“Provide.” “Provision.” “Providence.” Even in English the ancient roots of those words can be seen. “Pro” in Latin meant “ahead.” And “video,” meant “to see.” Someone who is a provider “looks ahead” and “sees” what will be needed. The implication then of course is that the person makes plans to meet those needs.
In our service this morning we are considering the fact that God provides for all of our needs because of his great love for us. In the Old Testament lesson we were reminded that the LORD feeds our souls with his Word. We heard in those verses that the treasure of salvation that he brings to us through His Word is free for the taking. The Second Scripture lesson from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans gave us the assurance that God provides protection for us. Nothing can separate us from His love in Christ. In the Gospel lesson we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus feeding a crowd of over five thousand. Jesus also fed the souls of the people in that group with his teaching before he fed their bodies.
Obviously it is a great blessing to have the assurance that God will provide for our physical and spiritual needs. Although God does this even without our asking He does ask us to put our trust in Him. He doesn’t want us to trust the strength of our nation’s agricultural resources or our own ability to make money. God doesn’t want us to trust what’s in our freezer or in our pantry. When it comes to our spiritual needs He asks us to trust Him for all that we need as well.
For an example of someone trusting that the LORD will provide all that we need for life, and for a powerful reminder of how God provides for us we turn to 1 Kings 17:1-16. Those verses are printed on the back of the worship folder if you would like to follow along as I read them. (Read text.) Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts and minds and to use this account of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath to enable us to:
“TRUST THE LORD TO PROVIDE”
I. Through the creation that He rules
II. According to the Word He has spoken
You may know some of the events that led up to these verses from 1 Kings. Under the leadership of King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel God’s people were worshipping idols in ever increasing numbers. The majority of the people were also living immoral lives contrary to God’s Commandments. Because of this, Elijah, a prophet for the LORD, pronounced a curse on the land of Israel saying that there wouldn’t be any rain or dew for several years. Of course this immediately made Elijah a hated and hunted enemy of King Ahab. So the LORD sent Elijah into hiding. The events that followed certainly led Elijah to have greater trust in the LORD. They also brought salvation for body and soul to a widow in Zarephath and her son. And finally they are recorded in the Bible to lead us to a stronger trust in the LORD who provides. He provides for us through the creation that he rules. And he does this according to the Word He has spoken.
I.
In the first verse of 1 Kings 17 we receive a reminder of both the power the LORD has over creation and the power of His Word. “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.” Since God is just he often makes the punishment that he dishes out fit the sin that has been committed. The people of Israel were worshipping pagan god’s that they believed controlled the weather and especially the rain that made the land fruitful. To make the point that there are no other gods and to call his people to repentance the LORD exercised His power over creation and shut off the rain and dew.
Before we look at how the LORD provides all that we need it would be good for us to realize that He would have every right to withhold those things from us as well. Like the Israelites of Elijah’s time we have been unfaithful to Him and worshipped other gods. We have taken God for granted and failed to give thanks for all that He gives us day after day. But through Christ we find forgiveness and mercy. And because of His undeserved love alone God still provides for us in spite of our sinfulness. May we always be led by the Holy Spirit to trust the LORD to provide what we need.
After hearing about God’s power over nature to bring judgment on His disobedient people we then hear about how He used that power to provide for Elijah. “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 ordered the ravens to feed you there.” Did the LORD use a miracle to provide for Elijah? He used natural means and miracles. The LORD quenched His prophet’s thirst with the water in a brook. There doesn’t seem to have been anything miraculous about that. The actions of the ravens on the other hand seem to have been a miracle. Ravens are scavenging birds that the Old Testament ceremonial Law declared “unclean.” Usually ravens are greedy robbers, snatching up snacks from carcasses of dead animals. But God used that most unlikely source to provide for His prophet’s needs. All along He showed His rule over creation.
Over time the circumstances changed for Elijah. Of course the LORD could have kept His prophet alive just where he was but He was leading Elijah to trust Him even more fully. “7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” Once again the LORD would use the creation that He rules to provide for Elijah. He had commanded a widow to supply food for Elijah. But there was one problem. The widow didn’t have a lasting supply of food to offer the prophet. So the LORD again used the creation that He rules to get the job done. He worked the miracle we hear about in verses 15-16. “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.” Through natural means and through miraculous means the LORD provided for his prophet. But ultimately He did it through the creation that He rules.
As we hear this account from Elijah’s life the LORD is calling on us to trust Him to provide for our needs through the creation that He rules. Although the LORD spoke these words to Noah thousands of years ago they still lead us to trust God for our daily bread. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22) It isn’t by chance that the world still turns in a predictable pattern. An annual time for planting and harvesting occurs because the LORD rules His creation. Psalm 145:15-16 states this truth so well, “15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” Our eyes look with trust to the LORD and He provides for our needs through the creation that He rules.
Since most of us get our food from a grocery store and not from land that we have worked we may lose sight of the fact that God uses natural means to provide for us. We eat potatoes from Idaho, beef from Nebraska, and oranges from Florida and California. The bounty of our land doesn’t come from our technology or our talented farmers. It comes from the LORD of heaven and earth. It is easy for us to take that fact for granted. But in every seed that is planted we see the miracle of God’s creative power at work. And with the abilities that we have to work and earn a living we also see God using the creation that He rules to provide for us.
As we apply the story of Elijah to our lives let’s first and foremost remember to trust the LORD to provide what we need. Then may we recognize how He uses the creation He rules to provide for us. Finally, let those truths lead us to give Him thanks for the many blessings which He showers upon us.
II.
Although God supplied Elijah with what he needed to live He also used the experience as an opportunity for the prophet to show his trust in the LORD. From the moment Elijah proclaimed the Word of the LORD to King Ahab he had to trust the same Word for his survival. The LORD told him to go to a ravine and that the ravens would feed him. Elijah took God at his Word and obeyed. Then the LORD told him to go to a widow’s house in a foreign country. All of these directions probably seemed ridiculous to Elijah. “A brook in a desert during a drought is going to supply me with water? And some birds are going to feed me? And then a widow without a penny to her name is going to supply me with food? LORD, are you sure this is going to work out?” And yet all along Elijah believed God’s Word and obeyed His commands. 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 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.” We might expect that the widow’s words would have shaken Elijah’s trust in God. But Elijah trusted the LORD to provide. He believed that the LORD would do this according to the Word He had spoken. “13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake 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 gives rain on the land.’” In time the Widow in Zarephath would learn to trust the LORD and to trust the Word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
The next two verses of the account confirm that God kept his Word. “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.” In keeping with the Word of the LORD the widow’s needs and her son’s needs were supplied every day.
Today it is the same Word of God that enables us to trust the LORD to provide for our needs. According to the LORD’s own Word he will provide all that we need for our daily bread. We have the assurance that King David expressed in Psalm 37, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25) We also have Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33) The Apostle Paul’s words to the people of the city of Lystra still give us great assurance about the LORD providing for our needs. “He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14:17) Again and again God’s Word reminds us that the LORD will provide for us according to the promises He has made. And as we look back at our lives we all can give examples of God keeping his Word and providing for us.
So was it easy for Elijah to trust that the LORD would provide for him according to the Word he had spoken? No, it certainly wasn’t easy but God strengthened his faith and he seems to have had trust in the LORD’s Word all along. Do you think it is more difficult for us than it was for Elijah to trust the LORD to provide? Because of the abundance that the LORD has poured out on our country we may have some challenges Elijah didn’t face. And unfortunately we have frequently failed to trust God to meet our needs. Through our worry or our trusting of ourselves we have shown a lack of faith in his promises.
Thankfully we have a Savior who trusted his heavenly Father at all times. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus to serve himself by changing some stones into bread? Jesus resisted that temptation and waited for his Father to send an angel to strengthen him and provide for his needs. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he expressed the sincere faith and trust that we so often lack. He said simply, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And Jesus lived every moment with trust that His Father would give him his daily bread. Now through the perfect life of Jesus and through his death in our place God our Father looks at us as though we always trust him and always look to him for what we need.
“To look ahead.” That phrase forms the root idea behind our word provide. Someone who looks ahead makes sure we have provisions. That makes that person a provider. We can then understand why believers throughout history have talked about Divine Providence. For us Providence should be more than just a city in Rhode Island. It describes the fact that God looks ahead and sees all that we will need for life. He then provides what we need. Whether we have a lot or a little, in good times and in bad, in wealth or in poverty may we always trust the LORD to provide. May the Holy Spirit work in us the kind of faith Elijah had. He saw the LORD’s rule over creation as He did miracles to supply him with food and water. Elijah also saw that God provided for his needs according to the Word he had spoken. Everything happened as God had promised. Throughout these verses from 1 Kings we see those two thoughts intertwined. May we take them to heart and trust in the LORD to provide. Through the creation that he rules. According to the Word He has spoken. Amen.
