Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 preempts Elijah’s question by telling him that his daily food will be delivered to him by dirty birds. 9 Elijah believed and so he obeyed and went and was fed hamburgers by the ravine twice daily. When the ravine dried up God redirects Elijah. By this stage the drought had really set in and the famine had reached crisis point. The poorest of the poor were dying for lack of food, and in that context Elijah is told to go to a poor widow’s house and ask her for food. 10 A destitute widow and dirty birds -­‐ what is God up to in Elijah’s life? God was not simply interested in feeding Elijah. If that were the case then there was much easier ways to do that. I believe that God still had lessons to teach His servant, lessons that Elijah could only learn as his pride was challenged and his faith was tested. No doubt we would have considered it a shameful thing had we observed Elijah telling a dying widow to prepare him some food; and yet Elijah was simply obeying God. There was no room for pride to get in the way; it was without a doubt a very humbling experience for Elijah. I cannot help but wonder that God sent him on that journey in order to deal with his independent spirit so that his full confidence was placed in the Shepherd’s ability and not his own. Incidentally, it should not go unnoticed that Kerith and Zarephath literally mean “cutting” and “refinery” respectively. The biggest lessons we learn about ourselves and about our God are in the discomfort of the refinery where the dross is melted away or in the harshness of the ravine where the rough edges are made smoother. It is difficult for us to realize the benefit of Kerith and Zarephath while we are in the midst of the confusion and the pain and the humiliation. 9 1 Kings 17:3-­‐610 1 Kings 17:7-­‐9129