When Birds Are Your Only Friends
Behind the scenes of Episode 1, plus 4 cool things
Hello! Hope you’re well. Here’s the latest:
Season 5 Begins
This week marks the premier of Holy Ghost Stories Season 5, and I’m so glad to share this first story with you. Between seasons my beloved patrons vote on which stories I should tell next, and this one was tied for the most votes. It’s an understandable favorite: Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Fascinating and a bit of a tear jerker.
BITS AND BOBS
In the first few moments of the episode, I tossed in an allusion to Ahab’s grizzly demise with the phrase “canine contempt twisting his face.” If you’ll remember from 1 Kings 22 (and this episode of HGS), Ahab’s blood is licked up by a pack of hungry dogs.
In the scene at the Brook Cherith, I mention that “the young prophet is not a man who loves being alone”—I felt comfortable making this statement, given the cause of his despondency in 1 Kings 19. Some people might have been energized by the idea of being a lone soldier in the fight for Good. Not Elijah. This time of exile at Cherith must have been difficult for him, and he must have been grateful for the later company of the widow and her little boy.
The ravens! I loved thinking about the moments Elijah shared with these creatures. Also, ravens are just fascinating:
As I detail in the episode, they can craft and use tools, plan for the future, barter, remember people’s faces, even play games like hide-and-seek.
A study in Austria even found that ravens engage in non-vocal communication, pointing with their beaks to indicate an object to another bird and holding up an object to get another bird’s attention.
Ravens have been found to push rocks on people to keep them from climbing to their nests, and even play dead beside a beaver carcass to scare other ravens away from the feast.
As far as their vocalization goes, here’s a great example—18 minutes of footage captured by a woman who left a camera in her raven’s enclosure.
Ravens were, according to the Mosaic Law, unclean animals. Does this have any meaning in the story? I wondered, but if you’ve got a thought, do share.
Okay—now let’s get crazy. Just bear with me: Remember how the curse in Genesis 3 affects the serpent’s body, leaving this creature (and its descendants) to slither leglessly? Here’s my question: what if many of these strange abilities of ravens actually had their genesis there at the Brook Cherith? What if Yahweh gave them these abilities to enable their fulfilment of His commission and to provide Elijah with some form of temporary companionship during his exile, and they’ve had these abilities ever since? Maybe that’s ridiculous. …Or maybe it’s not?
Given her place of residence just outside the territory of Ahab’s jurisdiction and the way she calls Yahweh “your God” when speaking to Elijah, it seems the widow is a non-Israelite. So when Yahweh tells Elijah “I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you,” this is just one more instance of God interacting with people outside of the Hebrew nation. This happens all the time in the Old Testament, and seems to be something the xenophobic Jews of Jesus’ day struggled to remember.
Significantly, the prerequisite to the miracle of the multiplied flour and oil seems to be the widow’s willingness to devote all she had left to Yahweh’s purposes. Something in there for me to learn, surely.
If you ever want to make some Widow of Zarephath bread with just flour, water, and olive oil, here’s the bread recipe I drew from for this episode.
Oh—and here’s a simple diagram of the tabun she might have used, and a video of a similar oven being used on a larger scale—baking + gymnastics, anyone?
There’s a decent amount of discussion about what, exactly Elijah was up to as he spread his body over the boy’s corpse. This article helped me think through various possibilities and potential significance.
I loved the chance to call back to Goshen at the end of this episode. I’m happy to be getting Season 5 going, but I suspect I’ll always pine a bit for The Exodus. :)
Finally, I feel like this drought-laden story and its through line of Yahweh’s reliable word make Isaiah 40:8 a perfect epigraph for the episode: “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
ENJOY
Without further ado, I’ll leave you to it. Here’s “The Harbinger, the Fugitive, and the Host”—I hope it brings you into some sacred moments with the God who sees the hurting and whose word is truth.
LISTEN ON: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCASTS | AUDIBLE | WEB
Also, if you can take 30 seconds or so and leave a quick review of the show on Apple Podcasts, I’d be so grateful. Those go a long way in helping others decide to give HGS a listen, and every one of them is a big encouragement to me. Thanks so much.
How to Listen
As HGS Season 5 episodes begin coming your way, here are three things you’ll be glad you did as a listener:
Look for Yahweh.
Sure, He’s not always mentioned in the text; but He’s always there. He’s there when the sun is rising. He’s there when a woman laughs. He’s there when a child plays. He’s there when a father cries. He’s feeling emotions and rooting for futures and orchestrating grand and granular events.
Ask God to show you something.
Most of us long for more times of explicit encounter with God. We want Him to speak to us, to lead us, to reveal things to us. If you’d like to up your chances of hearing from Him, ask Him to speak while HGS leads you into a meditation on a story from Scripture. Then listen while you listen.
“Keep” what you saw and felt.
Remember how (twice) in Luke 2, Mary’s said to have “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”? She knew God was at work in her life, but she wasn’t sure what He was up to. She knew there was a message, but she wasn’t sure exactly what it was. So—and this is so instructive (and challenging for us moderns with short attention spans)—she collected the moments that seemed significant (the shepherds’ visit, their encounters with an old man and woman in the temple, Jesus’ strange response when they found him conversing with the rabbis). Mary “kept” those moments, spreading them out on the table every so often and trying to figure out what they meant. So be like Mary as you listen to these episodes of Holy Ghost Stories: iff Yahweh gives you thoughts or feelings or insights as you listen to HGS, keep them. Jot them down. Pause and reflect on them. And pull them out later on, putting them next to other moments He’s given you lately. Perhaps He’s speaking and you just need to listen.
I shared these on Instagram last week, but I couldln’t help sharing them here because truly believe that doing these things will transform your time with Scripture.
Thank You
I’m not sure I can articulate what an encouragement it is to receive notes like the one I got this morning:
“I have literally binged season 1 & 2 all weekend. My girls have absolutely been enraptured by the stories. And I have felt the spirit move within me in almost every story but “The Breath and the Bones” story had me in tears. This work is phenomenal!”
To every one of you who takes the time to share feedback and kind words about HGS, thank you. Truly.
Come to the Chapel
Wow! Holy Ghost Stories Live: The Exodus tickets went up for sale on Monday, and as of this afternoon they’re more than halfway gone.
So far, we have folks flying or driving from six states to join us—I can’t tell you what an honor that is, and I’m delighted that so many of you believe in the power of gathering to be immersed in the waters of the Old Stories.
This is going to be a powerful time of encounter with the divine in a breathtaking setting. We’ll climb Sinai beside Moses, chase dragonflies with Israelite kids, and gaze upon the misty presence of Yahweh Himself. If you want to experience the God of Scripture in a way you won’t soon forget, this night is for you.
If you’ve gotten your tickets already, I’ll see you in November! If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you can grab them here:
4 Cool Things
Love at First Sight - This movie was a complete surprise. My wife chose it at random because she was in the mood to watch a romcom with our teenage daughters. Before I knew it, I was drawn in. Before the end, most of us had shed a tear or two. A delightful little film.
Dedicated to the One I Love - When I was in high school, I really got into 1950s doowop. As you can imagine, it was rocketfuel for my popularity. Anyway, perhaps that’s why I really love Walk off the Earth’s cover of the Shirelles’ 1959 hit “Dedicated to the One I Love.” But maybe you’ll like it too—even if you were actually cool in high school.
iPhone Alarm as a Piano Ballad - Tony Ann is a great follow on IG or YT; dude is amazing. People are amazing.
The Arkansas Show - Come and join us—you’ll be glad you did.
That’s the latest! I hope “The Harbinger, the Fugitive, and the Host” blesses you.
How do we convince ravens to be our friends?