Even in the Wilderness
Studying Kingdom Divided in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) this year and we recently covered 1 Kings 17 and the story of Elijah. Elijah was a prophet, and not a very popular one with the King of Israel and his wife, King Ahab and Jezebel. They believed Elijah only prophesied bad things concerning them and their country. And they were right, but to be fair, Israel and her leaders deserved it. Israel worshiped false gods, Ahab whined and pouted when he didn’t get his way…which he thought was the ONLY way…and Jezebel was downright evil. Well, Elijah had just announced that, until he said so, there would be no rain on the land, resulting in a great famine. Jezebel didn’t need another reason to want him dead.
So God told Elijah to go and hide for a while in the Kerith Valley and He would provide for him while he was there. He could drink water from the brook and God would send the ravens with bread and meat for him in the morning and evening each day.
God did not remove Elijah from the famine but cared for his needs in a miraculous and unexpected way…even in the wilderness.
Now I know Elijah was a prophet, a mighty man of God, and I know he trusted God unwaveringly. But Elijah was also human. Trying to imagine what he must have felt like all alone in the wilderness, a hunted man, unpopular and hated by the majority, I imagine he felt isolation, fear, sadness, some anger at his circumstances, and maybe even some self-pity. I can’t be sure and the Bible doesn’t tell us so, but he certainly would have been justified to feel these emotions.
I have been in the wilderness too. Tired of running from one therapy to another, wondering every time the phone rang if it would be the school again asking me to come and get an angry and combative kid, fearing that telling him there was no tuna in the house would send him into a spiral ending in screaming and cursing, listening for his yells from the bathroom to come and help him clean himself because he was done going potty. In between, I was cleaning a house, keeping six people in clean clothes and fed, and writing and executing homeschool lesson plans for three other kids. I was exhausted, weary, felt alone some days, was afraid for what tomorrow might bring…or at the very least was not looking forward to it…was angry that we couldn’t be like “every other family” we knew, and definitely felt sorry for myself. This was my wilderness.
Like Elijah, God did not remove me from my famine -my wilderness either - but He cared for my needs in a miraculous and unexpected way…so many times. I remember days when, without even knowing what we were going through, a friend or fellow church member would call me out of the blue and say, “Hey, I am making lasagna tonight for dinner. Can I make two and bring one to you guys?” It was unexpected, but always in God’s perfect timing. Some may not call the delivery of a casserole from a friend a miraculous feeding, as in the case of the ravens feeding Elijah in the wilderness, but if my kids ate anything except a bowl of cereal or a PB&J for dinner some days, it was a miracle!
God sees. God hears. God cares. And He will always provide for us in the wilderness - somehow, some way - often unexpectedly and miraculously.