This article was taken from sermons preached on this subject over many years and in many situations. It was first released in booklet form in the mid-1990s, and forms one of the chapters in Harry’s book, “When the Road is Rough and Steep”. Over the years it has been a blessing to many, many Christians facing hardships and discouragements of one kind and another. It is my prayer that by reproducing it on our website it may continue to be a source of teaching and encouragement to any who read it.
June K – October 2024

THE BROOK DRIED UP

 

“Some time later the brook dried up.” I Kings 17:7

What do you do when your brook dries up?

First let me give you a very brief sketch of the story so far as told to us in 1 Kings 17:1-6.

This great prophet, Elijah, had confronted King Ahab with a message from the Lord. God, he said, was angry with his people and intended to punish them. Consequently, the rain and the dew would be withheld until further notice.

After he had delivered this message God sent Elijah into hiding. He was led to a remote ravine on the east side of the River Jordan called Kerith. To drink, he was provided with water from the brook that ran through the ravine and to eat, meat flown in by ravens. Every morning and evening they came with their “Special Delivery.” So, there was Elijah, a bit lonely perhaps, but safe from Ahab’s soldiers and wonderfully taken care of. Just the place for a long, comfortable exile. However, it was not going to be quite like that. The brook dried up.

That must have been a very difficult experience for Elijah because he had been sent to this particular brook. He had been told by the Lord he would drink from the brook in “the Kerith ravine” (v.3) and that he would eat the food that the ravens would bring, but now there is this severe problem; the brook is drying up. Whereas when he first arrived, he no doubt took a nice bath every evening and a shower every morning, he now watched the water level drop lower and lower until it was reduced to a trickle.

Now he must wait patiently with his bowl even to get enough to drink. No doubt he prayed earnestly about this deteriorating situation (for Elijah was a man of prayer), yet there was still no word from the Lord as to what he was to do next. Very trying.

What do you do when your brook dries up?

A Common Experience

It seems to me that this is a picture of some of life’s experiences. Something has flowed liberally for so long we almost assumed it would always be there. Then it dries up. It might happen suddenly, or it might be gradual, but it is usually a very difficult experience. How do you handle it?

Might it be, for instance, in the area of finance? When my wife and I say we have a cash flow problem you know what that means! We are running short. We cannot pay our bills. Some of you, perhaps, have been laid off in a time of recession; you have lost your job. Now what is going to happen? The brook has dried up. Or it may be in the area of business. You have run a very successful business, always expanding and investing, but it has suddenly reversed and now it is recession and retraction. You may even face bankruptcy.

Maybe you are at college and you used to do well, but now you are not doing so well.  You were all straight “A’s” when you were at high school, but somehow or other at university it is tougher and harder, and the brook has dried up.

It might be in the realm of health.  I once heard a preacher say that as we grow older we get lower and slower and alas it is so true. Certainly, we lose an energy flow that we had when we were young. Some of you might feel that is where your brook is drying up.

It may be in a sense of purpose in life. Some change takes place and you just begin to wonder if you are on the scrap heap. Maybe you have retired. You looked forward to it but now that retirement has come your life doesn’t seem to have much purpose. Some of you have been “persuaded” to take early retirement and you know this experience acutely. You are not yet ready for a sun-soaked “Retirement Community.”

Some think that only happens with retirement, but it can happen at other times as well.

My wife went through a difficult time as the children grew older and left the nest. You see, we have four children and it was a big chunk of June’s life to raise them. In 1982 I left my pastorate in the South of England and became the Field Director of a European Mission. Of course this meant we had to move our location. Only two of our four children moved with us, the time having come for the older two to make their own way in the world. Nicola, the youngest, was still at secondary school but Richard had left school and was soon to go into the business world.

Thus, one memorable day, with an old bulging suitcase, off he went. Having waved a last goodbye I found my wife, in the kitchen, crying. I asked a stupid question, “Why are you crying?”

She replied, “Because Richard has gone.”

I said, “Well, isn’t he supposed to go?  This is the 14th, isn’t it?”

She said, “No, I don’t mean that. I mean he has gone for good now. He has left home.”

I put my arms around her – trying to be tender and being anything but – and said, “Honey, do not cry. This is a day for rejoicing. Let’s put out the flags. We have been raising children since forever, and now, gradually they are leaving. Three down, one to go! Soon it will be just you and me. Won’t that be wonderful?” (Mercifully she made no reply to that!!)

Those children had been her life. She bore them. She nursed them. She was the one they ran to when they cut their knees, and needed comfort. She was the one who was there for them when they came in from school and gave them their glass of milk and their snacks. She was the one who got up in the night over and over again (I sleep heavily!). She was always there. The children…her life. Her life when they were babies. Her life through elementary school. Her life through secondary school…but now – they are leaving – she thinks “What is my life now?” The brook has dried up. Many of you mothers have gone through the same thing.

It may be a friendship that has dried up. It used to flow bubbling and sparkling, so wonderful and refreshing, but it somehow went sour and now it has dried up.

Or it might even be your marriage. Where did the love go? What happened to the romance?   The brook has dried up.

For some the problem is spiritual.  Hymnwriter William Cowper wrote:

Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and his Word?

Has your spiritual brook dried up?

Now, each of these is a special subject on its own, is it not? Each deserves special consideration – especially the last two, marital and spiritual. But I think they have certain things in common and from this experience of Elijah we can derive some clues how we might handle the problem and also be of help to others.

May I suggest five things.

The first is this – and it is a negative.  If your brook dries up,

1. DO NOT DRAW WRONG CONCLUSIONS

Such as what?

a)  “I guess I must have stepped out of the will of God.”
As if Elijah said, “Ah, this brook is drying up, I must have gone to the wrong brook.  Maybe I misunderstood God’s guidance. I thought he said Kerith but maybe it was not Kerith. If this was God’s place and God’s brook; the one he provided for me, and of which he said `You will drink from the brook,’ I do not think it would dry up.  I somehow stepped out of the will of God.”

No, he had not stepped out of the will of God, he was right in the center of it.  That was indeed the place where he was meant to be, even though the brook dried up.  Because you face hardship in your situation it does not automatically mean you are in the wrong place and not where God wanted you to be. It may be your conclusion which is wrong, not your guidance.

Another wrong conclusion would be:

b) “I must have made God angry.”
As if Elijah said to himself, “Obviously God is punishing me. Not only is he punishing Israel for her idolatry but look, he is punishing me too. The brook – my brook – has dried up. I must have somehow made God angry.”

God was not punishing him at all. Just because your brook dries up does not mean that you have done something so wrong that God is having to chastise you. God does that much more rarely than some people seem to imagine. Always remember two important truths: first, the Lord Jesus has taken the punishment for all our sins – “there is no condemnation” (Romans 8:1) – so any chastisement is not retribution but loving discipline from a caring father to a wayward child.

The second truth is, God is slow to anger. The rod of correction is his last resort, not his first.  Israel had defied God for many, many years. If you have done wrong and made God angry, you will know beyond a shadow of doubt. It will be a serious and continuous breach of what you know to be God’s will and way. When Jonah was told to go East and he went West, he knew what he had done…we always know. And then all God wants of us is that we forsake our sin and walk in his ways.

But you remember Job’s friends who came along and said to Job, “Come on Job, what have you done? These disasters would not have happened to you unless God was punishing you. What have you done? Own up. You must be a secret sinner.” No, he was not. Satan delights to portray God as a harsh father who is quick to punish and slow to forgive. The opposite is the case. (See, for example, Psalm 103:8-14.)

We must not draw wrong conclusions.

A third wrong conclusion would be to say:

c) “God is unfaithful.”
As if Elijah reasoned, “Either God is powerless and cannot stop my brook drying up, or else he is unfaithful and doesn’t keep his promises. He probably has forgotten about me. I guess I am just not that important.”

Of course, we might never actually SAY such things but we might be tempted to THINK them. But listen: God had not said to Elijah for how long he would drink from the brook. God did not tell Elijah all his plans for him. God is never unfaithful. He never has been and he never will be.  God could and would provide for his prophet and God can and will provide for you. He will never forget his promise. You are as important to him as Elijah was.

So, if your brook dries up, the first thing is, be very careful not to draw wrong conclusions.  The enemy is a liar who, at times of hardship and trial, sows into our minds thoughts that are wrong.

The second point is this: if your brook dries up,

2. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE’S TEACHING ABOUT HARDSHIPS

Are you sure that you really do know what the Bible teaches on this subject? Many of us come to wrong conclusions because we have wrong teaching. That is why doctrine matters. Some people are impatient with doctrine. Let us get on to the practicalities, they say. Yes, but we cannot understand the right practicalities unless we understand the right truth, and the right teaching. So, we have to begin with that. That is the foundation. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

Does God say in his Word, “My child your brook will never run dry. Now you have become a Christian you will never have a problem, never face a trial, never have a disappointment?”  Is that what the Bible teaches?  Does God say, “Other businesses will fail, but yours never will.  Other people will get sick, but you never will.  Others will suffer tragic accidents, but never you.  No family member of yours will ever be hurt.  You will know neither hardship nor hospital, trials nor tears.”  Is that what the Bible teaches about hardships?  I do not think so.  But some preachers seem to preach this and some evangelists seem to promise it. I am not surprised many Christian people are defeated, disappointed and confused.

Romans 8: 18-29
This is so important we must pull over for a moment to check this teaching.  We will consult just one passage; Romans chapter 8 and verses 18 through 29.  Please turn to it in your Bible so that you may see it for yourself.

May I draw your attention to four important truths.

(i) Trials must be faced by believers
From verse 18, the Apostle Paul is looking forward to the future day when Jesus comes again to consummate his glorious Kingdom.  He writes, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”   Present sufferings?  Yes.

Verse 20, “For the creation was subjected to frustration…”  Frustration?  Sure. Don’t you ever feel frustrated?

Verse 22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.” Groaning?  Alas, yes.

“Ah, just a moment,” says somebody, “but does that not refer to the non-Christian world and to unbelievers? Surely God will protect us, his children, from all that groaning, frustration and suffering. It does not apply to us. Aren’t you making a mistake?”

Well, look at the next verse, 23, “Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly…”

Verse 25, “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Do you notice those two little three letter words, they are very important: “not yet.” Always remember, Christian people, we are living in a dispensation of the “not yet.”

So, the first thing that we learn about trials and frustrations and “present sufferings” is: trials must be faced by believers.  They will come even upon those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit.  Even upon Christian people.  Even upon God’s children.

(ii) The presence of the Holy Spirit
Let us move on in Romans 8, to verse 26, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”  The second thing in this passage to which I want to draw your attention is:  we do not go through these trials alone.  We do have the Holy Spirit, and he walks with us through the shadows and the trials and is with us when the brooks dry up.  He is right there.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).

(iii) Purpose in trials
Thirdly, verse 28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Is this not one of the greatest verses in the Bible – Romans 8:28? Here is the third truth; God directs and uses hardships and trials for “his purpose.”  What is his purpose?  To make us like Jesus.

Look at verse 29, “to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”  That is what is meant by “good”.  He permits these hardships and trials to come upon us and directs them in order to accomplish this great and glorious purpose in our lives; by them God refines us and molds us to make us holy, and to make us useful; like our Lord Jesus Christ.  It does not say all things are good.  It says God works in everything for good.

(iv) One day there will be no more trials
We are living in the “not yet”. We wait patiently for the “then” when Jesus wipes every tear from our eyes.

This great passage is looking forward with excitement and expectation in phrase upon phrase.   Until then we take our place with suffering humanity.  Non-Christian businesses fail, so do Christian businesses.  Accidents and tragedies happen to unbelievers, they happen to believers too.  I Peter 4:12, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you…” 

From this brief excursion into Romans we have reminded ourselves of these four very important truths about trials. Let me repeat them:

(i) Trials will come, even upon the believer;
(ii) God, the Holy Spirit, is with us through such trials every step of the way;
(iii) Our loving Father has appointed them and directs them as tools to serve a good end (to make us like the Lord Jesus);
(iv) One day Jesus will return and such sorrows will be no more.

We can see all this in Elijah’s experience.  “Some time later the brook dried up…”. Now see what it says next, “…because there had been no rain in the land.”  In other words, there was a drought and brooks were drying up everywhere.  Elijah suffered the same as everybody else.  God did not plan to interfere with that, he planned to use it.  It was all in the will and the plan of God.

Why, if only Elijah could look beyond his own discomfort, he would see God’s hand even in the drying up brook.

If, therefore, you are called upon to pass through a time of trial or deprivation, first be careful not to draw wrong conclusions and second, check out your understanding of the Bible’s teaching on hardships.

Here is the third point.  If your brook dries up,

3. NEVER FORGET THE RAVENS

 You see, the brook dried up, but the ravens kept coming.  And the ravens were tokens of the Lord’s provision for his servant.  God had said, “I have ordered the ravens to feed you there,” and every time the ravens landed that proved to Elijah that God had not gone back on his promise, and God had not abandoned him.

Is someone reading these words who is tempted to feel abandoned?  Has your brook dried up?

If so, may I ask you this: are the ravens still coming?

• You have lost a friend? Well, do you have your health?
• You have lost your health? Do you have a friend?
• Your children have left home? Do they love you?
• Have you lost a child? Do you still have a husband or a wife?
• You have lost a husband or a wife? Do you have a child?
• Have you lost your job? Do you still have your eyesight, your hearing, your mobility?
• Have you lost your possessions, your boyfriend, or girlfriend? Do you have a bed to sleep on and food to eat? Have not the ravens kept coming?
• Have you lost your money? Well, do you have faith? The Apostle Peter says that faith is “…more precious than gold which perishes” (1 Peter 1:7).  You may be a multi-millionaire but you cannot take your money with you.  It might buy you a palace but it cannot buy you peace.  Why, it cannot even buy you health, leave alone Heaven.  We all need to remember that.

May I ask you do you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour? Do you know that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Jesus said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul” (Mark 8:36).  When the call comes, as it will for every man, woman, boy, girl reading these words do you know that your hope is built, not on money, possessions, or on any other thing, but Jesus. Can you sing from your heart, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” What incomparable treasure it is to have faith and a place prepared for you in Heaven.

Yes, the drought came, but Ahab’s search parties did not. Though they hunted everywhere, they could not find Elijah. The brook dried up but the ravens kept coming.

Oh, my friend, give thanks for the ravens. It is tough when your brook dries up. God knows that. And you wonder, “What shall I do? How will the Lord provide? What is he going to say to me? Where will he direct me next?” He will tell you. But, are there no ravens? Are there no tokens also of his love and of his grace. Do not magnify the one and forget and neglect the other.

May I give you a word of personal testimony concerning this? A while back the brook dried up for my wife and me. It seemed we had lost almost everything. There were moments when we were tempted to despair. Then we remembered this message and we started to look for the ravens. O, there they were. Token after token of God’s love and care. Furthermore, he began to pour down blessings upon us. Prayers answered which had been prayed for years. Gifts given which made us weep. Every day – the ravens kept coming. Look for them my friend. They will be there. Lift up your eyes and see them. They carry love-gifts from God.  Never forget the ravens.

Fourthly; when your brook dries up,

4.  TRUST GOD, HE HAS A PLAN FOR YOU.

God of course cared very much about his beloved prophet and had a plan for him. If you read the rest of the chapter (I Kings 17) you will read about it.

May I say, God cares very much about you too and has a plan for you. He chose you before ever you were born. He made you and gave you gifts and talents. Then he raised you in a particular way so that you would have a variety of molding experiences, some good, some bad. Nothing was by chance.

In due time, he saved you and gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit. All because he has a place for you in his work and in his kingdom, and a plan for you to live for his glory. “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches you,” as the old song says.  “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), and he will unfold his plan to you in due time. He is going to do that for Elijah if he will be patient, and wait.

Listen to your Bible. Seek counsel if you need to from those who believe the Bible. Be in prayer, and his plan will be unfolded. He may move you on. He is going to move Elijah on. Elijah might have grown very comfortable at Kerith, but there was to be another stage and another place.  Sometimes in God’s plan, when we are at point “A”, he does not always show us point “C” until we get to point “B.”  First “A”, and then “B”.  We ask, “Well, what is going to happen at “C” and “D” and “E”? And the Lord replies, “I will show you when it is time.”

So, we must trust him and move on. His plans may surprise us. There may be unexpected twists and turns in the road. I am quite sure God surprised Elijah. I do not think, in his wildest dreams, Elijah would have predicted that he was going to be taken care of by a widow in Jezebel country. Yet that was what it was going to be (and what a story that is).  You must be prepared to do anything, go anywhere, anytime, according to his will.  Be open.

But you know, his timing will be just right. Think, what might have happened if God had told Elijah in advance, just to satisfy his curiosity, what he was going to do when the brook dried up.  Supposing God had said, “You see the brook going down? Well, I want you to stay here a while longer, until it dries up; and then you will go to Zarephath, in Sidon.”

Perhaps Elijah would have gone too soon.  Perhaps he would have left as soon as things started to get a bit difficult saying, “Well, better pack my bags and move on and see this new thing that God has told me about.”  But God did not want him to go too soon. There was a particular day on the Divine calendar when Elijah had to arrive in Zarephath. It was going to be the last day, so far as she knew, of this woman’s life. Elijah must not arrive even one day early.

If, on the other hand, God had not dried up the brook at all perhaps Elijah never would have moved. The only way God moves some of us is by drying up our brooks. We get very comfortable and we think we know best and say, “I would like to stay here.” Or, “I must have a job here,” or “I would like to do this.” And so sometimes, in order to move us on and into the next experience that he wants for us, at the right time, he dries up the brook and then tells us what next.

Hidden Plans

Sometimes God hides his plans for us for a time, because he wants us to trust him in the dark as well as in the light. Never doubt in the dark the One you trusted in the light. We do not trust God because we understand everything he does, or is doing in our lives. He owes us no explanations. We trust God because of who he is.

The Bible is a revelation of God. Who is he? Answer: He is El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty. There is nothing he cannot do; no problem he cannot solve; no need he cannot meet.  He is the Living God, the Lord, the God of Israel, the God of Elijah, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We know that God is good.  We know he loves us with an everlasting love and has saved us, and will never leave us nor forsake us.

Jesus said,

 Do not be anxious about your life…Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…Are you not of more value than they?  And why are you anxious about clothing…consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?                         See Matthew 6:25-34

 If God so cares about the birds and the flowers, do you not think He cares for you? Of course he does. Just trust him for each day.

The Apostle Peter wrote, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he might lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:6).

Dear friend, has your brook dried up? Are you perplexed? Confused? Will you look at the ravens he sends you and say, “But I KNOW he cares for me.” Will you come back to your Bible and read again those unshakable promises and say, “God is faithful, I know it to be true.”  Then will you trust him?  Not because you can understand all his ways (sometimes, as Scripture itself says, they “…are past finding out…” [Romans 11:33]), but because he is who he is.  Will you look again at your Saviour, God’s own beloved Son, bleeding and dying for you on that cross, and will you say, “Yes, Jesus loves me.”

Anna Waring knew what it was like to suffer and to cry.  She knew what it meant to be perplexed and to watch the brook dry up; but she wrote these words:

In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear,
And safe is such confiding, for nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me, my heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me, and can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me, no want shall turn me back,
My shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim,
He knows the way He taketh, and I will walk with Him.

Green pastures, are before me, which yet I have not seen.
Bright skies will soon be o’er me, where the dark clouds
have been.
My hope I cannot measure, my path to life is free,
My Saviour has my treasure, and He will walk with me.

“Do not be anxious, Elijah…God does have a plan, he will show it to you before long; be patient.  Trust God, Elijah, not because you know all the answers or have peeked behind the curtains of Heaven and know every last detail of God’s sovereign purposes, but because you know God. You know he is faithful.”

I say the same to any blood-bought, twice-born child of God reading these words.  Maybe this very booklet is one of God’s “ravens” meant to be a token to you of His love. He will not fail you.  Never, never. NEVER!

Fifthly and finally; when your brook dries up,

5.  LOOK UP AND LIVE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

We should not begin with ourselves and our troubles. Of course that is the natural thing for us to do. We are all inclined to do it but it is fatal. Our focus will then be in the wrong place. We could put it this way: Elijah must not start with the problem of the brook or even the provision of the ravens. He must look away from himself and pray that God will be glorified in the repentance and restoration of Israel. God’s great Name is what matters first and foremost and not Elijah’s bodily comforts.

Elijah must say, “Praise God. Look at this brook drying up. That means God is keeping his word and with-holding the rain and the dew. Oh, may it please him to bring his people to repentance. May Israel heed the lesson and forsake their idols. May she return again to the Covenant made of old and to her God. God will not forsake me, I know. But if he chooses that I perish in the drought, so be it. I shall go to Heaven and receive my reward, but let the Name of the Lord be glorified.”

Now someone may well be thinking; that is totally unrealistic.  Harry, no-one can be that way!  Of course, we cannot by our old nature but when we were born again, did we not receive a new nature? Does not the Scripture say, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…?” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Were we not given the gift of the Holy Spirit that through his presence and power we might glorify the Lord Jesus? What does the old catechism say, “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” I wonder if we have forgotten that. Even better; did not our Lord Jesus teach us to pray first; “Hallowed be THY Name; THY Kingdom come; THY will be done, on earth as in Heaven…For THINE is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, for ever?” (Matthew 6:9-13)

We live in days when, sadly, even the Church has forgotten its message (maybe that is why this last point seems so strange to many of us). We pander to this tendency to think that all that matters is “me”. What is in it for me?  What will this church do for me?  Will it meet my needs?  What will God do for me? Me, me, me, me.

Should not both writer and reader, above all else, seek the aid of the Holy Spirit that we might lift our eyes away from ourselves and have a window opened into Heaven. There we will see, with the eye of faith, our dear Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There he is, at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning over all things. He is building his Kingdom for all eternity.

Should we not be saying, “What is my life but a vapor?  It counts for nothing without him. Soon it will be over and I shall stand before him. All I want therefore is that he shall make of me now, whatever he will, do with me whatever he chooses, and bring glory to himself through me.”

When our brooks run dry or we face any kind of trial; therein, and therein alone, lies fullness of joy and peace.