This document summarizes and analyzes a biblical passage about the prophet Elijah. It is divided into four movements: 1) Elijah emerges during a time of decline in Israel when kings were disobeying God. As a prophet from rural areas, Elijah represented grassroots faith and devotion to God. 2) God instructs Elijah to hide by a wadi or dry river bed for survival, showing God provides even in difficult circumstances. 3) While in the wadi, ravens bring Elijah food, demonstrating God's provision of basic sustenance through unconventional means. 4) When the wadi dries up, Elijah is sent to a widow who sacrifices what

1. Brooks, Ravens, and Widows: The Strange Provisions of God
Introduction
- Critical reflection upon the Black Gospel lyric: The Lord will make a way
somehow suggests two very fundamental faith claims that are central to the
Black experience.
- the confident expectation that God provides
- the understanding that God’s means of provision are unlimited and
even sometimes unorthodoxthat is strange!
- These two faith claims are borne out in the loyalty and obedience of the prophet
Elijah who trusted Yahweh to make a way and his perception of Yahweh’s
provision at work in that of a brook, some ravens, and a widow.
Move I (Declining Quality of Life in Ancient Israel) Verse 1
- At the point in which we enter the text, the narrator of the first book of Kings
has assessed the reigns of seven kings of Israel as being nothing more than a
slow royal drift downhill toward degradation (Jeroboam I, Nadab, Baasha, Elah,
Zimri, Omri, and Ahab). Essentially, each of these kings is depicted as doing
what was evil in the sight of the Lord. (Disobedience and Injustice)
- The prophet Elijah makes an entrance at the point in which the Israelite
monarchy has been determined by the narrator as evil to the corethat is bad to
the bone. His presence in the text alone represents at least two things:
- Grass Root Movement (Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe [settler/people
of the land])
- Yahweh Believer (The name Eli-jah = My God is Yahweh)
Contemporary Relevance
There is a desperate need today for an Elijah Generation. This is a generation that
values spiritual fidelity and social justice. What we say and do ought to glorify God.
- Spiritual Fidelity = an awareness and acknowledgement of God’s
presence via spiritual discipline (prayer, meditation, fasting,
contemplation, simplicity, etc.)
- Social Justice = challenge racism, sexism, classism, ageism, etc.)
Move 2 (Perceiving God’s Provision in the Cut) Verses 2-4a
- The word of the Lord instructs the prophet to “Go east and hide by the Wadi
Cherith.” Literally, the place of the cutting. Wadis are small land depressions
that form a bed or valley for water streams that are usually dry except for the
rainy season. The water in these land depressions is murky, limited, and
temporary. Nevertheless, for a traveler in a hot arid environment it represents a
means of survival.
Contemporary Relevance
Living in the cut could be a contextual condition, i.e. economic depression or
decline, a personal loss (job, health, death of love one), or a personal or communal
spiritual lost, disorientation or perceived lack of relevancy. The cut could also be a
particular situation, i.e. homelessness, general lack of focus and direction, a
marginalized, possibly overlooked, hard place to get to or to get out of. Either way,
the cut is not of place of thriving but of surviving.
Move 3 (Perceiving God’s Provision in the Throw Back) Verse 4b-6
- While in the cut the prophet is told by Yahweh that he will be fed by ravens.
The raven is a scavenger bird that, like most birds, feeds its young by
regurgitating pre digested carcass remains. Thus, he is not only to exist in a hot
land depression where the water is muddy but also depend on the ravens for
sustenance.
Contemporary Relevance
The food in the cut is take-out rather than sit down dining and the selections are
limited if not selected for you. Food for preservation rather than for presentation.
Basic, life preserving, no-frills soup kitchen mush.
We live in a time when throw back clothing wear is incorporated in with what is
considered fashionable, at present. There is a time that God challenges us to
incorporate that which has been used before into our present existence.
Move 4 (Perceiving God’s Provision amongst the Disenfranchised) Verses 8-16
- Unfortunately, the wadi dried up and the ravens stopped bringing food. Again
the word of the Lord instructed Elijah this time to Zarephath where Yahweh has
put a widow on watch to care for him. Essentially, the prophet has to convince
the widow that her fate is inextricably tied to his. She must be willing to
sacrifice all she has, in order that both of them may live.
Contemporary Relevance
Sustaining human care/contact – what happen to all the pretty young nurses- it’s
widow watch time.
The Black Community’s survival is dependent on the disenfranchised members
willingness to sacrifice what they have.
Celebration (The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow)