The Brook Cherith

Introduction: The Purpose of Studying Elijah's Life

0:04 We come tonight to the third in a series of studies in the life of this mighty prophet of God, Elijah. We are studying his life for two basic reasons. Number one, the attainability of the pattern of his life. The scripture tells us he was a man of like passions.

0:22 The scripture commands us to take the prophets for an example. And what the grace of God did for Elijah, that same grace can do for us. And then the second reason, because of the tremendous parallelism between his times and ours, perhaps we can receive directives for the crucial issues that face us as Christians in our own generation. The state of Israel, I trust you have clearly in your mind, at its lowest point of apostasy under this terrible king and his wicked wife, when the nation espouses the worship of Baal, and Asherah, and in that sense divorces itself from the worship and relationship to Jehovah God of Israel. False teaching is aggressively propagated by 850 false prophets, at least. There may have been many more who did not eat at the king's table. This many did.

1:22 And into that dark situation, God brings this rugged, eccentric preacher, Elijah. He brings him, as it were, out of nowhere, stands him before the king, to make his pronouncement. Last week we studied that pronouncement, what it signified, and I trust you recall that the crux of the whole issue was this. Elijah was engaging the conflict where it truly raged.

1:46 Is Baal God, or is God God? Baal, the supposed God of productivity and material blessing, and so now he declares that the existence of the true God will stand or fall upon the issue of a shut heavens, if Baal is not the true God. If Baal is able to override Jehovah and open the heavens, then let Baal be God. But he says, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, there shall be no dew nor rain these years but according to my word.

The Simple Narrative of Elijah at Cherith

2:16 Then after this tremendous pronouncement and throwing down, as it were, the gauntlet, then we read, and this is where we pick up the narrative tonight, in verse 2 of 1 Kings 17, And the word of the Lord came unto him, that is, Elijah, 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 to the word of the Lord. For he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan.

2:59 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. Now verse 7, I'm going to tie in with the next story beginning with verse 8, but I shall read it anyway. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Tonight our study will focus upon Elijah by the brook, particularly verses 2 through 6.

3:31 Now the actual narrative, the facts of the story are very simple. In fact, this reads almost like a child's story. If you notice the simple little statements, many of them simple declarative statements, very little that is difficult to understand, and it breaks down very naturally into four simple parts. Part 1, the clear directive of God.

3:54 And the word of the Lord came unto him saying, notice now that this directive came in the timing, timing of God, sovereignly and graciously. There is no indication that Elijah was clamoring around, pleading for some guidance, or as it were, frustrated by what the next step should be. Just simply and artlessly after he makes his pronouncement, the word of the Lord comes to him. God taking the initiative to give him direction.

4:25 And then it comes giving specific factors. Factor number 1, get the hens and turn the eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith. Here God tells him the precise place where he wants him to go, as a retreat and seclusion both from Ahab and from the people. Cherith, we don't get much help.

4:49 When we look in the Bible dictionaries and the commentators, where was it? What was it like? Why did God send him there? These things we cannot answer at present.

4:59 Perhaps something will yet be unearthed through archaeological discoveries that will give us some more light. But as a possibility and a conjecture, someone who has given himself to some study on this says that perhaps it was similar to one of these places which can be seen even in Palestine today. No spot in Palestine is better fitted to afford a secure asylum to the persecuted than, and then he names the place, on each side of it extend the bare desolate hills of the wilderness of Judea, in whose vastnesses David was to bid defiance to Saul. The Nelt is one of the wildest ravines in this wild region.

5:42 In some places it is not less than 500 feet deep and just wide enough to give passage to a streamlet like a silver thread and to afford space for its narrow fringe of oleanders. The banks are almost sheer precipices of naked limestone and are here and there pierced with the dark openings of caves and grottoes in some one of which Elijah may have lain concealed. It opens into the great valley and from its depths issues a narrow line of verdure into the white plain. It gradually spreads as it advances until it mingles at the distance of a mile or two with the thickets that encompass Reha, the modern representative of Jericho. So apparently it was some place suited for the retreat of a prophet where he could be secluded both from his enemies and from the people in the purpose of God. So much, then, for the directive of God. This is followed directly by the promise of God.

6:45 Here's what I want you to do, Elijah. Now verse 4. And it shall be, here's the promise, that thou shalt drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. Elijah, my promise is simply this.

7:01 There will be adequate provisions made for your physical sustenance. The brook for your drink and the ravens for your victuals to sustain your life during this period of retreat. But notice, the promise of God is contingent upon this little word. I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

7:23 There. In other words, Elijah, my promise, when you're in my place, is sure and absolute. But once you step out of the boundaries of that place, there's no claiming of the promise. So the clear directive comes with a promise, a promise that has this condition, that it will be fulfilled as the prophet walks in implicit obedience to the direction of God.

7:51 And the sequel tells us, beginning with verse 5, of the obedience of Elijah. God gives directive. God confirms it with a promise. And we read of the implicit obedience of the prophet.

8:03 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is, before Jordan. Simple, implicit obedience. Not like Jonah, who runs from the presence of the Lord when directive comes. Not like Saul, who gets directive through the prophet and alters it a bit and tampers with it and gives partial obedience, but implicit obedience.

8:30 Strict obedience. Line by line, precept by precept, obedience. No reckoning, no record of any questions that the prophet had. If he had any inner struggles or any conflicts, there's no record of it.

8:46 God speaks and the prophet goes. And then we have the fourth part of the narrative, the fulfillment of the promise of God. Verse 6, And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. Isn't it a beautifully simple narrative?

Lessons About God Himself: Inscrutability, Sovereignty, Certainty

9:03 A clear command, a gracious promise, implicit obedience, and the fulfilled word of the living God. Now, if 2 Timothy 3.16 is true, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, then this passage must have some doctrine in it. It must have some reproof.

9:36 It must have some correction. It must have some instruction in righteousness. God has not put this here simply that we might know that he gave a command to the prophet and a promise and that the prophet obeyed and the promise was fulfilled and we're saying that wonderful. Wonderful God, wonderful prophet.

9:54 No. No. There's something in here to give us clear direction. For you see, God has been pleased to give the great doctrines of his word many times in the unfolding of history that we might see that they're not abstract theological principles, but they are living principles by which life is to be governed and by which the people of God are to conduct themselves.

10:19 And I would like to suggest that this passage has, in the first place, some wonderful lessons of understanding, some practical lessons about God himself. It is rich in the doctrine of God. Secondly, some very practical and helpful lessons about the ways of God with his people. And in the last place, a very sober lesson about the ways of God with a sinning nation.

10:46 As we consider these lessons about God himself, they should lead us to worship. As we consider the lessons about the ways of God that lead us to thanksgiving and to more intelligent Christian living. And as we consider this principle about the ways of God with a sinning nation, it ought to fill us with holy fear and drive us to holy intercession and give us some very practical direction. All right then, what are the lessons about God himself in this simple little four-verse narrative?

11:21 Well, first of all, there is this lesson, that the ways of God are inscrutable. Now, the word inscrutable is a good word. It means something that cannot be fathomed, something that is mysterious. When you scrutinize something, you look it over very carefully to discover what the thing really is and how it ticks and how it's put together.

11:47 Now, when you try to look over the ways of God to see why they tick the way they do, you find that they are inscrutable. This is what the apostle is saying in Romans chapter 11, the latter part, when he says, Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him? Then he goes on to say that his ways are what? Past tracing out all the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

12:18 Well, you say, what do you see about the inscrutability of the ways of God in this passage? Well, just look at it. Here the nation is in such a terrible state and Elijah has thrown down the gauntlet. No rain, no dew for these three years.

12:34 What would you and I do if we were running the show? Well, I think we'd say, now Elijah, you start going around the countryside and as people see the dew stopping suddenly and they begin to ask why, then you stand up in the street corner and make the announcement, tonight at six o'clock I'm going to explain to this village out here in such and such a place why there is no dew. And he'd get his crowd. Boy, that's a real contemporary subject.

12:58 Why no dew? And everybody would gather and he'd have a tremendous opportunity to preach. Think of all the converts he could have made. Think of the tremendous influence he could have had.

13:08 And yet instead of the word of the Lord coming to him saying, now that you've thrown down the gauntlet to give a proof to the whole nation that you're a true prophet, you've got your credentials. Now go out and call the nation to repentance. Now it says, the word of the Lord comes and says, go hide yourself. Go stick yourself in a hole.

13:25 Get out of sight. Don't understand. And when God goes to provide for him, why in the world ravens? And we're going to see in a little bit, this is a strange providence of God.

13:37 Why ravens? If you and I were going to make the provision, maybe we'd do it like the Lord did with his people. We'd resurrect manna provisions. Maybe open up a rock to send in some water.

13:51 Very strange, this whole passage. What is God teaching us? Well, I think he's teaching us precisely what he taught the prophet, that the ways of God are inscrutable. And as long as you and I have that terrible itch to get answers as to why God does what he does, we never get answers.

14:11 We sang tonight, blind unbelief is sure to err and stand his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. And if we could fit it in without breaking the meter and the rhyme, we'd put comma in his own time and in his own way and maybe not till we get to heaven. You see, God's not under obligation to explain his ways with us.

14:36 He comes to an Abraham to whom he has made explicit promise. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. He shall be the father of many nations. Now he says, go on up and kill him.

14:47 Go on up and kill him. Why? Well, what will happen? What will be...

14:54 No, just take him up and put a knife in him. Offer up your son. You see, if Abraham had tried to trace out the ways of God and spent his time trying to figure things out, he never would have saddled the donkey and taken his son by the hand and gone up to Mount Moriah. And in us as God's people there is this terrible itch, this terrible itch.

15:19 Somehow find out why. And we get that feverish spirit when some unusual providence comes into our lives. Oh, child of God, when it comes, remember Elijah and the brook Cherith and learn to put your hand upon your mouth and cry to God until the Holy Ghost puts his hand upon the mouth of the heart and all the whys are silenced. And you submit.

15:47 And say not grudgingly, but as Paul did, God, your ways are past tracing out. I'm glad you're that kind of a God. Not the grudging admission squeezed out because God's bigger than you and you know it's losing business fighting him. But the glad acknowledgment.

16:04 Thank you, Lord. I wouldn't have done it this way at all. Thank you for reminding me I'm not God, but you are. And that your mind is past tracing out.

16:13 Well, that's the first lesson I see in this passage about God himself. His way is inscrutable. Secondly, his sovereignty is absolute. Notice what he said to Elijah.

16:26 I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. Now, what was a raven? Well, the Palestinian raven was an omnivorous, excuse me, bird. That is, it would eat flesh and it would also eat vegetation.

16:42 It was just a plain old flying hog. It'll eat anything. And it was an unclean animal. And God says, I'm going to have ravens bring you flesh.

16:55 Now, stop to think for a minute. Flesh-eating birds like vultures and like some of the animals, the creatures we see, well, picking the flesh off the animals that have been killed on the highway, doesn't take long. The carrion exposed at warm temperatures. Remember, this was drought time.

17:14 No rain. The burning Palestinian sun. It wouldn't take long for any flesh to putrefy and to begin to decay. And what would be edible for ravens wouldn't be for the servant of God.

17:25 So this had to be good fresh meat, either already cooked somewhere or brought to him so quickly after it was killed, that it was still nice and fresh and hadn't gotten rancid by the time it got to the prophet. Now, where did it come from, morning and evening? Where'd those ravens get it? I don't know.

17:46 And good fresh meat like that, edible for the servant of God, why didn't they eat it? These were meat-eating birds. That's like having a dog carry a prime steak between his teeth and not munch once and come and drop it on your plate. What's God telling his servant?

18:09 Oh, what a precious lesson in the sovereignty of God. Elijah, you see the ravens out there picking up the carrion of dead animals? Why do they do that? Oh, that's their nature.

18:19 That's the laws of nature. Oh, is it? Oh, how un-theocentric we are in our thinking. You read in the Psalms and the psalmist says, even when the lions go out to seek their food, God moves them to seek their food.

18:34 And God is saying, there are no brute laws of nature. I've made a raven what a raven is and if I want to change the disposition of a raven so that he holds delicious meat in his hands or in his talons or in his beak, instead of putting it into his tummy, I want to remind you, Elijah, I'm the God who controls all the forces of nature. Are you praying that I'll keep the heavens shut up? The heavens and the operation of the clouds and the rain and the operations of temperature that produce dew, Elijah, don't fear.

19:09 You've prayed that it might not rain and don't think he wasn't continuing to pray. A promise laid hold of in faith is, as it were, reaffirmed by the continuing prayer of faith. And so every day as Elijah prays, O Lord, I've gone out on the limb. Your name, Your glory is at stake.

19:26 I've made the pronouncement no rain until I speak again. O God, fulfill Your word of promise. And then the raven comes and he's reminded, I am the God who orders the laws of nature. I made them.

19:38 I control them. And he'd see that raven coming every morning or ravens, plural, and every night and he'd know that the sovereignty of God extended to every single realm of his creation. Not only in the disposition of the raven, but in putting the meat there for the ravens to get. Whether God dropped it out of heaven like He did manna, I don't know.

20:00 Wouldn't trouble me if He did. That's not hard for me to believe. Whether God moved the heart of some butcher in the king's palace to throw a few hunks out the window every day and had the ravens write, I don't know. Scripture is silent.

20:14 Perhaps that might make an interesting study for some family night. Where do you believe the ravens got the food? And we ought to have some essays. Perhaps that might be interesting.

20:23 But it doesn't say. But there was the food, accessible morning and evening. God is demonstrating this tremendous principle of His absolute sovereignty. And then the third lesson we learn about God Himself in this passage, not only that His ways are inscrutable, His sovereignty is absolute, but His promises are certain.

20:47 He says to a prophet, go to a place, as far as we know, that maybe He's never been before. And He says, I am going to feed thee there, and you're going to drink of a brook. In other words, Elijah, as you do My will, I'll never be debtor to you. I will sustain you and bring every provision necessary to give you life as long as I have purposes of grace for you and through you.

21:15 You're invincible. You're indestructible. I'll see to it that your needs are met. Isn't this the gracious promise of God to us as people?

21:24 My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Here was a man seeking the kingdom of God, longing to see it reestablished in this apostate people. He's not just going off on a vacation and squandering his time and energies, as it were, and praying that God will pick up the tab.

21:53 There's a man who's right dead center in the purpose of God. And God says, Elijah, all that you need to be sustained in the accomplishment of My will, I undertake to pick up the tab. And he made that promise and he fulfilled it. This passage has been a great encouragement to the saints of God in the past.

Illustrations of God's Certain Promises

22:11 And I want to give, we have the young people here, and maybe us old folks don't mind stories either. But here are several illustrations from real life of how the Lord has used this passage and this principle, the promises of God to meet the needs of His people, are certain. A little boy, having read this incident in this chapter, with his wife and children, with his widow mother, one wintry night, as they sat in a fireless room beside a bare table, asked her if he might set the door open for God's ravens to come in. No wood for the fire, no food on the table.

22:48 Read the story and he just believed God's going to send some ravens. So he asked permission to his mom, from his mommy, if he can open the door. He was so sure that they must be on their way. The burgomaster of that German town, I guess he'd be like the mayor, passed by.

23:03 Wouldn't a burgomaster be like the mayor? Anybody know? I think so. Well, if nobody knows, then I can say he's the mayor and nobody can contradict me.

23:11 All right, he's the mayor. Mrs. Schultz is shaking her head, so I must have had it right. He was attracted by the sight of the open door, and entering in, inquired the cause of the open door.

23:23 When he learned the reason, he said, I will be God's raven and relieve their needs then and afterwards. Two other incidents were very touching along the same line. The good Kumacher, in commenting on this passage, relates the following incident as one well known to his hearers. Who else was it, said he, but the God of Elijah, who only a short time ago in our neighborhood so kindly delivered a poor man out of his distress, not indeed by a raven, but by a poor singing bird.

23:55 You are acquainted with the circumstance. The man was sitting early in the morning at his own house door. His eyes were red with weeping, and his heart cried to heaven for he was expecting an officer to come and distrain him for a small debt back in the days when they threw you in the debtor's prison when you didn't pay your debts. And while sitting thus with a heavy heart, a little bird flew through the street, fluttered up and down as if in distress, until at length, quick as an arrow, it darted over the good man's head into his cottage and perched on an empty cupboard.

24:27 The good man, who little imagined who had sent him the bird, closed the door, caught the bird, placed it in the cage, where it immediately began to sing very sweetly. And it seemed to the man as if it were the tune of a favorite hymn, Fear Thou Not When Darkness Rains. And as he listened to it, he found it soothed and comforted his mind. Suddenly, someone came knocking at the door.

24:51 Ah, it's the officer, thought the man, and was so afraid. But no, it was the servant of a respectable lady who said that the neighbors had seen a bird fly into his house and she wished to know if he had caught it. Oh, yes, answered the man. I've caught it.

25:06 Here it is. And the bird was carried away. A few minutes after the servant came again. You have done my mistress a great service, he said.

25:15 She sets a high value upon this bird which had escaped from her. She is much obliged to you and requests that you accept this trifle with her thanks. The poor man received it thankfully, and it proved to be neither more nor less than the sum he owed. So when the officer came, he said, Here's the amount of the debt.

25:33 Now leave it and leave me in peace, for God has sent it to me. May I give you one more? These were so precious and touched my own heart. This is associated with the history of a German hymn.

25:47 About two years after the close of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, George Newmark lived in a poor street in Hamburg. Obtaining a precarious livelihood by playing the violin cello, after a while he fell sick and was unable to make his usual rounds, apparently like the fellow you'll see on our slides of our recent trip to Great Britain, where we have a picture of a man who fiddled for his living down by the ferry. When you went down to wait for the ferry, he'd come fiddling by and then take off his hat and throw a few, throw a tuppence in there or a shilling or something else. Well, this man made his living this way, but being sick, he was out of a job.

26:25 As this was his only means of support, he was soon reduced to great straits and was compelled to part with his instrument, that is his violin, to a Jew who with characteristic sharpness lent him on it a sum much below its value for two weeks, after which, if it were not redeemed, it was to be forfeited. You know, this is the beginning of Pawn Shots. As he gave it up, he looked lovingly at it and tearfully asked the Jew if he might play one more tune upon it. You don't know, he said, how hard it is to part with it.

26:56 For ten years it's been my companion. If I had nothing else, I had it. And it spoke to me and sung back to me of all the sadness and sad hearts that have left your door, there has been none so sad as mine. His voice grew thick.

27:09 Then, pausing for a moment, he seized the instrument and commenced the tune so exquisitely soft that even the Jew listened in spite of himself. A few more strains and he sung to his own melody two stanzas of his own hymn, Life is Weary, Savior, Take Me. Suddenly the key changed. A few bars and the melody poured forth itself anew, and his face lighted up with a smile as he saw the song yet who knows the cross is precious.

27:37 Then laying down the instrument he said, As God will, I am still and rushed from the shop. Going out into the darkness he stumbled against a stranger who seemed to have been listening at the door and who said to him, Could you tell me where I could obtain a copy of that song? I would willingly give a florin for it. My good friend, said Newmark, I will give it you without the florin.

27:59 The stranger was the valet to the Swedish ambassador and to him the poet told the story of his trials. He in turn told his master who being in want of a private secretary engaged Newmark at once and so his troubles ended. But with his first money he redeemed his instrument and on obtaining it he called his landlady and his friends and neighbors to hear him play on it again. Soon his room was filled and he sung to his own accompaniment his own sweet hymn of which this is the last stanza Leave God to order and hope in him whate'er betide thou find him in the evil days thine all sufficient strength and guide who trust in God's unchanging love builds on the rock that naught can move. Now granted those are unusual circumstances but you see the principle is the same. Here were people who pled the promise of God believed in the principle that God will meet the needs of his people and at the point of despair God wonderfully provided for them. Well so much for the lessons about God.

Lessons About God's Ways with His People: Gradual Revelation of Will

29:07 Now may we hurry to consider what lessons are there about the ways of God with his people. Often the scriptures speak about the ways of God the patterns of his dealings and here in this passage we have at least three or four very helpful principles about the ways of God. The first one is this the discovery of the will of God comes gradually. As you read through the narrative of the life of Elijah you will be struck how time and again this phrase comes and the word of the Lord came to him saying and then there was new direction and then when he had discharged the directions there and as it were had come to an impasse the word of the Lord comes to him saying and then again the word of the Lord comes to him saying and Elijah's life and ministry of God comes as an unfolding or opening flower. Now this itch for an unfolding beyond what God knows we need is a cursed thing. It keeps fortune tellers in business making millions of dollars in cultured educated 20th century America. What will happen election night?

30:24 People will sit up all night watching the results of computers that are going to so supposed to project I know what I'm going to do I'm going to go to sleep that computer isn't going to change the will of God promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the American electorate the Lord he is King he setteth up one and put it down another so when I've exercised my responsibility intelligently as a citizen and pulled the lever that I feel before God I should I'm going home go to bed no not go home that will be early in the morning I've got to preach and go to bed and go to bed well why you see why won't people just be content to wait for the results to come in there's this itch to want to know something beyond what God is willing to unfold that's in all of us all of us well Elijah learned the hard way or learned not the hard way but in a very clear way that God's not obligated to let us know anything but his will for the present moment all he apparently knew you're to go to Elijah go to Ahab and tell him it will rain till I speak again but Lord what do I do after that Lord what do I do after he speaks to me do I stand there and preach do I jump under the rug do I go out the window what do I do no indication that he knew after he gives the word then the word of the Lord comes and says get out of here

31:53 so he turns on his heel and then God says left or right whatever direction you're supposed to go and then you find later on as he's there and the brook dries up not until then verse 8 the word of the Lord he saw that brook drying up and the temptation would be hey Lord I got enough sense to see the last week the brook went down six inches this week another six inches there's only eighteen inches left that means three more weeks Lord no more brook what am I gonna no indication of that if he had it he wrestled it through and said Lord I don't need to know another thing about where I get my drink until the last drop is gone in that brook and it's then when the brook was dried up then the word of the Lord comes to him again the discovery of the will of God comes gradually why do we want it anything more than that I think maybe it's the hidden suspicion that maybe we might be able to do something about it if we knew see why do you want to know if our future husband or wife is going to be good looking or not so good looking well maybe we think we'd be able to change the situation see down underneath we're not willing for God to be God no you and I must learn to walk in the present light until a fresh word comes from God or fresh circumstances arise to alter our present situation and become the voice of God to us to move now you and I need to know this

Lessons About God's Ways with His People: The Discipline of Seclusion

33:22 and not get the itch for change because the greatest problem you have wherever you are is you and the itch for change many times is this subtle idea that somehow I'll get away from me well you're going to be wherever you are and circumstances won't make that much difference with you you're going to settle right down in where God has placed you and the word of the Lord has hedged you up and then you wait for the unfolding of the purpose of God then the second great principle and this is perhaps one of the most vital in this passage is that the discipline of seclusion is part of God's preparation for usefulness here he's come from this very dramatic encounter with the king and from that open declaration he has shut up in the silence in the silence and he's gone and he's gone and he's gone you have heard and enough of what he's going to tell us through the words with sound and OM turn R R 0 0 0 0 0 0 R 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 R 5 He shut him up for this period for the simple reason that here in the seclusion and the discipline of this seclusion,

34:49 those Christ-like qualities which make a true servant of God are learned by experience. Here Elijah learned to lay his reputation in the hands of God. Can you imagine what they would say when the drought began to be manifested and no dew and no rain and the weeks went into months? And they'd say, hey, where's that prophet who brought these words?

35:12 Ah, he's gone out and hid himself somewhere. Yeah, he sure had a lot of big talk. The chips are down. You can't find him.

35:18 He's a coward. Why isn't he coming? He's so brave to stand up to the king. Why doesn't he show himself?

35:25 You see, this looked like a cowardly thing. Hide thyself. It always looks cowardly to hide.

35:33 He learned that his reputation was in the hands of God to do with as he pleased. That's a hard lesson to learn. We love our name and our reputation. And we commit ourselves to the principle of protecting it and preserving it and polishing it.

35:50 See, your reputation is what men think you to be and what you may want them to think you to be when only what really matters is what God knows you are. And so the matter of reputation, the matter of submission, no longer active, a period of relative uselessness as far as outward ministry is concerned. You see, there's something about the crisis. There's something about the crisis of service that brings out the best in a man.

36:16 This happens to an athlete, a man who has maybe tremendous natural ability, when he gets in that crisis situation and he's just got to come up with that almost superhuman effort, that's when he does it. I listened to the last part of the Notre Dame-Michigan State game yesterday, and it was thrilling. Notre Dame, a two-touchdown favorite, and Michigan State had been outplayed as far as yardage and passes completed. And Notre Dame, with a couple minutes to play, only four points behind.

36:43 They get down on the two-and-a-half-yard line, four downs to make it. Two-and-a-half yards. It means it's seven-and-a-half feet. And that Michigan State defense dug in and took the ball away from them on the fourth down and had them back on the seven-yard line and won the game 20-16 or 21-17.

37:01 It's thrilling. Well, you see, what happens is, in that time of crisis, men who've been disciplined and have given themselves to perfecting a given art in some sport or any other discipline, there's something about the crisis of conflict. It draws out the best in a man. Any one of you have had to teach or minister, have some sphere of responsibility.

37:22 You know what I'm talking about. Now Elijah is cut off from all of that. And all he has is the howling wastes of that area by the brook Cherith to which God has sent him. And all to learn submission when God says you're to be quiet and be secluded, especially once you've had.

37:45 Oh, that's hard. Sometimes God does it with sickness. And that becomes the Cherith of some saint of God, where God shuts them out from their normal sphere of activity. And oh, how they have to learn submission.

38:02 Because often, in ways that we are not aware of while we're in the public eye, our motives for service are mixed. We begin to be enamored by our own voice. And then in that Cherith situation, God begins. To show us how mixed our motives were.

38:21 How impure our motives were. How much of our service was bounded and pressured by self-love and love for our reputation, even as a teacher or preacher. Oh, I've seen this happen at Bible school. Young men and young women who were, quote, spiritual giants, as long as they were flipping around the campus, leading everything under the sun.

38:44 Two years later, they get married. And three years later, they got three little kids.

38:49 And they learned that life was all. Suddenly cut off from all the eyes that watch them and all the ears that hear them. And there they are, stuck by a Cherith, out of sight, out of mind. And they become sour, bitter, full of self-pity.

39:08 Why? They haven't learned to submit.

39:13 They haven't learned to submit. I talked with a preacher just recently who, facing the fact that God may be leading him to a Cherith, and it looks that way as he opened his heart to me, appeared that way to me. And he said, but what am I going to do, Brother Marty? But he knows I'm called to preach, and I know I'm called to preach and to lead the ministry.

39:31 I said, ah, wait a minute, calling him by first name. I said, what have you been called, first of all, to be? He said, a Christian. I said, and what is a Christian?

39:38 He said, someone who believes in and submits to Jesus Christ. I said, all right, don't forget it. That's your first calling.

39:47 Don't forget it. That's your first calling. You see, the flesh recoils when God says Cherith. Cherith, out of sight, out of mind.

39:56 No thank yous, no warm expressions of appreciation.

40:01 Here's where the prophet learns submission. Here's where he learns not only to commit his reputation to God, principles of submission, but he learns something of faith.

40:13 Now, you and I read this and say, oh, that's fine, but suppose God told you that ravens were going to bring your food.

40:21 Would you be going to go out and stake your future existence on some ravens? Huh? You've never seen them do it before. I mean, it'd be all right.

40:30 I've been sitting on the sidelines and seen them bring the food to Elijah for three weeks. You'd say, yeah, it works pretty good. And the Lord says, now you go out and I'll do the same for you. But there was no precedent.

40:39 As far as I know, no precedent in Scripture. Maybe that's why God did that. Had God said, I'll send manna from heaven and open up a rock, there would have been some precedent. The same way when God came to Mary and said to Mary, you as a virgin, a woman who's never known a man, you're going to be a mother.

40:56 There was no precedent. So the only precedent that even approached it, was her sister, I mean her cousin. So the Lord encourages her by saying, well, remember, Elizabeth, her nickname was the barren one, and she's going to have a child. She's six months with child.

41:12 You can see that Elizabeth is no longer going to have that nickname.

41:18 But no precedent set here. Test of his faith. And then as he sees that brook begin to go down and down and down, the Lord had said, I'm going to feed thee. I'm going to take care of thee.

41:32 You're going to drink of the water from that brook. That was his promise. His faith was tested. Well, you see, in the same way, God teaches us faith, not by helping us to find books on faith so we can read them, but by putting us in situations where we've got to believe God, sometimes with no previous precedent.

41:51 And all that stands between us, and in this case, hunger for the prophet was the promise of God. All, what more could you want?

42:02 And so he learned to believe God. And then perhaps the most vital, the most vital lesson that he learned in this discipline of seclusion was the reality of vital communion with God. When a man or woman is cut off from active ministry, he learns how much or how little he knows of true communion with God. Someone has said the man alone with himself has the worst of all companions.

42:35 A man alone with God has the best of all companions. And you see, many times it isn't until we're really alone that we know whether we just have ourselves or have God. There's a sense, you see, in which we can be buoyed up by the faith of our brethren, and that's why we need each other. And generally, the spiritual life comes to development in community.

42:59 The church is not an added extra. I talked to the young British fellow on our last trip over, and this is the lesson he learned. Up until recently, he thought that Christian fellowship was sort of a little something extra. It really wasn't.

43:12 It needed. All it had to be was him and the Lord. So he got in the situation where he had no fellowship for four months, and he almost went down under. And he said he realized that we need each other, and generally, God brings spiritual life to development in community so that we are strengthened by the faith and the zeal and the love and humility of our brethren.

43:31 But there are times when God cuts us off from all of that. Most of you mothers of young children, you know what it's like to be cut off from that sometimes for weeks at a time. Weeks at a time. In the normal means of grace, they're cut off.

43:46 Some of you have known what it is when you lay up on a hospital bed. Some of you nurses know what it is when your schedule is such that you're not able to be in the house of God when you want to. Many ways that God cuts us off. Mr. Clark, I'm sure, as a missionary, can tell us of situations.

44:00 No other who speak even your own language, let alone the language of God, let alone your mother tongue. And it's in those situations that we learn, how much or how little of vital communion with God we know. And it was here by Cherith that God is preparing this man for the conquest of Carmel. And Elijah was serving the Lord as much in his patient waiting upon God by Cherith as when he threw down the gauntlet before Ahab and puts the prophets to rout upon Mount Carmel.

44:40 And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves.

44:43 And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves.

44:43 And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves. And we need to learn that for ourselves.

44:43 And we need to learn that as we regard others.

44:48 God allowed blindness to overcome John Milton, the great poet.

44:54 And out of that experience of blindness came these classic words of Milton. I'll not read the entire section, but he deals with this fact. Why should God allow blindness to come? And then he said, that murmur soon replies, God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts.

45:15 Who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state is kingly, thousands at his bidding speed, and post or land in ocean without rest. They also serve who only stand and wait. They also serve who only stand and wait.

Lessons About God's Ways with His People: Diversity of Provision

45:39 Then another principle of God's dealings with his people. Is this worrying you? Sometimes I think we preach. We just mesmerize ourselves with our own voices.

45:53 But this to me is exciting to see how practical this is. The third principle of God's dealings with his people. The diversity of his provisions teaches us a balanced view of the ways of God in meeting our needs. I want to ask a simple question.

46:11 Which was more of God, the water that came by the brook, or the bread and the flesh that came from the ravens?

46:22 Well, Elijah bowed to thank God for his food. Should he thank God with more enthusiasm for the miracle of the ravens, or for the natural supply of the brook?

46:36 Maybe we ought to take that up some family night too. Well, I think you see the principle, don't you? He better thank God with equal gratitude for the water, the natural supply, and for the ravens, the supernatural. In fact, it's interesting that the ravens didn't stop coming.

46:55 It was the drying up of the brook. That preceded the next revelation. It was the drying up of the natural supply. Perhaps to even emphasize the lesson that whether by, quote, natural means or supernatural, it's God who meets our needs.

47:11 And we must learn to see his hand even in the natural course of a brook. In our studies in Thessalonians, we're going to see this section on work. How that God says the way your prayer for daily bread is answered is by daily labor. Now, it takes a while.

47:27 Now, occasionally, God sends some ravens. Those are blessed experience. When you've got a particular financial need, and you don't know how it's going to be met, and you're crying to God, you're doing all within your power responsibly to meet the need, but it isn't met, you refuse to violate the word of God to meet it in your own strength. There's the temptation.

47:47 You're stuck by the principle that the place of God's provision is the place of his will. And if he has said, the ravens will feed thee there, seeking first, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven , and you're doing all within your power within the appointed place, the needs are not met in your pride to God. Sometimes, he sends the ravens. We've had them come often, and that's a blessed experience.

48:15 I know of a couple today that had a raven come to them. A gift came from an anonymous source to meet a special need. That's blessed. That's a wonderful thing.

48:26 And because it's more spectacular, we tend to be more vehement in our praise than when God sends the brook at our feet day in and day out. The brook of strength to go out and work and put in our 40 hours a week. The brook of sanity of mind and stability of domestic situation that enables us to give ourselves to our employment. And oh, that we might learn as the people of God that whether it's ravens or brook, it's God that meets our need.

48:58 Notice what he said. I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. It's the Lord that meets the needs of His people. But in a diverse way.

Lessons About God's Ways with His People: Place of Appointment is Place of Provision

49:10 And we must see His hand in both ways. And then the last principle I see here relative to the people of God and God's ways with them is that the place of His appointment is the place of His provision. I have commanded the ravens to feed thee. Be there.

49:26 Elijah, move from there. There'll be no ravens. There's no brook. When our needs are not met, it's because of one or two reasons.

49:35 Either disobedience, we're not in the place that God has appointed, or unbelief. Ye have not because ye ask not. Prayerlessness is the silent language of unbelief.

49:50 And I refuse to believe. When people say, ah, but I know of so and so, I say you don't know. You don't know. You don't know all the circumstances.

49:59 You don't know the heart. I would rather take the promises of God and the examples of Scripture to believe as God says through His servant David. I am young and now I am old. I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed begging bread.

50:15 And then that promise in Matthew 6. If ye seek first the kingdom of God, all these things shall be added unto you. And He's speaking there of daily bread and daily sustenance. And I say to everyone, any of you who are pressed with continuous, I'm not talking about occasional now, where God tries your faith and pushes you to the wall, but with continuous plaguing of unmet material needs, it's either because you're living in disobedience to the revealed will of God or you're walking in unbelief.

Lessons About God's Ways with a Nation: The Silencing of the Prophetic Voice

50:47 And if you'll get in the place of His appointment, that's the place of His provision. And this passage teaches it beautifully. Now, I hurry to close by just bringing into focus, just one great lesson about God's ways with the nations. Not only other lessons about God, about His ways with His people, but lessons about His ways with nations.

51:12 What's the greatest curse that can come to a nation? Is it the famine that came to Israel when the heavens were shut up and the dew ceased to be there and the terrible blight followed?

51:26 No, the greatest curse is when God withdraws the prophetic voice and the curse is gone. According to chapter 18, verses 4 and 13, the few remaining prophets who've not been slain by Jezebel are shut up in a cave and this mighty prophet is hidden by a brook so that in the entire land of Israel no prophetic voice, the voice of God is still.

51:51 And the greatest curse that can come to any nation is when God withdraws the prophetic voice. We look at several passages in scripture that indicate this. In the second passage, the 74th Psalm, the psalmist cries out, O God, why hast Thou cast us off forever? Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?

52:16 And then he speaks of the terrible state of the people of God and pleads with God to do something. Will you notice carefully the indications now of God's anger against His people? Verse 8, They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

52:37 We see not our signs. There is no more any prophet. Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. No prophet.

52:52 The prophetic voice silenced God's judgment upon His people. And then that terrible indictment in the book of Amos, chapter 8 and verses 11, and 12, where God says He'll send a famine, not of food, but of hearing of the word of God. And then He describes that pathetic picture of people wandering to and fro throughout the land looking for the word of God. And there is no word.

53:20 Amos 8, 11, and 12, And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. For God, God had said in Deuteronomy 32, 2, that my doctrine shall distill as dew and as the rain. And God not only shut up the heavens and the dew from physical rain, but the dew of divine truth had been locked up and the prophetic voice was silenced.

53:52 Beloved, is there any clear indication of the judgment of God that's come to our own nation?

53:58 And the silencing of the prophetic voice, of the preaching of the whole counsel of God, and conversely, and this is where I see a little glimmer of hope, when God intends to bless a nation, He generally does so by resurrecting the prophetic utterance. When He's about to bring His Son into the sea, He raises up a John the Baptist who breaks the silence of some 400 years when there'd been no prophetic utterance and a voice came crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. God speaks again. And it seems, and I don't say this out of any sense of condemnation,

54:40 but it's, I believe, a valid observation, it seems as though God has bypassed, by and large, a generation in our own nation. And that God has begun to lay His hand upon young men once again into whose hearts He is burning His truth and who are mixing some blood with that truth and are willing to preach it no matter what the price. If so, in the midst of the darkness I see a little glimmer of hope. Many of those men are by a chariot now.

55:10 They are occupying places far beneath, humanly speaking, their capacity.

55:16 They are occupying places in obscurity. God has them locked up, as it were, by some chariot teaching them the principles of His Word, burning into their hearts the fire of His truth. And could it be that the hour will yet come when God will turn them loose upon our nation? We shall have a mount, I don't know, but I can hope and I can pray.

55:45 What's the greatest curse that God could ever bring to the Trinity Church?

55:51 To allow to come to this pulpit someone who lacked prophetic utterance.

56:00 That's the greatest curse.

56:04 You see, prophetic utterance always has certain marks to it, the mark of divine authority, the mark of divine penetration. Men were never comfortable around a prophet if they weren't walking with God. They could be comfortable, with the scribes and Pharisees, no matter what they lived like.

56:27 And, oh, beloved, if the time ever comes when we don't want searching preaching, preaching that causes us to bleed and then heals us again, God may give us what we want. Smooth preaching. Preachers who will say, Peace! Peace!

56:43 Who will heal slightly the hurt of the daughter of the people of God. Oh, as you cry for the Trinity Church, and I do, let us cry that God will preserve a note of prophetic utterance in its presence. Let us pray in its pulpit, in its Sunday school classes, that we may have the pure word of God preached. Dear child of God, where is the Lord God of Elijah?

Conclusion: Call to Trust and Application

57:05 He is the same yesterday, today. Bow to his inscrutable ways. Trust his absolute sovereignty. Rest in his certain promises.

57:14 Don't press him for guidance. Walk in your present circumstances assured that his word will come in his own way and time. Don't fight any chariot by which God places you. He puts you there to prepare you for some greater sphere of usefulness.

57:30 Don't dictate how he shall meet your needs. And if they're not met, ask yourself, am I by chariot or am I some other place? Am I in the place of his appointment? Am I believing his promises?

57:43 And then I say to any of you who are not Christians, you're not joined to Christ. Don't you long to know that you belong to a great God like this and that he's your father?

57:54 To know that this great God is our father is the most wonderful thing. It's the most wonderful thing in all the world.

58:00 For not only do we have the largeness of his father heart moving toward us in love and pity, but we have the might of his sovereign arm to provide for us and protect us and carry out his purpose. Well, this I submit is some of the doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that God has put in this account of Elijah by the book. Let us pray.