Day 122 · Part 8: Two Kingdoms
The Still Small Voice
In the Story
In context
Jezebel swears to kill Elijah, and he runs past Beersheba, at the southern edge of Judah, into the wilderness and asks to die (1 Kings 19:1–4). An angel feeds him twice, and he walks forty days and forty nights to Horeb, “God’s Mountain,” where the Lord had made his covenant with Israel (19:5–8; Deuteronomy 5:2). The Lord is not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire; after the fire comes “a still small voice” (19:11–12). Elijah says he alone is left, but the Lord has kept seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed to Baal (19:14, 18); Paul recalls them in Romans 11:2–4.
Ben Hadad of Syria, with thirty-two kings, besieges Samaria and loses twice, the second time after his officials call the Lord “a god of the hills” (20:1–30). Ahab lets him go as “my brother,” and a prophet tells Ahab his life will take the place of the man he let go (20:32–42).
Naboth will not sell his vineyard, “the inheritance of my fathers” (21:3); the law kept a family’s land in the family (Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:7). It is a hard reading: Jezebel has two men falsely accuse him, and he is stoned to death (21:8–13). Told what is coming, Ahab humbles himself, and the Lord holds back the harm in his lifetime (21:27–29).
He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:29–31 · Elijah asked to die, then went forty days “in the strength of that food”; Isaiah says the Lord “gives power to the weak.”
For families
When Elijah put his mantle (cloak) on Elisha, Elisha asked first, “Let me please kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you” (1 Kings 19:19–20). He went back, cooked his oxen for the people, and then went after Elijah (19:21).
Elisha asked to kiss his father and mother before he followed Elijah. What is your family’s way of saying goodbye?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
1 Kings 19
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1 Kings 20
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1 Kings 21
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A hymn for today
In the Garden · words by C. Austin Miles
- I come to the garden alone,While the dew is still on the roses;And the voice I hear,Falling on my ear,The Son of God discloses.RefrainAnd He walks with me, and He talks with me,And He tells me I am His own;And the joy we share as we tarry there,None other has ever known.
- He speaks, and the sound of His voiceIs so sweet the birds hush their singing;And the melodyThat He gave to meWithin my heart is ringing.RefrainAnd He walks with me, and He talks with me,And He tells me I am His own;And the joy we share as we tarry there,None other has ever known.
- I'd stay in the garden with Him,Though the night around me be falling;But He bids me go;Through the voice of woe,His voice to me is calling.RefrainAnd He walks with me, and He talks with me,And He tells me I am His own;And the joy we share as we tarry there,None other has ever known.