Using Birds to Build Trust

Text 1 Kings 16:30 – 17:15

Imagine you're standing on the edge of a deep, dark gorge, peering down into its mysterious depths. You can feel the cold air swirling around you, and the sound of eerie echoes fills your ears. Now, imagine someone handing you a fragile, rickety wooden bridge, assuring you that it will safely carry you across to the other side. But as you examine the bridge, you notice the rotting wood, the missing planks, and the creaking structure. It's as if it's barely holding itself together.
You hesitate, your heart pounding with doubt. The bridge sways unpromisingly, threatening to give way at any moment. Your intuition screams at you, warning you of the potential danger. It's a leap of faith to trust this flimsy bridge, knowing that one wrong step could send you plummeting into the unknown darkness below.
In that moment, not trusting in something is like gripping tightly onto the solid ground behind you, unwilling to take that perilous journey. It's acknowledging the uncertainties, the flaws, and the potential consequences, and deciding that it's wiser to rely on your own judgment rather than putting your faith in something so precarious.

Trust.
It’s a valuable commodity.
People rarely GIVE trust... usually it’s something that’s earned.
But without having trust in someone - or something – it’s hard to do anything in this life
• People put their trust in a wide range of things, depending on their beliefs, values, and experiences. Here are some common things people tend to trust:
• Financial Systems: People trust banks, financial institutions, and economic systems to safely handle their money, investments, and transactions.
• Personal Beliefs and Values: Individuals often trust in their own beliefs, values, and intuition to make decisions and navigate their lives.
• We trust that our cars will start. Have you ever gotten in your car, put the key in the ignition... and then not have it start? How did it make you feel? It should have started! It had started hundreds of times before... but now it didn’t. You TRUSTED it to be able to start when you needed it.
• We trust that our grocery stores will have food. They may not have the specific brand of cereal or coffee you want, but you TRUST they will have milk, and meat, and bread.
• When we have trouble around the house, we trust that the police and firemen will be available to protect us.
• And we trust that our friends will BE THERE for us. That our church family will lift us up in prayer and be there in our moments of joy and sadness.
Trust is woven into the very fabric of our lives.
Without trust, we can hardly function.
So, the question is: what do you trust... and why?

The story we’re looking at today is a story about trust... and the lack of it.
And it begins in 1 Kings 16: 30-33
30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Ahab was a wicked king.
But he NOT JUST a wicked king... he was a wicked man
1 Kings 21:25 says “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.”
So Ahab was a wicked King and a wicked man.

But what made him so wicked?
Well, he TRUSTED in the wrong things.
King Ahab, who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel from approximately 874 to 853 BC is often described as one of the most wicked kings in the biblical narrative. Several factors contributed to Ahab's reputation for evil:

1. Ahab's marriage to Jezebel, had a significant impact on his reign. Jezebel was a devoted worshipper of Baal and actively promoted Baal worship in Israel, leading to the introduction of idolatry and the persecution of prophets of the God of Israel. Ahab allowed and supported Jezebel's religious practices, which went against the faith of the Israelites.
2. Under Ahab's rule, the worship of the God of Israel was actively suppressed, and the worship of Baal was encouraged. This idolatrous worship led to the corruption of religious practices and the erosion of moral values among the people.
3. Ahab and Jezebel orchestrated the systematic persecution and killing of the prophets of the God of Israel. Elijah, one of the prominent prophets of Israel, was particularly targeted by Ahab and Jezebel.
4. Despite receiving multiple warnings and prophecies from God through various prophets, Ahab stubbornly persisted in his evil ways. He showed no repentance or willingness to change his behavior, even after witnessing the disastrous consequences of his actions.

Ahab trusted the wrong things... and he trusted the wrong people
And most tragically of all - he didn’t trust God.
So God decided it was time to teach Ahab a lesson in trust.
God wants Ahab to trust Him.
So He sends Elijah with this basic message:
“Trust me on this… I’m going to make life VERY uncomfortable for you.
Until Elijah comes to you again, there will be neither rain nor dew on the land.”

ILLUS: Every year, our farmers watch anxiously to see how much rain will fall on crops.
If there’s too much, the crops drown.
If there’s too little, some of those crops dry up and die.
BUT if there’s no rain at all... ALL the crops will die.

The book of James, in James 5:17 tells us that “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.”
Three and a half years without rain is a long time.
Three ½ years of drought is enough to turn a paradise into a wasteland.
And three ½ years of dryness can make men and kings desperate enough to do anything to change the weather... even kill a prophet.
So, God sent Elijah on an extended vacation.
And that (of course) is where we meet the ravens of this story.

God has Elijah hide near the brook Kerith down by the Jordan River and that’s where he lives for the next couple of years.
And while he was hiding there:1Kings 17:6 tells us
“The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.”

Now this is odd for several reasons:
1st Ravens don’t generally like being around humans... they avoid us if at all possible.
2ndly Ravens were unclean birds. God’s people were not allowed to eat them, nor offer them in sacrifice.
3rd The food of ravens has usually been dead for a while. They eat road kill. They were scavengers. They’re kind of like vultures. Who would want to share their food?
4th Even if we wanted to share their food, Ravens would never share. They don’t even share their food with their babies.

ILLUS: Once a young raven is able to fly – it’s kicked out of the nest and left to fend for itself. No matter how much the young raven cries its parents will not bring it food, it is on its own. Apparently that’s an uncommonly cruel trait not shared by many other birds.
So here God has Elijah being fed by unclean, disgusting, anti-social, and notoriously cruel birds.

WHY?
Why would God use Ravens to supply Elijah with food when there are so many other simple and satisfying ways of getting the job done?

 

There are several reasons why people end up not trusting God or His word.
1. Sometimes, people refuse to trust God’s Word, because they Lack evidence: Some individuals may require empirical evidence or tangible proof before they can trust in something or someone. Since God's existence cannot be scientifically proven, they may find it difficult to place their trust in a higher power.

2. Other times people refuse to trust God and His Word because (like King Ahab) they’ve listened to the wrong people. They’ve spent time with skeptics and scoffers who have made them ashamed of their faith and doubt their God.

3. Other times people refuse to trust God’s Word because they’ve been hurt. God didn’t help them like they wanted Him to when they needed it, and because of that incident(s) they turn their back on God.

4. Still other people refuse to trust God’s Word because they’re into sin. They’ve done things they shouldn’t do and because God’s Word condemns their particular behavior or lifestyle they try to disarm God. They try to blunt his right to judge them. Because IF God’s Word is wrong on something they can ignore it as being unreliable in all things.

The problem with these approaches to God’s Word is that it puts us in danger.
If you can’t trust God... you have to trust something.

SOMETHING has to step in where God has been thrown out.
That’s what happened to King Ahab.
He didn’t trust the God of Israel.
So he turned in trust to other gods... and suffered for it.

ILLUS: G.K. Chesterton once said
“It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing.
Alas, it is worse than that.
When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything.”

Without God… the only standard of TRUST - of right and wrong - is what appeals to you. And that’s a shifting standard. It all depends on what I want, what I like, what I accept, what pleases me.

But scripture says: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
My standards are all warped.
My morality is riddled with impurity.
And if I base what I TRUST on that warpedness and impurity, then I’m going to embrace whatever gods allow me to do what I want to do.

Its insanity.
When I stop trusting in the God of Scripture... I’ll believe in anything
And eventually that will lead me to destruction.

But now, by contrast, if I trust in the God of Scripture I’m no longer led by MY OWN righteousness and holiness.
Instead… I’m trusting a God who is so holy and so righteous that my tendency will be to build my life around Him (rather than Him around me).

I’ll use His standards of right and wrong – not mine.
I’ll build on His morality in my life – not mine.
I’ll build on His expectations for me... not mine.
AND I know if I trust in Him in these matters... I will be blest.
But first I have to decide whether I trust Him or not.
And that leads me to my final point

Why would God use ravens to minister to Elijah?
He could have done it more pleasantly and much easier some other way.
Why use the ravens?
God asked him to go approach a poor widow in Zarephath to house and feed him. But the widow had no food to share. What little food she had – she was preparing for a final meal for her son and herself... and then they were going to die.
And Elijah had to ask her to share the final meal with him.
Why didn’t God send Elijah to somebody who at least had some food???
Why?
For the same reason God sent the ravens to feed him in the desert: To show Elijah His power.

Elijah said to her, "Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’"
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.”

Now, you can’t convince me that God’s sole purpose in having the widow feed Elijah was simply so that he could have something to eat!
So, what other reason could God have?
TRUST

God wanted to strengthen Elijah’s trust in Him.

God got Elijah into situations where he had no choice but to trust Him.
Because when this drought was over, God was sending Elijah back to confront Ahab.

And when Elijah went back, he had to be able to know that he could trust God.

This whole time in exile was designed by God so He could train Elijah in trust.
He showed Elijah that He could order the very ravens to feed him
He showed Elijah that He was able to enable a destitute widow to meet his needs.
Over and over again, God trained Elijah in trust.

God knows that trust is something that’s earned.
And He knows the power of trust in our lives.
That’s why He lays such an emphasis on our counting our blessings. Repeatedly throughout Scripture God tells us be thankful, to rejoice to focus on what He has done in our lives. This is more than just a “religious activity” – it’s a training ground in trust.

If Elijah had not been trained in trust, he wouldn’t have been ready when the time of testing came. In the same way – if we don’t train ourselves in trusting God, we will not have the strength to stand in the time of testing.

CLOSE: The question for you this morning is this: Who do you trust?
One man made this observation:
• “Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment
• Trust in money and you may have it taken from you;
• But trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.”

Hebrews tells us
“Without faith it is impossible to please God...”
That kind of faith is more than just “believing God exists?”
It’s a faith that has learned to trust God because of what He’s done for us.
Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists AND that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
INVITATION

Contributor : Jeff Strite