I Kings 19:9-10: “The Word of the Lord (came) to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?”  And he said,  I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown thine altars, and slain they prophets with the sword; and I , even I  only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

 

I find it very curious and perhaps not curious at all but when God asked Elijah “What are you doing here,” He was not really asking a question.  At least this phrase is not interrogative in the Hebrew.  I take that back, the interrogative is used but it is used with the word ‘amar to say and not sha’al to ask.  In other words it is a rhetorical question.  I am not sure why our Christian translators insist on making it outright  interrogative. I mean surely God knew why Elijah was there, I know why Elijah was there, you know why Elijah was there, he was running for his life.  God didn’t need to ask Elijah but our Christian translators  all join  in lock step with each other and make it a direct interrogative question and not a rhetorical statement. I was beginning to think I must have had some sort of stroke and my mind was playing a game with me.  Perhaps I am just imagining the ‘amar and it really is sha’al. Thankfully I went to Jewish commentators and found they also said it was not a direct interrogative but was rhetorical.  God bless those rabbis, I am not nuts after all.  Now I am going to get a whole bunch of mail refuting that.

 

In this case the Jewish commentator gave two sign posts.   The first was  that God did not ask Elijah a question when He said: What are you doing here.  Their reason is the same as mine because of the use of the word amar to say rather than sha’al to ask. Simple really, I dare anyone to challenge me or the rabbis on this.  God was not asking Elijah a question but making a statement.  The second sign post, given by this Jewish commentator, was that he rendered the word ma’ as who rather than what.  That is perfectly legit as ma means both. However,  I don’t know of any Christian translator who would do that.  Yet, you have many options with the  word ma as it is simply an interrogative and you could use any interrogative word you want “who, what, where, when, how, etc.”   It is just that we are so bound by tradition that if any Christian Bible translator dares to use something other than what people will declare that they have altered and corrupted the Word of God.   Then nobody would buy their translation.  Bible translators tend to come under a lot of pressure from the publishers who are, after all, business people who need to make a profit.  Of course you have those translations which are self published like the “Power New Testament” where the translators throw caution to the wind and you get some pretty wild renderings. I am not endorsing that.  Anyways if you insert the word who you can get a rhetorical question which would fit.

 

I found Jewish rabbis rendered this passage in a way which is perfectly correct in the Hebrew it could be: “And the Word of the Lord was made a part of Him and said: Who do you think you are, Elijah?”   You see this was a statement or a rhetorical question.   God was not looking for an answer, he was expressing His dismay as we would when someone makes a arrogant statement.   Looking at that word ’amar more closely I find it to be in a participial form. Elijah was thinking his famous complaint when the Word of the Lord encompassed Him.   Note how Elijah’s complaint is worded:  “I have been jealous for the Lord God…” He should have used a pronoun here:  “I have been jealous for you.”   Being in a participial form indicates that this is what  Elijah was thinking when the Word of the Lord fell upon him.  He was sitting there brooding like I do so often and have recently done: “Fine thing, here I am serving God, sacrificing daily for him, paying my tithe, going to church on Sunday and enduring an hour long service, and what do I get?  I get heartaches, trouble, and misery. Come on God when was the last time you gave me a half way decent answer to prayer.  I look around at others with far less dedication than me and they have it made,  so where is my reward?” I am sure, of course, you never did that, but I know I do.

 

Suddenly Elijah is overwhelmed with the presence of God and he knows what God is telling him: “Just who do you think you are?  Think you are Moses sitting here on the same mountain he sat on when I passed by him?  Ok, get your rear end out of this cave and I will pass by you like I did for Moses.”  Now remember God appeared to Moses in a burning bush – fire, in an earthquake – Dothan,  in a windstorm – on the Mt. Sinai and indeed there was a fire, earthquake and windstorm, but God wasn’t there.  Suddenly God appeared in a still small voice and that is when Elijah covered his face with his mantle and turned away from looking at God. He went back to his cave and there was that voice again.

 

God was saying to Elijah: “No you are not Moses, you are not Abraham, you are Elijah and I will speak to you in an Elijah way, I will use you for the Elijah job, not the Moses or Abraham job.”

 

Again this morning I woke up realizing my mortality, realizing that I was 65 years old  and I have accomplished nothing for the Lord.  I have been very zealous for the Lord all my life and I have not  been able to bring the fire of the Holy Spirit to a nation like John Wesley, or the windstorms of the conviction of the Holy Spirit to thousands like Billy Sunday, or cause the earth to quake with the message of God like Billy Graham.   In fact it appears that those who could care less about serving God and being zealous for him are doing a whole lot better than I am.  It was then I was overwhelmed with the presence of God and I could hear Him say the same thing he said to Elijah: “Who do you think you are?  John Wesley, Billy Sunday or maybe Billy Graham?  Look over your life again – you tried fire, I wasn’t in it. You tried a windstorm – I wasn’t in that.  How about that time you tried for an earthquake, that really really blew up in your face, didn’t it.  I wasn’t in that either.  But as you study My Word what do you get – a still small voice.   Isn’t that enough?”

 

Let it be my epitaph that mine was not fire, wind or earthquake but a still small voice and it was enough.

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