God Always Provides (Life of Elijah, Part 2)

By Pastor Matt Black

05 August 2007
Lord's Day evening
1 Kings 17:1-7; Psalm 84:9-12

Introduction: God is good all the time.  All the time God is good. 

We’ll be looking at 1 Kings 17, but let’s first open our Bibles to Psalm 84:9-12. 

We are continuing on in our series on the life of Elijah. The title of this evening’s message is “God Always Provides”.  This is Part 2 in a miniseries I’ve entitled “Life of Elijah”.  Let’s read Psalm 84:9-12, “Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. 10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 12  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”

[Prayer for guidance]

I. This morning we looked at Elijah’s Predicament.

Elijah arrives on the scene at one of the darkest times of Israel’s history.  Only a man of prayer could pierce such thick darkness. 

How did it get so dark in Israel?

The answer to this question is simple.  Leadership. 

Spiritual Darkness reigned over Israel through Israel’s leadership.

It was a dark time in Israel.  It had been only fifty-eight short years since Solomon’s death.  Just after Solomon went off the scene the Davidic Kingdom split in two.  Elijah steps on the scene 58 years after King Solomon’s death.  We are going to see a man that has no fear of anyone because of his prayer life.  During those 58 years of spiritual blindness—7 kings had reigned over the northern kingdom—all were wicked to the core and followed in the footsteps of the first king in the era of the divided kingdom, Jeroboam.   

II. Then we looked at Elijah’s Preparation.  Let’s look at 1 Kings 17:1, “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

Elijah is virtually unknown. We know nothing of any real preparation.  He has no credentials.   

A. An inhabitant of Gilead.

Elijah was an inhabitant of Gilead, a mountain man!

B. We know nothing of his father and mother.

But when you come right down to it—what credentials did Elijah have?  None really.

C. Really Elijah was just a common man with no credentials. 

Application:  Let me make an application here.  You don’t need a Masters degree to be used of God.  1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”. 

God is so good to use humble people!

III. Then we took a look at Elijah’s Prayer life.  

A. The Power of Elijah’s prayer life.  Prayer is a powerful thing.  Elijah’s Power—What is the secret to Elijah’s strength?  I mean he was willing to go anywhere and do anything.  He was totally consecrated to the Lord. 

His private prayer was equal with his public power. Confronts Ahab!   He knew the majesty of God!

B. The Purity of Elijah’s prayer life.  He was salt and light to a wicked nation.  He was a burning and a shining light!

C. Let’s now pick up with looking at the Provisions of Elijah’s prayer life.  We read in verses 2-6 of 1 Kings 17, “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 3  Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4  And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5  So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6  And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.”

Applications.  There are a few lessons we need to learn here this morning.

1. Elijah learned dependence on God.

Sometimes you will pray for spiritual purity, and God will send drought to your life to purify you.  God will send you hardship to so that you will depend on Him.  When all you have is God to depend on you will grow in your purity and holiness.

Next time your car breaks down or that sickness comes, instead of fretting, ask God to take care of you.  God is your heavenly father.  Psalm 103:13, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”  God wants to use the time of drought to teach you that you don’t need your car to serve Him.  Some of you can testify that God can even take care of you if you are jobless for a time.  Some of you have seen miraculous provisions—not during times of feasting, but in times of famine!

2. Elijah learned direction from God.  Notice it says in verse 2, “the word of the LORD came unto [Elijah]”.  You might be in a difficult situation and not know what to do and where to go.  Are you praying?  It is through your prayer life and time in the Word that you will get direction from God!  “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).  God’s word came to Elijah and told him to go to the brook Cherith. 

IV. Now let’s see Elijah’s Protection. Elijah learned that God was His defense.  Notice Elijah was to “hide himself” by the brook Cherith (verse 3).  Elijah learned to hide himself in the Lord.  This caused him to be totally alone at times.

A. God protected Elijah from the filthiness of his culture.  Isolation from evil is absolutely essential if we are to "keep ourselves unspotted from the world" (James 1:27)—The scripture tells us to "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). 

B. God protected Elijah from the fury of Ahab.  Isaiah 54:17 tells us that “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper”.  Elijah was never in danger of any harm from Ahab as long as God was with him.

C. God protected Elijah from the foolishness of pride.  Sometimes before there is great spiritual victories, God has to humble us, and show us that it is God who is doing all this so that we will give Him the glory.

Remember, if you are in a period where you feel isolated and alone in your life—give yourself more to God.  You will see that this is God’s way of preparing you for service.

So we saw Elijah’s predicament, his preparation (he a heart that panted after God) his prayer life, and then his protection.

V. Now we are going to look at Elijah’s Persuasion.  Now let us look at verse 7. 

There’s a huge turn of events.  Look at 1 Kings 17:7, “And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.”

Why would God have the brook dry up?  It seems cruel, but we need to understand that God is good and God has ways that are higher than our ways. 

Elijah trusted in God.  Was God going to abandon Elijah?  No.  God sometimes takes away good things from our life because we are prone to love those things more than God.  Elijah was not to trust a brook or any ravens to feed him. 

A. God was Elijah’s Refreshment.  Verse 7 says “the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.”  What’s Elijah going to do?  Yes, he needed the brook, but Elijah loved God more than he loved food.  God was Elijah’s portion. 

\He was to trust in God alone.  Psalm 73:26 expresses I think what Elijah felt when the brook dried up: “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

B. Elijah was persuaded of God’s absolute Reliability.  We read back in verse 3.  God says to Elijah during this drought: “Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4  And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5  So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD:”

What does verse 5 say?  “So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD.”  Elijah had been to the School of Trusting Go.  What’s going to happen now that there’s a drought?  Elijah goes to the Brook Cherith.  And what is Elijah going to do when that the brook dries up?  Elijah needs to go back to the School of Trusting God. 

Do you have a degree in moving mountains?  We all need a degree in mustard seed planting!!  God’s going to take care of Elijah, and God’s going to take care of you!

What is your persuasion tonight?  Can God provide for Elijah?  Is our God the God of Elijah or someone else?  Now understand that Elijah didn’t have Mastercard.  He didn’t have Visa or Discover.  What was he going to do?  He did the only thing he could do and the very thing you and I should do: Trust and Obey!  How could he do that? 

C. You see, Elijah was persuaded of God’s absolute Reign over all things.  Elijah was a firm believer in the sovereignty of God.  God CAN do anything but fail.  He says He will take care of us and He will!!  The problem is we have so little faith!  So verse 5 says that Elijah obeyed, “So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD”.  Elijah could obey because he knew that God would keep His word and provide for him.

Elijah learned much from His Brook Cherith experience.  That was important.  Now trial is ever wasted.  God will use it in your life.  God is bring you progressively down the road to Christlikeness. 

VI. Elijah’s Progress.  Though he had no earthly qualifications.  The Lord Himself was preparing Elijah.  He was progressing Elijah to be ready, because in a while this prophet was going to have a confrontation with the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel.  He wasn’t yet ready, but he was making progress.  How?

Before we have our Mount Carmel experiences, we have to drink from the brook Cherith first.  Imagine Elijah day by day watching the water in the brook get lower and lower.  Did Elijah’s courage sink with the Brook?  No!  The Brook dries up, but Elijah’s been to the School of Trusting God! 

Listen, when our brook dries up and the ravens stop feeding us, if you’ve been to that School, you’ve made enough spiritual progress in the life of faith to realize God is going to provide.

Application:  Have you had one of those Brook Cherith experiences?  Maybe you were in serious need one month, and you’ve seen God provide, but then it seemed like even that dried up!  What do you learn from that?  That God can still provide!! 

Now it doesn’t matter if you’ve been to seminary and have three degrees and two Ph.Ds.  If you haven’t been tried and tested by the Lord and passed His tests of faith, then all the human education is not going to make up for it. 

Ø David wandered the wilderness in caves with Saul chasing him before He was ready for the spiritual leadership of the Kingdom.

Ø Moses spent 40 isolated years in the wilderness before God could use him.

Ø Joseph spent time in the pit and in the prison before he could be elevated to the palace.

VII. So let’s look at Elijah’s Provision.

Look at verses 8 and 9 (1 Kings 16), “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9  Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”

A widow woman is going to sustain the prophet of God?  Yes, if you have lived the life of faith very long, you will find that God can use extraordinary means to sustain you.  

A. We need to reject the short cuts that really short circuit our faith!

The problem is, on the way to the widows house, we stop at the heathen bank and get a credit card to use money that isn’t ours to buy something we can’t afford so that we can pay back the money that we don’t have with interest so that we can have things that we do not need!

We all say that we live by faith, but are we really?

Are you depending on your job, your intelligence, your health?  You know all of that can be taken away.  Let’s commit to spending more time in prayer and dependence on God! 

A Society of Debt

Let’s live like we trust God.  That means following what the Scripture says about not getting into debt.  Do we need Discover and Visa and Mastercard to prove that heathens can provide for us better than God?  We need to follow the Word of God.

B. We need to remember the promises of God’s provision.  First God used the ravens and a brook.  Now that the brook has dried up, God uses a widow who has “an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse” (verse 12). 

Listen to the promises of God’s provision!

1. God knows all your needs.

Ø Matthew 6:8, “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

2. God says if we ask we shall receive.

Ø Philippians 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

3. God promises to provide for your needs (not wants).  He gives according to His riches and He will abundantly provide.

Ø Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Ø "O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" Psalm 34:9-10

Ø "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things (food and clothing) shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).

4. God says if you live this way, you will have so much, you’ll be able to give to others.  Luke 6:38, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”

VII. Elijah’s Perseverance.

A. Elijah Persevered in Obedience.

Look again at verses 8 and 9 (1 Kings 16), “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9  Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”

Verse 10 we read, “So he arose and went to Zarephath…”  In wilderness wandering there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of could by night.  1 Corinthians 10 intimates that that cloud was the very presence of Christ among God’s ancient people. 

Elijah heard God’s voice.  We hear God’s voice in the Bible, and the fruit of our Christianity being genuine is obedience. 

Elijah not only preached God’s Word, but he practiced it. It’s easy to say we are Christians and to know much of Christianity, but do we obey God?  James tells us: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1:22).  Those who do not have the fruit of obedience are self deceived.

Turn over to 1 John 3:7.  Look at what the Apostle John says: "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous" (1 John 3:7). We can say that we are righteous in the Lord, but a saved man is not just positionally righteous, but he is one who practices righteousness.

What does our Lord say in Matthew 7:21? "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven".  Elijah was a well-saved man.  He practiced what he preached. 

B. Elijah also persevered not only in obedience, but in humility.

He was called to be cared for at the hands of a desolate widow. Elijah was dependent on one of the poorest of the poor.

God often brings us to a place that takes away all self-confidence and self-sufficiency. 

C. Elijah would persevere!  Not just in obedience and in humility, but in faith.

She was so poor that she was without any belongings whatsoever—no food, and not even anyone to help gather a few sticks for her. All seemed gone in Israel.  Look at verses 10-12: "And he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die" (verses 10-12).

God called Elijah to this place, and this is what he found!  Death!  But Elijah was not discouraged because he had prayed for this famine.  He knew God would provide. 

Conclusion:  As we close, how about you?  Can you say with the Psalmist in Psalm 46:1-2, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed".

God never fails.  God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.  He answers prayer, and He will provide for you!

From time to time in our evening services, we will continue this series in the life of Elijah. 

Closing Hymn: 612 God is So Good