Jehovah Jireh Our Provider

1 Kings 17-19

Today people are beginning to grumble because their comfort zone has been disrupted. They have lost their trust in government officials, others, and even the God of the Bible. They just want the problem fixed which is precisely what the wicked King Ahab wanted too.  Yet God is God, and He will not share his glory with another.  To teach the evil king and queen, God will use his faithful prophet Elijah to remind us that nothing is too hard for God. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider.

First, Elijah needs a place of refuge from the wicked king and queen. When the brook dries up, and the food is no more, God sends him to a widow outside the land. Here God tests Elijah with the death of the child. Will he trust God to raise a little boy from the dead? Will the widow learn that Elijah is God’s prophet?  In the meantime, God provides a simple man named Obadiah to show weary Elijah the truth that no problem is too hard for God. Obadiah protected and provided a place of refuge for God’s prophets. Step by step, God provided for every need. And when Elijah was weary, He provided a replacement in Elisha to accompany him.

If He could use the unclean ravens or an unnamed widow or an Obadiah, will He not provide for our every need? Yet if God provided for Elijah, will He not do the same for us?  Do you trust Him to take care of your essentials this day? “in God I trust, I am not afraid. What can mere men do to me?” [Ps 56]