1 Kings 17:8-24, Psalm 146:1-10, 1 Kings 17:17-24, Psalm 30:1-12, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17.
A). THE WIDOW AND THE PROPHET.
1 Kings 17:8-24.
“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17).
This may seem an audacious thing to pray for, but the prophet's main concern was no doubt for the honour of the LORD, whose wrath and curse is pronounced against even the nation of Israel if she should turn aside from Him: “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD gives you” (Deuteronomy 11:16-17).
After living some time by the Brook Cherith where he was fed by the ravens, Elijah was commanded: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belonged to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee” (1 Kings 17:8-9).
In His inaugural Sermon in Nazareth, Jesus said: “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country... Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow” (Luke 4:23-26).
A distinction was being made by the Lord between this Sidonian widow, and the Israeli widows. She had been singled out “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
That this woman had received the gift of faith was seen early in her encounter with the man of God in 1 Kings 17. She professed the inability to feed him with the words: “As the LORD thy God lives, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die” (1 Kings 17:12). It has been well observed, that her desire was to feed her son, rather than to eat him as some Israelite women had done to their sons during a famine!
The circumstances might have seemed discouraging, yet even before receiving Elijah into her house, the widow woman knew that the LORD God of Israel was the true and living God! Perhaps even Elijah's sudden appearance was an answer to her prayers?
Certainly her felt needs were being met when Elijah responded: “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth” (1 Kings 17:13-14).
So grace could truly be said in that household for the time to come: she had received the LORD's grace, and the gift of faith, the gift of prayer, and now the gift of answered prayer - all she had to do was to obey: “And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah” (1 Kings 17:15-16).
However, lest the widow of Zarephath should imagine that she was singled out in preference even to the Israeli widows on account of her own merits, she was sent a trial of faith, which both made her aware of her sinfulness, and of the possible source of potential sin: “the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” (1 Kings 17:17-18).
Her reaction in blaming Elijah was a knee-jerk reaction against the God of Elijah, such as any of us might make on the initial impact of a hard providence. Notice that she is no longer calling God by his name, the LORD, nor is she calling Him the living God!
Yet in the end, she placed the blame on her own shoulders. She had not been sinless when called by God - none of us are - and she may well have been in danger of idolising her son who she was so concerned to protect, placing him alongside or even above God in her present life?
Elijah also questioned the LORD, but he did not lose sight of his faith, and put that faith into action in a manner God revealed to him: “And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived” (1 Kings 17:20-22).
Now, indeed, prayer was being answered in that household, and having both her son - and her faith - restored to her: “the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17:24).
B). A CALL TO WORSHIP.
Psalm 146.
The last five Psalms (146-150) all begin and end with an exhortation to praise the LORD, addressed collectively to the congregation of God’s people. Yet it is not enough for the praise leader just to call others to worship: it is also the exercise of his own soul (Psalm 146:1; cf. Psalm 103:1). The writer’s praise is his very life’s breath (Psalm 146:2).
Such should be our praise. It is not something in which we indulge ourselves on special occasions only, but something which is relevant to all times and in all places (cf. Philippians 4:4). It is easy to say “Praise the LORD” in the good times: but we should not be prevented from such worship even in the shackles of the deepest dungeon of our lives (Acts 16:23-25).
With the Psalmist, our commitment should be to worship the LORD “while I have my being” (Psalm 146:2). Yet this is no individualistic super-piety. On the contrary: our ‘soul’ is ‘bound in the bundle of life with the LORD our God’ (1 Samuel 25:29); and our worship belongs to all the generations of God’s people (Psalm 146:10) – even to generations yet unborn (Psalm 22:30-31).
Yet even while we are worshipping the LORD, the temptation is always there to put our trust in something or someone else. The children of Israel very quickly resorted to the golden calf (Exodus 32:1), and throughout their history made unhelpful alliances with the super-powers of their day (Isaiah 31:1; cf. Isaiah 30:3). Even good king Hezekiah made the mistake of trusting the Babylonians (Isaiah 39:4-6).
So the Psalmist warns us: put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help (Psalm 146:3). They are, after all, men like any other. They too, like Adam, will return to the earth from which they were drawn (Genesis 3:19); and their thoughts will perish with them (Psalm 146:4).
Our help and our hope is in the LORD our God (Psalm 146:5; cf. Psalm 121:2). The contrast brings us back to the beatitude of Psalm 1. If we are like ‘this’ and not like ‘that’, then “happy are we”.
Yet who is this LORD, that we should worship Him? First, He is the God of Creation (cf. Psalm 8:3; Psalm 19:1). Second, and not far behind it, He is the God of Covenant “who keeps His promises for ever” (Psalm 146:6).
“The God of Jacob” (Psalm 146:5) “executes judgment for the oppressed” and “gives food to the hungry” (Psalm 146:7). This covenant God heard the voice of the cry of the children of Israel in bondage in Egypt (Exodus 3:9), and fed them in the wilderness (Exodus 16:32). The LORD loosed the captives (Psalm 146:7).
The name of “the LORD” resounds throughout the rest of the Psalm - yet we could just as easily read the name of Jesus. After all, it was He who set us free from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5), and who goes on releasing those who have been held in bondage to sin and to death (Romans 6:6; Hebrews 2:15). It is He who opens the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8; cf. Acts 26:18), and who raises up the bowed down (Luke 13:11-13).
We are also able to see what we should be doing. The LORD cares for the strangers, the refugees, the outsiders (Psalm 146:9): so should we. The LORD relieves the orphans and widows – and often that is through the obedience His own people.
Again there is the echo of Psalm 1. The LORD loves the righteous (Psalm 146:8), but the way of the wicked He turns upside down (Psalm 146:9). It is no wonder that, from a worldly perspective, the early Christians were accused of ‘turning the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6).
Why should we trust and praise this God? Unlike the princes (Psalm 146:3), He shall reign for ever and ever, and to all generations (Psalm 146:10). This is your God (the Psalmist addresses God’s people) - so be sure you all “Praise the LORD” (Psalm 146:10).
C). ELIJAH RAISES THE WIDOW’S SON.
1 Kings 17:17-24.
Lest the widow of Zarephath should imagine that she was singled out in preference even to the Israeli widows on account of her own merits, she was sent a trial of faith, which both made her aware of her own sinfulness, and of the possible source of potential sin: “the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” (1 KINGS 17:17-18).
Her reaction in blaming Elijah was a knee-jerk reaction against the God of Elijah, such as any of us might make on the initial impact of a hard providence. Notice that she is no longer calling God by his name, the LORD, nor is she calling Him the living God!
Yet in the end, she placed the blame on her own shoulders. She had not been sinless when called by God - none of us are - and she may well have been in danger of idolising her son who she was so concerned to protect, placing him alongside or even above God in her present life?
Elijah also questioned the LORD, but he did not lose sight of his faith, and put that faith into action in a manner God revealed to him: “And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived” (1 KINGS 17:20-22).
Now, indeed, prayer was being answered in that household, and having both her son - and her faith - restored to her: “the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth” (1 KINGS 17:24).
D). A JOYFUL TESTIMONY.
Psalm 30.
The junior members of the drama group were playing the part of carol singers in the musical play Toad of Toad Hall. I can still remember hearing their sweet voices singing just one line: “Joy shall be yours in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). I did not know the Lord then, but for me this is one of many evidences that the Lord was already graciously planting His Word inside me, even in the midst of a rebellious youth.
Like so many of the Psalms, this is a song of reversals. King David is drawing us through the ebbs and flows of the life of faith, through pain and loss - and death itself (Psalm 30:3) – to the place where we can give thanks and praise to the LORD “forever” (Psalm 30:12). There is a strong suggestion of Resurrection: both that of Jesus (Psalm 30:5), and our own (Psalm 30:11).
The initiative is with the LORD throughout (cf. Isaiah 54:7-8). However, that does not excuse us from the life of prayer: in fact, it encourages us to more diligent prayer, and greater faith in prayer (cf. James 5:16). If God has delivered me up to this point, then why should I allow my knees to droop and my hands to hang down (cf. Hebrews 12:12)?
In the midst of his prayer David takes time out to exhort others to join him in praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 30:4). It is with this that the Psalmist begins (Psalm 30:1), and ends (Psalm 30:12). Furthermore, the “And in my prosperity I said…” (Psalm 30:6) also brings in the element of confession, – which is not unlike the ‘But as for me…’ of Psalm 73:2.
The superscription of the Psalm suggests that this was a song from the dedication of the house of David. It reflects a time when David was “secure in his mountain” (Psalm 30:7; cf. 2 Samuel 5:10-12). However, the danger comes when we become self-sufficient and self-reliant, trusting in past experience and present resource rather than in the LORD Himself.
The Psalm itself falls into five parts.
1. David praises the LORD for lifting him up (Psalm 30:1) from the grave, and from the gates of death (Psalm 30:3). This has confounded his enemies (Psalm 30:1), bringing honour to the LORD. In his plight David cried to the LORD his God, and the LORD healed him (Psalm 30:2).
2. David exhorts the congregation to sing praise to the LORD, and to give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name (Psalm 30:4; cf. Psalm 29:2). Although Jesus twice warns us against too simplistic a view about the relationship between sin and suffering (Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3), the Psalmist is in no doubt that what he got he deserved: it was God’s anger that did this (Psalm 30:5; cf. Isaiah 38:15). Yet God’s anger is brief, and His favour is life-giving, lifelong, and eternal (Psalm 30:5).
3. David outlines the instance of backsliding that he feels led to this stern chastisement from the LORD. First, he found himself relying upon what God had given, rather than upon the LORD Himself (Psalm 30:6). Secondly, he became presumptuous, mistaking self-sufficiency for trust (Psalm 30:7). Suddenly he lost his sense of the presence of the LORD, and it seemed as if all his props were gone!
4. Yet David did the right thing: he “cried to the LORD” (Psalm 30:8) and prayed for mercy (Psalm 30:10). In fact, the Psalmist pleaded with the LORD, and argued that it would be against God’s own glory for Him to allow David to go down prematurely to the pit of death (Psalm 30:9; cf. Isaiah 38:18-19). Jesus did, in due time, go into ‘the heart of the earth’ (Matthew 12:40), but He on our behalf prevailed over death, and for those who follow Him, ‘death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55).
5. Thus we are brought full circle to the praises with which we began. David yet again wonders at the reversal he has experienced (Psalm 30:11), and commits himself anew to a life of praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 30:12).
May we never forget all that the LORD has done for us, and may we never cease to give Him the praise due to His name. Now, and always, and throughout eternity.
E). THE UNIQUE APOSTLESHIP OF PAUL.
Galatians 1:11-24.
The gospel which was preached by Paul was “not according to men. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (GALATIANS 1:11-12). Paul elaborates on this assertion throughout the rest of the chapter.
Paul's testimony is that he is ‘the least of the apostles,’ but he still saw the risen Lord and is a witness to the resurrection ‘as one born out of due time’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:8-9). Paul asserted his apostleship by saying, ‘Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:1). Although Saul's companions on the Damascus road also witnessed the bright light and heard the sound of the voice, it was Saul alone who beheld Jesus (cf. Acts 9:1-9).
The Damascus road experience was not just Paul's conversion, but also his commissioning to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Ananias was told that Paul was a chosen vessel to bear the Lord's name before the Gentiles (cf. Acts 9:15). Paul himself recalls Jesus saying, ‘I will deliver you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you’ (cf. Acts 26:17). The word ‘apostle’ is literally ‘sent one.’
Paul's defence of his apostleship is that he received it ‘not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead’ (cf. Galatians 1:1). Paul received the gospel, he says, by direct revelation from Jesus. Also, his commission as Apostle to the Gentiles came directly from Jesus (GALATIANS 1:11-12; GALATIANS 1:15-16).
After the brethren in Damascus let him down in a basket over the wall of their city (cf. Acts 9:25), Paul seems to have spent three years in Arabia (GALATIANS 1:17). Perhaps there he communed with his new-found Lord, and in meditation upon God's word embraced those teachings of which he was able to say later, ‘I received from the Lord,’ and ‘this I say, and testify in the Lord,’ and ‘I command, yet not I but the Lord’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Ephesians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 7:10).
Certainly, it was three years before Paul went up to Jerusalem to meet Peter, and he stayed with him just fifteen days (GALATIANS 1:18). This was hardly long enough for Paul to have learned the gospel from Peter, or from “the other apostles” (who seem to have been absent.) The only other leader of the Jerusalem church who Paul met, incidentally, was James the Lord’s brother (GALATIANS 1:19).
At this point the Apostle adds his solemn affirmation – in effect, “As God is my witness, I lie not” (GALATIANS 1:20). The point being that the apostleship of Paul was ‘not by man, but by Jesus Christ’ (cf. Galatians 1:1). After all, his call came directly from the risen Lord Christ.
After this brief visit, Paul returned to Syria, and to Cilicia in the southeast of modern Turkey (GALATIANS 1:21). The capital of Syria was Damascus, on the road to which Paul had been converted. The capital of Cilicia was Tarsus, Paul’s home town.
In the meantime, Paul was unknown by face by the assemblies of Judaea which were in Christ. They had only heard a rumour that their persecutor was now preaching the faith which he had once sought to destroy (cf. GALATIANS 1:13-14). And on this account, “they glorified God because of me” (GALATIANS 1:22-24)
It was a full fourteen years after his conversion before Paul returned to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, and there received the right hand of fellowship from Peter, James the Lord's brother, and John (cf. Galatians 2:1; Galatians 2:9). This was the time of the famous Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15.
We see Peter's esteem of the Apostle Paul in his own later epistle to the churches of the dispersion: for Peter, the epistles of Paul are equal with ‘the other scriptures’ (cf. 2 Peter 3:15-16).
F). A VISITATION BY GOD, AND THE COMPASSION OF JESUS.
Luke 7:11-17.
It is interesting to compare this incident with that in the immediately preceding passage. In Luke 7:1-10 a Roman centurion pleaded with Jesus on behalf of his bondman, who otherwise had no voice, and no rights. The centurion, recognising his own lack of rights as an outsider to the people of God, addressed Jesus indirectly via teams of emissaries. It was a message of the deepest humility, the utmost faith, and the clearest understanding of the authority of Jesus. Jesus commended this outsider’s faith, and healed the centurion’s servant (Luke 7:9).
In Luke 7:11-17 there is no such appeal from the bereft widow, no sending of emissaries, no expressions of faith. In fact, the widow is silent throughout. However, there is a miraculous demonstration of the compassion of Jesus.
What an encouragement to us, not only to pray for those without a voice in society (widows and orphans, the stranger, the homeless, the disenfranchised, refugees, the poor, the destitute, the unborn – the list goes on and on): but also to pray for those who cannot, or even for those who will not pray for themselves.
A ‘procession of life’ was entering Nain that day, with “much people” thronging around Jesus and His disciples (Luke 7:11). For them it was perhaps beginning to dawn that Jesus is the only ‘living hope of a sure salvation’ (cf. 1 Peter 1:3-5).
At the gate to the city they encountered a ‘procession of death’ going in the opposite direction, with a widow recently bereft of her only son, and “much people of the city” with her (Luke 7:12). For her it would have appeared that all hope had died with her son.
The Lord saw her, had compassion on her, and tenderly told her to stop weeping (Luke 7:13). This would have been small comfort to her, if it were not for what followed.
Jesus did the unthinkable (Luke 7:14)!
First, He touched the bier! Did He not know that this was forbidden, and that it rendered Him ceremonially unclean? Yet Jesus was never one for standing on ceremony when He had work to do, and is always willing to get right down beside our dirt and grime, and sin and disease - and even voluntarily participated in death itself. Those who bore the young man stood still, perhaps in astonishment, but also waiting to see what was going to happen next.
Then, secondly, and astonishingly, Jesus spoke to the corpse. “Young man,” He said. Young man what? Rest in peace? No, but, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” As with the Roman centurion’s bondman (Luke 7:7), the authority for the miracle resided in the word of Jesus Himself: “I say unto thee” (cf. also Luke 11:9).
Thirdly, the young man sat up, and began to speak (Luke 7:15).
Comparisons might also be drawn with the raising of a widow’s dead son in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24). However, on that occasion the widow blamed Elijah; and Elijah had to do rather more than just touching the bier, stretching out upon the boy three times before he revived. Elijah ‘delivered the child alive to his mother’ (1 Kings 17:23), just as Jesus did with the young man here.
We can imagine the fear and astonishment that came over the people from both processions at this time (Luke 7:16). This was supplemented, however, with a limited expression of faithfulness, and awe towards God. Surely a great prophet has risen among us (cf. 1 Kings 17:24). Or, indeed, God Himself has visited His people.
The idea of visitation by God was not unfamiliar to His hopeful people. John the Baptist’s father prophesied of this, when he had his voice restored to him (Luke 1:68-70). Jesus bemoaned the fact that Jerusalem ‘did not know the day of their visitation’ (Luke 19:44). There is also ‘a day of visitation’ to come, for which we wait (1 Peter 2:12).
No wonder that the news about Jesus spread throughout Judaea and beyond (Luke 7:17), reaching across the world, and down through the ages to ourselves. Jesus, who has power over life and death, has compassion on us, too, no matter what our situation in life. God has visited His people, and visits us still.
