FROM SOMETHING TO NOTHING--THE MAKING OF A MAN OF GOD

Like a bolt of lightning on a cloudless day came the unknown prophet from the tiny town in Gilead. His name was Elijah and he had a dramatic word for the king of Israel: “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” (1 Kings 17:1 NIV).

Ahab, Israel’s king, had the dubious distinction of being “… more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him” (1 Kings 16:30 NIV). Ahab’s wife, the infamous Jezebel, was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians, who also was the high priest of Baal. Ahab and Jezebel served and worshipped Baal. Baal worship was demonic in origin and practice, including child sacrifice and all sorts of deviant sexual behavior. Ahab was dominated by his evil wife and Israel descended to its lowest level of degradation ever.

God chose an unknown prophet to bring the word of the Lord to Ahab and the nation. Baal claimed to be the god of productivity and fertility and Baal worshippers believed they would see an increase in their crops, livestock, wealth and general prosperity. Elijah’s stark message regarding rain flew clearly in the face of what Baal was promising. Baal promised bumper crops—and that required rain. Elijah’s message, delivered face to face to Ahab, was, “There will be no rain or even dew in the next few years except at my word.”

What an opening statement! What an introduction to the big stage. One could wonder what could be next for Elijah. Maybe he would go over to Syria and call down fire on Damascus!

Instead, God’s instructions to the prophet were, “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith (Cherith) Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:3-4 NIV). Hey, that doesn’t sound too bad—a cool hiding place, room service, and a bubbling, clear stream to bathe in and drink from. This must be a reward for service well done, right?

But wait just a minute! Out there east of Jordan is basically wild desert country. Cherith Ravine was nothing more than a steep-sided gulley through which flowed a small, filthy desert stream. There wasn’t much shade in this wild country, where temperatures could reach 120 degrees (F).

And then we need to talk about the room service delivered twice daily. Ravens are scavengers and they eat what we in Texas call “roadkill.” Their diet consists essentially of garbage, if there’s any of that around; if not, they go to the alternative menu, which consists of dead rodents or dead animals in any state of decay.

How in the world did Elijah end up here? This must be a terrible mistake! God would not do something like this to one of His servants—or would He?

The word of the Lord was clear to Elijah and this place was where he was to be after his prophetic statement to Ahab.

Why would God do this? Why would He take a man from an obviously sensational opening and place him on the backside of nowhere, where he had nothing and there was no one?

The answer begins to unfold when we understand the meaning of the word Cherith, which is “to cut off, to cut down, to separate.” It would be in Cherith that Elijah would go through God’s cutting. There he would learn to trust Him, to obey Him, to know Him. God was preparing Elijah for what was next by stripping away all the nonessentials and making him into a man of God. At the beginning of the chapter, he is introduced simply as Elijah (we call him a prophet) but by the end of the chapter, Elijah is referred to as “a man of God” (v. 24).

But surely God didn’t use this “from something to nothing” process to build character, integrity and faith in others that we meet in Scripture! Or did He? And would He do this today?

David had been anointed by Samuel to follow Saul as the king of Israel somewhere around his middle teen years. Not too long after that, on a visit to his brothers, David killed Goliath and skyrocketed to popularity in the nation. Now this was a great entrance to the big stage, even better than “American Idol.” David then spent most of the next seven years running for his life from a jealous King Saul. It was in these difficult and dangerous years of running and hiding that David was cut down to size and became the great man of God that he was.

Will God give us a taste of effective ministry and then put us into a place that seems like a dead end, where it seems there is no future, and it feels as if He has forgotten us? The answer is yes! He will put you into the “cutting place” where you will learn to trust Him and not your talent, where you will learn to walk with Him, according to His word and not your intellect. The lessons will be many but He will never leave you, nor will He forget where you are. And in the fullness of time He will take you from Cherith to Zerephath (where the hungry are fed and the dead are raised) and then on to Mt. Carmel (where Elijah takes on 850 prophets of hell). There could never have been the stunning exhibition of God’s power through Elijah at Zeriphath and then on Mount Carmel had he not first been to Cherith. And it is no different for any of us!