<< 1 Kings 17 >>
New American Standard Bible
Elijah Predicts Drought
1Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2The word of the LORD came to him, saying, 3“Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4“It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” 5So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. 7It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
Yet another day in these verses. There is something else that I want you to see in these verses that have been a blessing to me for many years. The truth that I want you to see will also give you some insight into the ways of God. We’ve noticed the last couple of days the fact that God fed Elijah supernaturally. The Lord commanded ravens to bring him bread and meat in he mornings, and bread and meat in he evenings. The interesting thing about that is that ravens were unclean to the Jews, and yet God used them. Why didn’t God choose a clean animal instead of an unclean one. As a matter of fact, in the next scene, God sends Elijah to be provided for by an unclean Gentile woman. What’s up with all this unclean stuff? There is a verse in Jeremiah 23 where we are called to “extract the precious from the worthless.” There are a lot of things that happen to us in this fallen world that seem unclean and worthless. Bad stuff. Painful stuff. Disappointing stuff, that don’t seem to have any value. They might be small unclean things that find their way into your daily lives, or huge things that have tragic dimensions. However their size, God wants to feed us and bless us through them. The Devil maybe the originator in the thing, but God still wants to redeem it and feed and bless us. We are called to by faith thank Him for it, (Ephesians 5:20) and extract the precious from the worthless. This is the whole Romans 8:28 thing. We have to learn to by faith Take what He Gives, and Give what He Takes, with joy in our heart. It’s easy to rejoice when things happen to us that feels good. It takes faith to believe that He is going to teach us, (feed us) and bless us through those disappointing and painful things (unclean things). If you can get this, then you will begin to walk as a true Overcomer, instead waisting time living like a Victim. Have a great day today overcoming the world by faith.