Cave Time

CAVE TIME

1 Kings 19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

Why do we find Elijah the mighty prophet of God hiding in a cave?

We find the answer in

1Kings 19:1-4

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah,

saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I

make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. 3 And (when he saw that), he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Elijah goes from the mountain top, to a Juniper tree and from there Elijah’s next stop is a cave

Why is Elijah hiding in a cave?

The answer is fear.

The bible says Ahab told Jezebel what Elijah had done, how he slew the false prophets and called down fire and rain from heaven, then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with the message that She was going to kill him

The bible says 1kings 19:3 (when He saw that).

this means Jezebels words painted a picture in Elijahs mind and in his heart, Just as faith cometh by hearing, so does fear come by hearing, driven by fear Elijah finds himself in a cave.

There are all kinds of reasons that people find themselves in a cave

It could be divorce, it could be an abusive situation, It could be a financial disaster, It could be ministry it’self, then it could be broken dreams.

I don’t know all the many reasons for finding yourself in a cave, I just know if it could happen to a mighty prophet of God like Elijah, it can happen to you and I.

It also happened to David while he was running from Saul.

1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him

I know as soon as you mention the word cave we shudder.

Why? Because People dread the thought of a cave experience,

Why? Because to us the cave is a dark, dismal, confusing, cold and lonely place.

While I must admit that is a fair description, I must also add that you are only looking at it from one aspect.

I have come to believe that at some point in our lives every one of us will come to a cave experience, From my estimation it’s not a question of if, Only when.

If I am going to come to a spiritual cave in my life then it is of utmost importance that I know what to do, and equally important is knowing what not to do.

The first thing I would say to you is don’t despise your cave,

The cave may very well be safest place you could be.

There was a man named Obadiah who hid 100 of the Lords prophets in a cave and sustained them with bread and water, and saved them from Jezebels hand, her plan was to destroy every prophet of God from the land.

I am sure this was hard for these prophets because, prophets are not generally the kind of people to hide, they are usually in your face with (Thus saith the Lord).

But the fact is sometimes God says show thyself, and sometimes God says hide thyself, and the truth is the hide thyself time is just as, if not more important than the show thyself time, In fact had Elijah not obeyed the Lord and hid himself at the brook cherith He would have never shown himself on Mt Carmel and called fire down from heaven and turned the nation of Israel back to God.

It’s interesting to me that Elijah comes to the place called the Mountain of God and finds a cave there.

1Ki 19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

1Ki 19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

Everybody won’t know what I’m talking about, but somebody knows what it feels like to be in a cave, to come to the mountain of God where there should be glory all around, where there should be unspeakable joy, where you should be enveloped in the presence of God, but instead you feel like God is a million miles away.