Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, November 1, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
A drought is nothing to take lightly. While in this story, we are told that Elijah declares the coming drought will be by God’s hand because Ahab is a horrible person, I don’t think God delivers natural disasters upon the guilty and innocent alike just to prove a point.
And here we are in 2021, with the ravages of climate change causing all kinds of serious droughts and fires and other weather disasters, with the full knowledge that we actually did cause this by our greed and negligence. (And when I say “we” I do not include the millions of the under-privileged who minimally contributed to the problem while bearing the harsh brunt of its effects).
I don’t think God is trying to prove a point. But I think nature is. And the point is clear. All of God’s creation is crying out for healing. So many of God’s people are suffering because of the actions of a few.
How is God calling me to help heal creation?