“…but really I’ve been learning how to die” – Jon foreman, Learning How To Die

to read the previous journal entry, please follow this link.

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i don’t know what’s truly more shocking: that the god elijah was trusting in to bring him to the people of that same god so that he may be a catalyst, instead told him to go hide in a ravine where “ravens will bring you meat” and “you will drink from the brook” – or that elijah actually did what was told him!

so this disturbed me. so much so that i have been letting it roll around in my mouth, switching sides like one might do with a throat lozenge; meditating and picturing elijah’s newfound life unfold.

observe. you will drink from the brook. one vibrant image came out of this, at least for me. elijah’s posture would be that of stooping, of getting low, of humbling himself to drink from the brook. now, there is nothing in the text telling us that elijah was being disciplined in any way – remember, this is elijah’s apparent introduction to the vocational career of prophet! it was just how it was.

it’s his beginning: and GOD is leading him by ways known to the humble. and so the question rises, as i begin my day, will it look like elijah’s posture of humility and surrender: bending a knee to the ground, lowering my face to the source of refreshment and life, my hands forming a bowl with palms upward turned: that i might receive from such a brook and the very promise of my god?

[selah]

then comes this peculiar little phrase: and i have directed the ravens to supply you with food. two things are really at work here.

1) ravens were in the uncoveted list of unclean animals. which is to say that, anything they touch would also be unclean. including the supply they would bring to this young prophet of GOD by the very direction of the same god.

and b) often times throughout the scriptures and ancient literature, you’ll find reference to animals in light of their very real, analogous human counterparts. which i believe to be the accurate case here. GOD would be directing “ravens”, unclean gentiles living near the kerith ravine to bring elijah food – which makes for an even more dramatic unfolding whereby we are reminded of the strange places to find the reign of GOD at work!

all leading to a second question: do i trust GOD at his word and enjoy the supply he provides? right. because for all intensive purposes, elijah could have argued with YHWH about the provision being unclean – after all, he said it would come from ravens – and he was a prophet, surely he could not be caught eating food that was unclean! right?

but this reminds me of a situation in which yeshua was asked about the supply, the very meat, of gentiles. he declares,

“are you so dull?” he asked. “don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? for it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.”

interesting then that yeshua was even thought to be elijah near the end of his public ministry…(luke 9.19). interesting then that yeshua is found eating with zaccheus, tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes and all of his colorful and broken friends; friends that were unclean: ravens, if you will.

yes. i believe GOD led elijah to a place that was cut through a valley by water and time, that he might be cut through the heart by Wind and time. elijah may have thought his agenda was clear, he may have thought it was about himself, he may have thought it was about speaking the right words or having the right vision or learning how to laugh at the situation he was brought to or learning how to cry real tears: but really, he would be learning how to die: how to die to pride: how to die to judgmentalism: how to die to his own agenda: how to die to himself.

and do you know how long he would be enrolled at this school of sorrow in the kerith ravine, drinking from a brook and depending upon GOD to bring the ravens? three-and-a-half-years-he-was-in-the-ravine! now, whether that was exactly 547.5 days or somewhere close to it, the point (from an authentic hebraic understanding) is that elijah was only HALF way through this process.

[selah]

we each have our own kerith ravine’s just like we each have our own calcutta’s and our own crosses. may we live and live well. and when we should falter, or completely wipeout; when we are damaged, or when we are the cause of such damage: may we live to remember that GOD can overcome a heart that is overcome (dc*b). he provides for all he has made.

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despite my unbelief, i believe that who i am is a son of the only living god & king, YHWH [blessed be his name]. a son of the resurrection. a son of the wind which bends all things.

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for whatever reason, i woke up this morning at half past three. i finally gave in to the restlessness and got up close to four. i mumbled to the spirit: “okay. you woke me up. now what…?” i continued praying and thinking and feeling and wondering and praying and meditating and eventually picked up my place in isaiah (i am slowly reading through the scriptures from beginning to end (or is it from beginning to beginning?)).

somehow or another i was led (by the spirit perhaps?) to some weird cross reference which carried me to an interesting little story which has stuck with me for these twelve plus hours.

elijah. the prophet. long before showing up at the transfiguration with the dashing lads of yeshua and moshe, was about to be introduced into the narrative of history in a most peculiar way. quite abruptly we learn of this rogue prophet, elijah, who is a tishbite and of the “sojourners of gilead”. he goes with some bad news that will soon befall the presently corrupt king of israel, ahab.

then, again almost too abruptly, we find out that “the word of YHWH came to him.” and isn’t that amazing in and of itself? GOD has, at multiple times throughout history, come to us: blessed be his holy name.

so the word of YHWH came to him saying…something that has been said* most poignantly before: to a different sort of prophet: more than one thousand years before: to abraham at ur, the word of YHWH came and said, “lech lecha” or, “go for you” (genesis 12). leave ur. and walk towards something new.

and now, here in 874BC, we discover that the word of YHWH came to elijah saying…something completely absurd: do not perform miracles, do not speak to the people, do not warn the communities, do not bless the righteous, do not speak; yet are you a prophet, and you shall not prophesy: “leave here, turn eastward and hide in the kerith ravine.”

leave here. leave where you are at. literally AND figuratively, i believe. elijah was commanded to leave. to “go for you” to someplace else. someplace new. some place already known by GOD.

turn eastward. that is, turn towards a new dawn, a new beginning, a place where light shall fall upon you fresh and illuminate your way – even as you walk.

and hide. literally, to cover yourself. to make yourself unseen. which is absurd (rather, mysterious) that a prophet would hear such a call from his god. that he should hide himself as he walks toward the sun – what a word picture.

in the kerith ravine. and here is the glorious end to the first part of this word from YHWH. for you see, beloved, that a ravine is, by definition, a deep valley of sorts: a narrow gorge which is cut out of the earth from the effects of water over time. and kerith (keh-reeth) carries the meaning(s), “to whittle away, to file down, to cut”.

[leave here (where you are and all that you know) and turn towards the dawning of a new day. and walk and live and move and breathe towards me and my word to you. and hide yourself in a deep valley that is cut out by water that you, too, may be cut out and filed down and whittled away until all that remains is what i, YHWH, leave behind.]

[selah]

more to come…

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despite my unbelief, i believe that who i am is a son of the only living god & king, YHWH [blessed be his name]. a son of the resurrection. a son of the wind which bends all things.