A Real Example of Faith-Episode # 1

Often we read of the fact that Abraham was called a friend of God because he walked by faith.  He walked into the land of the Canaanites by faith-God had said go there, and so on faith in the word of God, he went.

He knew nothing as to the dangers of the journey, he did not know what he would encounter or find.  He just went.  Well, there is another fellow who obeyed God's word out of faith.  His name is Elijah.

Elijah lived in the time of Ahab, king of the northern Kingdom of Israel.  Ahab is the one who married Jezzebel.  Read the following scriptures:

IKing 17:1‑9

1          And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

2          And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

3          Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

4          And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

5          So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

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.

7          And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

8          And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

9          Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.(KJV)

1st point I want to make is God told Elijah that there would be a three year drought.  No rain at all for three years.  So Elijah now knew what to expect over the next three years.  He knew it meant starvation and thirst for people, plants and animals. 

2nd point-God had already decided to provide for Elijah and He instructs Elijah to go to a certain small river named Cherith which emptied into the Jordan.  This is on the east side of the Jordan River. God also tells Elijah that the ravens are going to bring him food. 

So picture this guy heading for a small river - taking with him whatever camping gear he needed, and there setting up camp.  He didn't take food with him as far as we know.  He waits, and waits, and finally by evening here come some large black birds (ravens) who drop food into his camp.  Meat and bread.  You wonder where these birds took it from.  Somebody probably had baked some bread and dried some meat outdoors and when they went back out to bring it inside, it was missing.  We'll never know exactly how those birds got that bread and meat, but God made sure they delivered twice a day while Elijah was camped by that river.  If God had told you to go camp somewhere because there would be a drought, and told you He would have birds bring you food, would you find that difficult? Can't you just picture Elijah sitting there in his campsite, looking up into the sky and watching every bird he saw really closely to see it this one was going to bring food?  And can you imagine him second guessing himself as to the instructions he had received?  Asking himself if this was his imagination he was listening to or had God really spoken to him to do as he did.  He could have said to himself, "This is crazy. God would not send me to a desolate river area with no food."  But Elijah stayed where he was because he had faith in God's word.  And when the first raven appears with food, dropping it into his campsite-we don't know if the bird landed and put it down or dropped it from the air, you can imagine Elijah's relief and saying to himself, "I knew God would do it!"  God, as He always does, confirms His word to His servants.  So Elijah camps out at this small riverside and gets food brought him morning and afternoon. 

3rd point-Notice the diet does not include vegetables.  Why?  God evidently did not consider it all that important.  Perhaps too there were edible plans there in the area which he could gather to supplement his diet.  But the necessities were delivered to him.  Not the preferences, not the ideal diet according to dieticians, just the basics-the meat and the carbohydrates.  Probably God arranged for the bread to have all the nutrients Elijah needed so he wouldn't necessarily need any plants to supplement his diet.  And here he is by this river, getting food from birds each day.  And doing who knows what with his time.  Hopefully he had a scroll of scriptures with him for studying purposes, and of course he had plenty of time for prayer.  But what happens next?

4th point-that river dries up. Now what is he going to do?  We have no idea how the river dried up - whether it happened quickly, like overnight, or had developed into a mere stream, then a trickle, and then nothing.  However it happened, Elijah didn't assume God had led him to some dead end.  Some people might say-"I knew it.  God may have provided the ravens to bring me food, but now God has left me in a lurch.  No water now and we are in a drought.  God, this was a stupid idea.  It probably was nothing more than accidental that the birds brought me food.  This wasn't God's doing.  Otherwise the river wouldn't dry up!"  Have you ever reacted that way to finding yourself up against a brick wall?  Well, Elijah's brick wall was a dry river bed.  What did he do?  He didn't complain or accuse God of malpractice.  He waited for God's next instructions.

God tells him to go to a coastal town over 100 miles to the northwest.  Does Elijah complain that the distance is too far?  Does he complain that the trip is too hard and dangerous?  I really don't think so.  Some people would-they would figure that God doesn't want people to experience hardship, so that couldn't be God giving those instructions.  But since when does God always give us easy things to do?  No, He gives us challenges and expects us to persevere right through them.  And Elijah did just that. It didn't matter to him that God sent him to a Phoenician town -a town settled by the Sidonian Phoenicians.  Didn't matter that he didn't speak their language, didn't matter that these were unclean pagans who even ate unclean food, didn't matter that he would experience prejudice from people in the area, it didn't matter that he would experience hardship in getting there as well as possibly while living there.  He obeyed. 

Are you willing to accept God's commands at face value and go do as you are told by Him, when you are told, how you are told?  Elijah was.  He was a man of faith.  He believed God and discounted all the ideas and thoughts that came into his head telling him he was foolish and imagining things.  If God tells you something very clearly as He did Elijah, are you going to obey or try to talk yourself out of it?   To paraphrase John 14: 21a "He who obeys me is the one who loves me."  

Have a Great Weekend filled with faith.  Your Good News Lady