kerith
Posted by Dan Owusu
“Cherith” is the Hebrew kerith that means “a cutting,” a place cut by some type of catastrophe like an earthquake, or more likely, by years of water flowing down from the hills to the Jordan.
In 1 Kings 17: 3 this was where God commanded Elijah to go. It reads” Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan..” The “brook Cherith” (NASB), or the “ravine Kerith” (NIV), was one of the ravines that emptied its waters into the Jordan from the mountains to the east. There were many brooks in this area to which Elijah could have been sent, but only one that was called by this name. We might note that the Hebrew kerithuth means “a cutting” and was used of divorce, of the cutting of matrimonial bonds.
Why is Elijah sent to the place of cutting? Some think for protection from Ahab. Perhaps that was part of it but it was not the primary reason because later God sent Elijah to face the king and the king made no attempt to slay him (1 Kgs. 18:17-20). More likely the reason was seclusion, concealment. The Hebrew word for “hide” is satar that means “to hide, conceal, cover” In the Hebrew text it is a reflexive stem and refers to what one does to and for himself. So it means “to hide, conceal yourself.” It refers to a deliberate and decisive choice in obedience to God’s command. Again the main idea of the verb is “to be absent, out of sight.” Literally it means “absent yourself.” The noun form, seter, is used of the womb as a secret place, a place of shelter (Ps. 139:15). Finally, the verb form is used in relation to God’s presence as the omniscient One who becomes a hiding place, a shelter for the believer.
Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide (satar) me in the shadow of Thy wings. Psalm 31:20 Thou dost hide (satar) them in the secret (seter) place of Thy presence from the conspiracies of man; Thou dost keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. Sometimes like Elijah, God sends us to kerith in order to hide us from the evil one. Even though it is not as comfortable as we want, it is the only place we can be safe.
