The Drying Brook

The Drying Brook

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,  “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” . . . 

And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

1 Kings 17:2-4, 7

Elijah is such an outstanding hero of the faith for so many of us.  We admire his manliness, his bold denunciation of evil, his “effectual, fervent” prayerfulness, and his willingness to stand alone for the true God.  No less should we admire his implicit obedience to the revealed will of God.  Was it God’s will that he should denounce the king’s sins in the very palace?  There was Elijah to speak the message.  Was it necessary to pronounce the judgment of drought upon the land and to assume responsibility for that judgement under God?  Elijah would do that very thing.  When God told Elijah to hide himself “by the brook Cherith,” the man vanished from public view to perform God’s will.  In that continuing act of obedience, however, there was to be much trial, testing, and hardship which was to come the way of this choice servant.  Those hardships came as the result of the fact that judgement was upon the land.  By that judgement Elijah himself suffered.  Our situation in life, as we do the will of God, will not exempt us from the hardships as the result of God’s intervention in human affairs.  It was because of His judgement upon the land that the brook dried up.

Even now God intervenes in human affairs to deal with a rebellious people.  It was an obedient man of God who suffered the hardships of the drying brook.  So may be the case with us.   Certainly, it would have sorely tested Elijah and tried his faith day after day to observe the steadily shrinking stream.  Are you even now by some receding rivulet?  Hold to your task, the time to shift is not yet.  It was the drying of the brook that preceded God’s opening of God’s next provision for His man.  While the brook was drying, the widow was preparing to be in need of a miracle.  When God closed the door at Cherith, He opened the door at Zarephath.  Know that your God has every foot step of your path laid out.  He will take you to Zarephath in good time, though you have tarried long at Cherith in His will.

Our Loving Lord,

we praise Thee

that our steps are ordered by Thee.

Keep us faithful at Cherith.

Prepare Zarephath for us.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice