Elijah, whose name means “Yahweh is God,” was a prophet whose name is significant because he prophesied during a time when the worship of Baal threatened to extinguish the worship of God (Yahweh) in Israel. (Ryrie Study Bible)
YHWH
Elijah had predicted a drought in the land, “neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” (1 Kings 17: 1) and the Lord provided a brook of fresh water and the ravens fed him while he hid in the place the Lord provided for him.“Some time later the brook dried up.” (v. 7) Have you ever had a brook dry up in your life? Maybe a brook of fellowship dried up as you attended the funeral of a believer with whom you had enjoyed the partnership of the gospel or stood at the grave of a beloved family member. During this time of recession many have seen a financial brook dry up. For some a business failure has completely dried up their river-beds. For others the “cuts” and years without raises have slowly eroded their “just in case” stockpile or retirement funds. A friend’s brook of a happy marriage no longer bubbled with happiness but dried up as she faced the ugly bare rocks left by adultery. Last year, fears of facing pain and surgery dried up my brook of good health.
But Yahweh…….speaks to us and provides for us just as He did for Elijah. “Then the word of the Lord came to him:” (v.8) Then (to me that’s almost synonymous with “in God’s timing”) God’s word came. Maybe Yahweh allows those dried up brooks in our lives to get us to the point where we’ll be able to hear Him.
Life is full of “dried-up brooks” but Yahweh is there. He is the Lord of life, even the dried-up brooks. For it’s in those dried-up brooks where we are attuned to clearly hear His word---if we’ll just listen.
