Mothers
Today is Mothers day, hope you remembered, as do the card companies they need your revenue – There is no special reference to a mothers day in the bible so why today? That’s a bit cynical but that’s the way the of world views today, profit, good chance to squeeze a few pounds out of them on that guilt trip But wait, when I study the bible and read on the subject of mothers and family, every day should be a mothers day (that’s me fixed for tea and biscuits after the sermon!). We will consider today more about mothers. Mothers we all need them, we all come from them, they are central to our very existence, bringers of life, nurturers, protectors, encouragers, sacrifice’s self for others, givers of care, sources of love, lovers, sisters and so much more, were do you start?
I search for a good example of a mother to share today with you and the story of Elijah the Tishbite and the Widow at Zarephath spoke to me as a wonderful word to feed us today, this is one of those powerful encounters that fill the bible seek and you shall find.
Family Unit
Consider, What is a family unit? Father, Mother and Children, I would say the strongest family unit is Father, Mother and God, from which the children can be nurtured in the best environment – but that’s fine but its not the only way to be family. look at the world around us, these “perfect” family units are the minority - the majority are broken families. Single parents, mostly mothers struggling to bring children up by themselves, no help, Father long gone or dead, do we cast these families away cause they don’t fit our perfect model, never, we need to embrace them bring them closer and help. Help to bring God, bring Jesus in that restores brokenness, gives strength to carry on and helps the love to nourish – to pray for them. This resonates with the key theme for today’s message, which is “God Provides”, as you listen to me and read the words in this story open your mind to God and his provision, to Elijah and the Widow, to the world through the gift and creation of all mothers and most of all through his love that is never ending and never emptied and for all
Man of God
Cometh the hour to serve Gods need in the land of Israel, cometh the man Elijah who’s very name means “Yahweh is my God” , talk about take up your cross and follow me, no hiding loyalties. Consider the state of the nation it was the time of Ahab and Jezebel, a terrible time a time of out right idol worship to baal and hideous things, think today’s bad! The whole nation was turned against God, did things detestable to God. Ahab made the GOD of Israel angrier than all the previous kings of Israel put together! It was a crucial time in the history of Israel. It looked as if the worship of the true God might be completely eliminated in the northern kingdom. The land swarmed with the priests of Baal glorying in their sudden rise to power; insolent, greedy, licentious, and debased. The fires of persecution were lit, and began to burn with fury. – Seen the news recently, tell me do we live in similar times? Of all the thousands of Israel, only seven thousand remained who had not bowed the knee or kissed the hand to Baal. Declining Church indeed, still feeling comfortable? But they were paralyzed with fear; and kept so still, that their very existence was unknown by Elijah in the hour of his great loneliness – Who would trust God to provide and deliver?
Elijah whose very name was “Yahweh is my God” felt alone
This was a time of great conflict between good and evil and evil was apparently winning and gaining the upper hand. Desperate the Prophet of God let loose the awesome power of prayer rooted in faith in God and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain in Israel; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months – the blessing of God had left the land – later we learn it only rained when Elijah prayed it so in the name of God. Everyone else felt that the LORD was dead, but for Elijah the LORD lived. He was the supreme reality of Elijah’s life. Then Elijah went into hiding trusting God being led by him
The Stream Ran Dry
Elijah was led to a hidden place were there was a small stream flowing and the ravens came and fed him, brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening and he had water unlike the rest of the land. Before I go on, I like to think of this as an illustration of spiritual food, if you’ve given your life and heart to Jesus we will be provided for with streams of living water and the food of the word of God (the bible – ALL of it), now go forth and feed the world! Right back to Elijah and Gods provision, good eh all going to plan then
Ah yes the stream ran dry!
I have had times in my life when the stream ran dry, there are times when God allows us to be drained, gifts to ebb away, money to flow through fingers like water in cupped hands, health to wane, jobs to be lost, comfort zones to diminish and dry up. Why is this so, why would God allow this, in my experience and in my walk it is at the times of drought that I have no choice but to trust God, to depend on him lean on Jesus like a new born babe in mothers arms, powerless and having a childlike dependency. These are the times, like a child needs its mother when you have to trust and obey, lean on Jesus and let him carry you through. Times when God uproots dependencies and roots them again in his provision, times when we follow God in truth times of great nourishment. So the stream was dry and perhaps the Ravens had ceased the delivery service, what next then?
So Elijah, was probably expecting God to do something amazing, perhaps the heavenly army would sweep down and cleanse the land with fire and this stream would be a mighty river…yes Lord what’s that?
Then the word of the LORD came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.“
Perhaps Elijah might have thought of staying next to the stream, even dry it offered some hope, but being true he did as he was told, knew that the Lord was to be trusted that God would provide.
When Jesus rejected by His own people, Jesus used this example of Elijah’s coming to the widow of Zarephath as an illustration of God’s right to choose a people to Himself
Luke 4:24-26 Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were 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 all 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."
To a woman who was a widow Elijah went
Feed Me…
As Elijah entered Zarephath, a famine struck land, a dust bowl, think Ethiopia there was this woman, this widow collecting sticks and twigs, scraping around in the dust – she would not lie down and die she had a son
Gathering meager scraps preparing to cook the last food for herself and son, then nothing, time to die to go back to the dust, think of those terrible news picture of mothers in Africa holding there children as they breath their last, all skin and bone, desperate for food, flies in their eyes – this woman’s, this mothers world. This is the woman God selected, commanded to feed the prophet in her midst, did she know? This shows you how God can use people to perform miracles, they might not know what’s coming but God does. If she had not shown faith by sharing her last morsels of food, by showing compassion on a stranger, by being out searching for wood for the sake of her son, then she most likely would have perished along with her son, she chose the hard path of love and faith. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread." "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.“
Can you imagine approaching one of those mothers starving in Africa, with just enough to feed herself and son for food and water and asking no demanding to be fed. 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. 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.’ "
Did you get that, first make me food and then you can deal with the starvation of your son and self. What would you have done, Elijah’s God was not necessarily her God she was not from Israel as she had said to Elijah, “Your God”, but wait her heart sensed perhaps a divine beat, sub conscious sense to help this man and get this jar of flour and jug of oil, faith to believe in the miracle. This was certainly putting the widow’s faith to an extraordinary trial: to take and give to a stranger, of whom she knew nothing, the small pittance requisite to keep her child from perishing, was too much to be expected. She did not know God had chosen her, prepared her to have an open mind, BUT she was faithful, as God knew she would be, as a mother to her child, sensed this was a way beyond the next meal
That’s a mothers sense, God given even if God is not obviously there knew in her heart hope had just stumbled into town
This shows you God uses you were you are for his purposes, you need an open heart and faith to let him work through you. Her faith and service brought her a multiplication of the meal, like the loaves and fish in the hands of Jesus
Follow Me….
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. 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
She went away and did as the Lord wanted her to do. The widow actually did it - she willingly gave at great risk, based on her trust in the promise of God. God fulfilled the promise to the widow, her son, and Elijah. God used her as a channel of supply and her needs were met as a result. Instead of one last meal for herself and son, they had MANY, as did Elijah.
The question could be asked well why did She not get a vast store of wheat and many barrels of oil – after all God is God. But think of it in a famine struck land, how would a widow with frail child hold onto such an abundance, it would have been smelt out and discovered almost instantly and a riot would perhaps been predicted as a result. Perhaps you’re tempted to pray for a massive lottery win, God knows what is good for you, what you actually need in spite of yourself, will not give you that which could destroy you
That’s precisely what the Widow got as a reward for feeding the prophet Elijah, just what she and her household needed – a perfect abundance
My only son…
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 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?“
Tragedy, the Widow’s son dies, The death of the son was a double blow to the widow. Not only did she suffer as any mother who loses a child, but she also suffered as one who lost her only hope for the future. The expectation was that her son would grow and provide for her in her old age. Now that expectation was shattered – hope died
Could anything worse happen to a mother?
She turned on Elijah and God and in torment cried out “Why did you do this” echoing in many years later with the cry from the cross as Jesus died “My God, My God why have you forsaken me”, did God forsake this Woman know and so why did God need to send a prophet Elijah to expose her sins, God knew them anyway, as he does ours, still chose her, still loved her as he does us
God knows what it is to lose Children, to lose a son to death, God knows that pain, knows that hurt, right in the heart of love the pain is there, pain of a lost Child. God walks with her in the valley of death though she knows him not, this faith that she had in the God of Elijah – has this cost her Child for the sake of her sin, her hope, her future, what God is this that lets this happen?
Reflect again on the pain that God felt giving his son Jesus for our sins, what God is this that lets this happen? A God who Loves all does such
Resurrection Power!
"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. Then 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?" 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!" The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 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!"
Can you listen to this and not think of Jesus on the cross, this is a story of resurrection, a story of forgiveness, a story of hope eternal, the message here is God Saves!
Elijah firstly had to drag the dead boy away from the mother, she was clinging him to her breast, mothers never give up on their children. This vivid detail shows that the widow clutched the dead child tightly in her arms
He cried out to the Lord and stretched himself over the boy three times. Elijah prayed with great heart and intimacy with God. He brought this seemingly unexplainable and irredeemable tragedy to God in prayer. Since he knew God led him to this widow, Elijah laid this tragedy on God and asked Him to intervene in his power, his love the very force of creation that flows from God, flowed into this dead boys body
This is the first example of revival from death described in the bible, Later it was three days between death and resurrection, but God is moving though a preview of the main crucifixion moment – What is happening here resonates with the cross
The boy lived and was raised from the dead!
Then 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."
So what…
I hope today you leave this place thinking about mothers – on this mothers day
Not frilly pinks things of sweetness and nice, this is a story of a mother that will grovel in the dust for her child, will offer their last meal in exchange for hope, that will turn and plead in the heart of pain for her child, her love, her heart, that’s a mother
A story of a man of God, faithful to his masters call who walked the walk, carried the name and puts all to shame who do not do the same
This is a story showing the power of prayer, life bringing death defying prayer
A story as well of redemption a story that resonates and models in a way that of Easter
The death and resurrection, the pain of a parent at the loss of a child, the heart of Love
The joy of redemption, the amazing grace a gift from God so freely given to us who do not deserve yet if we ask can receive
Finally this is a story of Jesus, his love for you is greater than that of any earthly mother, he will not leave you, will not turn on you, reject you, desert you in the hard times, he LOVES you, he died for you so that your sins are washed away, gone forever never to be remembered
God will not come to remind us of our sin, when we turn and love his son, because of what Jesus has done, ask him into your heart give your love to him as you receive his love
Pray with me now:
Lord Jesus I ask you into my heart, in this place, I love you Lord, please wash me clean again, let me lean on you Lord and know your love, please help me see your face, be like you and follow you, lead me Lord I pray. In Jesus name. Amen
