Provision
8 in. x 10 in., acrylic and gold metallic on Masonite panel
Prints of this piece are available at my online print shop:
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/shawne/
(Original not yet priced)
In 1 Kings 17:1-6, Elijah delivers his prophetic word to King Ahab of a multi-year drought on the land in response to his propagation of idolatry and wickedness. God tells him to go to a desolate ravine by a brook whose Hebrew name, Kerith, means "cut off." Not only was Israel being cut off from God's blessing, but Elijah would be cut off, so to speak, from being found. God was protecting him, hiding him there beside a fresh water source, telling him He would supply his need for sustenance by sending ravens to bring him bread and meat, not once, but twice daily. Jewish law classifies ravens as ritually unclean, unsuitable to eat, being scavengers, whose diet consists largely of carrion: dead things. Everything about them smacked of death: if you saw a cluster of ravens circling, you'd be right to think something dead or dying was nearby. Ravens usually feed right where they find their meat, and regurgitate their carrion meals from their own mouths at the nest to feed their young. They don't tend to bring whole pieces of fresh meat anywhere. Yet, God called on them to nourish Elijah with fresh meat and bread. Daily. Without fail. We're not even told for how long. But it would be for a good while.
And they did.
And where did they get the bread? Daily bread?
The same God who provided daily manna to His people in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt reprised His provisional performance through unclean death-birds to provide for Elijah after sending him to bring a message of not peace, but a sword, to Israel.
Like Elijah's provision-carrying ravens, the raven in this piece, Provision, carries also. Here, rather than physical food, it's carrying a thorny branch, a symbol of Jesus Christ. Christ, who is our spiritual food, our daily bread, was torn for us on the cross, tortured with the accursed thorns and willingly embraced the death we deserve. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says that "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." And in Galatians 3:6, we are told plainly that, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'" In doing so, He became like the raven, an unclean thing. He who was life became death for us; He who was clean became unclean for our sake to provide for us the Bread of Life, Himself, so that we may have life.
We might read 1 Kings 17: 1-6 and see the lesson of God providing for the bodily needs of Elijah, and by extension, us, through unlikely and often less-than-holy sources (and certainly, that'll preach, as they say). But look more closely at this supernaturalist painting, at this Old Testament story, and let it preach deeper. See the hiding of the life of Elijah in a desolate place of death, see that which is reckoned as unclean being his constant companion, accomplishing his deliverance, supplying his total sustenance, his daily bread. His provision.
