Open—M. Allan
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I'd just like to share a few thoughts that I've enjoyed in this.
Past week.
They're nothing particularly deep or special.
But I've enjoyed them.
There's been I love the outdoors and last summer our family had a family reunion and PEI and I was enjoying some verses about being by the sea.
And.
Was just thoroughly encouraged as I went through the Bible and took a look at where it mentions by the sea and then.
I got to thinking, well, maybe there's some other outdoor things that are in the Bible that could be of encouragement. And I looked up verses about paths. It was really, really, really encouraged.
About paths, you know, there's crooked paths and straight paths and old paths and paths that are well lit up and there's times there for encouragement. And, you know, I was thinking too. I thought, Oh well, what other things? And I was thinking about mountains.
And I was absolutely amazed when I went and just enjoyed some thoughts about mountains. And then I thought, well, maybe little valleys. And you know, valleys aren't quite as nice as mountains in the Bible.
And I thought, well, I should look it up and I did. But you know, I got to thinking about valleys a little bit and then I started thinking about.
In valleys there's often brooks, and that's actually what I'd like to speak about.
7 Brooks in the books in the Bible, and you know, often a valley can be a dark place.
I was really encouraged. You know, our family's gone through a bit of a valley the last couple of weeks. My brother shared some verses that were.
An encouragement about valleys in the shadow of death. And I enjoyed them, you know.
But what encouraged me, as I thought about the valleys, I realized there was Brooks. So you know, I've enjoyed Brooks since I was small. If you go to where the Chinese live, they live in the Mark Rd. I used to bike out there with my brother Danny, and we would go out to there's a place where there's some falls and we would.
Swim in the falls and fish stick our heads under the falls and watch the waves go ahead of us. And I always thoroughly enjoyed doing that. And you know, if you were to go to Jonathan Martins house, there's a mountain behind his house and there's a a brook that runs down the side beside his house. And I thoroughly enjoyed going there. And then this past summer we were.
At.
In Stellar and we went out to Brian Emeritus.
And if you ever want to see a nice brook, you go to Brian and Meredith's house. I'm inviting you for that.
You go down and there's a beautiful Brooke Mccollum's brook. I used to fish smell jig smelled in that that brook when I was small and I enjoyed it. And then, you know, I just going through the word of God the first time I'd like to look at it's amazing what's there in just these little things in the word of God and the first one that I'd like to look at.
Is the Brooke Jabach.
And this is in Genesis chapter 32. And as I said, I'm not going to go into the Greek words of any of this. And I realize that a brook feeds a stream, which feeds a river, which goes to the sea. And the words can get a little bit mixed up between them too. But I just wanted to share a few thoughts in the remaining and probably won't take the whole time that we had just about, Brooke. So this first one is in Genesis chapter 32.
And we're going to.
Go down to verse.
22 And just to give context, this is Jacob, and he's out of Brook now. Jacob's about halfway through his life. I don't know his exact age here. I think you could probably figure it out.
Up until this point in his life.
Jacob tried to do everything himself and you know when we try and do things ourself.
We find out we don't get very far. He did end up with two wives and he had twelve sons and daughter at this point and.
But Jacob was trying to get his blessing by working really, really hard.
But let's just see what happens at this brook. You know, what I enjoyed about these brooks is you get to this point and there's a brook, and sometimes you got to get over a brook to get to the other side. You know, Mr. Mueller, this weekend was worried about us coming here because the roads were closed. And there was three different ways to get here. And every one of them was closed because the brooks had overflowed their banks because of the storm. And the roads were washed out. And right up until the last day, we were unsure that we get here. And, you know, it was interesting for me to look.
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At the roads as we drove by, just to see what the water had done. Well, here we have Jacob and he's out of brook. Let's just read what it says. This is in Genesis 32, verse 22. And he rose up that night, took his two wives and his two woman servants and his eleven sons, and passed over the Ford J Bock. And he took them and sent them over the brook.
And sent over that he had, and Jacob was left alone.
And there wrestled a man with him.
Until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he had prevailed not against him, he touched the hall of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall know shall be called no more, Jacob, but Israel, for as a Prince.
Thou hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
While this is a very interesting story, and I don't mean to get into the details of it, but at this book there was a wrestling match for lack of a better term.
And it lasted all night.
You know, Jacob had to get to the point in his life where he realized that he couldn't do it himself. He had to go, he might say, to the other side of that brook and realize.
That the blessing came from God.
And so, you know, it's interesting here. He had sent his wife over and he was scared to go see his brother. He was on his way back to where he grew up, and Esau was on the other side. I don't mean to go into the details of this, but he was scared to see his brother because the last time he saw his brother, his brother wanted to kill him.
And he's on his way back home and he doesn't know what to expect.
And up to this point in his life, he tried to do everything himself. And he gets to this broke.
And there's a wrestling match.
You know, in our lives sometimes.
We need to come to a point where we recognize we can't do it ourselves.
That only the Lord can do it.
And that he is the one that is the source of blessing. You know, here, Jacob, he wrestles this with this man.
Or with this Angel and he's given a new name.
Israel and you know, blessing comes from this and I'm not going to get into all the details of this, but I just I really enjoy.
What it says here if you go down further in it, Jacob actually.
Goes ahead of everybody else after this happened.
And he puts himself ahead and he puts himself in the most dangerous position. And you know, he, the Lord comes in and blessing anyway. And you know, very often when we come like to a point like this in our life.
If we give it to the Lord.
He comes in and blessing and he shows us that it's not us. And so I just I enjoy this little brook. So when Owen and Kara go down by the brook that's by their house, I hope they can think of these little stories that are in the Bible about brooks. Well, that's the first brook. I'd like to go to the second brook. This is the Brooke Ashkel, which is.
In Numbers, Chapter 13.
Sometimes we sing a song about Ashkel's grapes.
And you know this, Brook?
Was in a valley.
Matter of fact, if you have a margin in your Bible and you look at the word, it actually.
It says Valley Ashgol instead of Brooke so I don't know exactly.
I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but there seems to sort of go back and forth. But in this valley there was a brook, and let's just read what it says. This is a Numbers 13 and verse 23.
Then they came under the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they vary between two upon a staff. And they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. And the place was called the brook Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes with the children of Israel cut down from fence. And they returned from searching the land after 40 days.
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So at this brook, there wasn't wrestling, but you know, this was an important place, the children of Israel.
We're traveling from Egypt and they were going to Canaan and they had to figure out how they were going to conquer the land of Canaan.
And so they sent out some spies.
And those spies went, and they searched out the land, and they came to this brook.
And there was absolutely incredible grapes there. You know, my grandparents went to Israel.
After their 40th anniversary, which wasn't that long after Israel became a nation, but they brought back these two little wooden figures with a stick and a huge cluster of grapes between the two of them. And I always loved looking at that carving. Well, Ashgall is where those graves were. We wouldn't have find a cluster of grapes that would be that big now. But you know what? In order for Israel to come into the blessing.
Of those grapes, there was an enemy that needed to be conquered. There was an enemy that needed to be conquered.
And you know ten of those spies.
Were terrified and two of them trusted the Lord. And you know, I just thought a little bit.
About these?
Grapes and this little brook of Ashe call. You know, we come. We've been given so much. We've had a little bit of it this morning. The Lord has given us a tremendous amount. We've been blessed with all blessings in heavenly places. And you know, in order for us to enjoy them, the enemy is trying to keep us back from enjoying what God has given us and we need to have.
The courage of Joshua and Caleb.
To be able to go fight the giants and claim what the Lord is or we already have it. We need to to take what the Lord has given us. And you know, I thought about that a little bit. You know, maybe you have Jacob who is wrestling at the at the Brook Jabok.
And he had to learn.
That it was the Lord alone. It wasn't him.
Here at the Brooke Ash call, we had these men and they needed to learn.
To trust in the Lord. And you know, we need to do the same thing. You know, it's easy for us as we go through our daily lives and we're bogged down in, in what we see every day to forget about what's ahead of us. That is so incredible. And the enemy just tries to scare us with all of the terrible things that are happening every day so that we don't enjoy what God has given us. That's not what the Lord wants. He wants us to enjoy Ashcall's grapes. He wants us to know where the path leads. He wants.
To enjoy it. So I like this second little brook, the Brook of Asheville.
And to think about what happened there, they were traveling and we're all traveling home. And I hope that we can have the faith of a Joshua and Caleb who enjoyed were able to have the courage, you know, they had to wait 40 years because of what the other 10 spies did. And yet they did.
We find Caleb. There's an incredible story of what Caleb did when he got to the land. I'm not going to go into that. Well, that's the second brook. So the first brook was Jaybach. The second brook is Eschal. I'd like to go to the next one, and this is in Everybody knows. This story is for Samuel's Samuel 17.
This is another valley.
Actually, and I know.
My sister Bethany has been here. It's a valley of Elah.
This is where David.
Fought Goliath, so another valley.
And in this valley there was a brook.
Little Brook, you know, sometimes the enemy comes against us and he comes out and he mocks us and he makes fun of us. We didn't ask for it, but he comes out and he attacks us. Maybe it's at work, maybe it's at school, wherever it may be, the enemy comes out and he just laughs at us and and it cripples us.
But you know, here in this story.
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Of David and Goliath.
David.
Recognizes.
That the bottle is the Lord's. This, this passage has been a tremendous encouragement to me. I think we had it here several years ago in the reading meetings and I really, really, really enjoyed it. But David here he goes down to the brook. He's put his trust in the Lord. And let's just read the verses about the brook here. So this is First Samuel 17.
And.
We'll go down to verse.
40.
I'm just going to go through these fairly quickly, it says here.
So David, this is just after David tries out the armor and he recognizes that it's not going to do him any good. He hadn't proved it, but he was trusting in the Lord. What does he do? And I don't know, he probably went down into that valley. Goliath on the other side. I don't know exactly where the brook would have been, but it says here he took his stuff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook.
And put them in a shepherd's bag that he had, even a script and a sling in his hand.
And he drew near to the Philistine.
So here David, he's at the brook in the Valley of Elah.
And he has this enemy coming against him, and he's just a boy. You know, there's a bunch of boys in the front or guys in the front row here. And there was an enemy that came against Israel and mocked Israel, and they were terrified. It terrified Saul, who is the king. He was supposed to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He was head and shoulders above everybody else.
But he was scared. But what do we have? We have a little boy.
Or a youth who trust in the Lord, and he's going to use what he has proved from the Lord is useful. And he goes down to that little brook and he takes five smooth stones and he puts them in a shepherd bag.
And those stones are going to give him victory.
You know, I hope that we all can learn to go to the brook when the enemy is attacking and pick up those stones from.
Many applications of this, but whether it's a word of God or to fight the enemy, to have courage, you know, David is tremendous faith in the Lord. He recognized that Goliath was an uncircumcised Philistine and he has courage. He runs straight at him after and one stone hits him in the forehead, chops off his head and gets the victory. And it wasn't his victory, it was the Lord's victory. He said the bottle is the Lord's.
And the Lord did exactly that. You know, it's beautiful to me to consider this little brook.
That's in the Valley and you know, I don't know.
Where What challenges people here face in their lives? But I do know that everybody has them.
But we can always go to the Lord, and He will provide. So here we have David. I love this little brook. It doesn't call it the brook Ela here necessarily, but it is in the valley of Ela and in the valley of Elah there's a brook, and I just enjoy what it says. I'd like to go to the next one, and this is in First Samuel 30.
This is the Brooke bezor.
And I think of this.
From listening to kids stories and this is David again.
And David is at one of the lowest points in his life.
You know he's being chased by Saul the king.
And he's failed himself and he comes back to the city that he's living in. And he was fighting. He was fighting with the OR he had gone to fight against the Philistines and they turned him away, which was a mercy of God. And, you know, David comes back in. The city that he lives in has been destroyed, and his wives and his kids have been taken captive. And his army of men who were mighty men, wanted to kill him.
It was a low, low, low point in David's life.
But you know, David.
Goes to the Lord. We all know these stories well. He goes to the Lord and what happens?
It says this is in first Samuel 30 verse eight. It says Daniel inquired of the Lord, David inquired of the Lord and saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered, pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail fail recover all. So here David is told to go try and recover all. And you know I love that the Lord gives him this promise at one of the lowest points in his life. And so David's going to claim what the Lord had promised.
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But was it easy?
No, David has to chase with his men. And they are.
So tired.
They just can't carry on. Some of them, they get to this brook and some of them are just absolutely exhausted.
Do you ever get to that point in your life?
Maybe it doesn't happen quite as frequently when you're young, but when you have children and work and everything that goes on, sometimes you get to a point in your life where you're just absolutely exhausted and it feels like you can't go on.
You know, they come to the brook bizarre and I just like to read what it says. This is in First Samuel 30.
And.
Verse 21.
Oh, sorry.
Verse 10 Sorry, but David pursued so he's following he and 400 men for 200 a boat behind which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Beazer. So 200 of these men were so tired they couldn't go over. You know, the rest of them went over and they go and they are able to get back everything and I love that.
And you know, those 200 men that stayed at the Brook Breeze or they go back and the other men were sort of like, well, they shouldn't get anything. They were too tired.
But you know, it's beautiful what David does here. Let's read verse 21. It says David came to the 200 men which were so faint that they could not follow David.
Whom they had also made to made also to abide at the brook bees. Or they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted them, and he answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, and those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with, they shall not give them out of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart. Then said David, You shall not do so, my brethren.
With that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the bottle, so shall his part be that tarieth by this stuff they shall.
Part alike.
And so it was from that day forward that he made a stat, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel under this day.
Well, I love that David recognized that they were tired and they got just they were rewarded even though they stayed to look after the stuff as David pursued, you know, I David recognized that it was the Lord.
That gave the victory.
And you know, we need to recognize that too. It's the Lord that gives the victory. Earlier in the chapter, they wanted to kill David. But you know, David, he makes this a statute and an ordinance. And I love that. You know, they didn't have the current, they didn't have the strength to crossover the Brooke fees or but they still came into the blessing. So I love this little brook, the Brook of Beesor here in this chapter.
OK, let's go to the next one. This is the brook Cherith. Let's go to 1St King 17.
This one.
Is a little bit different. Again, this is Elijah first Brooke we had.
Jacob was wrestling the second one, it was Eshkol and the spies were traveling and Eli when David was fighting and then Bizarre when they were pursuing. Here at Cherith we have Elijah and what was happening in this story.
Let's just read it. It's in First Kings 17.
In verse five it says there.
Actually, we'll back up a little bit. Sorry, I'm not very organized here. We'll start at verse one. And Elijah the Tishbite, who is of the inhabitants of Gilead said on day have as the Lord liveth before whom I stand. There shall be no do nor reign these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, get thee hence and turn the eastward and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan, and it shall be when thou shalt drink of the brook that I command did the.
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To feed thee there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he dwelt by the brook, Cherith, that is, before Jordan, and the Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. It came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there have been no rain in the land. So this is a little bit different again.
Here we have Israel and Israel.
Most of the people there were worshipping another God, Bail.
And Elijah recognized that it was terribly wrong and that it was destroying Israel, and the Lord Israel had raised him up as a prophet.
To show them who the true God was. And you know the Lord tells them.
Or he tells the king there's not going to rain. Then he goes and he lives by this brook, and the Ravens feed him.
You know, it tells us in James it says Elijah was a man subject of like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not upon the earth for the span of three years. I'd have to go back and read the verse exactly. But here he was praying by the brook, and you know, it must have been heard, this little brook.
And Elijah is there by the brook and.
Three years, I don't know, it wasn't the whole time because he goes to be with the widow after. But you know, here he is praying that the Lord would come in, in deliverance. And it wouldn't be very easy to live by a brook, particularly in the middle of a famine, and just see it dry up a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more, a little bit more until it's totally dry.
But you know, he clearly he wanted to do what the Lord had asked him to do, but he recognized.
What was happening in Israel? And he wanted to see the Lord put back in his rightful place, and he wanted to see blessing brought to Israel again. And he obeyed. And, you know, sometimes in our life we can look at what's happening around us and we can recognize that things are falling apart. And, you know, there's a need to pray and to be a little bit like Elijah was here where he spent time. He was obedient to the Lord and what the Lord had asked him to do.
And he was just there by that brook in the Ravens feed him, and the brook gets lower and lower and lower and lower.
But he trusts the Lord. And does the Lord provide? Yes, the Lord provides as he always provides. And so I like thinking about this, Brooke, just as a place of prayer where the Lord came in and did exactly what he was said he was going to do. And you know, I love how this story ends. We know that it pours rain later on. And we can go through the story of Elijah. I'm not going to go in it today, but just.
Think about this little brook a little bit and I love.
Considering it, well, that's a.
Five of the Brooks, the Brooke Jabach call Ela Bees or Cherith. The next one I'd like to look at ties in a little bit.
With what we've had before us with respect to the Lord, and this one is over in.
John.
It's actually the book Brooke Key drawn.
Mrs. in John, chapter 18.
And verse one.
Says when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook he drawn, where was a garden into which he entered, and his disciples, and Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place. For Jesus oftimes resorted theater with his disciples.
Well, if you were to go to Jerusalem today, the temple is up on a hill, and if you go out.
You can go down into the Valley of Kedron and crossover, and that's where the Garden of Gethsemane is.
And you know, there was a brook there that the Lord passed over, and he went to that garden.
That Judas knew about.
You know, this is quite a brook.
To consider.
I don't think any of us can even begin to understand the depth of what the Lord went through. You know, he went to that Garden of Gethsemane, very moving thing to go there and see those trees there and realize the Lord went there anticipating what was ahead of them.
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Where he was going to perfectly fulfill his father's will and going to that cross of Calvary.
He crossed over that little brook and he went there and he, he recognized what his father had given him to do when he was going to do it. You know, the disciples were there and what did they do? They fell asleep. And you know, sometimes, and this is true of me, maybe we've had a big lunch or whatever, and we're sitting in these meetings and it could be a wonderful topic that's being discussed. And sometimes we just want to fall asleep. And it's not unlike the disciples, But you know, the Lord was there.
He crossed over that brook.
He went into that garden and he anticipated what was ahead of him. You know, I'm not going to go into the details of that.
But you know, I think of that and it's precious because that is the source. What the Lord did on the cross is the source of our blessing.
And to me, that is a tremendous thing to consider.
You know.
There's different places in the Word of God that are mentioned in the Garden of Gethsemane is one of them, and He.
He agonized there. And you know, sometimes in our life there may be times of agonizing.
But you know, often on the other side there is blessing. And if you think about.
Almost everyone of these brooks that we've talked, we've talked about. There was blessing on the other side. They had to get to the other side of it when it was the brook of J Bock. Jacob struggled there.
And.
There is blessing in his life after that point when you had the Book of Ash call, when they finally had the courage to go and fight the enemy and really lay claim to what the Lord had given him. There was tremendous blessing there when it came to Ela and David had the courage to fight the Goliath. There was blessing there when it came to bees or David and those his men had lost absolutely everything. They crossed that brook. The Lord gave it all back to them and there was just.
Everything was given by to them and then.
You know, the brook Cherith we see at the top of Mount Carmel where Elijah is saying the Lord, he is God, the Lord he is God. Israel recognizes who their God is again. And then he brings, he brings rain. You know, it's beautiful. But here in the valley of Kedron and you know, there's other beautiful stories about the Brooke Kedron, you know, and I don't, I don't go into them. I won't go into them just because of time.
But but tremendous. But here the Lord.
What's on the other side of the cross?
It's blessing for every single person in this room who has put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, as I I hope when I go and visit the Brooke at Brian and Meredith or the Brooke at Jonathan's or go back to that as I look, I recognize I just remember what the Lord has done for us and Lord as we come to these these brooks in our life that we may have the courage to crossover and and think about these little.
Stories and just enjoy them a little bit more, you know, It's nice, it's amazing.
What we find in this book, it's been amazing to me just to take these little topics of things that I enjoy. You know, I wasn't, I didn't know it was last weekend, I think when I started thinking about valleys and then was struggling with it a little bit and our failures going through a valley. And then I thought about the brooks in the valley and then the the blessing that comes from the brooks and the valleys and just.
To be able to just enjoy that a little bit.
And you know, I hope that we can learn just even a little bit from these because I recognized as I went through these little brooks that they're so pertinent to our lives. How often we.
We need to wrestle with the Lord. How often we need to.
Claim what the Lord has given us, how long, how often we need to recognize that the enemy attacks us, that the Lord, it's the Lord's battle. Each one of these things are so important. And you know, I would just, there's this one final one. This is the 7th one that I'd like to mention. And it's just a little verse about the deer panting for the water. Let's go to Psalm 42.
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And I think this sums it up beautifully.
Psalm 42 and verse one.
Says As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after the Oh God, my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Well, I love that we sometimes sing the song as the deer panteth for the water. So my soul longeth after thee. I love singing that song and I love considering this. Well, I've enjoyed just meditating on this topic a little bit. And as I drove here yesterday and drove along the from Sugarloaf down to this area you're, you're driving right beside. I guess it's more of a stream or a river almost the whole way and thinking about these beautiful pictures that come from the word of God.
22.
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The rich ministry of this day.
Convenient food.
Provided so abundantly, unworthy though we'd be, and we would pray that.
Our hearts would be exercised.
To meditate upon these things, to assimilate it.
But it only is through assimilation that this food can.
Can give power in our lives we pray that our hearts might be exercised in these things we just.
Ask all with Thanksgiving in Jesus precious name, Amen.