Elijah and the Ravens

Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, appeared suddenly on the stage of Israel's history with a bold proclamation to wicked King Ahab: 'As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.'

This was no idle threat. Ahab and his Phoenician queen Jezebel had led Israel into Baal worship. Baal was supposedly the god of storms and rain. Now the true God would demonstrate His power by shutting up the heavens.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 'Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.'

Elijah did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine 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.

Ravens—unclean birds, scavengers known for their greed—became God's delivery service. Morning and evening, faithfully, they brought provisions to the prophet. The brook provided water. God sustained His servant through the very drought he had announced.

Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. But God was not done providing. He would send Elijah next to a widow in Zarephath, in the heart of Jezebel's homeland, where another miracle of provision awaited.

God's servants may find themselves in wilderness places, but they will never find themselves beyond His care.