"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according
to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee
eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou
shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did
according unto the word of the Lord; for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before
Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the
evening; and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up,
because there had been no rain in the land" (1 Kings 17:1-7).

The prophet has been alone with God in the secret place of prayer. Then for a brief moment he
witnesses the good confession in the presence of the apostate King Ahab. The future, however,
holds a far greater service for Elijah; the day will come when he will not only witness for God in
the presence of the king, but he will discomfit the assembled hosts of Baal, and turn the nation of
Israel to the living God. But the time is not yet ripe for Carmel. The prophet is not ready to speak,
the nation not ready to hear. Israel must suffer the years of famine before they will listen to the
Word of God; Elijah must be trained in secret before he can speak for God. The prophet must take
the lonely way of Cherith and dwell in distant Zarephath before he stands on the Mount of
Carmel.
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The first step that leads to Carmel in the west must be taken in another direction. "Get thee hence
and turn thee eastward," is the word of the Lord. In God’s due time He will bring His servant to
the very spot where He is going to use him, but He will bring him there in a right condition to be
used. To become a vessel fit for the Master’s use, he must dwell for a time in solitary places and
travel by rough ways, therein to learn his own weakness and the mighty power of God.

Every servant of God has his Cherith before he reaches his Carmel. Joseph, on the road to
universal dominion, must have his Cherith. He must pass by way of the pit and the prison to reach
the throne. Moses must have his Cherith at the backside of the desert before he becomes the leader
of God’s people through the wilderness. And was not the Lord Himself alone in the wilderness
forty days tempted of Satan, and with the wild beasts, before He came forth in public ministry
before men? Not indeed, as with ourselves, to discover our weakness and be stripped of our self-
sufficiency, but rather to reveal His infinite perfections, and discover to us His perfect suitability
for the work which none but Himself could accomplish. The testing circumstances that were used
to reveal the perfections of Christ are needed in our case to bring to light our imperfections, that
all may be judged in the presence of God, and we may thus become vessels fitted for His use.

This indeed was the first lesson that Elijah had to learn at Cherith_the lesson of the empty vessel.
"Get thee hence," said the Lord, "and hide thyself." The man who is going to witness for God
must learn to keep himself out of sight. In order to be preserved from making something of
himself before men, he must learn his own nothingness before God. Elijah must spend three and
a half years in hidden seclusion with God before he spends one day in prominence before men.

But God has other lessons for Elijah. Is he to exercise faith in the living God before Israel? Then
he must first learn to live by faith from day to day in secret before God. The brook and the ravens
are provided by God to meet His servant’s needs, but the confidence of Elijah must be in the
unseen and living God, and not in things seen_in brooks and ravens.

Moreover, to enjoy God’s provision the prophet must be in the place of God’s appointment. The
word to Elijah is, "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." It was not left to Elijah to
choose his hiding place; he must submit to God’s choice. There only would he enjoy the blessings
from God.

Moreover, implicit obedience to the word of the Lord is only path of blessing. And Elijah took
this path, for we He went and did according to the word of the Lord." He went where the Lord
told him to go; he did what the Lord told him to do. When the Lord says, "Go and do," as to the
lawyer in the Gospel, unquestioning and immediate obedience is the only path of blessing.

But the brook Cherith had a yet harder and deeper lesson for the prophet_the lesson of the brook
that dried up. The Lord had said, "Thou shalt drink of the brook"; in obedience to the word "he
drank of the brook"; and then we read, words which at first sound so very strange, "The brook
dried up." The very brook that the Lord had provided, of which He had bid the prophet drink,
runs dry. What can it mean? Has Elijah after all taken a wrong step, and is he in a false position?
Impossible! God had said, "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." Was he doing the
wrong thing? Far from it; had not God said, "Thou shalt drink of the brook"? Beyond all question
he was in the right place, he was doing the right thing. He was obeying the word of the Lord_and
yet the brook dried up.

How painful this experience; how mysterious this providence! To be in the place of God’s
appointment, to be acting in obedience to His express commands, and yet suddenly to be called
to face the complete failure of the provision that God has made for the daily need_how testing
for faith! Had not Elijah boldly said before the king that he stood before the living God? Now he
is confronted with the drying brook to test the reality of his faith in the living God. Will his faith
in the living God stand firm when earthly streams run dry? If God lives, what matter if the brook
dries? God is greater than all the mercies He bestows. Mercies may be withdrawn, but God
remains. The prophet must learn to trust in God rather than in the gifts that He gives. That the
Giver is greater than His gifts is the deep lesson of the brook that dried up.

As we read on in the chapter, we find that the brook that dried up became the occasion of
unfolding greater glories of Jehovah and richer blessings for Elijah. It was but an incident used
by God to take the prophet on his journey from Cherith_the place of the failing brook_to the
home at Zarephath, there to discover the meal that never failed, the oil that did not waste, and the
God that raised the dead. If God allows the brook to dry up, it is because He has some better,
brighter portion for His beloved servant.

Nor is it otherwise with the people of God today. We all like to have some earthly resource to
draw upon; yet how often, in the ways of a Father who knows we have need of these things, we
have to face the brook that dries up. In different forms it crosses our path:perhaps by

bereavement, or by the breakdown of health, or by the sudden failure of some source of supply,
we find ourselves beside the brook that has dried up. It is well if, in such moments_rising above
the ruin of our- earthly hopes, the failure of human props_we can by faith in the living God
accept all from Him. The very trial we shall then find to be the means God is using to unfold to
us the vast resources of His heart of love, and lead our souls into deeper, richer blessing than we
have ever known.

(From Elijah:A Prophet of the Lord.)