God Prepares His Greatest Servants in the Greatest Wilderness

During my time of playing serious, representative sports, the tournaments and the championships we played were always the end result of many, many hours of training. Talk to any elite sports person and they'll tell you that the hard work is not in the actual competition, but what happened before it. My coach, Chris Carlisle, one of the coaches that I had, but one of my most influential mentors in that time, used to say, "You will not get the results unless you do the hard yards now. You will not get the results unless you do the hard yards now." I remember the feeling.

I remember the feeling at the start of the year in January. We would come together for our first training in a school hall, a school gym, and they would stand a bunch of ragtag, hormonal, undeservedly cocky boys waiting to play for their state or for their country. They would stand there seeking the glory that lay ahead in July. Those early training sessions were characteristically atrocious, however. Each ego was trying to one up the other ego. Each mind was preoccupied with impressing the other fellas.

When it came to getting input from our coach, it would be like trying to talk to a bunch of ADD kids in a room full of Playstations and TVs. The attention spans were so short, we could hear instructions for a drill and then minutes later, we'd be on the court scratching our heads as if we had no idea how to play the game. Those early weeks in our lead up for the tournaments were always really, really rough. But you never got the results in the future unless you did the hard work in the present. It took tremendous patience and determination from our coaches, especially to break us down, to break our spirits, to run us hard, to squash our egos, to make us do push ups until we couldn't lift our arms.

The disciplined regime of training day after day, week after week brought about remarkable changes every single time. As a result, we left for our tournaments in July completely different than when we first stepped onto the court in January. That kind of raw training is precisely what God had in mind when He sent Elijah into the wilderness. If you have your bibles open with you, we're going to read from First Kings 17. You see, Elijah didn't know it, but it was in the wilderness where Elijah would learn to trust God so that ultimately, the battle that he was being prepared for would be a victory.

But to accomplish this, God had to cut Elijah down to size. Let's have a look. First Kings 17, verses one to six. We read this verse last week when we started this series as an introductory sentence. But the first one says, "Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbah in Gilead, that wilderness desert outback country."

"Elijah said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.' Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, 'Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.' So he did what the Lord had told. He went to the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there."

"The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook." Last week, we saw how Elijah, this rough, leathery, rugged man from beyond the sticks, came and stood in the palace courts and said to the leader of the nation, "You might be king of Israel, you may have all the power in this country, but you are not its true leader. The Lord is God," he said. His name means, Elijah means "the Lord is God." You see, Ahab had led the entire nation of Israel to worship Baal.

The previous verses to our text says he led the entire nation of Israel to worship Baal, the fertility god. And here was Elijah saying, "You believe that Baal brings you rain and good crops? You believe that? Well, how about this? The Lord God is turning off the mains."

"No more rain, no more water, no more crops. Now you'll see that God is the only one who can lock up the rain clouds. And you'll see just the extent of His power." It was a life-threatening pronouncement. God would stop the rain.

And it wouldn't be for just a few weeks. It wouldn't be for even a few months. It was for years, the Bible says. So there's a pronouncement. The problem was that there was no repentance, however, there and then.

You see, this pronouncement is life-threatening. Ahab hears it, but nowhere do we see that he falls on his knees, falls on his face and begs for God's forgiveness, that he repents of his sin of idolatry. A drought, you say? Well, there was enough human ingenuity around in those days to overcome a dry spell for a little while.

In fact, during one of my trips to Israel, I've only had one, we came to a little archaeological site of an old village, an ancient village, and they had discovered huge cisterns under this village. Huge caves, almost as big as this entire building on the inside. Huge caves dug out of bedrock under this village. These cisterns would be filled with water, rain water. Sometimes they would have slaves just doing rounds of pouring water into this to maintain, to hold water for the village.

Guess what they discovered when they found an inscription on one of the walls there of the cistern. It said that this cistern had been paid for by Ahab, king of Israel. Here was Ahab, an ingenious man, an engineer perhaps, very intelligent, was wise about creating cisterns and watering systems for his people. Elijah says no more rain. Ahab says that's fine.

We can handle it. These cisterns, these huge water pits, these wells, they could hold out for a few months, but years. That is a different story. No amount of human ingenuity, even in Queensland in the twenty-first century, can overcome a drought of that magnitude. You see, as individuals, we can so often fall into that trap of self reliance, come on?

It's not just a sin of Ahab, but our careful planning can so easily come up short. That temptation to secure our comfort, to create those deep systems in our life is so constant, isn't it? A system for a drought, a fat bank balance, to secure a little bit of comfort is actually not too different. All the while, we might be selling ourselves to the idols, to the Baals, serving the gods who have been good to us. But fertile crops in ancient Israel or lucrative lifestyles on the canals of the Gold Coast are exactly the same.

They're all about comfort, but who is it who controls the rain? Who is it that brings the customers into your business? You or God? Who makes your jobs not providing enough work? How insecure do you feel when there's not enough work?

Who keeps your heart beating? You? Can you tell your heart to beat? Or God? Who keeps the chaos from entering your life?

You or God? You believe in your cisterns and wells, Ahab? You believe that Baal will send you rain and fertile crops? The Lord God says no more rain for years. So we see the pronouncement in verse one.

Then we see the preparation. The preparation. Not of the country of Israel, but of the one who made this pronouncement, preparation of God's servant. After this declaration, instead of sending Elijah to the street corners, telling him to go and fetch his soapbox, to go and stand on it and preach to everyone that doom is about to come on them if they do not repent, instead of doing that, God sends Elijah to a place called the Kerith Ravine, which in Hebrew, Kerith actually means cut off.

Verse three says that God not only tells him to go there, but to go and hide. Elijah had to disappear off the map. Kerith, cut off. It's in the middle of nowhere. Today, they know where that is.

It is rocky. It is desolate. It is not a fun place to be. God sends Elijah there. I don't know if Elijah had friends or family.

I don't know if he had an active social life, if he enjoyed his Friday night barbecues. But nevertheless, God says go and he says go and hide. In verse three it says, "Go and hide." How much hope would you have if you got sent to a place that's called cut off?

"Hey Elijah, go to a dead man's despair. Hey, Elijah. Go and camp at the valley of no hope. Hey, Rob. Go and live in Logan."

That sounds promising, God. Thanks. Looking forward to it. Here was Elijah who burst onto the scene from the outback. Rough man.

Goes right into the parliament house. Says to the king, "God declares that there will be no rain." And all of a sudden, he gets sent back into the desert. That's tough. Especially if you are a doer, a person who wants to see change, wants to bring revival, a person who likes being in the spotlight, who doesn't shy away from it.

God says in no uncertain terms, "Go away, Elijah, and hide yourself. Get alone. Get out of the way. Get out of the limelight. Get away from these things that might start satisfying your ego, that might be too comfortable for you, to go and live in the Kerith Ravine."

God knew Elijah wasn't ready to play in the grand final. He wasn't ready for that tournament in July. He wasn't ready to take on the opposition just yet. There was a bit of training that still needed to be done. So often in scripture, we find examples of God's servants being taken into the wilderness for preparation.

So often, the entire nation of Israel had to wander in the wilderness for forty years before being taken into the promised land. God had to prepare them. We see that happening even in the ministry of Paul the Apostle. This great servant of God who did amazing things, after his conversion, disappeared off the map for three years. The Bible says he went to the deserts of Arabia.

That's all we know. The deserts of Arabia. Does not sound like it would have been fantastic. Does not sound like it would be a Gold Coast holiday. The deserts of Arabia, God sends Paul the Apostle.

Over and over again, God prepares His greatest servants in the greatest wildernesses. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. I once heard a well-known preacher say that any pastor worth his salt would have experienced a wilderness experience which nearly killed them. I'm still waiting for mine. Anyone who feels called by God to serve Him, to do great things for Him, chances are you'll be going to the Kerith Ravine.

Our human feelings tell us that once our heavenly Father gives us comfort, He has no right to take it away from us. Once God gives us comfort, don't He dare take it away. It just wouldn't be fair. Once God gives us a husband or a wife, He should never take them from us. Once God gives us a child, He should never take that child.

Once He provides a pastor, He must never call that pastor elsewhere. Once He gives us growth and delight in ministry, He has no right to step in and say, "I'm not going to make you guys grow in numbers, I'm going to make you guys grow deeper." When we hit the wilderness, our tendency is to feel abandoned, is to feel resentful, to think, "How could God forget me? How could He do this to me?"

But in fact, just the opposite is true. Because at that moment, we are more the object of God's attention than at other times. When we end up in that wilderness, God never has to admit, "Oops. I forgot I left KJ there. How did he end up there?"

God says, "No. That's right. That's where he needs to be. That's exactly where I want you. Yes."

"That's perfect." Does God forsake us? The Bible says He does not. Are we abandoned? Not for a split second. Is God aware of our circumstances, of our pain?

Yes. He knows exactly where you are. You're in basic training. You're in prep. Learning the skills that you'll need for the purpose that God has in store for you.

God doesn't leave Elijah to wither and die in terror. This brings us to our third point. We've had the pronouncement, the preparation, and now the provision. God sends ravens to bring bread and meat to sustain Elijah. The Bible says while hiding from Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah received sustenance miraculously.

Get it straight though, it still wasn't comfortable. You know, this was not three course dining. How much food could a few ravens bring in their beaks? Not a lot. You're not going to get a huge ham like this.

But the Bible says two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. A bit of bread and meat in the morning, and then another sandwich at night. And then there's the cool running water of the brook in the Kerith Valley. Preparation for Elijah would take place in the Kerith Ravine, but provision would be given by God. The first thing God does after He sends Elijah into the wilderness is to tell him that he's going to survive.

But God needed Elijah out of the spotlight for a while. God was saying, "You need to come out into the wilderness alone with me where you can hear my voice clearly. You're a man who is going to be speaking on my behalf. You need to know what my voice sounds like." And the Bible shows that Elijah obeyed.

He stepped into that wilderness. We don't see any grumbling or any questions or doubts. The question I ask myself is, would I accept such an assignment? Would I act with so much obedience? How many of us would say nothing except "Yes, sir, I accept this, I trust you completely, I don't need the spotlight to survive, I don't need human interaction to survive."

Sometimes, God puts us aside in preparing us to be used by Him. We have to be willing to be set aside so that we can listen for God's voice in that stillness, away from the busyness of everyday life. There, in that stillness, God wants to teach us something. God wants to prepare us for something. But God's sovereignty in bringing us into that wilderness includes God's provision.

I'm sure anyone that's been around for a while will be able to tell you, "I've been through some pretty rough stuff. And in that moment, didn't know how I was going to survive, but I did. I did. I just had enough energy for that one day, and then the next day, and then the next day." God says go to the brook and I will provide.

Often in the Old Testament, the original names of places carry symbolic meanings. Here we see that the term Kerith means to be cut off or cut down. God sends Elijah into a steep, craggy, isolated place. Vance Havner in his book called "It's Towards the Evening" writes about a preparation for a bunch of farmers. It tells a story of a group of farmers who were growing crops of cotton.

It was in the deep south of America, and during that time, a devastating pandemic of a little grub called the boll weevil invaded the crops. These men had invested their life savings into the start up of this, into the fields that were going to produce these crops. All their hope was in this cotton farm. Then the boll weevil came and before long, it looked like they were going to be broke. But the farmers, being determined and ingenious people as they are, decided, "Well, we can't plant cotton, so let's try peanuts."

Amazingly, those peanuts brought them more money than they would have ever made growing cotton. When the farmers realised that what had seemed like a disaster actually proved to be a blessing in disguise, they built a monumental monument to the boll weevil. Sometimes we settle into a humdrum routine of monotonous cotton growing year after year. Havner writes further, he says, "But then God sends the boll weevil and it shakes everything up. And God jolts us out of our groove and we must find new ways to live."

God sends financial reverses. He sends grief. He sends physical illness, loss of position. But how many could say today the best thing that ever happened to some of us was the coming of the boll weevil in our lives. When God directs us to the wilderness, God provides.

That's what sustained Elijah during his basic training at Camp Kerith. Elijah went to the Kerith Ravine as an energetic spokesman for God. Out of the blue, he was a prophet. But he emerged from Kerith as a man deeper in God. All of this happened because he was trained in the wilderness for the greater purposes of God.