Cave

One day after church, our host asked the team if we wanted to go explore a cave. Excited for the new adventure, we all hopped into his truck and set off. What I learned when we were on the way there, however, was that this was not just a cave, but a temple as well. It was a place of worship for Buddhists. We prayed on the way there to guard our spirits and to carry with us the armor of God. Our leader Frankie was well-equipped – he took two bibles with him, and was “dual wielding swords,” as he liked to call it. We arrived to the temple’s entrance and saw idols planted along everywhere as we walked to the cave. Already, I was tense in my spirit. Upon entering the cave, we started to adjust our eyes to the darkness and were advised to look down so as to not let the water dripping from the ceiling fall into our eyes. We walked along and came across these little stations or just spots where many idols at a time were set up. Each new idol spot we passed, the more aware of the darkness my spirit became. Not everyone felt off, but I for one had a definite feeling deep in my spirit; one that I would best describe as unsettling, sad, and just plain gross. The atmosphere was gross – I don’t know how else to tell you.

When we reached the end of the cave, there was one last spot there full of idols. I wasn’t particularly alarmed by them given their smaller size, but what happened next irked me more than anything before. A few locals that had come into the cave a distance behind us caught up to us, and looked upon the idols in front of us. Then, someone among their crowd walked up to one of the idols and bowed down to it. Although it is very common, and the reason most enter that cave in the first place, I was taken aback. My eyes widened, and my heart rate rose. I just felt so strongly against the hold the enemy had over them. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit rushed over me so powerfully, and I was left there standing in the presence of the one true God while I watched the lost bow down to a false idol, my heart broken for God’s heart for those who don’t know any better. After this person had finished, another person walked up to the same idol. My heart screamed, ‘no!’ but there was nothing I could do. The next thing I knew, by the power I felt from the Holy Spirit, I felt tears try to escape my eyes. As no one else seemed to be having this experience, I didn’t want to make a scene, and so I tried to shut it all down. In all honesty, it took everything I had in me not to let the tears fall. I calmed down as we left the cave, and that was the end of our excursion.

Later that day, I happened to come across Isaiah 44, a chapter that focuses on the folly of idolatry. The scriptures paint a perfect picture of what this looks like in verses 12-20:

The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. ¹³ The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. ¹⁴ He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵ Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸ They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. ¹⁹ No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” ²⁰ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

There is no God but the LORD Almighty, Yahweh, the Great I Am, The Alpha and Omega, The One who was and is and is to come. Amen.