TODAY’S SPECIAL: 1 Kings 17:1-6
TO CHEW ON: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 1 Kings 17:3,4
After Jeroboam died his son was king for two years. Then, like the prophet had predicted, Jeroboam’s family was completely wiped out and another man, Baasha, took the throne. In the forty years that followed, Baasha and three more kings ruled, each one more wicked than the last. Finally Ahab became king. He not only copied the evil of past kings but he also married a very evil woman, Jezebel. She brought with her a whole new set of Baal idols.
At this time God gave a prophet named Elijah a message for Ahab. So Elijah went to the palace, got an appointment with the king and told him, “This is what the God of Israel, whom I serve, told me to tell you. There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years, except at my word.” Then he left.
True to what Elijah said, all dew and rain stopped. It got drier and drier. Soon the situation was grim. “Find that man!” Ahab told his servants. “We’ll force him to make it rain again!”
The servants fanned out across the countryside. They looked in cities, towns, villages and out-of-the-way buildings. But Elijah was no where to be found.
This is because God was taking care of him. Soon after Elijah had talked to Ahab, God told him to go and live in Kerith ravine, beside a brook. The brook supplied him with water while ravens brought him meat and bread morning and night.
God knew that he would be in danger after talking to Ahab. So God told him where to hide and made sure that he had the water and food to live.
PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that You take care of us when we do what You ask. Amen.
MORE: Ravens
Find out about ravens through books or the internet.
- What do they look like?
- What do they eat?
- How do they behave?
- How was their bringing food to Elijah normal raven behavior? How was it abnormal?
- What can we learn about God’s power over nature through this story?