When Your Brook Dries Up

Transcription

1 When Your Brook Dries Up 1 Kings 17:1-9 January 31, 2016 In our first year of marriage, Debra and I both taught in a Christian School and I directed music in the church. It amounted to three modest sources of income. But we failed to consider that when school was out in June, Debra's paycheck would stop for three months, though the church covered my school salary through the summer. To have our small income cut by a third for 3 months was a shock. Then I received a bill from State Farm for car insurance in the amount of $157. Prior to that I had been on my father's policy, so that bill was a surprise too. I simply didn't know how we were going pay it. But just a couple of days later, I received a notice in the mail from the IRS that a mistake had been made by my tax preparer in the amount of $157! The Lord had the provision in the mail before we even called on Him. The stories of God's provisions for his people jump off the pages of the Bible - and throughout history - and yes, even for people like you and me! This morning from I Kings 17 we'll see how God provided and prepared his man for dramatic adventures as he walked in the footsteps of faith. The nation of Israel had been in severe decline for a long time. After the reign of David and his son Solomon, 10 of the 12 Hebrew tribes revolted and created a separate kingdom known as the "Northern Kingdom" - with Samaria as its capital. Two tribes remained loyal to David's family in the south, (Judah and Benjamin) with the capital in Jerusalem. Throughout many generations in the Northern Kingdom there was never a good king. They were all evil. They led the people into idolatry and immorality, worshiping pagan demons like Baal and Ashtoreth, celebrating rituals that combined sexual perversion with shocking cruelty and violence. If you think times are bad for God's people in America, now, you haven't seen anything like what God's people faced in ancient Israel during this era of depravity. And to these dark times, God brought light through the prophet Elijah, who appears with little introduction. Yet even before uttering a single word, his name alone challenged the perverse Canaanite deities. It meant "Yahweh is my God." He cut a striking figure - a rugged, intimidating sun-bronzed character, whose daunting appearance reflected the wild and windswept Samarian wilderness he roamed. And the measure of his moral fiber far surpassed that of his fellow men - particularly his courage, faith, and zeal. He was courageous enough to denounce

2 King Ahab to his face and single-handedly challenge all of Baal's prophets to a showdown on Mt. Carmel. His faith was such that he dared declare to the king that there'd be not a thimbleful of dew or a drop of rain for 3½ years! And his zeal shone through when he stood at the mouth of the cave on Mt. Horeb and proclaimed "I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts!" He's been called "the prophet of fire." Let's pick up the story in 1 Kings 17. 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. Meet King Ahab - "that vile human toad who squatted upon the throne of his nation the worst of Israel's kings" (R.G. Lee). The Bible says that "Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him" (16:33). Then there was his infamous wife Jezebel from Sidon - a painted viper - the idolatrous daughter of an idolatrous king of an idolatrous people engaging with her maids in the worship of Ashtoreth the personification of the ugliest obscenity, uncleanness, and sensuality. Jezebel - the beautiful and malicious adder coiled upon the throne of the nation." (Lee) With such perverse leadership, the nation was on spiritual "life support." To get the attention of his people, God took drastic measures. In the New Testament book of James, we read: Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. (James 5:17) A few years back we were having an extended drought in the Southeast. I remember reading somewhere that it got so bad and so dry in Georgia that the Baptists started to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists used wet-wipes, the Presbyterians gave out rainchecks, and the Episcopalians, Catholics, and Lutherans prayed for the wine to turn back into water." (Ben Witherington) But a severe drought is no laughing matter. For the past month Edward Kibirige has been working with an emergency relief program, (Plan International) trying to help in Ethiopia where they're experiencing the worst drought in 30 years. They've seen repeated crop failures, decimated livestock herds and some 10 million have been driven into food insecurity. With 60 million people who earn on average about $110 annually, it's one of the five poorest countries in the world. Some 1,300 children under five die every day. Overall life expectancy averages 43 years. In answer to Elijah's fervent prayer and due to Israel's gross spiritual infidelity, God sent a drought. Great suffering came over the land. Crops failed, animals perished,

3 the mortality rate skyrocketed, people pointed fingers. A mood of deep depression settled over the land. But what of God's servant? How did he fare? 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 directed the ravens to supply you with food there. 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. Drinking from a babbling brook was one thing, but being fed by crows is another! When God gave the Law to Moses, (some 700 years earlier) he declared that ravens were unclean birds: These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat (Leviticus 11:13-19). GOD'S PROVISION God doesn t explain why His people were to regard these birds unclean. But He did, and no Jew would have anything to do with them under any circumstances. Elijah might have been bummed out, knowing he'd be fed twice a day by unclean birds. Remember how Peter objected to the idea of eating non-kosher food in Acts 10? The dietary laws were a very big deal to the Jews - still are for some. And it's really quite crazy, because ravens normally just care for their own. There's no way they'd naturally bring food to a man - much less do it twice a day. But God was drawing outside the box, using a detestable thing for his purposes and the good of his servant. Can you think of any ways God has used a detestable thing for your good? I can - remember my story about the IRS...? Ravens are scavengers whose number one meal is decaying flesh. They are flying garbage disposals. No respectable Jew would eat a raven. But by choosing ravens, God displayed His sovereignty. He can take an unclean bird and feed his prophet, and he can do it for days or months or even for years. God routinely chooses the despised things of the world in order to confound the mighty, and he uses the foolish to bring the strong down to nothing. You may daydream about it, but it's unlikely that God will use some rich uncle or a wealthy friend to help you out. He's much more likely to meet your needs through the ravens of the earth that fly to your need when you least expect them. The Lord has plenty of ravens to supply the needs of his children. If God sends you to Kerith to

4 hide you for a season, don't think he's forgotten you. You may be hidden to others, but you're not hidden to your Heavenly Father. He knows where you are and why you're there. Your grocery list is written on his heart. Don't be surprised when a flock of large black birds gathers to your hiding place. Corrie Ten Boom was having trouble going to sleep one night because she was so worried about the affairs of her life. She tried praying but it didn t help. Finally, the Lord said to her, Go to sleep, Corrie. I m going to be up all night anyway. Picture Elijah sitting alone by the brook when suddenly a flock of enormous black birds with bread and meat in their beaks descend on him. It's like a scene right out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds - except these birds did no harm. They didn't come by mere chance, or fly from a nearby cave. God directed them to fly to the aid of his man. And I just bet that you could have set your watch by their arrival morning and evening. God knew just how much Elijah needed. Do you realize that God knows your name, knows your address, knows what you need today and what you'll need tomorrow? It s all written on his heart because he watches over you even when you think he has forgotten you. God knows what you need, when you need it, and he'll make sure you have it in time. As he sent the ravens to Elijah, he can command all heaven to come to your aid. JUST ENOUGH The ravens didn t bring enough on Monday to last the whole week. They brought enough in the morning to last the day and enough at night to keep him nourished during the night. Just enough and nothing more. It's what Jesus meant when he taught us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:11). God is teaching us in this story from the Old Testament the same thing he teaches us in the New Testament. He's willing to supply our needs but only on a day to day to day basis - like the manna in the wilderness - one day at a time. We don t like to live like that. Most of us have freezers at home filled with food - which makes it hard to pray this prayer sincerely. We don t want to live day to day. We d rather have pension plans and stocks and bonds and options. We would rather have life insurance policies that guarantee a secure future. I wonder if there's someone here this morning who refuses to trust the Lord in the area of tithing - out of fear that what we're saving for the future won't be enough -

5 that inflation or a market crash will hit hard. So we've got to put more away - so we won't have to live day-to-day. But in the process we're robbing God. I believe in tithing and I believe in saving. But when I couldn't save, I tithed. I trust in God wherever I may be, upon the land or on the rolling sea; For come what may from day to day, my heav'nly Father watches over me. I trust in God, I know He cares for me; on mountain bleak or on the stormy sea; Though billows roll, He keeps my soul, my heav'nly Father watches over me. He makes the rose an object of His care, He guides the eagle through the pathless air; And surely He remembers me, My heav'nly Father watches over me. (William C Martin) Life is uncertain. You can be doing fine and then one day you get blindsided. It can go from calm to chaos in a split second. The doctor says, I m sorry the tests are positive. You ve got cancer. Your life gets rearranged in a hurry. Just when you think you ve got it all together, an accident, an illness, the loss of a job, the betrayal of a loved one, can happen so fast. God lets those things happen to move us from self-sufficiency to God-sufficiency; from self-reliance to God-reliance; from trusting in our own ability to trusting in him alone. Let's read on in the text... 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. The brook dried up! What can we learn when God lets one of our "brooks" dry up? What are our brooks? Our jobs are brooks that help meet our financial needs. Our family and friends are brooks which help meet our emotional needs. Our hobbies are brooks which help meet our physical and mental needs. Sometimes God allows these brooks to dry up temporarily or permanently. Why? First of all, dried-up brooks can be an answer to our prayers. Elijah had prayed for the rain to stop. God answered his prayer. Without rain, even the brook Kerith was bound to dry up. Have you ever prayed that God would increase your faith? Then you shouldn't be surprised if He lets one of your brooks to dry up so that you'll look to Him alone in

6 dependence and faith. There's nothing quite like the sudden drying up of your financial brooks, or your health brooks to test and increase your faith! Have you ever prayed that you'd experience more of God's personal presence in your life? He may dry up a brook that you've been depending on for security or emotional support--in order to answer your prayer. Sometimes we lean so heavily on the preachers, teachers, counselors, or close friends that God gives us, that we lose sight of God Himself. Only when these brooks dry up do we again realize and practice the Lord's abiding personal presence with us. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. God closed one door so that He could open another one. He uses dried up brooks to prepare us for change. He planned to relocate Elijah for a new ministry and a different source of supply. He'd be transferred from his solitary hide-away at Kerith to the village of Zarephath over 100 miles away. Zarephath was "Jezebel territory" deep in Baal country. It wasn't a place that Elijah would naturally have chosen to live. God may do the same in our lives - allow one of our favorite brooks to dry up. He doesn t want us to stay in the same place all the time. We get comfortable by our brook, surrounded by peaceful plenty, and want to stay there indefinitely. When God allows the brook to dry up, we often weep and blame Him for afflicting us. Zarephath had advantages over Kerith, despite the fact that it was in Baal country. But God closed up Kerith before He revealed Zarephath. Faith has to be tested. THE INEVITABLE "WHY" One of the hardest questions to answer is Why? Why did my baby die? Why did I lose my job? Why are my children so unconcerned about spiritual things? Why did my spouse abandon me for another? Under the emotional stress we tend to blame God for making some terrible mistakes with our lives. It's so human to do this because we have no way of seeing the future. But David, who also suffered much, came to this amazing conclusion: It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes (Psalm 119:71). Again, he wrote, Before I was afflicted I went astray (Psalm 119:67). God dries up our brooks to change us - and sometimes for correction or discipline, because He loves us. Until we learn this simple Bible principle, we'll live in doubt and uncertainty. Every disappointment will raise fresh questions about God s

7 justice and love. It is simply foolish to believe that because we've received Jesus and because He loves us, God will preserve us from every pain and trial. Perhaps more Christians get shaken over this issue than any other. Not even the most committed Christian can be insulated from shock and grief when loved ones are taken by death. But they can be prepared ahead of time so that their faith and assurance will not collapse under the stress of loss. The secret is to trust that God will never permit any circumstance that is not for our ultimate good and His glory. It requires faith, but can't we trust the One who died for us? God will allow setbacks - sometimes severe - and we won't be able to find any logic behind the events, or see the good that could come. At such times, we must cling to His Word. It's what separates the mature Christian from the immature Christian. We'll either draw nearer to Christ or we'll wither when we're tested and our brook dries up. "My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19) When God dried up his brook, Elijah believed and obeyed. Will you?