“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.”
One of the great lessons we can learn here is that God doesn’t reveal His complete plan immediately. He reveals His will to us one step at a time. After we obey the first step, He shows us the next. Why should the Lord show us step two or ten if we haven’t obeyed step one? That would just make us more accountable. So, don’t try to figure out the next step until you have acted on what you know to do now. That’s a powerful truth.
This resulted in the Lord replacing Elijah with Elisha. Elijah’s ministry fell short of what it could have been. The Lord actually spoke to Elijah in an audible voice. He told him to do three things, one of which was to anoint Elisha to replace him (1 Kin. 19:15-16). Elijah anointed Elisha (1 Kin. 19:19), but didn’t do the other two things. That means Elijah failed in two-thirds of the things the Lord told him to do. That’s amazing.
You might think this meant Elijah was washed up and was never used of God again. That’s not the case. Elijah went on to prophesy (1 Kin. 21:17-24), and he called the fire of God down two more times (2 Kin. 1:9-12). And most impressive of all, Elijah never died; he was caught up into heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kin. 2:11).
This man, who failed miserably, still walked so closely with God that he never died. This speaks volumes to us. The Lord has never had anyone working for Him yet who was qualified. He uses us in spite of what we do, and not because of what we do. If we will hold on to our faith, we can still experience wonderful things from the Lord even after failing BIG TIME. What powerful truths.
