WORD STUDY – THE WORD EXISTED IN HIM – DAVAR HAYAH ELIYU  דבר היח אליו   

I Kings 18:1 “And it came to pass after many days that the Word of the Lord came unto Elijah.”

I Kings 19:9: “And behold, the Word of the Lord came unto him”

Look at these two verses in the Hebrew and although the words in English “The Word of the Lord came unto…”  are identical, they are not the same in these two verses.  I Kings 18:1 the words: “came unto” is hayah el but in I Kings 19:9 the words: “came unto” is simply el. “El” means to or  unto so the Word of the Lord was  to (or) unto Elijah in I Kings 19:9, but in I Kings 18:1 the Word of the Lord was hayah unto Elijah. Word in Hebrew here is devar not ‘amar.  Devar is a special word, a word from the heart.  The translators translate hayah as “came” simply because to translate it literally would seem too mystical and of course we want to avoid mysticism at all cost.  After all did not James 5:17 tell us Elijah was a man just like us.  I mean if the Word from God’s heart can hayah into Elijah’s heart, then that means it can hayah into our hearts and, boy, that is getting pretty mystical.

You see hayah comes from the same root as God’s name YHWH and means to exist,  to become, to be or will be. Hayah has also been used as becoming a part of.  In other words in I Kings 18:1 the Word of the Lord became a part of Elijah, it existed in Elijah, it was Elijah.  Elijah was in a life and death situation.  He needed more than just a witness in his spirit to confront Jezebel.  In I Kings 19:9 the stakes were not that high so the Words from God’s heart were “unto”  him.  God’s voice is not always the same.

At one point Elijah wanted that hayah from God, that clear unmistakable  voice and direction from God. He sought it in the wind, in a fire and an earthquake but in that case God just spoke to him in a still small voice.

God may not speak to us the way we want Him to speak to us, but believe me when the time comes and we need that hayah, God will give it.   If He doesn’t, then maybe we don’t need it as bad as we think we do. Maybe a still small voice is enough.  Of course to hear a still small voice you need to block out every disturbance, distraction and concentrate and focus directly on God to hear it.