1 Kings 17: 1 -7 (part 3)

Here is the third and final part of the study on Elijah at the brook Cherith.

Read the verses here: 1 Kings 17: 1 - 7

Here are the first 2 parts to the study - Part 1 and Part 2

Faith from the Father


Hoeksema (I think) said of faith that ‘our faith was merely us clinging to His faith’. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones phrased it slightly differently – in the context of our faith he commented that it was “not my grasp of Him but His mighty grasp of me!” He has control, He is sovereign and He is faithful in all.

All His promises will come to pass regardless of our personal faith in Him or even our actions, what God wills happens. We have seen this as we have studied the Exodus and Moses. Moses griped, 'not me Lord?' He made excuses and tried to avoid responsibility, but God’s will was fulfilled. Jonah too. He ran away! But was ultimately delivered to do God’s will.
Time and again in scripture we read of men of God doubting and avoiding God’s direction and we wonder why? Men like Elijah are rare, we don’t hear of his failings and his flaws so much. Moses ducked and dived, Noah got drunk, David was David, even the Apostle Peter was a prejudiced hothead. In Acts we hear about the Apostles arguing and going their separate ways. They were after all just sinful men and as prone as we are to sinful traits, temptations and behaviour.
But here is Elijah – a picture of faith and obedience. But he was still just a man. It stillappears though so very strong. Why?

Elijah clung tighter than most to the Lord’s promises and directions. He felt fear, anxiety, hunger, heat, pain, discomfort (this fear and anxiety is reflected in 1 Kings 19:10 where he says “they seek to take my life away”). He was tempted and attacked by Satan – but his faith stayed strong, he applied his faith in God’s service.

Dr Lloyd Jones used an analogy to explain faith like this: a man and a baby possess strength. The man is stronger, but both possess some element of strength. Yet a baby using every ounce of its strength is stronger than the man who uses none of his at all.

Using and applying one’s faith is what makes the difference. Having faith and keeping it wrapped up and hidden renders it powerless. Straining with every sinew of the faith we do have in His service will affect others.

What helped him to stay so faithful? He was prayerful. He spoke to God, communicated with him. Not going through the motions, but active, live prayer.
I will use an analogy of a boxer to illustrate how faith develops. A boxer has 3 main areas of training – fitness, coaching/padwork, sparring. In the Christian context we can consider this as prayer (our fitness/stamina), padwork and coaching in his word by the Holy Spirit and sparring in witnessing and testifying to the Lord Jesus.

• Fitness (or prayer) - to develop fully this requires time and quality. No corners can be cut. An unfit fighter cannot last the distance. An unpraying Christian has no stamina for the spiritual fight. Elijah was fit – his prayer life and coaching supreme.

• The coaching/Holy Spirit’s guidance – the coach first teaches simple combinations, 2, 4, 6 punch combinations, then parrying, bobbing and weaving and so on. As the fighter’s knowledge and skill increases he becomes more dangerous to his foe with an understanding of the nuances how to fight. A Christian coached in the Word is a well equipped fighter. The coach will gradually and surely impart his knowledge to the fighter, but only as he sees fit.

• Sparring – witnessing and testifying. A fighter doesn’t enter the ring cold. He is well versed and hardened from sparring. He learns how to take blows and continue fighting, sometimes when badly hurt. But it is here that his fitness and his coaching comes through, helping him through the fight. Without testifying to the Lord Jesus a Christian cannot and will not become battle hardened and when he does he runs the risk of getting badly winded, or his spiritual eyes blacked.

As time goes on the understanding and the relationship between the fighter and coach develops too, they are more familiar with each other, the coach knows the fighter's strengths and weaknesses, the fighter may even express lack of confidence in one area. There may even be times when the fighter needs disciplining and reminding of who has control and who taught him what he knows. In this respect Elijah was a world beater, his communication and daily devotions to God would put most to shame. Great also fighters apply themselves, they don’t sit around waiting for the coach to just ‘make them great’. His Sovereignty, our responsibility.

It must be stressed that faith is not a power we possess in ourselves or can generate. Many can view faith like a willpower – ‘if I really, really believe my faith will make this happen’... GOD makes things happen, not our faith. Many think faith is like that TV programme 'Deal or no deal'. That in some way their hope, they're relying on the faith they have in fate will provide for them. Our faith should be that God is right and just and that He has things well in order, that He will always make good on His promises. Our faith itself cannot generate or 'do' anything in itself, it is not like 'the force' in the Star Wars films. This is not to say that faith does not have a powerful impact in our lives, but the power is of God's hand.

Gifts of grace Elijah had in the brook and the ravens’ provision God increases it as He wills. We can ‘work’ at our faith in what we do, and God will bless sincere devotion and obedience. But as with saving faith which justifies, it is a gift of grace. Our responsibility is to do the things which will increase our ‘fitness’ for gracious faith to be increased. We must turn up for training ready to sweat.
Elijah knew (had faith) that God would provide and protect him, but the fears and discomforts remained. Peter Jeffrey tells a story about when he was open air preaching saying if he died that night, he knew where he would be going. Then a heart attack! But he commented in hospital that he was sure of his place in heaven had he passed. He was in discomfort and pain and the experience was surely distressing and frightening, but his faith never left him.

God has promised us over and over again in His word that we are His. Elijah did God’s will regardless of his fears, because it was God’s will. Fear is borne of Satan, he wants us to be distracted and to prevent us from doing the Lord’s work, but we should remember:

Romans 8: 39 “nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus”
John 10: 28 – 30 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
Our faith must be that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that in Him lies the only way we can be justified. In our repentance and His atoning sacrifice we are freed from the bondage of sin and consequently fear too.

He has promised to do this and will always stay perfectly faithful to His promises.

We can cling to His faith and pray that ours increases. We can do as Elijah did, we can be bold and confident, even if our knees knock and our lip quivers, because we “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” Phil 4: 13
We can trust him for our eternal salvation, we can trust him to feed, clothe and house us, we can trust him to put the right words in our mouths and a truer more loyal friend there cannot be. Fall on him in faith, pray and read His promises in this His God breathed infallible word.

We should be as Elijah, we should listen and obey the Lord and if need be suffer discomfort and trials to do his will. The blessings which come from serving him far outweigh any worldly comforts. When we profess the Lord Jesus Christ and our love and service of the Lord God Almighty, he smiles on us, blesses us and sates our every thirst and hunger.

Serve him, love him and your faith will be increased.

Analogies are a bit like...

I like Mr Herman Hoeksema. I like him a lot. He has a knack of using analogies that I understand. Now I use them a lot as you may have noticed but I am always conscious that in giving an analogy it is hard to appreciate how it will be received. I mean, I know what I’m talking about and in my own mind the analogical image is crystal clear... but does anyone else get it? Not always.


Mr Hoeksema doesn’t have this problem I don’t think, nor does Peter Jeffery. Each time I have read or heard an analogy by either of them I have re-wound or re-read it a few times, enjoying the laser beam accurate image I believe they intended to portray.

Most recently I liked Mr Jeffery’s example of our sin being like a big strong, nasty Rottweiler (it may have been a Doberman, but it hardly affects the analogy). We need to keep that vicious dog on a short lead and well under control. If we were to let out too much lead or to release it, it would cause untold damage and pain. So the danger needs to be disciplined and kept reined in tightly and under our control and command.

Mr Hoeksema provided another analogy for me this morning as I continued my reading of 'Wonder of Grace'. I shan’t paraphrase him though, this is what he wrote. The chapter was entitled ‘Believing through Grace’ and the particular section was referring to our faith in Christ.

“The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is not unlike that between a living young tree and a dead fence post. You can plant that fence post deep into the ground, but you do not expect that it will show signs of life and develop branches and fruit. On the contrary, it will rot in the soil in which it is planted. But plant a young sapling in the same soil, and it will strike its roots into the ground and draw nourishment from it, grow and bear fruit.”

This reflects something that I mentioned in my last blog about Mr Jeffery’s ‘Whitewash’ sermon. Someone can outwardly be gleaming white, a Doctor who has attended church for 40 years and does many good works... but he can be as dead as that fence post despite being buried deep in the ground of a church if he is an unbeliever. He may even frequently study the bible or expound its contents from a pulpit. But he’s still dead in his unbelief.

Take a believer however, an uneducated labourer who is that young sapling. He has no knowledge of the bible, little understanding of the nuances and details of scripture, he doesn't even think he is doing so... but that sapling starts to bear fruit. The love and grace in his life shines through and bears fruit. Burying his roots deep into Christ, the gospel and His church the sapling grows into a mighty solid oak, rock solid in faith in Christ.

To use Mr Hoeksema’s example (which I semi plagiarised in the last 2 paragraphs) the same said doctor and labourer are fed a meal. The doctor understands the nutritional value of the food, he is aware that the proteins, carbohydrates,  vitamins and minerals are essential for all manner of reasons. He knows the value of the food. But he has a terminal illness which sees him struggle to eat. The food will make him sick and nauseous. He can tell you the value of the food, but rejects the chance to eat it.

The labourer knows none of this. He knows he is hungry, he knows his appetite needs sating and he eats and eats and eats until his plate is as clean as a whistle. He is ignorant of the nutritional benefits of the food other than it makes him satisfied, but he still benefits from the content of what he has taken in - each meal making him stronger.

Oh to be a doctor who can labour during the mornings uprooting fence posts and planting saplings in their place, then spend the afternoons collecting and distributing the fruit collected from the mature, fully grown trees planted years before.

You can’t fault a good analogy can you? (That last one was mine... I do hope it made sense!!!!)

Being vague...

I listened to a Peter Jeffery sermon on my way to and from work today about 'Whitewashing' and Ezekiel 13. Effectively it was about false prophets and their perversion of the gospel. The whitewash reference being to how if a building is whitewashed it can camouflage the true state of the crumbling, damaged and weakened walls. The veneer of the church goer who isn’t saved – they whitewash their life in good works and regular church attendance, but inside are rotten and decaying.

Rather like the comparison made about (I can’t recall, or find, where it says so  ) the sepulchre being white and clean and well kept on the outside and rotten and dead inside.


Anyway, in Mr Jeffery’s sermon he said something which struck me as blindingly obvious, yet not always altogether clear to see. He said (here I paraphrase as best I can, hoping I can do justice to his words... and wincing at the thought of getting it wrong) that - if one is vague or ‘loose’ in one’s understanding of scripture, then so too will be one’s grasp and appreciation of what sin is and where it occurs in one’s life.

I certainly have experienced that feeling of realisation several times in the last year where I have been studying my bible only to come across a verse that allows aspects of my sin to drop firmly and clearly into focus. It was perhaps something which up to that point I hadn’t even realised was necessarily wrong.

I find it increasingly difficult to understand how Christians cannot spend more time trying to seek out and destroy sin in their lives. I realise I am ‘young’ and enthusiastic about the gospel, but its all there in His Word. All we have to do is read it! The task of ridding oneself of sin is never a finished task, until He does the job for us in Glory. But one feeds the other.


The more we know of the gospel = the more readily we can recognise and are equipped to kill sin in our lives.

The more we know of our sin = the less hypocritical we can be in living out our Christian lives and the greater our appreciation can be of the Grace God has afforded us in saving such wretches.