1Kings17:4-6 says, “You(Elijah) will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there. So then he (Elijah) did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
This is a very interesting story that found the land of Israel in a great famine. Many people can identify with being in a famine, especially with our worlds economic downfall. And if for but only a moment, we take off our “super spiritual” hats, we will discover some humanly truth. We ,or at least I, at times ask myself, where is God in the midst of this famine? Where are the promises that he gave me? Lets keep it real, we all ask that from time to time.
I love (believe it or not) watching the Disney show, Thats so Raven. Even though the theme song is oh so corny, I still like the show. It always starts with Raven seeing a vision for the future. Her job throughout the show is to somehow prevent this “bad” vision from happening. And in the end, everything works out, every single time.
How often do our lives mirror that of Ravens in the TV show? We hear or see reports of bad news and automatically we begin to panic and worry. A man once said that, “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it gets you nowhere.” How often to we spend our days and hours worrying about a thing that has not and may not even happen. We must trust in God. Trust is not always necessary when things are going great, but the true measure of trust is when thing are not looking so promising. Nevertheless, we must continue to trust in God just like Elijah did. Although the nation was in a famine, Elijah listened to what God told him. Not the news, not the economy, not his wallet, but to God. In verse 4 God told him that he commanded the ravens to feed him there. The raven was not the provider nor the source, but simply the vessel that God used to meet the needs of his child. We must keep our spiritual eyes open and attentive to the hand of God. Sometimes to meet our needs or speak to us, God will use illogical people and things. The raven often signifies death. But, God uses to foolish things of this world to confound the wise. God will even use the very things in our lives that we thought were put in our lives to destroy us, but have actually been put there to grow us. Have we boxed in God in our lives, thinking that God can only come through or speak in a certain manner? If so, Let God out of the box and let him use what he wants to use. When you see God “come through” in an unlikely manner, which he will, dont be surprised, just lift your hands, look up to the heavens and say, “That’s so Raven.”
