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Let's first open our Bibles to Judges 6. Judges 6 chronicles the story of Gideon, and while I'd love to write about the whole story, for now I'll just concentrate on the first six verses:
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
Those above verses are kind of a background to the whole Gideon story. They set the stage, and that is what I'd like to talk about. First of all: why were the Israelites hiding in mountain clefts, caves, strongholds, etc.? They were in their own land. Ahhhh yes, because of the Midianites. But is that the true reason? No. Look up top to the first sentence--"The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD". Ahhhh. So that's the true reason that the Israelites were hiding in caves--they had disobeyed God, God had sent someone to punish 'em, and now the Israelites were scared. The one good thing is the last line in verse six--"Midian so impoverished the Israrlites that they cried out to the LORD for help". That's good, they finally realized Who to call on after being punished so much. And that hopeful note starts out the story of Gideon. But still, overall, the Israelites were hiding in caves, and all due to their unfaithfulness to God.
The next story that I’d like to talk about is Lazarus. You remember him, don’t you? He was the guy who died, but whom Jesus raised to life after just four days of being dead. When I was doing my initial research for this series of devotionals on caves, I noticed something about the Lazarus story that I had never noticed before! Let’s check it out in John 11, v. 38:
“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.”
I had never known before that Lazarus was buried in a cave! Interesting…so what did Jesus do? Let’s read v. 43:
“Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!””
And v. 44—
“The dead man came out”
Do you think that Jesus wanted Lazarus to stay hiding, dead, in that cave? No! Do you think that God wanted the Israelites of old to hide in caves, scared of the Midianites? No! Hold that thought…
For our third story of today, I’d like to jump waaay back to Genesis 19. Genesis 19 chronicles the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God very kindly trying to rescue Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Unfortunately, Lot wasn’t very cooperative. He and his family had spent too much time in Sodom, built up too much wealth, and couldn’t believe that such a calamity could happen the next day. (What was that saying of, “by beholding you are changed”? But ahhh…that’s another devotional for another day!)
Finally, the two angels who had been sent to rescue Lot had to physically drag him, his wife, and his two unmarried daughters out of the city. (Lot hadn’t been able to convince his married children to come with him.) Even after the angels had dragged him and his family out of the city, Lot still wasn’t co-operating. See v. 18—Lot had just been told to not look back:
“No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
OK. I don’t know about you, but immediately several lessons jump out at me. Will this disaster really overtake Lot as he flees to the mountains? Uh, no. God is bending over backwards to rescue Lot, who is extremely uncooperative. If God tells you to do something, will He not enable you to actually do it? Hmmm….
Then, I think it is interesting how Lot refers to this town (later in Genesis 19 it is identified as Zoar). Lot says, “It is small, can’t I run to it?”. I truly believe that God was going to destroy Zoar along with Sodom and Gomorrah. So basically Lot is saying, “A little sin isn’t as bad as a big sin, is it?” Yeah, right. In God’s eyes there isn’t a big sin or a little sin! It’s just all sin, the transgression of God’s law! That’s another interesting point that I draw out of this passage.
And finally, in the last part of this verse Lot is reasoning that going to Zoar will save his life. Uh, no! Lot’s life is most obviously in God’s hands…going to a “small” immoral town won’t save you! And those are just the lessons that I can see in v. 18—sometime, I need to do a devotional series focused on Lot’s life!
Lot and his daughters—his wife had turned to a pillar of salt en route—did reach Zoar, and then God rained burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was too afraid to stay in Zoar, however, and in the end settled in the mountains—right where God had originally told him to go! Interesting. They lived in a cave (that’s where the cave part comes in), and there Lot’s daughters performed some very immoral sexual acts which I shall not talk about here!
So did Lot obey God? Yes, well, er, um, really…no. He was halfway. He was not for God, but he wasn’t not for God. He was in the middle. Lukewarm. Lot really reminds me of the Laodicean church of Revelation 3. God is giving messages to John to send out to different area churches. For the Laodician church, God basically said, “You neither hate me or love me. You’re strattling the fence. I wish you were one or the other! Look out, because I’m going to spit you out of My mouth because you’re lukewarm!”
Lot also reminds me of a saying that the Santa Fe railroad had back in the day: “Santa Fe All the Way!” It was a catchy saying, and it really worked. The implication was that people shouldn’t just take Santa Fe for a short distance; they should ride the Santa Fe for the entire duration of their trip. I think that’s how it is with God, too. He doesn’t just want us to follow Him for a little bit. He wants us to follow Him “all the way”. He wants us to totally dedicate our lives to Him, and go with Him from now through eternity! Obviously, Lot didn’t go with God “all the way”. He followed God a little bit, but that’s all. He still had some of his interests to look out for. Don’t be like Lot! If you haven’t already, dedicate your life to God right now. Tell God that you’ll go “all the way” with Him.
For our last story on caves, I’d like to focus on caves in prophecy. Did you know that caves figured into Bible prophecy? Me either! And to begin our study, let’s read Isaiah chapter 2, verses 19-21:
“Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. In that day men will throw way to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of god, which they made to worship. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.”
Sad, isn’t it? Let’s see what Revelation 6:12-17—
“I [John] watched as he [the Lamb, Jesus] opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”"
God didn’t want the Israelites to be hiding in caves, and I’m sure it will break God’s heart when He comes back to this earth and some of the people that He longed to take to heaven and eternity with Him are hiding from Him. Jesus didn’t like people hiding in caves so much that He took Lazarus out of one!
God doesn’t want us to be hiding from Him. Instead, when He comes back, He wants to see us joyfully expecting Him, thrilled that our Redeemer and Savior has come to get us. God wants us to say the words of Isaiah 25:9—
“Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Are you still hiding?
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