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Sunday
One of the Biblical passages that makes me nostalgic for the King James Bible involves Elijah straining to hear the voice of God at a moment of despair. “Sheer silence,” which appears in the New Revised Standard Version, may be clearer than “still small voice,” but I experience the change as a loss. Here’s the RVSV version of the passage in which the phrase appears:
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces 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 a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”
And now for the King James Version:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
If Elijah expects high drama, such as Moses experienced when receiving the Ten Commandments, he is disappointed. God sometimes adopts a quieter approach, one to be received more through meditation than as a spectator of grand theatrics. English religious poet Anna Shipton (1815-1901) prefers it this way.
Shipton informs us that the “still small voice” can reach her in a way that thunder, whirlwind, and tempest cannot. In her case, it takes such quietness to silence the tempest going on in her own mind. She must be handled gently if she is to experience God’s grace:
The Still Small Voice
By Anna Shipton“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”—Psalm xxxii. 8.
Speak to me, Lord! not in the thunder cloud,
Nor in the whirlwind, lest I hear and die;
Nor let the fearful tempest, hurling loud,
Fright my sad soul with its iniquity.
Speak in Thy still small voice, as it is heard
By patient watchers waiting at Thy feet;
O gracious Spirit! by Thy Holy Word Draw
Thou the sinner to Thy mercy-seat.
Man doth make dark Thy counsel. Oh, speak
Thou Till a great calm subdues the billows wild!
Thy grace sufficeth! Lord, Thy grace bestow,
And with Thy counsel guide Thy weakest child.
