Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com. Like I said, we'll be in 1 Kings chapter 17. We'll be looking at verses 8 and then onwards, but like any great movie with a hero involved, there's always a period of time in which They go through a time of growth and development. They might go and face their villain or face a foe and then withdraw back to be able to grow and develop their skills ready for the next battle, finally to be able to defeat that villain. And we're kind of in that period right now in the life of Elijah. Elijah met with Ahab, said his short little sermon before him and disappeared right before his very eyes. I'm sure he realizes that being a prophet isn't all what it was cracked up to be. I think what we see in the Bible is many times the prophets are very reluctant to be prophets. Prophets are not ones with a great number of friends. They are not invited to people's houses for dinner. They were not really involved in many places, but going around school and in that time asking the little kids what they wanted to be when they grew up, I'm sure some would have said a king or a soldier or something like that, maybe a commander or an officer. But yet, not many people, I think, not many children would have said, when I grow up, I want to be a prophet. It wasn't the most luxurious jobs, it wasn't the most Great jobs. These children that did say they wanted to grow up and be a prophet, I'm sure they really just wanted to tell people what to do. And we know kids that do that quite well. They'd like to be able to do that, but I'm sure the people would have said, you don't want to do that job. No one really wants that job. Think about Moses. Moses didn't have a lot of friends. The people that he was leading wanted to stone him. They frequently grumbled and complained against him, laying those things about him. Moses goes away for some time, for 40 days, and he comes back, and here they all worshiping these golden calves underneath Aaron. always want to go back to Egypt after Moses has done all these great and wonderful things that the Lord has done through Moses and yet that doesn't seem to matter. It is definitely not for the faint hearted. But often what we see is God preparing these men or women to serve as prophets in their time. What God has called them to do. You think of the example of Moses that He goes to Midian for 40 years or thereabouts where he is prepared in all of those times to be able to face the wilderness wanderings, to be able to stand before Pharaoh. Think about even Joshua although he doesn't necessarily have that great time of preparation like we see in other times. He is able to sit underneath Moses to be able to see what Moses does and how Moses handles it. hear that he sees God's hand at work in Moses' life. And then once he is commissioned by God to be able to go and lead his people he said, you know, that he has called you and he will be with you like he was with Moses. Think about Samuel underneath Eli being prepared to be the prophet. Or David as he is in the pasture being prepared, being a soldier carrying, defeating bears and lions or even just as he is wandering in the caves to be dependent on God. And so we see Elijah being prepared during these years, if not earlier, those six months before he met Ahab at the beginning of chapter 17. But what we see here is the beginning of chapter 17, three rounds of training, you might say. And what Elijah is doing in these training sessions, you have round one at the brook of Kirith, there he's fed by the ravens, by this brook there. Round two, the widow of Zarephath, and then round three, the death of the son of that widow. So we noted up to this point that here Elijah had been praying, been preparing to be able to meet for Ahab that it would not rain. Fervently prayed, although he has a nature like ours he still fervently prayed. But during these three years of drought and famine we see also Elijah growing and developing as a man of God. And what we will see is that confrontation finally comes up in chapter 18, the preparation for battle is now before Elijah as he goes before the 400 prophets of Baal. So what we're going to look at tonight is the three main actors, you might say, not meaning Hollywood. It's hard to be able to find the term. Here you have God, the widow, and Elijah all in this passage. So it's characters, although we don't like using that terminology, it makes it seem fictitious. But here we're gonna look at these three different parts. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read through the passage from verse seven to verse 16, and then we'll break it up and look at each person individually. So let's start with reading 1 Kings chapter 17, verse seven to 16. This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible word. Please take heed how you hear. And after a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him. Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he said to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, do not fear, go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me. And afterward make something for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah." Thus ends the reading of God's inerrant, infallible word. Thanks be to God. So first we look at Elijah, the prophet's call and his power. The prophet's call and his power. We'll begin with this continuation of what we discussed last week, mainly that what we saw last week was God's peculiar providence in leading the prophet to the brook of Kirith, and a strange place to be fed. And so too, after this peculiar providence happens in verse 7, and the brook, which is a small strickle, a small stream, has dried up and there is no rain, which is what Elijah prayed for. He comes and the Word of the Lord comes to Elijah and tells him to arise and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. So here Elijah is at the brook that is dried up and he is sent to Zarephath near Sidon. Now this really is quite a strange call for the prophet. Here he is on the other side of the Jordan in the brook of Kirith and here he is called to be able to go to Sidon. Now, just as he was there sent to the brook for water, he's now sent to Zarephath for food. And you think of all the places that Elijah could have been sent by the Lord, all the locations that are around him. The brook had dried up, maybe he could go even to the Jordan and find some stream that runs off there that might be able to help him or other sources of water around. He could have gone to Judah. Asa is alive during this time. Asa in the early days of Ahab in verse 14 of chapter 15, ìBut the high places were not to be taken away, but the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.î Ahab starts in the 38th year of Asa, and Asa rules for about 3 years of that time and 41 years he reigns in Judah. And if he's in this beginning stages of Ahab's reign, then he could have gone to Asa and told him, I'm a prophet of God. And Asa would have been able to feed him in his house, in his palace, where even his son Jehoshaphat will meet him later in chapter 22. But he walked in the way of Asa, his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. And so he could have gone and gone to Jehoshaphat and said, I'm a prophet of the Lord. I'm looking for a place to be able to find some refuge. And so the Lord could have sent him there. You could think that if not even in Judah, maybe in Israel. We find out later that there's 7,000 people in the land of Israel that have not bowed the knees to Baal. And so he could have, I'm sure, found one of these households to be able to go to, to be able to find refuge there. But God does not send Elijah to Judah, to Israel. He sends him to Sidon. Even in Jesus' point when He is talking about no one is accepted in His hometown, He uses the point here to be able to lay this principle out in Luke chapter 4 verse 25 and 26, but I tell you the truth. There are many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heavens were shut up for three years and six months, and great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only in Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And Jesus' point here is there's many widows in Israel that God could have sent him to, but he chooses not to be able to do that. And God sends him to Sidon in Zarephath to be able to, to this widow. Not only Sidon, but even more specifically, Zarephath, which means a place of refinement, a smelter, a smoltering place. place of purification with fire, a place of purity, a place of trial. Here the Lord sends Elijah to this place to be able to try him, to test him you might say, to put pressure upon him. Again, no one really wants to be a prophet. Again, we love hearing the stories about King David. and what he did. We love hearing the stories about Moses and what he did. We love hearing all the stories about these great heroes of the faith, but we never really want to be them. We wouldn't want to be Abraham who's told to be able to leave his family and go to a new land, which God was going to give to his descendants, to leave Ur, to be able to go there, to be able to live there. There are many things that God asks people to be able to do and it seems very peculiar, very strange, but it seeks to be able to put them in a place of testing where they seek to be able to put their dependence upon God. Matthew Henry points out that here, yet he is sent to honor and bless with the presence of the city of Sidon, a Gentile city. And so it becomes, says Dr. Lightfoot, the first prophet of the Gentiles. So here you see the strange providence in God sending Elijah to another nation. More than that, we need to also see a connection of something that has just happened just a chapter before in verse 31. In chapter 16, this is enemy territory that God sends him in. not been a light thing, this is Ahab, for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Dabat. He took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him." So here now God sends Elijah, the prophet who rebuked King Ahab, into the land of Ahab's wife, where her father is king, and specifically her father We must sense the irony here, that here, her father's name is Ethbaal. Here, Ahab had set up a place of worship, Baal, in the house of Baal in Samaria. Elijah had been told that, sent to be able to tell him there's not gonna be rain, something that Baal, the god of, should have been able to do, the god of fertility, In the mind of their worshippers, Baal's worshippers, this is exactly one of the things they would pray for Baal to do. But now Elijah is sent, not to Israel, but to the place where Baal is king. Meaning, with Baal. In the presence of Baal. And here Elijah is sent into enemy territory. And we see this strange call of the prophet to be able to go to this testing place, this place of testing, this place of purification, this place of enemy territory. Not only do we see his strange call, but we also see this power. In the first round of the book of Kureth, we see the Lord's power at work. The Lord said that he's going to provide for him. He's going to drink water from the brook and the bread is going to come from ravens. He's gonna feed, he's commanded the ravens to be able to feed him. But in this time, we see it somewhat that here Elijah's role takes a step up. And then what we'll see next week is that Elijah's role takes another increment and up. In the first round here, all Elijah needed to do was go to the brook and the Lord would provide for him. In this round here, Elijah plays a role Things happened in the previous round of the book of Kirith according to the word of the Lord and here they happen according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. You see that at the very end in verse 16. That all this happened according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. Now Elijah is a vessel that God uses to be able to bring about these things. And again, what we'll see is round three is a step up, one of the probably the greatest miracles that you see in the Bible. Particularly if you put Jesus in a different category, it is a great miracle that we see. So we see the prophet's call and his power. Then secondly, we see the Lord's authority and his provision, the Lord's authority and his provision. What we see is the Lord in all of his authority. We saw last week of his peculiar providence, and even again you see this today. Now we see the Lord working through this simple yet profound miracle of these ordinary things, household items, a jar and a jug. We see God's provision for his prophet through these strange means, but it's still the same. That it's still the same that God is providing for him. God shows his power over the false god of Baal. As we think about all this happening and going on, these battles of the gods of Baal and the others, and the god of Israel. And this miracle of this jar and this jug shows his power over all things, his providence, but also his power over Baal. To be able to withhold rain is one great feat, but also to be able to feed and sustain people during this time shows his strength as well. One commentator points it out this way, day after day, Yahweh demonstrates his utter superiority to Baal. Not only does the drought continue, but every day there is food to keep Elijah and his two new best friends alive. The quiet daily miracle of the jar and the jug shows that Baal cannot compare to Yahweh. And the woman seems to grasp this truth. She trusts God. She trusts Him even to give this great prophet the first piece of bread on day one. And the outcome is clear. Yahweh's word can be trusted. We see His authority in sustaining and providing and we see His authority as He had commanded the ravens to be able to feed the prophet as we said before in verse 4. But also as He sends the prophet in here, the Lord had commanded a widow there to be able to feed you. Now it's interesting, we can understand how he commands a raven, but here he commands a widow. What does that mean? To be able to unpack that is a great question. We'll get to what the widow does shortly, but I think we must note that here is God's provision, his authority, his providence to be able to provide for his people. Not only this time, but throughout all of history. One of the clearer things that we see is that God's provision comes on a daily basis. Now I cannot think of a single time, that doesn't mean it's not there, but I can't think of a single time where God has provided four people for a great length of time all in one moment. The only one that I think can come close is in the days of Joseph where they stock up for seven years that they might be provided for for the seven years later. But generally the principle is that God provides for his people daily. He does not give them all what they need at that one point and say, ration it out until you run out. Think about what we pray in the Lord's Prayer that we see when we pray, give us this day our daily bread. Or in Luke chapter 12, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. The principle here is that here, not only that God feeds them, how does God feed them? He does not feed them through them accumulating all these things over a period of time. He feeds them during the moment. How much more value are you than the birds? Not only when we just think about food, as we've talked about when we looked at manna in Exodus, but also when we think about His mercy. How does God distribute His mercy? Well, His mercy, as Lamentations says, is new every morning. His faithfulness is great, and what we see is that His steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. And they're new every morning. Every single morning we get new mercies. Matthew Henry hits the nail on the head when he says that the meal and the oil multiplied not in the hoarding but in the spending for there that is scattereth and yet increases when God blesses a little it will go a great way even beyond expectation and so here that The blessing comes through the trusting in God every day as they scoop out the flowers, they pour out the oil. Day by day, it never is spent and God's provision comes in ever before them. Also, I think what we need to be able to see is as we think about this situation, considering the widow, interested to be able to hear you think about what you think about this widow, at what point does she become a believer? But even as we think about these, how God provides for his people, what we see also in Psalm 37 is that, I have been young and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his children begging for bread. Here again, that here God looks after, he cares for the raven, he looks after the raven, And yet, how much more important are we? Same too in Proverbs chapter 10, the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. And so, we come to the last person here, the widow's trust and obedience, the widow's trust and obedience. I think this story, although it is helpful to be able to see Elijah and his growing and his role as a prophet, to be able to serve God, to be able to carry it out, I think the key person in this story as we think about the contrast that is ever before us during this period of time, what's happening in the nation of Israel. All these people that are going after false gods and worshipping God in a false way or worshipping false gods, serving other gods. You think about Jezebel and Ahab and their rule and how they are not serving God with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength. and those wicked rulers who have been confronted by prophets and they're not the ones who listen and obey God's word. We don't get that sense that here the people of Israel are listening and obeying God's word as we even think about the stories that we've read so far of all the wicked kings and what they've done. Jeroboam and his son and Jeroboam's wife going to the prophet and not heeding the word of the prophet, not seeking to be able to turn and repent. And what we have is this encounter with here Elijah and this widow. Now we have no idea when he comes to the city gate how she knew Elijah was a prophet and how he knew she was a widow. thing I could maybe think about is maybe she is recently widowed and she is wearing some sense of funeral attire or special attire which would signify to you maybe it is through God's providence that they are both on the lookout here. The widow God has commanded her to be able to feed Elijah. And so we don't understand what that means, how that came about. And so maybe that they were on the lookout for one another and they saw maybe she was the only person out. I'm not really sure, but here they meet each other. But what we see is this encounter between Elijah and her response specifically as she responds to Elijah. We see this in verse 10 and 11. We're here, he goes to Zarephath and he comes to the gate of the city and this widow who's gathering sticks, he calls to her and says, bring me some water and a vessel that I may drink of it. And immediately what we see is her response. Her response and as she was going to bring it, she immediately goes and gets water. Bring me some water and she immediately does so. Think about what she, she has nothing basically. And yet she goes and does it. In a time of drought, in a time of famine, she immediately seeks to be able to do this thing, does not blink. Then Elijah then asks for some bread. And she then says, in verse 12, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And I'm gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die." Do you believe? What do you think? Is she a believer? I'm not sure. There's kind of a couple of things that make me think that she's not at this point. Mainly there in verse 12, we see that she says, as the God, the Lord, your God lives, she doesn't claim the Lord is her God. And then if you look down in verse 24, You see that in verse 24 she says, now I know that you are a man of God and the word of the Lord is in your mouth, is truth. So there's something that happens after the death of her son and Elijah brings it to be, that here there's this aspect in which she says, now I know. Before I didn't know, but now I do. And so, and possibly even in Hebrews 11, we see as they're going through the hall of faith and the author of Hebrews explains all these Samuel and David and prophets. And the author says, and women received back their debt. And so we'll look at this next week, but that specifically I think is that reference to here this widow. And I think she receives this son back through faith. But specifically, I think at this point, she does not call Yahweh her God, just Elijah's God. But we do see that this widow does enter Elijah. And giving the Old Testament form of an oath or a vow as the Lord lives is a thing that we see common. It's on the mouth of Samuel, it's on the mouth of Saul and Jonathan, on David, on believers and unbelievers alike. Normally people of Israel say this thing, but in Deuteronomy chapter 23, if you make a vow to the Lord your God, And you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, and you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth." And so here she is, she's making a vow or an oath, being able to say, this is the truth. I know as you are a Hebrew, a person of the Hebrews, an Israelite, that you make promises and this is what I'm saying is true. Again in Exodus chapter 20, you shall not take the Lord your God in vain. The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. And some here commentators point out that this widow is promising to be able to tell the truth. What she is saying is truth, that she is about to die. This is her last meal, this is their last hope. But again, she's not saying, as the Lord my God lives. But even if she's not saying that, Yahweh is her God. It is very important when we think about what Elijah's first sermon was as he confronts Ahab and he tells Ahab as the Lord lives. Here this widow in Zarephath is able to even be able to say a simple truth, whether she believes that Yahweh is the one and only God, we can't necessarily say, or But here Ahab, the king of the people of God, seems to have forgotten, diminished, or wished God dead. He sought to be able to try and wipe God off the face of the planet and set up a new house, a Baal. And yet this widow, in her response, is able to be able to say, what Ahab does not truly believe, so it seems. So what did she tell Elijah, and what did she vow? That this is gonna be her last meal. Here she is, a widow and an orphan, hit hard by this time of famine, as we see this period and this effect of Ahab's sin and what's happening in the people of Israel. Here this rain is having a run-on effect. They have nothing left. The son, although we don't know how old he is, doesn't seem to be old enough to be able to help provide or go to work, to glean or anything. Even if it was, then maybe there's just nothing available. Rain causes a lot, and who are the first people to be able to suffer through this? Well, a widow and an orphan. I think it shows the extent of what happens during this period of time. And so this widow responds, and again, she does not deny and says, no, I'm not going to do that. Again, she clearly just states fact, that this is all they have. This is my last meal. Maybe you should go find someone else. But Elijah turns to her and says in verse 13 and 14, do not fear. Go and do as you have said. But first, make me a little cake of it and bring it to me. And afterward, make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth." His first words is, do not fear. Even just pondering this for a little while. This widow gone through a lot. We're not sure how recently she's widowed. Maybe this famine has hit really hard and now her husband has passed away. Maybe this happened long ago and she's raised this child for a very young age by herself. And yet here Elijah speaks and says, do not fear. The last words out of her mouth was die. And Elijah's first words is do not fear. And then he commands her to do something. Then she has a promise of what's going to happen. And what we see is this great act of faith or trust, you might say, from this woman. Look at me with verse 15 and see what she does. And she went and did as Elijah said. Here is this woman in the middle of this town's Arafat. outside the people of God, and it seems that her trust in Elijah is great, and her willingness to be able to obey what the prophet said. Think about all the prophets that we'll meet, or have met, that have stood before kings, who are called to be able to serve God and his people, confront him, confront them, And what is their response? They don't listen. They don't obey. They don't go and do. But here this woman does. She turns around. She did, as Elijah said. Now we might not be able to call this faith, as I said before. I'm not sure at what point you would say that she's a believer. But I think you can see her trust and obedience in the word of the prophet. Maybe this is her faith. her faith of what God is going to do. But not in contrast, in comparison also what we see is Elijah doing the same thing. That Elijah's action is now replicated in this woman. Elijah is commanded and he goes and he does and so does this woman. I think this story is important for us on many different occasions to be able to think about how we're to act in faith and obedience with God's word that is ever before us, how we're to trust in God and trust in God to be able to provide for us daily. But I think this widow here is shown in contrast to God's people. What we see is here, God's message goes forth. It spread. And one of the reasons that we see in this connection is here what we see in Obadiah is the spreading of the nation of Israel and specifically this place of Zarephath is mentioned in Obadiah chapter 20 in verse 20. And exiles of the host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Shephard shall possess the cities of Negev. And so here we see it expanding. I think this is why we see the term Tyre and Sidon used as examples of contrast in the New Testament. As Jesus warns those, woe to you Jerusalem, woe to you Bethsaida, Bethsaida. For in the mighty works done in you, and have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, more bearable in a day of judgment of Tyre and Sidon than for you." Here, the woman here at Zarephath is a great example of people hearing the word of the Lord and doing it, obeying. I think you can see a connection in Acts chapter 27. We're here the next day, they put in at Sidon and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go with his friends and to be cared for. Here we see a Sidonian caring for the Apostle Paul. They're going about their way. Think about this connection to Jesus, the great prophet who sits to the woman at the well and he turns to her and says, give me something to drink. But I think what you can see clearly is this woman's trust and obedience in God's Word through the prophet. Specifically where Sidon comes from is he's the son of Cain. You see in the Table of Nations in Genesis chapter 10, Cain fathered Sidon. And what you see there in Matthew chapter 25 is you see a story of Jesus. been approached and confronted by a woman from Sidon, a Canaanite woman. Matthew chapter 15 verse 21 to 28, Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre in Sidon. And behold a Canaanite woman, and I think here that the Canaanite woman there has that broad meaning that here she is in Sidon and potentially she's a Sidonian. And here this woman comes from that region, came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. But he did not answer her word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away, for she is crying after us. And he answered, I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And Jesus answered her, a woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. So here we see now Jesus, the prophet, give this lady bread. Not physical bread, but what her needs and requests, her desire of her daughter been made well. That here it acts on her great faith, seeking and pushing and trying. See the prophet of Elijah. carrying this out to be able to serve and grow in his service to the Lord. And we see this widow being cared for by God and this orphan as well. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com. Seven Springs Presbyterian Church began in 1874 and is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America located in Glade Spring, Virginia. Please join us for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. for His glory and His gospel.