We could have called the title to this message “When in Drought, Do Not Doubt.”
In the previous chapter, we learn that Ahab is now king of Israel. Unfortunately, he was worse than all the other kings before him. Each king prior to Ahab became worse than the one before. Ahab married Jezebel who led him into worshiping Baal. People that worshiped Baal thought that Baal made it rain and provided good harvests. Ahab had provoked God more than all the other kings before him.
Now enters Elijah. We do not know from where or from whom Elijah was from, but we do know that he was a man subject to like passions as we are. God uses different people for different circumstances. God knows who to send to work for specific situations, and Elijah was the one that fit the bill.
• James 5:17, Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
So, Elijah steps up to this wicked king and pronounces that a drought (neither dew nor rain for some years) would take place, and that the drought would not end until you hear from me (according to my word), which ended up being about three and a half years. I can just imagine the look on Ahab’s face. ‘Who is this guy and who does he think he is’ probably came to Ahab’s mind. Ahab had a mighty army, but neither the army nor all his Baal priests could defend against a drought. Elijah tells Ahab that the Lord Jehovah is the God of Israel, whom Ahab had neglected; that he is a living God, dislike the dead divine beings he adored; that he himself was God's worker and courier sent from God Himself: "as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand"; and that God was disappointed with them for their excessive idolatry and would chide them for it by the need of rain (are there any of the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?).
• Jeremiah 14:22, Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
Now God sends Elijah to the brook Cherith that was before Jordan. He is to hide himself there and drink from the brook and that the ravens would feed him. Isn’t it wonderful to know that even during a dry time in our lives, the Lord provides life giving water and that He is the living bread of life? God used the ravens, and unclean animal, to bring food to Elijah. What man might see as something unfit, God can and does use to work out His purpose. We do not know how many ravens came nor how much they brought. It was enough. Twice a day they brought food to Elijah. Notice that the scriptures do not mention Elijah’s concern or questioning God as to why these unclean birds of prey were feeding him? He gratefully accepted it for he knew God would supply.
• John 4:14, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
• John 6:48-51, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
• Philippians 4:19, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
We can look at these verses as:
A time of training or a time of preparation for a trial or task.
We do this by prayer and studying God’s Word.
• Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
• Ezekiel 38:7, Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
• 1 Corinthians 14:8, For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
• 2 Timothy 2:15, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
A time for nourishment or replenishment.
Grow and increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
• Jeremiah 31:25, For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
• 2 Peter 1:12, Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
• 2 Peter 3:1, This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
• Jude 1:5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
A time of rest from a trial or task.
• Matthew 11:28-29, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
• Mark 6:31, And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Either way, we may be in a situation like this for a reason or for only a season. When we are called or sent to a place for solitude, as Elijah was, when we apparently cannot be useful or work for God at a place or time, we must be patient and sit still, waiting patiently for God to lead us to where He wants us to be. We are simply dried up brooks except the Word of God is moving through us. Where would we be without the living water of Christ flowing through us? For those of us who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.
• 2 Corinthians 6:2, (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
