Our Nourishment Should Be Supernatural

From: May 8 – 14, 2012

TOPIC: “Our Nourishment Should Be Supernatural” I Kings 17: 6 - 16 The ravens, birds so impure and voracious have always seemed to be so strange, but we who see and participate of God’s miracles know that God is powerful to perform miracles using a raven, because the issue is not the raven, but rather God. The raven is a bird that is always looking for a morsel to eat, in this case the meat they were carrying with their peak for Elijah could have been eaten by the ravens. But, God took away the hunger and sense of smell so that they would not eat the meat and they would deliver it to the prophet. Now Elijah had to eat the food sent by God. The prophet had a need and God was providing his needs. It was thru God's hands that he was eating. Ravens feed themselves with insects, worms and carrion (decomposed meat from other dead animals); nevertheless those ravens delivered clean and abundant food to Elijah. It is said that ravens even neglect their own chicks by not feeding them, but God wanted those animals who neglect their own to faithfully feed the prophet. In fact, we know that the ravens are fed by God. Job 38:41 "Who provides food for the raven when it’s young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?" Then let’s ask ourselves, are we less than a raven that God would put us aside without taking care of us? So the ravens fed Elijah. The water Elijah was drinking from the creek had exhausted, which was NATURAL. So the prophet was lacking the natural, the water before the food, which was SUPERNATURAL. It is believed that it was after one year that the creek dried out, which manifested that there was a lack of rain. Here we can see that the powers of nature are limited, but the powers of the Author of nature are not. It is the faith that moves Elijah. The lack of faith brings doubt, the complaints, regret, gossips and the lies. Let us escape from that! The faith is good for the blessings! Elijah would go wherever God sent him; it didn’t matter to him where because he was not attached or tied to absolutely nothing but to God. His feet were not attached here on earth to anything or anyone, for such reason God knew that Elijah belonged to Him and that with His powers He would always take care of him. God would have sent him to the Jordan River; this river had not yet dried up because of the drought. But God has at His disposal a great variety of means to sustain His own. God is not attached to anyone in particular. Therefore the Jordan would not see Elijah approaching it because the streams were dried up, but rather God would send him to Zarephath, a city from Sidon, so that His power could be seen in the man whom He had called. Now Elijah was far on the west coast of Palestine. Zarephath was a pagan city. God led him to the house of a very poor widow. It seems impossible to understand, some would think that this was abusive on behalf of Elijah. The water, just like in Israel was also lacking. There was no wheat, no food; the food was scarce because there was no rain. God chose a person extremely poor and in need to care for the prophet, a devastated poor widow, someone who had no support absolutely from no one. IT IS A HABIT OF GOD AND VERY EFFECTIVE FOR HIS GLORY TO LAY HOLD OF THE WEAK. First, he used the ravens, now he relied on a poor widow and as scarce as the young ravens that had no food. That poor widow had only a handful of wheat to eat, that was her condition, and some oil for her and her son, nothing more. SO SHE WASN’T CHOSEN FOR WHAT SHE HAD, EARNED OR POSSESSED, BUT RATHER BECAUSE SHE HAD SO LITTLE; BUT SHE WAS A WOMAN OF OBEDIENCE AND FEAR. A meek woman, that woman was to be paid very well by the prophet. Matthew 10:41. "Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward." She did not know that Jesus said this, but you and I know; if we don’t do it, nothing will happen; we will just not have the prophet’s reward. She was humble, laborious, she was gathering firewood. Elijah asks for water in a glass to drink, and without asking, for he was a stranger to her, immediately went to get it. What did Jehovah mean for a woman of Sidon? I do not know, but I know that God wanted to bless her. Luke 4:25, 26 "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. "That woman was indeed going to welcome Elijah; it’s possible that all the other widows that were in Israel were hardened just like the rest of the people. This woman of Sidon accepted Elijah as a prophet. To accept implies not to harden the heart, obedience follows, and so the blessings began to pour for that poor widow. One cannot prosper unless there is obedience. As she took the containers to pour the oil and flour, the more her faith was adding to the divine power. The grain of wheat or the olive never increased this much in its natural growth as it increased in its consumption here. 2 Corinthians 9:10 "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness." (store of seed = fact and result of planting, land planted) In the common course of divine providence this case is an example of the power and goodness of God that should not be overlooked. The flour and oil multiplied, not by being stored but by being used. This food is what was holding Elijah. His daily nourishment continued to be miraculous. Bread

and oil now and before that meat, bread miraculously twice. That was the prophet’s sustenance, but also the blessing of the prophet (Matthew 10:41) was for her and her son, who were supported. Let us participate of the blessings and miracles of God being men and women of faith like that widow, a faithful nation, and believing in the promises and the servants of God, obedient and hosts. Amen.