DAILY BYTE
Elijah’s cave was both literal and spiritual in that it represented something of the darkness and loneliness of feeling that God had let him down.
But God finds Elijah ... even in this cave. ‘So what are you doing here Elijah?’
This question eventually pierces through his self absorbed misery. In response, Elijah launches into the same theme that he had been repeating for weeks which went something like this:
‘I have been very zealous and faithful for you God; I have done so much good! How can you let this happen to me? Evil just seems so powerful. I don’t deserve this and life is just unfair.’
If those words sound at all familiar, it is probably because you might have said a version of them yourself once or twice. God tells Elijah to go stand by the entrance of the cave because his presence is about to pass by. And then this powerful wind, a great earthquake and a mighty fire all roar by BUT God is not in any of those things.
This must have been strange for Elijah, because last time he looked God WAS in those types of things. Remember his success on Mount Carmel where God poured fire upon his sacrifice.
Is God found only in big events? In successful moments?
Truth be told, isn’t that how we all think sometimes? We think (and feel) that God is there for us when our lives go well, and the chips fall in our favour. We feel divinely blessed by God if we get that promotion, or when it all works out for us?
Don’t we tell ourselves that God is near if our prayers are answered?
But that is only a small part of a much greater truth because God is always, always there. He is also there in life’s small events – in our failures, tears and poverty, and when our prayers DON’T seem answered. Falling down doesn’t mean that God has left us, it just means that life can be both tough and unfair and that bad things happen to good people.
Even God on earth experienced a cross after all. Jesus came to earth to show us how to love and died violently as a result. You cannot get more grossly unfair than that. Jesus’ prayer to ‘take this cup of suffering from me’ was answered, but in the negative.
Elijah has this to learn and he did so when there came a ‘sound of sheer silence.’ If you read the text carefully you will notice that he was still in his cave at this point. Elijah had disobeyed God’s command to go wait outside, so he hardly noticed the big and noisy events roaring by.
But at the sound of sheer silence Elijah understands. He gets it. He jumps up and runs out the cave. Elijah covers his head because he realises he is now in God’s presence – in a place of holy recognition and realisation - and this is what he realised:
That God is always there, even if our prayers and pleas receive only silence as an answer. That even if we have failed miserably, if we have run away from our responsibilities and if we have given up on God ... He will never give up on us!
How has that been true for you lately?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord we sometimes have a tendency to affirm your presence only in ‘the big’ – our moments of success. Help us to find you in our moments of failure and weakness and pain. Help us to know that even if our prayers seemingly bounce back to us or disappear into thin air that you are still there. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Kings 19. 9b-13 NIV
And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
