![]() (6) The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. What God teaches Elijah, and us, at brook Cherithġ Kings 17:5-6 So he did what the LORD had told him. If we have too much of the world in our lives we will be put into a position where we have to be cut off from things that control us. Sometimes a Cherith experience is there to get the world out of us. It's a place where God actually removes you for a specific purpose and the word means 'a cutting off'. But there were years and years of isolation in obscurity. Eleven years - that's a long time before God said 'okay let's go - now you are ready to stand before kings and before gentiles'. What did he do down there? He did absolutely nothing that is recorded. 'Let's get down to where things are a bit quieter and your dependence on God is more real.' Paul, straight after he was saved, spent virtually eleven years in obscurity in the desert. He realised that there was actually too much of self in what they had just been doing. Do you remember the story of His disciples when they went out to preach and did all these wonderful miracles and came back to Him really glorying in all that had happened? Do you know what the first thing Jesus said to them was? 'Let's draw aside to a quiet place'. God had his reasons for isolating David and for isolating Moses and Joseph. The story of Joseph is one of the most amazing stories - he went from prison to the right hand of the ruler of Egypt in one day, but God had His reasons for putting Joseph there. Joseph was in prison, falsely accused and isolated. It was a time of isolation when he had no resources of his own. Moses was forty years in the backside of the desert. When you look through the Bible, most of God's saints have gone through a 'Cherith'. You see, before Elijah was able to stand on Mount Carmel and challenge the 800 false prophets, he first had to learn certain principles. It is a place where you are completely cut off and are totally dependent upon God and His resources. ![]() The promise God gave him was that he would be provided for there. Instantly the word of the Lord came to him and he was told to flee to Cherith and hide there. (4) You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." he comes out of the mountains of Gilead with this word to Ahab.ġ Kings 17:2-4 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: (3) Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ![]() His prophecy was that there would be no rain for 3 1/2 years, and there would not be any dew either - unless he said so. Now we will see what God does through Elijah. So Elijah comes into his presence and brings this word of judgement to Ahab. Looking again at the 1 st verse of this chapter, we noticed that it was a small thing for Elijah to stand before Ahab because he had stood before the King of Kings. So it was in this context that Elijah came to speak forth the word of judgement in the presence of Ahab.ġ Kings 17:1 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." She did many evil things such as setting up high places for Baal and she also had the prophets of the Lord killed. However, before long Jezebel tried to wipe out Yahweh's name from the land. Now Baal was the god of fertility, the god of rain, and the god of the increase of their crops. Ahab went along with her in everything she proposed, even setting up an idol in the house of Baal in Samaria. She began with pluralism, which meant that it was alright to worship more than one God - both Yahweh and Baal. Now Ahab had married a Sidonian princess who influenced her husband greatly. ![]() 1st Kings 16:30 tells us that he did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all that were before him. Various kings reigned after Jeroboam but the Bible says that the worst king of the Northern tribes was Ahab. This caused idolatry to come into the land because the people worshipped these and were led astray. He feared that they would not return if they went down there, so he set up temples in which he placed idols and golden calves. After Solomon's death there was a split in the Kingdom Jeroboam was the King in the northern kingdom of Israel and he set up alternate places of worship because he was afraid of his people going down to Jerusalem to worship. Last time we looked at the state of Israel at the time Elijah came on the scene. This is the second message on Elijah and we are in 1 Kings chapter 17. Let's look at another character study on Elijah. Elijah's 'cutting away' at brook Cherith Bible Study
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