Obeying God always comes first, then He reveals the next step. Too many of us, in doing the work of God, want to see the end result immediately. But that is not trusting God, that is trusting sight. Faith does not see; it trusts and obeys. When Elijah had delivered His message to Ahab, the Lord told him what his next step was to be. Tradition says that this brook ran into the Jordan about 15 miles above Jericho. Its waters came from the mountains of Ephraim from a spring concealed under a high cliff and shaded by a dense jungle. It is probable that it was in such a spot that God hid His servant--a place of safety made known after Elijah's first step of obedience.
The ravens were to bring Elijah his food at Cherith. Suppose, however, he had thought he knew a better hiding place and had gone back to some spot in the mountains of Gilead? He could have starved to death, for the ravens had not been commanded to go there. The ravens were told by God to go to the Brook Cherith, by those high cliffs near the Jordan River where a special stream was fed by a spring. There God would protect Elijah from Ahab. The brook bordered the land of Samaria, the very land over which Ahab was king. There God protected His servant.
"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22).
