While they were going to the mountain, where Abraham would use Isaac his son for a burnt offering to the Lord, the lad asked him, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering.” Abraham replied to him, “God himself will provide, my son.” When the Lord eventually provided a ram instead for the sacrifice, Abraham called that place “Yahweh Jireh”— the Lord will provide (Gen. 22.14). God is our provider and has always provided for his own.
Divine Character
This divine character of God reverberates in the first reading of today. The Lord raised the Prophet Elijah as his ‘battle-ax’ (Ger. 51:20) during the great apostasy of the people of Israel. God had resolved to visit the iniquities of King Ahab and his kingdom with a drought of three and a half years. Thus, He sent Elijah to Ahab, the king of Israel, to declare, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (1 Kg 17:1). This means that the years ahead would be very challenging.
However, Elijah lived among this disobedient people who would now face the wrath of God. Would he suffer the same fate with them? How would he cope in this moment of tribulation? Now, God is just and would always provide for his own. According to today’s psalm: He will guard them from evil. He will guard their soul. He will guard their going and coming, both now and forever (Ps. 120). He would never let the just go down with the unjust. He would always provide for them in season and out of season.
Against this background, God instructed Elijah to hide himself by the brook Cherith, where he would drink from the brook and the ravens feed him. When this brook dried up, the Lord arranged with a widow in Zarephath, who was to take care of His prophet “until the storms of destruction pass by” (Psalm 57:1).
Faithful
God is eternally faithful to his covenant with his people. He has given them his word that he would provide for their welfare. Nothing will make him renege on this commitment. This is our blessed assurance. We have, therefore, no need to fear or worry unnecessarily no matter the nature of the tempest confronting us. If He spoke to the ravens to provide Elijah with bread and meat, He is able to take care of our troubles.
Wait for the Lord
However, the major obstacles to experiencing the provision of God are infidelity and impatience. These are the principal reasons why it sometimes appears as if God is either unable or unfaithful. When, through our infidelity we do no longer abide in Him, we walk alone and away from the source of our provision. When we become impatient with God and offend the rules of our engagement with him in an effort to take care of things in our own way, wrongly believing He is too slow or even weak to intervene in our difficulties, we miss the opportunity for God to provide us with exactly what we need and at the right time. That was what Elijah did not do. Even when the brook dried up, he waited for the Lord until He came.
On this first day after Pentecost, the Lord is telling us: “You have experienced the power of my resurrection. You now know that I can do all things. You also know that you participate in my victory and in my glory through the same Spirit with whom the Father anointed me. Now, be assured that it does not escape my understanding that you are still in the world. It is my promise, therefore, that I will provide for you as I did for Elijah.”
