As Elijah escaped from the city and the clouds began to make themselves scarce, he probably pondered what was going to happen next. One thing was certain, and that was, there was far more that he didn’t know than he did know (Sound familiar?). If Elijah was a planner, he was about to get frustrated fast. Because, if there’s one thing that planners need, it's answers. How long will I be gone? What will I need when I’m there? What will I do? Elijah had a direction, and that was east. He had a destination (sort of), and that was to find a brook that was called Kerith near where it entered the Jordan River. It was there he was to make camp. Oh, and one more thing, Elijah had a promise that food would be taken care of as God had given instructions to the ravens as well. Whatever that meant.
Day one of his exile must have been interesting. He found the place, a quiet, secluded, little camp spot, and he set up his shelter. He explored around a bit and then, tired from his journey, he rolled up in his blanket and went to sleep. The next morning when he awoke, he must have still been wondering how this was all going to work. It was then the first raven showed up. Up until that day, it is probably safe to say that Elijah’s life was far from boring. He had seen and done a lot and watched as God did some amazing things. But having a bird drop a chunk of meat in your lap followed by another bird with a piece of bread and then, more birds and more food until he couldn’t eat another bite, well, that was way beyond his range of experience.
Days went by followed by weeks and then months. Same seclusion, same routines, and the same entrees on the menu. Elijah probably had named all the ravens after a while and recognized their unique bird personalities. He became an expert on the brook and its rocks and pools and currents. And he noticed it getting narrower and narrower as the month's drug on.
It's easy to imagine that Elijah had more than one conversation with God during these days though we aren't privy to their content. Undoubtedly, they reflected his mood ranging from peaceful serenity to outright frustration. Since we know that Elijah had a “nature like ours” it’s not too hard for us to think about what was going on in his mind. We don’t tend to like inactivity and we really aren’t fond of not knowing how things are going to end. And when God deals with us on a “need to know” basis then we can be assured those conversations were, uh, lively, without a doubt. And then the brook dried up.
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