“The word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.’ … Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you” (1 Kings 17:2-4, 8-9).
By their juxtaposition, a parallel is drawn between the ravens who provide for Elijah at the brook Cherith and the Sidonian widow who provides for him in Zarephath. What do ravens have in common with this Sidonian widow? Both were considered “unclean” according to the law of Moses. In these back-to-back stories, we see God using unclean vessels to provide food for his holy prophet.
What is the point of these parallel stories? First, God’s loving care and provision for his children often come from the most unexpected or the least expected places. When we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread,” we can expect God to do the unexpected in faith. Second, God’s care and provision are often extended to the most surprising or the least expected people. Although there were many widows in Israel at the time, God extended his love through Elijah to a Gentile widow and her only child. When we pray, “Your will be done,” we might find God using us to extend his love practically to people we never expected.
In our faith journey, we must never put God in a box. His love knows no bounds, and his providential care for his children shows up from the most unexpected people in the most unexpected places.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts'” (Isa 55:8-9).
