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"Faith is the grave of care." Encouraging words from Elijah the Tishbite. Former title: "The Lord Will Provide."
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“Thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” 1 Kings 17:4. Thus said the Lord; and, however marvelous and un-heard of it might sound, Elijah bowed himself and believed, and his faith did not deceive him. All that the Lord had promised was “Yea and Amen,” and nothing remained unfulfilled.
It was not long before the whole country was like a heath, and fields and woods became scorched as by fire. One spot alone continued green and cool; that spot was the prophet’s rocky vale.
Every fountain was exhausted, and every forest stream dried up by the sultry heat; one brook alone continued to flow—the brook Cherith—that remained as fresh and as full as if nothing had happened. And the ravens also fulfilled their office.
How wonderful! Those ravenous carrion birds, impure according to the law, and so voracious and unfeeling that they would leave their own young to starve, did not God interpose, who asks, in the book of Job, “Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat” (Job 38:41); these creatures we find employed here in an occupation of disinterested kindness; dead, as it were, to the natural voracity of their species, coming and going at God’s bidding, denying their own appetites and performing a most beneficent office.
No sooner does the morning dawn in Cherith’s rocky vale than their cry is heard aloft in the trees; and when Elijah wakes, he beholds the provision for the day lying before him. And when the evening shades advance, these black livery servants again appear, laden with meat and bread. And this takes place not merely once, but a whole year round, without intermission.
O wisdom of God, which carnal reason would account foolishness, how precious art Thou! Let the world imagine to itself a magnificent deity whose government is only general; we adhere to the Lord God of Elijah, and rejoice in His providential superintendence of the smallest matters.
And this God still liveth, a living Savior, who is always to be found of
them that seek Him, and is nigh unto them that call upon Him; and whose delights are with the sons of men. About His servants and handmaids is encamped a mighty host; and when He saith, “Come!” they come; or “Go!” they go: and there has been no end to His wonders, even to this day.
Who else was it but the God of Elijah, who, only a short time ago, in our neighborhood, so kindly delivered a poor man out of his distress—not indeed by a raven, but by a poor songbird? You are acquainted with the circumstance. The man was sitting, early in the morning, at his house door; his eyes were red with weeping, and his heart cried to heaven—for he was expecting an officer to come and distrain him for a small debt. And whilst sitting thus with his heavy heart, a little bird flew through the street, fluttering up and down, as if in distress, until at length, quick as an arrow, it flew over the good man’s head in his cottage, and perched itself on an empty cupboard.
The good man, who little imagined who had sent him the bird, closed the door, caught the bird, and placed it in a cage, where it immediate began to sing very sweetly, and it seemed to the man as if it were the tune of a favorite hymn, “Fear thou not when darkness reigns;” and as he listened to it, he found it to soothe and to comfort his mind.
Suddenly someone knocked at his door. “Ah, it is the officer,” thought the man, and was sore afraid. But no, it was the servant of a respectable lady, who said that the neighbors had seen a bird fly into his house, and she wished to know if he had caught it.
“O yes,” answered the man, “and here it is,” and the bird was carried away. A few minutes later, the servant came again. “You have done my mistress a great service,” said he; “she sets a high value upon the bird, which had escaped from her. She is much obliged to you, and requests you to accept this trifle, with her thanks.”
The poor man received it thankfully, and it proved to be neither more nor less than the sum he owed! And when the officer came, he said, “Here is the amount of the debt; now leave me in peace, for God has sent it me.”
Something very similar was experienced by another brother, who is perhaps now present, and could testify to the fact. He had at one time the grief to see his little child crying for hunger, and there was not a morsel of bread left in the house, nor a penny in his pocket, and his heart was bursting with sorrow. He crept away into a solitary corner, and prayed, with many tears, to that God who feedeth the young ravens and clothes the lilies of the field. He prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread!” with an earnestness which, perhaps, he had never felt before.
And on rising up from prayer in a comfortable state of mind and going to his house door, a dog came running along with a piece of meat in his mouth; and on arriving at the poor man’s threshold he let it drop, and ran off.
“The Lord has sent us this,” said the man, as he took it up from the ground. “A gracious God!” exclaimed he, as he brought it into the room; when it was cooked and laid upon the dish, and hungry people sat around it, and a blessing had been asked, it was to them all as memorable an occasion as if they had been partaking of the paschal lamb.
The God of Elijah still lives! and under this truth I may rank your own experience also, my dear friends, which some of you have related to me; that, in distressing necessities and perplexities, help has often come to you in a wonderful manner, from persons who were not only indifferent to you, but even disaffected towards you, and bore you some ill-will; from unbelievers, who, in general, cannot endure them that are “quiet in the land” (Psalm 35:20).
But, all at once, it suddenly occurred to one, he himself knew not how, that he must bring you some particular thing; or another could not sleep for the thought of not having done something for you, and however much he strove to drive the idea from his mind, he could not succeed in kicking against the pricks.
Yes, He who turneth men’s hearts as the rivers of water, sends them to your aid; and His purpose who shall defeat?
What they did for you, was not done because they intended it, but because they were constrained by conscience, that is, by the God of conscience; and thus you experience that the God of Elijah, who can provide for His servants, even by the ravens, still lives.
Therefore, let every child of God be strong and of good courage! Only believe, ye who are at the brook Cherith and in the wilderness! For faith can supply the want of everything temporal; and faith is the grave of care.
And remember, dear friends, that it is in vain for you to rise early and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows; for as David says, “He giveth His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:2.
May He who giveth songs in the night, teach us all the song of the royal psalmist, “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8.