What Happens When Your Brook Dries Up?

Think back to time in your life when something in your life, maybe without warning, dried up. Everything was running smoothly, then suddenly, the wheels fall off. Maybe you had a job you really enjoyed for twenty years, in fact you had recently been promoted to manager, when suddenly one day your boss walks in and tells your job has been eliminated. After gathering up your personal belongings you quietly leave by the back door, saying to yourself, “didn’t see that coming.” Or maybe you unexpectedly get diagnosed with cancer, leaving you bent over gasping for air. I am sure in either case you ask God, “Why?” I propose that maybe a better question to ask is, “God, what are You doing in and through this situation? What are You teaching me?”

As God leads us on the journey He has for us, He opens and closes doors, trying to lead us in the right direction. God doesn’t ask us for our opinion, nor does He really have much interest in our opinion. God’s one desire is for us to be obedient, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Let’s look at a story found in the Old Testament – 1 Kings chapter 17 begins with the prophet Elijah announcing that because King Ahab “did more to arouse the anger of the LORD than all the kings of Israel before him (16:33)” a severe drought would come upon the land. God instructs Elijah to leave town and hide in the Kerith Ravine. God also tells him that the ravens will bring him food and the brook will supply his drinking water. The text (v.6) tells us that he had plenty to eat and drink. The word “kerith” means hidden. Elijah was cut off from the rest of the world. Sometimes God has us in a hidden place, cut off from life so we can rely solely on Him.

However, shortly thereafter, the wheels seemed to fall off. We read this in v.7, “Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.” I am sure that Elijah questioned God. But God had a plan. He sent Elijah to the town of Zarephath; and it was there that he had an encounter with a poor widow in which the LORD turns what appeared to be not enough into more than enough, not only for Elijah but also for woman and her son. Check back tomorrow for that story 1 Kings 17:8:24.

What nugget of truth can we take away from Elijah’s Kerith Ravine experience? It was in that secluded place that Elijah had to rely solely on God’s provisions. And it was in his time of solitude, cut off from the world around him, that Elijah received divine instructions.

So, today, when your brook dries up, when the wheels fall off, know that your faithful and loving God is using it to grow you and make you more like His Son, Jesus, fully dependent on Him. And it might also just be in those moments that you hear His voice more easily.