Elijah and the Fire

This weekend I took two of my children camping and we enjoyed time in the mountains away from everything else. As we were around a campfire in the morning I thought it was a good time to read a few verses from the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal with them. In the story Elijah gave this challenge for the idolatrous priests: “Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” Of course the wicked priests were not able to get fire to come down from their idols despite their fervent supplications all day long. When it was Elijah’s turn, “Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:23-24, 36-37). The Lord showed forth His power and sent forth the fire to consume the offering and witness to the people that Elijah was His prophet and that He was their God. My boys enjoyed imaging that story and the dramatic divine display given through Elijah to that people as they stood around our little fire.  

               As I pondered this story, though, I realized that this show of the Lord’s power was probably not meant to convert the people unto Him. He was protecting His servant and seeking to cast out the wicked priests from among the people, but it likely wasn’t a great catalyst for change among the people. They did declare, understandably after seeing the magnificent display, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God,” but there doesn’t seem to be an indication of serious repentance on the part of the people as far as I can tell (1 Kings 18:39). Jezebel, for one, certainly wasn’t moved by the event but instead simply sought to kill Elijah. The point is that great miracles such as this one are not what generally convert people, and the Lord seemed to want to make that point clear to us and Elijah in the subsequent chapter. After Elijah went into the wilderness, ready to give up his life, and angel came and sent him on to Mount Horeb. There he communed with the Lord, and we have this account: “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…. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:9-12). As Elijah stood on that holy mount, he learned that the Lord’s voice to him was not to be found in the great strong wind or in an earthquake or even in a fire—it was to him a “still small voice.” This is of course in contrast to the experience he’d just been a part of when the Lord had indeed sent a dramatic fire in front of the worshippers of Baal to consume the offering. I think the lesson is that though the Lord may choose from time to time to display His power in dramatic ways, if we want to hear His voice to us it won’t typically be through that kind of awesome show of force. Even Elijah was depressed after the original powerful experience because of the wickedness of the people. What comforted him, it seems, was the still small voice of the Lord that pierced His soul. We must learn to quietly hear and heed that voice, knowing that it will be more powerful to guide and direct our lives than strong winds or a great earthquake. The word of the Lord to our souls will have “more powerful effect upon [our] minds… than the sword, or anything else, which [will have] happened unto [us]” (Alma 31:5). We need not look for physical fire to see the Lord work in our lives, but we should rather seek out that spiritual “fire” that is the Holy Ghost (Doctrine and Covenants 33:11).