To paraphrase, God told Elijah, go and talk smack to the king of Israel, then run and hide yourself at a dreary wilderness near a brook, and I'll command ravens - literal birds that fly - to bring you food every day.
So Elijah did what God commanded. He told the evil King Ahab that a drought would come upon Israel, and it would not end until he said so.
In the meantime, Elijah hid from the wrath of the king near a small brook east of the Jordan. We know that Elijah was there for a while, because we're told that eventually the entire brook dried up as the drought worsened. Unlike most places in the Bible, it's unknown where exactly this place was on a map, but if it looked anything else like the surrounding country, it probably wasn't the most exciting or entertaining places to spend a great deal of time doing...
...well, we don't really know what Elijah did to occupy his time he spent by the brook. If his faithfulness tells us anything, he likely did a lot of praying. And every day, while he was doing a lot of praying, a miracle happened in the morning and at night, when ravens would bring him bread and meat. That was Elijah's daily schedule for a long time in a long drought: pray, eat breakfast provided through Divine miracle, pray some more, eat dinner provided by another Divine miracle, pray again, sleep.
Pray, miracle, pray, miracle, sleep. Pray, miracle, pray, miracle, sleep. Pray miracle, pray, miracle, sleep...
If Elijah was anything like me, and it's evident by Scripture that he was not, he'd have eventually become bored - complacent, even. And I know exactly how I would have felt if I'd been in Elijah's position because I'm in his position every day. So are you. We rise in the morning with a miracle - that miracle being God's providence. The miracle of our Salvation, sealed by Jesus' blood on the Cross. The miracle of His Holy Spirit guiding us and giving us discernment in our prayers, in every day decisions and troubles.
And yet, we often become restless. We get bored, our minds wander, even wander during our prayers. Even if we pray a lot.
Twice a day, Elijah received a mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle. Ravens directed by God Himself brought him bread and meat. And despite such a wondrous thing, if I'd been there, knowing me, eventually, as the brook slowly dried up, I'd have forgotten just how amazing those ravens were, just how amazing the Hand is that brought them. I know this full well because in my fleshly weakness and the sluggishness of my faith, I do exactly the same thing today - all day, every day, I receive a mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle. Every day, I receive the mind-boggling, nature-defying truth that Jesus Christ was slain on a Cross for my miserable sins, yet rose from the dead and, miraculously, invited me to live with Him now and in eternity, washed anew and redeemed.
That was, and is, a far more amazing miracle than being brought food by ravens. And yet, despite being reminded of that miracle, being faced with that miracle, I find myself complacent if I'm not careful. I find myself bored.
We must bear in mind that a life lived in God does not become one of intrigue and explosions as one's faith grows. One can have the most sincere and fruitful of faith and still live a life that would to many appear mundane and average. Among the many things the Bible explicitly tells us to expect, we can expect to often have to build our faith and live it in dreary, troublesome days.
But the Bible also tells us to expect those dreary, troublesome days to be opportunities to serve others, to bless them in all sincerity, to share the truth of this miracle you and I wake up to every day, to fill our dreary and troublesome days with the light of the Gospel. Even when those days are as still and dry as a ravine near the Jordan in the midst of a drought.
Later in Elijah's ministry, after fleeing from the wrath of Israel's vengeful monarchs, he found himself in a cave in a mountain called Horeb. God told him to leave the cave and stand on the mountain. Elijah was then surrounded by the ominous noise, debris, and chaos of a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. "But the LORD was not in the wind... the LORD was not in the earthquake... the LORD was not in the fire." Then, "a still, small voice."
And there in the delicate, whispering voice was God.
God is in the sullen whispers and chirping crickets that fill our day to day lives. Our lives that can often seem boring and repetitive. But those dull - sometimes painfully dull - days and nights are made radiant and solemnly jubilant when we choose to embrace the miracle we remember every day. The miracle that we are saved, loved, and cherished by the same God who made the galaxies and the worlds, the same God who dried up Israel and brought the rain again, the same God who raised His Son Jesus from the dead.
If we embrace this miracle and listen to it in the silence of the day, our complacency turns to contentment, our boredom to peace, our restlessness to determination to make the most of that mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle that is Salvation.
(1 Kings chapter 17-19)
So Elijah did what God commanded. He told the evil King Ahab that a drought would come upon Israel, and it would not end until he said so.
In the meantime, Elijah hid from the wrath of the king near a small brook east of the Jordan. We know that Elijah was there for a while, because we're told that eventually the entire brook dried up as the drought worsened. Unlike most places in the Bible, it's unknown where exactly this place was on a map, but if it looked anything else like the surrounding country, it probably wasn't the most exciting or entertaining places to spend a great deal of time doing...
...well, we don't really know what Elijah did to occupy his time he spent by the brook. If his faithfulness tells us anything, he likely did a lot of praying. And every day, while he was doing a lot of praying, a miracle happened in the morning and at night, when ravens would bring him bread and meat. That was Elijah's daily schedule for a long time in a long drought: pray, eat breakfast provided through Divine miracle, pray some more, eat dinner provided by another Divine miracle, pray again, sleep.
Pray, miracle, pray, miracle, sleep. Pray, miracle, pray, miracle, sleep. Pray miracle, pray, miracle, sleep...
If Elijah was anything like me, and it's evident by Scripture that he was not, he'd have eventually become bored - complacent, even. And I know exactly how I would have felt if I'd been in Elijah's position because I'm in his position every day. So are you. We rise in the morning with a miracle - that miracle being God's providence. The miracle of our Salvation, sealed by Jesus' blood on the Cross. The miracle of His Holy Spirit guiding us and giving us discernment in our prayers, in every day decisions and troubles.
And yet, we often become restless. We get bored, our minds wander, even wander during our prayers. Even if we pray a lot.
Twice a day, Elijah received a mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle. Ravens directed by God Himself brought him bread and meat. And despite such a wondrous thing, if I'd been there, knowing me, eventually, as the brook slowly dried up, I'd have forgotten just how amazing those ravens were, just how amazing the Hand is that brought them. I know this full well because in my fleshly weakness and the sluggishness of my faith, I do exactly the same thing today - all day, every day, I receive a mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle. Every day, I receive the mind-boggling, nature-defying truth that Jesus Christ was slain on a Cross for my miserable sins, yet rose from the dead and, miraculously, invited me to live with Him now and in eternity, washed anew and redeemed.
That was, and is, a far more amazing miracle than being brought food by ravens. And yet, despite being reminded of that miracle, being faced with that miracle, I find myself complacent if I'm not careful. I find myself bored.
We must bear in mind that a life lived in God does not become one of intrigue and explosions as one's faith grows. One can have the most sincere and fruitful of faith and still live a life that would to many appear mundane and average. Among the many things the Bible explicitly tells us to expect, we can expect to often have to build our faith and live it in dreary, troublesome days.
But the Bible also tells us to expect those dreary, troublesome days to be opportunities to serve others, to bless them in all sincerity, to share the truth of this miracle you and I wake up to every day, to fill our dreary and troublesome days with the light of the Gospel. Even when those days are as still and dry as a ravine near the Jordan in the midst of a drought.
Later in Elijah's ministry, after fleeing from the wrath of Israel's vengeful monarchs, he found himself in a cave in a mountain called Horeb. God told him to leave the cave and stand on the mountain. Elijah was then surrounded by the ominous noise, debris, and chaos of a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. "But the LORD was not in the wind... the LORD was not in the earthquake... the LORD was not in the fire." Then, "a still, small voice."
And there in the delicate, whispering voice was God.God is in the sullen whispers and chirping crickets that fill our day to day lives. Our lives that can often seem boring and repetitive. But those dull - sometimes painfully dull - days and nights are made radiant and solemnly jubilant when we choose to embrace the miracle we remember every day. The miracle that we are saved, loved, and cherished by the same God who made the galaxies and the worlds, the same God who dried up Israel and brought the rain again, the same God who raised His Son Jesus from the dead.
If we embrace this miracle and listen to it in the silence of the day, our complacency turns to contentment, our boredom to peace, our restlessness to determination to make the most of that mind-boggling, nature-defying miracle that is Salvation.
(1 Kings chapter 17-19)
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