ELIJAH AT CHERITH
I Kings 17:1-7
Intro: Elijah is one of the greatest characters to study in the Word of the Lord. He is the man who embodies the office of the Old Testament prophet more than any other. He is the foreshadowing of John the Baptist. He was not an Israelite Aristocrat, but he was a man of the Gilead hill country, likely a shepherd, not educated in schools of higher learning, and he has no pedigree in the ministry. He, like Amos, was not a prophet or priest nor the son of a prophet, but God calls him out of the sheep country to knock on the door of the king with a strong message of judgment. From this entrance onto the Scriptural stage until the day he goes into heaven in a chariot of fire, we see a prophet who came in with a whirlwind of judgment and went out in a whirlwind of glory.
He healed the sick. He multiplied oil with the Word of the Lord. He commanded at God’s Word for the barren womb to be opened. He saw the dead raised as life came into a corpse. He called for the heavens to close up and to open again. He may have had more power and more victories over the powers of darkness than any other man who ever lived outside of the Lord Jesus. Ironically, he has never died, but he was carried off in a chariot of fire. Later, he would light down on the mount of transfiguration with Moses to discuss the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross with the Lord Jesus himself. Elijah will come back to earth in the last time, and he will stand with one other witness in Jerusalem and minister with miracle working power and hold the violence of hell at bay until he is finally slain as a martyr at the close of the tribulation. He has been often imitated, but never duplicated.
This experience of his life is probably the most ignored or overlooked mountain of his experience with God, but it is an essential one. Elijah has prophesied to King Ahab that it would not rain again in the land until he gave the Word. Elijah came on the scene with a bang and after a one-verse ministry God has hidden him out for about a year at the Brook Cherith.
Cherith Means: a gorge or trench. It is a wadi, a dry river bed, except in the rainy season, but there was water in it for the whole year while Elijah was there. The root of the word comes from a term meaning: to cut, slice open, to cut off or cut asunder. By implication it means to consume, destroy, and “to covenant.” It is also translated to be “chewed up,” cut down, to fell, to perish, utterly, and to lose. It is a strange place to send your newly anointed evangelist! But it is appointed of God. Notice three things about this portion of Elijah’s life at Cherith.
I. PLACE OF DIVISION: he was cut off, divided, separated away from the world. Elijah may have felt isolated, but he never was alone. God sends us to Cherith to separate us, but not to leave us alone. He was separated from men to God. This place of division:
A. Divided Him From Fellowship: from the fellowship of people to the fellowship of God. We do not read of one human visitor who attended to Elijah at Cherith, but God did not forget him. Nobody else ever saw Elijah at that brook, but God’s eye was always on him.
B. Divided Him From Food: from the food of people, but God fed him. What a faith building exercise! Every day, the ravens showed up! Every day, the water flowed in a dry river bed in the middle of a drought!
C. Divided Him From Faith: from the faith system of people, unto God. He had no priest, no altar, no temple, but God kept talking, nonetheless! There will be times in your Christian walk that you will even attend church, but there just seems not to be a word for you there. It is not time to leave church, but it is time to attend the brook! When I cannot get a Word from the church, the preacher, the Sunday School, the camp meeting, the revival service, the good hymns of God, I know I need some time at the brook!
D. Divided Him From Favor: from the favor of people to the favor of God. Elijah was hidden by God because he was public enemy number 1! When Elijah came out of hiding in chapter 18 and Obadiah the servant brought him to Ahab the king, the king called him a trouble-maker! All those days in isolation, Elijah was despised! It was his fault the people were thirsty. But while men cursed the name of Elijah and despised his existence, God favored him highly!
II. PLACE OF PROVISION: Elijah preaches his first message, and it is one of drought, dearth, disaster, and doom, but God sent him to this separated place to provide for him. The same drought that hit Israel and brought famine hit Elijah, but God provided water for him at a dry river bed whose name means to cut, consume, chew up, and destroy! God will provide in the drought! God knows how to multiply the loaves. He can rain bread from heaven. He can give us this day our daily bread. Where God guides he will provide. Before Elijah ever preached the drought sermon God had a plan to get water and food to his servant. Elijah didn’t know the plan in advance, but he did get to see the plan unfold! He saw provision in:
A. The Meals: v. 6, the ravens did as God said. Ravens were unclean. They are notorious for being thieves, but that which usually takes away, God used it to give!
B. The Message: v. 1, he had boldness, and God gave him a Word, but in the separation of the brook, where there was nobody else to preach to, God still gave him a Word (v. 8).
C. The Mill Barrel: v. 13-16, every time that widow scraped the bottom of the barrel with the cup and come out with mill for a cake of bread, it was a testimony to the provision of God. Sometimes, you just cannot explain it; you just know it. God provides!
D. The Mother And Son: they were going to die! v. 12. They were making arrangements for the last supper, the mortician was preparing their service, it was just a matter of time. Every time that little boy chased lizards and frogs while his mother smiled and laughed, Elijah would know the provision of God. God provided them meals, and they provided the prophet a home. They became companionship to him.
III. THE PLACE OF VISION: Cherith changed how Elijah saw everything.
A. He Saw Small Things As Big Things: after Cherith, he saw the birds, the brooks, the barrels, and the blaze of a fire differently than before. These Cherith experiences cause us to notice God in the small things of life.
B. He Saw Big Men Smaller: it used to seem like a big deal to preach to Ahab, but he was not impressed or afraid as he used to be. God is what matters, not the offices of men.
C. He Saw Earthly Things Of Little Significance: he was a hill dweller (II Kings 1:8), a mountain man, a cave man, a survivalist, and those kind of people usually value highly personal toughness and strength. But after Cherith, he was not singing a country boy can survive! He would sing, “I need thee every hour… I need thee, Oh, I need thee!”
D. He Saw Heavenly Things As Vitally Significant: it was God who fed, watered, and empowered him. God showed Elijah that God didn’t need him. He needed God! He learned, just be God’s man, and God will handle the rest.
Conclusion: In the end, the thing that Elijah valued the most was that he had been separated unto God. It was his most valued accomplishment. I Kings 19:14 “I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left;” He wasn’t accurate. He was not the only one, but we do see in this that the thing he most valued was that he had been true to God. You don’t want to go to Cherith, but it is where God puts us to separate us to himself. Yield to God’s plan, and let him develop you in that separation unto himself.
hear the audio sermon at www.trumpetoftruthonline.org
