What are You Doing Here?
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Why are you here? Why are we Here?
Why are you here? Why are we Here?
What are you doing here? It’s a question we’ve all been asked. Most of the time someone asks us this question when they see is in a place they don’t expect us to be. This is the question God asks Elijah twice in 1 Kings 19. This is the question God also asks us twice. What are you doing here?
Elijah is one of the old testament prophets we can have a tendency to put way up on a pedestal and forget that he is still as human as you or I. After being used by God at Mount Carmel, after being used by God to proclaim the end of a long drought, we see the humanity of Elijah on display. Elijah is overwhelmed with life and ministry, that he is running in fear for his life, and from ministry.
Sometimes our individual lives, and our ministry together can get overwhelming. That’s when we need to allow God to speak to us in the sound of sheer silence and allow him to ask us the question, what are you doing here?
Today we are going to wrestle with that question, we are going to allow God to speak to us in the sound of sheer silence. As we quiet ourselves before the LORD today, may we have ears to hear What God is saying to us.
Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 3 Theological Perspective
“God’s way of getting through to us is not through the sensational or the bombastic; God, instead, acts in our lives restrainedly and understatedly.” “We need to take time out from the frenetic pace of our lives and embrace stillness and silence; through them God’s word comes to us.”
Elijah: the Only one Left
Elijah: the Only one Left
Mount Carmel showdown
I am the only one left
The End of the Drought
41 Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of rushing rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; there he bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. 43 He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” Then he said, “Go again seven times.” 44 At the seventh time he said, “Look, a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand is rising out of the sea.” Then he said, “Go say to Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” 45 In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind; there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode off and went to Jezreel. 46 But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran in front of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
Jezebel threatens Elijah
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”
This is why Elijah is running.
Elijah credits Israel for killing all of God’s prophets. He has already established that he thinks he is the only prophet of God left. Elijah fled in fear. He first goes to the wilderness of Judah and is served by angels. That food prepared him for his forty day journey to Mount Sinai the mountain of God, when he got there he spent the night in a cave.
God asks him for the first time “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
It’s as if God didn’t expect to find him there. Perhaps God expected to find Elijah continuing to do the work God had given him to do. To proclaim the word to his people Israel and anoint others as prophets after him.
Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 3 Exegetical Perspective
God does not seem particularly pleased to see Elijah there on Horeb. Both before and after YHWH passes by Elijah (vv. 9, 13), the Deity asks the prophet, “What are you doing here?” which may imply “Why aren’t you back in Israel where you should be?” Both of Elijah’s answers indicate that he overestimates his importance in the overall scheme of things. Elijah seems to see himself as YHWH’s last hope (or at least as Israel’s last hope) for eliminating idolatry among God’s people.
Elijah’s 1st response. 1 Kings 19:10
10 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.”
God’s reply: Go out and stand before me on the mountain.
These next verses are a contrast to what, where and how we expect to find God. It’s a direct contrast to the mighty works of God in chapter 18. There was a wind, but the LORD was not in the wind. There was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. There was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. Then there was the sound of a gentle whishper, or as some translations say it the sound of sheer silence. This was Elijah’s cue that God’s presence had come. So he covered his face and stepped into God’s presence.
God asks him again “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
■ 9b The word of Yahweh happened to him in the cave as a question: What is there for you here, Elijah?
Some questions bear repeating.
Was Yahweh hoping for a different answer, one that reflected Elijah’s recognition that he had just encountered Yahweh, the God of hosts, the covenant-making God of Moses and his fathers?
The question doesn’t change and neither does Elijah’s response.
Elijah, is overwhelmed by life and the ministry of being a prophet. He flees for his life to the mountain of God, and bares all his concerns to God. It is in the sound of sheer silence that Elijah steps into the presence of God and hears God ask this question. “What are you doing here?”
Life and the ministry of the church can get overwhelming for all of us. Where do you go to step into the silent presence of God, to let him hear your concerns, your fears, and allow him to speak to you in the sound of sheer silence.
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
After see God’s hand at work on Mount Carmel, and seeing God bring an end to a prolonged drought. After being used by God in some pretty mighty ways, we find Elijah running in fear for his life. We see the humanity of this great prophet of God. Life and ministry got overwhelming for Elijah, as it can for all of us.
When that happens where do you run? When life get’s overwhelming where is the space you go to hear God in the sound of sheer silence?
As a church body when ministry gets overwhelming, where do you go? Where do you go, to allow God to break the silence with this simple question? What are you doing here? What is there here for you?
Some times life and ministry can feel like we are all that is left. That’s when in the life of the church, and in our own personal lives we need to stop and allow God to speak to us in the silence. Today we are going to allow God to speak to us in the sound of sheer silence.