More Elijah

Elijah started out in in the bible by sealing the heavens. That's a fancy way of saying he created a drought and famine in the land by making it stop raining. The people of Israel were struggling again, and Elijah felt maybe some compelling humility might help them turn to God. (As my cute little Primary class said last week, wait- Israel is in bondage again? I thought the whole point of last week's lesson is they got out of bondage from the Midianites, now they are in bondage to the Philistines?!?? Yep, you're right class, Israel kind of struggles with some things. Like all of us in different ways though.)

So Ahab, the king of Israel, marries Jezebel. As it says in the Bible Dictionary under Jezebel "This marriage, more than any other single event, caused the downfall of the northern kingdom, as Jezebel introduced into Israel the worst forms of Phenician worship in place of the worship of Jehovah."

Yikes.

Jezebel equals evil I guess.

Anyway, so God tells Elijah in 1 Kings 17:3 to go and hide for awhile. But not only that in verse 4 he says

"4. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there."

Elijah is being told that the birds are going to bring his food to him.

That would take some pretty strong faith and trust in the Lord.

I am food storage person, and get a little panicky when we are down to only 5 cans of anything, beans, corn, tomatoes, etc. To completely rely on God for every single meal and not have a menu plan for the week, or even for one meal would make me hyperventilate a little.

But one of Elijah's great strengths is his constant and amazing trust in the Lord.

In verse 5 it says "So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord."

No dillying and dallying. Just he went and did according to the Lord and trusted wholeheartedly in Him. How would our world be, or even our individual lives be if we just went and did when God told us to do something? If we made it that simple.

I'm trying to keep my posts a little smaller and more easily digested, so hopefully this gave you something without firehosing you with information. But we'll keep going with Elijah, don't you fret.