Where had we got to in this study on Elijah? (1 Kings 17:7-9)
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
And what did the Lord tell Elijah? v9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”
If we decide that we are going wholeheartedly to obey the Lord, what will be the outcome? Perhaps, like Elijah, it will simply be 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire'. Zarephath means smelting-furnace. How appropriate that God will use that as the next step in Elijah’s preparation.
Refining is never a pleasant or comfortable experience but it is the only way to remove impurities from precious metals - and it is God's way of removing impurities from us.
Read Numbers 31:22-23
Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water.
Do you remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace in Daniel? The flames only consumed those things that bound them, and as they walked loose in the fire, those around saw by their side one who looked like the Son of God. (Daniel 3:19-25)
Zarephath was outside the land of Canaan, about half way between Tyre and Sidon - see map
Tribes of Israel
There were some good reasons why Elijah would never have chosen this as the next step on his journey:
What do we know about the land of Phoenicia?
This was the northernmost part of Canaan given by God to the Israelites and had been allocated to the tribe of Asher (Joshua 19:24-31), but the inhabitants were never driven out – just like the southern coastlands which had been held on to by the Philistines.
( . . . and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. Judges 1:31-32)
And Phoenicia was the land which had produced Jezebel and her evil religion.
Would they be happy to hand over a fugitive prophet?
Certainly!
Had they escaped the drought?
No – 1 Kings 17:12
How easy was it to get there?
The only way to reach it was by a dangerous journey of 80 miles through the heart of the land where there was a price on Elijah’s head.
Do we find it odd that God should choose someone in so obscure a place to look after his servant?
Why did God choose a starving widow in Phoenicia rather than one of the many starving widows in Israel? (Luke 4:24-27)
It was for no arbitrary reason that God chose her. We are sometimes confused and perplexed when God does not do what we would consider to be the obvious, and when his plans are so diametrically opposed to our own.
We need to remember that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8)". We forget that our plans relate to us and our immediate surroundings of time and space. God's purposes are for eternity.
A different thought. Look back at v9. In that culture was it ok for a man to be looked after by a widow?
No – it should be the other way round. And a widow belonging to a heathen people! He would not have minded so much if he could have provided for her, but it was not very pleasant to feel that he must depend on a widow who might have only had modest earnings or an inadequate supply of food.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just go back home?
But as we have seen, there is now no going back. Having placed himself in the Lord’s hands, his life has changed and he can only go where he is led.
Do we see here a parallel with the Christian life?
Lets read the next section: 1 Kings 17:8-12
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.” 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.”
If Zarephath was a furnace, then it was going to be at it's hottest as Elijah came to the end of his journey.
As he travelled towards Zarephath he might have imagined the sort of home he was going to. If a widow had been commanded to support him in these hard times, surely she must be quite wealthy. Maybe she owned lands which he would be able to help her with. As he neared Zarephath he perhaps also wondered how he might recognise her.
It was probably late when he reached the town, and there, at the city gate was a widow woman gathering a few sticks to prepare the evening meal.
To some it might have seemed a coincidence, but there is no such word in faith's vocabulary. This may not have been what Elijah was expecting, but he knew in his spirit that she was the widow of whom God had spoken.
By now Elijah would probably have been thirsty, hungry, and weary from a journey which had taken several days. However he never doubted that his needs would be amply satisfied, so v10:
He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”
The widow did not appear surprised at Elijah's request. Look at the middle of verse 9: "I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." Our idea of free will conflicts with Biblical truth. In answer to our prayers God can and will cause people to choose to take a course of action which may perhaps be alien to their natural inclination. To ‘supply Elijah with food’ would normally have been the last thing that the widow would have wanted to do.
But she immediately went to fetch a cup of cold water – and that itself was sacrificial giving.
Although encouraged by her willingness, Elijah wanted to prove that she really was the one to whom he had been sent. He had been told that she would feed him and so v11: he asked her to bring with her a piece of bread.
It was a modest request, but it was enough to trigger the release of her pent-up anguish.
Verse 12: She did not have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. She was about to make one last meal for herself and her son, who was presumably too weak through hunger to be with her, and having eaten it, they had no alternative but to lie down together and die.
Imagine the devastating effect that this would have on one who was tired and hungry after his long trek. He was eagerly looking forward to God's bountiful provision and was led to one who was far worse off than himself.
The lesson here is that we must learn not to concentrate on what God is doing for us, we should consider what God wants to do through us for others. So now we will see God's hand at work in two ways: he will supply the widow's need, and also continue his refining work in Elijah. (Display ‘What God’s doing for us’ – then change it to ‘what God’s doing through us for others’)
Now read 1 Kings 17:13
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.
Elijah and the widow would shortly be living in the same house, and sharing the same provisions. For the widow the handful of meal, and the leftovers of oil was only enough for their final meal before they died of starvation. To Elijah, it would be enough to feed them all for the next three years.
Look again at 1 Kings 17:1 and 12. Here we see the same phrase but with different meanings: for the widow the words in verse 12 ‘As the LORD your God lives ’ held no comfort. They were merely an expression, used as emphasis.
What would she probably say today?
‘for God’s sake – I haven’t got any bread’.
People often invoke the name of God or Jesus merely to add emphasis to the fact that they are helpless, or in trouble, or cross. Never realizing that the power of that same name could relieve their situation.
To Elijah the words ‘ As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives ’ were the bedrock of his whole existence. He knew the true and living God and relied on him totally. His lesson at Kerith meant that now for him empty jars held no terrors.
God had said that Elijah would be fed, and by that widow, and so it will be. And so he passes the next test of his faith: (1 Kings 17:14)
Elijah said to her "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.' "
When did the Lord tell Elijah that?
Perhaps only as he was standing there!
Remember what Jesus said to his Disciples: Matthew 10:19-20
But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Or when God commissioned Moses: Exodus 4:12
Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.
Do we also believe that when faced with the most difficult circumstances, the Spirit will teach us what to say?
Do we believe that if we are at that point in God's plan where he wants us, then although it may seem impossible for us to survive, the impossible will be done?
Look at verse 13 again: 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.'
The widow was being asked to first give up what she had, so that the Lord could give her what He had.
And so we read 1 Kings 17:15-16
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.
