Nevermore?

Even though I was raised by a Bible scholar whose father-in-law was a Bible salesman, I'm still very much a novice at studying the Bible myself. I haven't really figured out how to know what certain Bible words are in Hebrew or Greek unless they happen to be listed in my hardcopy Bible references. But I have figured out how to Google-research the heck out of a Bible passage. And I happen to know the Person who authored the Bible. I gotta say, He can be really random. And I mean that extremely affectionately.

Since the Bible is a sword, I have to be careful around it, or I'll accidentally cut myself and have to stop the bleeding. For example, a couple of months ago, I read the following passage and almost hyperventilated.

"Now King David was old, advanced in years; and they put covers on him, but he could not get warm. Therefore his servants said to him, 'Let a young woman, a virgin, be sought for our lord the king, and let her stand before the king, and let her care for him; and let her lie in your bosom, that our lord the king may be warm.' So they sought for a lovely young woman throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The young woman was very lovely, and she cared for the king, and served him; but the king did not know her." (1 Kings 1:1-4)

When I read this a couple of months ago, I freaked out and angrily exclaimed something to the effect of, "DID DAVID JUST HAVE A PARTY GOING ON ALL THE TIME AT HIS PALACE???" God told me to calm down. I guess I can't argue with the fact that a woman could be a very platonic, rated-G way for an aging King David to keep warm. Have I mentioned lately that I'm in therapy again?

I've read the Bible at least once in my lifetime, so one would think that its contents wouldn't be surprising... except that the Bible itself is alive. So, once in a while when I read it, a chapter, verse, passage, paragraph, or word will jump out seemingly randomly and grab me by the throat until I unwrap its healing fingers from my throat and try to breathe. I had such an experience today.

In my reading today, I saw many of the effects of King Solomon's idolatry. I blogged a tiny bit about that story. I think King Solomon ended up opening the door to all kinds of trouble for Israel. The entire nation was divided and ruled by separate kings. Some of them followed God. Others ended up committing idolatry more severely than King Solomon did. 1 Kings reads kind of like history book montage for a little while, and then a guy named Ahab becomes king over Israel. 1 Kings 16:31 basically says, "As if it wasn't already bad enough that King Ahab was doing the evil things that his forefathers did, he went and married Jezebel." So, Israel was in really bad shape.

Then suddenly, with pretty much zero foreshadowing, Elijah randomly appears in 1 Kings 17 and prophesies that it will stop raining in Israel. Then suddenly, God tells Elijah to get the heck out of there. God gives Elijah a very specific place to go.

"So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land." (1 Kings 17:5-7)

Then I think about three years later, Elijah goes back to Israel, where Jezebel has massacred God's prophets and Obadiah has been hiding the surviving prophets. Then Elijah has the famous showdown with Baal's prophets, who cut themselves to get their false god's attention, and Elijah gets the real God's attention by praying, so He sends down fire from heaven and shows everybody that He really is the One true God. So, Jezebel does her thing and freaks Elijah out by threatening to kill him. Elijah, who is used to hiding out, runs into the wilderness. Then he has the famous conversation with God who asks him a couple of times, "What are you doing here?" Since I've had to kick Jezebel out of my life, I'm kinda familiar with 1 Kings 19.

Wait. Back up to chapter 17. God sent ravens to feed Elijah? That's really random.

So, this evening I was Googling the heck out of ravens. There has to be some crazy, major symbolism going on with ravens in the Bible, right? I mean, aren't ravens supposed to be creepy? Edgar Allen Poe wrote about them and everything.

In my research, I found out that ravens are actually pretty cool. They're big and black, which probably scares people. But they're very smart and playful. Many ravens do cool tricks in the air while they fly; if they're carrying a stick while they're flying, they'll drop it and catch it while they're still in the air. As predators, they actually play kinda dirty. I think if an animal is tending to her young, as soon as she isn't looking, ravens will steal the young for dinner. Ravens can be trained to talk; I think this is one reason why Poe chose to have a raven as the subject of his famous poem. Otherwise, maybe today we'd be memorizing Edgar Allen Poe's "The Parrot" in school. Nevermore. Braaack. Polly want a cracker.

Then I found out that Noah released a raven from the ark to test to see if the floodwaters had evaporated. I found researching that particular subject to be quite disturbing. I had no idea that the ravens could be so naughty on the ark. (Seriously, y'all, they're just birds. Leave them alone. And please try to keep your Bible opinions PG when there isn't anything obviously rated R going on.) One blogger linked Noah's raven story with Elijah's raven story and came to the conclusion that God used a raven in Elijah's story to teach Elijah about having mercy on the people of Israel. I looked at my computer and said, "What the effing crap?" I have no idea how that scholar came to that particular conclusion.

So, that brought me back to my original conclusion: I think God used ravens to feed Elijah in 1 Kings 17 because my God can be really random. And I mean that extremely affectionately. I can almost imagine their conversation:

God: Hey, there. I have this prophet that I need y'all to feed for a while. Are y'all cool with that?

Ravens: Nevermore.

God: No, seriously, I'm commanding y'all to feed Elijah.

Ravens: Nevermore.

God: Sigh. Do I need to remind y'all who's truly Boss?

Ravens: Nevermore!

God: Good. Elijah will be at the Brook Cherith in a little while. Y'all won't fail Me, will you?

Ravens: Nevermore!

God: I thought so. Thank you.

So, after Elijah drops a prophecy bomb in 1 Kings 17, God whisks him away to a safe place where he's fed by ravens on a regular basis. Then Elijah hangs out at a widow's house. But during this entire time, Israel isn't a safe place for God's prophets, because Jezebel tried to kill all of them. God protected Elijah very specifically, very tenderly, and very awesomely.

Maybe Elijah forgot this when he suddenly freaked out in 1 Kings 19. When Jezebel threatened him directly, he ran away into the wilderness without God telling him to.

In the New Testament, Elijah and Moses appear to Jesus and hang out with Him for a little while. I don't think the contents of their conversation is recorded in scripture, but I wonder if maybe Elijah and Moses were encouraging Jesus. Maybe Moses was like, "Hey, You're the awesomest Deliverer ever. Also, if Your Father asks You to do something crazy like talk to a rock, don't get mad and hit the rock. That would be a big mistake." Maybe Elijah was like, "Hey, You're the awesomest Miracle-Worker ever. Also, if Your Father ever asks You to do something crazy like go hide out at a brook and get fed by ravens, He's doing it for Your own good."

But that's my imagination and opinion. I love God. I love how He knows exactly where we are, and I love how He knows exactly what we need. I love how He can be so random. I love how His randomness isn't haphazard. I love how the little, random things He asks us to do can actually turn out to be life-saving.