From Cherith to Zarephath

Image: http://christianimagesource.com/prophet_elijah_g323-prophet_elijah__image_8_p2141.html

-Sylvan A. Lashley


“Hide thyself by the brook Cherith…Arise get thee to Zarephath” (1 Kings 17: 3, 9)

Sometimes ,when least expected, we fall on hard times. Tell me about it—I’ve been there and so have you, when your faith is tested to the utmost, or so you think, and you stand between a rock and a hard place of economic challenge, career struggle, and emotional stress--no food, no water, just grief, pain, and sorrow. Says Elijah to King Ahab, “as the Lord lives…whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain these years, except I say so”. Elijah struts the big faith!
Despite alarming news of pending doom that appears deferred, we are wont to adapt and to “find a way” through problems. We usually withstand the initial shocks, as Elijah did. I call that Cherith—when the ravens do their birdly best in the morn and at eve, and there is good Cherith water to wash it all down. God provides the little trials to prepare us for the larger picture. Cherith then serves as some prototype of John the Baptist, a forerunner paving the way not merely for a greater calamity, but for a greater opportunity to exercise faith. It is a faith that must overcome culture and foreign origin, and life itself as Elijah was to soon discover. Cherith drives toward that brand of cutting edge faith that calls for perseverance, and not initial faith, but lasting faith, imperious, bold and confident.
But after Cherith comes ironic Zarephath, Jezebel’s home town. It is the struggle of Cherith that sets up the sequence of command, promise, obedience and deferred results in Zarephath. Elijah gets a command to go to Zarephath and the widow gets a command to feed Elijah; God promises to sustain Elijah and Elijah promises the widow that her cruse of meal will never finish. Elijah obeys and goes to Zarephath, and the widow, by faith, a foreigner, obeys Elijah. They both have short term gains—although the food never finishes, yet the widow’s son dies—a deferred stock option, to provide both Elijah and the widow the opportunity to witness a miracle. God is constantly working in the background to ratchet up the faith of both Elijah and the widow by a belt notch. And that is what God is doing with us today personally, professionally and strategically—He is moving our faith up by a belt notch. He commands, promises and we are to obey—sometimes the stock option is deferred, but we know it is coming, for we see a cloud like the hand of a man in the East—it is not just the sound of coming rain; it is the rush of the mighty wind, the coming of the Lord, So why should we worry or fret? Every Cherith is a blessing that leads to greater opportunity, for the fire can’t come down to burn up the sacrifice before Cherith and Zarephath occur. Let the fire come down to consume the burnt offering so that the rain may fall, once more. There shall be showers of blessing. LISTEN