What can we learn from Elijah's time at the brook Cherith?
1 Kings 17:2-4 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: (3) Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. (4) You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."
Instantly the word of the Lord came to him and he was told to flee to Cherith and hide there. The promise God gave him was that he would be provided for there. Cherith is a place of isolation. It is a place where you are completely cut off and are totally dependent upon God and His resources. You see, before Elijah was able to stand on Mount Carmel and challenge the 800 false prophets, he first had to learn certain principles. He had to learn what Cherith means. When you look through the Bible, most of God's saints have gone through a 'Cherith'. Moses was forty years in the backside of the desert. It was a time of isolation when he had no resources of his own. Joseph was in prison, falsely accused and isolated. The story of Joseph is one of the most amazing stories - he went from prison to the right hand of the ruler of Egypt in one day, but God had His reasons for putting Joseph there. God had his reasons for isolating David and for isolating Moses and Joseph.
Jesus was the same. He always drew aside. Do you remember the story of His disciples when they went out to preach and did all these wonderful miracles and came back to Him really glorying in all that had happened? Do you know what the first thing Jesus said to them was? 'Let's draw aside to a quiet place'. He realised that there was actually too much of self in what they had just been doing. 'Come aside to a quiet place,' He said. 'Let's get down to where things are a bit quieter and your dependence on God is more real.' Paul, straight after he was saved, spent virtually eleven years in obscurity in the desert. What did he do down there? He did absolutely nothing that is recorded. Eleven years - that's a long time before God said 'okay let's go - now you are ready to stand before kings and before gentiles'. But there were years and years of isolation in obscurity. That is what a 'Cherith' is. It's a place where God actually removes you for a specific purpose and the word means 'a cutting off'. Sometimes a Cherith experience is there to get the world out of us. If we have too much of the world in our lives we will be put into a position where we have to be cut off from things that control us.