The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Just because God is providing today doesn't mean you can't lose your job tomorrow. Sometimes things dry up. That'll affect your situation, but not your security.

Your job is not your source. Your bank is not your source. God must be your only source.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Cultural trends and events can cause a disruption in our lives that we may not be entirely comfortable with.

Today, Dr. Evans takes a look at the life of the prophet Elijah and shows us how God can work through unsettling circumstances to accomplish his purpose in our lives. Let's turn to 1 Kings chapter 17 as he begins.

Dr. Tony Evans: Many of you will remember the story of the boy who loved to give his father expensive, unique gifts for his birthday. On this particular year, he thought, "Well, my dad loves birds, so let me see if I can find a unique bird." He went around and he discovered a very exotic bird that was extremely talented. This bird could speak five different languages. It was a talking bird. It could do acrobatics on one leg while singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas." This bird was a beast.

He packaged the bird up and had it sent to his father who lived in another city. Excitedly, he wanted to call Dad to see what he thought about this unique, exciting, exotic gift. "Dad, how did you like my gift?" His dad said, "It was delicious." Dad missed the point. Something that was to be a long-term benefit, he limited for a short-term gain.

We are looking at the life of Elijah to discover the supernatural, and today, we're going to be introduced to him and learn a lesson about God's supernatural provision. He appears in 1 Kings chapter 17. We're told in verse 1: "Now Elijah the Tishbite who was of the settlers of Gilead." His name means Yahweh is my God. That tells us a little bit about his mother and father who named him. They were obviously people of faith that they would name him that way.

Prophets, as Elijah was, showed up because there was a spiritual issue among God's people that needed to be addressed. Prophets were there to bring God's message in the midst typically of spiritual decline. The scenario that brings Elijah on the scene is summarized for us in chapter 16, verses 32 and 33. King Ahab erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. This Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

The context that brings Elijah on the scene is idolatry. Ahab the king has begun worshipping Baal, and he brings the rest of Israel to worship Baal with him. He not only worships Baal, he worships Baal's girlfriend, Asherah. Baal and Asherah, kind of like boyfriend and girlfriend, work together to bring fertility to Israel. They looked to this idol to bring fertility to Israel.

Now, you and I over here, we don't worship those kind of idols. We worship American idols. We worship people and popularity and power and prestige and possessions because we look to it to meet a need. When you look to an unauthorized noun, or when you look to an authorized noun in an unauthorized way, you have an idol.

It doesn't need to be a tree. They can be an actor, an actress, or an entertainer. It could be your bank account. It could be your house. It could be the people living in your house. When you look to them in an unprescribed way from God, you just created an idol. Before we go any further, are there any idolaters in the house?

Idolatry ticked God off. It provoked him, it irritated him, and it upset him that they looked to these unauthorized things to meet their need. He calls on Elijah and he tells Elijah, "I want you to go and speak to the king and to the nation." Elijah comes in verse 1 and he says to Ahab the king, "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word."

Ahab, God told me to tell you heaven's going to close. No dew, no rain, and it's not going to be for a day, a month, or a year. It's going to be for years. There's going to be a downturn in the agricultural economy. Who's your daddy now? Who's your God now? Let's see what Baal can do now. Let's see what Asherah can do now.

God attacks Israel at the place of their idolatry because they were looking for Baal and Asherah to bring about fertility in the land. God says, "I'm going to attack your idol, and I'm going to attack your looking at them to take care of you." When I shut heaven down, I don't care how much you pray to Baal and Asherah. They're not going to be able to grow your crops or give you your food.

In an agricultural environment, if there is no rain, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no food. If there is no food, you're going to be hungry. You best be looking at the right source. To let you know who the real God is and who the God is that you should be worshipping, I'm going to no longer provide, because rain and dew made the provisions in an agricultural environment.

He makes this prediction. Before we go on, let's get this straight. The idols in your life will be attacked by God so that whatever you are worshipping because it's unauthorized, or it's authorized and you're worshipping it in an unauthorized way, don't be surprised when God shuts it down to let you know that is an idol. He removes the provision.

The word of the Lord comes to Elijah in verse 2, saying, "Go away from here and turn eastward and hide yourself at the brook of Cherith, which is in the east of Jordan. It shall be that you will drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there." There's that word: provide. He says go to Cherith. The Hebrew word for Cherith means to cut off or cut away.

He says, "I want you to leave the crowd, cut away from the masses, cut away from where everybody else is, and I want you to go to this private, secluded, solitude location, and I'm going to take care of you there." There is going to be a downturn in the economy, but I got you. I know the job situation looks bad, but I got you. I know the economics are not in favor of the nation, but Elijah, I got you.

In order for me to have you, you've got to go to the place that I tell you to go. That means you're going to have to be cut off from the environment you're used to being in. Elijah, go over here and I'm going to take care of you in two ways. I'm going to first of all take care of you naturally, because there's going to be at Cherith a brook of water that's going to stream down. You're going to go down and cup that water, you're going to put that water in your mouth, and you're going to drink fresh water in a dry season from a private source that only you know about because I'm only sending you there as I break you away from the crowd. I'm going to use the natural provision of a brook.

But I'm going to provide for you another way: supernaturally. I'm going to call on the Raven Catering Service to supply you food morning and evening. They're going to give you bread and meat—that's called a sandwich. They're going to give you bread and meat morning and evening. That isn't normal. A brook that you can drink from, that's normal. Having birds fly in with a sandwich twice a day, every day, in a drought is not normal.

It's worse than that. In Deuteronomy chapter 14, verses 11 to 14, God tells his people, "Don't mess with ravens. They are unclean birds." Ravens are unclean. You may not eat them, you don't mess with them, because they're unclean. But we have God calling on unclean birds to fly in to bring bread and meat twice a day. They are unclean birds that Elijah and the rest of Israel were prohibited from dealing with.

What does that tell you about God's provision? That ought to tell you that God can use hell to bring heaven to you. You never want to box God in, because while God does not sin and God does not tell you to sin, he often uses sin and uses sinful people to provide for his people. God can use an evil employer to put you in the place he wants you to be. He can use an evil corporation to get you where he wants you to be.

The beautiful thing about God's provision is that you never want to box him in, and you don't want to be so spiritual that you miss him using ravens to address the need in your life. Those were unclean birds. They were prohibited birds. But God is so God that even the devil has to be under his rule. He says, "I want you to go to the brook because I have some birds and I have your back. I have some birds that are going to cover you at this place called Cherith."

Now, this ought to free you up a little bit, because that means the sky's the limit, the world's the limit. Who could have predicted, how could Elijah think that God was going to meet his need this weird way? But he was only going to do it at Cherith, which means if you're out of the will of God, you miss the ravens. He had to go to Cherith first, because that's where the catering service was located.

Don't miss God's will. If he has separated you in a place you don't want to be, or you'd rather not be, because it is isolated, that is because that's where his provision is going to be located for your current situation. In order to have a supernatural raven feeding you and to have birds listening to God to feed you, that means that God must be your only source.

Your job is not your source. Your bank is not your source. Your employer is not your source. God is your only source. Everything else is a resource, a mechanism that God uses, and you must free him up to use whatever resource he wants to use, even if it comes from something you wouldn't normally understand it coming from. He is there at Cherith, eating two meals a day, drinking some fresh water. He's doing okay in a bad situation.

In verse 7, it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Things went dry on him. Just because God is providing today doesn't mean you can't lose your job tomorrow. Sometimes things dry up. Economics dry up, income dries up, the dollar goes down. He said things went dry on him.

Why did they go dry? Because it wasn't raining. But why wasn't it raining? Because he told Ahab that it's not going to rain for three and a half years. The only reason it's not raining is because he had a word from God, but now what's happening in society is affecting him. The brook dried up because there is no rain. There is no rain because there was judgment on the land, and he's the one who pronounced the judgment.

Now he becomes a recipient of the very judgment everybody else is experiencing. When he first gave it, God provided supernaturally, but now the economy is affecting him. The circumstances in the land are affecting him, the downturn is affecting him, and things dry up. Don't have anybody tell you to serve the Lord and things don't get dry. Serve the Lord and you don't lose your job, serve the Lord and your bank account doesn't get drained. Don't let anybody tell you that if you're in God's will—and he was in God's will—that things don't still dry up.

The brook dried up because that was judgment on the land and he lived in the atmosphere of the judgment, so he was affected too. Some of you have been laid off because the company cut back, and you thought, "Well, I belong to Jesus, I'm not going to get laid off," and you got laid off. You got a pink slip like everybody else. You went through the same thing that the non-believers went through, the people who don't pray, the people who don't go to church. You went through the same thing because things dried up.

In verse 8, the word of the Lord came to him and told him where to go for the raven catering service. He's eating sandwiches every day, twice a day, and he's drinking his water. All of a sudden, what's happening in society is affecting him, and now the word of the Lord comes to him again. When God allows things to dry up in your life, it is because he's moving you to a different provider.

When God allows things to dry up in your life, it is because he has a different plan. Because your job is not your source and your boss is not your source, when they let you go, you go back to your source and let your source tell you where to go next. He's taking you to a different place because he lets where you are dry up. Don't get all shook up when it's dried up. All God is doing is moving you up to another location.

You have to be close enough to him to hear the word. He heard the word again because he was in God's will in a dried-up situation. God says to him, "Arise," verse 9, "go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." He asks, "You want me to go to this secular environment and work for these secular people? That's where you want me to go?"

Elijah, I want you to go there because there, I have a widow, and she's going to be your new provider. I have a problem with that too. She's more broke than me. She has nothing to offer me. Widows were the poorest people in the land. How are you going to lead me to somebody less than me? They don't have what I have to help me.

God will often test your faith by sending you places you don't prefer to go because it doesn't make sense. How is a widow who's down to her last meal going to help me? She can't help herself. But God said, "I commanded the widow and she's going to be your new provider." He arose, because Elijah's a man of faith. He's not going to just listen to God to say amen; he got up. He arose and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, behold, a woman was there gathering sticks. He called out to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink." As she was going to get it, he called—