I've thought about the story quite a bit.
Elijah is a really interesting character,
and I want you to realize that if you're serving God,
one aspect of serving God is going soul winning, right?
I do not believe that God would command Elijah to hide
for a long period of time with no ability to preach the gospel.
Now just think in your mind with me, okay?
Imagine these pictures in your head as I'm giving you my opinion, okay?
I'm telling you what I believe took place with Elijah.
If you are fleeing and hiding by the brook,
that is probably an area where the government's not going to look to arrest you, okay?
Because quite honestly, if you're living by a brook,
that's probably kind of an area where rich people,
which government workers usually have pretty good money,
they're probably not going to want to go to that area,
and they're not going to want to put in the effort.
So he was probably safe there, which is why God said hide by the brook, okay?
But what I do know is this,
that even though the government wouldn't look to arrest him there,
there's probably a lot of people that came by all the time.
People come by to go fishing,
people come by to take a walk,
or people that are poor maybe just trying to get some water, whatever.
Look, I believe Elijah probably did some great soul winning
while he was hiding by the brook.
I don't think he was just kind of hiding
and just kind of sitting down all day saying,
all right, wonder when the ravens are coming for dinner.
Oh man, no, I think he was working during that time period.
I don't believe God would command him to hide without the ability to go soul winning.
I believe God probably sent a lot of people in his path,
and he was just going soul winning left and right, left and right.
And the amazing thing was,
as much as the government wanted to kill him,
he was put in a spot where God provided for him,
and he was still able to preach the gospel.
Now that's my opinion.
I can't prove that to you,
but logically I believe everyone who's ever lived
that was a great person of God was a soul winner,
and I don't believe God would put him in a position
where he couldn't go soul winning.
And logically people will come by to go fishing
and to get water and things such as that.
So I think he had a lot of opportunities to preach the gospel.
What's going to happen when we flee to the wilderness?
I believe we're going to have a lot of opportunities to preach the gospel.
It might not be an organized door-to-door soul winning.
It might just be when you see a person, you take that opportunity.