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As we continue the Courage and Confrontation series we remember that God had always prepared men to do the work that He calls them to do. In the days of King Ahab of Israel, the situation called for a man like Elijah the Tishbite; an Elijah was ready to do the job; at least in part. The easy part was to march into the throne room of Ahab and to announce to the king, “It ain’t gonna rain no more.” And he did just that!

From there, the task facing the prophet would become far more arduous. He needed more training, and the Spirit of the Lord knew exactly how to prepare Elijah for what was to come. The situation was this: God was displeased with the idolatrous practices of the children of Israel, so He chose to chastise them by sending a great drought upon the land. Baal, the god to whom they had turned was worshiped as the “god of the storm,” so, in sending this drought, God was saying to Israel, “Let’s see if the god of the storm has the power to end a drought that Yahweh had ordained. The dye was about to be cast. 

As Pastor Harris will share, once the announcement of the impending drought was declared, Elijah was told to go hide himself in a deep wadi or canyon in Transjordan. To prepare His man for the coming war, God had called Elijah to go to a place of solitude and isolation, and it was in the best interest of the prophet to obey his God. 

There in the wadi, God met the physical needs of the prophet. God provided abundant water from a spring, and He sent ravens to bring Elijah meat to sustain him. In this God was teaching Elijah to live from His divine hand. Of course, the Lord could have sent angels instead of ravens to minister to Elijah, but God demonstrated to His prophet that He can use even the lowest creatures to do His bidding.

However, eventually the brook in the wadi ran dry and the ravens ceased to come. The prophet lost his supply just when it appeared that he needed them most. But the prophet would find that there is a river which makes glad the city of God; a river that never runs dry, “a well of water that springs up to eternal life.”

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