Protect and Provide

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

PROTECT AND PROVIDE

1 Kings 17:1-6

17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to 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." 2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." 5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

NIV

Jesus taught in his sermon on the mount that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, so that we may know we are sons of our Father in Heaven. The point he was making is that God causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. However, at this point, with all the kings who have done evil in the eyes of the LORD, and Ahab being worse than all before him, the LORD sends Elijah to tell Ahab that the LORD will withhold the rain until he says so through Elijah. Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah regarding providing for him. That is where our story comes home. Elijah was led to a brook so he could drink, and ravens brought him bread and meat twice a day. He was also hidden there by the LORD, so that Ahab, being such an evil king, could not find Elijah and either try to force him to recant his prophecy or kill him. Although we are not told that detail, it seems right, otherwise the LORD would not have hid Elijah. However, our story is twofold. First, as the Psalmist puts it, the Lord hides us under the shadow of his wings, a metaphor for his protection. God protects us even when we do not see his protection. We may not be aware of some evil that was or is intended toward us, and the Lord God Almighty’s hand shadows us from it, like living under the shadow of an umbrella in the rain. Second, as the LORD directed the ravens to bring bread and meat to Elijah and water from the brook. Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated as 'brook' originally meant 'stream'. Do we not drink from the stream of living water? Do we not eat from the bread of life? After speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, first telling her he could give her living water, when his disciples showed up with food, he told them that he had food, or meat they knew not of. God will provide for us; we only need to trust him, as Elijah did. God has already provided us with the stream of living water, and Jesus gave his body for us. In some sense, as we consume Jesus, digest his truth into our beings, we have life, the eternal provision of God. However, as we live out our lives under the shadow of his wings, we live in his divine protection and provision. He told us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he would provide; he would add to us those things the world chases after. God will provide.