Raven Bread and Widow Pancakes

The Perfect Burger

Let’s talk about lunch. Have you all been over to this “Bad Daddy’s” place across the street? One of KK and my favorites. They have “fake meat” too :D.

8 oz patty, pepper jack cheese, fresh jalepenos, maybe a fried egg on top… that garlic mayo that will make my pores smell for the rest of the day… delicious. Craft the perfect burger.

They aren’t sponsoring me, by the way, I’m just hungry maybe.

Burger King - Have it Your Way

Have you seen Burger King’s slogan? “Have it Your Way”?

“You have the right to what you want exactly when you want it.” “We may be the king, but you are the absolute ruler.”

How ridiculous is this? I dare you to go into Burger King and order a Bad Daddy’s burger.

They can’t do it. They don’t have the things, the stuff, the good stuff.

But that motto, that’s like a banner over humanity, isn’t it? Or more like Satan’s whisper to humanity.

“You can have it your way...”

People shopping for gods. This isn’t a new thing… this is what humans have always done.

From Satan in the Garden of Eden, whispering to “Eve” did God really say that? No… eat it and be like God, choose for yourself.

And people have been taking turns between pretending to be gods and shopping for gods ever since.

If you made your god with your own hands… that isn’t a god worth much of anything except what you put into it. Certainly not worth worship.

As we approach this spiritual gift of “prophecy”… that’s is listening to God and speaking His words after him. Forth-telling what he is telling us to encourage and convict his people as necessary.

It is so tempting to say for God what you want God to say. Imagine God as you wish Him to be. We aren’t interested in that.

I want to know God as He actually is, really is, the real God. And He has revealed Himself again and again to his people.

Prophet for the Birds

1 Kings 17 (ESV)

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Not a lot of introduction to our friend Elijah… but like I said, he was the GOAT. The greatest needs no introduction.

The Israelite kings of a tradition: each one tries to be worse than the one before. Ahab is like 6 kings from Jereboam, each worse than the last.

And Ahab, under the influence of his wife Jezebel, is the worst yet. They have brought the worship of Baal to the Kingdom of Israel in a BIG way, hunted down and killed all the other prophets of Yahweh.

So here comes Elijah. Courage in speaking truth to power. He brings the Word of the Lord, there is going to be a major drought, not a drop of rain, not even enough humidity to produce dew until I say so.

The problem with a drought is, well that affects everyone, including Elijah. No water, no food, so God has a plan for sustaining his prophet.

2 And the word of the Lord came to him:

3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.

6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

This is… weird. This is not a normal way of providing for someone. “I got a plan… birds.” “What?” “Yeah, birds.”

Birds aren’t famous for bringing you food but for taking it from you. But for an unknown span of time, this was how Elijah lived. Sucking water from a tiny brook, eating dinners brought (and maybe cooked) by birds.

God provides… I guess. Not exactly 4-star meals. And not in a way that seems super dependable. Every day the brook gets a little bit lower, less water and...

7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Super natural plan for provision… isn’t it odd that this brook is affected just like all the other water in the land?

Now God’s prophet needs another way of sustaining himself.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him,

9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”

11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

Here is a picture of what the drought was doing to the rest of the Kingdom. Desperate people reaching the very end of their provisions. A little water and barely enough oil and flour for one final pancake before they die.

If you have already stretched your provisions until this is your absolute last bite to eat, you are already well into starvation. Picture them broken and weak, emaciated, barely holding on.

… and someone comes and asks you for pancakes.

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.

That’s a big ask. That’s a leap of faith. Feed me, and then see what you can make for you and your son. I’m not sure I could do that.

14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’ ”

A beautiful promise… but hard to believe. Give me all the money in your wallet, God will magically refill it. Maybe it’s faith, maybe it’s desperation, maybe it is fatalism since she was expecting to die anyway… but she does it!

15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days.

16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

That is a miracle!

God provides! And not just for the prophet, but for the mistress and her sons.

Isn’t that a beautiful message.

I heard this message preached. Look at your neighbor and say “God provides.”

Even when you think you are empty, you think you are on your last meal, you give out of faith, and God will give you plenty!

Is that what is happening here?

The widow and her sons weren’t made rich. They got just enough. Sometimes God gives in abundance, but not here. Elijah gets raven bread and widow sandwiches. Dry pancakes for “many days.”

God provides, yes...

But here is the part I don’t like at all. Ready for some hard truth.

God provides for the widow and her sons.

I like this. God provides. Jehovah Jireh, right? He provides all my needs. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he can command the ravens and the widows to FEED ME!

I like this.

God sends a drought on the whole nation of Israel to try and bring one King to repentance.

Oh… I don’t like that at all.

Punishment and judgment. This is Old Testament, I understand, some things are different in the light of the new covenant. The punishment and judgment, the wrath of God is poured out on the cross of Jesus… and I don’t have to bear the penalty of my sin ever again.

True story.

But God is still God. And I frankly don’t like this about God: that He would punish the thousands to try and teach a lesson to one King. And it doesn’t even go well.

I prefer a God who is always sweet and kind and gentle and nice and patient and would never hurt a fly. Well, at least I would prefer that God where the drought might possibly be pointed at me or people I love, or care about, or see, or know about.

This is a hard truth: liking it is optional. God is who He is. The prophet, the follower of God, the follower of the Way, the Christian… we don’t get to design who God is. He is who He is.

“I believe God would never judge people or call them sinners or punish people, because that wouldn’t be loving.”

Design-Your-Own-God. You can do that… but there isn’t anyone there. You create an imaginary God and that’s all you’ve got. No power, no person, no existence .

I love this Tim Keller quote:

If your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself.

God is willing to subject a nation to misery via drought in the hopes of bringing them back to him. The goal isn’t comfort and prosperity - the goal is God’s glory.

Our God is a jealous God. He isn’t even a little bit content that we, His people, worship and chase after other gods.

He brings the rain and He brings the drought. He provides for his people on mission to seek and save the lost… and He is not afraid to bring momentary suffering to bring His people to repentance.

Now, it starts to sound like God is uncaring, unfeeling, dispassionately bringing about His will without care for His people.

God is who He is… but uncaring? That’s not who He is.

That’s why I love this last piece.

God Listens

17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”

19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.

20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?”

I think this isn’t theater. Elijah doesn’t know what God is going to do here. Elijah is upset. I bet he agrees with the widow, this is messed up! I’ve been living with ravens, barely surviving an oil and flour for weeks, maybe months, and now the child is dead!

21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”

22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

Listen to that. The “LORD” (Yahweh)… He did what He planned to do all along? Elijah did the necessary motions to unlock the next step in God’s plan? It doesn’t sound like that, does it?

It sounds like Elijah cried out for the Lord to have compassion.

And God listened. And brought the kid back to life.

23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”

24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Again, God authenticates His Word, we don’t have to do that for Him. But I think God reveals Himself to Elijah and to us in this.

He is a jealous God, yes.

He provides, yes.

But He is a God who listens with compassion, a good heavenly Father who can and often does give good gifts to His people.

Does He always raise the dead to life? No. Maybe the rarest of miracles… for now. But we know that one day we will all be raised to new life, abundant and eternal and forever. The “droughts” of this world a passing moment as God makes it rain.

Pray, because God Listens

So this idea of “prophecy” is nothing like a spiritual merit badge that proves your worth, or superiority, to fellow believers.

It isn’t a task list given by an uncaring taskmaster.

It isn’t a way to maximize blessings from heaven, either. Do the right things, say the right things and you’ll eat and drink good for life.

We are in a two-way relationship. It is a two-way conversation with the Creator of the Universe.

Not because we are prophets, that is part of it, because We are His.

He is jealous for us… and He rescued, saved and redeemed us personally.

He has provided for us… sometimes day by day, but ultimately with riches beyond measure in eternal abundant life.

He hears us, listens to us, hears our prayers and responds with goodness and mercy and wisdom.

The drought is here, and that’s hard, but the drought is going to end. God’s going to bring the rain.

Even death is here for a minute… but God is bringing resurrection.

This is the God who is.

Psalm 100:3 ESV

3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Hear the words of God… and know that God hears you. For we are His. Amen.