1 Kings 19:6

After some time — not too soon, we may be sure — an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." He looked around and saw a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He refreshed himself and slept again. Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to provide a meal for a failing servant! He had left an important post of duty, and was now completely outside the path of God's leading.

No ravens were there with a ration of bread and meat. The touch that woke him was not a widow's, with her jar of flour that never ran out and a few sticks for a fire. He was not to die, but live. An angel of the Lord had provided for his needs. Fire and food, the gifts of his God, were right beside him.

One of the lessons of the way is to grasp how God can stoop to arrange the little things for His servants. He delights to stoop. Sadly, we often distrust the One whom we serve. We doubt the interest His heart has in us and in His people. Who would have thought of the blessed God preparing a cake, baking it, and filling the jar! Then He sent His angel to that poor, weary, depressed servant of His, to tell him what He had ready for him. Such is the heart of Him whom we serve.

The cake baked on the coals and the jar of water at his head show him how God provides for him. But the angel is there as well, to point them out and urge him to eat. That displays the Lord's own personal interest in him. Solitary as he was, he was not left alone or unattended. God sends an angel as his companion and servant; and a second time he touches him, after watching him, no doubt, as he slept.

As Elijah slept the sleep of discouragement an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." How gracious the Lord is! Instead of reproving Elijah He provided the food Elijah needed. But after Elijah had eaten, he lay down again to sleep. When we are in such a lazy state we need the words of Scripture, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14).

In 1 Kings 17 it had been Elijah who handed out food to others, after God had fed him. Here, where his lack of faith had driven him, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him. The only strength available to him comes from food God has prepared for him... He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again... God fed him so that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might bear a powerful testimony. But if divine food does not give us strength for ourselves, will God's purpose be reached? The food Elijah finds at his head has miraculous power. Is it not the same with the Word of God? It brings us to the mount of God.

The Lord knows better than we do the demands that may come on us. He strengthens us in grace, according to His estimate of those demands. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow. The Lord wished to strengthen him and steady him for future service.