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.

Lost in the Labyrinth

Last Lord's Day morning at Fole Chapel the preacher delivered a sermon on Exodus 15: 23-27, you can listen to it here. The verses in question tell of the arrival of the Israelites at Marah, where they found water (after 3 days without), but it was bitter. God directed Moses to cast a tree into the waters and they were 'made sweet'.


Only 3 days had passed since the Israelites had been delivered miraculously from the hands of Pharaoh. The waters had been parted and the Israelites saved. Despite this murmurings were heard after the 3 days without water. This was to set something of a pattern for the wilderness journey and persistent griping, moaning and backsliding were heard and seen. It appears the Israelites were rather an ungrateful lot... or so it seems to us.

They had God with them (in the pillar of cloud and smoke), they had been delivered, they were witness to many signs and wonders... yet they persisted in turning back to Egypt in mind and spirit so often. They moaned at Moses, worshiped idols and generally behaved like... well... like sinners.

It is so easy for us to tut and shake our heads at their ignorance, but we so often do the same don't we? Blind to our folly at the time, ignorant of our offences to God - but then later, looking back through the wilderness we cringe and wince at our own sinfulness and ungodliness.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I'm sure there were many Israelites who frequently chastised themselves and each other for their unbelief and lack of faith, just as we do from day to day.

During that sermon an image came to mind. It was of a scene in the film Labyrinth. For those of you fortunate enough to have not seen it the basic premise is a young girl who has to find her way through a mystical (and large) Labyrinth to rescue her baby brother from some evil king type played depressingly by David Bowie. She suffers many trials and difficulties on her quest and befriends all types of strange creatures and characters (I'm sure we can all relate to that!) I digress, the image that was in my mind was a scene where as she nears the end of her journey the entire labyrinth is sprawled out behind her.

As I said hindsight is a wonderful thing. Certainly looking back on my life over the last year I can see some of the dead ends I have come to, the pitfalls and the traps. But I can also see how God has guided me safely through to where I am now. I can look back over the labyrinth of my life and see where I took wrong turns and even headed in the wrong direction. But I can also see many of the learning experiences this afforded me. God guided me clearly so many times, but I was often blind to it. In recent times I have enjoyed the feeling of my hand in His and the assurance of being guided clearly and safely through perilous times.

As we look back over that maze of life and see our errors and sins surely we should be thankful. We should praise God for being there watching over us, offering us reassurance, providing the help and support we need when we need it, letting us 'go it alone' when we have to but never leaving us abandoned.
We aren't very good are we when it comes to a new trial or tribulation? We are excellent at reviewing such times with great hindsight and understanding but really we should have foresight enough to know that God will guide us in all things. James 1:2 in the ESV puts it well:

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,"

And we should, should we not, also remember that Romans 8:28 tells us:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

I hope that you and I both recall our past experiences and God's provision next time we meet a dead end or obstacle. We should learn from looking back at the labyrinth, granted, but we'd be better served in recalling the journey while looking onward and upward at the route through the maze of life to the hill top where the cross stands and Glory awaits.