Pray for my friend Eli y’all.
Eli has made some enemies (powerful enemies); and as such, he spends a lot of time avoiding detection. He takes a lot of excursions into the wilderness, and claims that God has specifically commanded him to take these retreats; and what’s really crazy is that he claims God has told him to take no provisions while living in the wilderness! This concerns me. I feel like he’s taking unnecessary risks. I don’t think he needs to be as forthright with his critiques of the powerful people he’s offending; and I certainly don’t think he should be in the wilderness, all by himself, for days on end, without taking any food or water with him!
He tells me that there’s nothing to worry about, because God sends food to him in the wilderness via ravens (…he’s not eating ravens, he says that the ravens deliver meat to him in the morning, and they bring bread to him in the evening). Obviously, this can’t be right. I assume he is simply hallucinating about the ravens (or deliberately messing with me); but he’s not emaciated so I’m left wondering how exactly he’s staying alive and nourished.
I recently asked him how he was staying hydrated, because there’s been a severe drought, and he told me that he’d been getting water from a brook, but when it dried up he simply went to the home of a single mother who was on the brink of starvation and commanded her to provide him with food and drink. I asked him how the single mother felt about this!? Eli told me that she protested, pointing out that she had only a handful of flour and a small amount of oil, and that her plan was to make one final, meager, slice of bread for her child and herself prior to their imminent death!
I asked Eli, “Then what did you do?”
And Eli said, “I told her, ‘First make me a little cake, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.’ ”
“What!?!?” I yelled at him. “Are you kidding me!?”
“What?” Eli replied.
I said, “Dude! That is so insensitive! …That’s brutal! She’s dealing with a starving child, and you command her to serve you!?”
Eli took a deep breath, and with nothing but sincerity and childlike simplicity in his countenance said to me, “I told her that God had informed me that her flour and oil would not run out. God would miraculously provide for her and her child, and me. …And she believed me. And she trusted me. You’re making a big deal out of nothing. She was cool with it.”
“But you realize how this looks, don’t you?” I said.
“Yeah, I realize how it looks.” Eli said.
After that it was just awkward silence.
Like I said, I’m concerned.
Please pray for Eli.
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