How God Provides (1 Kin. 17:1-16) > Part 4

The first way God provides for His people -- He provides unconventionally (1 Kin. 17:2-6).  God sent Elijah to a secluded place called Cherith.  Cherith means "cut away" or "cut off."  What a wonderful lesson:  When we are separated from the normal means of provision, when we are cut off, it is only that we are set up.  What appears to be a punishing isolation becomes God's provision.  If Elijah didn't survive at Cherith, he never would've made it to Zarephath.  Remember, it was at Zarephath that the miracle of the flour and oil occurred.  Elijah needed to experience the miraculous for himself before he could involve others.

What unconventional means God used to provide for Elijah!  The cutting away experience at Cherith was one thing, but the ravens?  Ravens were considered unclean, according to Leviticus 11:15.  God used detestable, abhorrent scavengers to airmail bread and meat to Elijah twice each day.  How much more unconventional can you get?

If God can be that creative providing for Elijah, He can be creative meeting our needs today.  Since all knowledge, wisdom and power belong to Him, imagine the combinations He can create!  For instance, Proverbs 13:22 says that "the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous."  I'm not sure how all that works, but I'll take it.  Don't forget that God delivered daily bread (a.k.a. manna) to Israel for forty years and supplemented it with all-you-can-eat barbecque (a.k.a. quail).  "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" (Rom. 11:34).  Let us put aside our preconceived ideas of how God "must" provide.