I wonder if there is anyone here that ever seems like bad things are always happening to them. It seems like that you are always getting the short end of things. However, after going through all of your trails what you have learned is that through it all God is always right there with us, getting us through the rough spots, holding us up, and giving us strength to make it through.
There is a woman in 1st Kings 17 who has a moment whereas things are not going so well, but what’s good about her situation is that Elijah is there with her, taking care of her and her son day after day, but then mist of it all something happens.
In the beginning of this set scene Elijah was a prophet of God who was sent to King Ahab to tell him that Israel was going to be punished because of its great wickedness. Through the influence of Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel, Israel had starting worshipping Baal and some of the other heathen gods and as a punishment, God said he was going to stop the rain. For three and a half years, it didn’t rain.
And after a couple of months, King Ahab issued a decree and said, “Anyone caught watering their lawns or washing their chariots will be fined accordingly.” After a few more months, no one is allowed to wash their clothes or take baths. And after three years, it was difficult to even find water to drink.
The record is that Ahab and his wife Jezebel didn’t take too kindly to Elijah’s words. They probably dismissed him as a nut case at first, but as time went by without rain, things started to get serious. So, now the person that they though was crazy they now have sent out search teams to find Elijah so that they could have him killed, but God protected Elijah by hiding him by the brook Cherith, and here’s what I have learned from the first part of this lesson and that is, when you are out on an assignment for God, and when your enemy is out to hurt you, harm you, or even kill you God will protect you in the mist of trouble.
Look at what God is doing for the man of God; he hides him by a brook, a watering hole, or a stream if you please, he’s feeding him with bread brought by the ravens. (A bird that is considered to be a bird of bad luck: but now he is performing the acts of a waiter). And now after months and months of no rain, even the brook where Elijah is lodging was now drying up and Elijah had to go somewhere else.
So the word of the Lord came to Elijah. And it must have sounded like one of those good news/bad news jokes. "The good news was, Elijah, you are to you get up and leave Cherith. The bad news is I want you to go to Zarephath." God said to Elijah, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there." (I Kings 17:9a).
I don’t know how much Elijah knew about geography, but it’s possible that he had never heard of Zarephath before. It was a small town along the Mediterranean coast in the land of Phoenicia. Now Elijah might not have ever heard of Zarephath before, but you can be certain that he had heard of Sidon. Because Sidon was Jezebel’s hometown, and the capital of Phoenicia (fi-nee-uh). It was a center for idol worshippers.
Why in the world would God send Elijah to Zarephath, a suburb of Sidon? It didn’t make any sense. And if some of us were Elijah, we would have asked some questions for God. Some would have said "Lord, are you sure that you know what you are doing? You do know that this is the camp of my enemies, this is the camp where people don’t like me, this is the place where people are looking to destroy me. You do know that Jezebel is after my scalp.
And my brothers and sisters, I know that some of us are nonchalant, unexcited and acting cool about this but some of us would ask some questions, Lord why are you sending me there, in the mist of all of that chaos? Some of us would have some questions, Lord why would you send me to a place where people are trying to destroy me for what you told me to do. Let me speak for myself. Lord I have some question, because God you gave me the instruction on how I should live, teach and preach, and you have gave me my directives from the book that we call the bible why would you send me this a place where my enemies are lurking. I don’t know about you all this morning but I have been some places where is ask the Lord why.
I can hear him saying why in the world, are-you sending me into the shadows of her hometown, because down at the brook made a good hiding place.
At Cherith Elijah probably even knew every inch of the area where he was. And If Ahab was chasing him; Elijah could always escape in the mountains and canyon of Gilead that he knew so well.
But Zarephath? He would be a stranger in town, and everyone in a small town would know he was there. And if he introduced himself, he would be in danger of being arrested. If fact some of them there could have even been relatives of Jezebel living in Zarephath for all he knew. But I can hear God saying to him, go and I will be with you, I can hear God say I’ll never leave you and I’ll fight your battle if you will only trust me, trust me. I can hear God saying, for I am that I am, and I have all power, I will deliver you but you’ve must trust me.
So, the Lord said, come here Elijah, look, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. By the way, Elijah, I’ve arranged room and board for you. I have picked out a poor woman who is about to starve to death herself. But she will be to take care of you. And if Zarephath didn’t make sense, and now I’m going to a poor woman’s house and that made even less sense.
But as Paul said in 1st Corinthians 1:29, God often chooses the foolish things, the weak things, the despised things to accomplish his will. And the reason he gives us this in that chapter is "that no flesh should glory in his presence." God never wants us to forget, that in every situation of life, that it is him who takes care of us.
So Elijah did what God said. He "arose and went to Zarephath." (1st Kings 17:10a). Look at what it entails. It involves about a hundred miles of travel, and Elijah would have plenty of time to see the results of the drought. And as he traveled, I wonder if he questioned why God he would not select this wonderful house or that house rather than the home of a poor Gentile widow in Zarephath.
This episode was so intense that in Luke 4:25-26 even Jesus himself mentioned this story when he was talking to those in the synagogue in Nazareth. He said, But I tell you truly, in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
In fact, when Jesus finished his short lesson to his friends and neighbors, Luke tells us that they "were filled with wrath, they were filled with hatred and they were filled with bitterness. And the bible says that they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff." (Luke 4:28-29).
This seems to be a mighty strong reaction to a sermon on Elijah and the widow. Why would a simple story about Elijah stir up such animosity from Jesus’ neighbors? Because what Jesus was really saying was that God has sometimes found greater faith among the heathen Gentiles than he found in his own people. And was an insult to the Jews who considered the Gentiles to be nothing more than fuel for the fires of hell.
If you remember how upset Jonah was at the thought of preaching to the Gentile city of Nineveh. Then how do you think Elijah must have felt? He was asked by God to be totally dependent upon a Gentile resident of a pagan town. And not just a Gentile, but a woman, and not just a woman, but one who was a widow. And not just any widow, but a destitute, an impoverished, poor broke widow. Lord can’t I at least stay with a woman that has some money?
Well as Elijah approaches the city gates, he finds this woman gathering sticks. As she explains, she is going to gather a couple of sticks and cook her last meal, and then she and her son will die. Evidently, she was already starving because this was the last meal that she had in her house, and she would prepare this meal and then die.
Elijah does what seems to be a very cruel thing. He says 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. I want you to take your very last bit of food, give it to me, and then you can have what’s left over.
It seems cruel. And yet Elijah is acting according to the Word of God. God told him to go up to Zarephath and he said, "A widow there will provide for you." God promised to meet Elijah’s needs, so that’s why Elijah makes this request of the widow, because he is confident that God is going to meet her needs and his.
Now, you have to understand what this young woman had. (She was, evidently a young woman. She had just one child, and the child was very small. She had had a very tragic life and had lost her husband at an early age. She was down to one bowl of cornmeal. She also had a little vial that contained olive oil, and she was going to prepare a little pancake out of the oil and cornmeal, cook it, eat it, and then die. That was her plan. She had just enough to prepare one little cake. Once she pours out the oil, there will be nothing left.
But when she prepared this little cake, and Elijah sat down and ate it, there was enough to go around for all three of them. The next day she looked container and there was a little more cornmeal in her bowl, and there was a little more oil. She thought she remembered using it all up, but now there’s some more. So she uses it and makes another little cake, and the three of them ate it. And day by day by day, God continued to provide for them.
According to 1st Kings 17:14-16, for over two years, Elijah and the widow were fed on a day to day basis. 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 her household ate for many days.
May I tell you that God has a way of taking care of us? God has a way of taking care of us. And he has always taken care of his people.
If you don’t believe me ask Paul, Paul told us in Philippians 4:19, that we don’t have to worry because (My God shall supply your needs according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus).
So through this time of drought, when everyone around them was struggling to get by, Elijah and this widow and her son had their needs met by God. It wasn’t a feast, it wasn’t steak and potatoes, but it is was food, and God was providing.
But, as is so often the case, before things can get better, they get worse.
Suddenly something happened that took both the widow and Elijah by surprise. The bible said "Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him." (I Kings 17:17).
There’s another crisis in Elijah’s life, and life seems like it offers one problem after another. You know what I’m talking about.
It is said that Elijah is confronted with this great tragedy, and I can imagine him thinking, what’s going on? I’ve done everything you asked me to do, and now this. Elijah is hurt, and this widow woman is hurt, but now this child is dead. But even in this terrible circumstance, God’s loving hand is still on Elijah and the widow.
Keep in mind that no one had ever been raised from the dead, prior to this incident. No one had any hope of being raised from the dead.
For this widow, it would have been even more traumatic because she had no relatives to take care of her, and there is no indication of friends. Her entire life was probably wrapped up in her son, and now he’s now dead.
In verse 18 this widow begin lashing out at Elijah. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” Elijah, it’s all your fault. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t shown up."
But she had forgotten that it was Elijah’s God who had preserved her life for months during the times of her crisis. So Elijah “said to her, ’Give me your son.’ So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.
And Elijah prayed, Lord my God, has thou also brought evil on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son? Perhaps a better translation would be, Lord, why are you breaking this widow in pieces? She’s taking care of me. Please Lord don’t do this to her. So I heard that he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, ’O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.’ Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived." (I Kings 17:21). The boy was raised from the dead.
"And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother." (I Kings 17:23a).
Elijah took the child to his mother while still crying. Can you imagine what it was like when Elijah placed the boy in his mother’s arms again? Her tears would still be rolling down her face, but now they were tears of joy.
"And Elijah said, ’See, your son lives!’" (I Kings 17:23b).
And the widow responded by saying, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.
And all I need to tell you is no matter how bad the situation might look just hold and watch God.
