WORD STUDY – INTEROGATIVE (MAH)
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 thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Mah (Interrogative) who, what, where, when, how.
God did not ask Elijah a question when He said: “What are you doing here.” The Hebrew uses the word “amar” (to say) rather than “sha’al” (to ask). God was not asking Elijah a question but making a statement. It is interesting to note that many Jewish scholars will render the word “mah’” as “who” rather than “what.” You do have many options with the word “mah” 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.
Anyways, I found one can correctly render this as: “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 an arrogant statement. Looking at that word “’amar” more closely I find it to be in a participial form. Elijah was making a complaint: “I’ve worked very hard for you, Lord, and what do I get? Heartache!” It was then that 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 it indicates that this is what Elijah was thinking rather than vocalizing 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 heartache, trouble, misery. 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 would never do that, but I sure 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 for Elijah, but God wasn’t in it like He was for Moses. Suddenly God appeared to Elijah 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. I have been on this earth for three score years and 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 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: “Who do you think you are? John Wesley, Billy Sunday or maybe Billy Graham? Look over your life again – you tried for a fire, I wasn’t in that. You tried for a windstorm and I wasn’t in that either. How about that time you tried for an earthquake, that really blew up in your face, didn’t it? I wasn’t in
that either. But as you study My Word you have discovered I was in that and what did you get – a still small voice. Isn’t that enough?”
So shall it be my epitaph – mine was not fire, wind or earthquake but just a still small voice and it was enough.
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