We yield at first a timid obedience to a command which seems to involve manifest impossibilities...
But when we find that God is even better than His word, our faith groweth exceedingly, and we advance to further feats of faith and service.
This is how God trains His young eaglets to fly.
At last nothing is impossible.
This is the key to Elijah's experience.
How strange to be sent to a brook, which would of course be as subject to the drought as any other!
How contrary to nature to suppose that ravens, which feed on carrion, would find such food as man could eat; or, having found it, would bring it regularly morning and evening!
How unlikely, too, that he could remain secreted from the search of the bloodhounds of Jezebel anywhere within the limits of Israel!
But God's command was clear and unmistakable.
It left him no alternative but to obey.
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord.
One evening, as we may imagine, Elijah reached the narrow gorge, down which the brook bounded with musical babble toward the Jordan...
On either side the giant cliffs towered up, inclosing a little patch of blue sky.
The interlacing boughs of the trees made a natural canopy in the hottest noon.
All along the streamlet's course the moss would make a carpet of richer hue and softer texture than could be found in the palaces of kings.
And, yonder, came the young ravens - the young ravens that lack and suffer hunger...bringing bread and flesh.
What a lesson was this of God's power to provide for his child!
In after days Elijah would often recur to it, as dating a new epoch in his life.
He shut me off from all other supplies, and threw me back on Himself.
I am sure that He will never fail me, whatsoever the circumstances of strait or trial through which He may call me to pass.
There is strong emphasis on the word there - "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there."
Elijah might have preferred many hiding-places to Cherith...
But that was the only place to which the ravens would bring his supplies...
And, as long as he was there, God was pledged to provide for him.
Our supreme thought should be: "Am I where God wants me to be?"
If so, God will work a direct miracle, sooner than suffer us to perish for lack.
If the younger son chooses to go to the far country of his own accord, he may be in danger of dying of starvation among his swine...
But if the Father send him there, he shall have enough and to spare.
God sends no soldier to the warfare on his own charges.
He does not expect us to attend to the duties of the field and the commissary.
The manna always accompanies the pillar of cloud.
If we do His will on earth as in heaven.
He will give us daily bread.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
We will not stay to argue the probability of this story being true.
It is enough that it is written here.
And the presence of the supernatural presents no difficulties to those who can say "Our Father," and who believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
But if corroboration were needed, it could be multiplied an hundred-fold from the experience of living people, who have had their needs supplied in ways quite as marvelous as the coming of ravens to the lonely prophet.
A little boy, having read this incident with his widowed mother one wintry night, as they sat in a fireless room beside a bare table, asked her if he might set the door open for God's ravens to come in...
He was so sure that they must be on their way.
The burgomaster of that German town, passing by, was attracted by the sight of the open door, and entered, inquiring the cause.
When he learned the reason, he said, "I will be God's raven;" and relieved their need then and afterward.
Ah, reader, God has an infinite fertility of resource;
And if thou art doing His work where He would have thee...
He will supply thy need, though the heavens fall.
Only trust Him!
~F. B. Myer~
But when we find that God is even better than His word, our faith groweth exceedingly, and we advance to further feats of faith and service.
This is how God trains His young eaglets to fly.
At last nothing is impossible.
This is the key to Elijah's experience.
How strange to be sent to a brook, which would of course be as subject to the drought as any other!
How contrary to nature to suppose that ravens, which feed on carrion, would find such food as man could eat; or, having found it, would bring it regularly morning and evening!
How unlikely, too, that he could remain secreted from the search of the bloodhounds of Jezebel anywhere within the limits of Israel!
But God's command was clear and unmistakable.
It left him no alternative but to obey.
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord.
One evening, as we may imagine, Elijah reached the narrow gorge, down which the brook bounded with musical babble toward the Jordan...
On either side the giant cliffs towered up, inclosing a little patch of blue sky.
The interlacing boughs of the trees made a natural canopy in the hottest noon.
All along the streamlet's course the moss would make a carpet of richer hue and softer texture than could be found in the palaces of kings.
And, yonder, came the young ravens - the young ravens that lack and suffer hunger...bringing bread and flesh.
What a lesson was this of God's power to provide for his child!
In after days Elijah would often recur to it, as dating a new epoch in his life.
He shut me off from all other supplies, and threw me back on Himself.
I am sure that He will never fail me, whatsoever the circumstances of strait or trial through which He may call me to pass.
There is strong emphasis on the word there - "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there."
Elijah might have preferred many hiding-places to Cherith...
But that was the only place to which the ravens would bring his supplies...
And, as long as he was there, God was pledged to provide for him.
Our supreme thought should be: "Am I where God wants me to be?"
If so, God will work a direct miracle, sooner than suffer us to perish for lack.
If the younger son chooses to go to the far country of his own accord, he may be in danger of dying of starvation among his swine...
But if the Father send him there, he shall have enough and to spare.
God sends no soldier to the warfare on his own charges.
He does not expect us to attend to the duties of the field and the commissary.
The manna always accompanies the pillar of cloud.
If we do His will on earth as in heaven.
He will give us daily bread.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
We will not stay to argue the probability of this story being true.
It is enough that it is written here.
And the presence of the supernatural presents no difficulties to those who can say "Our Father," and who believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
But if corroboration were needed, it could be multiplied an hundred-fold from the experience of living people, who have had their needs supplied in ways quite as marvelous as the coming of ravens to the lonely prophet.
A little boy, having read this incident with his widowed mother one wintry night, as they sat in a fireless room beside a bare table, asked her if he might set the door open for God's ravens to come in...
He was so sure that they must be on their way.
The burgomaster of that German town, passing by, was attracted by the sight of the open door, and entered, inquiring the cause.
When he learned the reason, he said, "I will be God's raven;" and relieved their need then and afterward.
Ah, reader, God has an infinite fertility of resource;
And if thou art doing His work where He would have thee...
He will supply thy need, though the heavens fall.
Only trust Him!
~F. B. Myer~
RSS Feed
