Chapter 3 – BY THE BROOK (part 1)
Chapter 3 – BY THE BROOK
“Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17). Elijah is here brought before us as an example of what may be accomplished by the earnest prayers of one “righteous man” (v. 16). Ah, my reader, mark well the descriptive adjective, for it is not every man, nor even every Christian, who obtains definite answers to his prayers; far from it. A “righteous man” is one who is right with God in a practical way: one whose conduct is pleasing in His sight, one who keeps his garments unspotted from the world, who is in separation from religious evil, for there is no evil on earth half so dishonoring and displeasing to God as religious evil (see Luke 10:12-15, Rev. 11:8). Such an one has the ear of Heaven, for there is no moral barrier between his soul and a sin-hating God. “Whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
“He prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” What a terrible petition to present before the Majesty on high! What incalculable privation and suffering the granting of such a request would entail! The fair land of Palestine would be turned into a parched and sterile wilderness, and its inhabitants would be wasted by a protracted famine with all its attendant horrors. Then was this Prophet a cold and callous stoic, devoid of natural affection? No indeed: the Holy Spirit has taken care to tell us in this very verse that he was “a man subject to like passions as we are,” and that is mentioned immediately before the record of his fearful petition. And what does that description signify in such a connection? Why this: that though Elijah was endowed with tender sensibilities and warm regard for his fellow creatures, yet in his prayers he rose above all fleshly sentimentality.
Why was it Elijah prayed “that it might not rain?” Not because he was impervious to human suffering, not because he took a fiendish delight in witnessing the misery of his neighbors, but because he put the glory of God before everything else, even before his own natural feelings. Recall what has been pointed out earlier concerning the spiritual conditions that then obtained in Israel. Not only was there no longer any public recognition of God throughout the length and breadth of the land, but on every side He was openly insulted and defied by Baal worshipers. Daily the tide of evil rose higher and higher, until it had now swept practically everything before it. And Elijah was “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts” (1 Kings 19:10) and longed to see His great Name vindicated and His backslidden people restored. Thus it was the glory of God and true love for Israel which actuated his petition.
Here, then, is the outstanding mark of a “righteous man” whose prayers prevail with God: though one of tender sensibilities, yet he puts the honor of the Lord before every other consideration. And God has promised “them that honor Me I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). Alas, how frequently those words are true of us: “You ask, and receive not; because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3). We “ask amiss” when natural feelings sway us, when carnal motives move us, when selfish considerations actuate us. But how different was it with Elijah. He was deeply stirred by the horrible indignities against his Master and longed to see Him given His rightful place again in Israel. “And it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months.” The Prophet failed not of his object. God never refuses to act when faith addresses Him on the ground of His own glory, and clearly it was on that ground Elijah had supplicated Him.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). It was there at that blessed Throne that Elijah obtained the strength which he so surely needed at that time. Not only was he required to keep his own skirts clear from the evil all around him, but he was called upon to exercise a holy influence upon others, by acting for God in a degenerate age, to make a serious effort to bring back the people to the God of their fathers. How essential it was, then, that he should dwell much in the secret place of the Most High, that he should obtain that grace from Him which alone could fit him for his difficult and dangerous undertaking: only thus could he be delivered from evil himself, and only thus could he hope to be instrumental in delivering others. Thereby equipped for the conflict, he entered upon his path of service endowed with Divine power.
Conscious of the Lord’s approbation, assured of the answer to his petition, sensible that the Almighty was with him, Elijah boldly confronted the wicked Ahab and announced the Divine judgment on his kingdom. But let us pause for a minute so that this weighty fact may sink into our minds, for it explains to us the more-than-human courage displayed by the servants of God in every age. What was it that made Moses so bold before Pharaoh? What was it that enabled the young David to go forth and meet the mighty Goliath? What was it that gave Paul such strength to testify as he did before Agrippa? From whence did Luther obtain such resolution that he would continue his mission? In each case the answer is the same: supernatural strength was obtained from a supernatural Source: only thus can we be energized to wrestle with the Principalities and powers of evil.
“He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31). But where had Elijah learned this all-important lesson? Not in any seminary or Bible-training college, for if there were such in that day they were like those of our own degenerate time-in the hands of the Lord’s enemies. Nor can the schools of orthodoxy impart such secrets: even godly men cannot teach themselves this lesson, much less can they impart it to others. Ah, my reader, as it were at “the backside of the desert” (Exo. 3:1) that the Lord appeared to and commissioned Moses, so it was in the solitude of Gilead that Elijah had communed with Jehovah and had been trained by Him for his arduous duties: there he had “waited” upon the Lord, and there had he obtained “strength” for his task.
None but the living God can effectually say unto His servant, “Fear you not, for I am with you: be not dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, yes I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). Thus granted the consciousness of the Lord’s presence, His servant goes forth, “as bold as a lion,” fearing no man, kept in perfect calm amid the most trying circumstances. It was in such a spirit that the Tishbite confronted Ahab: “as the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” But how little that apostate monarch knew of the secret exercises of the Prophet’s soul before he thus came forth to address his conscience! “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word”: very striking and blessed is that. The Prophet spoke with the utmost assurance and authority, for he was delivering God’s message-the servant identifying himself with his Master. Such should ever be the demeanor of the minister of Christ: “we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen” (John 3:11).
“And the word of the Lord came unto him” (1 Kings 17:2). How blessed! yet this is not likely to be perceived unless we ponder the same in the light of the foregoing. From the preceding verse we learn that Elijah had faithfully discharged his commission, and here we find the Lord speaking anew to His servant: thus we regard the latter as a gracious reward of the former. This is ever the Lord’s way, delighting to commune with those who delight to do His will. It is a profitable line of study to trace this expression throughout the Scriptures. God does not grant fresh revelations until there has been a compliance with those already received: we may see a case of this in the early life of Abraham. “The Lord had said unto Abraham get you . . . unto the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1); but instead, he went only half way and settled in Haran (11:31), and it was not until he left there and fully obeyed that the Lord again appeared to him (Genesis 12:4-7).
“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get you hence and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith” (1 Kings 17:2, 3). An important practical truth is hereby exemplified. God leads His servants step by step. Necessarily so, for the path which they are called to tread is that of faith, and faith is opposed to both sight and independence. It is not the Lord’s way to reveal to us the whole course which is to be traversed: rather does He restrict His light to one step at a time, that we may be kept in continual dependence upon Him. This is a most beneficial lesson, yet it is one that the flesh is far from relishing, especially in those who are naturally energetic and zealous. Before he left Gilead for Samaria to deliver his solemn message, the Prophet would no doubt wonder what he should do as soon as it was delivered. But that was no concern of his, then-he was to obey the Divine order and leave God to make known what he should do next.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5, 6.) Ah, my reader, had Elijah then leaned unto his own understanding we may depend upon it that hiding himself by the brook Cherith is the last course he would have selected. Had he followed his instincts, yes had he done that which he considered most glorifying to God, would he not have embarked upon a preaching tour throughout the towns and villages of Samaria? Would he not have felt it was his bounden duty to do everything in his power calculated to awaken the slumbering conscience of the public, so that his subjects-horrified at the prevailing idolatry-would bring pressure to bear upon Ahab to put a stop to it? Yet that was the very thing God would not have him do: what then is reasoning or natural inclinations worth in connection with Divine things? Nothing.
“And the word of the LORD came to him.” Note it is not said, “the will of the Lord was revealed to him” or “the mind of God was made known”: we would particularly emphasize this detail, for it is a point on which there is no little confusion today. There are numbers who mystify themselves and others by a lot of pious talk about “obtaining the Lord’s mind” or “discovering God’s will” for them, which when carefully analyzed amounts to nothing better than a vague uncertainty or a personal impulse. God’s “mind” or “will,” my reader, is made known in His Word, and He never “wills” anything for us which to the slightest degree clashes with that heavenly Rule. Changing the emphasis, note, “the Word of the Lord came to him”: there was no need for him to go and search for it! (see Deuteronomy 30:11-14).
And what a “word” it was that came to Elijah: “Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan” (1 Kings 17:3). Truly God’s thoughts and ways are indeed entirely different from ours: yes, and He alone can “make known” (Psalm 103:7) the same unto us. It is almost amusing to see how the commentators have quite wandered from the track here, for almost one and all of them explain the Lord’s command as being given for the purpose of providing protection for His servant. As the death-dealing drought continued, the perturbation of Ahab would increase more and more, and as he remembered the Prophet’s language that there should be neither dew nor rain but according to his word, his rage against him would know no bounds. Elijah, then, must be provided with a refuge if his life was to be spared. Yet Ahab made no attempt to slay him when next they met (1 Kings 18:17-20)! Should it be answered, That was because God’s restraining hand was upon the king: we answer, Granted, but was not God able to restrain him all through the interval?
No, the reason for the Lord’s order to His servant must be sought elsewhere, and surely that is not far to ascertain. Once it be recognized that next to the bestowments of His Word and the Holy Spirit to apply the same, the most valuable gifts He grants any people is the sending of His own qualified servants among them, and that the greatest possible calamity which can befall any land is God’s withdrawal of those whom He appoints to minister unto the soul, and no uncertainty should remain. The drought on Ahab’s kingdom was a Divine scourge and in keeping therewith the Lord bade His Prophet “get you hence.” The removal of the ministers of His truth is a sure sign of God’s displeasure, a token that He is dealing in judgment with a people who have provoked Him to anger.
It should be pointed out that the Hebrew word for “hide” (1 Kings 17:3) is an entirely different one from that which is found in Joshua 6:17-25 (Rahab’s hiding of the spies) and in 1 Kings 18:4, 13: the word used in connection with Elijah might well be rendered “turn you eastward and absent yourself,” as it is in Genesis 31:49. Of old the Psalmist had asked, “O God, Why have You cast us off forever? why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?” (74:1). And what was it that caused him to make this plaintive inquiry? what had happened to make him realize that the anger of God was burning against Israel? This: “They have cast fire into Your sanctuary . . . they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land . . . we see not our signs: there is no more any Prophet” (vv. 7-9). It was the doing away with the public means of grace which was the sure sign of the Divine displeasure.
Ah, my reader, little as it may be realized in our day, there is no surer and more solemn proof that God is hiding His face from a people or nation than for Him to deprive them of the inestimable blessing of those who faithfully minister His Holy Word to them, for as far as heavenly mercies excel earthly so much more dreadful are spiritual calamities than material ones. Through Moses the Lord declared, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2). And now all dew and rain was to be withheld from Ahab’s land, not only literally so, but spiritually so as well. Those who ministered His Word were removed from the scene of public action (cf. 1 Kings 18:4).
If further proof of the Scripturalness of our interpretation of 1 Kings 17:3 be required, we refer the reader to, “And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers” (Isaiah 30:20). What could be plainer than that? For the Lord to remove His teachers into a corner was the sorest loss His people could suffer, for here He tells them that His wrath shall be tempered with mercy, that though He gave them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet He would not again deprive them of those who ministered unto their souls. Finally, we would remind the reader of Christ’s statement that there was “great famine” in the land in Elijah’s time (Luke 4:9-5) and link up with the same, “Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 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” (Amos 8:11, 12).
“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan” (1 Kings 17:2, 3). As we have pointed out, it was not merely to provide Elijah with a safe retreat, to protect His servant from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel, that Jehovah so commanded the Prophet, but to signify His sore displeasure against His apostate people: the withdrawal of the Prophet from the scene of public action was an additional judgment on the Nation. We cannot forbear pointing out that tragic analogy which now obtains more or less in Christendom. During the past two or three decades God has removed some eminent and faithful servants of His by the hand of death, and not only has He not replaced them by raising up others in their stead, but an increasing number of those which still remain are being sent into seclusion by Him.
It was both for God’s glory and the Prophet’s own good that the Lord bade him “get you hence . . . . hide yourself.” It was a call to separation. Ahab was an apostate, and his consort was a heathen. Idolatry abounded on every side. Jehovah was publicly dishonored. The man of God could have no sympathy or communion with such a horrible situation. Isolation from evil is absolutely essential if we are to “keep ourselves unspotted from the world” (James 1:27): not only separation from secular wickedness but from religious corruption also. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) has been God’s demand in every dispensation. Elijah stood as the Lord’s faithful witness in a day of national departure from Himself, and having delivered His testimony to the responsible head, the Prophet must now retire. To turn our backs on all that dishonors God is an essential duty.
But where was Elijah to go? He had previously dwelt in the presence of the Lord God of Israel, “before whom I stand” he could say when pronouncing sentence of judgment unto Ahab, and he should still abide in the secret place of the Most High. The Prophet was not left to his own devising or choice, but directed to a place of God’s own appointing-outside the camp, away from the entire religious system. Degenerate Israel was to know him only as a witness against themselves: he was to have no place and take no part in either the social or religious life of the Nation. He was to turn “eastward”: the quarter from which the morning light arises, for those who are regulated by the Divine precepts “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). “By the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” Jordan marked the very limits of the land. Typically it spoke of death, and spiritual death now rested upon Israel.
But what a message of hope and comfort the “Jordan” contained for one who was walking with the Lord! How well calculated was it to speak unto the heart of one whose faith was in a healthy condition! Was it not at this very place that Jehovah had shown Himself strong on behalf of His people in the days of Joshua? Was not the Jordan the very scene which had witnessed the miracle-working power of God at the time when Israel left the Wilderness behind them? It was there the Lord had said unto Joshua, “This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Joshua 3:7). It was there that “the living God” (v. 10) made the waters to “stand upon a heap” (v. 13), so that “all the Israelites passed over on dry ground” (v. 17). Such are the things which should, and no doubt did, fill the mind of the Tishbite when his Master ordered him to this very place. If his faith was in exercise, his heart would be in perfect peace, knowing that a miracle-working God would not fail him there.
It was also for the Prophet’s own personal good that the Lord now bade him, “hide yourself.” He was in danger from another quarter than the fury of Ahab. The success of his supplications might prove a snare: tending to fill his heart with pride, and even to harden him against the calamity then desolating the land. Previously he had been engaged in secret prayer, and then for a brief moment he had witnessed a good confession before the king. The future held for him yet more honorable service, for the day was to come when he should witness for God not only in the presence of Ahab, but he should discomfort and utterly rout the assembled hosts of Baal and, in measure at least, turn the wandering Nation back again unto the God of their fathers. But the time for that was not ripe; neither was Elijah himself.
The Prophet needed further training in secret if he were to be personally fitted to speak again for God in public. Ah, my reader, the man whom the Lord uses has to be kept low: severe discipline has to be experienced by him, if the flesh is to be duly mortified. Three more years must be spent by the Prophet in seclusion. How humbling! Alas, how little is man to be trusted: how little is he able to bear being put into the place of honor! How quickly self rises to the surface, and the instrument is ready to believe he is something more than an instrument. How sadly easy it is to make of the very service God entrusts us with a pedestal on which to display ourselves. But God will not share His glory with another, and therefore does He “hide” those who may be tempted to take some of it unto themselves. It is only by retiring from the public view and getting alone with God that we can learn our own nothingness.
We see this important lesson brought out very plainly in Christ’s dealings with His beloved Apostles. On one occasion they returned to Him flushed with success and full of themselves: they “told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught” (Mark 6:30). Most instructive is His quiet response: “And He said unto them, Come you yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while” (v. 31). This is still His gracious remedy for any of His servants who may be puffed up with their own importance, and imagine that His Cause upon earth would suffer a severe loss, if they were removed from it. God often says to His servants, “Get you hence . . . hide yourself”: sometimes it is by the dashing of their ministerial hopes, sometimes by a bed of affliction or by a severe bereavement, the Divine purpose is accomplished. Happy the one who can then say from his heart, “The will of the Lord be done.”
Every servant that God deigns to use must pass through the trying experience of Cherith before he is ready for the triumph of Carmel. This is an unchanging principle in the ways of God. Joseph suffered the indignities of both the pit and the prison before he became governor of all Egypt, second only to the king himself. Moses spent one third of his long life at “the backside of the desert” before Jehovah gave him the honor of leading His people out of the house of bondage. David had to learn the sufficiency of God’s power on the farm before he went forth and slew Goliath in the sight of the assembled armies of Israel and the Philistines. Thus it was, too, with the perfect Servant: 30 years of seclusion and silence before He began His brief public ministry. So, too, with the chief of His ambassadors: a season in the solitudes of Arabia was his apprenticeship before he became the Apostle to the Gentiles.
But is there not yet another angle from which we may contemplate this seemingly strange order, “Get you hence . . . hide yourself”? Was it not a very real and severe testing of the Prophet’s submissiveness unto the Divine will? “Severe,” we say, for to a robust man this request was much more exacting than his appearing before Ahab: one with a zealous disposition would find it much harder to spend three years in inactive seclusion than to be engaged in public service. This writer can testify from long and painful experience that to be removed “into a corner” (Isaiah 30:20) is a much severer trial than to address large congregations every night month after month. In the case of Elijah this lesson is obvious: he must learn to personally render implicit obedience unto the Lord before he was qualified to command others in His name.
Let us now take a closer look at the particular place selected by God as the one where His servant was next to sojourn: “by the brook Cherith.” Ah, it was a brook and not a river-a brook which might dry up any moment. It is rare that God places His servants, or even His people, in the midst of luxury and abundance: to be surfeited with the things of this world only too often means the drawing away of the affections from the Giver Himself. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” It is our hearts God requires, and very often this is put to the proof. The way in which temporal losses are borne generally makes manifest the difference between the real Christian and the worldling. The latter is utterly cast down by financial reverses, and frequently commits suicide. Why? Because his all has gone and there is nothing left to live for. Contrastively, the genuine believer may be severely shaken and for a time deeply depressed, but he will recover his poise and say, God is still my portion and “I shall not want.”
Instead of a river God often gives us a brook, which may be running today and dried up tomorrow. Why? To teach us not to rest in our blessings, but in the Blesser Himself. Yet is it not at this very point that we so often fail-our hearts being far more occupied with the gifts than with the Giver? Is not this just the reason why the Lord will not trust us with a river?-because it would unconsciously take His place in our hearts. “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation” (Deuteronomy 32:15). And the same evil tendency exists within us, We sometimes feel that we are being harshly dealt with because God gives us a brook rather than a river, but this is because we are so little acquainted with our own hearts. God loves His own too well to place dangerous knives in the hands of infants.
And how was the Prophet to exist in such a place? Where was his food to come from? Ah, God will see after that: He will provide for his maintenance: “And it shall be, that you shall drink of the brook” (1 Kings 17:4). This God undertook for. Whatever may be the case with Ahab and his idolaters, Elijah shall not perish. In the very worst of times God will show Himself strong on the behalf of His own. Whoever starves they shall be fed: “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure” (Isaiah 33:16). Yet how absurd it sounds to common sense to bid a man tarry indefinitely by a brook! Yes, but it was God who had given this order, and the Divine commands are not to be argued about but obeyed. Thereby Elijah was bidden to trust God contrary to sight, to reason, to all outward appearances, to rest in the Lord Himself and wait patiently for Him.
“I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:4). Observe the word we have placed in italics. The Prophet might have preferred many another hiding-place, but to Cherith he must go if he were to receive the Divine supplies: as long as he tarried there, God was pledged to provide for him. How important, then, is the question, Am I in the place which God has (by His Word or providence) assigned me? If so, He will assuredly supply my every need. But, if like the younger son, I turn my back upon Him and journey into the far country, then like that prodigal I shall certainly suffer want. How many a servant of God has labored in some lowly or difficult sphere and the dew of the Spirit was on his soul and the blessing of Heaven on his ministry, when there came an invitation from some other field which seemed to offer a wider scope (and a larger salary!) and yielding to the temptation, the Spirit was grieved and his usefulness in God’s kingdom was at an end.
The same principle applies with equal force to the rank and file of God’s people: they must be “in the way” (Genesis 24:27) of God’s appointing if they are to receive Divine supplies. “Your will be done” precedes “Give us this day our daily bread.” How many professing Christians have we personally known who resided in a town where God sent one of His own qualified servants, who fed them with “the finest of the wheat” and their souls prospered. Then came a tempting business offer from some distant place, which would improve their position in the world. The offer is accepted, their tent was removed, only to enter a spiritual wilderness where there was no edifying ministry available. In consequence their souls were starved, their testimony for Christ ruined, and a period of fruitless backsliding ensued. As Israel had to follow the Cloud of old in order to obtain supplies of manna, so must we be in the place of God’s ordering if our souls are to be watered and our spiritual lives prospered.
