Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. – 1 Kings 17:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 21, 2026): 1 Kings 17

For just over a decade, I lived in the desert. You are probably picturing sand dunes, but there were none. It was a desert, but one that humans had remade into a farming and ranching oasis. However, farmers had to spend money on expensive irrigation systems because the area was generally dry and constantly windy. It was hard to imagine a more inhospitable wilderness. There was a creek that meandered through the area, fed by water from the nearby mountains. But it was a desert just the same.

It was a desert, but that didn’t mean that there was no rain. I remember a time when the rain fell almost constantly for more than a month, and what I discovered was that because it was a desert, the land didn’t seem to know how to handle the increased water. Water seemed to just sit on top of the ground, flooding everywhere. Farmers and ranchers who had depended on irrigation systems to water their crops discovered that the only way to get around their farms and ranches was to have a canoe ready to make the trip. However, when the rain stopped, it was amazing how quickly the flooded ground returned to its desert-like state.

Elijah is told to go and stay by a brook. A raven would bring him bread and meat so that he could eat, and the brook would provide the prophet with the water he needed to drink. But it was a time of severe drought in Israel, and so, eventually, even the brook dried up. And God tells Elijah it is time to move on to the next stage. Elijah accepts the change with amazing grace. The truth is that Elijah never placed his trust in the brook for its water or in the birds that would bring him what he needed to eat. His trust was in God. God was trusted for the first stage, and he could be trusted for the next stage as well. I wonder if I would be as trusting, or if I would be tempted to complain that God had promised me the brook for water, and now even the brook was gone. Sometimes, maybe it takes more trust in God as you sit beside the drying brook than it does to stand and challenge the followers of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel.

Baptist pastor F. B. Meyer (1847-1929) comments on several types of drying brooks that we still sit beside today. There is a brook of decreasing popularity as we grow older and pass the torch to the next generation. There are also the drying brooks of declining health, of dwindling money, and of fewer friendships. We all suffer from these drying brooks, and each one demands that we acknowledge whether our trust is in the brook or in the God who gave us the brook in the first place.

Back in my personal desert, I remember a Sunday evening prayer service where the town came together to pray for rain. It was a gorgeous evening; the sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. But one friend walked to the prayer service, swinging an umbrella. I smiled at her, and she asked me where mine was. After all, we were praying for rain from the author of the rain and the sun, and even the drying brook. And He was willing to bring the needed rain, as long as we continued to trust in him. 

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 18