1 Kings 17

He leads to provision

“Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ~ 1 Kings 17:3-4

What if the provision you’re praying for is already waiting for you somewhere you haven’t gone yet? That’s exactly what we see in today’s scripture reading. Elijah was living in the middle of a drought, but God wasn’t asking Elijah to figure out how to create water, grow food, or somehow make his own way through the famine. God simply told him where to go. First, God sent him to the brook Cherith, where ravens brought him food. Later, when the brook dried up, God sent him to Zarephath, where a widow would provide for him. Elijah’s provision wasn’t just about what God was going to give him. It was connected to where God was telling him to go.

Think about that for a moment. If Elijah had decided to stay where he was, he could have spent his days asking, “God, where are You? Why aren’t You taking care of me?” Meanwhile, God’s answer would have been, “I already told you where to go.” The provision was at the brook. Then the provision was with the widow. Elijah had to move in obedience to experience what God had already arranged.

That makes this chapter especially relevent for us today. Sometimes we’re asking God to provide while He’s asking us to move. We’re praying for an opportunity, but we’re unwilling to step through the door. We’re asking for direction, but we’re comfortable staying where we are. We’re asking God to change our circumstances while He may be asking us to change our location, our routine, our attitude, our priorities, or simply take the next step of obedience.

Here are three important truths this chapter shows us about going where God says to go, trusting that His provision is there, and discovering that His provision often has a purpose far greater than ourselves.

1. Go where God tells you to go

God told Elijah, “Get to Zarephath.” Elijah couldn’t experience what God had prepared for him by staying where he was. The instruction came before the provision was visible.

I think this is one of the hardest parts of faith. We often want God to show us the provision first, then we’ll gladly obey. We’d like to see the paycheck before accepting the job, know how the ministry opportunity will work before saying yes, know how the relationship will turn out before taking the risk, and preferably have the entire five-year plan laid out in front of us.

But that’s not how God works. God told Elijah where to go, and Elijah had to trust Him enough to go there. The provision wasn’t waiting for Elijah to understand everything. It was waiting for Elijah’s obedience.

There may be something God has been nudging you to do that doesn’t make complete sense yet. Maybe He’s asking you to make a phone call, apply for something, step into a ministry opportunity, have a difficult conversation, start something new, or finally let go of something you’ve been holding onto. You may be thinking, “But God, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” You don’t have to know everything that’s going to happen. You need to know the One who told you to go.

This also includes very practical direction that God has given us as His people. He calls us to gather with other believers.  Weekend services aren’t simply another appointment on our calendar that we squeeze in if nothing else is going on. Weekly church service is an opportunity to come into God’s house, worship together, hear His Word, receive encouragement, pray, and be strengthened and receive the spiritual provision you need for the week ahead.

We live in a world that can drain us pretty quickly. By the time the weekend arrives, some of us need more than coffee. We need the presence of God and the encouragement of God’s people! God knows that we weren’t created to walk through life completely on our own. We need one another.

When we come together with other believers, we’re reminded of who God is, who we are, and what He’s called us to do. We can walk into a weekend service carrying the weight of the previous week and walk out reminded that it was never ours to carry to begin with.

Then we take what God has put in us and carry it into the next week. We receive encouragement so we can encourage someone else. We receive strength so we can strengthen someone else. We hear the Word so we can live the Word when we leave the building.

Sometimes the provision God has for you on the weekend isn’t something material. It may be the word you needed to hear before walking into a difficult conversation on Monday. It may be the encouragement that keeps you from giving up. It may be worship that lifts your eyes above your circumstances. It may be the person sitting beside you who reminds you that you’re not alone.

Make gathering with God’s people a priority. Don’t treat church like something you attend only when everything else works out. Go where God has provided a place for you to be strengthened. Come expecting to receive, but also come ready to give. Someone else may need the encouragement God has already placed in you.

2. The provision is often connected to the place of obedience

Elijah went to the brook, and there was water. God commanded ravens to feed him there. The key word is there. God didn’t simply say, “I’ll provide for you wherever you decide to hang out.” He directed Elijah to a specific place. Why couldn’t he send the ravens to wherever Elijah happened to be? The reason is because God was moving him in a certain direction so that he would end up where he could help others who were in need.

When the brook dried up, it could have been confusing for Elijah.  He had obeyed God, and now the very source God had used to sustain him was gone. But God wasn’t finished providing. He simply changed the location of the provision. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, and there He had already commanded a widow to sustain him. Elijah went, and there she was.

This is so encouraging because it reminds us that God’s provision isn’t limited to one method. The brook wasn’t the provider. The widow wasn’t the provider. God was the Provider.

Sometimes we get attached to the way God provided yesterday. We think, “This is how God did it before, so this is how He has to do it again.” But God may be saying, “That was yesterday’s brook. I have another place for you today.”

Maybe you’ve been trying to make something work because it worked so well in a previous season. Maybe you’re waiting for a particular person to come through for you because they always have before. Maybe you’re frustrated because an opportunity has dried up. Don’t assume that the dried-up brook means the end of God’s provision. It just mean it’s time to tune in for new direction.

The application for daily life is simple, but it isn’t always easy. When something changes, instead of immediately panicking, ask, “God, where is the provision now?” If a job ends, ask where He wants you to go next. If a ministry assignment changes, ask what He wants you to do in this season. If a relationship changes, ask what He wants to teach you and where He wants you to invest your time. If one door closes, don’t spend all your energy staring at the closed door. Look for the next instruction.

Sometimes we’re standing beside a dry brook complaining about the lack of water when God is already pointing toward the next place of provision.

3. God’s provision for you may become provision for someone else

This might be my favorite part of this chapter because Elijah’s provision wasn’t just about Elijah.

When Elijah arrived at Zarephath, he encountered a widow gathering sticks. She was preparing what she believed would be the last meal for herself and her son. They were facing starvation. Yet God had connected Elijah’s need with this woman’s need.

At first, that might seem strange. Elijah needed provision, and God sent him to a woman who barely had anything. But God had a plan that was bigger than Elijah’s immediate need.

Through Elijah’s obedience, this widow and her son experienced God’s miraculous provision. Her flour didn’t run out, and her oil didn’t fail. What looked like the end became a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

Elijah went there because he needed to be sustained, but while he was there, God worked through him to bring hope to a family that was facing death.

That means sometimes the place where God is sending you isn’t just about what you’re going to receive. It’s about what God wants to do through you once you get there.

Maybe God is leading you into a new ministry because someone there needs encouragement. Maybe He’s asking you to reach out to someone because they’re closer to giving up than you realize. Maybe He’s placed you in a workplace, neighborhood, church, or relationship where your obedience will become an answer to someone else’s prayer.

You may think, “I’m the one who needs help.” God may say, “Yes, and I want to work with you to help someone else too.” That’s the beauty of God’s kingdom. His provision often flows through people. God takes care of us, and then He partners with us to take care of others. He strengthens us, and then He makes us a source of encouragement. He gives us hope, and then He puts someone in our path who needs the very hope He has given us.

So don’t underestimate the place God has sent you just because it doesn’t look impressive. Zarephath wasn’t exactly a glamorous destination. There wasn’t a five star hotel waiting for Elijah. There was a widow, a handful of flour, a little oil, and an impossible situation. Yet that was the place where God demonstrated His faithfulness.

Being God’s people in today’s world means we need to be willing to go where He sends us, even when the place doesn’t look like the answer we expected. Our world is full of people who are discouraged, fearful, overwhelmed, and wondering if there is any hope left. God may want to position us in their lives, not because we have everything figured out, but because we’ve experienced His faithfulness.

Maybe your current place feels inconvenient. Maybe you’re thinking, “God, surely You have something bigger planned than this.” Don’t be too quick to dismiss where you are. The person you’re sitting beside, working with, serving, raising, encouraging, or simply talking to may be part of the reason God has you there.

Elijah’s journey reminds us that provision isn’t always about getting more. Sometimes provision is about getting where God wants us to be so He can provide for us and work through us at the same time.

Today I want to encourage you, go where God’s provision is. Don’t let fear keep you standing in a place God has told you to leave. Don’t let uncertainty convince you that God has forgotten you. If the brook has dried up, listen for His next instruction. If He’s telling you to get up and go, get up and go.

And when God calls you to gather with His people, go there too. You may be going because you need to be filled, but don’t forget that someone else may need what God has put inside of you. The encouragement you receive on Sunday may be exactly what equips you to encourage someone on Monday. The strength you receive in God’s house is the very strength you carry into someone else’s difficult situation. The provision is already be waiting.

There may be a brook you haven’t reached yet. There may be a person God has already prepared to help you. There may be someone who desperately needs the encouragement, hope, wisdom, or faith God has placed inside of you. You may think you’re going to Zarephath because you need something, only to discover that God has sent you there because someone else needs something too. Trust the Provider. Follow His direction. Take the next step. You don’t have to know how everything will work out. Elijah didn’t. The widow didn’t. But God did and when God tells you to go, you can trust that His provision will meet you there.

Today’s scripture reading: 1 Kings 17

1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 

3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 

4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

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.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 

9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 

11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

12 So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 

14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”

15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 

16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.

17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. 

18 So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?”

19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 

20 Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” 

21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” 

22 Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”

24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.”

Journal:

• Is there an area of my life where I’m asking God to provide, but He may actually be asking me to move?
• Am I making gathering with other believers a priority so I can receive what God wants to give me and be strengthened to serve others throughout the week?
• What is the next step I believe God is asking me to take?
• Has a “brook” in my life dried up recently? How might God be using that change to lead me somewhere new?
• Where has God provided for me in unexpected ways in the past?
• Who might God be asking me to encourage, serve, or bring hope to in this current season?