Dried Brook

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery….

(Jonah 4:6, NKJV)

We have times when we experience continued goodness in our lives. These are moments when our plans seem to move smoothly without interference or great resistance.  Children are best in living within such spaces of time, when all they ask for is provided by their parents or guardians.  I watched a young child ask his parents for sausages as a snack and the parent responded that there were no sausages available at that time.  The child asked the lifelong question “why?”.  As I listened, I noted that to the child, the availability of sausages was a given and he could not understand why the parent was not able to provide.  It confused the child’s understanding and the follow up questions of “why” were many.  Children have a way of exhausting grown-ups with this question which represents their confusion on the matter in question.

While we could understand the children’s assumed expectation that everything is possible, we are also guilty of at times taking some things for granted. Rarely do we take time to consider what it means to have a new day, the air we breathe, the provisions for each day which seem to come easily.  We are no different from the children who assume that things will continue as is. The truth is that, what we enjoy is from God’s hand of favour and grace and not on the basis of our entitlement.  When we confuse God’s favour upon us for entitlement, we complain when what we expected is not availed. Not long ago, I went through a situation where what I had learnt to enjoy was withheld and I needed to readjust.  My human reaction was one of complaint and anger and as I struggled with this, the Holy Spirit gently reminded me that what I had enjoyed was favour and my reaction showed that I had confused it for an entitlement. That woke me up to how God saw my reaction.

Our reference verse comes from the story of Jonah who was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah resisted the mission but by God’s hand, he ended up in Nineveh, preached repentance and the people responded appropriately with a return to God.  Jonah was disappointed that God had relented His anger on the people and accepted their repentance.  As Jonah sat complaining, God allowed a plant to grow giving Jonah a shade which he enjoyed.  The following day, the plant withered and died and Jonah was aggrieved even desiring to die (Jonah 4:8), to which God asked him what right he (Jonah) had to be angry.  Jonah like us, forgot that it was not his strength that raised the plant but that it had been given to him for a purpose. For having lacked this appreciation, he failed to be grateful to the giver. 

Elijah after prophesying a drought to King Ahab, was commanded by God to go to the other side of the Jordan river to hide.  In this hiding place, God provided him meat and bread by the transport of ravens and he drank the water of the brook.  After a while, the brook dried and God directed him to go the Zarephath where a woman was prepared to take care of his provisions (1 Kings 17:1-14).  Unlike Jonah, Elijah did not complaint about the change, he simply obeyed and true to God’s word, there was a woman in Zarephath who was used by God for his needs. Once the purpose of the brook was done, God prepared another avenue for help.  Beloved, the drying of the brook or provision in your life is not meant to be a punishment, it just signifies the end of a season or purpose.  Our confidence should therefore not be in the brook but in the source of our provisions, God Himself.  Regardless of what has dried up in our lives, we can stand secured by His assured presence.

Thoughts:

Which favour are you enjoying at this time?

What has been your experience with dried/drying brooks?

How grateful are you for what has been given you?