The story takes place in the mouth of a cave of Horeb—the very mountain where the Law was given. Horeb was the place where the children of Israel had provoked God to wrath by rising up, making a false god and worshipping it. God prepared to wipe them out for their sin—but He showed mercy.

Elijah, after being strengthened with sleep and refreshment, pours his heart out to the Lord and now, instead of standing on a mountain and pleading for Israel’s devotion, he’s pleading against them. When the Lord asks “What are you doing here, Elijah?”, Elijah gives his defense.

He had stood before the people and God in chapter 18, offering up a sacrifice and irrefutable proof that God is the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and what the leaders of the Jews (if not the people) decided to do was gather together and conspire to kill the Lord’s prophet. “They have forsaken Your covenant, Lord, they have torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword—and now they seek my life!”

This is a serious charge and we would be wise to understand it. They have not only ignored, but they have left behind and abandoned the covenant they made with the Living God who rescued them out of Egypt. The very purpose of their redemption abandoned. They have not only abandoned the altars where they would offer sacrifice in worship and for their sins, but they have torn them down, disparaging the Lord’s provision. They then dared to raise the sword and slay the forerunners of God’s warnings, slaying them to a man, according to Elijah’s perception. Now they sought him, even in light of three years and six months of irrefutable proofs.

In response, heralds go out before the Lord as a procession of the majesty which was following behind. The shuddering of the earth and a raging fire and the blowing wind announcing who comes behind is no small sovereign but The Sovereign Lord speaking in a small still voice.

It is a frightening thing when God stops yelling to get the attention of men. When God decides to speak in soft, calm tones let men beware for what does the Lord say in that small still voice? Was it sweet words of comfort? No. The Lord pronounced the most sweeping judgment that Israel had (at that time) ever seen.

Elijah was to anoint Hazael as king over Aram (Syria). This Hazael would harrow Israel, being the very scalpel of the Sovereign God as He divvied up portions of Israel. Hazael would continually be a thorn in Israel’s side as the Lord implemented His fiery judgment. Hazael who would one be cruel in his excesses, to the point of ripping apart pregnant women and dashing children against rocks (2 Kings 8:8-15)

Elijah was also to anoint Jehu as King of Israel. This is the man who would come into Israel and slay the Baal worshippers by inviting them to a feast for Baal, locking them all in a temple and burning the place down. This is the wild man who in one of his many excesses slays the house of Ahab down to near extinction yet doesn't remove certain high places.

Lastly, Elijah is to anoint Elisha as prophet in Elijah’s place. The Lord then mandated that whoever escapes from the wrath of Hazael and Jehu would be put to death by Elisha.

As the Lord makes this fearsome proclamation, he lets Elijah in on a little secret…that there are 7,000 in Israel which the Lord has left, which have not bowed the knees to Baal nor kissed his dead lips.

The Holy Spirit, speaking through the apostle Paul would later remind us of this passage. “Has God rejected His people,” Paul will ask, “or do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah how he pleads with God against Israel?” Paul draws a comparison to this historical reality and says that there is a remnant of Jews, according to God’s gracious decision to save them.

But on what basis? Is it of works? Not at all but purely by God’s grace. Is it to seal up the rest of Israel and damn them all to hell? Is it to show how God only elects the few? Why have they “been given a spirit of stupor and eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear”? So they could receive sweeping judgment and be killed?

Rather that they can be shut up in disobedience so that God may show mercy. When God made that great proclamation of judgment to Elijah we don’t see it coming into play until 2 Kings Chapters 8 and 9. During this interval of time we see the ministry of Elisha going about, God still working calling the people in His grace and mercy, illuminating lives—salvation even coming to gentiles. You see, the funny thing about mercy is that a person who says they deserve it can’t receive it—only those who realize that they need it can receive mercy.

Paul gives us a bit of insight into mercy and how it’s received. He was chosen to be an apostle in this tremendous ministry of grace even though he was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor of Christ. But why was he shown mercy? Because of God’s sovereign choice, someone would say. But Paul tells us it was because he did all this in unbelief—and God wanted to have an example of His mercy and grace for all to see. “If Paul of Tarsus can receive mercy—so can you sinners!”

So note this passage highlighting Elijah’s life—sweeping judgment announced in the small still voice and sweeping judgment not instituted for a period of time. In the interval we see Elisha working in the ministry of grace and mercy of God.

Extra Credit: Find out how many times Elisha raised the sword as underscored by God.
1 Kings 19; Romans 11; 1 Tim 1:12-16
Horeb: Ex. 3:1; 17; 33; Deut. 1; 4:10, 15; 5:2; 9:8; 29:1
Hazael: 1 Kin. 19:15. 2 Kin. 8 ; 9:14; 10:32, 33; 12:17, 18; 13:3, 22, 24; 2 Chr. 22:5, 6.
Jehu: 1 Kin. 16:1, 7, 12; 19:16, 17; 2 Kin. 9, 10; 15:12; 2 Chr. 19:2; 20:34; 22:8

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