January 1, 2009

Dear Friend,

Sometimes, I feel as Elijah felt in his cave. In case you don’t know the story, Elijah was a man of very few words. He made one prophecy of disaster, composed of a mere 25 words or less, and then disappeared. There was no point in saying more at that juncture in history. The people were no longer capable of absorbing an intellectual argument. The only thing they would be able to understand was an object lesson. It came in two parts. First, there was a terrible drought. No rain, not even dew on the grass for 42 months.

The stress this put on society was profound, and it weakened the power of the king who, though he could do many things, couldn’t make it rain. I can’t help but drawing a comparison with the government today, that promises to do everything for us. And I think they believe they can. That they are delusional doesn’t matter. They will try, but there will be no rain.

At the end of three and a half years, Elijah returned to the scene. He encountered the king of Israel, Ahab, and proposed a test. Let’s go to Mount Carmel. Gather all the priests of Baal and the prophets of the grove, gather the people as well, and let’s find out who really is God. You probably know the outcome. Elijah called down fire from heaven and the people confessed that Jehovah is God, and they all wiped out the company of failed priests.

Now you would think, given these two object lessons and the resultant proclamation of Jehovah, that Elijah would have been established as The Prophet. But, hours later, he was fleeing for his life from a woman named Jezebel, and wishing himself dead. He ended up in a cave feeling sorry for himself and assuming he was the last man alive who believed in God. Elijah had come to see that Israel, as a nation, was beyond redemption. It was only a matter of time before the barbarians would be at the gates. He did not want to live to see it.

"You are wrong," said God, who then gave Elijah three important jobs to do and told him to get back to work. As bad as things were, they were going to get a lot worse. The prophet’s work became more important as Israel, in its 250 year history, went from bad to worse. Moreover, Elijah was not the last man standing. There was still a remnant who believed in God.

So, when I say I feel like Elijah in his cave, I mean I feel like I have a job to do. And, one person here and another person there will hear what I say and it will make a difference. Don’t get me wrong. I am not an Elijah. I am not even a prophet. I just realize how he felt, and I am coming to realize that even when things look their worst, there is still work that must be done.

One of the most discouraging things about this picture has been growing in my mind for some time. For some people, there is no point in attempting to persuade them. It may be that in trying to persuade them, you make things worse. As with the people of Israel, only an object lesson will change anything. For Israel, it was a terrible drought and famine. For us, it may be an economic collapse and a return to poverty.

I can’t say all I want to say in a letter, but this forms the backbone of an important program I did recently titled The Failure of a Prophet. To download your copy of this program please click here. The program will not air for some weeks and I think you might like to hear it now.

With concern for the future,

Ronald L. Dart

PS. We all have our work cut out for us and pray you will support us in it.