What does it mean that God speaks in a still small voice?

Elijah’s Flight to Horeb and God’s Gentle Whisper

What does it mean that God speaks in a still, small voice? We're going to answer that question. You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. There is only one place in scripture where God is said to speak in a still, small voice, and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal.

Told that Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, was seeking to kill him, Elijah ran into the wilderness and collapsed in exhaustion. God sent an angel with food and water to strengthen him, told him to rest, and then sent him to Horeb.

In a cave there, Elijah voices his complaint that all of God's prophets had been killed by Jezebel, and he alone had survived. God instructed him to stand on the mountain in his presence. Then the Lord sent a mighty wind, which broke the rocks in pieces.

Then he sent an earthquake and a fire, but his voice was in none of them. After all that, the Lord spoke to Elijah in the still, small voice, or a gentle whisper. The point of God speaking in the still, small voice was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations.

God’s Power Is Not Limited to Dramatic Displays

Divine silence does not necessarily mean divine inactivity. Zechariah tells us that God's work is not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, meaning that overt displays of power are not necessary for God to work.

Because he is God, he is not confined to a single manner of communicating with his people. Elsewhere in scripture, he is said to communicate through a whirlwind, to announce his presence by an earthquake, and to speak in a voice that sounds like thunder.

In Psalm 77, his voice is compared to both thunder and a whirlwind. In Revelation, we're told that lightning and thunder proceed from the throne in heaven. Nor is God limited to natural phenomena when he speaks.

God Speaks Through the Prophets and Through His Son

All through scripture, he speaks through his prophets over and over. The common thread in all the prophets is the phrase, Thus says the Lord. He speaks through the writers of scripture. Most graciously, however, he speaks through his Son, the Lord Jesus.

The writer to the Hebrews opens his letter with this truth. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Law, Grace, and the Voice of Scripture

The difference between God speaking through the thunder and the whirlwind, then through the still small voice, can also be considered as showing the difference between the dispensations of law and grace.

The law is a voice of terrible words, and was given amidst a tempest of wind, thunder, and lightning, attended by an earthquake. But the gospel is a gentle voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and the free gift of salvation through Christ.

The law breaks the rocky hearts of men in pieces, shakes their consciences, and fills their minds with the sense of God's fiery wrath, and the punishment that they deserve. And then the gospel speaks gently to them of the peace and pardon available in Christ.

It is less important how God speaks to us than what we do with what he says. God speaks most clearly to us in this day through his word. The more we learn it, the more ready we will be to recognize his voice when he speaks, and the more likely we are to obey what we hear.

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