Elijah and the Widow, Part 2

Story of Elijah and the Widow knowing that Elijah and the Widow are together in Zarephath and they have tranquility in their home, but there's turmoil in the land They have tranquility in their home because they have food God has provided for them in a supernatural way God provides flour and oil every single day but the land is famished the land has gone through a great dry spell because there's been no rain and so people are dying Livestock are dying and all of a sudden there is great turmoil in the land We are find ourselves somewhere between the second and third year not knowing exactly where we are in the famine But we know it's toward the end of that time and we pick up the narrative in first Kings chapter 17 in Verse number 17 when it says this now it came about after these things now We're gonna stop right there because you need to add understand what these things are It came about after these things what things well, there was a confrontation With the king king Ahab that happened in verse 1 of chapter 17 when Elijah went to him and said there's not gonna be any rain Except by my word and he leaves his presence He goes there by the Word of the Lord and the Word of the Lord moves him from the king's presence So we know that there was a confrontation with Ahab in verse number one And then there was the camping at Kareth the brook called Kareth God moves him to a little brook It says you stay here because I'm gonna feed you here and the Ravens are gonna bring food for you every day Twice a day once in the morning once at night the water you would drink is from the brook And so he stood there or stayed there for a long period of time Maybe it was six months Maybe it was close to a year But the brook would dry and the Word of the Lord would come to Elijah and would move him from camping at Kareth to going to Zarephath a hundred miles away and God said I've prepared there a widow for you and You are to go to her and ask her for a drink of water.

I've already talked to her She knows you're coming now whether the Lord said listen Elijah's gonna come your way or a prophet's gonna come your way or a man Of God's gonna come your way. We don't know exactly what God said to the widow, but she knew he was coming and So when he got there, of course, she gave him water and he wanted something to eat She said well, this is my last meal and then my son and I are going to die Elijah said to her. No, you make the meal for me. Let me eat and She did she obeyed the Word of the Lord and God provided Flour and oil and would do that every single day after these things in the midst of their tranquility You can imagine what it must be like in in the home of the widow there and in Zarephath remember Zarephath is is not too far from from Sidon and Sidon is where the father of Jezebel was king and so God moved him to the backyard of the enemy But no one knew Elijah was there except for the widow and So they sat there every day Having food to eat people all around them were famished People were dying except for Elijah the widow and her son and Then we pick up the narrative after these things That the son of the woman the mistress of the house Became sick and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him So she said to Elijah What do I have to do with you a man of God?

You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death He said to her Give me your son Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and laid Him on his own bed And he called to the Lord and said Oh Lord my God Have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am stained by causing her son to die? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and called to the Lord and said Oh Lord my God, I pray you Let this child's life return to him The Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the life of the child returned to him and he revived Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house And gave him to his mother Elijah said see Your son is alive Then the woman said to Elijah now I know that you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord is in or the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth This is quite a story It's true And it talks to us about the place of trials in our lives as well as the perplexity of those trials as well as the product of those trials Elijah is going to do something that has never been done before resurrect a child from the dead There is no record in Biblical history of anyone ever rising from the dead until this occasion and He's going to appeal to God and God is going to do a miraculous act And all this was part of the plan of preparing Elijah For that one big event on Mount Carmel.

Remember we know Elijah because of what took place with the prophets of Baal in the prophets of Asherah some 850 of them all together and what took place on Mount Carmel we we've read about in Sunday school We we understand that the great prophet Elijah and how God used him in a mighty way before ever that ever happened there was the camping at Kareth and Kareth means to remove and then there was that moved to Zarephath and Zarephath means to refine So as God removes Certain things out of our lives.

He then refines us so that we are ready to do the things He has planned for us and all this is preparation For what God will do on Mount Carmel and so We begin tonight by looking at the place of trials For you know what most of us Don't expect trials to come We just don't We Anticipate that things will go fairly well for us In fact, the Bible says over in first Peter chapter 1 verse number 6 In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary And if you have them it must be necessary you have been distressed by various trials So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ Peter talks about trials coming as if they are Necessary for you and then he closes with this in first Peter 4 Verse number 12 beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange Thing were happening to you Peter says why do you assume that the trial in your life is strange?

Why would you assume that what is happening to you? Should be unexpected. It should be expected But we live life as if trials Won't come our way or maybe we hide our head our head in the sand and and hope they never come our way and so the place of trials in our lives Play a very important part in understanding the plan of God Notice this in the story the place of trial came to Elijah and the widow in the place of of Obedience the place of obedience Elijah did what God said We told you over and over again as we've gone through the story that Elijah was convinced of the reality of God He was commissioned as a representative of God He was commended for his reliance upon God because he was a man truly of God.

He loved his God He served his God. He did what God said the word of the Lord came to him go to Kareth. He goes to Kareth Where Lord comes to him again go to Zarephath He goes to Zarephath. He doesn't debate with God. He doesn't wrestle with God. God says go he goes God says move He moves God says jump.

He says how hot whatever you want me to do God. I'm gonna do because he's obedient to God So in the place of obedience You don't expect the trial to happen in the widow she too was obedient God said I'm sending this man to you. Maybe he told him it was Elijah. Maybe he didn't I'm sending this man I've got you he's gonna come you're gonna ask for water. Give him a drink you feed him you house him You take care of him. She said okay, and she did she obeyed She served Elijah She didn't wrestle with God debate with God.

She did exactly what God said. So in the place of her Obedience in the place of his obedience Her son dies, that's just not fair That's not right How can that possibly? be That's why the Bible says in Psalm 34 verse number 9.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous and the Lord Delivers them out of the mall Have you ever thought about the life of the disciples Do you know that the trials and the life of the disciples came more out of their obedience than their disobedience? God says that in the March chapter 4 Let's get into the boat and go to the other side Well, why not?

So they get in the boat go to the other side big storm comes Jesus asleep on the boat and they fear for their lives and they go to Jesus and they shake him and say don't you care That we are perishing and Jesus wakes up and says oh you guys you are such cowards Jesus called his men cowards You know if you came to me as your pastor I said, why are you being such a coward you would say my pastor called me a coward. I'm going to another church I'm not staying this church What if the disciples said I'm gonna go follow another Messiah this Messiah called me a coward I don't want to follow him.

No true Messiah would call his followers cowards, but he did Why are you so timid? Why are you so cowardly? Why don't you have the faith to believe in what I said? But see they got in the boat They did what God said and the trial came the storm came and they feared for their lives in Mark chapter 6 He says hey get into the boat and go to the other side And he goes up to a mountain to pray Again another storm comes Again, they are obedient again another storm comes and again They fear for their lives and Jesus comes walking on the water to approach them in the night Because he sees them and he knows exactly what's happening.

He's gonna show up and they don't even expect him to show up Of course he gets into the boat he says hush be still Everything becomes calm, but he tells them that their hearts are dull cold and calloused in the place of obedience You're probably going to find more trials than in the place of disobedience Think about it look through Scripture look at Job He was righteous the most righteous man on the face of the earth He walked with God.

He talked with God. He was a blameless man, and he lost everything His trial was so severe none of us could handle what he went through but it happened in the place of Obedience That's one reason we are perplexed and we are overwhelmed when trials come our way but notice also this trial came to this widow and to Elijah in the place of service in the place of Service Elijah was a faithful servant.

The widow was faithfully serving they were both doing what God had commanded them to do and You'd think That as she fed him as she protected him as she Risked her life in serving this prophet That God would honor that That God would protect her in the midst of it Instead Because she risked her life by housing the most wanted man in Israel Elijah Because she served him Because she trusted God to provide flour and oil every day God says your son dies and he dies That just doesn't seem right in the place of service in the place of faithful service You mean to tell me that God's going to intervene and cause this severe trial?

Remember? She's a widow She's already lost her husband and now she's going to lose her only son and she now is absolutely distraught but think about the Apostles When did they face the severest persecution and trial and difficulty in the midst of their service of the king? Peter and John they were threatened don't speak of this man Jesus ever again. They kept doing it. They took him in they Beat them severely and yet they found it Commendable to be beaten for the sake of the gospel and then you have Stephen all Eden was doing was was preaching the truth and being obedient to the word of the Lord they took him out of the city and stoned him to death And then you have the Apostle Paul Who preached the gospel and they just kept throwing him in one prison to the next prison to the next prison?

They beat him. He was shipwrecked He went through all kind of trials in his service of the king and then you have John on the island of Patmos He's there according to Revelation 1 because of the word of his testimony and because of the gospel of Jesus Christ But think about it In his persecution John the revelator If he would not have been sent to the island Because of a service for the king He would have never seen the glorified risen Christ In all of his glory and we wouldn't know about the end of the world But we do If Paul was in sent from prison to prison if he's not sitting in Caesarea Rotten in the prison.

We don't have the prison epistles We don't have so much of what he said Because God was using all of those situations and all of those circumstances To bring about a greater purpose than one man sitting on an island by himself or one man sitting in the corner of a prison by himself The place of obedience the place of service. We don't expect there to be any trials, but there is And notice this too about Elijah and the widow It was in the place of blessing That the severest trial came for the widow God was blessing them.

God was taking care of them. God was providing a miracle every single day He didn't store it up so that they could have it for a month or two months or three months He gave them enough flour enough oil Every day to fix the meals they needed to survive And so in the place of blessing Comes this severe trial and you would think wow things are going so good. God is so good Look what God is doing. He is providing for us in such a miraculous way and then bang son dies But think of Mary and Joseph Mary and Joseph Are visited by the Magi And the Magi give them gold Frankincense and myrrh Great blessing They worshiped Christ as the king and rightly he is But it wasn't too long after that that God says you got to go You got to go to Egypt Because Herod is seeking to kill all the children How do you think they would ever get to Egypt had they not been given the gold See God in the place of blessing Provided so that they could handle the trial that would come their way God with the widow and God with Elijah in the place of blessing them every single day by Providing for them every single day in a miraculous way were Preparing them for a greater trial and then there's also the place of Previous trials The place of previous trials Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot does it?

Once there's been a trial you don't expect there to be another trial right away Elijah went to the king then he went to camp at Kareth and there he was all alone in isolation and the water ran out and God moves him a hundred miles to Zarephath and there he is and it's one trial after another trial and now another one And here was the widow who had lost her her only husband Which is a good thing. You only want one right and she lost her husband now.

She's gonna lose her son is How often is it gonna pile up? and So in the midst of a trial or right after trial, you're not expecting another trial for God to bombard you with some other hardship adversity or difficulty, but he does he does and So the story of Elijah and the widow Speaks volumes to us today about the place of trials in our lives and they come in the realm of obedience They come when you're faithfully serving the Lord They come when you have been blessed immensely by God and They come one upon another upon another upon another because trials do strike twice in the same spot Which leads us to point number two the perplexity in the trials Because the widow was perplexed and rightly so So would you?

So would I I? Mean who would expect this kind of trial? She had been obedient to the Lord Elijah had been obedient to the Lord things were running smoothly things were going well People were dying all around them and they were living Quietly Peacefully in their little cottage And all of a sudden the boy gets sick And he dies The Bible tells us So she said to Elijah verse 18, what do I have to do with you? Oh man of God you have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death Whoa Wow Evidently There was some sin in her life We don't know what it is Elijah didn't even know what it was it's not even named But She's aware of it.

Oh by the way, that's what happens when you when you stay around somebody who Who's a man of God or a woman of God? They Through their holy lifestyle Help you understand the sinfulness in your life And now she realizes that That God has sent this man of God this prophet of God to expose her sin and Now Her son's dead because her sin has been exposed to Elijah and Elijah is that great? Judger the great judge of Israel who's passed judgment upon a nation when there's been no water Whatsoever and people are dying now.

He's come to my house to judge me Now remember she's not a Jewish woman she's a pagan Gentile woman and in the Jewish belief they Truly believe that if there were trials or difficulty or sickness or death it was because of their sin We know that from John chapter 9 when the disciples asked Jesus at the pool of Salome who sinned this man Or his parents that he would be born in this condition because that's what their belief was Somebody had sinned for this man to be born in a paralyzed or a blind or a lame condition But she wasn't a Jewish woman But she felt great guilt over her sin That somehow God had come to judge her life And she was perplexed Why would God send this man Provide for us supernaturally and then expose my sin and kill my son That doesn't seem to make any sense And she was perplexed and rightly so She didn't have a full knowledge of of the Lord or understand how God him himself worked And so Elijah says in verse 19.

Give me your son Give me your son Then he took him from her Bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and laid him on his own bed He called to the Lord said O Lord my God Have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die? He's got a question Elijah is a little perplexed this is the man who's a lover of God a believer in God and even Elijah is a little perplexed as to how God is operating at this time He takes his son up to his room lays them on his bed saying, you know, Lord, I'm not sure I'm not sure what you're doing here.

I'm not sure if I get the whole plan or not, but You know, what is happening here? What's going on here? In Elijah himself, of course was a little Perplexed as to the plan of God. He didn't know He'd know what was got God was doing. But remember Zarephath is the place of Refinery Remember that and God has to fine-tune Elijah so he's ready for Mount Carmel He's already been to the place of removal care. He was there for almost a year and God were in his isolation in his bonus was removing those things from him that were barriers to him becoming intimate with the Living God And now he has to fine-tune Elijah.

He has to smooth over the rough edges And that's what God's doing And Elijah asks Oh Lord, my God have you also brought calamity to the widow with whom I abstain my cause your son did I? And then Elijah does something Out of the ordinary He is going to beseech the Lord he is going to gain perspective He's gonna do the only thing he knows to do because we know that he's a righteous man we know that he's a praying man because James says that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man of Months and Elijah was a man with the same nature just like you and me and when he prayed it did not rain and when he prayed Again, it did rain and so we know that he's a man of prayer and so he all he knows to do is to fall on his face before the Living God and begin to pray and That's exactly what he does Except he's willing to defile his Jewish body By laying on a dead boy He's willing to do that he's willing to do whatever it takes For God to do a mighty work and so it says He stretched himself upon the child three times and called to the Lord and said Oh Lord my God I pray you let this child's life return to him.

He's praying for a resurrection He has no history of a resurrection ever There has never been anybody who died and rose again And here's Elijah who truly believes in the Living God and Because he is the Living God We know that from first Kings 17 verse number one that this is the Living God of Israel only the Living God can impart life to dead people And so he prays He prays earnestly Twice it says he cried Wasn't a routine reciting of some little prayer It was not something he would do Simply to say a few words He beseeched the Living God He prayed earnestly Because He wanted God to answer He wanted God to do a great work God is our refuge and our strength a very present help at our time of need and this was a time of need of Great need and so he would pray earnestly.

He would pray specifically It wasn't just that he was passionate about his prayer. He prayed that God would restore life back to the boy And then he prayed Boldly Prayed for a resurrection That's pretty bold it's never happened before It's never happened before But he he prayed in such a way that he would restore life back to the boy That he anticipated God to do something Magnificent and notice this he prayed privately He prayed privately.

He took the boy up to his room. He laid him on his bed. He leaned over him He began to pray for this boy, but he did it privately. It wasn't like he said, okay woman stand back. Oh God above and begin to pray so she could hear or take him out into the streets People gather around because we're gonna see a miracle of the Lord and boy watch and see what God's gonna do No, he went he prayed privately That's why the Lord says that when you pray You enter in your closet and you pray privately and your God who sees you privately Will reward you?

openly And Elijah wasn't looking for any fanfare Wasn't looking for any notoriety This was between him and his God And he was a representative of God And he prayed for God to restore life to this boy He prayed that God would raise him from the dead and he prayed that God would instill life in such a way that God Himself would be honored and glorified and behold God rose that boy from the dead This is amazing It says The Lord heard the voice of Elijah And the life of the child returned to him and he revived Elijah took the child brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother Elijah said see your son is Alive Now listen to what she says then the woman said to Elijah now I Know Now I know That you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth Is truth The product of this trial number one Was the resurrection God did something miraculous God did something over-the-top God did something so wonderful That it would revolutionize Elijah's ministry and the widow's life And he gave the woman back her only son Not only was there a Resurrection there was a jubilation great joy, and why wouldn't there be joy?

Your son was dead, but now he's alive Look what God has done. He he gave your son life Knowing that knowing that There was the opportunity the occasion For Elijah to be used This is very important Because remember What Paul says over in Philippians chapter 1? verse number 12 When he says now, I want you to know brethren That my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel Paul's in prison. He's writing to the Church of Philippi So my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and everyone else In other words God is doing a great work Know that my circumstances have turned out for the betterment of the gospel this became an occasion for Elijah the man of God the prophet of God to be used by God as Never before up to this this very moment but on top of that On top of that Comes the product of the great revelation Now I know That you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord That you speak is absolute truth the revelation That Elijah was a man of God Did not happen on Mount Carmel It happened in a little cottage on the Mediterranean Sea Where no one saw him But God and the woman because true manhood is Determined in the very Littlest of places And that's where Elijah was that's where Elijah was and Her seeing him as a man of God Helps us know two things about Elijah One he was unparalleled in his character Unparalleled in his character This man had a character of humility had the character of calmness and the pressure What happens in crisis?

reveals Who you really are and there was a crisis? the boy died and What did Elijah do? Did he run around the house in? Oh, what am I gonna do? I don't know what to do What's gonna happen next? No, he very calmly. Give me the son. Give me your boy He took him upstairs and even though he talked to the Lord and even questioned about what God was doing He very calmly went about with self-control Depended upon God praying to God leaning upon God relying upon God to accomplish something great This man's character was unparalleled.

It was a blameless character. It was a humble character It was a righteous character Because what happens in crisis truly reveals the man of God and the man of God was revealed in crisis his character unparalleled his commitment undiminished Undiminished was his commitment Never once did he waver from his commitment to the Lord? Never once did he ever renege on his commitment to the Lord? This man was faithful tried and true To his king and all that was revealed in this story with this widow Which made her say now, I know Without question You are Which begs the question who knows?

If you're a man of God, and how will they ever know you are? What is the determining factor? That will reveal to others Your unparalleled character and your undiminished commitment To the Christ the Living God this was Elijah And God used him in a mighty way listen God takes him to Kareth because he has to remove all the excess baggage and draw could took into any brook But took him to the brook called Kareth because that's what it means to whittle away to remove and then he took him To Zarephath he could have taken him to any widow in Sidon but he took him to a widow in Zarephath because Zarephath means to refine and after the dross has been removed and God does his refining work in your life Then and then only do you reflect?

the trueness of your God And that's what happened in Elijah's life He truly reflected The trueness of his God But the story doesn't in there It becomes The illustration That Jesus uses In his hometown in Nazareth as you recall Jesus Gets up to speak in Luke chapter 4 on the Sabbath day in a synagogue in his hometown Where he grew up Everybody knows Jesus I'm not so sure it would been an easy thing growing up with Jesus as one of your citizens in your town Because he would break up all the fights.

He would cause great peace among the children He would he would make sure things were were run smoothly in the town I'm sure that Jesus did something like that although we had no idea But Jesus being raised in your town would would would cause people to notice Mary and Joseph's son and so Jesus on this day.

He gets up at the reed in the synagogue He says because he's there in Isaiah. Remember as you go to the synagogue They have prescribed readings on this day. It happens to be Isaiah 61 What says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he in order me to preach the gospel to the poor He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind Set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord to proclaim that this is God's favor upon you This is that time and he closes the book and sits down Closed the book says today Today this is fulfilled in your area This has been fulfilled Today And everybody knows Isaiah 61 Talks about the coming the Messiah And how the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon the Messiah Everybody knows that when the Messiah comes it will be the favorable year of the Lord in which he shows favor toward his people the year of his redemption They all know that and every other rabbi who came said this will one day happen This day will one day come and all of a sudden Jesus says the day is here It has come.

This is the day meaning The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I'm your Messiah and so Says and all were speaking well of him Well of him and we're wondering at the gracious words, which were falling from his lips And they were saying is this not Joseph's son? They were enthralled with Jesus He spoke as no man had ever spoken before And he had spoken on this day and they sat marveling at his words, but Jesus because he's God Knows exactly what's happening in their hearts So he says that I'm no doubt you will quote this proverb to me physician heal yourself Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum do here in your hometown as well.

In other words, I know what you're thinking You're thinking that if I'm the Messiah Then I need to do here in Nazareth what I've been doing in Capernaum My home base in the Galilee and all the miracles that were happening in Capernaum So no doubt you are thinking among yourself listen if you're really the Messiah How come those things aren't being done here as they are over in? Capernaum So Jesus answers the question for them Truly I say to you no prophet is welcome in his hometown Then here it comes But I say to you in truth That there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah When the sky was shut up for three years and six months when a great famine came over all the land and yet Elijah Was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow and then he says There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet Elijah would follow Elijah None of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian and all the people in the synagogues were filled with rage As they heard these things they were outraged And all Jesus did was give them an illustration of something that everybody knew remember Elijah the great prophet of Israel Do you know that there were so many widows in law in Israel during the time of the famine?

There are so many of them But you know what God did not send Elijah to any Jewish widow Instead God sent Elijah to a pagan Gentile widow Not only that she was from Sidon the pillar of immorality and idolatry and God sent Elijah to her and nobody else nobody else Elisha. Oh There are many lepers in Israel Many Jewish people had been inflicted with leprosy But God never sent Elijah To any of those Jewish people afflicted with leprosy instead He sent Elisha to a pagan king Named Naaman that all of you hate and hated and he was cleansed He was cleansed and they were outraged Why Because what Jesus said to them was very clear The Spirit of the Lord is upon me I've come to proclaim the gospel to the poor the blind the imprisoned the captive but nobody else And the Jewish people didn't see themselves as blind The Jewish people didn't see themselves as blind Down trodden Poor and captive but the widow She saw herself as such She was a pagan Gentile The king the wicked King Naaman He saw himself as as such What marked the widow?

Was submission to the Word of the Lord What marked the king? Was humiliation when he had to go down to the river and dunk himself seven consecutive times Two things Absolutely essential for salvation is that you submit to everything God says and you humbly bow before him in submission and claim him as your king In Israel wasn't about to bow in submission to the words of Jesus and Follow everything he said They were filled with rage So he took him to a brow Of a cliff and want to throw off and kill him They hated him all because There was a widow Who was willing to submit To everything God said Who came to the conclusion now, I know That you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord you speak is absolute truth This is a powerful story how God's grace reaches all people Not just some people In God Yeah, we see How God removes the dross how God refines the man say he reflects the true character of God All that's true But when you think about all that took place in the little cottage on the Mediterranean Sea happened So Jesus would come and use it as an illustration to show the nation of Israel where they were lacking in their humiliation and submission to the authority of God in their lives God had a bigger picture in mind More than just Elijah and the widow and the son who died and rose again There was a bigger picture at stake there was a greater illustration going on here To show you that in the midst of all of your trials No matter which place they come No matter how perplexed you may be and no matter what product might come because of them The total picture is yet to be seen Because God has a greater plan than you can ever imagine Let me pray with you Father thank you Lord for today your word a chance to study together What a joy to be able to see the hand of God at work Thank you for Elijah the great prophet of God.

Thank you for how you called him and used him for your glory Thank you that he's a man just like us And that you too want to use us for the glory of your kingdom May we learn from Elijah and the widow Because next week we embark At the end of the famine and Watch and see what you do through Elijah the prophet of God We pray this in your son's name Jesus Christ