The Provision of the Lord
Pastor Marty Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 12:29PM 1 kings 17:18-16. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 12, 2017.
Today we continue looking at the prophet Elijah. Last week we saw that Elijah had prophesied to King Ahab that a famine would come on the land and would not be broken until Elijah said so. God had then provided for Elijah to retreat into the wilderness. When we stopped at verse 7 last week, the stream by which Elijah was staying went dry. Today we will see the new way that God had planned to care for Elijah and learn from it that we need not fear when things go sideways. God is always looking out for us, whether we are someone as important as Elijah the prophet or a widow in a foreign land who has nothing. However, He doesn’t always use the same things to provide for us. Let’s look at the story.
The Lord is our source of provision
As I said earlier, Elijah has hit a transition point. The way God had been taking care of him has now dried up. What now? Has God forgotten about me? Has God failed or no longer cares about me? These are the normal questions when such a time happens in our life. We can begin to doubt God’s care and fear what lies ahead. However, the same God who provided the stream of water and the food-bearing ravens now had a new plan. This new plan involved a widow who lived in another country, the widow of Zarephath (Zair-uh-fath). If we step back and think about Elijah’s life to this point we will recognize that God is not letting him get comfortable. He presumably starts out at whatever his home was. Then he ends up living in the wilderness next to the brook Cherith. Now things are changing again and he is going to have to move again. It is clear that God is testing Elijah to see if he will keep obeying and trust God. However, He is also teaching Elijah that God is able to take care of him, no matter where he goes. It is easy for us to think of God caring for Elijah, but not necessarily caring about us. Who am I? I am no great prophet. Why would God even give a second thought about me? Well, pay attention to how God is both taking care of Elijah and this widow from a foreign country, who no doubt is not a worshipper of Him. When God has been using something or someone to help us, we must not look to those things desperately, as if they were the source of provision. We must always recognize them as only the means of God’s provision.
On a side note, we have a good piece of information here. Elijah is not some powerful guy who says whatever he wants and God backs him up. If so, he could have just commanded the stones around him to be turned into bread (like the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness). No, Elijah is a man under the direction and command of God. Thus, that is not an option. He could have tried to do so, but it wouldn’t work. God had a different plan. God then gives Elijah the instruction and the leading that he needed to get to the next channel of God’s provision. Now in our lives, it seems that we don’t get clear and quick instruction from the Lord. I would say, however, that we do not know how long Elijah was at the side of the dry stream bed praying and waiting for an answer. Regardless, God can give us instructions quickly or after a time of waiting. We must be faithful to seek His instructions and leading, by reading the Word and seeking Him through prayer. It is part of trusting God, to keep looking to Him even though it seems to be taking a long time. No matter how long we may need to wait, the answer of the Lord will always become clear eventually.
So let’s talk about God’s plan. Why is he going to use a widow from Zarephath? Zarephath was a village on the outskirts of Sidon and under its control or dominion. Remember that King Ahab had married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon. There are at least two ways to look at this plan. In Luke 4, Jesus had been healing people in the area of Galilee and then had come home. There was resistance and jealousy of him there. In fact, Mark 6:3 says that they took offense at him. They wondered why he didn’t do lots of miracles in Nazareth as well. Jesus answers by reminding them of our story today. He asks why God sent Elijah to a widow near Sidon. Weren’t there enough widows in all of Israel to pick from? At this point in time, northern Israel had fallen into idolatry, led by King Ahab. God was not doing powerful things through Elijah for the material benefit of his hometown, or Israel, or perhaps for the churches today. No the miracles are for God’s purposes and benefit those whom He chooses. He sees the needs of everyone, and those who are full of themselves and quick to offense will typically not be His first choice.
Another aspect of this new plan has to do with Spiritual Warfare. King Ahab of Israel had fallen into idolatry and an alliance with the enemies of God. This was a blow to God’s work through Israel. There is some irony that God sends Elijah into the backyard of King Ethbaal of Sidon. This counter-attack is not of the same kind, but it is a spiritual advance into a territory under the dominion of darkness. Here Elijah will plant the seeds of truth in the life of a woman and her child. The God of Israel was the only god that cared for her, and even in a miraculous way. These seeds would grow and bear fruit throughout that area. I can imagine that later, when the apostles went through that area, they may have found some remnants of those seeds that were open to the Gospel.
Now we can also recognize that this new plan of God is very different from the previous. In the previous, Elijah was by himself and the provision came from nature, at God’s command. But, the new plan is to use a person who can provide for his physical needs. God often uses other people in our life to care for us and to help us. It is not always in material needs. It might be someone who knows the Word of the Lord and can share it with us. Or someone who understands what we are going through and can comfort us. Regardless, all of our connections to others in life, especially within the Church, are used by God to provide something in our lives. Sometimes we can be too stubborn to receive it. Now, this works the other way as well. God wants you to care for others even as they care for you. Our gifting are not the same. God intends that we help each other in different ways. It can even be in the same way, but at different times. I can help you today, and find I need your help in the same area tomorrow. God can always cause something to come into our life without the help of another person. But, He often chooses to use people and relationships with others. He does so because relationship is what He wants most with us. A relationship with an unseen God can be fraught with self-deception. But a relationship with a flesh and blood person requires us to be real. When we are constantly faced with reality by our relationships with others, it helps us to be real with God.
It is interesting that God tells Elijah in verse 9 that He has “commanded” the widow to provide for him. It is clear from the story that the widow did not get the memo, as they say. The word here most likely has the sense of an appointment. God had decreed or appointed that Elijah would be helped through this woman, but He doesn’t tell her, except through Elijah. Often, God has appointments for us that do not make sense at the time. Imagine, this widow being asked for food and water by Elijah. How insensitive that must has seemed to her at the time. “You picked the wrong person, buddy.” She was a widow and thus very poor. Worse than that, a famine was upon the land, and so she couldn’t even forage for more food. Worse than that, she was at the end of her food and fixing her last meal with just a handful of flour for her and her boy. How heavy her heart must have been as she prepared to starve to death. Yet, in the middle of all of this lack, God has a plan for her to be the one who takes care of the prophet Elijah. He didn’t pick a widow from Elijah’s hometown, or from Israel. Instead, God picked her. She didn’t know that she would meet a prophet that day. She did not know that her response to the prophet would be death or life for her. Instead of being eaten up with bitterness and anger, even now she is gracious to the man who bothers her for some water and a small cake of bread. Instead of anger she responds with brokenness. She tells him her dire straits, but then goes and makes a small cake for Elijah. Why would we choose to be stingy when we have little? Some who have more than they need are stingy. It is not really a matter of what you have. It is a matter of your heart. If I have nothing left than why not share it with another person? Poor people can often be the most giving because they have empathy and know what it feels like to have nothing and no one. Her sacrifice makes all the difference. Don’t look to your circumstances to determine what God is doing with you. Don’t get bitter and resentful. Instead, keep doing the little that you can do and trust the Lord who has appointed you for His work (whether you know it or not).
Yet, we also see that Elijah doesn’t just ask for the bread. He gives her a word of hope. If she sacrifices in order to give Elijah some bread, then her bin of flour will not be used up, nor her jar of oil run dry until rain falls upon the ground. God does test our faith, but He also gives us a word of hope. Yes, pick up your cross and follow me (to die). But if you do, you will gain eternal life. When obeying God’s word isn’t easy, we are tempted to disobey and go our own way. But our way leads to death, and God’s leads to eternal life. There is always a blessing in doing it God’s way. Whether in generosity, or obedience in another way such as honesty or sharing Christ with others, the word of God tests us to see if we are going to be offended and miss out on the blessing, or sacrifice our flesh and receive a blessing from the Lord. The blessing is not always something like a bin of flour that doesn’t run empty for three years. However, even our material provisions in life are truly from the Lord. Yes, God has appointed this widow who has nothing to care for Elijah, but it was the Lord who was actually doing the providing. She simply had to keep trusting the Lord. Instead of creating a dam and storing up all the provision for herself, she shared it with Elijah and experienced a miracle unheard of by anyone in her country. Today, we are being tested by the word of the Lord in our country. Let’s trust God’s way and walk in the blessing that may not always feel like a blessing. Yet, it always leads us to great things with God.
Yes, God cares about little old you. Regardless of what you have been through in the past and may be suffering in the present, He has a plan through it, if you will only cry out to Him and wait in trust for the answer. The Lord is our source and will provide for us though the whole world be under a famine. Amen!