Chapter 11
When the Brook Dries Up
The Reading: 1 Kings 17:1-8
The Problem:
Ahab had recently become the seventh King of Israel. From a secular point of view, Ahab was a successful king. He had further consolidated and expanded on his father’s achievements and, during Ahab’s reign, the country enjoyed a period of increasing power, prominence, and economic prosperity.
However, the Bible paints a different picture. All kings of Israel were evil, but Ahab was the most evil. According to scripture, “Ahab…did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him…he also married Jezebel…and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.” (1 Kings 16:30-33)
In this lesson, Elijah’s mission was to awaken the Israelites to their idol worship and to call them back to loyalty to the one true God of Israel. Elijah was undoubtedly a great man of faith, as he courageously stood before the King and declared, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
The Turning Point:
After Elijah delivered the message from the Lord, God told him to retreat to the Kerith Ravine and hide. The Hebrew word “kerith” means “a cutting,” a place cut by something. In this case, it was a cutting of the earth by many years of water flowing down from the hills of Jordan. There were likely many brooks like this one, but God sent Elijah to the brook called “A Cutting.”
Elijah obeyed the Lord and left quickly to travel to the brook.
The Miracle That Followed:
Elijah had no idea how long he would remain in “God’s Witness Protection Program” down by the brook, but by faith he went deep into the Kerith Ravine and existed there, one day at a time. Every morning and evening he watched the sky knowing that soon the Lord would provide him with food even while so many others were beginning to feel the hunger pangs of the famine.
Elijah’s time beside the brook was God’s way of preparing him for the ministry to follow. This was a time of testing and spiritual growth. Elijah didn’t pack supplies to take along; he had to depend on God to provide for his physical needs. And as promised, God supernaturally provided water through a brook that should have dried up quickly during the long drought, and also provided bread and meat from ravens.
Like Elijah, as God’s people we need quality time alone with Him. To be used of God, we need seclusion with God. We need to linger in His presence. We need to shut out the noise and spend time in praise, prayer, the Word, and communion with God. God tests and trains us in our hiding place, in our prayer closet, preparing us for His next assignment. But God always lets us know when it is time to get back out in the world. So eventually the brook dried up, and God gave Elijah his marching orders for the next assignment.
The Bottom Line:
I have always believed that when God wants us to move along to a new region, He makes it uncomfortable for us where we are currently living - so we have no choice but to make a change. In other words, our brook dries up - just as it did for Elijah in this account. I personally experienced this one time, when I went for six months without a job. A close friend told me I had put God in a box - in effect, told Him the job had to be in Houston County in Texas. Now I had a really nice waterfront home on a lake, and I wanted to stay there and support my husband so he could retire.
But I released all that to the Lord, and totally surrendered my location to Him. Within two weeks, my husband and I both had jobs in St. Thomas, 2,300 miles away. I know now for sure that was God's plan, because St. Thomas is Bible-College friendly and we were able to legally establish Therapon University there.
Be sure your prayers are always totally open to God's leading. When our children ask us for advice about their future, one of our questions is always, "Has the brook dried up in your current situation?" They know what I mean after all these years.
If Elijah had remained so comfortable in his current situation that he wasn’t willing to move on, the miracle in the next lesson would not have happened through him. Is your brook running dry? If it is, hold on. God has something great in store for you. Be sensitive to when the Lord is telling you that it’s time to move on.
