“Michael Bull is pithy enough that he ought to be made to wear a pith helmet all the time as a warning to others.” — DOUGLAS WILSON
Fed by Ravens: More Theological Twitter
INTRODUCTION
“Submersion and Subversion”
E. M. Forster wittily observed that spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. If this is true, what was Elijah supposed to learn when ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening?
Jesus exhorts us to become like children in faith and Paul tells us to be men in understanding. These commands are not in conflict. One leads to the other. Like children, we observe the world believing it to be the work of God. Only as men does God reveal to us the deep significance of everything we have seen. This was the experience of Job, whose journey of faith ended as it began: he submitted to heaven as a child that God might make him once again a mighty man on the earth.
The Word of God is the same. There is no intelligam without a prior credo. That is why the faithless wrest the text to their own destruction. The Bible has the appearance of a book for children, but it calls us to maturity through what it does not say. Like Adam, we can allow the serpent to read between the lines on our behalf, or, like Jesus, we can discern the difference between light and darkness based on the simple commands of God.
God’s orders are always bittersweet because a test of faith precedes blessing, just as firstfruits precedes harvest, and death precedes resurrection. The perennial goal of godless men is to steal God’s gifts while He is not looking, but CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET. And not only does He see, but He is more cunning than the wicked.
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
(Isaiah 5:20-21)
Those who transposed good and evil will see their goods corrupted. The riches they hoarded will testify against them, and their blessings will be turned to a curse, just as their Judas hearts will be revealed for what they are. But this apocalypse was contained within the test of faith all along. In the Garden of Eden, the involuntary “death” of Adam led to life for Eve, so when Adam was called to die for Eve voluntarily, he had no excuse. The path to life always looks and feels like death, and vice versa.
And here we come to the point of the ravens in 1 Kings 7. The only wicked thing about God is His sense of humor, and it is at its best when He is dealing with the worst. Just as the black stone and white stone borne by the High Priest described a positive or negative response from God, so the dove and the raven sent out by Noah symbolized life and death, blessing and cursing, positive and negative covenant sanctions.
Just as the land and fruit bearers created on Day 3 relate to priesthood, and the heavenly lights created on Day 4 to kingdom, so the flocks of birds and the schools of fish of Day 5 speak of the hosts at the command of the prophet. Abraham the Prophet chased the scavenging blackbirds away from the sacrifices, under the promise that the barren womb and the barren land that God had given to him would be made fruitful.
In the days of Elijah, the land was barren, under a curse, so the shape of this particular “spoon” was an ironic object lesson for King Ahab. He had promoted Baal the devourer as a lord of abundance, so that which was an unclean sign of the covenant curse became, in the hand of God, a means of blessing.
What kind of father gives his son a stone instead of bread, or a serpent instead of a fish? The Heavenly Father. He has a long history of doling out stones and serpents to His children, but like Abraham, they know that, if they believe His Word, even hard words borne on dark wings will be transformed into blessings. For those who love God, even those things meant for evil will be scaffolding for their ultimate good.
Faith is always a game of bait and switch. God’s sleight of hand takes the cities and vineyards of the wicked and gives them to the righteous as an inheritance. When the Herods finished building their Temple, and Nero blamed the saints for the burning of Rome, it appeared that Jesus had been a false prophet, and many fell away. But for the sake of the elect, the tables were turned in a few short years. History has a habit of exposing men, and ideologies, for what they are, and such scandalous revelations are sudden as a camera flash, the veil torn away for the paparazzi of heaven to feast their eyes.
When Solomon calls for a sword, it is the wisdom of a God who has shown Himself again and again to be quite okay with bearing false witness to protect the innocent. But here was one greater than Solomon. Although Jesus said that this judgment would be like the days of Noah, there was one crucial difference: whereas the ark had been a place of safety, Jerusalem was in fact a trap. General Titus besieged the city when all of the Jewish leaders from across the empire were in town for the Passover. All those who had heard and rejected the testimonies of Jesus and Paul were together in the house when the fire fell. But this was holocaust, not Pentecost, and the dirty birds of Rome would not be chased away. The serpents who sought a covering in the Garden of God discovered that Adam had finally outcrafted them.
Hard words make soft hearts, so here is another book of tar and feathers, a court of Pharaonic serpents for you to devour, a book of pelted stones that are bread for the Sons of God. May they feed you at the cockcrow of the morning and in the pitch of the night.
