Elijah was an
inhabitant of Gilead, a city noted for its wickedness. As a solitary witness he
stood for God and rebuked the throne on which sat one of the most wicked of
Israel’s kings (1 Ki. 16:33).
Elijah had the
strength to do this because the Lord had commanded him. It is necessary for us
to be thus dependent on the Word of the Lord if we desire to do His will. After
speaking to others and exhorting them to obey the Word of the Lord only, the
preacher is (and ought to be) exercised himself. The Lord takes him aside and
asks, “Are you dependent on Me as you have been telling others to be? Do you
believe I will supply all your need? Are you troubled in these trials,
or do you cast all on Me?” So the Lord speaks to the speaker.
After Elijah
gave his public testimony, the LORD directed him, “Turn eastward, and hide
yourself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan” (1 Ki. 17:5). The Lord
promised to sustain him by extraordinary means—by impossible means, we should
say—for the brook was fed by rainfall that had been stopped as Ahab’s
punishment, and the ravens were the most unlikely birds to bring him food. They
are specially spoken of as crying for meat in Job 38:41 and Psa. 147:9. They
are also noted for eating carrion, and so would naturally be repulsive to
Elijah.
What a test of
faith it was for Elijah to dwell by the brook Cherith which daily grew smaller.
It was close by the much larger Jordan River, but he must stay here and must
not go there because it was the word of the Lord. Do you realize what it meant
to him and means to us? We, like Elijah, are to stay just where the Lord would
have us, in separation from all, alone, beside a brook that will surely dry up
because its sources have been cut off, in full view of the Jordan (which speaks
of judgment). Do we have a brook on which we depend? It must dry up and fail,
but the Lord who placed us there knows this and will make provision when it
does. Are we content to be thus waiting for “the word of the Lord” when it
looks foolish to stay?
When the brook
did dry up the Lord put Elijah’s faith to a further test and sent him to
Zarephath, a city of Zidon (a Gentile city), to a widow woman who did not have
enough food for herself. Indeed, when Elijah asked her for food her need was
revealed; she said she had only “a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil
in a cruse” and was about to prepare her last meal and die. But Elijah said,
“Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for
you and for your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until the day that the
LORD sends rain upon the earth.” (1 Ki. 17:12-14).
The widow did
this; she had faith to provide for God’s representative first, and her own
needs were satisfied, not only for the present but for the immediate future
also. Notice that she spoke of “a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil
in the cruse,” but the LORD God of Israel referred to it as “the barrel
of meal” and “the cruse of oil.” Do we put the Lord’s interests first as
this widow did? Do we? If we do, then He will look after our interests.
“Bring all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me
now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it” (Mal. 3:10).
“Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you” (Matt. 6:33).
A little boy
once said to his mother when things were at low ebb:“Oh, mother, I believe God
waits until He hears the scraping of the bottom of the barrel.” And He does
hear. He is the all-sufficient One. May we just trust, and make use of faith’s
keys, and “The barrel of meal shall not waste and the cruse of oil shall not
fail.”
(From Help
and Food, Vol. 46.)
*
* *
May we thus, in God confiding,
And from self‑dependence
free,
Find our rest—in Christ abiding—
Till with joy Himself we see.
Philip
Doddridge