Category: Devotion of the Day

The Lesson of Carmel: God’s Power

The God that answereth by fire, let him be God.
I Kings 18:24

The great day on Carmel had all the element’s of a mighty moving of God. There was the promise of showers of blessing (v.1). There were the human efforts of Ahab and Obadiah to meet the need of the hour (2-16). There was God’s man who was in a sense the troubler of Israel as the disturber of a false peace (17-20). There was the call to take a stand for God or Baal (21). There was the test of fire. Not “the God that answereth by finances or fame or feelings” but “by fire” (24). There was the repairing of broken altars (30). No wonder we read, “then the fire of the Lord fell” (38), and “There is a sound of abundance of rain” (41).

Elijah prayed down both fire and water. We need both today. And we can have both. When the Fire of His Spirit falls from above, the floods of His blessing are sure to follow.

The Lesson of Cherith: God’s Provision

Get thee hence…and hide thyself by the brook Cherith…and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
I Kings 17:3,4

At Cherith Elijah learned the lesson of God’s provision. But Cherith was the place of God’s provision because it was the place of God’s purpose. Elijah was in the place where God told him to be. The ravens had been commanded to feed him “there,” not somewhere else, not just anywhere, but “there.” Where God guides He provides. He is responsible for our upkeep if we follow His directions. He is not responsible for expenses not on His schedule. He does not foot the bill when we leave His itinerary.

Sometimes God’s arrangements are most unusual. Commanding the birds to feed a prophet is strange procedure. And sometimes God sends us off to a brook when we think we ought to be out in the thick of things. The need is so great, the harvest so plenteous and the laborers so few that it looks like a waste of time to head for a brook. But God has His own pattern and plan, and He may want us by a mountain brook when we are al hot and bothered about getting into the heat of the battle. But it was at Cherith’s brook that Elijah was made ready for Cermel’s battle.