What Is A Miracle?

My brother Jeremy picked me up at the airport a couple of weeks ago when I flew to Pittsburgh. He isn’t from Pittsburgh, though, he’s from Alaska. So we relied on Mapquest to get from the airport to the seminary. Pittsburgh is the hardest city to drive in I know. Well, they tell me Boston is worse, but since I’ve never tried it I’ll leave Pittsburgh on top of the list. It was founded around 300 years ago between two rivers and uncounted hills, and all the freeways have to fit around and through this tangle. We did pretty well until we got to the Allegheny River where we knew there were 3 exits, marked A, B, and C. Well, ordinarily you would think that A would come first, B second, and C last. We had to get off on C, so we knew we had time. Except that’s not how it happened. The freeway suddenly split into 3 forks and we wound up going NW along the Allegheny instead of E. At this point we did not have a clue. So Jer kept driving while I fumbled with the map, and we eventually got off, and with not more than 2 or 3 wrong turns eventually got headed back for the river where we could turn east at last, except the exit is labeled north and south, rather than east and west, and sure enough we wound up on the wrong side of the river heading south. A little more blind navigating and we got on US 28 heading E (I mean N) where at last I knew where I was, and you know what I said? I said “It’s a miracle.”

Of course I know it wasn’t a miracle. Or - maybe it was. It was the kind of miracle you get when you finally stop fumbling around in the dark and actually read the instructions. It’s amazing how often that works. Of course we did look at the Mapquest instructions - but that’s not the same as understanding the city’s layout and checking the map for details and well, you get the idea. Going by the geographical equivalent of a sound bite is not the same as being really prepared.

But unfortunately, most of us approach our Christianity in that way. We pick up bits and pieces which serve us pretty well for ordinary times, but when we hit the ruts and landslides and detours that inevitably come our way, we’re lost. There’s nothing deeper to turn to, nothing constant and solid that will keep us steady when disaster strikes.

And disaster had certainly struck when we arrive at this point in the prophet Elijah’s life. You may recall from last week’s sermon that the Israel was ruled by king Ahab, whom the Bible describes as one who “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than anyone before him.” Which was saying a lot, considering his predecessors. And he was encouraged in his idolatry by his wife Jezebel, a Phoenician princess from Sidonia devoted to the worship of the fertility God Ba’al.

And so the Lord told Elijah to give King Ahab an ultimatum: shape up or else. Scripture doesn’t tell us that God spoke to Elijah - not this time - but we do know that Elijah never did anything unless the Lord had spoken. So we can be pretty sure that he wouldn’t take a risk like this on his own. Because kings don’t like to be threatened.

At any rate the threat - which turned out to be a promise - was that it wouldn’t rain in Israel for 3 years. And immediately after that, God told Elijah to disappear into the Kerith Ravine where Ahab couldn’t find him. Sometimes retreating is the right thing to do. At any rate, God provided food, and there was water in the nearby brook. But eventually even that stream dried up. And that is where we come in.

God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, where there was a widow who would supply Elijah with food and lodging. Now, Zarephath was a little town just south of the city of Sidon, where Queen Jezebel was from. So immediately we know that this widow is, more likely than not, a worshiper of Ba’al rather than of YHWH, Elijah’s God. That’s confirmed by the way she later speaks to Elijah, saying: “As the LORD your God lives.” This isn’t her God, you see. But she has clearly heard something about Elijah’s God. I suspect practically everyone in Israel has heard of Elijah’s God, what with the drought, and probably the king’s soldiers had been out looking for this wild man to threaten him into withdrawing the curse that was on the land.

At any rate, when Elijah arrives at Zarephath, he sees a poor woman gathering sticks outside the town gate. And he asks her for a drink of water. If you know your Hebrew literature, you would know that this is a clue. When Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac, Rebekah brings the servant a drink, and when Moses runs away from Egypt, the daughters of Jethro give him water. This is called a type-scene. Bringing a stranger water is a sign of a godly person. But this poor woman is not yet what we would call a woman of faith. How could she be? Probably all she knows about Elijah’s God is that he’s duking it out with Queen Jezebel’s god, who according to her world view was responsible for providing rain, and the little people are getting trampled in the fight.