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After a while, the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land. The Lord told him, “Get up, go to Zarephath in Sidonian territory, and live there. I have already told a widow who lives there to provide for you.” So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup of water, so I can take a drink.” As she went to get it, he called out to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” She said, “As certainly as the Lord your God lives, I have no food, except for a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a couple of sticks for a fire. Then I’m going home to make one final meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.”
The brook dries up because it doesn’t rain. According to the Lord’s direction, Elijah goes looking for a widow to give him something to drink and eat. This woman agrees to get Elijah something to drink. Then, as if he hesitated to even ask her, he asks for some bread too. Get this; God told Elijah to go to a widow and ask her for her last meal. She’s got just enough left for her and her son, and is resigned that they will die. Here we have a divine setup where God plans to do the amazing. Recognize divine setups in your life, and have the courage to call on God to do “the impossible.”
The Lord told him: “Leave here and travel eastward. Hide out in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. Drink from the stream; I have already told the ravens to bring you food there.” So he did as the Lord told him; he went and lived in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. The ravens would bring him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he would drink from the stream.
Praise our God for He is “Jehovah-Jireh”, the God who provides. Elijah has just announced to King Ahab that a severe drought will happen throughout the land and it will not rain save at Elijah’s command. Elijah, per the Lord’s direction, is supposed to go hide in a ravine. Get this; ravens are going to bring him food. This isn’t exactly normal raven behavior and it reveals God’s authority over all of creation. This is not to say that we should all move to ravines and wait for ravens to bring us food. This is another example to help our unbelief about who God is. God will provide!
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel: The whole imperial guard and everyone else knows that I am in prison for the sake of Christ, and most of the brothers and sisters, having confidence in the Lord because of my imprisonment, now more than ever dare to speak the word fearlessly. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do so from love because they know that I am placed here for the defense of the gospel.
Paul is writing to the church at Philippi from prison, explaining how his imprisonment has led to the advance of the gospel. Because of the integrity of Paul everyone knows that he’s in chains for Christ. Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, and has embraced the new creation that he is in Christ. Paul was not always for God – so much so that he got a name change. God uses all things for His good. Paul goes to prison, people get saved. What seems like persecution and the enemy winning proves to be God’s plan to extend mercy and salvation toward the unlikely and unworthy.
Now the Lord was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel day or night. He did not remove the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
Israel is free, but God does not stop with the miraculous. We are set free, but salvation is the first of many miracles God wishes to unleash all over your life and through your life. Expect the miraculous from God and lay hold of the sheer awesome life that is found in Christ alone! This reveals the character of our God who desires to watch over us and LEAD us to where we should be; where we need to be. That is, straight to Him through His faithfulness, His promises, His SON. Rest, follow, and surrender.
In the future, when your son asks you ‘What is this?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. That is why I am sacrificing to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’ It will be for a sign on your hand and for frontlets on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
Right on the heels of victory, God commands Israel to remember what the Lord has done in delivering them out of Egypt. Israel was once free, then became slaves, and needed to be set free. We once thought we were free, yet we became slaves to sin – and were hopelessly slaves to sin. Just as Israel needed to be delivered from Egypt, we needed to be delivered from sin. Many firstborn’s had to die to break through Pharaoh’s hardness. God’s firstborn and only Son chose to die to deliver us from the cost our sin. Hear and share the good news.