Arise and Eat

There are three stories in 1 Kings of Elijah being fed through the Lord’s power. The first is when he was at the brook Cherith. The Lord commanded him, “And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook” (1 Kings 17:4-6). This was during the famine in the land, and Elijah miraculously received food from the birds of the air. When the brook dried up, the Lord gave him this command, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” First the Lord had commanded the ravens to feed his prophet; now He had commanded a Gentile widow to feed him. When Elijah showed up he asked her for water and said, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” Her faith in so doing led to her own salvation as she found that Elijah’s promise was true: “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” Elijah did not just eat once there, for the account tells us, “She, and he, and her house, did eat many days” (1 Kings 17:9, 11, 14-15). The Lord took care of both her and His prophet with a miracle that kept giving. In both of these cases Jehovah made sure that His prophet had food and miraculously fed him for an extended period of time.

            The final account of the prophet Elijah being fed through divine intervention took place in the wilderness after Elijah ran for his life from Jezebel. He was downcast and prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” He laid down to die, but the Lord had other plans: “And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.” So an angel brought him warm, cooked food and encouraged Elijah to eat and drink. After the prophet did this and went back to sleep, “The angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.” After this divine meal, Elijah “went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:4-8). The Lord once more took care of His prophet by providing physical sustenance in a time of need. When Eiljah was ready to give up on life, the Lord came with food and water to keep him going.

            That last story reminds me of the Savior’s appearance to His apostles in Galilee after His resurrection. They had toiled all night on the lake without catching any fish, and Jesus showed up on the shore and called out, “Children, have ye any meat?” Of course they did not, and He miraculously filled their nets when they cast in again. When they came to shore, “They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.” He said to them, “Come and dine,” just like the angel had said to Elijah, “Arise and eat.” They did eat, and then the Savior gave them (or reminded them of) the mission to feed His sheep. Just as Elijah was given food from the angel in order to be prepared for “the journey” which was “great” for him to accomplish, so too did the Savior feed His apostles before renewing their great commission to spiritually take care of His sheep. As He had told them, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). And He showed with Elijah that He truly meant this—the Lord will take care of His own with the sustenance they need as they seek the kingdom of God.