“Go, Hide Yourself”: The Brook of Cherith Before Any Ministry

Uploaded: 2026-08-24T06:00:00+00:00
Description: Open your Bible to the book of Kings. Kevin Goncalves Palheiros takes us from 1 Kings 16:29 through chapter 17 verse 7, where Elijah the Tishbite steps onto the scene.

Go, Hide Yourself: The Brook of Cherith Before Any Ministry | Kevin GONCALVES PALHEIROS | Efficient Church

Introduction

Open your Bible to the book of Kings. Kevin Goncalves Palheiros takes us from 1 Kings 16:29 through chapter 17 verse 7, where Elijah the Tishbite steps onto the scene. The land is plunged into apostasy: Ahab has taken the throne, Jezebel has introduced the worship of Baal, sacred prostitution has settled in, the Word of God is despised, the altars of the LORD are torn down. It's in this darkness that a man of prayer rises up, a man James will later call a model for all the saints. And the first thing God says to him isn't "go prophesy" or "go perform miracles." It's three words that make all the difference: Go, hide yourself. Before Carmel, there is Cherith. Before the fire falls, there is the silence of the brook. This message is the first part of a series that traces Elijah's journey in three stages: go hide yourself, go rise up, go present yourself. Today, we stop at the first. Because, as the pastor says, no one can rise up unless they have first been hidden.

Outline of the message

1. Elijah's context: a nation that has forgotten Scripture

Ahab isn't just a bad king. He already inherits the sin-chain of his father Jeroboam, but he pushes the evil further by marrying Jezebel, a Sidonian princess raised her whole life as a pagan priestess. Instead of saying "as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD," Ahab bows down to his wife's idols and, together with her, introduces sacred prostitution and the worship of Baal throughout the land.
The consequence is spiritual before it is political. The Word of God is despised, people have forgotten Scripture, the altars of the LORD are torn down. In Israel, no one wants to sacrifice to Yahweh anymore, the sacrifices go to other gods, because people believe the other gods will provide when God won't. A spiritual death takes hold of the whole people.
Kevin Goncalves Palheiros turns the question back to you: are we living through similar hours? Do we give to God what costs us (our time, our energy, our resources, our abilities), or do we follow the world's logic, which refuses to pay because it no longer believes it will be repaid?

2. A man of prayer rises up in the dark

It's in this context that James 5:16-18 comes to remind us of the power of a righteous man's prayer: "The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective." And the first example James chooses is Elijah ("a man with a nature like ours"), who prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and no rain fell on the land for three years and six months.
The pastor insists: Elijah wasn't a man who was satisfied with merely knowing the Word. He delighted in dwelling in the presence of the Lord. Over the years, he had discovered God's heart, his thoughts, the burden on his heart. He no longer needed to be told every day "put your foot right, put your foot left", he knew what God expected of him, because he had become his friend.
The question the pastor turns back to you is a direct one: where do you stand in your intimacy with God? If you heard him speak as Elijah did, what would you do? Would you drop your nets? Would you leave your comfortable little house to go confront an Ahab, with a Jezebel gnashing her teeth behind him? If you aren't ready to listen like a servant would, you aren't yet ready to hear the words of the Master.

3. Three commands, one journey: hide yourself, rise up, present yourself

The Bible breaks down Elijah's public life into three phases, each corresponding to a word from God. First, 1 Kings 17:3: "Go, hide yourself." Second, 1 Kings 17:9: "Arise, go to Zarephath", rise up. Third, 1 Kings 18:1: "Go, show yourself." Hide yourself, rise up, present yourself. This isn't three separate stories side by side, it's a journey, a divine pedagogy.
The pastor compares God's work to breathing. There is first an inhale, where God draws you near to fill you with the brightness of his glory. Then, once he has drawn you in, he exhales you. He sends you back down to carry that light into the valley, among those who are in darkness. Whoever refuses this movement will die, spiritually.
This is what Peter had to learn on the Mount of Transfiguration. He wanted to pitch his tent in the secret place where Jesus had shone brighter than the sun. But Jesus answered him: "You haven't understood, Peter. We must go down into the valley, into the darkness, so that the light you saw in the secret place can rise." Cherith prepares Carmel. The secret place prepares the public place.

4. Go, hide yourself: the school of the brook of Cherith

No one can rise up unless they have first been hidden. The pastor sets this out as a non-negotiable spiritual rule. He gives the list: Jacob left wives and children behind to go wrestle with God in the secret place until he became Israel. Moses spent forty years in the desert of Midian, and twice forty days fasting on Mount Sinai. Jesus himself lived thirty years of anonymity before entering the wilderness to be tempted for forty days and coming out clothed with power from on high.
Ezekiel had his vision of the heavens opening while he wept by the river Chebar. Paul received the revelation of the gospel while fleeing the persecution of his own countrymen, he fled to Arabia. John had his vision of Christ's perfect triumph while in exile on the island of Patmos. The principle is the same everywhere: public revelation is born in the hidden place.
This is where the pastor lands on the hardest, and most freeing, image of the message. The tree that wants to bear fruit must first be pruned. The man who wants to make a covenant with God, the Hebrew word "cut," found in the name Cherith, is the same word used for "cutting a covenant", must agree to hand his life over to the vinedresser. If you think you'll stay the same after coming to church, you're mistaken: the church has a Lord, that Lord is a vinedresser, and he wants to prune you into the image of his Son.

5. Two categories: those God hides, those who hide from God

The pastor draws out two realities. The first: those whom God hides. If you're misunderstood today, rejected, mocked, cut off from the pagan scramble for food and clothing, rejoice. Your Cherith is announcing something. Your Cherith is preparing something for you. It's time to enter a new measure of his presence and his glory.
The second: those who hide from God. It's possible to hide from God, Jonah had a calling and he fled his calling. But if you flee, God prepares a fish to catch you. Moses thought he had buried his calling by tending sheep, God meets him at the burning bush. Elijah himself, after Carmel, will flee in utter discouragement and hide on the mountain, and God will speak to him in a gentle whisper. God knows how to find what hides.
The practical conclusion is simple. Whoever refuses to be hidden will never be revealed. Whoever refuses Cherith will not live Carmel. If we want to be revealed publicly, we must hide ourselves in the intimacy of God at the brook of Cherith. And God is waiting for us there with a promise: "You will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you." What the world cannot give you, God sends down from heaven into your hidden place.

Key takeaways

Elijah appears in a context of total apostasy, Ahab, Jezebel, the worship of Baal, the Word despised, altars torn down. God doesn't call him despite the darkness; he calls him because of the darkness: it's when everything seems lost that God raises up a man of prayer.
Elijah's great strength wasn't his miracles, it was his intimacy with God. He knew God's heart so well that he no longer needed detailed instructions for every step. That intimacy is the only school that prepares you for real ministry.
The Christian life follows a rhythm of breathing: God inhales you (hides you close to him, fills you with his glory), then exhales you (sends you back out to carry that glory into the valley). Refusing either phase means spiritual death.
The brook of Cherith (hidden), always precedes Mount Carmel, public. Jacob, Moses, Jesus, Ezekiel, Paul, John: all were pruned by the vinedresser before bearing fruit. There is no shortcut.
There are two ways to be hidden: accepting the vinedresser's hand as he prunes you, or fleeing God like Jonah. Either way, God will find you, but one path leads to Carmel, the other to the belly of the fish.

Personal application

Where do you stand in your intimacy with God? If God spoke to you today as clearly as he did to Elijah, which "net" would be hardest for you to let go of? Name it before him this week.
Are you going through a Cherith right now, a season of being misunderstood, set apart, silent, rejected? Write down three things God might be pruning in you that you'll only see afterward.
Is there a calling in your life that you're fleeing like Jonah? A conversation you're avoiding, an act of obedience you keep postponing, a step you no longer dare to take? Take five minutes to write it out honestly before God.
Are you paying the price of what God is asking of you (your time, your energy, your resources), or have you slipped into the world's logic, which refuses to pay because it expects nothing in return anymore? Choose one costly thing this week and offer it to God as a sacrifice.
Take a moment today to say out loud: "Lord, if this is a season of Cherith, I accept it. I will drink from your brook, I will eat your bread. I make a covenant with you." Write down the date. Come back to it in three months.

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does God send Elijah to hide before revealing him publicly?

Because no one can rise up unless they have first been hidden. Kevin Goncalves Palheiros reminds us that God's work is like breathing: God draws you close to fill you with his glory, then he sends you back out to carry that glory into the darkness. The brook of Cherith prepares Mount Carmel. Without the hidden season, public power becomes a danger to the one carrying it, because he hasn't yet learned to carry it with his Master's heart.

What does the brook of Cherith represent in your life today?

Cherith is the place where you are misunderstood, rejected, mocked, set apart, cut off from the world's ordinary meals. This isn't an accident: it's the appointment where God becomes your water and your bread. Kevin Goncalves Palheiros calls it "the vinedresser's hand": the tree that wants to bear fruit must first be pruned. The word "Cherith" comes from a Hebrew root meaning to cut, the same verb found in the phrase "to cut a covenant." Refusing Cherith delays God's purposes for your life.

What's the difference between being hidden by God and hiding from God?

Being hidden by God means accepting the setting-apart he commands, like Elijah at Cherith, Jacob at Peniel, Moses in the desert of Midian, Paul in Arabia, John on Patmos. Hiding from God means fleeing his call, like Jonah. The pastor points out one thing: if you flee, God prepares a fish to catch you. He knows how to find what hides. Better to let yourself be hidden willingly than to be forced back after losing everything.

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