plans for Elijah and work for him to do. He is to go and anoint two new kings; Hazael to be king over Syria, and Jehu to be king over Israel. Elijah is also to anoint Elisha to be a prophet in his place. And God assures Elijah that he is not the only faithful Israelite left. After all is said and done, God will leave 7000 that have not bowed down to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

Part of what I love about our text is the awesome demonstration of God’s power. Some of us have seen firsthand the awesome power of the wind – we have seen the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. But I would have to admit, that as powerful as that wind obviously was, I’m not sure it was powerful enough to tear apart mountains and break rocks into pieces. And I’ve experienced a couple of small earthquakes. They’re pretty unnerving. I bet a major one is really unnerving. And I bet the people in the Lake Tahoe area of California can tell you all about the power of fire.

What is so cool is how God certainly could have spoken through the wind, or the earthquake or the fire. But he chose to communicate to Elijah; he chose to answer Elijah’s complaint through a soft, gentle whisper.

And when God came to us, he came in the same way. He didn’t come as the all-powerful creator who could blow us to smithereens as easily as he could blow apart the rocks. He didn’t come with an awesome display of power – just because He’s God. He came as a gentle, humble man, veiling his glory. He came to this earth just the opposite of the way we sinful humans would come if we were gods.

He stood silently before a judge and jury, not even whispering in his own defense. In seeming helplessness, he let sinful human beings kill him by nailing him to a tree a tree in the shape of a cross. All to help us in our weakness and helplessness. All to forgive our sinfulness. All to enable us to stand before his unveiled glory for all eternity.

The real lesson of God’s question "What are you doing here?" is that God will use whatever means necessary to demonstrate his care and concern for his people. It doesn’t matter where we are or who we are. We might be as famous as Elijah or obscure as a starving orphan in a third world county. We might live in a mansion or spend our lives hiding in a cave. But one thing is for sure, Christ loves and cares for sinners like us. We are the people for whom he died. If we’re not where we should be, He will seek us out and ask us "What are you doing here?"

So quickly after his triumph over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, we see Elijah running off on his own; fleeing from whatever was next for him on God’s agenda. He had decided that his partnership with the Lord was a bust; God could go ahead and do whatever he was going to do, but count Elijah out.

We often find ourselves caught between our own plan and the plan that God has for us. But in His grace, God uses us, in spite of our rebellion. He seeks us out and asks, "What are you doing here?"

He accomplishes his will through us, letting us remain and work in a cooperative arrangement with Him. He would still use Elijah for great things, and he will use us for errands as only He knows. May God grant that through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we may always see His power in our daily lives. Amen.