The Miraculous Power of Sustainability

The second miracle of restoration was a miracle of sustaining. This miracle was when God caused the ravens to feed Elijah. Remember, the raven was known as an unclean or dirty bird. It was an unconventional way to provide for Elijah and sustain him, but I believe when God begins to speak to systems and men, their whole nature begins to change. That is why the miracle of the raven was so important.

Think about it. Ravens are scavengers. They will eat up everything in sight. They will eat everything from small animals to carrion to eggs to berries to bugs. Any wild animal bringing food to Elijah would have been miraculous, but the fact that it was a raven is even more miraculous because the nature of the raven is to eat everything. The raven wasn’t bringing Elijah something that it never would have eaten anyway.

There may have been ravens around you trying to bite off your stuff. Ravens may have been trying to devour what has been feeding you, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But God works miracles to sustain you. He is going to command those ravens to feed you rather than scavenge from you. God can command both the clean and the unclean to sustain you. He is the Lord over all creation, so He can use unconventional methods to supernaturally provide for you.

The miracle with the ravens was not the only time the Lord miraculously sustained Elijah because it was not the only time Elijah was in the wilderness. Remember, Elijah ended up in the wilderness again after Jezebel threatened his life in the aftermath of the showdown at Mount Carmel. And because of Elijah’s mental and emotional state when he headed into the wilderness—he was so discouraged, depressed, and downtrodden that he prayed to die—I am sure he didn’t bring forty-plus days of provisions with him.

Yet despite Elijah’s attitude—despite his struggles, fear, sorrow, and lack of faith—the Lord still miraculously provided for him. He headed into the wilderness, prayed to die, and fell asleep underneath a tree. Then an angel touched him and told him to get up and eat, and Elijah saw a coal-baked cake of bread and some water. Elijah took another nap, and then the same thing happened again. Those two angelic meals were enough to sustain him for forty days and forty nights as he journeyed farther into the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God.

The tree Elijah took shelter under when he entered the wilderness for the second time was a broom tree. It grows in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Its roots are actually edible, so Elijah did have a potential food source, although it would have taken some effort on his part to dig up the roots.

So when the Lord once again miraculously provided food to sustain Elijah, He was once again showing His care.