1 Kings, Chapter 19 - The Still, Small Voice | Prophets of Israel Daily

Shalom friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is the first book of Kings, chapter 19, brought to you by the land of Israel network at the land of Israel.com. I'm Aribitz here with my beloved friend Jeremy Gimpel. Shalom Jeremy. >> Hey, how you doing? >> Good. Thank God. >> I love learning Tanakh together with you. >> Yeah, I was telling you that I'm positively addicted to this is so overwhelmingly all-consuming, but I find that I'm like eager and I'm I want to jump back into it. I I just love swimming in these waters. It's so great. But anyways, let's jump into where we are now. Because yesterday, Jeremy, you took us to Mount Carmel. 450 prophets of Baal, an altar of 12 stones soaked with water again and again, fire falling out of the clear sky, and an entire nation on its face, crying out that Hashem is God, Hashem who Elohim. And then the rain came, and Ela ran ahead of the king's chariot all the way to Israel. To Israel, right? For for one brief moment, it looks like the broken kingdom might actually be healed. The prophet um pointing the way, the king following, you know, the prophet, he was he had so much hope in Akav that he showed him this great honor to run as one of his runners ahead of his chariot. You know, the the he there was a hope that the king, the people would return to Hashem, reign falling again on the land of Israel. And that makes the opening of chapter 19 all the more devastating. Akav goes home and tells Eve everything. And she sends back one sentence, a vow that by this time tomorrow, Eli Yahu, you'll be as dead as her prophets are. That's it. No army, no arrest, one message. And how does Eli Yahu respond to the queen's threat? Well, the man who just called fire down from heaven runs for his life. He runs south out of the northern kingdom through Judah all the way to Beesva, the last town before the desert. He leaves his servant there and then he walks another full day into the wilderness alone. Sits down under a aim. I don't know exactly how to properly translate that. A desert broom bush. It's it's it doesn't give you almost any shade at all. And he asks to die. Verse four, it is enough now, Hashem, take my soul, for I am no better than my father's. You know, all right, I want to stop here because this is really like a very dramatic moment in Eliao's life. In some ways, I mean, he's almost suicidal. And you wonder like, well, that's really rock bottom. And a lot of people when they read that story, it's like, oh, he wants to kill himself out of fear of EVO. But I >> Well, Jeremy, I just want to interrupt you for a second. I don't know if it's it's if it's fair to say suicidal. There's nothing that I've seen that makes it seem like he's suicidal. He is saying, "Hashem, take my life, but that's a call that I don't think he would ever take into his own hands." It's different wanting saying, "Hashem, take me. I can't do this." And saying that you do it yourself. I just wanted to clarify that for my opinion just for Elio Cavode. >> It's fair enough. He doesn't want to live anymore. He's asking God to remove him from the world one way or another. And I just want you to like when people read that, it's like, "Oh, he's scared if he's Zel." I mean, this is the man that stood in front of Akab's throne. He stood alone in front of the whole nation of Mount Carmel. Ela Hanavi is not afraid of Isel, the pagan queen of Israel. I think what actually breaks him is that Carmemell didn't work. And in some ways, the prophets of Israel were kind of a failed experiment. And let me explain what I mean by that. The prophets tried to inspire. They tried to instill a fear of heaven. They tried to instill the consequences. They tried to speak to the Jewish people's hearts, minds, souls. They wanted to connect with him. But the problem is all of the Jewish prophets failed. The only successful prophet in the Bible who actually inspired Tshoua and avoided the destruction was Jonah. But his mission was to the people of Nineveh, a non-Jewish people. And so all of the prophets of Israel were unsuccessful with Israel. Both temples were ultimately destroyed. And I think Eliao Nav'vi here is just broken because the entire miraculous spectacle didn't make the lasting impact that he wanted on the people of Israel. And you think about what he expected. The firefalls, the people confess, the end of the story. I mean, he it should be like and they all lived happily ever after. And you'd think that the country would have somehow would have like that would have turned it around and the queen would be finished. The ball is finished. The exile of the God of Israel from the land of Israel is over. But I don't know, there should have been a renaissance. We should have read the words. And the children of Israel repented and did what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. But by mourning, nothing changes. It's the same throne, the same queen, the same threat. The greatest day in the history of prophecy brought him about 18 hours of change. And that is a very particular kind of despair. I mean, anyone who has poured themselves into something real, a family, a community, a country, and then watched it slide back into chaos or what it was before. I mean, anyone who's ever watched the breakthrough they fought for and prayed for, and then it fails and just it never turns out to be the turning point they believed it would be knows exactly what Elijah was feeling. >> Right. Right. Yeah. You know, and then look at at what Hashem does with him, right? He's at this point of brokenness. Hashem, take my life. Hashem doesn't rebuke him. No lecture. No. How dare you talk that way after what I just did on Mount Carmel. No. Elijah falls asleep under the bush. And a mala, an angel, touches him and says, "Get up and eat." There's a a cake baked on hot stones and a jug of water by his head. He eats and he lies back down and sleeps again. And then the angel comes a second time, verse seven, arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. You know, I just want to stop here for just a minute and point out that second line. You know, Hashem doesn't tell him that he's exaggerating, that things aren't bad. He doesn't give Eliawa a pep talk and tell him that he's a lot stronger than he thinks he is. The angel agrees with him. says, "You're right. This is too much for you. That's exactly why you need to eat. You need to rest." I mean, heaven's first response to a man asking to die, it's not even words. It's just being tender. It's just being kind. Sleep. Here's some food. And then more sleep and more food. Like, nobody explains anything to him for two whole days. He's just being cared for. And, you know, sometimes I do the exact opposite. You know, I like some people that are in pain. And I try to argue with them why it's not that way and everything is going to be good. Hashem handed his prophet a warm cake and let him sleep. And my father always says to almost every problem, but especially to raising children, just give it time. Time allows us to grow. Time allows us to heal. And we see that right now. Two days of just Ela healing. >> Yeah. Your father is a wise man. He has guided me many times as well, you know. But and aliwa on the strength of that meal he walks uh 40 days and 40 nights down to Kore the mountain of god right and there is a famous and well established tradition as many of you know out there that is mount si now friends stop and see where he's going 40 days and 40 nights to that mountain to a cave in the rock he's walking backwards through our entire history he's retracing Moses step for step on his journey to si and when he finally finally arrives at the mouth of the cave. The word of Hashem comes to him with a question. Verse 9, "What are you doing here, Eliahu?" It isn't a request for information. It's a similar question Hashem asks the first man in the Garden of Eden when he asked Adam, "Where are you?" Right? And Eli Yahu answers with a prosecution. I have been zealous for Hashem. Israel has abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets. And then this verse 10il and I alone am left and they seek my life to take it. >> You know, Ari, I just want >> No, I mean I just want to make it clear. I just want to focus on those words and then I'm I'm yours. He says, "I alone am left." He really believes he's the last guy here. >> Yeah. I in some ways exactly right. That sentence in some ways really encapsulates this whole chapter, you know, because Moshe, Moses stood in a cliff of rock at that same exact mountain. And what did he say there? Forgive Israel. And if you don't forgive them, erase me from your book instead. Ela stands in the same place and pretty much says the opposite. It's like, they broke the covenant. Only I am left. And so both of these giants were burning for God's honor. But one of them made himself a shield in front of Israel and the other one made himself the case against Israel. And I think maybe that's the pain of Eli Yahu Hanavi. He didn't have the egoless humility of Moses. He had this incredible almost eternal zeal, the zeal of Elijah the prophet. >> Right, Jeremy? And then when comes one of the most famous moments in I think possibly in Tanakh, tell me if you think I'm exaggerating here. Right? Go out, he says, and stand on the mountain before Hashem. And a great wind tears through the mountains and shatters rocks, but Hashem is not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. And he says, Hashem is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire. And Hashem is not in the fire. And after the fire, verse 12, And after the fire, a still small voice, a a sound of thin silence. The words are unique in Hebrew. I think that that's the only place that I can think of that such a phrase has ever even used and understand what is being said to this particular man at this particular moment. Alao's entire life has been wind and earthquake and fire. He shut the sky. He called fire out of it. And God takes him to the mountain where everything began and shows him wind and quake and fire and says, "I'm not in any of it. The fire on Carmemell was real. There's no question about it." But I think the truth Hashem is trying to convey here is that the fire was never the point. And then Hashem asks him the exact same question a second time. What are you doing here, Eliu? And he gives the exact same answer, word for word. Not one syllable moves. I know. I went through it numerous times myself thinking that such an experience would have changed his response in some way. You know, when there's two versions, two narratives of a thing, what Eleazar said to Lavan and what, you know, you want to compare them, but nope. Exactly the same. He's just witnessed what I think may have been the greatest private revelation given to any human being since Moses. And it doesn't change his report by a letter. And that, my friends, is when God tells him to go appoint his replacement. And look at how the answer comes. Because God doesn't argue with him. He doesn't say, "Cheer up." He doesn't criticize him either. He doesn't say, "You're being unfair to Israel." But he does correct a fact. He does. 7,000. Eli wasn't lying. He was counting. And he counted wrong because the faithful he was looking for don't always announce themselves. And look at how they're described. Not 7,000 heroes. Not 7,000 who did something. 7,000 knees that didn't bend and mouths that didn't kiss. That's the whole resume. They They just didn't bow. And And I And I can't help but think that there are seasons where that is the entire assignment. Not to lead anything, not to win anything, just to stay standing when everyone around you is bending knee to the idol of the moment. You know, and and also Jeremy, Hashem sends sends him back. Verse 15, go return on your way. Go back the way you came back north, back into the land. And he gives him three names to anoint to different positions. a king for Aram in Damascus, a king for Israel, and a prophet to stand in his place. And I have to tell you, Jeremy, the line that hit me the hardest from the rest of the chapter was the one that I just referenced. But I want I want to talk about it again with your blessing here, verse 18. And I have left in Israel 7,000, every knee that has not bowed to Bal. 7,000 people he never met. farmers and mothers and shepherds who were faithful in villages that he never walked through, whose names the text never even records. According to his own words, Eliao really thought that he was the last one. But the truth he's told here, the truth we are all told here is that he was never even close. And then he walks north and he finds his successor. Not in a study hall, not in a palace. He finds Alicia in a field. Alicia is plowing behind 12 pair of oxen and he's on the 12 right behind the 12th. Jeremy, I had to fight myself for making 19 part one and part two. There's so much I wanted to say about this. You know, there's a 12 pairs is that first of all, that's a big farm and he is walking in the last position in everybody else's dust. Anyone who's seen farms and farmers work in action can tell you that there's nothing romantic about that spot at the very end there. It's the hardest, dirtiest, most dung-filled place in the whole field. And that is exactly where Hashem goes looking for the next prophet of Israel, right? Eli walks past him and throws his ad at him, throws his cloak, the mantle of his prophecy over the young man's shoulders and he just keeps walking. It's just such a visual. He didn't even say anything. He just kept going on his way. But it's clear that Alicia knows what that means. And he runs after Eliao, asked to kiss his father and his mother goodbye. He knows what this means. And and then he does something remarkable. He takes the oxen, he slaughters them, he burns the plow and the yolk and and uses that for the firewood to cook the meat and he feeds the whole village and then he gets up and he follows Ela. >> I just love Elio's stories. Like he is meeting with Akav, he's meeting with Alicia. He just drops the cloak and keeps on walking. He doesn't even talk to him. Like everything about him is so classic. And then Alicia, listen, what happens now? It's like we're entering into a new era. It's like Eliao was the prophet of fire. Alicia is a little bit more like the prophet of water. You know, he burns the plow. Ari, he doesn't sell it. He doesn't lease it to a like his field to a cousin. He makes going back impossible. He's like done with plowing, but then he throws a feast for his neighbors with that fire. And I think there's a lot to learn in that handover. Ela's fire came down from the sky and consumed the offering. Alicia's first fire is lit from his own equipment and it feeds people. It nourishes people. And I can't have a feeling that that is the theme that's reflected in Alicia's prophecies from this point forward. It's oil that doesn't stop. Flower in a pot. 100 men fed from almost nothing. A child given back to his mother. It's a different kind of fire. Not a fire that proves something. It's a fire that sustains someone. It really is like a fire of nerd. It's like water. Alicia really represents that. And you know, I want to say this one last idea and arguably it's my favorite teaching in the entire Bible. And I don't say that lightly. This lesson is one of the reasons Ela Hanavi is my favorite prophet. When Elao is alone and he's seeking revelation from Hashem, it says, "A great and powerful wind tears the mountain and shatters the rocks, but the Lord was not found in the wind. Then an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And then after the fire, like Ari said, a still small voice or more literally a sound of thin silence. So God was teaching Eliawa Nav'i that the marvelous miraculous spectacle, the earthquakes, the fire, that's not the way to get Am Israel, to get people to connect to Hashem. Instead of showing them God's glory, he should have guided them to reveal Hashem's glory within them. Hashem dwells inside every one of us. And we may not be able to understand God, but we can commune with him. He reveals his will to us in a sound of something that's silent. It's a voice that can't be heard. It's silent. But if we're quiet and we open our heart to listening, we can absolutely hear Hashem's mama, Hashem's silent thin voice speaking to us. Jordan Peterson once talked this practice in prayer. And this is a perfect teaching for this time of year, a teaching of tshoua. So Dr. Peterson said, "Sit on the edge of your bed and ask yourself, what's one thing I'm doing wrong that I know that I'm doing wrong that I could fix? That I would fix?" And another popular version of the Jordan be, this is a direct quote. Sit on your bed one day and ask yourself, "What remarkably stupid things am I doing on a regular basis to absolutely screw up my life?" And he says, "The answer will come to you so fast it'll make your head spin." That answer isn't audible. It's a thin silent voice. It's the path toward living a guided life. It's the path that Hashem was teaching Elia and Avi and Eliawa and Navi is teaching us. >> Yeah. So beautiful. And uh and Jordan Peterson should have a full recovery. I understand he's very very sick right now. Um but yeah, so anyways, Jeremy, you know, that's why that's why I think you're my best friend. You know, you you don't just teach it with with all of your foibless, you really try to live it. And uh you know, and I want to close this chapter meeting us really where our lives are in Israel right now at this moment of history. We've all watched selfless and courageous soldiers and reservists come home from war in this country. Men who did extraordinary things demanding tremendous bravery. We've watched them come home and fall apart 3 weeks later on an ordinary Tuesday in their own kitchen. You know that this is chapter 19. It seems like Eli Yahoo's crash doesn't come during the showdown on Mount Carmel. It comes the morning afterwards. You know, and Hashem's answer is not what we expect. It's rest. It's food. It's a hand on the shoulder saying, "The road is too long for you, which is why you're going to eat something first." Then then it's it's a voice so quiet that you have to stop making noise to hear it. And then I think we learn a truth that we are never quite alone, as alone as we may feel. In this generation, I see the 7,000 constantly. I see them in the synagogues here in Judea. I see them in the marketplaces in Tel Aviv and Ranana. I see them in the people that reach out to volunteer in our farm, in our fields from all around the world. My holy Jewish brethren throughout the diaspora. I see them in in families in dozens of countries who get up in the dark to learn Torah with us and pray for our soldiers that they will never eat, who have the red alert sirens that wake them up in the night that when Israel is being bombed, they're being bombed. It's not something that's divided up into religions. It's it's it's of the heart. The 7,000 is is really 7,000 uh hearts with a posture towards Hashem. And so many of the people listening to this Prophets of Israel daily in our fellowship, they're among those 7,000. I know it. I see it. There's quiet knees that will not bend. And and I see them in in Alicia at the plow because I think it's not an accident that the prophet who inherits the mantle is found working the land because I think redemption in our times doesn't necessarily arrive on a chariot of fire. You know, at least not yet. I think it arrives in people connected to the land of Israel. Maybe people whose hands of work the earth here in Judea or who yearn for it or who help with the vineyards of Samaria. people who refuse to let go no matter what. We're going to see in the coming chapters that Eli Yahu does get his chariot. But I think he may get it after he first experiences that Hashem is in the silence and that the future is standing behind a plow in a field in Israel. And I think many of us need to to keep listening for the message in that thin silence as well. As you said, Jeremy, I know I need to and I and I definitely know I definitely know Jeremy, you need to as well. Anyways, my friends and uh friends, when I say I see the 7,000, I'm not talking in theory. You know, every week we open up uh you know, a room on Zoom called the land of Israel fellowship with people from countries all around the world learning tour together, praying for the soldiers that they'll never meet, holding this land up and the people up wherever they are, wherever they're standing. quiet knees that don't bend. And if you've never been there, come be in it. The f the first month is on us. It's a free trial. Go to the landofisrael.com and join us to be a part of Israem. We'll see you tomorrow for chapter 20 with Jeremy.