1 Kings 17.2-7:
| 17.2 ויהי דבר יהוה אליו לאמר׃ | The Word of Yahweh comes to Eliyahuα to say: |
|---|---|
| 17.3 לך מזה | “Walk away from this. |
| ופנית לך קדמה | Turn from the frontβ of this. |
| ונסתרת בנחל כרית | Hide yourself in the Kerith wadiγ |
| אשר על פני הירדן׃ | which is at the face of the Yarden.δ |
| 17.4 והיה מהנחל תשתה | Be there, and drink from the wadi. |
| ואת הערבים צויתי לכלכלך שם׃ | I instruct the Arabsε to sustain you there.” |
| 17.5 וילך ויעש כדבר יהוה | He goes, and obeysζ the Word of Yahweh. |
| וילך וישב בנחל כרית | He goes and lives in the Kerith wadi, |
| אשר על פני הירדן׃ | which is at the face of the Yarden. |
| 17.6 והערבים מביאים לו | The Arabsε take to him |
| לחם ובשר בבקר | bread and meat in the morning, |
| ולחם ובשר בערב | and bread and meat in the evening. |
| ומן הנחל ישתה׃ | He drinks from the wadi. |
| 17.7 ויהי מקץ ימים | In the last days, |
| וייבש הנחל | the wadi is drying up |
| כי לא היה גשם בארץ׃ | because there wasn’t rain on the earth. |
Right after Elijah told Ahab the water was being turned off, Jesus told him to go into hiding. Jesus? Well, if you want to be technical, John identifies the Word as Jesus in John 1.1. and though it might get me in trouble with some exegetes who would (rightly) complain that the writer of 1 Kings does not understand this to be the case, I’m still gonna say it. Jesus told him to go into hiding.
Knowing what we do about Ahab after having read his whole story, we know he’s a bit of a loose cannon and that it’s probably not the safest thing to go shooting your mouth off in front of him. But at the time Elijah made his statement, Ahab might not have been a known quantity in Israel. Yes, they knew he was a pagan, but it doesn’t appear that he’s killed anyone yet, or shoved anyone into prison for being a follower or prophet of Yahweh. But it was only a matter of time before Elijah’s statement started happening—before the brooks and canals dried up, the cisterns and wells dried up, the snowpack on Mt. Hermon evaporated, and the Jordan shrunk down to a trickle. And when it did—when people got desperate—it might not be the safest idea for Elijah to still be around.
It’s really for Ahab’s sake too. Elijah did say that the dew and rain would stop until he said something, and if Ahab beheaded him before he could say anything, Israel was so screwed.
So Jesus told him to walk away. Drop everything. Stop doing whatever ministry he was currently doing in Samaria. Yes, it was important; but he had to leave and go hide out in a wadi.
Speculation is that Kerith is east of Samaria—because קדם can mean “east” as well as “front.” This seems unlikely, since Kerith is “at the face of” the Jordan. Another speculation is that Elijah made his statement to Ahab while Ahab was visiting the West Bank. In any event, the location is obscure—which, if it was equally obscure in Elijah’s day, made it a really good place to hide. Traditionally this has been identified as the Wadi el-Kelt near Jericho, which is a really difficult ravine to get to.
“There,” Jesus told Elijah, “I instruct the ערבים to sustain you.” This word is traditionally translated “ravens.” My only problem with this translation is that the raven is an unclean animal—an abomination, actually. (Lv 11.13-19) Ravens are carrion birds; they eat whatever they find dead. So not only is the bird unclean, but you definitely can’t trust whatever food they bring you. Now, maybe I’m reading too much into this; after all, the Holy Spirit had pointed out to Peter that whatever God calls kosher, we don’t call trayf. God had “instructed” these birds; perhaps they were specially trained to be clean where ordinarily ravens would be nasty.
But ערבים can also be translated “Arabs.” And since Arabs aren’t unclean—and way more likely to take instruction from God than any stupid birds—I find it a lot more plausible that God had talked to the local Bedouins and informed them that His prophet was coming, and would need looking after.
Go ahead, accuse me of taking all the supernatural out of the bible. It’s still supernatural. God talked to Elijah and told him where to go; God talked to the Arabs and told them who to feed; God actually got Arabs and Israelis to get along for once. Isn’t that actually more supernatural than ravens feeding Elijah? Well, admittedly that’s just speculation on my part. I could be wrong.
In whatever case, Elijah responded to Jesus and did what he was told, however unlikely the circumstances sounded, and it all worked out. I’ve said before that we have to get the hang of recognizing God’s voice so that we’ll follow Him, in faith, regardless of how wacky His instructions might sound. Leaving your comfortable house in town to go hide out in a wadi doesn’t strike me as reasonable behavior, but God frequently calls us to do the unreasonable, and we have to trust Him enough to do it.
α. Lit. “him.”
β. Or “eastward,” but where Elijah was being sent is actually west of Samaria.
γ. Or “Cherith.” A wadi is a ravine that becomes a brook during the rainy season.
δ. Jordan River.
ε. Or “ravens.”
ζ. Lit. “does according to.”
