1 Kings 17:3-7

The Solitary Place.

We have just seen that it was from the wilderness that Elijah went forth into the busy, wicked world, and to the anxious, dangerous work of a prophet. He, like his antitype, was in the desert "until the time of his showing unto Israel" ( Luke 1:80 ). There, in secret communion with God, he had gained strength for the encounter; there he had meditated over the grievous apostasy of his people, and had "vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their evil deeds" ( 2 Peter 2:8 ). And there, as he "prayed earnestly that it might not rain," the word of the Lord came to him and burned in his bones ( Jeremiah 20:9 ), and bore him into the presence of the king ( Amos 3:8 ). But it is now for us to observe that no sooner had he entered upon his ministry, and delivered his first brief message, than he was sent into the desert—it may be, the same desert—again. The word of the Lord straightway bids him turn eastward and hide in the brook Cherith. Now the word Cherith means separation . This section consequently may fittingly speak to us of the need of separation, of the uses of solitude and retirement in the discipline of the saints. From Elijah's separation from his work and the world we may glean some lessons as to our own. Observe—

1. Solitude was necessary to Elijah's safety . He must hide or lose his head. When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord ( 1 Kings 18:18 ), we may be sure he would not be spared. Was it not because of him indeed that the others were attacked? Had his dwelling been with men, the messengers of Ahab would assuredly have found him and slain him ( 1 Kings 18:10 ). So it is sometimes necessary, for the life of our souls, that we should flee into the desert. It is at our peril that we stay in Sodom. We must "escape to the mountain." It may be from some enchantress, whose whoredoms and witchcrafts are as cruel as Jezebel's; it may be from companions whose snares are more perilous than Ahab's sword; it may be from a society hardly less pestilent than that of Israel. There are times when our only safety is in flight. Those hermits who buried themselves in the Thebaid, or who burrowed in the rocks of the Wady Feiran, the world has only a smile for their folly, and it is no doubt true that God wound have us leaven the world, not leave it, But it would have been well if some had, for a time at least, followed their example. How many souls have perished because they would not enter into their chambers and shut their doors and hide themselves until the indignation be overpast ( Isaiah 26:20 ); because they had not the courage to disappear for a while, if only into their closets. "He that wilfully stands still to catch dangers, tempteth God instead of trusting him."

2. Solitude was necessary to his soul's health . It is remarkable how God's elect messengers, each in his turn, have been sent "apart into a desert place to rest awhile" ( Mark 6:31 ). Moses must spend forty years in the great and terrible wilderness; must spend forty days and forty nights in Horeb, the Mount of God. Elijah himself only emerges from the Cherith to go to another hiding place at Zarephath, and from Zarephath he passes almost directly to the same wilderness and the same mount where Moses was. The Baptist's life was almost divided between the desert and the prison. St. Paul must learn his gospel in Arabia. And our Holy Lord, He must begin File ministry by a forty days' fast, and from time to time must seek a quiet place to rest and pray. All men who are much before the world need their times of retirement. In the "loud stunning tide of human care and crime" it is difficult to hear the whispers of God in the soul. Now the voices of nature, such as men hear in solitude, are among the voices of God. Nature has been called "God's great green book."

"One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can."

"There are two books," says Sir Thomas Browne, "from whence I collect my divinity. Besides that written one of God, another of his servant nature, that universal and public manuscript that lies expensed unto the eyes of all." And is not every tree, every leaf, in its way a mute witness for God and purity? It is remarkable that the greatest crimes and brutalities are committed in those districts of this country where men can have neither nature nor solitude—in the dens of Liverpool, amid the cinder heaps of the Black Country, in the dingy pit villages of Durham It is only in quiet, under the silent stars, amid the purple heather, by the murmuring brook, or in the inner chamber, that we can know ourselves and our God. The "Ancient Mariner's" conception of his "wide, wide sea"—

"So lonely 'twas, that God Himself

Scarce seemed there to be,"

fine though it is, contradicts the experience of the saints, who have found that it is precisely the profoundest solitude that is instinct with His presence.

And now let us consider how God calls us all in turn to a brook Cherith.

3. Elijah's retirement was for the ultimate welfare of Israel . So long as he remained amongst them, the people would have looked to him as the author of their calamities, or would have cried to him to avert them. His disappearance afforded them leisure to examine themselves and face their sins, and left them only God or Baal to cry to. It is sometimes well that the prophet should keep silence. Deus habet suas moras . It is not always that He stretches out his hands all clay long to the disobedient and gainsaying. Having spoken by Elijah to Ahab and Israel, now He and His prophet must withdraw into the darkness, and the drought must do its silent work. And there are times, too, when Christ's ministers must he silent. When the Gadarenes besought our Lord to depart out of their coasts, He straightway took them st their word ( Matthew 8:34 ; Matthew 9:1 ; cf. Matthew 23:38 , Matthew 23:39 ). The apostles were to shake off the dust of their feet against the city that received them not, and to depart from it ( Matthew 10:14 ), and they did so ( Acts 13:51 ). When the Jews counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles ( Acts 13:46 ). When the churches of Asia fell and repented not, their candlestick was removed out of its place ( Revelation 2:5 ). Their loss is our gain. "These things were written for our admonition."