1 Kings 17:7

of God's appointment; he was obeying the word of the Lord — and yet the brook dried up.

Faith must be put to the test. The man of faith cannot be left to settle down undisturbed; he must be poured from vessel to vessel... So the prophet's soul had to be tried, to show whether he was depending on Cherith or on the Lord God of Israel. That is why, "after a while the brook dried up."

Had not Elijah boldly said before the king that he stood before the living God? Now he faces the drying brook, and it tests whether that faith is real. Will it stand firm when earthly streams run dry? If God lives, what does it matter if the brook dries? God is greater than all the mercies He gives. Mercies may be withdrawn, but God remains... That the Giver is greater than His gifts is the deep lesson of the brook that dried up.

Elijah was not praying for something that would bring pleasant consequences for himself. He shared in the miseries of the long drought and suffered along with the people. God did make special provision that kept him from starving... He hated Israel's terrible turning away to Baal. His heart burned for the glory of the Lord's name, and he felt the time had come for God to act in the judgment He had specified... The rod of correction was better than utter ruin. So he prayed for the stroke of chastisement, even though it would fall on his own back along with everyone else.

As always, the Lord taught His servant by degrees — as he was able to bear it. At the beginning there was water in the brook. Then "after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land." The Lord will now test Elijah harder... We note only this: the more we learn that this world is a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, the more fully we know the all-sufficiency of God.

So after a season the brook dries up, but not before God had another purpose in hand. He sends him now to a place outside the land, to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon. Our Lord Himself teaches us how important this is. In Luke 4 the Saviour picks out this very fact... as the witness of grace to the Gentile, when the Jew had counted himself unworthy of the government of the Lord. Grace must work somewhere if the chosen people cast it out and will have none of it. God will not let that brook of grace dry up. Its waters will only flow in fuller volume to refresh weary souls elsewhere.

We all like to have some earthly resource to draw on. Yet a Father who knows we need these things often brings us to face the brook that dries up. It crosses our path in different forms. Maybe through the loss of someone we love, or a breakdown in health, or the sudden failure of some source of supply, we find ourselves beside the brook that has dried up... The very trial we shall then find to be the means God is using to unfold to us the vast resources of His heart of love.