1 Kings 17: 1 – 7, Elijah at Cherith

1 Kings 17: 1 -7

Elijah and Ahab, the brook at Cherith

There are 3 parts to this post and I'll post them separately, one post for each of the following points.

1. The faithful obedience
2. Food for the prayerful
3. Faith from the Father

Context

• Ahab King of Israel, Phoenician wife Jezebel supporter of 100s of prophets of Baal. She would slaughter many men of God.
• Prior to Ahab there had been many kings descending from David. In ch.16 we see Baasha, Elah, Zimri and Omri had all done "evil in God's eyes" (Ch15:34, 16: 7, 19, 25, and 30). They had also (v.13) "provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger with their idols."
• Judgement was coming. They were sinful, worshiped idols and mocked God.
   

The faithful obedience – verses 1 and 2
Text suggests Elijah 'popped up from nowhere', but consider his situation. A faithful, prayerful man of God in a land filled with sin and idolatry. Indeed the Lord had given them over to their sins. Elijah had clearly felt the call to speak out against their sin.
Verse 1 – Elijah's witness and statement. He testifies to the living God of Israel. Baal had replaced God, God had been declared dead even (just as science has declared God dead once again in our day – science is just the new Baal in this respect). In walks Elijah, to the throne room! He makes his proclamation doubtless to incredulity, scorn and resentment – who does he think he is?!?! (Picture that today?)
Prior to this proclamation Elijah's preparation would have been deeply prayerful and also filled with anxieties, fears and doubts. He was a man, a sinner like you and me, maybe even not as brave! He was a man, not a robot. A lot of his time would've been spent in prayerful consideration.
AW Pink on Elijah's prayerful preparation – "Prayer in private was the source of his power in public: he could stand unabashed in the presence of the wicked monarch because he had knelt in humility before God"

But Elijah trusts in the Lord and in v2 we read that 'the word of the Lord came to him' at just the right time. If we too are prayerful, obedient and trust the Lord to do so he will do this for us when we testify of our love for Christ Jesus.
Psalm 81:10 tells us "open thy mouth wide and I will fill it" if we're hungry for the word of God, he will feed us and at the right time the words will be put in our mouths by Him. This is why studying your bible and memorising verses is so important. We can at the right time recall infallible words and instructions from our fallible, sinful lips. It avoids conjecture and gives us a biblical basis for our words.
Elijah's faith wasn't perfect however. God's is. As a fallible man he will have worried unnecessarily. God had things in hand – he must have wondered what they would do to him, would they lock him up? Kill him? Laugh at him and ignore him? All of the great men of the bible felt doubt and fear, Noah, Moses, David and here I am sure so did Elijah, the Apostles too. We can empathise a little I'm sure – creeping anxiety that we later look back on and shake our heads saying 'I should've trusted him more!"

Part 2 coming soon!