CONSIDER THE RAVENS

GENESIS 8:6-7

Pastor Rick Jackson

 

I. GOD’S PLACE FOR THE RAVENS

1. The Raven was Pronounced Unclean [Lev. 11:13-15]

And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind;

2. The Raven Was Promised a Place [Is. 34:6ff.]

v. 6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea [Edom].

v. 8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.

v. 11-16 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

3. The Saved Sinner, Once Unclean, Has a Place [1 Cor. 6:11, 19-20]

-And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

-What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

 

II. GOD’S PURPOSE FOR THE RAVENS [1 KINGS 17]

1. To Obey His Word [v. 1-4]

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

2. To Accomplish His Will [v. 4-5]

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.

3. To Act in His Way [v. 6, Is. 30:21, Acts 18:25-26]

-And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

-And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

-This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly

 

III. GOD’S POINT FOR THE RAVENS [Luke 12]

1. The Future is Beyond Them [v. 24, Acts 1:7-8]

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

2. The Food is Before Them [v. 24, Job 38:41, Ps. 147:9]

-Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

-He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

3. The Faithful are Better than Them [v. 22-32, Rm. 5:8-11]