Morning Service, 31st May 2009
We don’t know how long Elijah had been waiting, but no doubt he was glad that God spoke to him again, telling him this time to leave the brook Cherith – after all the source of water so essential for life was dried up. But in so calling Elijah to move on God makes it clear that though the brook had dried up, the supply of His grace had not – it was merely relocated. For in v.9 we read God assuring Elijah that He had another place prepared for his care. In this God gives Elijah an insight into His purposes and ways. And that’s where I want us to pause and consider from God’s Word today. In the unfolding of God’s purposes to Elijah we see something about God’s ways and something of what should be our faith. We see:
1. The Challenge of Faith
God’s ways are often and rightly described as mysterious, and at face value they certainly seem to be so here.
(i) Look at the circumstances surrounding Elijah’s travel. God sends him on a journey, without water supplies seeing the brook was already dry, and that which involves going through arid country. The journey, involving hilly country, was about 120kms – which if at 6kms a day would take 20 days!
(ii) But as much a challenge this was, the greater challenge lay in the direction he walked. He was to go outside of Israel. He was to go to Zarephath by Sidon – which was the heart-land of Jezebel, where her father was the priest- king (see 16:32), and therefore also of the Baal worship she brought to Israel.
(iii) Even more strange, the road that would take Elijah to Zarephath passed through the Jezreel valley – the place where Ahab and Jezebel had their palace. He was walking into ‘the lion’s den’, passing right under the nose of the one who sought his blood. And he did so. Even though it meant walking through “the valley of the shadow of death” he “feared not” (Psalms 23). In fact what looked like the valley of death was really a ‘corridor of safety’ because God was the one directing his steps.
(iv) And then God makes clear that he was to go to a gentile widow, who were often amongst the poorest of society and ill-equipped financially to look after others, yet she will provide for him.
What a challenge! God’s ways invariably challenge our faith. We saw that with reference to Elijah’s both going to the Brook but also in the means God used to provide for him there, and again at the test of the drying Brook. Is this merely a repetition of the lessons and the test? In a sense yes, but even more it is a reminder that our response to the ways of God must always be one of faith. Indeed the believer’s life is always one in which faith is challenged by God as He seeks to develop and strengthen it as well as confirm it as the established principle of the believer’s life. In that sense we only leave God’s school of faith as we enter glory.
Do we understand that whilst past experiences of faith expressed and blessed encourage us, they do not remove the need for on-going faith as we face new situations? It is not enough to look back on our faith with gratitude, we need by God’s grace to express faith in the present, and seek preparation of our heart and mind for future calls upon it which we do by giving attention to the means of grace.
So often we can’t understand why certain things happen as they do. We might have caught a glimpse of God’s purpose later but at the time it was mysterious. All of which illustrates a principle which God declared in Isaiah 55:8,9 – “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
How often we have set ideas about how things should go, because of which we find ourselves fighting against change from our plan. But we must allow God the right to direct; even when it seems mysterious to us let alone even obliterates our plans. It is the spirit we see in Eli’s response to the Word from God through the boy Samuel: “Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, ‘It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him’.” (1 Sam 3:18)
The life of faith is a life of daily going forward in faith. As Phil Johnson points out, ‘this is an incredibly difficult lesson for us to learn’. In 2 Cor 5:7 we read “we walk by faith not by sight”, yet we have to admit that ‘our natural tendency is to seek security in things we can see and feel, so walking by faith never really feels secure. We are constantly tempted to abandon the walk of faith and seek our security in tangible things. The truth is that real security only occurs in the walk of faith.’
2. The Confidence of Faith
As we look at God’s dealings with Elijah here we see 3 keys truths concnerning God’s ways which stimulate confidence in the exercise of faith:
a. God’s Ways are not irrational
Though it is mysterious, God’s ways are not without let alone against reason. God’s ways are not ways without purpose. Consider here that –
(i) It will serve to display the impotence of Baal, for God will provide for him under the very nose of the one whom Israel regarded as having displaced and deposed God. A truth which Elijah was to learn for the coming battle on Mt Carmel – that God’s power, provision and protection extended even in the very camp of the enemy. In face what it meant was that God was multiplying the grace to now include this widow and her son. Elijah’s need led to the supply of her need too!
(ii) It would serve as a further indictment of judgement upon Israel. We see that Jesus both understood this and applied its abiding lesson to His time as well. For in Luke 4:25-26 we read Him drawing on this very dimension as He responds to the hardness of the people of Nazareth His home town and the dryness of His work there compared to other places.
(iii) It would be a statement of the sovereignty of God’s grace in not only ministering to the needs of a woman and her son in dire straits, but in bringing God’s truth to them. Ahab would not listen to the Word of God, but here is a woman who by God’s grace will. As Jesus points out, though there were many widows in Israel yet He brought His servant and Word to this one who was both geographically and racially outside of Israel. “I have commanded a widow there to provide for you”, declares God. He did not choose her because of something within her, on the contrary all she did was because of God’s distinguishing sovereign grace. He had one whom He would bring to new life, and He brought the means of that new life to her, and through her sustaining grace to all three.
(iv) It would further strengthen the faith of Elijah for that ministry which lay ahead of him but of which he was at this time unaware. That he was so miraculously kept in the centre of Baalism would embolden him to think little of standing alone as God’s servant in the middle of 450 of Baal.
(v) It would broaden Elijah’s sense of ministry. God was showing not only that He was the Lord of the whole earth, but that His mission field was the whole earth, that he was willing to gather from outside Israel, a truth which Israel had often and long misunderstood. This of course reached its fulfilment in NT age.
We do well to consider what God is doing now against His ways already revealed in Scripture, confident that He is fulfilling well designed purposes.
b. God’s ways are carefully orchestrated
Our God is the God of circumstances. Look at the scene before us. God says He will provide for Elijah in Zarephath by a widow. But God makes no statement about how this widow was to be found. It is most reasonable that if there were many widows in Israel at that time as Jesus says, then there would also be many and certainly more than one in Zarephath. How would he identify her? How would he know He’s got the right one?
Yet they found each other! Coincidence? No! God!! As you read the story it is as if she came on purpose to meet him. Elijah meets her, waiting for him it almost seems, at the gate. He didn’t know she was a widow till she spoke – and how his heart must have leaped for joy when he heard, saying ‘Look, God has brought her to me!’ It has all the appearance of being accidental and yet it is all decreed and arranged by God. God’s sovereignty is written all over this passage!
The principle we ought to remember is that God arranges events and circumstances. In Jeremiah 10:23, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (cf Psalm 37:23 – “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”; Isaiah 46:9,10)
Learn that it is sheer unbelief that disconnects the ordinary things of life from God. All of our circumstances and experiences are directed by God, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things…” (Rom 11:26).
Learn that God works at both ends of the line. When Jacob sends his sons to Egypt for food, God has already sent Joseph to give it to them. When Israel’s spies were sent to Jericho, Rahab was raised up to shelter them. If the Ethiopian is desirous of an understanding of God’s Word, he finds that Philip was sent to expound it to him. Elijah has no information where the widow lived, but Divine providence timed her steps and search for wood so that she met him at the gate of the city as he approached it. Even before the need is expressed the solution is being prepared.
Learn then to look for God’s hand in all of our life’s circumstances.
c. God’s ways are always accomplished
In 1 Thess 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls, and He also will bring it to pass.” This is illustrated here as we compare v.9 with v.16.
What a blessed truth this is to have and own! Just as truly as the widow’s meal and oil didn’t fail according to His Word to Elijah, so every promise made to His saints will yet receive its perfect accomplishment. As one said, ‘The impeccable veracity, unchangeable faithfulness and almighty power of God to make good His Word, is the impregnable foundation on which faith may securely rest.’ Of course that has a solemn side – for it is equally true that God will make good His word to judge those who continue in their rebellion and sin and who reject His Son as Saviour. (See Deut. 7:9 which speaks of His abounding mercy to those who love Him, and v.10 of unrelenting judgement to those who hate Him.)
3. The Sight of Faith
Faith as the response to God’s ways causes us to look both within and upward:
a. God’s ways are designed to stop us settling
Lest we become like a can of oil-based paint sitting on our shelves which over time becomes useless due to the separation of the paint from its solvent and is thus in need of stirring, so God works to resist the temptation often present with his people to become complacent and lethargic in their faith.
A suggestive illustration is given to us in Jeremiah 48:11 “Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not emptied from vessel to vessel.” The purpose of this was to remove the lees which over time had the effect of robbing the wine of its life and spoiling it. Elijah on the other hand was being emptied by God from vessel to vessel, so that the scum might rise to the surface and be removed. Interestingly Zarephath means ‘furnace’. In the refining process Elijah was taken from one furnace into another.
This experience is common to all believers – James 1:2-4 – “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
The constant change of circumstances is not a pleasant experience, but it is essential if we are to be preserved from settling on our lees. Our circumstances, chosen by a wise God out of all the possible circumstances, are the most suited to develop our character, and to make us useful in God’s service. Rejoice!
b. God’s ways are directed to lift our eyes to God
Elijah’s response to God’s unfolding ways remained that of faith, seeing that faith does not look at circumstances but at God. Looking simply at naked circumstances the picture looked gloomy. Instead of a woman joyfully greeting him, she spoke sadly of impending death. Instead of having plenty to feed Elijah she only had enough for a small last meal. What a testing of faith. How unreasonable it would seem to expect aid from her roof – there must be another widow in God’s mind.
Yet as shown by his response to the widow’s pessimism Elijah’s faith looks beyond the obvious to the God of the obvious. In v.14 he says “For thus says the Lord God of Israel”. Tomorrow will bring with it tomorrows’ God! (See Isa 41:10). How much better is God than our fears! – v.16. Learn that faith though aware of difficulties is not occupied with them, but with Him with whom all things are possible; not with circumstances but with the God of circumstances. This is how it was with Elijah. Oh that it may increasingly be so of us. Let us ever look to our God and our Father, rejoicing in His ways as the ways of spiritual peace and prosperity.