We saw how the Lord provided for Elijah in the drought, first at the brook and then at the widow’s home in Zarephath.
• By doing that, God also saved the widow and her son from death, and sustained all three of them for the duration of the famine.
• Miraculously the supply of flour and oil did not run out. The barrels might not have overflowed but there were always enough to feed them.
Just as we thought everything was going to be fine, something unfortunate happened.
1 Kings 17:17-18. 17Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
A tragedy struck. The widow’s son got ill and eventually died. It was a crisis of faith.
• She stepped out in faith trusting what the prophet said and then saw God’s provision. She was learning more about this God when her son died.
• What happened? Why this? In moments like this we too have questions.
• Why bad things happen to good people? Where was Elijah when the boy was sick? Why didn’t God intervene?
The widow confronted Elijah: "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" (17:18)
• From her point of view, she saw this as some kind of punishment from God. “He took away my husband, and now my son.”
• She presumed God was judging her for her sin, for something that she had done in the past. Her sin now caught up with her.
And if God was punishing her, then Elijah the prophet of God, was to be blamed.
• He has come, not to reward her but to judge her. He brought God’s judgment.
• Poor Elijah. The innocent tenant in the house, who has brought God’s provision, now being accused of causing the son’s death.
When we face a crisis in life, we will ask questions. We want answers, and when we cannot find them, we make assumptions.
• We make guesses and we believe our guesses. The widow felt this was the work of God. God has come to punish her.
• But then, why would God feed them in the first place? If God wants to take her son, it would have happened without His interference.
• They would have died long ago, without Elijah’s visit.
This reminds me of the incident in John 9 about the man blind from birth Jesus met:
John 9:1-3 1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
• The disciples had already decided in their mind two possible causes – he sinned or his parents sinned. Jesus’ answer was NEITHER.
• In order words, “What you are thinking was wrong. You are mistaken.”
• God has a greater purpose. He wants to display His works in this person’s life.
We had a similar situation in John 11 when Jesus made a delayed trip to Bethany. Supposed to save his sick friend Lazarus but Jesus waited until he died.
• Jesus told his disciples plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." (John 11:14-15)
• God has a greater purpose. He wants people to see and believe that Jesus “is the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in Him will live, even though he dies.” (cf. John 11:25)
In a crisis, we TRUST GOD’S GREATER PURPOSE
We would like to think that there is a simple correlation between being good and having a good life.
• If you have not done anything bad, you should not have trouble in life. God won’t allow it. So righteous people enjoy blessings, and only sinful people suffer.
But this is not true. Jesus: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt 5:45)
• It is true the other way around. Jesus: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
Good people can also face hardship and pain, because God has a greater purpose.
• Our comfort in life is not His paramount concern; His will in our lives is.
• He is concern about our character and our growth.
• God is achieving His purpose in our lives in ways we cannot see.
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So how did Elijah react to this accusation? He did not. He did not defend himself. He did not argue with her or answer her questions.
• Why? He has no answer. God has not spoken. There was no “And the Word of the LORD came to Elijah…”
• Any answer from him would be another guess. Elijah did not pretend that he know.
• We don’t have answers to all life’s problems and we don’t pretend to have.
1 Kings 17:19-21 19"Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
In a crisis, we SEEK GOD’S PERFECT WILL
Elijah sought the Lord. This was the most WISE thing to do. He CRIED out to God.
• I believe this CRY could be weeping, since he would have known the boy by now.
• He didn’t understand what was happening too. His first words were, “O Lord, have you brought this tragedy upon this widow I am staying with…?”
• We PRAY because we do not understand what is happening, what we are going through. We don’t speculate, we don’t guess, we SEEK the Lord and His will.
As he prayed, Elijah was led to make a bold request to God – “Let the boy live again!”
• As far as we can tell, he had no reason for thinking that this might be possible.
• No one had been raised from the dead before. Up to this point, we have no record in the Scripture, that such a thing was even possible.
It was a PRAYER of faith! It was a REQUEST to a mighty God. Elijah wasn’t demanding but pleading.
• Pleading for God’s grace and mercy, for a widow who has already lost her husband and couldn’t afford to lose her only son.
• When life caves in, we don’t point our finger at God, we plead with Him for grace and mercy. We cannot afford to be angry with God, we NEED HIM!
• In a crisis, the last thing we want is to start doubting God. We cannot afford that. We need Him most in such times.
Elijah made a bold prayer of faith. No wonder James praises him as a man of prayer (James 5).
1 Kings 17:22-24 22The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."
The Lord HEARD Elijah’s cry. What he did was a first but God answered him.
• James: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16).
• The Bible repeatedly tells us to pray and lay out our concerns to God, because He HEARS!
• Yes, the boy died, but God cares. Yes, a terrible thing happened, but God can use it. Not that God caused the bad thing to happen, but when the boy died, God used a sad thing to accomplish something more amazing.
And the amazing thing is - at the end of this episode, the widow got a renewed sense of God’s power and a deeper trust in the truth of His Word.
• She said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."
• She had already experience God with the flour and oil, but this resurrection was on a whole different level. She has come to true faith in Yahweh completely.
• Every day, looking at the boy, she would be reminded of the power and the truth of God’s Word.
God isn’t just a PROVIDER of things, He is the Lord of life and death.
• God’s power extends over and into the realm of death. Death is not God’s will.
• God is the Giver of new life, even for those who knows that they are sinners.
We have the full revelation of the will of God.
• 1 Cor 15:55-57 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Jesus will come, and He “is the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in Him will live, even though he dies.” (cf. John 11:25)
• When the widow first addressed Elijah when he asked for bread (17:12), “As surely as the LORD YOUR God lives...” But now, the LORD has become HER LORD.
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We don’t need every day miracles like these to trust God and believe Jesus today.
• Apostle John: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31)
• We have the written record of the acts of God and the ministry of Jesus in the Bible, and this points us to Christ. On the basis of this revelation, we can trust Him today.
In a crisis, we TRUST GOD’S GREATER PURPOSE, we SEEK GOD’S PERFECT WILL.
Even with God’s faithful provision in our lives, there can be trials and tribulations.
• We must see them from the standpoint of God’s greater purpose.
• Bad things can happen to good people. Don’t feed our minds with wild guesses and wrong thoughts.
• Seek God. He can surprise us by doing the impossible.
• He can use something bad to accomplish a greater good, a greater purpose.
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
Dear friends, we need to put our trust in Jesus. He is our Saviour. Come back to God. Repent of our sin and acknowledge Him as the Lord of our lives.
