Sermons
Boot Camp At The Brook Cherith
Series: Days of Elijah: God’s Righteous Mountain ManBOOT CAMP AT THE BROOK CHERITH
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / January 28, 2018
In keeping with God’s directive, Elijah the prophet delivered a serious message to King Ahab.
King Ahab was married to Jezebel and together they were leading the northern kingdom down a dark path.
Israel (the northern kingdom) was already on a downward spiral - - the result of one wicked king after another.
But King Ahab was the worst of the worse.
This was due in part because he was influenced by his queen’s fixation on worshipping the idol Baal.
1Kgs.21:25 states: Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself
to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him.
Many years prior, God warned the children of Israel through the spoken words of Moses (Deut.11:16-17) - -
If you turn aside to follow other Gods I will shut up the heaven so that there
will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish.
That day of reckoning had finally arrived and God appointed Elijah to deliver the woeful verdict.
1Kgs.17:1b / As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,
surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.
These words would quickly spell disaster for King Ahab & Jezebel and all of Israel.
This prophetic utterance enraged Jezebel and she promptly ordered a plan to destroy the prophets of Jehovah.
Obadiah hid 100 prophets in caves of fifty each and provided them with bread and water (1Kgs.18:4).
One can only imagine that Elijah’s calamitous forecast ignited an all-out search to exterminate Elijah.
God knew this and He stepped in to provide for Elijah.
®® Let’s read again from 1Kgs.17:2-7 ®®
And the word of the Lord came to (Elijah), saying, ‘Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself
by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I
have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. So he went and did according to the word of the
Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him
bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
And it happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
God gave Elijah precise instructions.
The king’s palace was in Jezreel (1Kgs.18:45) which was about 55 miles north of Jerusalem.
A 15 mile walk eastward would bring him to the Jordan river and another 15 miles SW would bring him to Cherith.
W. M. Thompson describes this area: “It is a narrow, profound gorge, overhung by tremendous cliffs, absolutely impassable, in whose numerous recesses and dark caverns the prophet would have been most effectively concealed.”
We have to commend Elijah. God told him what to do and it did it. He (simply) OBEYED.
He did not argue. He did not complain. He did not offer any suggestions on how to improve on God’s plan.
The region of Cherith had a babbling brook, but it was barren. It was an ideal hideout, but a man has to eat.
God told Elijah that He had directed the ravens to feed him.
One might reason that this took place in a natural kind of way. This region was home to numerous ravens’s nest. Mother birds instinctively engage in feeding their young. Surely there would be “leftovers”.
The better interpretation is to see this as a supernatural event. The text says that God COMMANDED the ravens.
This reminds us of Jonah 1:17 / The Lord APPOINTED a great fish to swallow Jonah.
The text adds that the ravens would bring sustenance in the morning and in the evening.
It further stipulates that the ravens would bring BREAD (lechem / food in general) and FLESH (basar / meat).
One expert describes the diet of ravens: “It is partially a carrion feeder, if offal or bodies are fresh; it also eats
the young of other birds and very small animals and seeds, berries and fruit, having as varied a diet as any bird.”
It sounds a little disgusting, but Elijah is in a survivalist mode.
Elijah’s time at Cherith would have lasted about a year. cf. 1Kgs.18:1 with Lk.4:25 and Js.5:17.
The word Cherith is a derivation of the word cha-rath which means , to cut off or to cut down.
Elijah’s time at the brook Cherith provided a safe haven, but it was also a time of schooling.
It reminds us of God preparing Moses in the wilderness for forty years before he returned to Pharaoh.
Chuck Swindoll, current president of Dallas Theological Seminary, was a Marine before he began his preaching career.
In his book on Elijah (Elijah: A Man Of Heroism And Humility, p.21), he reflects on his time in boot camp.
He notes the one expression he heard over and over again from his drill sergeant: “I am going to cut you down to size.”
The purpose of boot camp is to get a soldier in shape which involves honing and refining.
It often involves isolation … the absence of creature comforts…monotonous drills…demanding repetitions…lots of tests.
Thus far, we’re impressed with Elijah, but his work is just beginning.
Here are some lessons that we all can learn from Elijah’s boot-camp experience at the brook Cherith.
You might be thinking, “What does BOOT CAMP have to do with me?”
I’m not talking about a real military boot camp (like Libby or Kenneth or Rob have experienced).
Let’s just think of boot camp as representative of the ups and downs of life (times of testing). All have tasted these! The only ones who haven’t are either flat-liners (dead) or those who are a little too young to know what’s going on.
(1) WAITING
For some this is the hardest challenge in the world. Waiting. And harder yet, waiting on God (whom we don’t control).
We pride ourselves in being men and women of action: the early bird catches the worm … he who hesitates is lost.
After such a superb start (standing before King Ahab), Elijah is now directed to go and WAIT.
Essentially he waited at Cherith for a year. And then he spent another two years waiting with a widow in Zarephath.
Immediately following a peak performance at the palace, God sends Elijah to hunker down in a cave in the wilderness.
We often ponder all that the apostle Paul went through. He, too, was a man of action.
On one occasion, Paul spent two years imprisoned under Felix’s governorship (Acts 24:27).
Paul must have had difficulty understanding God’s time-table, especially since he had so much to do.
Acts 12:5-11 tells of Peter’s imprisonment followed by a quick release with the help of an angel. Why the difference?
God is sovereign. He rules. He governs. He decides. God’s ways are higher than man’s ways.
(2) BEING ALONE
Solitude can be a hard pill to swallow. It is a great challenge to be alone victoriously.
No wife. No young understudy to train. No companions. No friends. Nobody to talk to, except God.
Such loneliness often brings two really strong temptations: the temptation to complain and the temptation to doubt.
What at first must have been a delight (ravens bringing food) must have soon evolved into drudgery.
Like the children of Israel in the wilderness - - manna … manna … manna - - - some became manic over manna.
Who among us would revel in being dependent upon ravens for a entire year?
If allowed to persist, chronic complaining can bring on serious depression.
And then there is the temptation to doubt. Was there really a famine out there? … Did he really need to be in hiding?
Did anybody miss him? … Would Ahab & Jezebel ever change for the good?
Did Elijah find any comfort in thoughts similar to those that would be uttered by Isaiah in days to come.
Isa.26:3 / Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trust in Thee.
(3) TRUSTING GOD FOR DAILY PROVISIONS
This lesson is almost incomprehensible for our culture: give us this day, our daily bread (Mt.6:11).
Most prefer to plan ahead. To lay up treasures and to anticipate coming needs and store up for the future.
For Elijah, every meal presented a new exercise of faith (which is another word for TRUST).
A stark (and stinky) breakfast delivered by ravens. And the same for supper - - just enough to get by.
And then tomorrow he would do it all over again.
Again, this same lesson was taught the children of Israel in the wilderness. Manna - - just enough for the day.
If they tried to horde it, it would quickly spoil. cf. Ex.16:17-21
I wonder if Elijah thought about hunting. There must have been rabbits galore (but eating rabbits was taboo/Lev.11:6)
Maybe he fished. It is likely that the steep ascent from the Jordan valley meant there were no fish in the brook.
Maybe he could plant some crops. No, there was no rain.
(4) TRUSTING GOD WHEN PROVISIONS FAIL
In light of the drought, it seems logical to conclude that Elijah was watching the brook Cherith get smaller by the day.
Did he start rationing his water and trying to set some aside?
And finally, one day the brook became a wadi - - just sand and stones.
Vs.7 says, “the brook dried up”.
What would he do now? Did his thirst grow intense? Did life become almost unbearable?
Did he ask himself, “Should I continue to wait patiently or should I seek out a new safe-haven on my own?
Had God forgotten him? Would God give him new directions and when?
And, if not soon, should he take matters into his own hands
We don’t know exactly how things unfolded - - how dire things might have become and how long Elijah waited.
What we do know is that Elijah remained at the dried up brook Cherith until God spoke again (1Kgs.17:8).
In some form or fashion we will all experience a kind of boot camp - - maybe even multiple times in our lives.
Who among us has not felt “down and out”? Have you ever found yourself asking, “why does life have to be so hard?”
We have all tasted temporary defeats and few there are among us who have not wrestled with bouts of depression.
All of us can relate to this story of Elijah. If we open our hearts and let God’s word speak to us we might also learn.
