Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces 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 sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. ( 1 Kings 19:9-13,NRSVue)
Like Moses before him, the Prophet Elijah ran away to the wilderness to find a safe haven, only to meet up with God in the most mysterious of ways. After Elijah triumphed in a bellicose competition of deities that ended in the slaughter of 450 prophets of Baal, he lost his nerve when Queen Jezebel sought to kill him and took refuge in a desolate place to hold a prophetic pity party. God summoned the dispirited prophet, now approaching the end of his career, to Mount Herab to witness what is surely one of the most extraordinary divine manifestations to be found in the Bible, where God is finally revealed to Elijah after a mountain-leveling windstorm in "the sound of sheer silence," (variously translated as "a gentle whisper," "a still small voice," and "a gentle blowing.") In this depiction of the numinous encounter with a God both infinitely great and small from Ukrainian Icon-maker Hlafira Shcherbak, God is represented by an image she frequently uses of Christ which is mirrored in the face of Elijah, reminding us we all carry within us the divine image. (John Kohan)