Scripture Daily

Context No. 4013 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 17:1-7: in context

1Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” 2Then the LORD’s word came to him, saying, 3“Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. 4You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5So he went and did according to the LORD’s word, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

After Elijah announces a drought, God sends him to hide by the brook Cherith, where he is provided for in an unlikely way: ravens bring him bread and meat morning and evening, and he drinks from the brook. God cares for his servant through means no one would expect, using ravens, birds not known for sharing food, to feed his prophet day by day.

But then a striking detail: after a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. The very provision God had given ran out. Two things are worth holding here. God provides for his people, often in unexpected ways; Elijah did not have to arrange his own food, only to go where God sent him and trust him to provide, even through ravens. And God's provisions sometimes change; the brook that had watered Elijah dried up. This was not abandonment but the next step; God would soon send Elijah on to a widow at Zarephath and a new provision. When a familiar provision dries up in our own lives, a source of income, a relationship, a situation we relied on, it need not mean God has forsaken us.

When a familiar provision dries up in my life, do I trust that the God who fed Elijah by ravens has not forsaken me, but may be moving me on to a fresh provision he has already prepared?

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