It is often said that Life is a journey and like every journey it’s often laced with surprises, twists and turns. As children of God we are always hopeful of a smooth sail but often get surprised by unexpected challenges.
The book of 1st Kings 17 verses 1 to 7 contains an interesting story and experience of one of the great prophets in the bible – Elijah. After being used by God to decree famine in the land of Israel, God directed him to a place called Cherith where he was to be fed by ravens and sustained with water from the brook. Today we shall be focusing of the Season of Cherith and what it represents in our walk with God.
What Does Cherith Season Represent
Cherith represents a season of divine provision. After the land is ravaged by famine and hunger, God directed Elijah to go hide by the brook of Cherith, to drink of the brooks water while he had commanded a very stingy bird called Raven to bring bread and meat both morning and evening to him. It is a season when you experience blessings from the most unlikely sources, a season when men go out of their way to help you, a season when lines keep falling onto you in pleasantplaces and your life radiates God’s glory(Psalm 16:6). It could also represent a season when God makes up for your helplessness or when you are incapable as exemplified by the Israelites in their wilderness journey when God was providing manna daily to sustain them. It wasn’t until they got to Gilgal in Joshua 5:12 after they ate food produced in the land that the manna stopped. Cherith can also represent a season of open heavens when prayers are unhindered and instantly answered. God often takes us through Cherith season to build our faith and dependence on him as the great provider and source of all blessings.
Read Also:
The temporal nature of Cherith season
Interestingly, after Elijah had become accustomed to getting daily meals supplied by the raven birds and drinking freely from the brook, he woke up one day and discovered everything gone, raven stopped coming and the brooks suddenly dried up. I can imagine his shock and bewilderment at the sudden turn of events. I can imagine the questions that was agitating his mind, how did this happen, what sin have I committed, why has God suddenly abandoned me? Is God that was able to bring water out of the rock in Numbers 20vs 7-11 not able to sustain the brooks producing water or the raven’s continued daily provision? Of course he can because there is nothing too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27, Mathew 19:26). So why did he allow the brooks to dry up and stopped the raven from bringing food to Elijah? The bible says in Ecclesiastes 3vs 1 that to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. Everything we experienced in life both good and otherwise in our journey to eternity has a reason and a season. Recall the word of God in Romans 8:28 (AMP) “ And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.”God who knows the end from the beginning and has charted our course in life even before we were conceived (Jeremiah 1:5) can not be caught unaware of the whatever season of life we found ourselves so if he allows the Cherith season to be interrupted (mind the word I used interrupted not terminated), there must be reasons for it.
We shall continue next week by the grace of God by looking at why season of Cherith can be interrupted.
