GOD WILL PROVIDE | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 15, 1859

GOD WILL PROVIDE.

“I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.”—I Kings xvii, 4.

The history of Elijah is one of the most remarkable left on sacred record. Connected as it is with the description of a period of gross idolatry and sin in Israel, it challenges the admiration, even of the reader who sees nothing divine in it. Amid those scenes of civil wars, of rebellions, of murders, of plunder, and wickedness in high places, the story of Elijah, although interwoven with God’s terrible judgments upon the people, gives relief to the dark picture. It is like a brilliant star bursting through the gloom of a long, fearful night.

As we follow the history of a succession of kings, we read of Jeroboam, who “made Israel to sin,”—of Nadab, who continued to walk in the same sinful course as his father,—of Elah, who “provoked God to anger by his vanities,”—of Omri, who “did worse than all that were before him,”—and of Ahab, “who did evil in the sight of the Lord above all.” The time of their dominion was characterized by jealousies, conspiracies, and bloodshed, until of Ahab it is written, “he did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.” At this time, as suddenly as afterward the holy man is taken up into heaven, “Elijah, the Tishbite,” is brought into view, erecting the standard of the Lord of Hosts, and proclaiming his word to that sinful nation.

But apart from this, the eventful life of Elijah furnishes some of the most striking illustrations of the overruling hand and minute care of Divine Providence, and of the wonderful interpositions of the Almighty in behalf of his people. What a lesson of moral courage and confiding trust is contained in the first incident related of this prophet! Commissioned by God, in the days of this same wicked Ahab, to denounce a fearful judgment upon him and upon the land, and that judgment made to depend upon his own word; and a judgment too which would involve his own nature in the same suffering with the rest,—drouth and famine. What heart but must have fainted in delivering such a message, and to such a man! But the cause of truth and righteousness must be vindicated—the power of Jehovah and that of Baal tested in sight of that idolatrous nation; and he goes into the presence of Ahab, and says, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but by my word.

Now, what is to become of Elijah?

Though a prophet of God, he was a man, subject to like passions with others. His heart was by nature as ambitious for the applause of his fellow men and for the favor of a popular prince, as any. He had, too, the same physical wants,—he hungered and thirsted, and his feelings recoiled from suffering and death, like those of other men; and how can he, alone, expect deliverance from the impending desolation? His boldness has incurred the wrath of Ahab, which may pursue him to the death. His own honor is openly committed for the honor of his God; and before the nation and its wicked king will be sufficiently humbled to confess that the “Lord is God,” his famished nature may have perished, or from weakness cried for a suspension of the deserved visitation from abused justice. Perhaps he remembered the story, which had in childhood been taught him, of the dividing of the Red Sea that the chosen people might pass over unharmed,—of the manna which descended from heaven to feed them in the desert,—and the water which gushed from the rock, when they fainted for thirst; and his faith and holy purpose were strengthened thereby, as he went forth, a wanderer over the parched earth, beneath a burning sky. Day followed day, and no cloud appeared to give momentary promise of rain. Night followed night, but not a drop of dew distilled to refresh the withering plants. But Elijah's God is with him there, and says, “Get thee hence, and turn eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” What! a bird of prey be made a minister of mercy to the hunted and famishing prophet! How unlikely! and well might unbelief have made a common mind stagger in view of it. Had it been a dove which was to bring him sustenance, there would have been less room for doubt; for he would have thought of the dove which went forth over a deluged and destroyed earth returning to Noah with the pledge of appeased wrath, and of future plenteousness in her mouth. Yet Elijah went at the bidding of the Lord; and there, perchance under the shadow of an overhanging rock, made his abode. “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.”

Like this have been the dealings of God with his children in all ages of the world, to the present time; and with perfect confidence may they go wherever duty calls, assured that even the most forbidding circumstances can be made ultimately to conduce to their highest happiness and good. The dark wing of adversity, as it broods and settles like a pall over them, may bear beneath it a supply for their wants, or prove a shelter from the withering blight of some worldly influence. Those clouds which lower, and blacken, and hang heaviest in the sky, are those most richly freighted with vapor, and those upon which the bow of promise is the most gloriously set, as the surety of God's future remembrance and love.

Courage in duty, and firm reliance upon the faithfulness and mercy of our heavenly Father, should be inspired in every heart by the review of Elijah's history. Fed by ravens, and from the undiminished barrel of meal and unfailing cruise of oil, while made the agent of God's just indignation against sin, and honored by the immediate answer to his prayer by fire from heaven, to consume his sacrifice, when the power of Jehovah and that of Baal must be proved. That same God is thy God, Christian—tried, tempted, and afflicted Christian—and will as surely bring thee succor and sustenance. He knoweth thy frame, that it is built of dust, and that thy spirit will fail in times of extremity, unless with the extremity he makes a way of escape. Fulfil faithfully every duty required at thy hand, and if in their performance thou art hungry, he will send a raven to feed thee, and make the flinty rock distil water to give thee drink; or into sore trials and temptations, he will send an angel to strengthen thee for the conflict.

“The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that wait upon the Lord shall not want any good thing.”—Home Journal.