The Raven

(Notice: pages 4 and 5 of this writing contain information pertaining to the sexuality of man, and are thus somewhat explicit in the description of organs and processes associated with that divine expression.)

In 1966, the only girl I ever seriously dated called me, asking if my pet ravens were at home. At that time I had two pet ravens, though all in all I would raise five of them. I set down the phone and went outside to find that, no, one of them was not there. These two ravens were fully plumaged birds and had full flight capabilities. Often I would let them out and they never wandered off. In the evening they always flew back into their cage, which I would close up until their next exercise outing.

The two ravens I had at that time were named George and Louie. Though George is a masculine name, she was a female. (I did not know how to discern the sex of these identically featured birds at the beginning, and missed it on her name.) The other bird, the one that was missing on this occasion, was Louie, and he was definitely a male! Though one cannot sex these birds physically, once one gets to know them, the personality qualities of male and female ravens are as unique as the behavioral differences between a hen and a cocky old rooster.

I went back to the phone and told her that Louie was not there. She then went on to explain that a raven had lit outside her bedroom window and was calling to her. We had a date planned for that evening, so I told her that I would go ahead and come over early and see if it was Louie.

The drive over to her house was about four or five miles. We both lived in the city, and there were hundreds of houses between us. When I got there, this full plumaged bird was still there, standing on the house top, and behaving like his usual male self. I always had a policy with my pet ravens that I would train them where home was, but if at any time they wanted to leave, they were free to go. So I went over to Louie, and in my usual practice held out my arm as a perch, snapped my fingers, and told him to come down and get on my arm. But all he did was brashly caw back at me. I repeated the command, to which he once again responded in like fashion. Then for a third time with the warning to him that this was my last call and that if he did not come I was leaving, I summoned him to come. A third time in like fashion he resisted my call. With a gesture of a wave, I bid him farewell and went to get my waiting date. We got into the car and drove off, leaving Louie to his own destiny.

Someone might ask - How did that raven find its way over to my girlfriend's house some four or five miles away, stand outside her bedroom window, and insistently call to her? It is a funny thing that as a young man, that question never crossed my mind. I just knew it had happened, and I never stopped to question it until the last few years.

One might suspect that he had followed me over there sometime. But no, Louie and George never wandered away from my house (with one later exception for George, which will be mentioned herein). They were always within earshot, and came at my call. There was absolutely no way Louie could have known where she lived.

The only way that I can resolve that Louie went to her house and stood outside her window and called to her, and the fact that this full plumaged bird even waited for me to drive over there, is that it was a miracle, a sign from Yahweh that meant something. Certainly, it would not have been the first time Yahweh controlled the activities of a raven. It was the raven that Noah sent out first from the ark and it never returned. And it was the raven that fed Elijah while he was in hiding at the brook Cherith.

Given that out of a full 360° that bird could have traveled, the infinitesimal span of distances that were possible for a fully plumaged bird to fly, and the vast multitude of houses to go to, not to speak of bedroom windows to call out to, the possibility that bird would land on the house next door to my date, and insistently call out to her at her bedroom window, and lest you question the marvel of this, let us throw in another highly important and, as you will see, most attesting factor that that girl became my wife, the chances of all of this being a mere coincidence are astronomically remote and incomparably far beyond the realm of probability! And even though this was as impossibly coincidental as the ravens feeding Elijah each day was coincidental, how could one discern any meaning out of it?

For the last few years, I have wondered about this, and it was not until only recently did Yahweh show me the answer. I was in a very difficult and trying time in my life; it was early morning and I had actually even slept in my car. As I sat there in the early morning, waiting for the sun to rise; without any thought or pondering whatsoever about this, suddenly Yahweh brought His light to me in my soul, and showed me what all of it meant. Suddenly, what I could not understand for all of this time, I understood!

Why would such a Biblical bird fly all the way over to the girl who would become my wife, stand outside her bedroom window, and call out to her? And why was it that he would not come to me, and after three unsuccessful calls to him I took this girl into my car who would become my wife, and off we drove, never to see that raven again? Yahweh showed me why in that predawn morning, and the answer is most revealing!

To understand this, first we have to ask the question as to what the raven represents in the Scriptures. Everything has a prophetic meaning. Even as Yahweh is a trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), even as man is a trinity (spirit, soul, and body), so truth is a trinity. All truth has three aspects. First is the practical - the obvious natural or even historical events that occur. The second aspect of truth is the governmental - how it relates to the government of God, and eventually to man. The third aspect of truth is the prophetic - what Yahweh is revealing for the future. When the Passover lamb was sacrificed, that factual ceremony for us today is mere history. Governmentally, for the Israelite there were factors that controlled their religious and social activities. But what they missed was the most important aspect - the prophetic. By missing this, they never got out of the realm of the practical to assign the needed prophetic significance, which led to the true governmental application - our release from the penalty of sin through the true Lamb of God, Yahshua.

Someone can make the equal mistake with the raven. They can view its place purely from the practical, and relegate it to nothing more than interesting history, or even keep it at the practical governmental aspect and say that Yahweh is showing us through Elijah's raven that He will always take care of us. But even as the correct prophetic understanding of the Passover lamb opens one to great truth, so the correct prophetic understanding of the raven opens one to great truth.

What could the raven represent prophetically? Its testimony in the Scriptures includes the account of Noah, as well as that of the feeding of Elijah - Genesis 8:6-7 and 1 Kings 17:1-7. It is specifically identified as being an unclean bird which could not be eaten - Leviticus 11:13-15, Deuteronomy 14:11-14. It is also identified as the bird that will pick out the eyes of others who disregard Yahweh's order - "The eye that mocks a father, and scorns a mother, the ravens of the valley will pick out, and the young eagles will eat it" (Proverb 30:17).

One other revealing testimony about the raven is that its name is shared with a Midianite leader named Oreb. Oreb's name is the identical Hebrew word for the raven - "oreb." So when Yahweh has prophecies concerning Oreb, one can be certain that they apply to the raven as well. Let us look at that prophecy found in Psalm 83:9-12.

Do unto them as unto the Midianites;
as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb:
yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
Who said, "Let us possess for ourselves
The beautiful places of God."

What is this creature who travels in the heavenlies, whose appearance is solid black, who is unclean, was not faithful to Noah as was the dove, fed Elijah at his first place of hiding during the three year drought, and picks out the eyes of those who despise their father and mother? What is this creature whose human testimony sought to possess "the beautiful places of God" for himself, and for such became a curse? As you will see through these and other testimonies, the raven is clearly prophetic of Satan!

Continue to page 2 of The Raven for SATAN, THE COVERING CHERUB

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