Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” Then the LORD said to Elijah, “Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food.” So Elijah did as the LORD told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land (1 Kings 17:1-7, NLT).
God sent Elijah to Ahab’s palace to deliver a prophetic word: God’s not happy and its not going to rain. Perhaps Elijah anticipated that his next step would be to take the message to the people in the streets. But God sent him to the Kerith Brook to hide. There, Elijah would be fed by scavenger birds and drink from the brook. His assignment? Wait for further instructions. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long he waited there at the brook. Scholars estimate that he remained there between six months and a year. The remarkable thing is not that Elijah went to the Kerith Brook. Its that he stayed there until God gave him his next move.
Brooks don’t dry up all at once. They dry up little by little. With each passing day, Elijah watched his water supply gradually diminish. The Jordan River was just over the hill, and while it certainly experienced the devastation of the drought as well, it would have certainly have provided a more ample and fresher water source than the brook. But Elijah didn’t pull up the anchor and go to the Jordan. He stayed put and waited for God’s next word. I wonder if I would have done the same thing.
Each of us face circumstances in life when we’re tempted to pull up the anchor and strike out on our own. Heaven is silent to our prayers and we see no visible evidence that God is doing anything about our challenges. When we find ourselves waiting for further instructions we often wrestle with the Jordan River that is just over the hill side. If Elijah modeled anything for us in the early stages of his biography, it was his willingness to stay put and continue to trust God. When God plants us somewhere and tells us to wait, he hasn’t forgotten us. He’s preparing us for the next stage of our lives.
