The Ravens

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**Original altered (added paragraphs) for easy forum reading...**

“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word”
(I Kings 17:1).

The Prophet

The Word of God quite clearly declares that Ahab was an evil man, and regardless of one’s theology, all will agree on this point. He took for his wife a heathen, set up the worship of a pagan God, and all within the boundaries of the land promised to the father of the Hebrew nation, Abraham.

King Ahab, however, was not concerned in the least about God or His promise to the people of Israel. He was a self-willed individual whose only thought was of pleasing his own sinful desires and those of the manipulative woman he married.

The Scripture does not sugar-coat history but tells it just like it is.

“Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel that were before him”
(I Kings 16:33).

Ahab was wicked, yet in the midst of idol worship and all that goes with it, God had a man…a prophet, by the name of Elijah. He was a man who did not fear to stand in the face of evil and declare, “Thus saith the Lord…”

Speaking the word of prophesy without fear or favor was a dangerous thing to do, yet he chose to stand for right, even if he stood alone. To add to his woes, there was a drought in the land. The absence of rain meant famine, and this would surely effect the just as well as the unjust.

Elijah was at a point of no return, that being, if God did not intervene and make a way when there was not a way to be seen, he would die.

We’ve all been there, at that point of no return when we have gone as far as we can on our own and it is simply trust God or die.

My brother, Jim, tells the story of a woman who was in the hospital and her condition was grave. The doctor took the family in the hall and gave them the report that no child wants to hear.

They turned, walked slowly back into the room, and with deepest sorrow, said, “Mom, the doctor told us that he’s done all he can do. So we guess we’ll just have to trust God now!” The dying Saint looked up at them, and asked, “Well, you mean it’s come to that?”

Calling on the Name of the Lord and seeking His counsel shouldn’t be something we have to come to because every other door is closed. Turning to the Master should be our first move…our first thought…our only hope.

There should never be the thought of, “Well, if God doesn’t come through, I’ll try this or that!” Faith and trust should not be under girded with a backup plan.

This is easily accepted as elementary Christian thinking until we are faced with tragedy or life and death situations. We all like to think that we would stand strong on faith in those circumstances, trusting with nothing wavering. Yet we must all admit that at one time or another we have, if not implemented, certainly considered “what if” alternatives.

When these thoughts come, we often feel guilty as if we are letting God down or sinning by our fear of the unknown. But we must remember that the great men and women of the Bible were no different than you or me.

Surely the situations they were faced with gave them pause, and though the Scriptures do not reveal this, I have to wonder if after speaking with such boldness, Elijah thought, “Okay…where do I go from here?” To me, it would just be the human thing to do.

I believe that it was during Elijah’s certain moment of “what now” that Almighty God made provision for the prophet.

“Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee ”
(I Kings 17:3-4).

Elijah was given explicit instructions and he followed them to the letter, but again we must wonder what was going through his mind when God said that He had commanded ravens to feed him. The Scripture states that they brought Elijah bread and flesh twice a day.

This is strange to anyone who understands that ravens are filthy, disgusting creatures which only deal with dead and decaying matter. God commanded, in that He set in place the birds of the air to perform His will. He changed the nature of the ravens in order to make divine arrangements for His servant.

What a wonderful lesson is there to be learned from this simple incident. If God could take a raven and cause it to turn from or against it’s nature, that of handling death, to one of carrying fresh meat, what miraculous arrangements is He making for us?

Whose nature or opinion is God changing in order that we receive favor and promotion? What steps are being ordered or set in place for our good? What doors are being opened or closed simply because we asked and believed God to do it?

We don’t always understand why things are happening or why they aren’t happening. It may seem as though we are being ignored or stepped over. We may feel as though man doesn’t recognize or honor. It may look as if God is doing nothing and that we are left alone.

But I am a witness that when we don’t understand…when it seems hopeless…when we feel as though we are destined to remain in the wilderness of gloom and despair…when it looks as if it is all over but the sad singin’ and the slow walkin’, God says, “It’s not over till I say it’s over!!”

He lifts the scales from our eyes and we recognize that He was there all the time, working His will according to His will, making divine arrangements…as only HE can.

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The Victory That Comes In Waiting

“And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land”
(I Kings 17:7).

Just how long Elijah camped out beside the brook, no one knows, but he remained there until it dried up. Consistency is an important thing when we realize that he could have grown impatient with the wait and gone on his merry way.

Elijah could have said, “My miracle has come….my belly is full…there’s nothing more to be had here.” But he did not do or say those things. The prophet simply waited by the brook until it dried up.

Again, he must have thought of what his next move would be…“the brook is dry, so where do I go from here?” However, waiting for a clear and certain sound from heaven meant the miracle remained and allowed for divine arrangements to be made for someone else.

After we have been blessed and God has come through right at our point of no return…right when we think we now have it all together, another situation seems to explode before our eyes. It looks as if our brook has once again dried up and we are left wondering, “What now?”

It is just a natural reaction to think this way, but as consistency and patiently waiting were important for the prophet, so it for us. Waiting with patience is such a hard thing…at least for me. The temptation is often overwhelming at times to run as far from the problem as possible, try to work it out myself, or wait with a grumbling attitude.

The problem with all of this is, first, running solves nothing. When I stop running, the problem is still there. Second, if I had the answers and could fix things myself, I might not be in this situation at all. Finally, waiting while complaining is not waiting at all and has actually moved me back into more uncertainty and problems.

I would have been further ahead to just sit and cry, “Okay, God…here I am again, where do I go from here?” Someone told me long ago, “Every time the Lord tries to bless you, you have moved from your place!” I felt the witness in my spirit and knew she was right. I had cried, “Where is God?” not realizing that God was where He had always been, right where I left Him. I was the one who had moved.

Allow me to stop here and admonish you to not be afraid of tears…crying is not a bad thing. Tears are an outlet and a healthy release.

It is when we wallow in our grief and distress with the ‘pity party’ song playing in the background, that we err. But shedding tears and asking questions, seeking direction, is not wrong. It is acknowledgment that we are frail humanity and desperately need God to intervene.

It is not hard to figure out that if I could fix every problem on my own, I would not need God’s assistance. If I could save myself, His death and resurrection would be meaningless. If I knew it all and had all the answers, I’d be on Oprah, telling it and making big money.

The truth is I can’t fix everything, I couldn’t save myself, and hard as it is to believe, I don’t know it all. I am just flesh, in need of Almighty God to order my steps.

Ordering my steps is not dictatorship because I do have a choice…to listen and follow His leading or go my own way. Ordering my steps simply means that He will direct, prescribe, instruct, command, tell, require, bid, ordain.

The New Living Translation records that “the steps of the godly are directed by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23).

As a well trained conductor directs the orchestra with the precision of the baton, so the Maestro of our souls is conducting our lives with His loving hand. He is not confused or making it up as He goes along…He knows the melody of our life and what He is doing. It is up to us to receive this direction and recognize His divine arrangements when they are made.

We can move from our place, shake our head, crying “It’s always something,” and in the process, miss our blessing. We have the choice of laying down and refusing to get up or we can look to the hills from whence cometh our help, our source of strength and sustenance, declaring that our help is in the Lord, and realize that, like Elijah, our miracle is just around the corner in Zaraphath.