In the Smelting Furnace

Last week we left Elijah beside a drying brook called Cherith. You'll recall that he had prayed for drought. He had prophesied-in his first recorded act of public ministry-that it would not rain and there would not even be any dew for years, until he gave the word.

So the Lord directed Elijah to the brook Cherith, a tiny, little-known tributary to the Jordan river, and for an unspecified amount of time (but probably several months, perhaps as much as a year), ravens brought food to Elijah and he drank from that tiny stream until it finally dried up completely.

And it is a tribute to Elijah's faith that he stayed and waited for the Lord's instructions until the stream was completely dried up. The stream turned to a trickle, and the trickle turned to little puddles, and the puddles turned to mud, and then finally the mud dried out completely...

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