Elijah Part 1: Humble, Dependent, Obedient

Elijah Part 1: Humble, Dependent, Obedient

Elijah is quite simply one of those awesome characters in Scripture. He’s a man of faith, commitment and obedience and he does very many powerful things in the name of the Lord. The very first thing that he did was to speak to King Ahab and Jezebel and to close up the heavens to declare that there would be neither dew nor rain for the next few years except at his word: to challenge the very power base of the northern kingdom of Israel as it was ruled by this evil king. 

We think of Elijah as that amazing man. But just like us, he was someone who needed to be formed, he needed to be fashioned, and he needed to be moulded to become the person that God wanted him to be. So having made this great prophetic statement, Elijah was called to the wilderness - this may be true for us too. 

Overview

1 Kings 17: 1-9 describes the beginning of Elijah’s prophetic ministry during the reign of King Ahab in northern Israel. Elijah, a Tishbite from Gilead, boldly declared to Ahab that there would be neither dew nor rain in Israel except at his word, signaling God’s judgment and asserting His sovereignty over nature. This drought challenged the worship of Baal, who was believed to control rain, highlighting the supremacy of Yahweh. 

Following this confrontation, God instructed Elijah to hide by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan, where he was miraculously sustained. Ravens brought him bread and meat morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. This provision demonstrated God’s care and the prophet’s obedience, even in isolation. 

Eventually, the brook dried up due to the ongoing drought, and God directed Elijah to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, where a widow has been chosen to provide for him. This move foreshadowed God’s continued provision through human agents and set the stage for further miracles, including the multiplication of the widow's flour and oil and the later resurrection of her son. 

Key Themes and Insights

• Faith and Obedience: Elijah’s immediate compliance with God’s instructions illustrated trust in divine provision and underlined Elijah's dependence on God, in uncertain circumstances.
• Divine Sovereignty: The drought and miraculous feeding underscored God’s control over nature and human affairs, contrasting with Baal worship.
• God’s Provision: God provided in unexpected ways, through ravens (unclean birds) and a foreign widow showing that His care extends beyond conventional means.
• Prophetic Symbolism: Elijah’s name, meaning “My God is Yahweh,” reinforces the message that God alone is the source of life and sustenance. 

This passage sets the stage for Elijah’s later confrontations with Baal prophets and demonstrates the principle that God’s word and provision are reliable, even in times of scarcity. It emphasises the importance of humility, obedience, faith, and dependence on God’s guidance. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Elijah quite simply one of those awesome characters in Scripture. He's a man of faith and commitment and obedience, and he does some very many powerful things in the name of the Lord. The very first thing that he did was to speak to Ahab and Jezebel and to close up the heavens, to declare that there will be neither dew nor rain for the next few years, except at his word, to challenge the very power base in the northern kingdom of Israel, as it was ruled by this evil king. We think of Elijah as that amazing man. But just like us, he is someone who needed to be formed, who needed to be fashioned, who needed to be moulded to become the person God wanted him to be. So having made this great prophetic statement, Elijah is called to the wilderness. This may be true for us too. There is much here for us to learn. Let's listen to Dean.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

1 Kings 17 is where we're going to be. If you want to grab the Church Bible, we're going to just read the first part together. It says, Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead said to Ahab, 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. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerath ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there. So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerath ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Sometime later the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, Go at once to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food. There we go. Elijah. Elijah, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah and he he speaks it. It's a crazy. I was looking sort of the origin story of Elijah, sort of how he got to this point, but he just sort of appears on the scene. Suddenly there's no there's no background, there's no making of the man, or there is, but it's not before this account. He suddenly is just there. Um there's all this stuff going on. So we've just got to set the context a little bit because you're thinking, what on earth are we talking about? This man just appears out of nowhere, crazy things start to happen. So we just need to slow down and understand who this man is. By the New Testament, Elijah is considered one of the greatest men of God in scripture. He was seen as the prophet who would return before the Messiah would arrive. Some even believed when Jesus came that he was Elijah, reappeared in the flesh. Such was the sort of the weight they put on this character that they thought this Jesus, and then John the Baptist, because of his greatness, they thought, well, maybe he's Elijah. And in the New Testament, it says, well, John is a type of Elijah. He is a great man of God who arrives suddenly on the scene. Elijah appears with Jesus and Moses on this transfiguration, this event in Jesus' ministry, where he's on the mountain, Elijah representing the prophets, Moses, the law, they meet together, they talk together about what's going to happen to Jesus. This great man of God. And yet, as I already mentioned, when the New Testament talks about him, it builds up this great character. But then also in the book of James says this Elijah was a human being even as we are. Any human beings here today? Then you're just like Elijah. Flesh and blood, frailty and faithfulness, glory, and yet made of the dust. The thing that makes us human, that is what Elijah is. And that brings us greatness, which is nice because greatness means it's unattainable. We can read Elijah, but we don't have to live up to it. We can learn about him, but we don't have to learn anything from him. And James brings that all down and says, no, no, no, no, you haven't got that excuse. If anything impresses you about this man, if anything astounds you, if anything makes you go, wow, isn't that incredible? Then it's for you also, if you are a human being, and I assume most of you are, but it means that this story that we're going to look at over the next few weeks is for each and every human being in this place. That something about his life speaks to us. And so we're going to look at the first part of Elijah's story. He bursts onto the scene, but he's in a country at a time that's split. There's almost a civil war between two parts. God's people have been divided. There's a north and a south, and they've endured 19 consecutive evil kings spanning around 200 years. Can you imagine? So we have incompetent leaders, perhaps, and ineffective leaders, but evil leaders, 19 in a row. Evil leaders who are bent on doing the opposite of what they're called to do. The kings of that time are meant to meant to worship God. They're meant to keep this covenant, this way of life that God has given them. They're meant to stop idolatry. And yet these evil kings over and over have done the opposite of each of these things and led people away. One of the core things that they keep doing is leading people to worship a god called Baal. Now, we live in a multicultural society, lots of different religions and beliefs and understandings, and we tend to get along and understand, and there's a general kindness and acceptance of one another. But in this time, this idea of people worshiping other gods doesn't have that same ring to it. Baal is the god of life and fertility. And the idea is that he is locked in an eternal war with Mot, the god of death and sterility. And so these two gods are at war, and so what the people had to do was they had to support Baal and his his idea that life and fertility might thrive. You might think a god of life and fertility, yes, that sounds like a wonderful god. But the way that they would help him was by taking young children who are full of life and sacrificing them to him. It was by performing acts of ritual rape and incest in their temples that they might aid Baal in his conquest of death. This is a horrific religion. This is this is devastating, and and there are things going on that it wouldn't be appropriate even to talk about. Sacrificing young children, giving them to this God, slaughtering innocent people. This is not live and let live, let's all just get along, we all believe different things. This is a practice that is destroying the culture, destroying families, lives, and the way of God that they've meant to be following. It's dangerous and it's sick. And it's these kings again and again who have allowed and sometimes instituted and caused them to do this. Because there is an idea that if you can control the gods, then you're okay. If we can get God to do what we want him to do, then everything will be right. And Baal is one of those gods that can be controlled. If you just sacrifice enough people, if you perform enough rituals, then the crops will grow, the rain will fall, everything will be good. And into this scene, into this circumstance, there's a king called Ahab and his wife Jezebel, considered by many some of the most evil of kings, and this lady whose name today still speaks of evil and corruption. Into this situation steps a man called Elijah. Elijah, whose name means God El. I is the word for my, and Yah is the word for Yahweh, the name of God. Yahweh is my God. He does what he says in the tin. This is a man who says, No, Ba Baal is not my God, Yahweh is my God. Our God has a name and we can know him. It's not really the point of today, but I just want to remind you of that. God as a force, God as a power is fine, but our God has a name. He has many names, in fact. A name that we can know. The name of Jesus is the name of God, the name Yahweh, that this is a God who is personal and relational. And Elijah, his name that from the start means Yahweh, not Baal, not these other gods that you've made up and you try and control with your practices and rituals, but this one is God. When we approach God, we call him a name. You can call him God, but it'll be like me calling you human. Hello, human. You'd say, Well, that's what I am, but it's not who I am. And that's it. God is what he is, but Yahweh is who he is. And you and I are invited to know him, and Elijah knows him as his God. And so he bursts onto the scene, and the opening line is this here's Elijah, the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead, and he says to Ahab, one of these evil kings, 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. Mike dropped, walks off the stage, boom. What an entrance. What an opening gambit. You see, remember Baal controls the weather? And Elijah shows up and goes, forget Baal, my God controls the weather, and it will not rain. You think you can control the weather, you think you can manipulate it by your practices and your horrific uh acts of violence against other people. I will show you. And so God stops the rain to teach them there is only one God. There is only one who is in control. And this is Elijah's opening gambit, an incredible act. Uh that that is just incredible, it's just amazing. This imagine that one day, just a word that comes to you. He's just a guy from Tishbi, just an ordinary human being, and yet God speaks to him and he goes and just says, Here's what God said. It's not going to rain. And amazingly, it happens. I've met many people who've come up with things that God has said to them, and it turns out not to be true. But to have God say something and then it not to happen, three and a half years we're told it doesn't rain on the land. As a sign to the people, there is only one God who is in control, and his name is not Baal, it is Yahweh, and he controls the weather. And so he walks off stage and you think, Wow, where'd you go from here? What next? And there are some incredible events in Elijah's life, but what we're going to see is that God then does something quite unexpected, but it's something it's something that he does with every single person who is used by God. Every single person who is to be led by God, everyone who's going to be useful or productive or fruitful in God's kingdom follows this same path. We ask, what next? Where's he gonna go? How's he gonna start? And what God does is he takes Elijah away so that he can do a work in him because he has more work to do through him. He started off with this great act and it shows God's power and his majesty, but now God needs to do a work in Elijah because he has something more to do through Elijah. God does that for each of us. He has a plan and a purpose, a ministry and a life that he sets out for us, every step marked out. But for God to do a work through us, it starts with him doing a deeper work within us, a work of preparation, a work of guidance and shaping, a work of forming us and refining us that we may be able to work in the ways that he's called us to. Because what you see here is great power. And if Spider-Man's taught us anything, it's that with great power comes great responsibility. That power in the wrong hands is actually very dangerous. The resurrection power we've been talking about the last few weeks, the ability of God to heal and restore and set free and bring light into dark situations is great power, but it needs to be entrusted to those who are faithful to God's cause and his ways. And to do that, God prepares us and shapes us. New Testament talks about this, like pottery refined or metal refined in a fire. He has to do a work within us so that he can do a greater work through us. And so that's what happens. Elijah gets taken away, and we're told the word of the Lord comes to Elijah, leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerath ravine, east of the Jordan. The Kareth ravine. The word actually, the Kerath means cut off, the cut-off ravine. Go out into this place, this wilderness location. This it's not very, I've got a picture of what it may have looked like. Not particularly picturesque, not the blue pools and the sun hats and the lounges and the margaritas that you'd expect. A dry, dusty place with a little brook flowing through it. Go to this place where I'm gonna hide you. Cut off. Cut off or cut down. That's what Kerith means, and it's what Elijah experiences. He's cut off from others, he's cut off from ministry. I just had a word from God. I spoke to the king and I challenged him and I exposed him, but now I have no one to speak to. Cut off from comforts, cut off from provision. A place where he goes, Well, who am I gonna talk to? What what am I gonna say? I can't I can't speak. I've just been given a word from God. Maybe I've got more words for more people. Surely, God, I've got other people to speak to and other things to set free and people to turn their hearts back to you. Who am I gonna talk to? And God takes them to the Karath ravine to say, You're gonna talk to me. You can't call on anyone. I'm gonna put you in a place where you're so cut off you can only call on me. Where you're all alone, where you are going to be humbled, which is not a particularly appealing idea. We sing the song, or perhaps we used to sing the song when we were younger, these are the days of Elijah. You know, there's power and there's God, and yet God says, Okay, before we can get to the days of Elijah, before the power and the and the glory and the bringing down fire on soaking wet altars and exposing the king and bringing dead sons back to life before any of that, then you're going to have to be humbled. You're going to have to become less so that I can become more. God is not lacking. When we want the power of God to work in our life, the resurrection power, we often say, Well, God, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you working there? Why aren't these the days of Elijah? Why are you setting free and raising what where's the lack? Remember, God has just stopped the rain for three years. There is no lack in him. The problem is there's too much of us in us. Humility is less of me and more of him. It's it's being men and women who can be entrusted with those kind of words. It's it's learning that it is not about me. It is not even about God working through me, it is simply me being available for God to work through when he would choose to be humbled. I must become less, he must become more. James puts it like this: if you humble yourself before the Lord, he will lift you up. Peter, the disciple of Jesus, leader of the disciples, he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. We know God can control the weather. That's not in question. The question is, does he control me? Am I being useful to God? See, Baal is a God that we can control, and that's kind of how we we picture God. If I pray the right way, if I do the right thing, and I can get God to do things in my life, I can control him, and God will say, I will not be known by those who want to control me. I'll be known by those who are humble in heart and ready to receive whatever it is that I will give them. Those who know that they call on my name and I alone are sufficient for them. And you see this in every character: Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and and and Esther and Ruth and all these people that went before God works, they are humbled. They say, Not me, but you Lord. C.S. Lewis puts it like this: humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's not the idea of beating yourself up and making yourself feel bad, but it's thinking about yourself less. So it's it's it's not, oh I'm I'm awful and I'm rubbish, whatever we maybe, but it's not it's not that's not humility. That's that's sort of sometimes it's uh realistic, but other times it's it's a negative self-image. It's not I'm so bad and I'm worthless, it's not me. Not even not even my negative, just not me. Not but you, God. Not my ideas, but yours, not my plans, but yours, not my thoughts, but yours. Whether they're good or bad, or I don't want I want your thoughts, God, because I I don't control the weather. I am not strong enough, I am a human being, and that comes with incredible dignity, the spirit of God, the image of God. It also comes with incredible humility, the dust of the earth, to which I will return. My life but a breath, a vapor that's come and gone. Unable to control a single drop of rain. But still exactly how God designed that I might be a vessel, an instrument in his hand. Who will I talk to in the ravine? He will talk to me. And in that you will learn in that place that I am God and you are not. That's humility. It's what God creates in us that he might work through us. But he does more, because the second question I imagine Elijah asks is, Well, what am I going to eat? And so God says, Well, you will drink from the brook, and I've directed the ravens to supply you with food there. It's easy to skip past that bit, but before there was delivery room, before there was takeaway, God creates his own delivery service in these ravens that he instructs to fill them. Now, in this, we see again something Elijah has to learn. We need to learn that our categories, our expectations of how God will work are so small, so limited. We've put limitations on how God can take care of us. We put limitations on how he can care for my family, how he can use me, how he can order my lives. Here's how God's gonna work, and here's how I've seen him work, and so here's how he's gonna work again. And so when God provides for Elijah, he says, I'm gonna do it in ways you didn't expect. I know this time I've done it through speaking a word and the weather's stopping. Next time I might have a different idea. But you're gonna learn that when I provide for you, it's gonna be in ways that you don't realize. I'm gonna bless you through the birds. Maybe here it'll be the red kite. My brother-in-law always comes up here and he checks the app for delivery, and we don't get deliverer in labster. We're that far out, we're in the sticks. Maybe we can start a red kite delivery service, something like the ravens to get the takeaways to us. But there'll be a season where God isn't feeding you the way he used to. You'll go through seasons where you can't depend on the things that you used to depend on. And you have a certain idea of how it should be, how how life should be, how family should be, how church should be, how relationships should be. And now the food isn't coming that way anymore. People left and situations changed, and you're thinking, well, I can't get a meal anymore. But what Elijah learns is God can provide in ways that I haven't even thought of yet. You see, it my title in in off of this section in the Bible says the Elijah Fed by Ravens. If it says that in your Bible, you have permission to cross that out. It's not part of the original text, so don't worry. God, Elijah isn't fed by the ravens. God feeds Elijah through the ravens. It is God who feeds Elijah, and the provision, the means he uses is the ravens. Now, this mindset is crucial for us to be useful, useful to God. My job doesn't pay me, God pays me through my job. My house doesn't shelter me. God shelters me through my house. My food doesn't nourish me. God nourishes me through the food. It's that understanding that it is God and He will choose. And if these things go, I'm not dependent on them. I'm dependent on God who has used these things, but may then use something else, may find a new means and a new way, an unexpected way to provide for me. But it is God who provides. And so I don't depend on these things. I don't depend on the house and the food and the job. That they're they're wonderful gifts from God, but they are means through which God provides, and one day he may take them and then provide another. Maybe even a bird. If he doesn't provide for this way, he will provide another. And the ravens, it will sometimes be the least expected way. These are not just birds, but in in the culture of the time, these are these are dirty birds. These are unclean birds, and God says, I'm going to even use these things to provide for you. Have you ever been blessed by a dirty bird? Sounds like an incident to get hooed on when you're at the beach or something. Or attacked. We have a raven at, oh, I don't know if it's a raven or a crow, but on the on the mantle, you look at the window on this side, the window's been pecked out. I don't know where he sees his reflection or something, but he keeps pecking at the window, making I was here when I was on my own, the kids were in Bournemouth, and I heard a knocking. I was thinking, who's here in the hammer at five o'clock in the morning? And I was looking around and I found it. It was the raven on the window, bang, bang, bang. This dirty bird trying to break into our house and cracking the glass and breaking the window. God uses this unclean bird to bless him. God uses the unexpected and the thing you think the last thing that God would use, and that's where he provides. God will bless you in situations and with things that you don't expect. Ever been blessed by someone you didn't like? Ever found a circumstance that you wouldn't have chosen actually turned out to be God's way of working in you and working in you and working through you? God provides in an unexpected way, and what he does is he does it every single day. Doesn't give Elijah a day two days' worth or a week's worth, doesn't even give him a day's worth, he gives him morning and evening when it's needed. We're taught to pray, aren't we? Lord, give us today our daily bread. It's to remind us God is the one who provides, and he provides daily. He gives us enough. If I need comfort, give me comfort for today. If I don't feel like I have enough, would you provide enough for today? If I feel weak, would you give me strength for today? You Lord are my daily bread. You're the one who provides. And whatever means you choose, I want to be open. I want to limit you. I want to depend on you and not these things. However, it comes, I will bless you and praise you. But but God, don't let me limit you. Let me learn that I depend on you. I depend on you. I'm humble. I'm dependent on you, however you might work. Elijah is he's taken to the ravine, he's fed by the ravens, and then it's a brook, but we've got to get some alliterations. Going to talk about the river, the ravine, the ravens, and the river. Because what happens is there's this sometimes later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Why had there been no rain in the land? Because Elijah had said, Don't let there be any rain in the land. And then yet the thing that God's providing for suddenly dries up because Elijah was obedient. He's suffering, he's now the victim of the consequences of his own obedience. He's done what God said, and now it's it's turned against him. He's been obedient, and yet often when we are trying to control God, we get to these situations where things start to dry up. Things aren't working as they used to. And then we say, Well, God, what have I done? Did I miss something? Did I do something? And sometimes the answer is no, you are doing exactly what you're meant to do. But I need you to keep being obedient. You need to be humble and you need to be independent, but you also need to be obedient. Because when the brook dries up, God uses it as a means to speak to Elijah and say, here's your next step. The brook is dried up because you did exactly what I told you to do. But now that it's dried up, I need you to continue to do exactly what I tell you to do. And this drying up is an indication that you need to go somewhere else because I have provision and plans for you in a different place. The brook dries up because Elijah has done what God has said. But now God wants to say something else. We often think that where, what is it? There's a there's a well-known preacher's phrase that the preacher doesn't know, but it's something like where God leads, he provides, where God guides, he provides. There you go. That when God sends you somewhere, he's going to provide everything you need. And there's truth in that that he will. But I also believe with all my heart that there's another side where sometimes God will stop the provision to get us to move to where he needs us to be, to take us where we wouldn't go if the provision hadn't dried up. Elijah would have stayed in that brook for the rest of his life, free delivery morning and evening, water in supply. But because it dries up, he then goes to a widow whose family would have died if he hadn't gone there. He raises a son who would have lost his life if he hadn't been there. He stands on Mount Carmel and calls down fire and turns the people to repentance. He goes to all these places, but he wouldn't have if the brook hadn't dried up. Maybe more painful to talk about, but God may be leading you through your limitations, through your lack. God leads by closed doors as much as he leads by open doors. And if the brook had continued to flow, Elijah would never have done any more. He wouldn't have listened for the next step that God has for him. But God provides by not providing. He guides him by taking something away which Elijah had done by himself. If your brook is drying up, maybe your energy or your job or your focus, it felt like this was where God was, but now it doesn't feel like that. You felt close, but now it feels distant. Perhaps it's a sign that God has a next step for you. It's a chance to ask God, I've been obedient, and this isn't a sign that I've been disobedient, but it's just that you have another step for me. The danger is that we stay by the brook for the rest of our lives. We never listen for the next step because it can be comfortable at the brook. Sure, we might want a bit more food and a bit more water, but it's it's familiar. And sometimes it has to dry up so that we can move on to what's next. God is guiding and he's shaping Elijah. He's he's taught him humility, and he's teaching him dependence, and he's teaching him unquestioning obedience to God because he has a greater plan for him. Now you might think, well, surely this is Elijah. This isn't us, is it? This is this is kind of old testament kind of stuff. It's a bit hard to take, but the New Testament is all grace and gospel and good news. It's not things like, I don't know, take up your cross daily and follow me. It's not things like 2 Timothy, where it says those who cleanse themselves will be instruments for special purposes, made holy and useful to the Master, to flee from evil desires and youth and pursue righteousness and faith and love. New Testament is just as much because we are human like Elijah. And sometimes God has to do a work in us before he can do a greater work for us. We just need to be able to see it. We need our eyes to see that going to the Kerith Ravine is not a problem. It is a place where God will work his promises in us. And some people you see them, and by the end of the chapter, you'll see that he's no longer Elijah the Tishbite, he's Elijah the man of God. There are people that you will see, you'll say, You're such a so godly. And you God works through you and he speaks through you. And then you're you the way you love and the way you serve is wonderful. And there aren't, how did you get there? And they would say, Because I've been through the Kerith Ravin. I've been to it through a place where I've learned humility and dependence on God, where I've learned to say yes to him and keep saying yes in the small things because the small things matter to the big things. If I say no to God in the small, then I'll say no to him in the big. And I've been through that place. And you only see me on the other side, but you don't see the Kareth ravine. But this is where some of you may find yourself, and perhaps you're panicking because you're there. Maybe you don't need to be afraid. The Karath Ravine is where God sends Elijah, that he can do a work in him. Or perhaps it's somewhere where you've been through, but you couldn't see it at the time, but now you look back like Joseph. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. I didn't see it at the time, but that's what that was. It was a Kareth ravine where I was crying out to God and calling on him, and God was doing a work. And it were either one, if you're out of it, then you need to see it in a new way. And if you're in it, then God, may you do your work in me. May I be humbled and may I become dependent, and may I be obedient to you that you can work through me. I heard this week of a pastor who was um in this sort of season where God was stripping things away, cutting off, which is what the Kerith ravine is about. And he rang his mentor and he says, Do you think God's finished working on me yet? Do you think I'm humble enough yet? Do you think I'm broken enough that he can use me? And the wise mentor said to him, If you're still asking the question, the answer's no. If you still think of God and you broke it because it's still about you, it's when you've stopped thinking like that. It's when it's God, I depend on you. You are all I have, and I cry out to you. And in the time, maybe you don't see it. I mean, it's a ravine, it's a it's ravens, it's a river. But it's God in each one of these things, creating, working in his heart. You ever seen Karate Kid? That's your homework. You've ever seen Karate Kid, go home and watch Karate Kid. There's the famous point in the story where Mr. Miyagi is teaching Danielson uh all the all the ways he's Danielson says, Can you teach me karate? And so he says, Yes. So the next day he shows up and he says, Right, paint the fence. He's painting this fence. And this miyagi says, No, you paint it like this. And he painted the whole fence. And the next day he comes and he leaves a note, paint the house. He has to paint the house. He gives him instructions. Then he says, Right now I want you to wax the cars. You gotta wax. And he sort of goes like this. He doesn't know you waxed, and you waxed, waxed on, waxed off. And then he says, stand on the floor. He stands at this point, Daniel goes, What are you doing? I thought you wanted to teach me karate and you got me working as a slave for you. Then Mr. Miyagi starts, gets into stance, and starts throwing punches. And Daniel's time, because I've always learned if a punch comes and he blocks it, he blocks it, and he blocks it. And all the moves that he's been doing all this time, he doesn't realise, but they are karate. They are the defense that he can protect himself. And perhaps that's how God works, and we don't know. We're going, Well, why am I in the ravine? What's going on? What ravens? Why ravens? But what why is the river dried up? And as you come out, you go, God did something in me. God prepared something in me that protects me, that holds me, that keeps me, that means I am a vessel useful, as Timothy says, useful for his purposes. A vessel that he can use, that can do what he needs me to do, and can do it in a way that is faithful and true. Because with the great power that God gives us, the resurrection power, he wants vessels who are fit to be used, who he can entrust with that. Humble, dependent, obedient, that we might do God's work in God's way. All because we've gone through the Kerith Ravine. This is an example of how God works. And throughout scripture, you see again and again people taken off into wilderness places, taken off, cut off, dependent. The Old Testament, New Testament, Paul, he says, 14 years, Paul says, he sort of wandered around before God used him. We don't realize that as you read through Acts, but there's this time that even Jesus, he goes into a wilderness for 30 years of his life, he's learning and living in faithfulness, growing in his knowledge of God before being ready to be used. There's this idea that God constantly does this, that like John the Baptist prayed, I can become less, that he can become more. It's the path that we each need to walk, and it's the path that Elijah works. Not because he's a great man of God, not because he's a superhero prophet who we'll never live up to, but because he is human just like us. We humans have a tendency to think we are more than we are. Before God can work, he has to realize not we're less than than we think, but that we just we need to think of ourselves as human. We are dust, we are flesh and blood, with the image of God stamped within us, capacity to live for him and for him to live through us. And to do that, we just need to be human, humbled, dependent on God, obedient, which is how we were made to be. You can do live all sorts of way, you can do all sorts of things, but you gotta live in line with the with the way that we're designed. And God does this as we come to the communion table because he wants to create new life in us. If we go back to the first verse, you notice that where we find it. Well, that's not the right one. Here we go. The word of the Lord came to Elijah. He said, Leave here, turn eastward, and hide in the Karath ravine east of the Jordan. Later on, Elijah hides because he's uh afraid of something that he does. Um he has to run away from Jezebel and her actions against him. But here he's hiding. We're not told why he needs to hide here. Maybe Ahab got angry at the word he he gave, but there's no indication of that in the text. But still, God says you need to hide. For a little while, Elijah, I'm gonna hide you. God hides us before he can reveal us. Another way to put that is God implants us before we can grow. Another way to put that is God buries us before he can create resurrection life in us. It's the pattern that Jesus demonstrates on the cross. You must die before you can live. You must be buried in the ground before you can rise again. You must be planted in darkness, in a place where you think, where's the light? Where where's where's all that warmth gone? Where's that joy gone? You must be planted before you can grow and bear fruit. It's the pattern of every journey of a disciple of Jesus. And it's what we remember when we come around this table, that we don't have to fear this. You don't have to approach this and go, oh, I don't want that to happen to me, I'll just step away. You can embrace this because we know that the other side is resurrection life. Because that's what this represents, that he will be buried in the ground, but he will rise again. He will be hidden for a few days, but then he will reappear and be seen by many. And the path that Jesus follows is the one he invites us to follow. Take up your cross and follow me. It may lead you to a ravine for a time. You may be fed by the ravens, you may have your your brook dry up, but it will be for a time while you are hidden until you can rise again in the life that I've planned for you, in the purpose. Because just in the same way, Elijah is a human who needs to learn humility and obedience to God. Elijah is a human who God can use to do incredible things, who he can work through and use in amazing ways. And that's the truth for us. These are the days of Elijah because we are still human beings. We're still those who are created to be humble, dependent, and obedient to God. And through that, God will do more, exceedingly more, than we ask or imagine. We just have to embrace these seasons. Embrace now. This may not be for you, maybe you're in the time of abundance and God is using. That's fine. Enjoy yourself. We'll see you next week. We'll talk about the abundance and what God does in the overflow. But for many, you may find yourself either there or you will be there at some point. Do not fear it, do not run from it, do not resist it. You're being obedient to God when you're in that place, saying, God, teach me humility, teach me dependence, teach me obedience to you, that I might be more useful in your work and your kingdom. So to gather around this table, this is a reminder today that God may hide you, He may bury you, He may plant you, and it may feel dark, and you think, What's going on? And why is that not working? And why where's all the light gone? But it's only that you may grow again and bear fruit that glorifies his name. And so in a moment we are going to gather around the table. For those who know and love the Lord Jesus, you are welcome and invited to come and take of this. For this is your path, this is your journey. And as we take this, we are reminded there's not something to fear, because Jesus Himself has gone before us that we can follow in his footsteps. I'm just going to pause and be still for a moment with your own thoughts. Perhaps on the screen there's a there's a prayer that you might want to pray for yourself from Psalm 139. Lord, search me, God, know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, if there's any pride in me that needs to be humbled, if there's any reliance on myself that needs to become dependence on you, if there's any way that I have said no to you that needs to become yes, search if there's any offensive way and then lead me in the way of everlasting. Just give you a moment to pause and to focus on those words, you know, we'll come to the table together.

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We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today. If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat. You can find our details on our website, which is leobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted for this podcast. Alternatively, if you live in our area, you are very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10 30 to hear things first hand. We'd love to see you then.