Those who lead others into unbelief “are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest” (2 Pet 2:17).
Seemingly out of nowhere, like a whirlwind from the wilds of Gilead, Elijah the Tishbite appears in the palace of Ahab and Jezebel. Dry up, Ahab! Dry up, Israel! Dry up, until you return to God, the Fountainhead of all your blessings! Or as Elijah actually put it, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Ki 17:1). And, just as suddenly, he was gone. Immediately the Lord directed him east, to “hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan” (v 3). There, as the Lord said, “it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (v 4). Ravens? Aren’t they unclean? Don’t they eat dead and rotting flesh? But, “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook” (v 6). Many years later, in His first sermon, the Lord reminded His townsfolk that both Elijah and Elisha had better interactions with Gentiles than Jews. He was letting them know how His own story would go, and for this they hated Him. But each morning, as Elijah went to the brook for a drink, he noticed the water level dropping. Dry up, Elijah? This was evidence of answered prayer! “And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land” (v 7). Now what would he do? “Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you’” (vv 8-9). Sidon? Isn’t this from the frying pan into the fire? Sidon is the home of Ahab’s father-in-law! But Elijah obeyed, and left the consequences with Him. It’s good when we do the same.