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1 Kings 17:2-7
Until recently, everything I knew about ravens, I
learned from Edgar Allen Poe.
R AY P R I TC H A R D
I don’t know when I first read his poem The Raven,
but it might have been in Mrs. Graves’ ninth-grade
English class. All I remember about the poem is the Expand All |
Collapse All
spooky refrain, “Quoth the raven, ’Nevermore.’” And
Topics in this
until I read about Elijah and ravens, I hadn’t given
message
those strange black bird another thought in almost
forty years. When I planned out my series on Elijah, Current sermon series:
I didn’t intend to spend a whole week on the ravens,
Elijah: God's
but for some reason I couldn’t get those birds out of
Mountain Man
my mind. I thought about it and thought it and
» SEE SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
decided there must be something important here
that we need to know. Resurrec on Hospital 1 Kings
17:17-24
So let’s take a trip into the avian world and think
Dry Brook University 1 Kings
about the ravens that fed Elijah. We begin with a few
17:2-7
simple facts. Ravens are large black birds closely
Payday Someday 1 Kings 21-
related to crows, the main difference being that
22 & 2 Kings 9
ravens are bigger, with a wingspan that reaches 50
Is There No God? 2 Kings 1
inches. They can be found from the arctic to the
deserts of North Africa to the islands of the Pacific. Empty Barrel Graduate School
During flight they perform complicated aerial 1 Kings 17:8-16

acrobatics. Biologists consider them to be extremely » Index for this sermon

intelligent birds. But that is not their most notable series
characteristic. Ravens are scavengers. They eat
Search for:
berries, fruit, insects, bread and carrion (the flesh of
dead animals). They sometimes kill small birds and
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mammals such as rabbits and rats. They are capable
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of a wide range of noises, including the ability to

mimic human speech. Given their black coloration,
their enormous wingspan, and their reputation as
scavengers, it is no surprise that ravens have gained
a mythic reputation. They have even given us a word
that describes a person so hungry that he will eat
anything. Such a person is said to be ravenous.

Ravens appear in the Bible in only a few places.

Genesis 8:6-7 says that when the floodwaters began
to recede, Noah sent out a raven in search of dry
land. Although the earth was still covered with
water, the male raven (1/2 of the entire raven
population at the time) had no trouble staying alive
by scavenging off all the material floating on the
surface of the water. If you are raven-haired, your
hair is dark black. In Song of Solomon 5:11, the
woman describes her beloved as having hair “as
dark as a raven.” The scavenging side of the raven
appears in Proverbs 30:17 where a rebellious child
will be thrown in a valley and the ravens will pick
out his eyes. Instead of an honorable burial, the
rebellious child becomes food for the ravens. Isaiah
prophesied that after God judged Edom, it would be
so deserted that only the owl and the raven would
live there (Isaiah 34:11). Despite their negative
image, God cares for the ravens and he feeds them
(Psalm 147:9). When Jesus wanted to impress this
truth upon his disciples, he told them to “consider
the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have
no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them” (Luke
12:24).

There is one more fact we need to consider. When

God gave the Law to Moses, he declared that ravens
were unclean birds:
These are the birds you are to detest and not
eat because they are detestable: the eagle,
the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite,
any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the
horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any

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kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant,

the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl,
the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the
hoopoe and the bat (Leviticus 11:13-19).

God doesn’t say why the Jews were to consider

these birds unclean ("detestable") and thus not to
be eaten under any circumstances. Ravens may
have been included because they eat dead flesh. But
this much is certain. Once God declared the ravens
unclean, no Jew would have anything to do with
them. They were not to be eaten under any
circumstances. And given their scavenging nature,
that prohibition was actually a blessing to the Jews.

And that brings us back to the story of Elijah. When

the Lord told him to go and hide himself by the
brook Cherith on the east side of the Jordan, he also
promised send ravens to feed him. I have no doubt
that the prophet was not exactly thrilled with that
promise. It’s hard enough to have to hide yourself in
a desolate region. Far worse was the news that he
would be fed twice a day by unclean birds. The
whole thing was unusual because ravens normally
care only for their own. Under no circumstances
would they bring food to a man, much less do it
twice a day.

What should we learn from the story of Elijah and

the ravens?

1) God commanded and the ravens came.

In 1 Kings 17:4 the Lord declares, “I have

commanded the ravens to feed you there.” I can
imagine Elijah sitting alone by the brook when
suddenly a flock of birds approaches him. They are
ravens, unclean scavenger birds. It must have been
a fearsome sight to see these enormous black birds
swooping in with bread and meat in their beaks. But
they did not come by chance nor did they fly from a

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nearby cave. God sent them, God commanded

them, God directed them, and thus they came to the
prophet’s aid.

Let me pause to ask a question. How much food

does it take to sustain your family each week? I
confess that I don’t know the answer to that
question, but my wife does. When all three of our
boys lived at home, we went through an enormous
amount of food every week. Some weeks we would
go through 5-10 gallons of milk. No matter how
often we went to the grocery store, we would have
to go again a few days later. That’s how it is with
growing boys. You have to keep feeding them
because they never stop growing. And they are
always hungry. Many nights we would hear some
noise in the kitchen late at night. It was Josh or Mark
or Nick foraging for food. It would take some
detailed calculations to figure out how much we’ve
spent on food over the years, but God knows the
exact amount because he keeps track of what we
need. He knows your name and he knows your
address and he knows what you need today and he
knows what you will need tomorrow. It’s all written
on his heart because he watches over you even
when you think he has forgotten you. God knows
what you need, and he knows when you need it, and
he will make sure you have it in time. As he sent the
ravens to Elijah, he can command all heaven to
come to your aid.

2) God did not allow Elijah to

hoard up a surplus.
He sent the ravens to Elijah twice a day, in the
morning and again in the evening. The ravens didn’t
bring enough on Monday to last the whole week.
They brought enough in the morning to last the day
and enough at night to keep him nourished during
the night. Just enough and nothing more. This is
Jesus meant when he taught us to pray, “Give us
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this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). God is

teaching us in the Old Testament the same thing he
is trying to teach us in the New Testament. He is
willing to supply our needs but only on a day to day
to day basis. We don’t like to live like that. Most of
us have freezers at home filled with food. Maybe we
have a side of beef and some vegetables. We have
plenty of food. There is nothing wrong with that, by
the way, but a freezer filled with food makes it
difficult to pray this prayer sincerely. We mutter our
prayers instead of saying them from the heart
because we already know we aren’t going to go
hungry. We don’t want to live day to day. We’d
rather have pension plans and stocks and bonds
and options. We would rather have life insurance
policies that guarantee a secure future. If we had
our way, this prayer would read, “Give us this week
our weekly bread.” Or “Give us this month our
monthly bread.” Or better yet, “Lord, give us this
year our yearly bread. Just give it to us all at once
and we’ll be alright. Then we’ll trust you.” But that is
not how Jesus taught us to pray, and such a prayer
would not be good for us anyway. We do better
when we are forced to depend on God every day.

Life is uncertain. Most of us don’t have enough

savings to get through more than another month or
so. You can be doing fine and then one day the
doctor says, “I’m sorry the tests are positive. You’ve
got cancer.” Your life gets rearranged in a split
second. Just when you think you’ve got it all
together, an illness, the loss of a job, the collapse of
an empire that you put together, can happen so
fast. God lets those things happen to move us from
self-sufficiency to God-sufficiency. From self-reliance
to God-reliance. From trusting in our own ability to
trusting in him alone.

One Day At A Time

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I talked one day with a single mother who ran her

own business. When I asked how things were going,
she smiled and said, “We’re barely making it. June
was tough. But I’ve got two jobs for July. We’re going
to be okay for July. That’s the way it is. Just when
we’re about to run out, God brings a little more
work in.” That’s not easy, but she has discovered
something that those of us who have plenty of
money never discover. She’s learning in the
laboratory of life that God will meet her needs.

Am I saying that we shouldn’t plan ahead? No, I’m

not saying that. You should plan ahead. That’s
biblical. You should plan ahead but you shouldn’t
worry ahead. There’s a big difference. Here is how
Charles Spurgeon brought the truth home:
Elijah had enough, but it did not always come to
him in the nicest way; for I do not imagine that
the ravens knew how to get bread and meat
always cut into nicest shape. Perhaps they
snatched a rough bit of meat here, and perhaps a
crust of bread there, and it came in all sorts of
ugly pieces, but still, there it was, and it was
enough. “Beggars are not to be choosers,” we
say, and certainly pensioners on God’s bounty
ought not pick holes and find fault with the Lords
providing. Whatever God gives thee be grateful
for, for if too proud to take from the raven’s
mouth, it will be well for thee to go without, until
shine hunger consume thy pride. God promises
his people enough, but not more than enough,
and even that enough may not come to us in the
way we should choose.

3) God didn’t ask Elijah’s

permission before he sent the
ravens.
I’m sure he didn’t ask because I think Elijah would
have said, “Lord, I’ve got a better idea.” Ravens are
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scavengers whose number one meal is decaying

flesh. They are flying garbage disposals. No
respectable Jew would eat a raven, and neither
would we. How would you respond if someone said,
“Why don’t you come over this Saturday and we’ll
have some fried raven and mashed potatoes?” I
think you’d find a reason to be somewhere else that
night. Perhaps Elijah wondered where the ravens
got the food they brought him. Did they pick apart
some decaying carcass and bring the leftovers to the
prophet of God?

No, it wasn’t like that at all. The same God who

commanded the ravens made sure that the food
they brought Elijah was good for him. In this we see
both the creativity and the sovereignty of God. He
can take an unclean bird and feed his prophet, and
he can do it for days or months or even for years.
James 5:17 says that because of Elijah’s prayers, it
did not rain in Israel for three and a half years. If
that’s how long he was at Cherith, it means that the
ravens served him over 2000 meals.

One writer commented that we would have been

less surprised if God had used a robin redbreast or
a meadowlark or a turtle dove to bring the food. But
that is not how God works. He routinely chooses the
despised things of the world in order to confound
the mighty, and he uses the foolish to bring the
strong down to nothing. As you look at the course of
life, you may think that God is going to use some
rich uncle or a wealthy friend to help you out. But
experience shows how unlikely that is. He is much
more likely to meet your needs through the ravens
of the earth that fly to your need when you least
expect them. The Lord has plenty of ravens to
supply the needs of his children. If God sends you to
Cherith to hide you for a season, do not despair for
he has not forgotten you. Though you be hidden to
man, you are not hidden to your Heavenly Father.
He knows where you are and he knows why you are
there. Your grocery list is written on his heart. Do
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not be surprised when a flock of large black birds

gathers to your hiding place. They are God’s ravens,
sent from heaven to bring you food.

4) God has appointed the

beginning and ending of every
season of life.
1 Kings 17:7 says that “some time later the brook
dried up.” That makes it sound as if it happened by
chance. But the Hebrew phrase translated “some
time later” actually means “at the end of days.” It
means the brook dried at the end of the days
appointed by God. The water ran as long as God
decreed, and on the day he decreed, the brook
began to dry up. Remember the words of Psalm
115:3, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever
pleases him.” All creation must answer to him.
Every drop of water that falls comes from his hand.
The same God who sent the rain also sent the
drought. The same God who called Elijah to confront
Ahab also sent him to hide by the brook. The same
God who sent the ravens now sends him to live with
the widow of Zarephath. As the narrative of Elijah’s
life unfolds, it appears to take many wild swings.

From the mountains of Gilead,

To the king’s palace,

To the brook Cherith,

To a widow’s home in Zarephath.

But what seems to be haphazard and unplanned is

actually the unfolding of God’s divine plan. “In his
heart a man plans his course, but the LORD
determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Most of our
plans don’t stand. They are like the leaves that blow
away in the autumn wind. But when God
determines to do something, it will happen. You can
write it down and take it to the bank. You can make
all the speeches you want and announce your long-

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range plans, your ten-year goals, and your personal

objectives, but just remember this. When you are
finished, God always gets the last word. What a
relief to realize that God is God and we’re not. Now
you can rip that big “G” off your sweatshirt. You
don’t have to play God anymore and you don’t have
to try to control everything around you. You can
sleep well when you realize that God is God and you
are not. Corrie Ten Boom was having trouble going
to sleep one night because she was so worried
about the affairs of her life. She tried praying but it
didn’t help. Finally, the Lord said to her, “Go to
sleep, Corrie. I’m going to be up all night anyway.”

We can learn several important lessons from this:

First, God’s timing and ours are rarely the same.

That is why we must learn to wait on the Lord.

Second, God’s plan is rarely revealed in advance.

Elijah had no idea of where God would lead him
next, and neither do we.

Third, God’s leading often involves sudden changes.

Just when we think we think life is exactly the way
we want it, suddenly everything changes. Life is a
kaleidoscope of constantly shifting colors and
patterns. Only God sees the big picture. At best we
see only a part of the pattern, and then only for a
brief moment.

Would you like to be like Elijah? This week I met a

woman who told me she prays, “Lord, do the
impossible in my life.” That’s an Elijah-like prayer
because the prophet continually saw things happen
that could not be explained apart from God. R. G.
Lee said, “We never test the resources of God until
we attempt the impossible.” Sometimes we are
called to speak truth to power, and sometimes we
are called to hide ourselves by the brook. If we are
willing to obey, God can take care of the details. He
can send the ravens to feed us when the world has
forgotten us. Amen.

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17 Comments
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Add a comment...

Charles Covelusky Jr
Amen and amen. Thou there is food, it is there w
has been supplying that which is needed daily for
me Psalm 119:105, as I follow Psalm 119:11, in o
by Proverbs 3:5-6, thereby expecting a dove, yet
well. For He came to seek and to save that which
raven as evil, the one that goes to and fro, as we
to be in the World but not of the world His examp
sinners, crows ravens, then we are not to judge b
Like · Reply · 1 · 2y

John Hardy
I say amen to the post, only God can work the im
understand, and in many instances, we cannot re
Because His ways are past finding out.
Like · Reply · 2 · 2y

Shandon Kimla Ellis

Thanks!This is some powerful revelations.Hey ke
you to.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1y

Johny Kutty
Praise the Lord for His care and concern for His s
Like · Reply · 1 · 1y

Svr Maha
Hope I get a miracle
Like · Reply · 1 · 1y

Joana Delana
We really cannot box God. We cannot and should
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impossible. Even the heavens cannot contain Him

expect the unexpected, the unusual, the extravag
should always expect, the out-of-the-box. We sho
miraculous!!!! 😊 😊 😊 😊
Like · Reply · 3 · 1y

Olusegun Ogolo
Quite a fascinating study!

God is mysterious, but He keeps faith with us as

Elijah's strength was his closeness to God: his re

him the confidence to trust God irrespective of sit
condition.

Elijah never doubted God's capacity to answer hi

Praise God!
Like · Reply · 2 · 1y

Wayne Hall
I found this posting on the internet this morning b
question come to my mind...Why didn't GOD just
provide for Elijah's needs..just give him supernatu
Holy Spirit led me to this Scriptural and well provi
GOD and all of HIS righteous messengers...
Like · Reply · 3 · 1y

Rosemary Parrish
i love this most helpful
Like · Reply · 1 · 50w

Prince David Casias

Amen..i have seen something..

God gives us levels of life

1..Begging level or dependancy on mans help,- e
depending on provisions done by nature and man
Its a stage which even Jesus went through where
become Rich
Elijah was despised as a poor man for the woma
to Give

The woman also Was trusted to feed Elijah for the

you feed supernaturals you become supernatura

2..When the woman Gave to elijah or God in elija

activated to give back to the woman… See More

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Like · Reply · 3 · 42w

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