1 Kings 17:1-24
17:1 We are introduced to a new prophet at the beginning of his journey. His name is Elijah, meaning: My God is Yahveh/Yahweh. His name is a declaration of his faith in our one true Father. And his journey is significant, it begins not only with the solidification of his own trust in God and but will endeavor to restore the faith of God's children in a spiritual effort to eradicate corruption.
Elijah a Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, (Gilead was a mountainous region east of the Jordan River divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, and situated in modern-day Jordan) makes his first prophecy and it is bold, drastic. Elijah proclaims the onset of a severe, several-years drought. Except by Elijah's God-given command, neither rain nor dew will occur. The prophecy is made to king Ahab, who has further inculcated idol worship into the tribes.
Drought is often a symbol for faithlessness and the desolation it perpetuates. However, it takes further meaning when we consider that this is a population of people who have placed their faith in false-gods. They have been worshiping and praying to gods for things precisely like rain, even though none of those inanimate gods are able to actually provide it.
This is not a prideful struggle for God to regain his reputation; He is not hungry for reverence. Rather, God is passionate about humanity's well-being and He can see the dead-end road they are quickly approaching. Because corruption is the hungry one. Greed and violence are the ones that consume not provide. God's efforts are to return them to His provision before evil inevitably starves them of life.
Only water quenches a desert, a drought. Water is the most physiological and figurative element of life. For the latter water is symbolic of the living water, the presence, word and will of God. Our lives are eminently dependent on Him. We often make a spectacle of the grand and physical things God provides in these books of the Bible, and truly they are spectacular: split seas, manna, kingdoms, victories and more. But anyone who has lived even just one day on earth has learned that we are more sustained by visceral provisions than the physical ones. Humans require love and rest and hope and patience in immeasurable quantities. Access to those are the true and abundant treasures of our relationship with God.
John 7:38He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'
God will provide as much as your faith will accommodate: simple prayers and complex prayers. God will preside in every moment you invite Him into. He will counsel through every decision. He will love through every hurt. He will comfort every loneliness. But if we block Him out, if we replace His rightful place with something else, that thing holds the responsibility of providing for us. And things do not have the ability, capacity, awareness or willingness to do so.
The tribes of Israel and Judah have replaced God with things. Instead of ignoring the suffering and deterioration of the quality of their lives, God initiates this movement to save and restore. God's selfless, empathetic, powerful loyalty comes after us every time. He comes to retrieve us against reason and against experience, hoping that one day we will stop walking away, getting hurt and needing to be rescued.
Establishing and sending this prophet Elijah into their midst is a vehement and selfless effort of retrieval. It can only be maintained and propelled by a foundation of faith, and therefore Elijah must ensure his own.
17:2-3 God speaks to Elijah and instructs him to leave Ahab and travel eastward. Elijah is told to go to the Brook Cherith (which flows into the Jordan River). From this brook Elijah will drink; his food will provided by the ravens.
What we must understand about tests of faith is that they are not examinations meant to qualify or disqualify us from God's love. Instead, they are circumstances in life in which we can choose faith above well, reason. The world's definition of reason. Elijah is told that ravens will feed him. Faith interprets "the ravens will feed you" as God's declaration of His will and authority over the universe and every thing in it. From planets to kingdoms to winged creatures. For the universe knows its tailor and serves His will.
Put simply, faith interprets that as God's promise to keep Elijah fed and well. The means through which He will do it is made inconsequential by the unwavering belief that He will. Faith is able to discard its insistence on the burning question of how, the desperation to know the indescribable intricacies of the abilities of God, when a human stops trying to fit God into the limited framework of itself.
This is not the time to know the how of God, that comes after earth. This is the age of the why and His answer is always: because I love you. Even when that does not seem like an appropriate answer, in particular when we are consulting Him on an issue of pain or suffering, it is the right answer.
17:4 And so Elijah does not ask how, he just goes. He follows God's instruction. During his time, Elijah is indeed fed by the ravens who bring him meat. He drinks from the brook until eventually, it dries up because of the drought. It is written that after awhile the brook dried up. Elijah had this private length of time with God to prepare for the unfolding mission.
This is not unlike our own lives which also require more patience than we often have. In comparison to God's patience, our own is inconsistent and infantile. But God takes His time and the result is always quality. Elijah camps by this brook and is fed by birds. Perhaps there are hearts content to live so simply and modestly but those hearts do not beat in many chests. Only a truly, purely faithful individual would find satisfaction and even gratitude in such a life.
The interesting thing about God's teaching is that the discipline is often the ideal. God teaches us to live simply and to have joy and contentment in it. Once we are happy with having only Him, the abundance comes into our lives. The abundance comes into our lives and instead of becoming the main event as we always thought it would, it is simply decoration on the cake. Lovely indeed, but no longer the thing we are desperate for.
So Elijah resides by this brook in simplicity and his faith grows and strengthens, as if he is drawing in the water around him. The water no one else was glad to have, but through its disappearance will come to cherish.
17:8 God again begins His instructions to Elijah. He gives Elijah small steps to take. Steps so small they seem unlikely to actually lead anywhere productive. It's important to realize this because though in our own lives we wish to make great impacts, we are rarely able to envision to way to actually do that. God wants us to understand that purposeful steps are always small because they allow for more precision.
17:9 Elijah is directed to go to Zarephath to dwell with a widow. God explains that the widow will provide for him while he is there. This is another chance for Elijah to rely on his faith rather than the world's reason. Because in his day, a widow could barely provide for herself never mind another. If Elijah did not trust God, he would not go to be fed by a woman who could barely feed herself.
Humility becomes a requirement. Elijah is a prophet of God... now dependent on a widowed woman. If Elijah were an arrogant man, he would not associate with anyone but the powerful and prominent. The reason why this is pointed out is because God repeatedly tells us that the humble shall be exalted and the proud made humble, Matthew 23:12. In order to live powerfully and purposefully, we must be willing to decrease, John 3:30. When we clear out our vanity, we become a vessel for the power and purpose of God to flow through.
17:10-11 And so without question, Elijah travels to Zarephath and goes to the woman. He asks her for a little water in a cup. The woman begins to walk to get him one. Her willingness to provide a little water is symbolic of her possession of at least a little faith. Elijah is about to ask her to have a little faith in God, and here we see she does. Before she gets the cup of water, Elijah asks for a little bit of bread. Again, bread is symbolic of faith. Even if she only has a little (living) water and mere morsel of bread (God's word) God, through Elijah, is asking her to use it.
17:12 The woman is honest with Elijah: she does have a little flour and a tiny bit of oil, but she is reserving it for her and her child's last meal before they die. She uses an interesting phrase to highlight her honesty: as the Lord your God lives. This woman is not of the tribes of Israel or Judah but she believes in their God, the true God. She does not yet have a personal relationship with Him; perhaps she does not feel she has a right to. But her personal relationship with God begins right here, through Elijah. Because of the tribes or not, God loves all of His children. This woman is a child because she is a believer. And though she is a believer with only a morsel of understanding, a little bit of faith, it is enough to sustain her life and her child's. If she allows it to, her faith will save her life and her son's.
17:13 Comprehending God's effort to reach out to her, Elijah tells the woman not to fear. He gives her another option: make a small cake from the flour and bring it to him and then make a meal for herself and her son.
17:14 Elijah explains to her that if she does, her bin of flour and jar of oil will never deplete. Again: faith over reason. The unspoken question: Will you give all that you have to the cause of Christ, trusting that God will constantly replenish your stores?
17:15-16 The woman's mustard seed of faith is enough for her to choose faith over reason, and because of that "she and he and her household ate for many days." Faith provides the will to live, the provisions to do so. This widowed woman, who is not well regarded or cared for by society because the advocate of a prophet of the Lord. From unlikely positions, broken hearts and wearied spirits God raises angels. If you ever feel inadequate or unimportant, remember this. God can make your last day the first day of the rest of a better life. The catalyst is the faith that He will do so.
17:17-18 The widow's son becomes gravely ill. And although she and perhaps most, would interpret this as a punishment from God, it is not. This is another chance to choose faith over reason. The woman immediately assumes that her sin has caused her to lose her child. This is a moment for the woman to realize that God is not a cruel authoritarian. Undesirable things happen in life here on earth but to righteous children of God, these are not punishments or consequences.
17:19-22 Elijah brings the child up to his room and begins to pray over him to God. God hears the voice of Elijah and revives the child. God's ears are attuned to the passionate cries and prayers of His children. This prayer resulted in the life of the child, sometimes prayer will not. Faith against reason chooses to believe that there is purpose and life in either circumstance. God is always going to answer; He is always going to help us receive and accept whatever that answer may be. But we must allow Him to, trust Him to.
17:23-24 What she believed to be a punishment became the solidification of her faith: "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the Lord in your mouth is the truth." Had God not already provided enough evidence? He continues to provide more because we constantly ask Him to. But eventually this woman and we, need to stop debating His presence and realize its consistency. Because that is when and where everything truly begins and abounds. The moment of the declaration of unwavering faith is perpetual explosion of life and blessing in every direction.
