Love God...Love Family...Love The Brotherhood...Love Others!
We've been on a journey here at Resurrection for the past two months this being the ninth message in this series, Kindred United. The overarching idea is that we must, as a church body (the kindred, the family, the brethren or brotherhood) be melded or joined together (united) in our faith. In short, we as a church family needs to be on the same page!
Key in this thought is that if we truly love God (the first principle from the Scripture above) then all else will follow. We will love our families, and make Jesus Christ a priority in our lives. We will love the brotherhood because we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus, they are our church family and scripture in clear in 1 John 3 that the unsaved "will know we are Christians by our love". We look upward to God first as our God, we look around us to our family and our church family. However, we are called lastly, as part of the definition of "neighbors", to look outward to others--particularly those in need. But how do we reach people that are in need?
Divine Appointments And Training
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word." Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." 1 Kings 17:1-4 (NKJV)
A few weeks ago we saw how God puts "divine appointments" in our lives. They are those times when, through what seems to be the craziest of events in our lives we meet people to either share Jesus with them, or have the opportunity to do good works for them. Because I totaled my car, God sent me to Uniontown to buy a car, and those three precious folks came to faith in Jesus as a result. Today we see a set of divine appointments in the life of Elijah the prophet.
A little back story is in order. The nation of Israel had fallen on evil times. King after king had become more evil than his predecessor, with Ahab being more evil than all of them combined. Baal, an idol/god that represented fertility and nature, was worshipped along with all the went with so called gods of nature including wanton sexual promiscuity.
Ahab's wife, Jezebel, was incredibly evil and pushed the Baal agenda; "at Jezebel's urging, Ahab opposed the worship of Jehovah, destroyed His altars, and killed His prophets." (Nelson's). Out of seemingly nowhere, God lifted up "Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word." "(1 Kings 17:1,NKJV). Those that worshiped Baal, the fertility and nature god, was shown to be powerless and a phony god by the genuine God by drying up the land and all plant life.
Then God sent Elijah into the wilderness to protect him to the Brook Cherith, where the Lord sent ravens to feed him and hide him from Ahab and Jezebel. God provided protection for the one that would speak on His behalf, but God had also sent Elijah to Cherith to train Him for what lie ahead.
There are two important lessons that we see in this passage. First, God can and does people that seemingly come out of nowhere, and that would be you and me. Not everyone that does God's will and His work are people like Billy Graham, John MacArthur, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah or D. James Kennedy. In fact, the great bulk of Christian work is done by common folk like you and me. God is not looking for a superstar to do His work, He calls ones that one day will "shine like the stars forever and ever" because of their works (Daniel 12:4). Secondly, when we do God's work, it will often not be easy and God will send us on a path where we would normally not go. To protect Elijah, God sent Him to Cherith for perhaps a year, then moved him on from there to his "divine appointment" after his first part of training him to trust Him through the ministry of the "servant ravens".
A Divine Appointment...
In The Belly Of The Beast
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink." And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." So she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." 1 Kings 17:8-12 (NKJV)
I vividly remember the first time I was called upon to preach. It was announced in church on the Sunday before, and a woman told me she had a dream that I was going to be a pastor one day. On the way home I told my wife about the dream, and she said "There is no way are you going to be a pastor!" I told her that it was God's call, not mine; He could send me to Africa for all I knew! Three years later, God did call me to start a church, and my wife--saved two years earlier--was in agreement with me. It's all about the timing and the training; God could have sent me to Africa or anywhere. God was training us.
Give this some thought. Elijah came seemingly out of nowhere, delivered his message of drought then was sent to Cherith. He was not only being protected by God, he was being trained by God--trained to trust Him. God fed him and gave him water until the brook dried up, then moved him on.
God sent Elijah to Zaraphath, near Sidon. The location is important, because Sidon was only about 9 miles from Zaraphath--and Sidon was Baal central. It was the home of Jezebel herself, and the whole area was Baal-infused. Trained at Cherith by God to trust Him to provide, Elijah didn't fuss about it, he just picked up and went--into the belly of the beast. A divine appointment awaited.
Elijah went to Zaraphath, and met the widow at the gates of the city gathering up some sticks. After a trip in a dry parched land, Elijah simply asked for a drink of water from the widow, then in the next breath asked for a "bite of bread" (NLT). He didn't ask for a loaf of bread but just a bite.
It is here that we see the true desperation of the widow: "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." It was common practice in ancient times for widows to be cared for by society, even in pagan societies. Widows often had little or no source of income as the husbands were the providers; that she was destitute was evidence of hard times in Zaraphath. Her situation was so desperate--and this breaks my heart--that she was going to start a fire, make one last loaf of bread and her son and her were going to watch each other die. The flour and oil was nearly gone with no hope of replacement. Society and government had failed her. She had lost hope.
The Provision of the Lord
And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.' " So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.
1 Kings 17:13-16 (NKJV)
When I hear of how God provides for us, I think of one of the names for God in the Old Testament: Yaweh Yireh, or Jehovah Jireh. The term Yireh means "to become" or "to become known", and is translated in Genesis 22:14 as THE LORD WILL PROVIDE. God provides, and is not just in 'the big stuff" but in "the small stuff". However, how much bigger can it be to a person in need of food to be fed? God does not just provide, He provides completely!
Elijah tells the widow "Do not fear". How often do we need to hear that from God! In the King James Version of God's Word we see sixty three times God tells us "Fear not!". The more we get to know God, how God provides, how He works in our lives, the more we will "fear not". Here is a widow, that if you look at the text, does not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She is most likely a pagan woman, in a pagan land and may well be a worshiper of Baal. While the text does say that the Lord commanded her (verse 8), this does not mean that she is a believer; she says "As the Lord your God lives" in verse 12 and she may have believed in many gods as heathen people did. The fertility "gods" had failed, and she had no hope, but Elijah, representing the One True God, tells her "Fear Not". Now he will prove to her why she should "Fear not".
First, he tells her what to do. "Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.". Build a fire, make the bread for me, then make some for yourself and your son. This sounded outlandish...but then he finished by saying For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.' " The widow did as she was told...and God never let the flour bin go empty, nor let the oil jar run dry. God not only provided for her needs, He provided for the needs of her son and Elijah as well for the entire time Elijah was there.
God sent Elijah as part of his training, to Zaraphath after God's boot camp at the Brook Cherith. It was the intersecting of the training of Elijah (this part building confidence in God in the miracle of the flour and oil) and the need of the widow and her son, providing food to sustain their life.
Be A Blessing...
And Be Blessed In The Doing!
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NKJV)
What can we learn from this short story in the ministry of Elijah? Here are a few vital points that we can apply to our own ministry here at our church:
You may think that you are insignificant, but you are not. It's important to remember that God calls us to be faithful in the ministry work he has given you, and leave the results to Him. Some people are particularly gifted and visible, some are behind the scenes and rarely seen--but God sees your works and will reward them.
There's an old saying "If God called you to it, He will get you through it". God sent Elijah to Ahab to deliver a message, then He protected Elijah and sustained him at the Brook Cherith for perhaps a year. Chew on that for a moment; would you have been that patient, in our fast paced, we need action now society?
God sends us on divine appointments. Your job may be to deliver the Good News of Christ to that person you meet; however it may be something as simple as smiling at someone that needs lifted up, giving a stranger a dollar or two when they are short of money at the check out. God has gifted you with time, talent and treasure to be used for His purposes, you are merely the caretaker of those commodities.
You never know how desperate things are for a person until you make that contact with them or walk in their shoes. What God did when Elijah asked for a bite of bread was to draw the Zaraphathian widow's desperate need into the open so it could be addressed. Most people's physical needs are not met within the four walls of the church, they are addressed out in the world where they live.
Ask God to use you, to bless you with the opportunities to serve Him; you might be incredibly blessed to be used by God in ways you never imagined.
