Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
After the retreat in January I shared with you that I thought God was asking me to stand down, to rest and to wait upon His direction. And I wondered at the time if that was Biblical. Does God really ask a faithful servant to stand-down?
Ever since then I have been looking for someone in the Bible who was asked by God to stand down and wait. Not punished and sent to the desert like Moses, or forced to run and hide like David, but someone who had been faithfully serving God and then asked to stop.
Last week I found my example.
Elijah was faithfully serving God as a prophet to the Nation of Israel. Ahab, an evil king was on the throne. To punish Israel for their disobedience to God and idol worship, Elijah went to Ahab and said “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” Right after that God told Elijah to go and hide by the stream.
According to commentaries, there are at least two reasons God told Elijah to leave.
The first is obvious, God was physically protecting Elijah. If Ahab could capture Elijah he most certainly would’ve killed him.
But it is the second reason I found really interesting.
If Elijah had remained, not only would he have suffered along with the people of Israel, he might have been moved by human sympathy to pray for the end of the drought, (which according to the text was within his power,) before God wanted him to. Rather than tempting Elijah to “rescue” Israel, God just sent him away.
It is never easy to watch anything suffer, whether it is a person or a ministry. Our natural tendency is to jump in and help. But sometimes our help is not what is needed. What is needed is for us to sit by the stream and wait, so that God can work.
Love,
Jill
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