“So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith...."
1 Kings 17:5
Elijah swiftly walked through the beautiful, well-watered countryside of Israel, crossed the Jordan, and made his way to a small stream called Cherith. He must have wondered why this was to be the place where God would take care of him. God had promised him, “It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there” (1 Kings 17:3).
The banks of this little stream became home for Elijah for some time. He must have sat there the first evening and just savored the peace, as he listened to the gurgling of the stream running over the stones. As it became time for the evening meal, he must have searched the skies for the promised ravens.
Ravens would not have been an expected source of God’s providence. Ravens are scavengers, eating mostly meat from carcasses of dead animals. They feed on what is often rotten and covered with flies.
What kind of supper could a raven possibly bring for me? Elijah must have chuckled to himself. God’s Word never fails. Scripture says, “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook” (1 Kings 17:6).
The drought he had prophesied to Ahab came to pass. As the months passed by without even a drop of rain, the stream furnished the fugitive prophet with much-needed water. He watched with concern as the stream shrank in size from a babbling brook to a tiny rivulet.
The ravens fed him consistently, but one day, what used to be the brook Cherith was no more. Scripture says, “It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land” (1 Kings 17:7).
What do you do when you go where God tells you to go, and the way He promised to take care of you vanishes? Elijah must have been tempted to come up with his own plan. After all, God did not say what to do if the stream dried up. Elijah might have considered placing rocks in the dry sands of the creek bed to represent his options. He could have traced his finger to each rock and thought about the likelihood of each option having more water to offer than where he sat.
He might have...but what we do know is that he did not leave the place where God sent him. He trusted that God would show him what to do next in His perfect timing.
And sure enough, God did! When the brook dried up, when there was a desperate need for something to happen quickly, “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’” (I Kings 17:9).
Just in time! God spoke. Elijah was told just what to do and who would care for him. Only one problem existed: Zarephath, the place God told him to go, was full of Baal worship. Why would God send him to a place known for worshipping a false god? And why would a widow in a foreign land wish to care for him, a fugitive prophet of a God her people did not worship?
But again, Elijah obeyed! Immediately after God told him to go, Scripture testifies, “So he arose and went to Zarephath....” (I Kings 17:10). He met a widow gathering sticks. When he asked her for bread, she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die” (1 Kings 17:12).
How is she going to be of any help? Elijah may have mused to himself before remembering, But God said she would provide for me.
Elijah, by faith in God’s Word, asked the widow to give him a piece of bread and prophesied, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth’” (1 Kings 17:13-14).
Faith in God’s care is like tossing a pebble in a pond. From the place a small rock hits the surface of the water, ripples can cross an entire pond. Elijah’s faith impacted the widow’s faith.
Speaking of the widow, Scripture states, “So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah” (1 Kings 17:15-16).
April and I had our faith put to the test after we left our paid ministry. We told God, “Send us anywhere you want us to go!”
His answer surprised us: “Lacombe, Alberta, Canada!”
We sent in all our paperwork to the Canadian government, so that we could move to the place where God was calling. After months of waiting for the proper permits to move, we faced a dilemma. Our daughter Jessica needed to start school in a couple of weeks, but we were told that we would have to wait four or five more months.
Yet, God said, “I have urgency for you to move to Canada! Call for revival there before the school year begins.”
In prayer, I shared why that was not possible at that time. God challenged us, “Go put your feet in the Jordan! Go to the border by faith!”
Our friends kindly advised us that we should not leave our home and travel 1,000 miles north to cross the border into Canada without having a permit in hand. “If you were told it would take four to five more months to get your permit, then that is what it will be.” But God said, “Go!”
So we packed up everything we could into a moving truck and gave the rest away. I drove the truck, and April drove our van behind me. Jessica bounced between us to give us much-appreciated company.
On Tuesday, February 16, we’ll publish the conclusion of this exciting story: Trust God’s Care (Part 2 of 2).
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman \ Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
