Many years ago, one of God’s faithful prophets, named Elijah, was told by God to leave the place where he was living, and to go and hide himself beside a brook. Now God was going to care for that old man in a most wonderful Way, and He said to him before he went, “I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” (See 1 Kings 17:2-62And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, 3Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. (1 Kings 17:2‑6).)
God had made those ravens, with their shiny black feathers, and, as their Creator, He commanded them to care for one of His people, and they did so. Every morning and every evening the ravens brought food to Elijah. This was no accident; it was not just a crust of bread dropped because it was too big for the birds to carry, as we sometimes see happen in our gardens. No, they were carefully carrying this food to Elijah, because God their Creator had commanded them to do so.
God could, of course, have sent Elijah his food in many different ways. He could have sent an angel from heaven with it, but in His wisdom He chose some of the most unlikely of His creatures to carry out His will. We can well imagine that as Elijah saw the ravens flying tards him, carrying his food in their beaks, he would say, How wonderfully and how faithfully is God caring for me.
The God who thus cared for Elijah in such an unexpected way, will never fail to do the same for all those who trust and obey Him.
ML 09/24/1961