1. Cave? What Cave?

From an obscure incident in the life of the prophet Elijah comes the title for this blog. Read on...

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19|:9

Poor Elijah!

Surely we find the low point of this great prophet's ministry in 1 Kings 19:4-10.

Afraid and exhausted, overwhelmed by the "evil days" of his times, he flees into the wilderness, and eventually makes his way to a cave at the Mountain of God (Horeb).

Elijah is reacting to threats to his life and a deep sense of alienation from his culture. He tells God (v. 10) that the people of Israel have turned their backs on God’s law, replaced the Lord’s altars with idols, and killed God’s prophets. “Even I, only, am left,” he laments.

As I write in the summer of 2022, I am struck by how a “pandemic mindset” lingers. True, it is hard to measure, but masks are far from rare – and still seen in the outdoors and on folks driving alone. One hopes that lockdowns and other restrictions are things of the past, but Canadian governments have only “suspended” pandemic control measures and there remain various politicians, health care "experts," and media outlets committed to pandemic restrictions.

I have a sense of being a stranger in a strange world - and the culture's response to Covid is only part of it: the moral decay of our culture continues apace and, indeed, seems to be accelerating. Trying to make sense of life in an age where Truth has disappeared makes it a struggle to separate sense from nonsense. Who among those in positions of authority is to be believed or trusted?

Living through the last two-and-a-half years has brought me to sense a greater kinship with Elijah.

Even this great prophet of God was not ready for the circumstances which overwhelmed him at one point in his ministry and drove him to flee. I was not ready for the pandemic; I do not know of any individual, agency or organizations that was. That includes the Church.

Remember the panic buying of toilet paper when Covid arrived in March 2020? My reaction was that this was madness. It seemed like most North Americans had lost their minds! And it left me – along with other aspects of my pandemic experience – with a growing sense that I was now in a strange place where I did not belong. And, apart from the pandemic response, I am not sure I am ready for the onslaught that seems to be coming at us from “Woke Culture.”

Now, the “toilet paper caper” might be dismissed as silly, but I think it offers some real insight into the character of our culture; and, to the extent that many Christians got caught up in this “caper,” I think there are also insights to be had about the state of the Church. These are matters – among a host of others – to be addressed in due course.

In his moment of weakness, Elijah serves as a model for us. In the cave at Horeb, God gave Elijah a refuge where he could be refreshed, in both body and spirit. In the safety of the cave, Elijah could reflect on and meditate on the things of God and then, renewed, go forth to serve the Lord faithfully.

The purpose of Elijah's Cave is not to find a place to hide, but to have a haven from which to go out and live in hope - hope in the gospel!

So, again, welcome to Elijah’s cave, from whence to go forth…

* I use Church (with an uppercase "C") to indicate the wider church - many congregations, one or more denominations, and so on. When church (with the lowercase "c") is used, I am referring to one or more particular church congregations.