Faithful Through The Challenges

Faithful Through the Challenges

1 Kings 17

Introduction

We are living in one of the most challenging times. The pandemic, the election, the weather, personal challenges. We try to face these challenges from the perspective of faith. Our text introduces us to a man who is no stranger to difficult circumstances and challenges - but remains faithful.

Elijah is one of the most enigmatic figures in the Bible. We know very little about his identity or background. No record of God calling him to become a prophet. No account of his family background. Elijah is one of the few prophets who perform miracles. The only prophet taken up into heaven without dying. Most of his pronouncements for change are directed at the governing rulers.His commitment often had him facing overwhelming challenges.

Our text tells four amazing stories about Elijah and his faithfulness through the challenges he faced.

1. Confronting Evil King Ahab (1 Kings 17:1)

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Ahab was among the worst of the Kings (1 Kings 16). God said he was evil (16:30). He married an evil woman, Jezebel (16:31). He built an altar to a false god (16:32). He provoked the anger of God (16:32b).

So God sent Elijah to make a pronouncement: There is not going to be any rain. Three things resulted from this:

-A famine - there was no dew nor rain.

-An insult to Baal - the fake storm god who brings rain.

-Elijah’s life is in danger - the Lord sends him into hiding.

2. God Cares for Elijah by a Brook (1 Kings 17:2-7)

1 Kings 17:2-6 2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

In hiding from Ahab, Elijah is by a brook where he can drink water, fed bread and meat by the ravens.

In this extraordinary setting we can see… God is attentive to his needs. God provides for him as he escapes Ahab. The feeding by the ravens is just a preview to the exceptional life Elijah lived.

This peaceful setting is interrupted by the aforementioned famine - the brook dries up (7)

1 Kings 17:7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

3. Elijah is Sent to the Widow of Zarephath (17:8-16)

1 Kings 17:8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

There are some unexpected elements to these stories. Elijah is fed by Ravens, which would be unclean animal according to the law. He is sent out of the promised land to Zarephath - into the territory of Baal worshipers. He is sent to a widow - who in those times would have likely been destitute herself, especially in a famine.