Tuesday, August 31, 2010

What's been on my mind lately:

1 Kings 17:  
"1 And aElijah the Tishbite, who was bof the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor crain these years, but according to my dword.
  2 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
  3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and ahide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is bbefore Jordan.
  4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
  5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
  6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
  7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
  8 ¶ And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
  9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a awidow woman there to sustain thee.
  10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
  11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of abread in thine hand.
  12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
  13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
  14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
  15 And she awent and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
  16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah."

Few things I noticed: Elijah's stream dried up. And God had other plans for him. But I can't help but imagine how he felt, that God had provided for him, and it didn't work out anyway. At least, not how I would have guessed it would, were I in his place. But that didn't mean God had forgotten him. Just that the plan was not a forever plan, and there was another way to go.

Also I noticed that the widow didn't suddenly have an abundance. But the barrel of meal wasted not--in other words, it wasn't full, but the handful of meal didn't get any LESS. And the cruse of oil didn't fail--it didn't run out--but nobody said it got full. But they didn't starve.

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