“And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. . . . And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath which belongeth to Sidon, and dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain thee. ”
(I Kings 17:4, 8-9 KJV)
The Devastation Of DROUGHT!
Losing EVERYTHING is too often what finally gets a man’s attention!
Over the centuries, droughts have plagued various places around the world. In a feature article on the renowned Mexican drought, which hit the northern cattle farms from 1994 to 1995, the journalist reported that the cattle herds had dropped from 6.3 million to 3.2 million. The only reason that cattle deaths were not even higher was because many cattle were exported before they died and many cows had already died the year before. Still, even with those factors, 300,000 cattle perished that year - 1995. The lack of grass, high grain costs, cattle having stopped calving, mature trees drying up from the roots and falling over, and wide rivers reduced to a trickle were all some of the devastating results of this extended drought.
The article’s description could pictured what it was like in Elijah’s day:
“Vultures are the only animals putting on weight . . . where a four-year drought is turning millions of acres of prime farmland to dust. . . . Circling in rainless skies, their eerie vigils over slowly starving cattle are a daily reality for farmers across five . . . . states. Cows drop dead so often that feeding frenzies on carcasses are a commonplace sight.”
While pointing to a battalion of birds perched on a telegraph pole at the border of his ranch, Rodolfo Torres stated, “The vultures are fattening up like Christmas turkeys.” Torres, a Mexican rancher, not only personally watched his own herd shrink from 950 cows down to 150, but the 150 remaining creatures that were alive, were so emaciated that they were hardly worth considering as a profitable livestock.
This small example of a localized drought in Mexico helps us picture what it must have been like in these Old Testament days. The vultures of Elijah’s day were likewise “fattening up like Hanukah lambs” and all across Israel, the flocks were being radically devastated and emaciated, as the dry sands and hot winds relentlessly drew out every drop of moisture they touched! God’s people came into this land when it was called a land of milk and honey. What a contrast to the report of the spies who searched out the land in Joshua’s day. Now it would best described as the land of the dead and dying! The Lord turned Israel into an Old Testament dust bowl, where animal and human deaths were beginning to liter the land. Such were all visible tokens of God’s judgement under the leadership of the apostate King Ahab!
There are far more “Dust Bowls” than those found in the world of nature. Personal “Dust Bowls” have been experienced in the lives of individuals, groups, families, and even churches. Sadly, far too often, it is only when some people face the real possibility of losing everything that the Lord finally gets his or her attention! Worse yet, some people have to experience serious and actual loss before he/she changed. It is because some lean on a deceptive hope, the hope that they can somehow survive without making the change that is so obviously necessary!
Aerosmith band member, Stephen Tyler, is a modern-day reminder of this delusionary hope. It was this deceptive hope that they would not lose everything, even though they were on the road which ended exactly there. It was willful delusion that kept them on that road. That denial of reality so hypnotized all the band members, that they were unable to grasp that they could, and ultimately would, lose everything.
“That's what drugs did. . . . it took my children away, it took my life away, it took my band away, took my marriages away, and I was on my knees,” (May 3, 2011 - MSNBC)
Not even the progressive loss of some of the most important and meaningful parts of life, was able to push them off the road they were on, both corporately and/or individually. Such accounts reveal how deceptive sin is. Sin and Satan has the persuasive ability to offer delusional explanations which are able to deny what is really happening, and where the road is really headed.
Perhaps what is more shocking, is that this same story is repeated over and over in the lives of popular icons of our culture. It is known and even personally witnessed, over and over, yet with little impact on that next individual who is walking on the same road of emotional, social, financial, and/or relational drought. It was not until Tyler, and then ALL the other members of the band, lost EVERYTHING, that they individually and finally had to face the reality that they had to get off of this destructive road!
What makes an examination of Stephen Tyler’s life, and the history of the band, worth thoughtful consideration is the fact that their story is a modern-day example of what continues to happen in the lives of those who chose to live in the land of power, popularity, position, and success” -- until they hit the wall of REALITY!
In fact a “club of disasters” is called -- “The Twenty-Seven Club.” It is composed of those people who have seemingly made it in the world of popularity, money, and power, yet who have died by age 27 because of the emptiness of their success and lives. Alcohol, drugs, and finally a medical crisis or suicide did them in during the earliest years of their lives. Little do most, who are walking on that same tragic road, and unknowingly belong to that club, grasp the disaster which is about to hit them. The “drought” progresses over the short year of an increasing reality and the coming vultures!
There Is A “Real Reality,”
No Matter What One Wants To Believe!
As the drought progressively worsened to an undeniable crisis, Ahab, the King, the King HIMSELF ends up personally walking the countryside looking for hope. Ahab, along with and alongside of his servants were now out seeking any possible grasslands that would offer some level of hope. Was there any grass, and in sufficient quantity, that could hold out some possible hope as food for the remaining emaciated animals? Reality is setting in and is there any HOPE to avert this declared judgement!
God’s coming judgement was personally announced, and specifically detailed by the prophet Elijah to King Ahab. Initially, Ahab may have been skeptical as to how deep and unsolvable such a drought might or eve would be. Ahab probably never realized how hopeless it would become. Given time, he would come to the place that it was obvious that this crisis would neither be shallow, narrow, nor short-lived. Rather, Ahab would realize that he was facing a deepening, geographically broad, and every increasing crisis. He was in the midst of a drought that would last for approximately three years with no periods of relief, just increasing losses It would be a drought that would so devastate the nation of Israel that the King himself found it necessary to step in to personally seek to assess it and resolve it. What a picture of desperation! The King himself is doing “reconnaissance” and then must face the obvious reality that there is no message of hope tucked away anywhere throughout the land.
One can only imagine how deep and damaging such a drought must have been during Old Testament days. That age lacked all the modern solutions and technologies that are presently applied by individuals, business, and government to lessen the full impact of such a serious and extended national disaster.
✓ There were no organizations such as the Red Cross, FEMA, the Salvation Army, or Homeland Security,
✓ There was no ability to move, shift, and even airlift resources.
✓ There was not hope of help or aid by other friendly nations, who cared about helping other through such a national disaster.
All these avenues were all absent during Ahab’s day!
Today we have the possibility of using alternative food resources, the availability of governmental stockpiled wheat and grains, unemployment insurance, and disaster relief. Yet all such avenues can still show themselves inadequate to avoid real human suffering and loss. Even after “modern-day” nations muster all of their so-called up-to-date resources, such natural disasters still take a catastrophic toll across our present globe! Even modern day nations are forced to acknowledge that it must face the reality of woeful inability! The loss of life, resources, possessions, confidence surely marked these days.
There is a “reality” that one must ultimately face, no matter how long one may want to wish, or believe, that the crisis will not be as it indeed is becoming! The ability to engage in denial only holds up so long in the face of increasing difficulties and ultimately, the reality of the real and undeniable truth facing the delusional. Often, it is just a matter of time for reality to set in, and what seemed unlikely - “That will never happen!” -- walking around as the King with one’s own servants, looking for grass, finally turns into a bizarre reality of life.
The Beginning Of Wisdom
Is Knowing Who Is Actually In Charge!
The fear of the Lord is indeed the beginning of knowledge, BECAUSE He, with the aid of no one and nothing else but Himself, and against all the power and efforts of any and all kings and their courts, can create a national crisis that no nation cannot figure out how turn around, or negate!
When we are experiencing “milk and honey” days, remember that it is only sweet and substantial because The Lord has declared it so! We did not just luck out. It was no “chance” that had us born in our country of our birth. It did not just happen that we got the job we needed to take care of ourselves or our family. It was not happenstance that we have the family, the friends, or the church we have.
We do not live in a world of chance, or luck, or happenstance, but in a world of sovereign decree. The Lord, without the help of anything but His own power and wisdom, cannot only turn a land of milk and honey into a desert, but He can turn a desert into a land of abundance! He can reverse our human condition in a moment. He only need speak it into existence! As Proverbs says, though hand joined in hand, no human endeavors or alliances will withstand the Lord’s sovereign will!
Because He can both turn a garden into a desert, and He can turn a desert into a garden, God’s people always have a reason for hope, no matter how dire a situation. However, there is also equal reason for a holy soberness among God’s people since today’s blessings are no basis for any foolish thoughts of human self security. It is self-deception to believe, or to think, that we can live as we will. No matter what our present situation, He can change our lot in a whisper of His lips.
Though God is good -- and in fact good even to the unjust -- nevertheless, when the day of judgement comes, the Scriptures indicate that He will begin at the house of God. Therefore, we, of all people, should be the last ones to think that we can escape the chastening hand of the Lord. Do not think that He cannot, or that He will not indeed turn any sweetness into a bitter herb, when we leave His truths and holy principles. One only need remember this account and King Ahab’s ignominious trek looking for hay. Paul addressed that lie when he stated, “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1).
As this God-ordained, supernatural, Old Testament drought progressed, seemingly it had to have impacted every part of the fabric of national life, tearing life and living apart at the seams, and creating a great popular unrest against King Ahab’s reign. Ahab could not ignore what was happening nationally, even if he was able to personally sidestep the effects of the drought and famine, living in the palace and as Israel’s potentate. Ahab ultimately realized that his kingdom would self-destruct at a point in time if he did not address it! This crisis could and would take apart his kingdom!
There Are Different Reasons For Crisis,
One Is Our Connections!
There are different reasons for different, and even very similar crises. Not all crises have as their aim a singular goal. For instance, Ahab’s national famine was not at all like the national crisis that the Pharaoh faced during the days of Joseph.
▪ Pharoah’s famine was over twice the length of Ahab’s famine, but with the outcome of abundance
▪ Pharaoh listened to and exalted God’s man, Ahab disdained God’s man and called him the troublemaker.
▪ Pharaoh’s famine exalted his nation. Ahab’s famine tore apart the fabric of the nation.
▪ Pharaoh’s famine was designed by God to promote God’s faithful man, Joseph. Ahab’s famine was designed by God to be a powerful rebuke of Israel’s wicked king.
▪ The Egyptian famine was pre-announced, and foretold through a dream so that the nation could prepare for it with wise planning. Ahab was foretold by a prophet, but with no way to avert its full disastrous impact, except by repentance.
Although events may appear very similar, the purpose and designs may be very different and distinct! “One size does not fit all” when it comes to the Lord’s dealing with nations, or His people.
Even though Elijah was not liable for the sinfulness of the nation and although he was seeking to obey God in turning the nation around, he would still find himself going through the same drought as the nation. God chose not to move His prophet to another geographical location for three years as the devastating drought played itself out in Israel’s national life, but to keep him with his own people as they all went through it together.
God’s judgment of others sometimes necessitates that we also experience some of the pain and troubles that other people are facing. Even though we did not direct, participate in, or consent to, the sinfulness of another, we may still find ourselves experiencing God’s judgment or chastening. It will be merely our association with those whom God is judging that will also bring pain into our own lives.
There are times when we cannot disconnect ourselves from what God is doing as He shakes the lives of those we love and/or of those with whom we share our lives. We cannot publish a disclaimer stating that -- “We are not party to the waywardness or the hard-heartedness of others, of those who are so clearly associated with us.”
Therefore, we have a vested interest in the godliness of our nation, our spouse, our family, and our church. For when God begins judging them, we may find ourselves facing the same “drought!” While God does provide for the godly through times of “drought” and pain, God does not necessarily remove us from the experience of “drought” and trial. Elijah was a prophet to Israel. God did not lead Elijah away from the experience of drought, but brought Elijah through and provided in the drought.
Undoubtedly, the fattening vultures who were feeding on the dead and dying cattle, were a clear visual reminder to Ahab of the judgement given by Elijah. Surely Elijah, the messenger of this divine judgment, was identified daily in the King’s thinking with this nationally destructive drought. Although Elijah was only the messenger, as in many cases the message and messenger are linked. Indeed, the messenger and the message were so clearly linked that Elijah had to hide himself to preserve his life. Elijah’s exclusive and personal association with this national catastrophe had to have increased more and more as the crisis became more pronounced with every new disastrous circumstance that the King faced.
God’s Typical & Primary Method of
Meeting Needs Is the Natural,
Not Supernatural !
Ironically, it would be these vultures, who were partaking of the daily feast of dead and dying animals and which flew across the carcass-covered “sandquet” table of Israel, which would be used to supernaturally feed this secluded prophet of God. After Elijah’s announcement, God instructed him to relocate himself at the brook, Cherith, where part of God’s life sustaining provisions for would be delivered by birds.
God directed Elijah to that location for at least two reasons. First of all, God knew that when the announced drought set in and took a deep hold of the country, the life of Elijah would be in every increasing danger. A short-lived hope of the dire situation being only a passing crisis, would soon turn to increasing frustration. The lack of national repentance would lead to a spreading frustration and an every increasing individual toll on one’s livestock, the death of family members, and ultimately to national personal outrage! It is not surprising that the Lord said, “hide” -- because that is what he had to do save his own life as the disaster spread.
Ultimately, the crisis would grow so deep and widespread that Ahab would find himself facing a desperate situation as the nation’s leader, and begin to consider “taking the head” of Elijah (even as Ahab’s servant well understood). Therefore, the Lord told Elijah to “hide” himself since he was the messenger of God’s sure message of judgement.
We can see the desperation as it is fully realized in the third year! The deadly conditions, and the building anger against Elijah both bubble over in I Kings 18. Obadiah, a godly servant of Ahab, even fears for his own life, merely because he had met and talked to Elijah (18:9-16). In order to keep Elijah safe and his location a secret, God hid him by a brook and met his needs supernaturally, without the help of any men who would then know where he was. In fact, the Lord sent a raven to provide flesh. Such a method of provision would be both unnoticed and difficult to track, as the bird soared swiftly across the skies doing what seemingly seemed so common.
Elijah was directed to the brook for a second reason. God sought to provide the necessities of life -- water for Elijah as he also faced the drought along with this own people.
When Elijah hid himself by the brook called Cherith, God also sent a raven to feed him. God employed both natural and supernatural methods to satisfy Elijah’s life sustaining needs. God used the natural waters of the brook, and the natural inclinations of a raven, and a supernatural delivery system. The flowing waters of a still active brook were God’s natural method of meeting Elijah’s need. Water was still available and, therefore, a supernatural provision was unnecessary.
Without question, if God had chosen, He could have provided water through an ever-filling vessel, but such was unnecessary at the time. Although the drought had begun, there still were running brooks and active wells. Elijah’s location could initially be concealed as he remained hidden alongside the flowing waters of the brook. The Lord’s basic aim was to provide Elijah with a sufficient place to hide. Since a brook was naturally available and thoroughly effective in meeting the demand of the situation, God used the natural.
In contrast, the raven was God’s supernatural means of satisfying Elijah’s needs. There were no other natural and effective methods that would get the needed bread and flesh to Elijah on a daily basis. It was initially critical that Elijah’s location was concealed and God’s supernatural method of sending a raven would sufficiently conceal his hideout. A raven, which could not easily be tracked in flight, which would fly about unnoticed, and which would not be seen as odd as it carried flesh to Elijah, was an ideal supernatural way for delivering dinner to Elijah.
Notice, that it was the delivery system that was supernatural, not the fact that a raven sought out and carried animal flesh. It was the guidance and delivery system that was supernatural. It was the transportation of bread and flesh to Elijah’s hideout, and maybe even the willingness of a raven to relinquish the food to Elijah, that qualifies as supernatural. The gathering of meat and bread was an instinctive and natural activity of a raven. Yet another supernatural element may have also marked the raven’s delivering of meat to Elijah. The raven would have to gather good meat, not rotting flesh, in quantities, and in qualities fit for keeping Elijah’s bodily strong! Human beings cannot necessarily consume meats that scavengers can process. This raven was either a supernatural connoisseur of “good” dead meats, or always brought the freshest of meats -- which would have been abundantly available on a daily basis due to the live stock devastation caused by the daily drought.
Finally, due to the increasing intensity of the drought, the brook dried up. Interestingly, God did not need to initiate a second supernatural channel to meet Elijah’s current need for water since water was still available in Israel, in the city called Zarephath. Notice that after the brook dried up, God again used the natural rather than the supernatural in providing Elijah’s new need for water. Although the drought was continuing to bear down on Israel, well water was still naturally available in at least one city’s well.
Apparently, the well was deep enough that it had not run dry through the increasing period of this supernatural drought. Therefore, God sent Elijah to drink of the natural well water, which replaced the natural waters of Cherith.
Also, the natural, though severely limited grain of a widow in Zarephath, replaced the supernatural delivery system of a raven. However, God would again use supernatural methods, involving this heretofore unknown widow, to sustain Elijah’s need beyond his need for water. The Lord sent Elijah to a widow, to whom He would give a supernatural and constant supply of meal and oil necessary to prepare the daily food for sustaining both her family and Elijah.
The mixture of the natural and the supernatural repeatedly weave together and change throughout the account. Nevertheless, they are distinct. What is vital to understand is that at any time God could have just bypassed the natural and provided supernaturally. Likewise, at anytime God could have provided naturally and not used His supernatural powers. Even though God uses both, God is not prone to display and use His supernatural and majestic powers without it being necessity. God is not a showman, but has ordained powers, talents, abilities, resources, and people to be used by men to address their own needs and the needs of others.
There is a misleading conception concerning the means that God uses to meet the needs of His people. When God’s people face emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, or physically demanding situations, they sometimes mistakenly think that God’s typical manner of meeting those needs is supernatural, rather than natural. Those in need often communicate these thinking patterns by their responses and expectations. When some face great need, he/she may well be led to believe that God Himself will step in and supernaturally meet the demands that are pressing upon him/her. A Bible verse such as, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” is often recalled and/or recited in our minds. What is often sought and hoped for is that God will supernaturally, rather than naturally, meet the need.
Too often, we may be saying and thinking that our human efforts are not needed. Or, by our failure to step in and personally seek to meet part or all of the need, we communicate, by implication, that God will personally, directly, and therefore supernaturally supply that need without our human involvement. The belief that God works primarily through people and through the natural, is being lost in Christian thinking!
Could it be that a worldly selfish atmosphere is causing God’s people to justify their lack of personal responsibility and to engender unrealistic expectations that God will mystically provide? Perhaps the thinking is this: Obviously, God has more resources at His command than we do. Not to mention, He knows exactly what to provide, whereas we might make a mistake in our efforts. Furthermore, when God gives, His resources are in no way diminished. Surely, God who has all the riches of glory at hand ought to be the one to give to those in need.
Therefore, rather than acknowledging the fact that God’s natural method of meeting real and honest needs are through people, His people too often would rather have God supernaturally meet the need out of His ample, ever sufficient, never diminishing, heavenly storehouse. A self-serving and worldly spirit can easily and quickly discount the natural avenues of both personal “need-meeting,” or of our role in meeting the needs of others. This mentality can easily infect the thinking of God’s people!
This is not to say that God does not provide in ways that are totally supernatural. However, although God can, and indeed does, personally and supernaturally, meet the varied needs of people, God’s typical and prevailing means of meeting needs is through our right and reasonable actions, and through us and other people. The supernatural or miraculous avenues are either reserved for needs and demands that cannot be met through natural avenues, or to uniquely display His glory. That principle is found throughout scripture -- God expects us to do all we can do, and then He supernaturally does what we cannot do. A common New Testament example is the raising of Lazarus. God raised Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus did not remove the tomb stone or take off the grave clothes. Men could remove the stone and unravel the grave clothes. Therefore, using His supernatural powers was unnecessary.
When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus Himself knew that His Father’s means of providing and protecting were primarily through the natural and not the supernatural (Matthew 4:5-7). It is considered as sin to put God to the test, to require that He work supernaturally, when provision and protection are available by following natural avenues of wisdom. If as Jesus inferred that God would not employ the supernatural with His own Son, then surely He does not employ the unnecessarily miraculous with us. God does not employ the supernatural or miraculous to meet the demands of a situation, unless the natural means are either 1) not available and/or 2) not as effective inHis purposes (as deemed by God in His own wisdom).
Parents are God’s primary means of meeting the needs of their children. Husbands and wives are God’s primary means of meeting the needs of their spouse. Children are God’s primary means of meeting the needs of mom and dad in the later years of their life. Brothers and sisters in Christ have the responsibility of meeting the needs of God’s people in the church. The front line of responsibility in meeting the needs of family members is other family members. God meets family needs through the family unit. Those who face needs ought to be able to rely on their natural family first before they seek help from the second line of help, the church, and before they seek help through the supernatural. Moreover, the Bible states that God’s people are worse than infidels when they do not provide for the needs of their family.
Dave Dravecky of baseball fame went through some of the most difficult days of his life as he fought cancer. His testimony is that Janice, his wife, and his children, were vital in meeting the emotional needs that accompanied this deep trial. About Janice, his high school sweetheart and then wife of thirteen years, he states,
“(Janice) has truly been the wind beneath my wings. . . . She’s not only had to go through this, but she’s had to be a mom, and she’s handled it all. I’m so grateful God has blessed me with such a wonderful wife.”
God did bless Dave, and provided for his needs, and the needs of his family, years before Dave Dravecky even knew what she would have to”be-there-for.” That provision was not miraculous, but providential, historically provided for in God’s plan for marriage! We need to see that one of the reasons that God has given us all that He has given us, is so that we can be used to meet the needs of others.
There are those who want to transfer their responsibility to God, when in fact the Lord has given the responsibility to them. The size of our families is related to our decisions and actions. We should not say that we are just trusting God to decide; we are going to have as many children as God would have us to have. The number of children God wants us to have is not a supernatural determination! It is a decision based on what is right, reasonable, and wise.
Likewise, how much education, training, and initiative are all natural factors in obtaining a jobs. Developing one’s skills, and adding on to our skill set is a right and reasonable means for increasing our job opportunities. We have a role to play and a responsibility in having our needs met. Although God can and does provide unique employment opportunities, the job possibilities which become available to us are not simply determined supernaturally!
God by His grace can and does work in the lives of our children, but their character, convictions, work ethic, and the like are not solely determined supernaturally! We have a natural role to play in their upbringing and the outcome of our children’s lives. Although God can and does work “supernaturally” in the hearts and lives of our children, the outcome is not determined through that alone, nor through that primarily!
A modern-day sluggard, who was visiting the lovely home of one of our church members said, “You have been quite lucky to have this beautiful home.” The church member did not believe in “luck.” They also realized that their guest misunderstood the place of work in having what they desired and envied. So the husband responded by saying, “I find out that the harder I work, the luckier I get.” While there are times when God’s provision is supernatural, the overwhelming majority of examples of God’s provision are not marked by supernatural activity, no less luck, but rather by common, ordinary, plain, vanilla, nothing unusual, run-of-the-mill hard work!
By expecting God to do what they ought to be doing, some of God’s people are actually tempting the Lord. They are demanding that God perform the supernatural because they have refused to, or have ignorantly neglected to, assume the rightful role and responsibility which God that has given them. Some parents have tempted the Lord God to grace and/or to mature their children when they have not done what they are able to do themselves. Others expected God to keep their marriage together supernaturally, as they neglect and/or violate their role in marriage. Are there not some people who expect God to provide shelter and food as they neglect their responsibility of hard work? God says that the natural law which we call “hunger” needs to operate. This natural law will help them seek out work, which is God’s method for meeting their needs.
Small-claims courts, sometimes called “magistrates’ courts,” are designed to resolve minor difficulties of life. In such courts not only are procedures simplified, but hearings are informal, and costs are minimal. In such courts you do not need an attorney. If you end up in a small-claims court, the rule of thumb is that you will receive a more favorable ruling by the judge if you have made an honest effort to settle the difficulty before your appearance in that court. The judge’s powers are there to resolve what has, to this point, been unresolvable by honest and sincere effort. Even in God’s magistrate’s court, one must not think that God will use all of His majestic powers to address any and all of our trials of life. God’s powers are potentially available and you can go to His “Supreme Court,” which sits over the affairs of men, but God does expect you to do all within your God-given powers, abilities, and talents to resolve the trial before He decrees the use of His majestic powers!
At times, people misuse Bible passages to justify spiritual lethargy or personal apathy, or to explain away personal responsibility. For instance, one of the great Old Testament Psalms states, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127). It is not that we do not need not labor or watch, but that all of our labor and watching are in vain if God does not bless the work of our hands. God wants to use the work of our hands to bring to pass His will in this world and in the lives of people. Jesus also clearly stated during His ministry (Matthew 6:28-32) that the Father takes care of the lily of the field and that surely He will take care of us. However, God’s means of providing for the lily of the field are primarily natural, not supernatural. Knowing and declaring the care of God or His great wonder-working power must not be used to pass off our personal responsibility by calling up God’s supernatural power. God will not allow His promises to be used that way!
The principle is this: God’s typical and most basic method of meeting needs is the natural not the supernatural. God first uses the natural means that are available to meet needs. We ought not be looking for special “acts of God” to be the Lord’s normal method of provision. To the degree that we fail to understand that principle, we will fail to put ourselves into the equation of meeting human needs. When we fail to understand that God typically uses natural means for meeting needs, we end up saying to those in need, “Be warmed and filled.” It is our God-given responsibility to meet many of the needs of people that God has placed into our lives. Jesus stated that when we give a cup of cold water in His name, we have done that kind act to Jesus. However, it should be noted that Jesus did expect us to refresh people, even though He could provide the cup of cold water, as even the cup as well as the water, supernaturally, without any human intervention (“twelve baskets full” left over -- where did the baskets come from?).
There are times when God uses His mighty powers to address needs that seemingly could be addressed through the natural rather than supernatural. Nevertheless, I would suggest that this is only the case when natural methods will not sufficiently meet a need or effectively fulfill His multiple aims, or His display of glory is His uniquely designed aim. Then God does use the supernatural. In the Lord’s first miracle, where he changed water into wine, it seems reasonable to assume that they could have obtained good wine in a tolerable period of time from other homes in the surrounding area. It should first of all be noted that Jesus did not provide all the wine, but only the wine that the attendants in that situation could not immediately provide. However, the goals of working such a miracle were multiple. The goal was far more than just providing the necessary wine for the wedding feast, but it was also to declare who Jesus was and to initiate the Lord’s miracle working ministry in a great public setting.
There are organizations to which people can belong, and plans in which people can enroll, in order to help meet the ordinary trials of life. By adding to an insurance premium or by paying a fee to an automobile club you have a right to call for road emergencies. Emergency road services promise that such help is only a telephone call away, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. They design these services to cover any and all emergencies that you need to get you back on the road moving again. Towing is provided, but only if the vehicle cannot be started within a reasonable period of time. They will jump start your car if your battery is dead. Such services only dispense enough gas to get you to the nearest service station. Your flat tire will be replaced as long as the spare is not also flat. The policy’s provisions do not include routine and normal maintenance. They will not come to clean the windows, check the tire pressure, or perform an oil change. Their services are emergency services.
God’s services are generally and primarily emergency services because He has already provided a general maintenance manual which addresses the normal and routine situations of life and living. His manual reveals how to raise children, how to control one’s temper, how to work and maintain a job, etc. The reason He has provided such a manual is because He generally and primarily does not provide emergency, supernatural services to do what we can and should have done ourselves. I do not what to be misunderstood about the availability of God’s supernatural powers. Without dispute, the same general maintenance manual which reveals the normal procedures for Christian living, also includes instructions to us about His supernatural powers and provisions. He has indeed included His emergency number. Unlike many road service programs offered in this world, His provided number is never busy and He does not leave us waiting on the road for hours. However, believers who are really and honestly facing need must dial the number. He has told us how to access His powers, when they are available, and when He desires to enthusiastically use them on our behalf! -- “When we have exhausted our storehouse of endurance.
Without question, God has provided an emergency road service plan for His people. The Lord has designed his emergency road service plan to get us out of a ditch when we cannot possibly extricate ourselves by our very limited powers. He will jump start our hearts so that we can get back on the road when we lack the energy to go at it again. When real emergencies strike and we lack the resources to deal with it, then He is only a call away, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year! If we lack that perspective we will be expecting God to miraculously step in and show up on life’s road when we should have been and ought to be following the revealed will of God. The mentality that Gideon voiced marks the Christian world.
Gideon stated, “If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his miracles which our father told us of. . . . the Lord hath forsaken us.” God’s people may be looking for that unexpected check, and an unknown inheritance from a long lost uncle, or the arrival of the billboard sized Publisher’s Sweepstakes check, rather than God’s provision of a second job. Has God forsaken His people when He provides work?
To the degree that we fail to understand the principle of how God naturally provides, to that degree we will also fail to pursue the natural means of having our needs met. God promises to meet our needs of food and clothes. God naturally provides for those needs through working for a living. We cannot refuse to work and then think that God will somehow provide.
We do not sit at an empty dinner table and pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” and expect God to drop down provisions from heaven. His method in giving us our daily bread is through giving us health, opportunity, and energy so that we can work.
An interesting example of how God provides through the natural avenues of life and living can be found in the Old Testament practice of gleaning. God established gleaning as an appropriate and moral method for meeting the need of daily provision. There was no justification for a woman to stoop to the immorality of prostitution to be able to eat. The Lord built into law and into Jewish culture the legitimate right of gleaning in the fields of others and gathering all he or she could. Interestingly, those who were compassionate on the gleaners would even leave more than would have naturally fallen by the wayside during harvest (Ruth 2:15-16). Perhaps we could call that “extra -natural” provision. It is only when we are not able to satisfy our needs through legitimate avenues that God will step in and supernaturally provide for His people.
“Thankfulness” Is Correlated With Our Understanding of the Supernatural.
Grasping this principle ought to excite our thankfulness so that an appreciation of the ordinary flows out. If we do not see that it is also God who is providing in the “natural” events of life, we will fail to thank God for how He has met our needs. Do you remember the words of Gideon when the angel appeared to him in that winepress, during the days of foreign oppression? Gideon asked about the miracles that he had heard about from his fathers. Gideon wanted to see the supernatural even though God was providing daily. God’s people have such a natural tendency to seek the supernatural and not see or find God in the still small voice. We are impressed with the barrel of meal that was not used up, but not with the brook that flowed life-giving waters daily.
Grasping this principle is able to also guide us in ministry. What has God done in your life, in such a natural way in your life, that He wants you to use in ministry? If it is true that God gifts for ministry, and it is, then God has given you gifts through inherited traits and abilities.
God has naturally provided other talents through your environment. Perhaps you have taken a language in high school or college that you had to take to meet a requirement, but God had you take that course for far different reasons, for future ministry. There have been other seemingly natural experiences that you were privileged to participate in, that God brought into your life for a specific purpose, that the Lord allowed you to be part of for some future demand. More often, far more often than we acknowledge, God’s program and plan follow natural lines than supernatural!
If we only thank Him for the supernatural answers to our life’s needs, our attitude of gratitude will be very limited. God is still the one who is responsible for meeting our needs even if He satisfies through the natural and human avenues of provision. As James states, “Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father” (James 1:17). All that God gives does not have to drop down from heaven for us to understand and realize that God is the source of all. “Thank You” Lord for giving me the skills, the health, the resources, the talents, the wife, the husband, the children, my country, my church and all that make my life what it is. “Thank You” Lord for any or all of these, that make my trials what they are, far easier to bear under and go through. Far too often we are prone to look for the miraculous before we are moved to say “Thank You” to God, the Source for the so very “supernatural-natural.”
