"The Brook Dried Up"

I Kings 17: 1-7

“The brook dried up”

While the long drought we have experienced this summer has been difficult to endure, it actually saved the life of eighteen year old college student Julian McCormick.

On the morning of September 1, Julian left his Bowie State University campus to pick up his girlfriend, but he never arrived. As the days began to pass, his family feared the worst, but hoped for the best.

As Julian McCormick recalls it, he lay in and out of consciousness for eight days and seven nights, hot, sticky and bloody with not a clue as to what day it was or how he ended up trapped in his overturned car at theGod has not forgotten Elijah. God knows exactly what he is going through. Isaiah 49:15 ask, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget the

The brook dried up not because God was FORSAKING Elijah. Something goes wrong and we say, “I knew it. God doesn’t love me.”

The Bible says that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. God will never stop loving you.

The brook dried up not because was God was FINISHED with Elijah. Elijah had not sinned. Often we think, “I know. It’s because I’ve sinned that God has allowed this to happen to me.”

We go through an endless series of mental gymnastics, torturing ourselves, saying, ’I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have done that.” Like Job, Elijah had done nothing wrong.

The brook dried up not because Elijah was out of the will of God.

A lot of times when you start having difficulties in your life, you begin to question the will of God. Was Elijah in the will of God? Yes, he was but his brook dried up nonetheless.

How could God do this to His faithful prophet Elijah? Water was a basic need, essential for Elijah’s survival.

Why would God let this happen to Elijah or to us?

Why would God allow the brook to dry up?

Let me suggest three reasons!

I. The brook dried up to PROVE HIS FAITH.

The last word Elijah had from God was to go the brook (2-5). I believe the brook dried up to test Elijah. Is he going to take things into his own hands now or is he going to wait on God?

Elijah was where God told him to be and doing what he was told to do, and the brook dried up. How can you explain it? Could it be that Elijah’s heart was being tested to see if his trust was in the Brook Cherith or the living God?

What brook dried up? The very one God promised as a source of water.

The words “dried up” refers to a process. Elijah did not just wake up one morning and suddenly find the brook dry. Day after day he observed the little brook dwindling in its water supply, and he knew what was coming.

What must he have thought? What do you suppose he did? Did he measuring the depth of the brook each day?

Did he have his eyes on the problem? I wonder if he attempted to tell God what He needed do?

What would you have done as the brook dried up? Sit there quietly claiming the promises of God.

I have the highest regard for Elijah. I wouldn’t have been able to sit there and watch the brook dry up. I would have gotten out my road map and been looking for every water hole in the area.

Why sit here; do something is what most of us would have done.

Notice that Elijah didn’t do anything until the word of the Lord came to him again in verse 8. We must keep doing what the Lord last commanded us to do until new instructions come, regardless of our circumstances.

Circumstances may have caused Elijah to look for an answer, but he didn’t move until the word of the Lord came to him.

Finally, note 1 Kings 17:8. “Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying.” God was not unconcerned about Elijah. He had a plan. He came to Elijah’s rescue. Granted, sometimes He cuts it a little close in our thinking, but He is always on time.

God’s timing is usually not our timing. This is one of the reasons we are told numerous times in Scripture to wait on the Lord. Rather than turn to our own devices and run ahead of the Lord, we are to take it to Him and wait by faith on His timing and directions.