This must have come as a surprise to the prophet. The other side of this is that if we would wield great power for God we must win it in some hidden Cherith. Jesus did the same with His disciples at the end of a tour of ministry, so full were they of the joy of success of their ministry, what they had been involved in: Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while (Mk 6:31). There he drinks from its waters and is miraculously fed each morning and evening by ravens. What we see in Elijah is that even though he didnt know what was going to happen next. 1 Kings 17:1-7 ESV / 4 helpful votesNot Helpful. Has that not been the portion of the Lords people when instead of rebelling of their isolation through the bed of sickness or cell of persecution? Weve challenged the king, lets challenge the prophets of Baal next!.. We like to be in the middle of things. Over the next few days he watched it dwindle and shrink . 1. You can be the one to help make a difference by purchasing a shirt (coming soon to the blog in a few weeks) or by ordering a downloadable product currently in the store, in which proceeds will go to nonprofits that seek to give a voice to the voiceless. OBEDIENCE AND THE WILL OF GOD A) Prompt Obedience B) Perfect Obedience 3. After all, as his name indicates, his God is Jahweh. God Is the Sufficient Source of Supply a) A Promise Received b) A . Or 'Why the brook Cherith?' Why would God have led him to a place where the water would dry up? A normal person can walk around 3 miles per hour, so that would be 30-36 miles a day. So he brought in the three batches of bread. 17 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you" (1 Kings 17:2-9, NASB). What God teaches Elijah, and us, at brook Cherith. Some Time Later, the Brook Dried Up. All we can be sure of is that he must have been more than two rears, out of the three and a haft, at Zare-phath. 'Let's get down to where things are a bit quieter and your dependence on God is more real.' James and Luke say the drought lasted for three and a half years. But now without any alteration in his obedience or trust, the blessing of water was gone. It's a place where God actually removes you for a specific purpose and the word means 'a cutting off'. PLEASE NOTE: bidding and explicit material is prohibited on this platform so the links are safe to use. In answering this let us note that Elijahs removal was: The first thing we notice here is that this was not Elijahs idea, it was the Lords doing. Then the milkman came past and the wheel fell off his cart right outside the orphanage! But God has commanded the ravens to actually feed him. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years He just committed everything to God. In other words the drought was not merely going to be of water, but there would be a drought of the Word. We need to wait on God as Elijah did and let Him tell us what we should do. And in the same way that God commanded ravens, He would also command a widow to provide for His servant Elijah in yet another remarkable way. The numbers of the victims of human trafficking and the stories behind the numbers are why Blissful Faith is partnering with nonprofit organizations to help fund rescues and recovery programs for those entrapped in bondage. They live on carrion yet they will bring him wholesome food. When God saw that there was suffering in the world but Elijah was unaware of it, He told him to go to Zarephath, the widow (BT Sanhedrin 113a). Wall shelves, hooks, other wall-mounted things, without drilling? "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15, Church Mail: PO Box 9007, South Yarra 3141, It is against this background that now we consider v.2-6, in which we see Elijah in response to Gods instruction leaving the kings presence and going to the Brook Cherith. God had spoken to this nation. Everything was done on his knees to His Father whom he knew would provide because he was committed to providing. 1 Kings 17:2-9. From where did the ravens bring meat? - 1 Kings 18:40 : Elijah asks God for heavy rains to end the drought. He would have been high on adrenalin and on grace. Now that the history of Israel has been recapped, 1 Kings 17 will be better understood. On The Road With Elijah To Zarephath (Pt.1) (2 of 13) Series: On the Road with Elijah Ken Trivette 1 Kings 17:8-16 Outline 1. Wendy couldn't understand why God would bring her provision in that way and then allow it to be gone. For it was from here that Elijah began the journey to Mt Carmel. Now this too was affected. Do you remember the story of His disciples when they went out to preach and did all these wonderful miracles and came back to Him really glorying in all that had happened? Joseph was in prison, falsely accused and isolated. Occurrences like this happened for George Mueller who, through faith in God, provided for the children constantly, all through their life and they never failed to have what they needed. He said. For it was from here that Elijah began the journey to Mt Carmel. In a dry season, in a time of drought, a brook is a source of life sustaining water and refreshment. Elijah told the current king (Ahab) that there will be a drought in the land of Israel. God may teach and test us but He never deserts us. So Elijah comes into his presence and brings this word of judgement to Ahab. The other point is that ravens were an unclean bird. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Elijah went through a similar spiritual training process. Elijah went to the brook of Cherith as directed by God. Since our start, we've aided two companies in their pursuit to help victims of human trafficking and have donated over $1,000 to The Exodus Road as well as made donations to spread the Gospel by partnering with Living Waters and Answers in Genesis. Israel is split into two kingdoms upon the rise of King Solomon's son, Rehoboam, to the throne around 901 to 209 B.C. It is the struggle of Cherith that sets up the sequence of command, promise, obedience and deferred results in Zarephath. If you treat a dog properly it will actually respond to you and it will want to please you. From Ahab's slaughterhouse. Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab, wants Elijah dead and so God tells him to hide himself by the Cherith book, east of the Jordan River. How to tell if my LLC's registered agent has resigned? Elijah, a prophet of God whose name means "my God is the Lord," came from Tishbeh in Gilead, but nothing is known of his family or birth. When he went there, there was a nice stream of water with plenty to drink. Elijah could have thought that perhaps he should try to find a better place but this would have been a case of him trying to help God out in his own wisdom. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us not to worry about what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink. In this even Jesus was not exempt, for in Hebrews 5:8 we read that, Think about that for a moment. I hope you have seen also how God in such times brings our greatest good out of our worst disasters. How do we build on it. God led Elijah to a dry land called Cherith east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:3). Normally we want a road map on life. Elijah was not running away, he was being removed. rev2023.1.17.43168. God was directing him there to strengthen his faith and the faith of a widow that lived here with her son. There he remained until the brook dried up from lack of rain. Lesson: God provides For Elijah And Widow. At Cherith, we realise that it is God that is strong and we who . Is every feature of the universe logically necessary? We ought not be surprised if our Father says, You have had enough of this hurry, publicity and excitement. If we knew the end from the beginning we might try to devise a better way of arriving at that end, we certainly would be tempted to run ahead of God. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15, Church Mail: PO Box 9007, South Yarra 3141. That is always the result when we rely on our own resources: trouble! Karen. Did Jesus know from the outset that He was the Son of God or did Mary tell Him? Its important here to note this against the background of v.1 where we read of the close identification between the word of the prophet and God my word said Elijah though it was Gods Word. Build your pack now! When Elijah got to the palace, God told him what to say. The 12 tribes of the Arab nations come from the family line of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and his female servant Hagar mentioned in Genesis 16. He stayed put right up until the brook dried up completely! Drought conditions had begun. Now Ahab had married a Sidonian princess who influenced her husband greatly. 'Let's draw aside to a quiet place'. Life itself is a diminishing provision. It maybe a drying brook of finance, or it may be of health, or of the removal of a dear Christian friend who has been Gods daily instrument of refreshing your soul in His truth, of a churchs ministry those things given by God to us which we could rely on before to provide for us are no longer there for us. Have you ever felt God lead you to something that doesn't last? Only in that most unlikely place and nowhere else, not where we would have chosen as a likely haven! Poisson regression with constraint on the coefficients of two variables be the same, The "third year" refers to the third year of Elijah's stay in Zarephath, following a stay of some months at the brook Cherith (Adam Clarke, Barnes, Haydock, Keil and Delitzsch), The "third year" refers to the time of Elijah's exile, which did not begin until the dry period had already been underway for six months (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown; Thomas Coke). The prophet Elijah hid himself on the banks of the Cherith and was fed by ravens during the early . (6) The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. He had been to the court of this king as the Ambassador of the King of kings, he had done something that was not only courageous, it was spiritually significant. Mia. 'Come aside to a quiet place,' He said. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh . When we feel God is saying something to us we should actually act on it. Elijah was not running away, he was being removed. This brook was not far from where he lived. Now we now that Elijah was not here at the brook Cherith because he was running away from risky ministry; nor because he thought it wise or best, in fact he may have thought otherwise. When our actions are regulated by the Word of God and our lives are lived in the centre of His will, we have nothing whatsoever to fear. God Led Him. Careful precaution has to be made when making a modern application to today's life as to not take the passage of scripture out of context. When we first meet Elijah, God tells him to hide from King Ahab in the Kerith Ravine. (James 5:17 NLT), "Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Having passed one grade in the school of faith, it was now time for the next. God knows that faith only develops under pressure. And in that he certainly had a taste of heaven, of communion with God. Has God forgotten me?. One of them was that he had 10,000 children, all of which he provided for all by faith and prayer. God knows that faith only develops under pressure. It is here that we find the grace to help us in our daily life plentiful, good and sufficient for the day, whilst learning to leave tomorrow in Gods hands. It is always when you look back on things that you see how God has been working to take you in the direction that He sees fit. In his youth he was a rat-bag and even got put in jail. When you think about your life as a Christian, has God ever failed to meet your needs? For Israel, this time of testing would be over the course of three years when the prophet Elijah is told by God that there would be a drought in Israel. Either approach addresses the apparent contradiction, and some commentators, such as John Wesley, mention both and do not express a preference. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.'"1 Kings 17:2-4. On a purely physical level, it functions (unlike the Jordan) as a place far away and hidden from King Ahab who was seeking Elijah's life because of the drought. There was a bold and even aggressive determination about him as he desired to serve the Lord. Every now and then a Christian cries, perhaps youve done it, Lord, what happened? He or she has been doing the Lords positive will as outlined in the Bible when suddenly disaster struck. The showdown: Elijah vs the prophets of Baal! God always speaks when it is needed, not beforehand. The Ministry of Elijah (1 Kings 17) By T. Austin-Sparks. Let's look at 1 Kings 17:6: And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.". He just watches me intently and I cannot get into the car without his beady eyes on me! How long did the drought that Elijah prayed for really last? We need to be watching what He is doing and attentive to what our Father is asking of us. Those dark shadows on the horizon may well be Gods ravens. Can I change which outlet on a circuit has the GFCI reset switch? Elijah' s faith was very strong, as was Abraham' s - look up Romans 4:17-21. Elijah and the Brook Cherith (2 of 5) Series: Bible Brooks Ken Trivette 1 Kings 17:1-7 Outline 1. In other words he was to return home, but not to the comforts of home for he is told to, The first thing we notice here is that this was not Elijahs idea, it was the Lords doing. 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