The Life of elijah (part 4)
1 Kings 17:8-24 ~ Ted phillips
March 18, 2018
We have been looking at life of Elijah the last couple months with a number weeks in between each time, but I trust that the Lord has been using the example of really this most unique man of God, to encourage you and strengthen your hearts, and perhaps even to challenge each of us to have a greater zeal for upholding the honor and the glory of God. I pray also that this look into Elijah's life will stimulate our own desire to know the very power of God in our own lives and to know it in a practical, very practical way, day by day as we live our lives here on this earth as sojourners, as aliens even as Paul tells us.
As I look back over the ground that we covered so far, I was trying to look for and come up with a single defining characteristic of Elijah's life that I can point to. And my conclusion will come really as no great surprise, I think, because it's quite obvious. Elijah was a man who trusted what the Lord told him and then he followed through with resolute obedience. If you look in chapter 17, He is seen as a man with unquestioning trust, unquestioning trust, and that trust is then fully evidenced by an unwavering compliance to the Word of the Lord. Everything that the Lord told Elijah to do, Elijah does it without question - without question. Many great men in the history of this world, men who have accomplished remarkable things in virtually every area of life - these kind of men are no one to have ordered their lives after certain governing principles. It’s one of the keys to their to their achievements. And really, if you think about it, that is what Elijah did. That is what Elijah did - and his achievements far exceed any anyone that you and I could ever think of, from the history of this world. His achievements were eternal. Things that God accomplished through him had eternal consequences. Trusting and obeying the Lord. That was the formula by which he lived his life, and it not only defined him, but it is certainly was the key to his success as a servant of the Lord. I think some would probably argue that that might be just a little bit too simplistic, and I would agree. It is simple isn’t it? - very simple. It’s straightforward and its most obvious in Scripture. And if you think about this, trusting and obeying the Lord - that is the very source of divine power that was manifested in and through Elijah. Trusting and obeying, it is very simple. I want you to think about this. It is the answer to every question that you and I could possibly be faced with in life. Have you ever thought about it from that perspective? Every possible thing that you and I can face in life. This is the root answer. Trusting and obeying. It is the scriptural formula that unlocks every promise of God to his people. In other words, it means that it is the means by which we come to know the very abundance of God's grace. This was the defining characteristic of Elijah's life, and as we continue to look further into his life and how the Lord worked in and through him, what we will see is a man in whose life the Lord revealed His glory.
I want to take the time just to read verses 8 through 24 of first Kings chapter 17 - If you want to follow along. We are going to be looking at this block of verses this morning - starting in verse eight -
Then the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So, he arose and he went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called her and said,” Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and he said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die”. And Elijah said to her, ”Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, “The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth”. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoke through Elijah. Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what do I have to do with you man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death. He said to her,” Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom and carried him to the upper room where he was living, and he laid him on his bed. And he called to the Lord and he said, “Oh Lord, my God, have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die?” And he stretched himself upon the child three times and he called to the Lord and he said,” Oh Lord my God, I pray you let this child's life returned to him.” The Lord, heard the voice of Elijah. The life of the child returned to him and he revived. Elijah took the child and he brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother and Elijah said, “See your son is alive”. The woman said to Elijah,” Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
Going back just a little bit in this chapter we have seen after Elijah confronted King Ahab with his rebellion against the Lord and then the judgment that would follow, the Lord sent Elijah to the brook Cherith. And there he began the process of further refining and purifying Elijah's faith. He was preparing Elijah for the greater task. He was preparing him for Mount Carmel. He was making them ready. In fact, for spiritual battle that would have significant implications upon God's people, the nation of Israel. And most importantly, it was a battle that would make known the very glory of God. In this process of refinement, the brook at Sheriff, of course as we know, dries up. The Lord tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, and what we see the Lord doing in this process of refinement in Elijah's life is that he is emptying Elijah from one vessel into another. Just as a process of purifying wine, removing the impurities as it is emptied from one vessel, from one jar, to another. The Lord is making Elijah ready for the spiritual battle at Mount Carmel by strengthening his faith. He’s purging anything that would become an obstacle in his ability to trust the Lord, and then to carry out the Lord's victorious work against the prophets of Bail. Zarephath is the next vessel into which Elijah is placed.
As we noted last time the meaning of the word Zarephath has to do with a crucible. Here Elijah's faith would be tested further. It would be proven. Cherith, the brook Cherith was only the beginning of this process. It was only the first step. So as we walk through this narrative of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath, I want to just make a number of observations as we go along.
In verses 10 and 11, we see once again that Elijah takes the Lord at His word. Let me read these once again. It says that -
Elijah arose and he went to Zarephath, and when he came to the city, the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and he said, “ Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink”. Ans as she was going to get it, he called her and said, ” Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand”.
Elijah comes to the gate of the city. He sees this widow gathering sticks. And to confirm that she is the one whom God had appointed to provide for him, he asks her to do what God had commanded her to do. Elijah acted in accordance with what God had told him he had already done. The sovereign power of God had inclined the widows will to comply with Elijah's request for water and for food and she does. She does. You realize that by this very same power, the eternal God has ordered the history of this world to conform to His purposes. He has done it in the same way that He dealt with this poor widow. In Proverbs chapter 21 verse one we are told that the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it wherever he wishes. History is not a result of man's own will and man's own termination. History is the result of God's sovereign power bringing about His eternal plan of redemption. That is what has been taking place here on this earth ever since Adam and Eve sinned. And this is what was taking place at Zarephath - the Lord is fashioning an event of history to conform to his predetermined will, and he uses this poor insignificant Gentile widow to do so. I think looking at in this way gives us a little bit different perspective of what was going on and Zarephath, that God is at work. He is actually ordering and shaping history in this town of Zarephath. I want you to now look at verse 12 and see how the widow responds to Elijah's request in verse 12 she says,
“As the Lord your God lives. I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar and behold I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
That we may eat it and die. Those are sobering words, very sobering words - words that you would not want to hear if you were the one who was supposed to depend upon this woman for your sustenance for your daily food. This widow was at the end of her resources. She was at the end of any hope. She and her son were going to eat the last meal together and then wait for certain death. This is the one whom the Lord had chosen to provide for Elijah? This man who would claim victory over 450 prophets of Baal? I want you to notice Elijah's response then to this in verse 13; “Do not fear.” Three simple words. “Do not fear.” On what basis was Elijah able to say that? On what basis was he able to say that. What reason does he, himself, have not to be shaken. And the answer is given to us in verse 14. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. This is all that Elijah needed to know. The Lord God had commanded it. He had commanded the widow to provide for him and from Elijah's perspective that was as good as accomplished. It was good as done. The status of her resources had actually nothing to do with it. God had commanded it. There's a truth here that you and I desperately need to take hold of. In fact, we need to grasp it firmly to our hearts into our minds to not let go. There is no situation that you or I could face that is so dire, so grim or so alarming, that the word of the Lord cannot prevail over it. There's not one, there's no exceptions. You realize that – there’s no exceptions - if God has commanded it. In other words, if He has promised it, and that if He has spoken from his word, it's as good as accomplished. It's as good as accomplished. And even if we are still perhaps reeling from the pain of a difficult situation, in no way does that change that fact. What God has commanded is finished. It's already done. It's already done. I want you to consider this for a moment. On the basis of thus says the Lord, in what are you able to have confidence? On the basis of thus says the Lord, what are you able to have confidence in - and complete confidence - unquestioning assurance? The Scripture is full of the truths and promises that the Lord has spoken to his people, that He has in fact given to us. My question is this. Do we realize the power that stands behind those words? Thus says the Lord. Do we realize the wisdom and the love and the grace and the mercy that stands behind those words? Elijah was not shaken and it goes back to what I had stated at the beginning, he was a man who was defined by the fact that he trusted and obeyed. If God said it, that settled it no matter what the circumstances look like. This is the principle, this is a truth that you and I need to cling onto and to never let go of.
There’s another observation that I want to make here from verses 11 through 14. The Lord uses human weaknesses to show forth His power and His glory. The Lord uses human weaknesses to show forth His power and glory. The weakness of this Gentile woman is quite obvious. She had an empty bowl of flour and she had an empty jar of oil, and she had no way to fill them. Because of the drought, she was without food for herself and her son, and she had no apparent means to change that, and starvation was soon to follow. I want you to look at what the Lord says to this woman through Elijah. He says the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty. Now later on in this chapter we’re able to determine that the bowl and the jar were replenished day by day for probably somewhere around two years. That’s a lot of days. I was reminded of the profound statement that the Lord makes to the apostle Paul in second Corinthians. You remember Paul had asked the Lord three times, on three different times, to remove the thorn in the flesh that was troubling him. And Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” - for power is perfected in weakness. This is not some kind of earthly power that the Lord causes to uphold our weaknesses. If you notice what Paul says following that, he says,
“Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
The power of Christ is a power that the world knows nothing of. It’s a power from a different realm - it’s a heavenly realm. It's the very power of God. Through the weakness of this poor Gentile woman, this is the power that was demonstrated. This is the power that was demonstrated. The bowl and the jar were not just the symbols, they were the very manifestation of God's power. This is the method that the Lord uses so often to show forth the glory of His power, and it seems to me that one of the reasons that He displays His power through our weaknesses - in doing so He demonstrates, He also demonstrates His lovingkindness. In Lamentations chapter 3 verses 22 and 23 we’re told that, The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is His faithfulness. See the unexhausted bowl and the never empty jar were not just a manifestation of God's power. They were a display of His lovingkindnesses that are unending towards His people. And furthermore, they were a display and they were a proof of His faithfulness.
Something that I find to be so encouraging is that the power of God and the love of God are inextricably linked together. The Lord uses His omnipotence to demonstrate His loyal love for us. He uses His power to care for us when we cannot care for ourselves. And that is what he did for Elijah and the widow at Zarephath. He made known to them the very power of His love.
As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of different times in my life when I did not sense the lovingkindness of God. I don’t know, perhaps you have experienced times like that yourself. There've been times when I felt as though the Lord's lovingkindness had somehow been withheld from me, or that somehow it finally had had run out. There was none left. When we look at this example of Elijah and this Gentile widow, we look at the unexhausted bowl of flour and jar of oil - when we are confronted with the promises of Lamentations 3:22, the conclusion that we must come to is that these kind of doubts, they come from the pit hell. It is the only place they can come from. Satan is the great deceiver as we know, and were told to resist him and one of the ways that we are to do that is to be reminded from Scripture that the love of God has been set upon us. God has fixed His love upon us, and by His omnipotent power and according to His faithfulness that love cannot - cannot fail. And that love will not cease. That's what we’re told.
Another observation that I want to make here goes hand-in-hand with this. Can you imagine the impact on this woman's heart as empties out the bowl of flour and the jar of oil, and then the next day she comes back to see it replenished once again, day after day for two years? Imagine the insight that she was given into the heart of God day by day. How did she account for these miracles? It would seem that what we see here is the Lord is in the process of changing this woman's heart and making it His own. It seems to me that is what we see going on here in this last part of chapter 17. If you look back at verse 12, notice this widow's response to Elijah's request for water and food. She says to him, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread”. She recognizes that God has caused the drought that she is suffering from, and she acknowledges that He is not dead but alive. He obviously has to be alive if He's the one who has caused this this famine, but she does not claim the Lord God of Israel as her own. He's your God Elijah, not mine. This is where she's, at least at this point. In the continual replenishing of the bowl and the jar that follows is no doubt the further work of the Lord to reveal Himself to her, as I already mentioned. But knowing the heart as He does, the Lord brings her to the point where she needs to be. He brings her to the point where every man needs to be if they are going to stand before God uncondemned. He brings her to see her sin. Look at verses 17 and 18 –was so severe It says, now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, that the mistress of the house became sick and his sickness that there was no breath left in him. In other words, he had died. He was dead. So she says to Elijah,
“What do I have to do with you oh man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death”.
You cannot help but sense the anguish in this poor woman. She's lost her only son. But if you think about this, this, this is the way that it must be if a person is to come into the right relationship with God. The Lord brings her very low that He may lift her up, that he may lift her up. In her anguish she last lashes out at Elijah and she blames him for the death of her son, but at the same time she’s brought face-to-face with her iniquity. It seemed to be just crushing her heart. She sees the death of her son here as a judgment and a punishment from God for her sin. Whether that's true or not specifically, we don't know, but she's made to see the association that God makes between sin and death. Because of the righteousness of God, death is the just consequence of sin. And as painful as it was, in His love the Lord brings the guilt of her sin before the eyes of her heart. Verse 19, Elijah then says to her, “Give me your son”, and he takes her son from her bosom and he carries him up to the upper room where he was living and he lays him on his own bed. Elijah then pours out his heart to the Lord. In verse 20, he calls upon the Lord, and he says, “ Oh Lord my God, have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die?” Now it's obvious, it would seem, that Elijah's anguish over this is almost as much is hers. He’s speaking to the Lord from his heart and in his anguish he does not lose sight of the God whom he served, and brings his petition before the Lord in faith. In verse 21 he goes on - he stretches out himself upon the child three times and he calls to the Lord, and he says, “Oh Lord my God, I pray to you. Let this child's life return to him”. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah. The life of the child returned to him and he revived. Elijah asks, he comes before the Lord and he asks, and the Lord hears his voice. He hears the voice of His righteous servant. What a privilege Elijah was given here. In his distress, and in the distress of this poor widow who was providing for him, He has the privilege to call upon the Lord his God, the most high God to approach his throne of mercy, and to see God's hand of mercy extended so freely. In verse 23, Elijah then takes the child - he brings him down from the upper room into the house and he gives into his mother. Elijah says, “See your son is alive”. Not only has this woman been shown that God demands that death is the consequence of sin, she's shown that He has power over sin and death. That in Him alone is life. You noticed in the response of this widow and how different it is from her response back in verse 12. Verse 24 -She says to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” That is quite a statement isn’t it?
As you consider the overall context of chapter 17, and that is of God's punishment that He's carrying out of Israel, upon Israel, and the fact that this woman acknowledges that the famine is just that. That’s what she said in verse 12. I think it is a significant thing that in the very midst of this punishment, God shows Himself to this Gentile woman that He's not only a God of judgment, but that He is also God of mercy. And it is in mercy that He works in her heart to see Him, not just as Elijah's God, but to see Him as the God whose word is truth. That is the transforming power of God's love. He works in the heart of a woman who no doubt once worshipped Baal, and He grants to her the knowledge that He Himself is the God of all truth.
I think it is interesting if you look back in the book of Luke in chapter 4 verses 25 through 26 the Lord reveals something about this narrative that took place in Zarephath. He reveals, in fact, that it is a further sign - the fact, the mercy that God shows to this woman. The Lord reveals that mercy is assigned to Israel as His judgment upon them. Let me read verses 25 and 26 of Luke four. The Lord says, “but I say to you, in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land”. Notice what He says in verse 26, He says, And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.God is infinitely wise isn’t He? I n the midst of judgment. He shows mercy to a Gentile woman for her faith and in that same mercy, He shows judgment upon Israel for their unbelief. Even in His judgment God shows mercy.
One last observation I just I want to share with you this morning. We been looking at Elijah's life up close and have seen that the Lord's intentions were not just that Elijah would be used as a messenger of His righteousness, but that the Lord was preparing him for something much greater. He was pairing him for the spiritual battle that would take place at Mount Carmel. This preparation involved a refinement of his faith. Elijah was going to need to trust in the Lord in ways that he never had before - when he faces King Ahab again and Jezebel in the 450 prophets of Baal. And as we have seen the Lord's first appointed place for Elijah was the brook at Cherith. The Lord tested his faith there and in particular, He taught Elijah that he and faith had to wait upon the Lord, and as he waited, of course, the brook was drying up. The Lord then appointed a different place for him. He moved him from one vessel to another to purify his faith, and that next vessel is Zarephath as we have seen. Zarephath is much different. Zarephath is a much different place than Cherith was. Elijah's no longer alone. He had to interact with others in particular he had to interact with this Gentile widow. It seems to me that one of the things that the Lord is perhaps showing to Elijah, was at the process of refining his faith was not just about him. The process of refining Elijah's faith was not all about him. We know that the way in which the Lord perfects our faith is through trials. And Cherith was a trial for Elijah and so was Zarephath. That was a trial as well. They were trials appointed by God to perfect his faith. Trials of faith are not easy. We know that as well. One of the dangers that we face when the Lord narrows the focus of our lives by way of trials is that we have a tendency to look inward, and even perhaps become tempted to be very self-absorbed. I would have to confess that is one of the great weaknesses that I've struggled with all my life. My wife could certainly attest to that. I think that one of the things that Elijah was to learn, and I think that we are to learn also, is that our trials may be ordained by God not only to further His purpose in us, but to further His purpose in somebody else. It is not by any random occurrence that Elijah's life intersected with the widow of the Zarephath. For God's people, the refinement process is rarely something that is done in isolation, if ever, if ever. The Lord appoints trials for us. We are to count them as all joy because Lord is being faithful as He said in His Word. He's perfecting the good work of salvation that He has begun within us, but we also need to be looking for those whose lives may be impacted by that same trial - by what's going on in our lives - what the Lord is doing in our lives. And I would say this, if the Lord is in the process of purifying your faith, you can bet He is correspondingly working in the heart of somebody else. And that somebody else will most likely - their life will be intersected with yours in some way. I think the apostle Paul was very good example of this. You remember in acts chapter 16 when he and Silas were thrown into the prison of Philippi. They'd been beaten with rods and they had been put into stocks with chains securing them. They were in a trial - they were in God's appointed place, a very difficult place. But despite that fact, Paul had not turned inward. We are told that at midnight, an earthquake comes and the doors of the prison are opened, and the earthquake literally causes all the chains to fall off of the prisoners. The Philippian jailer, supposing that the prisoners had all escaped, is about ready to kill himself, because he knows that if they do escape, his Roman leaders will kill him anyway. What we see is that Paul calls out to him. He says do not harm yourself for we are all here. Regardless of the situation, Paul was keenly aware that the Lord may be working on the hearts of others at the same time, and obviously he was. The jailer calls for the lights, and he is traveling with fear and he brings Paul and Silas outside of the prison, and he says to them Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
As far as Elijah knew, the Lord had sent him to Zarephath where a Gentile widow was simply to provide food for him. Little did he know that through that trial, the Lord would not only provide for him, but by the means of that very provision, and through Elijah's faithfulness, He would reveal himself to a woman who was in darkness. And then He would deliver her from the dominion of that darkness. Trials are difficult things and we know from God's Word that he appoints them for a purpose in our lives to perfect our faith. I think it's an encouraging thing to know that our trials are not just about us. No matter how difficult they are at times, they can be very severe. The Lord can use us through that difficulty to minister to the life of others. And if you think about it, to minister to others in a way that we could never have ministered to them had we not gone through or been in the process of that trial. God is so good in the way in which He works within the lives of His people.
As I look back over the ground that we covered so far, I was trying to look for and come up with a single defining characteristic of Elijah's life that I can point to. And my conclusion will come really as no great surprise, I think, because it's quite obvious. Elijah was a man who trusted what the Lord told him and then he followed through with resolute obedience. If you look in chapter 17, He is seen as a man with unquestioning trust, unquestioning trust, and that trust is then fully evidenced by an unwavering compliance to the Word of the Lord. Everything that the Lord told Elijah to do, Elijah does it without question - without question. Many great men in the history of this world, men who have accomplished remarkable things in virtually every area of life - these kind of men are no one to have ordered their lives after certain governing principles. It’s one of the keys to their to their achievements. And really, if you think about it, that is what Elijah did. That is what Elijah did - and his achievements far exceed any anyone that you and I could ever think of, from the history of this world. His achievements were eternal. Things that God accomplished through him had eternal consequences. Trusting and obeying the Lord. That was the formula by which he lived his life, and it not only defined him, but it is certainly was the key to his success as a servant of the Lord. I think some would probably argue that that might be just a little bit too simplistic, and I would agree. It is simple isn’t it? - very simple. It’s straightforward and its most obvious in Scripture. And if you think about this, trusting and obeying the Lord - that is the very source of divine power that was manifested in and through Elijah. Trusting and obeying, it is very simple. I want you to think about this. It is the answer to every question that you and I could possibly be faced with in life. Have you ever thought about it from that perspective? Every possible thing that you and I can face in life. This is the root answer. Trusting and obeying. It is the scriptural formula that unlocks every promise of God to his people. In other words, it means that it is the means by which we come to know the very abundance of God's grace. This was the defining characteristic of Elijah's life, and as we continue to look further into his life and how the Lord worked in and through him, what we will see is a man in whose life the Lord revealed His glory.
I want to take the time just to read verses 8 through 24 of first Kings chapter 17 - If you want to follow along. We are going to be looking at this block of verses this morning - starting in verse eight -
Then the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So, he arose and he went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called her and said,” Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and he said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die”. And Elijah said to her, ”Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, “The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth”. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoke through Elijah. Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what do I have to do with you man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death. He said to her,” Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom and carried him to the upper room where he was living, and he laid him on his bed. And he called to the Lord and he said, “Oh Lord, my God, have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die?” And he stretched himself upon the child three times and he called to the Lord and he said,” Oh Lord my God, I pray you let this child's life returned to him.” The Lord, heard the voice of Elijah. The life of the child returned to him and he revived. Elijah took the child and he brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother and Elijah said, “See your son is alive”. The woman said to Elijah,” Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
Going back just a little bit in this chapter we have seen after Elijah confronted King Ahab with his rebellion against the Lord and then the judgment that would follow, the Lord sent Elijah to the brook Cherith. And there he began the process of further refining and purifying Elijah's faith. He was preparing Elijah for the greater task. He was preparing him for Mount Carmel. He was making them ready. In fact, for spiritual battle that would have significant implications upon God's people, the nation of Israel. And most importantly, it was a battle that would make known the very glory of God. In this process of refinement, the brook at Sheriff, of course as we know, dries up. The Lord tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, and what we see the Lord doing in this process of refinement in Elijah's life is that he is emptying Elijah from one vessel into another. Just as a process of purifying wine, removing the impurities as it is emptied from one vessel, from one jar, to another. The Lord is making Elijah ready for the spiritual battle at Mount Carmel by strengthening his faith. He’s purging anything that would become an obstacle in his ability to trust the Lord, and then to carry out the Lord's victorious work against the prophets of Bail. Zarephath is the next vessel into which Elijah is placed.
As we noted last time the meaning of the word Zarephath has to do with a crucible. Here Elijah's faith would be tested further. It would be proven. Cherith, the brook Cherith was only the beginning of this process. It was only the first step. So as we walk through this narrative of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath, I want to just make a number of observations as we go along.
In verses 10 and 11, we see once again that Elijah takes the Lord at His word. Let me read these once again. It says that -
Elijah arose and he went to Zarephath, and when he came to the city, the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and he said, “ Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink”. Ans as she was going to get it, he called her and said, ” Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand”.
Elijah comes to the gate of the city. He sees this widow gathering sticks. And to confirm that she is the one whom God had appointed to provide for him, he asks her to do what God had commanded her to do. Elijah acted in accordance with what God had told him he had already done. The sovereign power of God had inclined the widows will to comply with Elijah's request for water and for food and she does. She does. You realize that by this very same power, the eternal God has ordered the history of this world to conform to His purposes. He has done it in the same way that He dealt with this poor widow. In Proverbs chapter 21 verse one we are told that the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it wherever he wishes. History is not a result of man's own will and man's own termination. History is the result of God's sovereign power bringing about His eternal plan of redemption. That is what has been taking place here on this earth ever since Adam and Eve sinned. And this is what was taking place at Zarephath - the Lord is fashioning an event of history to conform to his predetermined will, and he uses this poor insignificant Gentile widow to do so. I think looking at in this way gives us a little bit different perspective of what was going on and Zarephath, that God is at work. He is actually ordering and shaping history in this town of Zarephath. I want you to now look at verse 12 and see how the widow responds to Elijah's request in verse 12 she says,
“As the Lord your God lives. I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar and behold I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
That we may eat it and die. Those are sobering words, very sobering words - words that you would not want to hear if you were the one who was supposed to depend upon this woman for your sustenance for your daily food. This widow was at the end of her resources. She was at the end of any hope. She and her son were going to eat the last meal together and then wait for certain death. This is the one whom the Lord had chosen to provide for Elijah? This man who would claim victory over 450 prophets of Baal? I want you to notice Elijah's response then to this in verse 13; “Do not fear.” Three simple words. “Do not fear.” On what basis was Elijah able to say that? On what basis was he able to say that. What reason does he, himself, have not to be shaken. And the answer is given to us in verse 14. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. This is all that Elijah needed to know. The Lord God had commanded it. He had commanded the widow to provide for him and from Elijah's perspective that was as good as accomplished. It was good as done. The status of her resources had actually nothing to do with it. God had commanded it. There's a truth here that you and I desperately need to take hold of. In fact, we need to grasp it firmly to our hearts into our minds to not let go. There is no situation that you or I could face that is so dire, so grim or so alarming, that the word of the Lord cannot prevail over it. There's not one, there's no exceptions. You realize that – there’s no exceptions - if God has commanded it. In other words, if He has promised it, and that if He has spoken from his word, it's as good as accomplished. It's as good as accomplished. And even if we are still perhaps reeling from the pain of a difficult situation, in no way does that change that fact. What God has commanded is finished. It's already done. It's already done. I want you to consider this for a moment. On the basis of thus says the Lord, in what are you able to have confidence? On the basis of thus says the Lord, what are you able to have confidence in - and complete confidence - unquestioning assurance? The Scripture is full of the truths and promises that the Lord has spoken to his people, that He has in fact given to us. My question is this. Do we realize the power that stands behind those words? Thus says the Lord. Do we realize the wisdom and the love and the grace and the mercy that stands behind those words? Elijah was not shaken and it goes back to what I had stated at the beginning, he was a man who was defined by the fact that he trusted and obeyed. If God said it, that settled it no matter what the circumstances look like. This is the principle, this is a truth that you and I need to cling onto and to never let go of.
There’s another observation that I want to make here from verses 11 through 14. The Lord uses human weaknesses to show forth His power and His glory. The Lord uses human weaknesses to show forth His power and glory. The weakness of this Gentile woman is quite obvious. She had an empty bowl of flour and she had an empty jar of oil, and she had no way to fill them. Because of the drought, she was without food for herself and her son, and she had no apparent means to change that, and starvation was soon to follow. I want you to look at what the Lord says to this woman through Elijah. He says the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty. Now later on in this chapter we’re able to determine that the bowl and the jar were replenished day by day for probably somewhere around two years. That’s a lot of days. I was reminded of the profound statement that the Lord makes to the apostle Paul in second Corinthians. You remember Paul had asked the Lord three times, on three different times, to remove the thorn in the flesh that was troubling him. And Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” - for power is perfected in weakness. This is not some kind of earthly power that the Lord causes to uphold our weaknesses. If you notice what Paul says following that, he says,
“Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
The power of Christ is a power that the world knows nothing of. It’s a power from a different realm - it’s a heavenly realm. It's the very power of God. Through the weakness of this poor Gentile woman, this is the power that was demonstrated. This is the power that was demonstrated. The bowl and the jar were not just the symbols, they were the very manifestation of God's power. This is the method that the Lord uses so often to show forth the glory of His power, and it seems to me that one of the reasons that He displays His power through our weaknesses - in doing so He demonstrates, He also demonstrates His lovingkindness. In Lamentations chapter 3 verses 22 and 23 we’re told that, The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is His faithfulness. See the unexhausted bowl and the never empty jar were not just a manifestation of God's power. They were a display of His lovingkindnesses that are unending towards His people. And furthermore, they were a display and they were a proof of His faithfulness.
Something that I find to be so encouraging is that the power of God and the love of God are inextricably linked together. The Lord uses His omnipotence to demonstrate His loyal love for us. He uses His power to care for us when we cannot care for ourselves. And that is what he did for Elijah and the widow at Zarephath. He made known to them the very power of His love.
As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of different times in my life when I did not sense the lovingkindness of God. I don’t know, perhaps you have experienced times like that yourself. There've been times when I felt as though the Lord's lovingkindness had somehow been withheld from me, or that somehow it finally had had run out. There was none left. When we look at this example of Elijah and this Gentile widow, we look at the unexhausted bowl of flour and jar of oil - when we are confronted with the promises of Lamentations 3:22, the conclusion that we must come to is that these kind of doubts, they come from the pit hell. It is the only place they can come from. Satan is the great deceiver as we know, and were told to resist him and one of the ways that we are to do that is to be reminded from Scripture that the love of God has been set upon us. God has fixed His love upon us, and by His omnipotent power and according to His faithfulness that love cannot - cannot fail. And that love will not cease. That's what we’re told.
Another observation that I want to make here goes hand-in-hand with this. Can you imagine the impact on this woman's heart as empties out the bowl of flour and the jar of oil, and then the next day she comes back to see it replenished once again, day after day for two years? Imagine the insight that she was given into the heart of God day by day. How did she account for these miracles? It would seem that what we see here is the Lord is in the process of changing this woman's heart and making it His own. It seems to me that is what we see going on here in this last part of chapter 17. If you look back at verse 12, notice this widow's response to Elijah's request for water and food. She says to him, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread”. She recognizes that God has caused the drought that she is suffering from, and she acknowledges that He is not dead but alive. He obviously has to be alive if He's the one who has caused this this famine, but she does not claim the Lord God of Israel as her own. He's your God Elijah, not mine. This is where she's, at least at this point. In the continual replenishing of the bowl and the jar that follows is no doubt the further work of the Lord to reveal Himself to her, as I already mentioned. But knowing the heart as He does, the Lord brings her to the point where she needs to be. He brings her to the point where every man needs to be if they are going to stand before God uncondemned. He brings her to see her sin. Look at verses 17 and 18 –was so severe It says, now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, that the mistress of the house became sick and his sickness that there was no breath left in him. In other words, he had died. He was dead. So she says to Elijah,
“What do I have to do with you oh man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death”.
You cannot help but sense the anguish in this poor woman. She's lost her only son. But if you think about this, this, this is the way that it must be if a person is to come into the right relationship with God. The Lord brings her very low that He may lift her up, that he may lift her up. In her anguish she last lashes out at Elijah and she blames him for the death of her son, but at the same time she’s brought face-to-face with her iniquity. It seemed to be just crushing her heart. She sees the death of her son here as a judgment and a punishment from God for her sin. Whether that's true or not specifically, we don't know, but she's made to see the association that God makes between sin and death. Because of the righteousness of God, death is the just consequence of sin. And as painful as it was, in His love the Lord brings the guilt of her sin before the eyes of her heart. Verse 19, Elijah then says to her, “Give me your son”, and he takes her son from her bosom and he carries him up to the upper room where he was living and he lays him on his own bed. Elijah then pours out his heart to the Lord. In verse 20, he calls upon the Lord, and he says, “ Oh Lord my God, have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die?” Now it's obvious, it would seem, that Elijah's anguish over this is almost as much is hers. He’s speaking to the Lord from his heart and in his anguish he does not lose sight of the God whom he served, and brings his petition before the Lord in faith. In verse 21 he goes on - he stretches out himself upon the child three times and he calls to the Lord, and he says, “Oh Lord my God, I pray to you. Let this child's life return to him”. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah. The life of the child returned to him and he revived. Elijah asks, he comes before the Lord and he asks, and the Lord hears his voice. He hears the voice of His righteous servant. What a privilege Elijah was given here. In his distress, and in the distress of this poor widow who was providing for him, He has the privilege to call upon the Lord his God, the most high God to approach his throne of mercy, and to see God's hand of mercy extended so freely. In verse 23, Elijah then takes the child - he brings him down from the upper room into the house and he gives into his mother. Elijah says, “See your son is alive”. Not only has this woman been shown that God demands that death is the consequence of sin, she's shown that He has power over sin and death. That in Him alone is life. You noticed in the response of this widow and how different it is from her response back in verse 12. Verse 24 -She says to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” That is quite a statement isn’t it?
As you consider the overall context of chapter 17, and that is of God's punishment that He's carrying out of Israel, upon Israel, and the fact that this woman acknowledges that the famine is just that. That’s what she said in verse 12. I think it is a significant thing that in the very midst of this punishment, God shows Himself to this Gentile woman that He's not only a God of judgment, but that He is also God of mercy. And it is in mercy that He works in her heart to see Him, not just as Elijah's God, but to see Him as the God whose word is truth. That is the transforming power of God's love. He works in the heart of a woman who no doubt once worshipped Baal, and He grants to her the knowledge that He Himself is the God of all truth.
I think it is interesting if you look back in the book of Luke in chapter 4 verses 25 through 26 the Lord reveals something about this narrative that took place in Zarephath. He reveals, in fact, that it is a further sign - the fact, the mercy that God shows to this woman. The Lord reveals that mercy is assigned to Israel as His judgment upon them. Let me read verses 25 and 26 of Luke four. The Lord says, “but I say to you, in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land”. Notice what He says in verse 26, He says, And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.God is infinitely wise isn’t He? I n the midst of judgment. He shows mercy to a Gentile woman for her faith and in that same mercy, He shows judgment upon Israel for their unbelief. Even in His judgment God shows mercy.
One last observation I just I want to share with you this morning. We been looking at Elijah's life up close and have seen that the Lord's intentions were not just that Elijah would be used as a messenger of His righteousness, but that the Lord was preparing him for something much greater. He was pairing him for the spiritual battle that would take place at Mount Carmel. This preparation involved a refinement of his faith. Elijah was going to need to trust in the Lord in ways that he never had before - when he faces King Ahab again and Jezebel in the 450 prophets of Baal. And as we have seen the Lord's first appointed place for Elijah was the brook at Cherith. The Lord tested his faith there and in particular, He taught Elijah that he and faith had to wait upon the Lord, and as he waited, of course, the brook was drying up. The Lord then appointed a different place for him. He moved him from one vessel to another to purify his faith, and that next vessel is Zarephath as we have seen. Zarephath is much different. Zarephath is a much different place than Cherith was. Elijah's no longer alone. He had to interact with others in particular he had to interact with this Gentile widow. It seems to me that one of the things that the Lord is perhaps showing to Elijah, was at the process of refining his faith was not just about him. The process of refining Elijah's faith was not all about him. We know that the way in which the Lord perfects our faith is through trials. And Cherith was a trial for Elijah and so was Zarephath. That was a trial as well. They were trials appointed by God to perfect his faith. Trials of faith are not easy. We know that as well. One of the dangers that we face when the Lord narrows the focus of our lives by way of trials is that we have a tendency to look inward, and even perhaps become tempted to be very self-absorbed. I would have to confess that is one of the great weaknesses that I've struggled with all my life. My wife could certainly attest to that. I think that one of the things that Elijah was to learn, and I think that we are to learn also, is that our trials may be ordained by God not only to further His purpose in us, but to further His purpose in somebody else. It is not by any random occurrence that Elijah's life intersected with the widow of the Zarephath. For God's people, the refinement process is rarely something that is done in isolation, if ever, if ever. The Lord appoints trials for us. We are to count them as all joy because Lord is being faithful as He said in His Word. He's perfecting the good work of salvation that He has begun within us, but we also need to be looking for those whose lives may be impacted by that same trial - by what's going on in our lives - what the Lord is doing in our lives. And I would say this, if the Lord is in the process of purifying your faith, you can bet He is correspondingly working in the heart of somebody else. And that somebody else will most likely - their life will be intersected with yours in some way. I think the apostle Paul was very good example of this. You remember in acts chapter 16 when he and Silas were thrown into the prison of Philippi. They'd been beaten with rods and they had been put into stocks with chains securing them. They were in a trial - they were in God's appointed place, a very difficult place. But despite that fact, Paul had not turned inward. We are told that at midnight, an earthquake comes and the doors of the prison are opened, and the earthquake literally causes all the chains to fall off of the prisoners. The Philippian jailer, supposing that the prisoners had all escaped, is about ready to kill himself, because he knows that if they do escape, his Roman leaders will kill him anyway. What we see is that Paul calls out to him. He says do not harm yourself for we are all here. Regardless of the situation, Paul was keenly aware that the Lord may be working on the hearts of others at the same time, and obviously he was. The jailer calls for the lights, and he is traveling with fear and he brings Paul and Silas outside of the prison, and he says to them Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
As far as Elijah knew, the Lord had sent him to Zarephath where a Gentile widow was simply to provide food for him. Little did he know that through that trial, the Lord would not only provide for him, but by the means of that very provision, and through Elijah's faithfulness, He would reveal himself to a woman who was in darkness. And then He would deliver her from the dominion of that darkness. Trials are difficult things and we know from God's Word that he appoints them for a purpose in our lives to perfect our faith. I think it's an encouraging thing to know that our trials are not just about us. No matter how difficult they are at times, they can be very severe. The Lord can use us through that difficulty to minister to the life of others. And if you think about it, to minister to others in a way that we could never have ministered to them had we not gone through or been in the process of that trial. God is so good in the way in which He works within the lives of His people.
