What are you doing here?

And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

What are you doing here, Elijah? In a conversation with God, a question is not a request for information, or a clarification of fact. It is a solicitation for a confession. It is God’s petition to us for self-reflection. It is the question we ought to have asked ourselves, but were too distracted to ask. Sometimes, it is the question that is absolutely essential for our redemption from our current estate.

“What are you doing here?” was such a question for Elijah. Elijah, perhaps the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, one who was ultimately privileged to circumvent the way of the grave, and be carried away on the chariot of God was hiding in a cave wanting to die when God asks him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?

Often, saints of God find themselves in a place that is not their inheritance. It is not where God wants them to be. It was a place that the devil would be delighted them to see, a place far away from the center of their calling. In Elijah’s case, it was a cave far away from the center of evil, from Jezebel and Ahab, and their plans to ruin the nation of God to which Elijah was called as a prophet. And it was an appropriate question, a question God articulated that Elijah would have done well to ask himself , “what am I doing here?” If you read the answer of Elijah you realize that it is discouragement that has brought him there. He has been zealous, and he seems to be fighting a losing battle with evil. God has not lived up to the expectation, evil has not been completely vanquished. Good wins, only for evil to suggest a new renewed attack. He is disheartened, and the cave is his refuge.

Sometimes it is discouragement, sometimes it is sin, and other times it is simply busyness or apathy that has pulled us away from a place of God’s center. The tragedy of many lives is not that they have ousted God completely, but that they have put God on the periphery. They have pulled from the center of their calling and taken refuge in a cave. And the question to Elijah is the question to all those who find themselves in a cave of doubt, discouragement, despair, or apathy – what are you doing here? The cave is no place for the prophet of God. Sometimes our geography illuminates the philosophy of our mind. God was asking Elijah to reflect what state of mind had caused him to retreat from his calling. It is interesting to note that God’s answer to Elijah is not a rebuke, nor an explanation. It is not even a set of instructions to change his mind about the place where he was. It simply begins in the following verses with, “Go return”. In other words, just go back and do what God has called you to do. Go back to the center of God’s calling.

Perhaps you find yourself in such a cave. You are not in a place of your inheritance. You are away from God’s center of your calling. Perhaps it is not discouragement, but like the prodigal son, a result of rebellion and sin. Then I pray that this question to Elijah becomes your question. And the answer of God to Elijah becomes your answer. In God’s strength and purpose, “Go return”. Return with a renewed trust in your Lord and Savior.

Danesh Manik