Word for the Week: Dried Up!
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.’ So he went.
1 Kings 17:7-10
Elijah was resting, fed and watered, where the Lord wanted him to be. But the brook dried up. I wonder how he responded? Did he feel rather let down because God had told him the brook would provide his water supply? Did he expect God to protect him from the drought, because he had been faithful even though no one else in Israel had? Why was God telling him to go to a foreign land, rather than back to Israel as a prophet? Did this rather solitary man shrink from having to live in someone else’s house – dependent, moreover, on a Gentile woman?
We can’t tell whether Elijah was sure of God’s plan for him even as he watched the brook dry up, or whether there were days of doubt, while he wondered whether the water would flow again, and whether the call to move further away was a temptation to escape danger.
Whether it’s inspiration, or a large bank account, most of us experience times when we can only say, ‘It’s dried up!’ All is going well; the work we are doing is what we are good at; we seem to be in the right place; how do we respond when some essential ingredient simply dries up? Disappointed, resentful, doubting whether we can ever know what God really wants from us?
Sometimes it’s very clear what we should do, but often it isn’t. We need to take time to think, to be honest, to pray, to consult with those who know the situation and us well. And then we move on in faith, trusting the Lord to work out his purposes through our decisions, and sometimes in spite of them.
Margaret Killingray
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