1 Kings 17:8-16-ELIJAH’S RESOURCE OF FAITH
03-1Kgs-17.8-16-Elijahs-Resource-of-Faith-–-Zemeski.docPosted by: bzemeski <bzemeski@...>
ELIJAH’S RESOURCE OF FAITH
Elijah Series 3 of 18
Text: 1 Kings 17:8-16
Aim: To show trust in God’s providence and that faith is needed to receive blessings.
Introduction:
A. Our First Message in this series came from 17:1 where we had the “Revealing of the Prophet”
1. We INTRODUCED the Prophet
2. Looked at the INAUGURATION of his Ministry
The chapter opened where the prophet Elijah had just been in the presence of King Ahab pronouncing the judgement (vs. 1) of God to come – for 3 ½ years there shall be no rain, not even one drop of due – this was God’s judgement of because of the sin of the nation – what was that sin? —IDOLATRY!
There is no doubt, if it had not been for God’s protection Elijah would have been killed by King Ahab because of his proclamation that day. But God graciously protects Elijah by directing him to a hide away at the Brook Cherith where our Lord makes provision for him! It is HERE He supplies fresh water from a brook and twice a day meat and bread are brought in by airmail delivered by a raven.
At Cherith we were to learn some lessons:
1. We were taught the necessity to wait on God:
Trust Him and His timing. God can provide for us in some very unusual ways.
We can depend on God – whatever He says – He will do it!
2. Secondly, God requires obedience to His commands IF we are to be blessed!
In order to receive God’s provision we must have faith and obey.
3. Third, there is a blessing in being alone before God:
a. It is at these times of isolation that we are separated unto God. Being at Cherith provided Elijah with a time for meditation, prayer and preparation.
b. These time outs are not a waste a time in our lives. We need Cheriths!
It is here we learn to trust our Lord and walk by faith.
4. Fourth we learned that God is not limited in the ways He can provide for us.
a. We were to learn as we obey God, we could trust Him for our daily provisions.
b. His provisions can come in some very strange and unusual ways, but one must learn to wait on Him, even if on the surface all that you see seems hopeless. God promised to bless us THERE!
5. Lastly we were to learn we must continue to trust God even when our daily provisions runs out!
a. We must continue to trust Him even if on the surface all that you see seems hopeless. God promised to bless us THERE!
b. If God sends you to Cherith it is His will for you to be there.
Do not run from His will!
After these blessings of God’s provisions – Vs. 7 says, “the Brook dried up”!
Now what is the prophet going to do?
He had been well cared for by God at the brook Cherith, but now the brook has dried up.
It is one thing to trust God so long as provisions keep coming, but it is another to trust Him when they cease.
He watched as the stream slowly decreases in its volume until it became a trickle and then dried up.
· When was God going to give him new orders?
· Why didn’t God tell Him where he was to go now?
· What will the prophet do?
Will he take matters into his own hands and run all over the hillside in search of water?
NO, wisely, he didn’t budge—He waited right THERE trusting God to bring further word when the time was right. He stayed THERE where God promised to bless him waiting upon the Lord to reveal His will.
Probably the highest form of faith is to wait upon God and trust Him when provisions for life fail, believing He will keep His word to care for us.
· Can we trust God when we lose our job and the money runs out?
· Can we believe that He will supply our needs when all natural resources seem exhausted? This is a supreme act of faith!
When the water from the brook was depleted, God prepared to move His prophet to another place. The choice of the new place and the way of supply was another test of Elijah's faith.
Note seven thoughts in the text concerning ELIJAH’S RESOURCE OF FAITH
1. Vs. 8 The Infallible Word
2. Vs. 9 The Instructions to Follow
3. Vs. 10 Elijah’s Implicit Trust
4. Vs. 10-11 The Introduction to Elijah’s Host
5. Vs. 12 The Impoverished Circumstances
6. Vs. 13-14 The Infallible Promise
7. Vs. 15-16 The Inexhaustible Supply
I. the Infallible word – Vs. 8
A. God COMMUNICATING to His Prophet – Directly
1 Kings 17:8 – “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying…”
1. The Word of the Lord did not come to Elijah until the brook dried up.
a. Elijah waited patiently for God—confident that God had not forgotten him.
b. How would we handle the prospect of sitting by a drying brook? Would we wait patiently for God, or would we take matters into our hands?
2. God has the ability to communicate with us in various ways
a. Our own reading the Scriptures
b. Someone sharing or relating to the Scriptures
c. Teaching or preaching
d. Speaking directly to us as He did here with Elijah (this is not God’s normal method today) Hebrews 1:1-2 – “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son….” SEE >> 1 Kgs. 19:5-13
B. The CHRONOLOGY of Communication
1. IT IS IMPORTANT TO ASK: Did God’s Word come just before the brook dried up? No – it came after the brook dried up!
2. Most of us would feel much more comfortable if God would tell us where to go BEFORE the brook dries up.
3. We would like to be assured that all our needs are provided for the next 12 months BEFORE we are ready to move.
4. Elijah did not hear from God UNTIL the brook was dry – No water, no supermarket, no chipper, no stocked pantry – nothing to sustain him, but God.
5. He sat with his arms crossed, his feet propped up saying, “God I’m not moving, I am waiting on you – you promised to take care of me and now I am depending upon you to do it. It was THEN “…the word of the Lord came…!”
C. The CAUSE For The Communication
1. God did not move Elijah because the brook was dry. He could easily provided a continual supple of water in brook Cherith, if He had wanted to do so.
2. The first phase of Elijah’s training was complete – by the brook God taught him:
a. To live one day at a time
b. That he could depend upon God even though the visible circumstances appeared dark and dismal.
c. That the Lord was capable of protecting and caring for him.
God was training and preparing him for a ministry.
d. Perhaps God has you by a drying brook in order to prepare you for greater service?
2. God completed that semester of work in his life and now it was time to move on to another level.
a. God has some advanced lessons He wants to teach Elijah– BUT to do so He must initiate a new program of study.
b. BUT before Elijah could advance to the next class he had to pass the test or exam for the last semester of study.
3. God wanted Elijah to be a great blessing to a widowed woman in Zarephath that he was yet to meet, but he couldn’t be a blessing to her—or anyone else if he failed the test of trusting God when his daily provisions ran out at Cherith. So he waits!
a. It takes faith to wait upon God. He watched the brook dwindle day after day, hoping each of those days that God would speak.
b. He didn’t take matters into his own hands and apparently was ready to die before moving on his own.
c. He waited trusting God to bring further word when the time was right!
Application – As Elijah needs to learn to trust God, so must our faith grow before we ever will be a blessing to anyone else.
With God’s INFALLIBLE Word Elijah is given…
II. The instructions to follow – Vs. 9
1 Kings 17:9 – “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there:”
A. The Course To Take –
ZIDON, now spelled with an “S” (Sidon), was located on the Mediterranean Sea in a country we now call Lebanon, BUT that time was a part of Syria. The town of Zar-e-phath, called Sa-rep-ta in the New Testament was situated 8 miles south of the capital of Zidon between it any Tyre.
Zarephath was located approximately 75 miles away from where Elijah was at Cherith as the crow fly’s, but it would be a long walk – over 100 miles on foot with no rest areas or McDonalds along the way and probably at night to avoid detection – remember Ahab had scouts and posse out looking for him. It really wasn’t a Mediterranean trip that was over booked.
The Brook Cherith was a tributary of the Jordon river on its east bank in the part of Israel known as Gilead. Elijah’s path would take him north, up the Jordon and across country where his enemies and those of God’s people lived to a place where God promised to take care of him over 100 miles away.
1. Zarephath means “a place of refining, a smelting furnace.” Smelting is the process of melting down metal to remove the dross and impurities to improve its quality.
a. Refining – to Elijah that meant a workshop or training, it means a furnace, it means being melted down, reshaped, purified; it means to be poured from one vessel to another to allow the scum to come to the top.
b. God is about to place the prophet in a smelting furnace for cleaning out any alloy of pride, or self-reliance, or independence that might be lurking in the recesses of his heart.
c. Elijah is going to be placed in such a position so God can scrape some more dross from his life.
2. Vs. 9 – “Dwell there” – This was not to be a brief visit, nor was he to go about for walkies. He was to, “dwell there”
a. 1 Kings 18:1 – “And it came to pass after many days…” cp. 17:15 Elijah ate at the widows house “many days.”
b. 1 Kings 18:1 – the phrase “in the third year” means some time after the completion of two years.
c. It is believed he spent almost 2 1/2 years there.
B. God Gave A Command To a Widow to Sustain Him – Vs. 9
Would it not have been much more convenient if God had said to Elijah, “go to Mrs. Burns, she lives at 101 Main Street?”
After all, there were many widows in those days and surely more than one widow in Zeraphath. “Which one Lord?” God didn’t tell him – “Arise, get thee to Zarephath…dwell THERE!” “Go on–go there!” That’s just like God’s directions that He gave to go to the brook. Elijah TRUST ME! “I have commanded a widow woman THERE to sustain thee.”
1. Notice: As God is preparing you He often is preparing another person, who is used by God to shape you, meet a need, or who you are going to bless, or that both of you will benefit another as in Elijah’s case. God works from both ends of the tunnel at the same time to accomplish His will.
2. HERE is an Important Principle – NEVER look into God’s purpose or works solely on the basis as to what is beneficial for yourself. What am I going to get out of it?
a. When Joshua sent men to spy out Canaan God already had Rahab the harlot waiting for them prior to their arrival to hide and help the spies from Israel to escape.
b. When the brothers of Joseph went down to Egypt to get grain during the famine they discovered God already had in placed Joseph—their brother who they sold in to slavery years before—in a position to care for them.
c. In Acts 10 Cornelius was praying for enlightenment the same time God was breaking down the barriers of racism in Peter who he who he sent to Cornelius.
d. In Acts 8, an Ethiopian eunuch was under conviction as he pondered God’s Word riding in a chariot. At the same time, a deacon, named Philip, is sent by the Spirit of God to talk to him about his soul.
e. When Jonah back-slid God had prepared a great fish – whale.
God is always working from both ends of the runnel at the same time. While He is working in the heart and life of Elijah, who is rebuking God’s people, He was also is working on a widow-woman in Zarephath to get her ready for his coming. She didn’t know God was going to use her, nor do you know God is going to use you, but He was preparing her.
When your brook dries up, God will have another source of help for you.
God’s INFALLIBLE Word gave Elijah explicit INSTRUCTIONS to follow, “so he arose” with:
III. Implicit trust – Vs. 10
A. Here Was A CHALLENGE To His Faith
1. It was a Challenge to leave the safety of Cherith. – Elijah’s faith had to have increased to leave a place of provision, contentment and rest with no worries and no concerns – just wait for the Lord.
2. It was a Challenge to make the long journey across hostile country. – To go a 100 miles on foot, at night, and partly through the desert without water and no mention of a bird to feed you.
3. It was a Challenge in the manner in which God would provide for him.
a. He wasn’t sent to a wealthy merchant, but to a widow. Famine was hard enough on families with husbands, but survival for and by a widow was going to be impossible.
b. Widows – no widow benefits, or welfare, no retirement plan from the husband.
c. God didn’t choose a widow of his own homeland, but one in a Gentile country – being a widow was one thing, but being gentile widow was another.
TURN >> Luke 4:24-26
4. It was a Challenge in the place where he was to go – Zarepheth!
a. 1 Kings 16:31 – Jezebel’s daddy was King of Zidon
b. Zarephath was in Zidon and only 8 miles from Jezebel’s hometown of Zidon.
c. Where does God tell Elijah to hide? In Jezebel’s backyard – Zarephath? Zidon?
· Why that’s the very centre of Baal worship – the very core of the opposition to God – Satan probably reigned from there.
· That’s where Ahab got his heathen, idolatrous wife!
5. The manner of his sustenance was a Challenge.
a. It was not a wealthy merchant, but an impoverished widow.
b. Sure, he knew it was a widow who was to care for him BUT did not learn of her circumstances until he arrived.
B. The CONFIDENCE He Demonstrated In God
1 Kings 17:10 – “So he arose and went to Zarephath…”
1. Though this was a challenge to Elijah's faith, he left Cherith without question.
He was to travel through hostile country believing God would protect and provide.
a. God was refining His servant. Absolute obedience is required in order for God to fulfill His purpose in us.
b. The supply of Elijah's needs required his going to the PLACE!
2. How great it would be if all of God’s children were as ready to obey!
God desires obedience without excuses to the suggested change in His plans.
3. Boldly Elijah goes to the city gate – he acts as if it is his hometown
a. There are idolaters all around
b. There are the enemies of God’s people all around – Someone says, He’s crazy! No he is just obeying and trusting God!
God’s INFALLIBLE Word gave Elijah explicit INSTRUCTIONS to follow. He was to arise with IMPLICIT trust and go to Zarephath where we have an…
IV. introduction to elijah’s host: widow – vs. 10-12
1 Kings 17:10 – “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks…”
A. CONTACT With The Widow At The City Gate
1. He didn’t know at this time that she was the right woman.
2. You say “What Luck!” This was not a lucky break but a divine appointment.
a. It was divine planning! REMEMBER, God works from both ends at the same time.
b. While He is doing something in your heart, He is working in somebody else’s heart getting them ready also.
3. Do you think the widow knew what God was doing at this time? I think not.
Was it an accident that she was there? No way! God stirred her to go look for the sticks at the same time that Elijah was approaching the city gate.
4. I have heard countless testimonies of how God brought people together in a miraculous fashion. It is no accident that you are here now.
5. There was nothing exciting about the woman that would encourage Elijah
a. All he saw was a haggard woman picking up sticks, dressed in ragged clothing.
b. After 100 mile journey and seeing her Elijah probably thought, “If that is the woman God is going to use to feed I’m in trouble. She needs a meal more than I do!”
B. CALL To The Widow
1. Elijah surmised that this might be the woman that God would provide.
a. He needed to find out—But how? Shall I introduce himself? (Illus.)
b. He couldn’t spell out who he was because if she were the wrong person she possible would turn him in to the authorities.
2. Perhaps Elijah read Genesis 24 where when Eleazar needed to find Isaac a wife, he prayed and asked God for guidance in that the first woman he asked for a drink and gave it to him AND watered his camels would be the right woman.
a. Elijah requested a drink in vs. 10 – “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” The widow responded immediately, but he didn’t have any camels. How was he really going to know she was the woman?
b. She could have told him to “buzz off – water is scarce, I need all I can get for my family and I don’t have any to spare on strangers.”
c. Now for sure such a response would have clearly told him she wasn’t the one. But this woman’s response was kind and hospitable –may be she is the one to help?
3. Elijah needed to be absolutely sure so he called to her in vs. 11 as she was fetching him water, “Ah, mam, while your at it, how about bringing me some bread please?”
V. widow’s impoverished circumstances
Her response helped him to identify her!
A. Her COMPLAINT:
1 Kings 17:12 – “And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse:”
1. Her response proved her belief that Elijah's God is the Living Jehovah.
“As the LORD thy God liveth…”
a. Hey! Here is a woman who knew God in an idolatrous land for the word “LORD” = Jehovah – the self-existing One
b. “Thy God” – She perceived he was different – God’s man – a prophet
c. The phrase “Thy God liveth” – gave praise to Jehovah, if she were a Baal follower she would give recognition to Baal.
2. “I have not a cake, but a hand full of meat…little oil…we may eat…and die”
a. This was not an uncaring expresson, but only an utterance of her plight.
b. She was going to make a cake for her and her son, but there is no mention of a husband – so he concluded that she’s a widow.
c. Hmm…this widow. She’s kind, compassionate, and she knows Jehovah God, and she knows I am a child of God – this is gotta be the right woman!
1) God was going to bless this woman and her son through her care of Elijah.
2) Her obedience would determine whether she would receive the blessings.
B. Her CONCLUSION – vs. 12
1. She had come to the end of her road. She saw no hope of any further provision. She’s prepared to die, but little does she know that God is about to introduce her to a giving program that would assure her of a continuous life-sustaining supply.
2. God was going to use this woman by giving her the opportunity to perform the most important service of that day - the service of caring for Elijah. Her visible circumstances were irrelevant to this service!
3. Little did she know from the visible resources of some meal and little oil she held in her hand that it would mount to nothing compare to what she is about to receive.
4. She was a woman who on the surface had nothing and was prepared to die, but her response to what the prophet has asked her to do is going to spell out LIFE OR DEATH to her and her son.
A lot of God’s people miss out on something good at this point, because they refuse to respond in the matter of giving based upon what they can only see.
The widow’s IMPOVERISHED circumstances were about to met with…
Vi. the INFALLIBLE promise – Vs. 13-14 << READ
A. Content Of The Promise – Vs. 14
1. PLEASE NOTE that the “Lord God of Israel…” says – it is He who promises –
not the welfare people—not the government
2. The limited resource would be multiplied until the rain comes. Until then, there would be a load of supplies.
3. The widow and her son would have their needs supplied.
4. The ability to minister to Elijah would be assured.
B. Conditions Of The Promise – Vs. 13
1. Elijah encouraged her to do as she had intended but he place in a order of his own that wasn’t on the menu and requested that she bake a little cake for him first!
2. Here is God saying put me first in everything! —Even our giving.
a. Our Lord Jesus promised in Matt. 6:33 – “But seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
b. Your situation may be desperate and you may be challenged in your giving when you look at your resources – You say, “I just don’t have it! How can I do it – it is not possible.” And God says – “PUT ME FIRST!”
b. God doesn’t need your money, but giving the tithe and with sacrificial offeringss are a test and measure of your faith. When we fail to receive God’s blessing often it is a result of not putting God first in our giving.
3. This woman was in deep poverty, just as those Macedonian Christians were in
2 Cor. 8. The only way this woman was going to improve her circumstances and assure her needs of being supplied was to put God first!
The only way you can be assured of God’s blessing and provisions is by putting Him first in everything, even your giving. Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
We are instructed to give before we get. READ >> 2 Cor. 9:6-10
You cannot give what you don’t have until you first give that what you do have.
The little boy in John 6 had some fish and bread.
He gave what he had and God took it and fed 5000 men plus the women and children.
We can’t risk looking to our meagre resources trying to figure if we can afford to give, otherwise if we do, in all likelihood our giving will stop – we must look at His promises.
VII. The INEXHAUSTIBLE supply – Vs. 15-16
A. She COMPLIED With His Instruction
1 Kings 17:15 – “And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah:”
1. She believed the promise
2. She obeyed Elijah’s words.
B. The Result was a CEASELESS supply
1. Miraculously her house was fed: she, her son and Elijah
2. BUT understand that the miracle would not have occurred had she not first given her precious handful of meal and oil.
3. God didn’t give more than she needed for each day—BUT just what she needed each day! 2 Cor. 5:7 – “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
a. Each day the same amount, just enough meal and sufficient oil to feed three souls.
b. There was no faith needed for a mountain of meal or a barrels of oil, but for just for each day’s need.
c. The widow had to depend on God to keep the promises of His Word, just as Elijah had to depend on God for water every day, and for the bird every day.
CONCLUSION
What do we learn from this passage?
A. When one brook dries God has another means of meeting our needs.
B. God often uses the least likely means to supply our needs.
C. Putting God first in our giving is the means of assuring God's supply.
D. Poverty is not a reason for being unable to give.
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Bob Zemeski
Leixlip, Co. Kildare W23 C8K1
1 Samuel 12:23,24
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