When you say the word boot camp, the civilian and enlisted, retired and reserved all conjure up pictures of freshly shaved heads, dog tags, fatigues and, as Chuck Swindoll says, fatigue. It is through the doors of boot camp that an 18-year old from Kiowa, Kansas is shaped into a soldier by doing push-ups at 4:00 AM on a Southern California Beach and running and marching in the burning heat of Texas in August.
It is during those first days of initial paper work and registration that one leaves the control and rights to their life in the hands of others as they are shaped and molded for battle readiness. There is no other way to get a civilian ready for life and death situations except by enrolling them in the training program of the US military. One never learns how to survive against the enemy in life and death situations by sipping lemonade on the beaches of Maui, by lying around on an estate deck in the Caribbean ordering room service, or by sitting in the spa of some mountain hot-springs.
As Christians, our lives are not played out on a playground but on a battleground. When we are introduced to faith in Jesus we are welcomed into God’s family and into God’s army. No one used this analogy more often than the apostle Paul.
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? (1 Corinthians. 9:7)
Endure hardship with us life a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commanding officer. (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
Do you see the correlation? What applies to the world of warfare and military preparation is true of spiritual preparation. None of us are ever ready for battle until we graduate from basic training. A careful study of God’s word highlights this truth.
Ø Moses’ boot camp was the most well known. What Camp Pendleton is to California, the Sinai Desert was to three million Jews who had just escaped Egypt.
Ø Joseph graduated in the class of 1632 BC from an Egyptian base located along the Nile.
Ø David’s class was small. Most of his training was done in the desert of Israel around the training facilities of Jericho, Qumran, and Massada.
Come with me to another boot camp. The base is located in the heart of the Promised Land. Plenty of rugged terrain, high elevations, and a variety of weather conditions produced optimal training conditions. Our soldier is a simple servant, not from Topeka but from Tishbe – 1 Kings 17:1. All great servants of the Lord go through boot camp. As we follow Elijah’s training, we can learn some lessons about how God is working in us.
It has been a little over a generation since David and Solomon’s reigns filled the land with peace and prosperity. Then, one by one, the kings of Israel sat on the throne and plunged the nation into an abyss of darkness. Religious, moral, and social rot destroyed the nation like gangrene that putrefies an unsuspecting limb. Just as Moses had faced Pharaoh and challenged the powers of darkness over Egypt, God would unleash His power through Elijah to challenge Ahab and call His people to repentance.
It was a desperate time for the young nation. Ahab rejected the ways of God and was guilty of the worst of offenses against the Almighty.
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. (1 Kings 16:30-31)
Ahab failed to realize that He could not disregard the ways of God and go unaffected. Rejecting God’s ways will flatten you if you flaunt your human disobedience.
Three Boot Camp Lessons
What did the training of Elijah look like? What rigorous training, complements of an intense drill sergeant, kept Elijah doing double time?
1. God’s servants are drawn from the least likely sources.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “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. (1 Kings 17:1)
God loves to select his servants from the obscure, dusty streets of small town USA, and Israel for that matter. Elijah’s home was in Gilead, a place of mountainous rugged landscapes; jagged valleys filled the region and the hot desert sun produced countless cloudless days. It was an obscure and solitary place that God reached down into and pulled out his next masterpiece, one He would develop and unleash on an unsuspecting nation and its monarchy.
God takes Elijah directly to the palace of Israel where he makes a prophetic announcement to King Ahab. Elijah warns the ruling couple that a supernatural drought will fall over the land, lasting not just a few weeks or months but for three years. Farmer’s crops will beg for rain. The economic climate of the land will fail because of lack of rain. Little children will die because of dehydration. The aged will suffer under the burden of heat stroke. A nation suffered as Almighty God plunged His people into great affliction. Why would God do such a thing? Because on the throne sat wickedness personified.
Ahab had filled the nation with idolatry. He set himself up as the spiritual head of the nation, taking the place reserved for God alone. Ahab was personally responsible for declaring to Israel that the god Baal, not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would be worshipped in the land. The announcement was sealed at the altar when Ahab married Jezebel. When Ahab’s wife put the priests of Baal, the Canaanite god of harvest, on the royal payroll, God could take it no more.
Like Solomon’s wives Jezebel continued her pagan worship, and she did so with such magnitude and zeal that when the prophets of God opposed her she had them killed. Jezebel was bent on removing all true spiritual activity in the land, and at the height of her evil reign she imported hundreds of false prophets dedicated to Baal.
Baal was a god with many faces and a long-standing history. In one of the oldest religions in the world, he was seen as the god of the sun and the sea, and as the one who controlled the increase of crops and cattle. Worshipping him included incense and sacrifice, the sacrifice of children and the performing of perverted sexual activities that were used as pagan worship in the king’s court. (1)
The confrontation between Elijah and Ahab made the Jerusalem News and was picked up on all the prime time evening news programs. You see, no one confronts the royal couple and lives to tell about it. Who does Elijah think he is to challenge the King of Israel?
Elijah’s life was a fresh wind that blew across the decadent landscape filled with the foul-mouthed odor given off by Ahab and Jezebel’s leadership. The metal of a person’s character is forged on the anvil of challenging times. Elijah faced them. He was a bright star cast against a dark sky. J. Oswald Sanders likened Elijah to a meteor that “flashed across the inky blackness of Israel’s spiritual night.”
History is filled with those who have succeeded in the most difficult times.
a. Abraham Lincoln who steered a nation through a Civil War that begged to tear apart a new nation striving to forge out identity and governance.
b. Winston Churchill who rallied England to never give in until the imperialism of Hitler was crushed.
c. Corrie ten Boom who announced to generations to let forgiveness win out over hate and God’s love to win out over evil. (2)
Much of God’s word is related as biographical sketches. We can identify with lives that are shot full of humanity as they face temptation, live with fear, and struggle to find God’s will. God’s Spirit loves to work over a biographical sketch and draw truths from life and application right where we live.
2. God’s servants can live under harsher conditions than you realize.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there. (1 Kings 17:2-4)
If boot camp is known for one thing, it is the harsh training conditions that turn a civilian into a soldier. Before Ahab can comprehend the word that Elijah has given, Elijah is prompted by the Spirit to get out of town. Why does Elijah leave so quickly? He leaves for protection and preparation.
First - protection. No king likes to be shown up by a wanderer from Tishbe, a nobody in his eyes. Elijah had no credentials. No army marched at his beck-and-call. He came with no royal papers. He had no authority given to him. Now, skip to the next chapter and you see the obsession that Ahab had with finding Elijah; if Elijah doesn’t leave, he is dead. God called Elijah to go into the “witness protection program,” he had to go underground. Elijah would drop out of sight. He would vanish from the landscape. He would leave no forwarding address and he couldn’t be found.
As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or a kingdom where my master has not sent somebody to look for you. (1 Kings 18:10).
Second - preparation. This would be Elijah’s boot camp. Here he would go through weeks of training. What would the curriculum of boot camp be like?
Ø Isolation
Ø Harshness
Ø Aloneness
Ø Obscurity
Elijah’s resume started out impressive, he spoke to heads of state and made great prophetic declarations. But before he could capitalize on such notoriety, he was plunged in obscurity. Elijah is sent into obscurity to live near the filthy flow of a polluted stream that would eventually run dry in the treeless hills. This would be a great test of Elijah’s faith. Going to Cherith was the worst career move that Elijah could have made. It had no promise. Nobody great had ever come from the Cherith University. The credits would not even transfer to a University in Jerusalem. Elijah was going into obscurity.
We dread these dark times in the valley. We are people who prefer to shun the shadows. For most of us the hardest thing to hear is the word from heaven that says, “I am taking you out of the spotlight, and placing under the porch light.” As difficult as it is moving from the palace to the privacy of the brook, it is the only way God works. And if you are going to heaven, a place prepared for you by God, you have to go His way. The only way to become a man or women of God is to learn contentment in limiting conditions.
Friend, you can handle more limiting, harsh conditions than you realize. Isn’t that what happens in basic training. Soft and out of shape recruits who are used to eating Mom’s cooking are whipped into first-rate athletes that can run, climb, and handle all the punishment mediated out during boot camp.
When God wants you to learn at His feet, don’t recoil and chafe at the announcement that He wants you to be hidden at Cherith. There is a reason! God wants to do some more work in your soul and spirit. You haven’t arrived yet, and since you haven’t then expect to hear this announcement.
Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
During these boot camp experiences, God teaches us to trust Him one day at a time. God didn’t tell Elijah what the next step was until he had taken the first one. God will not show you your future until you come away with Him. As one author says, this is called the “value of the hidden life.” The purpose of this hidden life is to teach us our place in God’s plan. This can only happen if we are willing to be sequestered with God at the Brook Cherith. The idea of sequester comes from the legal field and means, “to cause to draw into seclusion.” (Webster) It comes from the Latin word that means depository. And that is exactly what God is doing to us during days of being hidden by His presence.
Now, for most of us this is all too painful. We have to be around activity, people, and cell-phones. I believe the busyness of our lives and the technology of our day is slowly robbing us of vital life with God. I will never forget watching Jews praying at the Wailing Wall, or more appropriately the Western Wall, in Israel and hearing a cell phone go off. Only those willing to draw away with God will ever achieve all that God has for them. I like what Vance Havner says, “If you don’t come apart, you’ll come apart.”
If you want to see a life filled with greater power, anointing, and the supernatural, it will only happen at the Brook Cherith. Elijah needed all the training God had for him in the secret place if he was ever to speak on behalf of God in the public place. Before God will ever take you to Mt. Carmel and use you in a mighty way, He has to take you to the desolation and obscurity of Cherith. Before you can ever have the palace, you have to serve faithfully in the prison. Before you can ever have a crown, you have to carry the cross.
3. God’s servants are willing to follow His direction, thus receiving His provision.
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. (1Kings 17:5-6)
Recently I received a check from the State of Washington in one of those cream colored envelopes that mean money. I opened it and found a check for $359.00. Before I could enjoy my new found farthings, I noticed that although the check was made out to me the money was to be used for Phil Squires.
My youngest brother lived in the state’s oldest mental hospital for over 5 years. For several years we made the almost 200 mile round trip to visit and take him grocery shopping. Then the state closed the wing where he lived and relocated him to a neighboring community in a group home with several other residents. The state also asked me to be a partial guardian to help care for Phil’s meals and medication. Now I had the resources to take care of his needs. I could have allowed that check to sit on my desk unopened or I could be the first in line at the bank, check in hand, to get the cash Phil needed for living. I had the power to give or withhold my brother’s resources for meals and medication. Because of my love for Phil, I made sure he got the money as soon as possible.
God wants to meet our needs; Paul makes this truth clear.
"And my God will meet all of your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:16)
God sent Elijah to the Brook Cherith for safety, for preparation, and for provision. Ravens delivered the menu. If there was food to be found during those days of drought, these guys were able to find it. Even though God’s strategy for meeting our needs is different than our plan, it is more than adequate to sustain us. Do we appreciate what God is doing in the Brook Cherith of our lives? Are you allowing God to deepen your walk with Him, teach you how to follow His leading, and lean upon His provision and be satisfied? Now, that is revolutionary thought.
Faithfulness
On November 19, 1990, Newsweek ran an article entitled, Letters In the Sand. It was a compilation of letters written by military personnel to family and friends in the states during the Gulf War. In one, Marine Corporal Preston Coffer told a friend, “We are talking about Marines, not Boy Scouts. We all joined the service knowing full well what might be expected of us.” He signed off with the Marine motto, Semper Fi, Latin for always faithful. (3)
God’s plan for your life is to produce a finely tuned servant and soldier, one that has dedicated his or her life to being a good steward of the life God has given you.
"Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." (1 Corinthians 4:2).
So what about it friend? How are you doing saint? Are you ready to go the Brook Cherith and complete your basic training so God can use you at Mt. Carmel?
Gary Merritt is a retired US Navy Lieutenant who comes to our church. He found Christ several years ago from a life of deep sin. God has used Gary to provide resources for our church so we can adequately honor the US military during days of national importance. One such time was associated with the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Gary helped us secure a flag from the local military base that covered the entire back wall of our sanctuary. While I was working on this first message in the series “Getting Back To The Basics,” I thought it would be insightful for those who are civilians to hear what an inductee might hear as he or she is sworn in to the US military. Can you see the parallels to what God is teaching us as He swears us into to His army and takes us through the stages of boot camp, advanced training, special forces, declaration of war, and the final days of retirement?
Please stand as Lt. Merritt swears us in as we prepare to surrender our lives as raw recruits to be shaped into military fitness at the hands of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word
ATTENTION!
Welcome to Recruit Training Command and Basic Training.
Look at the person on your right, on your left. In the next 8 weeks you are going to learn how to respect and trust that person. You will have to work together and help each other survive. You are going to become a close team.
While you are here, you will get your head shaved, you will be given uniforms, and you will send whatever you brought with you back home, because you will not need it. I will be your mom, your dad, and your closest friend. I will teach you how to walk, talk, stand, eat, dress, sleep, study, make your bed, exercise, and how to be a true soldier/sailor/marine.
You can take what you learn here and use it for the rest of your life, or you can forget it when you walk out the gate. But as long as you are here, you will do things my way.
You have made an important decision to serve your Commander in Chief and your country. This is the first day of the rest of your life. Treat it as such.
RECRUITS, DISMISSED
End Notes
1. Chuck Swindoll. The Life and Times of Elijah: Bible Study Guide.
Living For Insight. PO Box 69000. Anaheim, California. 1992, pg. 4-5.
2. Ibid, pg. 2.
3. Richie Lewis. Leadership Magazine. To Illustrate. Summer 1996, pg. 64.
Edited by Diane Gardner
