Sunday School: Gospel Doctrine
Lesson 28: ‘After the Fire a Still Small Voice’

“Lesson 28: ‘After the Fire a Still Small Voice’” Old Testament Class Member Study Guide (2001), 19–20

“Lesson 28,” Old Testament Class Member Study Guide, 19–20

Lesson 28

“After the Fire a Still Small Voice”

1 Kings 17–19

Study the following scriptures:

  1. 1 Kings 17. Elijah seals the heavens against rain, flees from Ahab and Jezebel, and is miraculously sustained in the wilderness (17:1–6). The Lord sends Elijah to a widow who gives him food and water (17:7–16). Elijah raises the widow’s son from the dead (17:17–24).

  2. 1 Kings 18. After more than two years of famine, Elijah meets with Ahab and challenges the priests of Baal to call down fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice (18:1–2, 17–24). The priests of Baal fail, but Elijah prays and the Lord sends down fire to consume the sacrifice he has prepared (18:25–40). Elijah prays to end the famine, and the Lord sends rain (18:41–46).

  3. 1 Kings 19. Jezebel tries to kill Elijah (19:1–2). Elijah flees into the wilderness and is fed by an angel (19:3–8). Elijah goes to Horeb, where he is comforted by the Holy Ghost and instructed to continue in God’s work (19:9–19).

After Jeroboam led Israel into idolatry, he and his descendants were destroyed. They were followed by another succession of idolatrous kings. Of those rulers, Ahab was the king who “did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him” (1 Kings 16:33). He married Jezebel, adopted her practice of Baal worship, and encouraged his people to join him in the worship of this false god. The prophet Elijah delivered words of warning to Ahab and his kingdom.

  • Why do you think the Lord commanded the poor widow to feed Elijah before feeding herself and her son? (See 1 Kings 17:14–16.) In what ways are we asked to put the things of God first in our lives?

  • When the people gathered to hear Elijah at Mount Carmel, he asked, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21). How do we sometimes halt between two opinions?

  • How did God comfort Elijah on Mount Horeb? (See 1 Kings 19:9–13.) What can we learn from this about how God communicates with us? Why do you think God communicates more often through the “still small voice” of the Holy Ghost than through loud and spectacular displays of power? How can we discern the whisperings of the Holy Ghost?