Morning Service, 24th May 2009
Last week we noted that by sending Elijah to the Brook Cherith God was doing several things – He was declaring to Ahab and the nation an act of judgment, such that the Word of God which had been despised was now removed, a famine of the Word; and he was declaring to Elijah that he could fully depend on God and His Word, and daily finding opportunity to exercise faith, and that continually despite outward circumstances.
But then despite months of living by faith in dependence upon God in obedience to God’s word and enjoying God’s blessing in that place, that things suddenly and dramatically changed. Such times are often a time of confusion for believers, and become a real challenge to faith.
Now it is while Elijah is by the Brook Cherith, in a deep ravine in the wild and rugged terrain of Gilead, being cared for by creatures who clearly show more obedience to God than that greedy and self-serving Ahab, that something unexpected happens.
The brook dries up. Such is the scale of the devastation of the drought that even this brook dries up. What this clearly indicates is that Ahab had not changed, he was still hardened in sin of rebellious unbelief. But its impact is also felt by Elijah, by which we see that God had in mind for Elijah to learn another lesson of faith.
What we see in Elijah is that even though he didn’t know what was going to happen next. Elijah walked by faith even when things seemed to get worse. This is the faith God calls us to as well. We too know times when though we are in the will of God, and know so because we are being obedient to the Word of God, we will find things suddenly change and enjoyments evaporate.
Every now and then a Christian cries, perhaps you’ve done it, ‘Lord, what happened?’ He or she has been doing the Lord’s positive will as outlined in the Bible when suddenly disaster struck. They naturally think, ‘What’s going on Where’s the blessing? Has God forgotten me?’
It was here at the drying brook that Elijah was to learn an important lesson relating to this apparent problem in the Christian life – that being in the centre of God’s will doesn’t exclude the possibility of crisis, so when it comes wait on the Lord and don’t throw in the towel in unbelief.
1. Being in God’s Will
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. He was here because of God’s direction which was supported with a promise of provision.
Elijah had a clear statement of God’s will, and He obeyed. He was where God wanted him to be, doing what God wanted him to do.
Three times in the opening verses we have the phrase “the Word of the Lord” (v.2, 5 and also v.8). What is asserted is that everything Elijah was doing was in accordance to the Word of the Lord, and even his leaving was not without the direction of the Word of the Lord.
He was living in the centre of God’s revealed will.
We are also to note that Elijah continued in the centre of God’s will for he stayed at the brook for a long period as shown by God’s fulfilment of His promise. It wasn’t just for a little while that he stayed there, he continued day after day. He was faithful though the circumstance was not ideal from a human perspective.
He didn’t have many outward comforts except that supplied by twice daily visits by ravens and the gurgling of the brook but it didn’t seem to matter for he was with God. He could do no work there, only meditate and pray. And in that he certainly had a taste of heaven, of communion with God. It is what John later spoke of when in exile on Patmos he revealed that yet he had sweet communion with His Lord.
Has that not been the portion of the Lord’s people when instead of rebelling of their isolation through the bed of sickness or cell of persecution? As we are reminded in John 15 where Jesus said “Abide in Me and I in you” – this fellowship of mutual abiding is ever our portion, and how more clearly are such times to explore and enjoy it.
For Elijah every raven visit was a reminder not only of God’s loving provision but of God’s loving presence with him as well. Even more, they were also a practical confirmation of God’s approval of where he was, that he was indeed where God wanted him, doing what God wanted him. Each appearance of the ravens was a reminder of being in God’s will, and in God was ministering to him through those unlikely instruments, and even in that apparently unlikely place of isolation.
Being in God’s will always provides us with experiences of the blessings of the Lord’s presence and love. This is where we should always strive to be: to be and doing where and what God in His Word calls us to. Can there be any richer place in this world? 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 God’s hands. It is here we find a conscience calmed by the Prince of Peace. It is here that we find ourselves most useful to the Lord and to His cause in this world.
When we are living in God’s revealed will remember secondly that this
2. Doesn’t Exclude the possibility of a sudden crisis
It happened in the life of Elijah at the Brook Cherith, where a time came when Elijah began to watch the water flow daily diminish. Eventually one day it dried up!
This was a serious physical crisis because it had been his support during a very severe drought. Now this too was affected. There was no water! And Elijah would not live long in that climate without water.
But it was potentially also a real spiritual crisis, for by faith Elijah had followed God’s directions and enjoyed God’s blessings. But now without any alteration in his obedience or trust, the blessing of water was gone. How could this be?
The answer lies in the fact that God is not just interested in imparting faith; He is interested in its development, in its improvement. Having passed one grade in the school of faith, it was now time for the next. God knows that faith only develops under pressure. It is a spiritual law of thermodynamics: the increase of heat upon faith produces a parallel increase expansion of faith. In this even Jesus was not exempt, for in Hebrews 5:8 we read that “He learned obedience by the things which He suffered”.
Think about that for a moment. As Elijah thought ‘How come it is drying up?’ the answer would have come ‘because I prayed for it!’ In the same why when we ask God what happened His reply is ‘Nothing. I’m just answering your prayer.’ You’ve asked, ‘Lord make me like Your Son’ – and that’s what He is doing! And He is doing it in the same general way as He did with His Son.
It is one of the hardest trials that can possibly come upon us when, having been placed in the middle of comforts and just beginning to enjoy them, that we suddenly lose them. 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 God’s daily instrument of refreshing your soul in His truth, of a church’s ministry – those things given by God to us which we could rely on before to provide for us are no longer there for us. Life itself is a diminishing provision.
How easy in such times our joy quickly turns to sadness! The temptation to false ideas and harsh thoughts of God are so near. It is so easy to think that God has forgotten us, or to enter in a false morbid introspection of blaming ourselves for some error when in fact God may merely be saying it is time to learn a new lesson in the school of faith. If Elijah had yielded to such things his faith would’ve also dried up, and his confidence would’ve disappeared like the brook.
Let us remember that though such times may come upon us unexpectantly, but they are never unexpected to God. It is not a declaration that He has forgotten His promise to all His people in Lam 3:22-23 that His loving-kindness will not fail, that they are new every morning. It is a declaration that he is working our His eternal purposes, “who does all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11) and who “works all things together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).
But in such times and situations,
3. Don’t throw in the towel but wait on the Lord
Here’s Elijah by a brook, day by day seeing a diminishing water flow. Did his hopes diminish also? Did his songs of worship grower weaker as the water rolled less noisily across the rocky bed? Did he lay aside his worship giving himself to anxiety, relentless pacing backwards and forwards?
There is nothing in Scripture to indicate this – on the contrary the implication is that he waited. For God did not give him a word of rebuke, rather God’s Word came as a reward to him to guide his next step.
Last week we saw there were lessons Elijah had to learn in going to the brook Cherith, and here we see them being put into practice as Elijah waited: (i) one step at a time – he waited. Elijah didn’t get his local hiking map out and go looking for another source of water, waterholes which he may have known about from previous travels in this area. No, he waited. (ii) the right perspective – he waited, which evidences a deep sense of humility and dependence upon God. (iii) trust God contrary to sight – he waited. God was in control, He would not let His servant suffer needlessly.
In the light of this we are to understand that the drying brook was an important trial to see if he had learnt the lessons up to this point – which he had. That a word came from God to move on to a more public location to exercise his ministry indicated that he had passed these lessons learnt in the private place.
Is this how we look at the trials in our Christian life – as tests in God’s school of faith aimed to see if we have learned faith’s lessons taught up to this point in our Christian life and are able to put them into practice? Or do we respond like Abraham who no sooner than he arrives in the centre of the will of God of Canaan, this land of plenty that he finds there is a severe famine? The first thing he did was to head for Egypt and what trouble he got into there! That is always the result when we rely on our own resources: trouble!
When our brook seems to dry and we are tempted to cry out ‘Lord what happened?’ let us understand that God is developing us through trials; and let us understand that God is able to meet our needs even when we lose the current means He has been using and blessing us with. The issue is neither context nor means; it is the presence of a loving, wise, purposeful, faithful God.
If at this time you have yielded to this temptation to throw in the towel of faith and to rely on your own thoughts or on someone else, if your zeal for Christ has diminished, your spirit of devotion is dying, if you find no delight in prayer, nothing to give praise and thanksgiving for, and can find nothing about you to stir you up and encourage you – remember Him who said of His vineyard in Isaiah 27:3, “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; I will even keep it night and day.” And of whom it is said in Psalm 84:11, “No really good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
Be like Elijah – trust and wait – and God’s Word of guidance and help will come! God may teach and test us but He never deserts us. Remember, being in the centre of God’s will doesn’t exclude the possibility of crisis, so when it comes wait on the Lord and don’t throw in the towel in unbelief. Maintain your trust and continue your worship.
Remember that being in the centre of God’s will is not always made known by the flow of circumstances, that sometimes He removes blessings or changes circumstances even though we are being obedient to His revealed will. In this God moves us more into the centre of God’s will, or moves us into something better. Have you not from time to time seen such changes happening in your life? I hope you have seen also how God in such times brings our greatest good out of our worst disasters. We need to remember that and confess that God’s way are always right, His purposes are always good and that we can trust God in even the tragic events of life that we can never fully understand here on this earth.
Even with those things that never come clear to us we can still trust His goodness in them; we can rest in the confidence that God is doing and always does what is right.
Even when things appear to have got out of control we can trust God that He is absolutely in control and always will be, that He is accomplishing His sovereign will, and that what He is doing is always the best thing for us.
It is the very essence of faith to take hold of those truths and to trust implicitly in the wisdom and goodness of God – especially when to our limited human wisdom and perspective everything seems to be absolutely irrational and totally out of God’s control.
That is the lesson that was being stamped on Elijah’s heart and mind during this time – and will be on ours as well, both by the Word this day and by God’s gracious dealings every day.