I Kings 17:5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
So he went and did. Did what? According to the word of the Lord. That's what hearing clear and precise words from the Lord will allow you to do. You can go and do. But what do you do in what appears to be the absence of a word from the Lord? Am I to do nothing? Or..... am I free to do what I will? Does God have clear precise instruction for every day, every hour of my life?
I have used the example of a mother offering her child some cookies from a plate of them. Some are oatmeal raisin, some are chocolate chip and some are peanut butter. She says, You may have two." It is then the child's choice to have any two that they select. If the child were to say, "no, I want a cupcake" the mother would not be happy and would probably say no. The mother has given the parameters for the child to act within. What the child chooses is up to their liking. The mother does not offer the child the cookies all the while thinking, "you better chose the oatmeal raisin or your going to get it." No if the mother wanted the child to eat oatmeal raisin she would only offer oatmeal raisin. So with this logic if the Lord has something more specific for me won't he make that obvious? And meanwhile so long as I stay within the parameters of the word I heard a year ago am I not free to do as I desire? OR.... does every step I'm to take require a new word from the Lord or an additional word from Him? I guess that's what I've been expecting. Maybe I just need to pick chocolate chip since that's my favorite!
The Lord delivered on everything that He said. The raven s did bring the bread and meat in the morning and the evening, and Elijah drank from the brook. Then sure enough the brook dried up. Elijah knew that would happen. So did he sit there each day watching and checking the water flow and level to see when he might move on? Again no record. I can only imagine that if Elijah was going to deliver the word of the Lord to King Ahab, then he believed it would come to pass. I doubt that Elijah looked up each day and wondered if it would rain that day. I doubt that he ended each day by saying something like, "Well the Lord came through today and didn't let it rain." Everything I can read or sense within me says that the Elijah heard the word of the Lord and then did what it said. And everything he did between those words from the Lord was open to him so long as he did not do something contrary to those words. So long as Elijah stayed by the brook, that was all that mattered. If he played games or read or prayed or sang or whatever it mattered not so long as it took place by the brook.
I am seeing something here. I want the Lord to give me a fresh word more often than what He did for Elijah. I need confirmation or affirmation. A year ago I believed that I heard a word and Ann Marie heard that word as well so we acted on that word. It's now been a year and I want a word to confirm the word that I thought I heard. Why do I need a confirmation? How about just because? How about because I do? How about because it's been hard? Perhaps because I've become distracted! Distracted by the very word that we received or by the circumstances that have come about by acting on that word.
Elijah had his own distractions to deal with. Living out in the open beside a brook was not the easiest of tasks. I have camped out before. It's work. The ground for a bed. A rock for a pillow. Bread and meat, bread and meat, water to drink, water to drink. Day after day with no one to talk to. Will someone find me? Sounds like a very simple life. It also sounds like a pretty boring life. All these things could have distracted Elijah to the point where he packed up and moved on to more comfortable settings. Elijah refused to let hard yet simple boring life remove him from what the word of the Lord told him to do. Elijah stuck to what the Lord had told him, and stayed all the way until the brook dried up. And guess what happened next?
Verse 8 - "Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,"
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