Charles Spurgeon Commentary 1 Kings 17

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

How abruptly this man breaks in upon the scene! He leaps like a lion from the thicket. There is no previous announcement of his coming; but here he stands, God's own man ordained to bear witness in evil times—to stand like a brazen pillar when everything around him seems to be moving from its place. Ahab had not been accustomed to be spoken to in this fashion.

Mark how personal is Elijah's message; he does not begin even by saying, as the prophets usually did, "Thus says the Lord." There is something that at first seems almost audacious about his expression: There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

A man may sometimes seem self-assertive when, really, he has so completely lost himself in God that he does not care what people think about him, whether they regard him as an egotist or not. Some men appear to be modest because they are proud, while others seem to be proud because they have sunk themselves, and only speak so boldly because they have their Master's authority at the back of their words. Bravely did Elijah say, There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

Of course, the prophet would have had to share in the general scarcity unless God had provided for him, and therefore the Lord took care that His servant should be hidden away where a brooklet would continue to run after the moisture had departed from other places.

Perhaps someone says, "Ravens were more likely to rob the prophet than to feed him." And so they were.

Some have objected that these ravens were unclean. What if they were? Things are not made unclean because they are carried by unclean creatures. Did not Abigail bring to David food on donkeys which were unclean? There is no sense in that objection.

"Oh, but!" someone else asks, "how should ravens bring food?" How should they not, if God commanded them? All creatures are under his control. With God, a miracle is simple enough.

If God does not feed his people by any other means, he will command ravenous beasts and unclean birds to feed them.

So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

It is the glory of Elijah that he does whatever God bids him, asking no questions. He simply, like a child, goes to the brook just as, like a hero, he had previously stood before the king.

Brooks will dry up, even if godly men are being sustained by them. Is there anyone here whose brook is drying up? Has it quite dried up? Still trust in God; for if the ravens are put out of commission, God will employ some other agency.