1/27/21
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| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
The title of this message is "These are the Days of Elijah." I am not very interested in simply an historical account of Elijah. We want to look at the principles of God in the life of Elijah that never change and what they mean for us today. It would take a book to write about his life, even though he is mentioned in only six chapters in the Old Testament. Therefore, it is not possible to share everything about Elijah in one message. If you have your Bible, please turn to 1 Kings, Chapter 17 and Verse 1.
The first thing we should note is that Elijah just suddenly appears on the scene to stand up against the idolatry and apostasy in the Northern kingdom of Israel. The Lord can and has done many things suddenly. One such event is when a person is born again.
One of the few things we know about Elijah's background and upbringing is that he was a Tishbite and lived in Gilead. "Tishbite" means sojourner. Abraham, David, and others said they were sojourners on this earth. David said, in
Elijah was a hairy man, with long thick hair. He wore a girdle of leather about his loins. He is the only man recorded in scripture who had a distinctive mantle. (More on that later.)
We next note that Elijah was simply one of the inhabitants of Gilead. He was not a ruler. The Bible does not tell us how Elijah got access to Ahab. But the Lord can do anything and do it quickly. Elijah told Ahab there would be neither dew nor rain but according to his word. What a bold prophecy! But the Lord honored the word because it was the word of the Lord. Elijah simply spoke that word.
Whenever the living Word of God speaks, as for example in creation, something must happen.
Recall from 1 Kings 17:1 that Elijah said that he stood before the Lord God of Israel. Many Christians believe that Elijah was also a priest. As such, he would have known that one of the three functions of a priest was to "stand before the Lord to minister unto Him" (Deuteronomy 10:8). The other two functions were to bear the ark of the covenant and to bless in His name. Those three functions still apply to all Christians today. However, when Elijah said that he stood before the Lord, I believe that it was primarily head knowledge and not yet made real in his heart. What follows in 1 Kings 17, strongly indicates that Elijah still needed some refinement in his life. As I have said before, the Lord is more interested in our character than our comfort or our good works. Nevertheless, the Lord honored Elijah's bold declaration.
Elijah declared that there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. The drought, and resulting famine, was not only a Divine judgment on a nation that had turned to idolatry, but also a demonstration that even though Baal was considered the god of fertility and lord of the rain clouds, he, Baal, was powerless to give rain. We also know, from James 5:17, that,
Note that here, and in at least four other places, the word of the Lord came unto Elijah saying ... In other words, this represents the sovereignty of God. Elijah never asked the Lord to tell him something. The Lord just sovereignly moved on Elijah. We are not told HOW the word of the Lord came unto Elijah. This is an eternal principle. Unless the Lord comes to us, we cannot go to Him.
Immediately after Elijah made that first, bold prophecy in Verse 1, the Lord sent him into the wilderness to work humility into Elijah. The Lord first sent him to the brook Cherith, before the Jordan.
With this command God withdrew His prophet from the Promised land and left His people isolated from His word and blessings. "Before Jordan" does not convey the proper understanding, which is on the east, or other side of the Jordan; i.e., outside of the geographical boundary of the nation of Israel. In other words, the Lord told Elijah to leave Israel. The Lord said, "get thee hence and hide thyself outside of Israel." Why? One reason was because of the famine and drought that was to come upon Israel. We likewise are called to go outside the camp of the religious system of the world.
Further, if Elijah were to stay in idolatrous Israel, he might be polluted. Who we fellowship with can make us or break us.
The Lord told Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith, which means a "cut." This speaks of the circumcision of the heart.
The word "Cherith" also means to make a covenant by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces. This was the custom of making a covenant in those days. The Lord said, in
A covenant between man and man will always be broken, sooner or later. A covenant between God and man will never be broken from God's side, but will almost always be broken from man's side. But a covenant between God the Father and God the Son can never be broken. Such a covenant is recorded in Genesis 15, Verses 9, 10, and 17.
The smoking furnace and the burning lamp represent God the Father and God the Son (see Exodus 19:18 and Isaiah 62:1). The Lord had put Abram to sleep to make sure that he understood that the eternal covenant which can never be broken is between the Father and the Son. In other words, man has no part in that eternal covenant. It is that covenant between the Father and the Son that all Christians must enter into.
The Lord also told Elijah to "hide thyself." The same is true today. We personally know several mature men of God who are hidden away from the charismatic world. But they are simply being Divinely processed, just like Elijah was, and are waiting for the time when the Lord releases them to fulfill their ministry.
What a humbling experience for Elijah! The great prophet must allow the ravens to feed him. You might recall, from Leviticus 11:15, that the raven was an unclean bird. We must have true humility worked within us. The Lord is processing Elijah. Recall also, from Acts 10:15, that "what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."
We do not depend only upon food and drink for our survival; rather we are dependent upon the living word of God. Jesus said, in
Note that the Lord had commanded the ravens to feed Elijah there. Elijah would have perished anywhere different from God's appointed place. It is the same for us today. All things are possible when the Lord speaks. When the Lord commands, no one can do otherwise, not even the birds of the air. The Lord can cause an ass to speak; He can cause the rocks to cry out; He can cause water to come out of a rock; he can do ANYTHING and no one can stop Him, because He is God.
The great principle in these verses is that after we hear a clear command from the Lord, we must obey.
This verse has both a natural and a spiritual significance. A number of scriptures speak of rain in a spiritual sense. For example,
Note that there shall be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There is NO famine of the Lord speaking! The opposite is true! This is a day when the Lord is pouring forth an abundance of revelation concerning Himself and His word to all those who have ears to hear. The famine is a result of our ears, which have become accustomed to hearing the words of man, even good men.
This was the second, somewhat humiliating experience for Elijah, but he clearly learned his lesson. The Lord does not like the proud. Note in Verse 9 the two occurrences of the word "there." This conveys the same meaning as in Verse 4. It is only when we are in the place where God puts us that He promises to sustain us.
The word "Zarephath" means "refinement." The Lord is continuing His refining process within Elijah. Zarephath was a coastal town located between Tyre and Sidon in the territory ruled by Jezebel's father, Ethbaal (1 Kings 16:31). Moreover, Zarephath was about 100 miles from the brook Cherith. The terrain was also very mountainous. So that journey was very lengthy on foot and very tiresome. Elijah is commanded to go and reside in the heart of the very land from which Baal worship had come. But Elijah never complained and never questioned the word of the Lord. He just went. Further, he never asked, "but Lord, what will I eat and drink along the way?"
Elijah was now to be sustained through the human hands of a poor widow facing starvation (as we will see later in Verse 12). She is one of nine widows mentioned in Scripture. The number "nine" speaks of the judgment of God. She was, moreover, from outside the circle of God's own people. In fact, she was from the pagan nation that at that time (much like Egypt earlier and Babylon later) represented the forces arrayed against the kingdom of God.
Later, in Kings 19:4-8, after Elijah fled from the threat of Jezebel, we read,
When the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, from
The answer is ... God can and will prepare a table for anyone and everyone in any place provided that we come to do the will of the Father.
But we should never limit the Lord as to how He will sustain us in time of famine. Many years ago a true prophet of the Lord and a personal friend of mine wrote the following:
An interesting question is, how did Elijah know that the woman he first saw at the gate of the city was a widow? Surely there were a number of widows in Zarephath. And how did he know that she was the specific widow woman that the Lord had commanded to sustain him?
Elijah's reliance on the Lord demonstrated the faith in the Lord that Israel should have been living by. The widow woman said, "As the Lord thy God liveth." She did not say "As the Lord my God liveth." Therefore, she acknowledged that she had some level of belief in the Lord, but that her relationship with the Lord was not yet personal and real to her. In Verse 13, Elijah told her to make him something to eat first. The widow is asked to give all that she has to sustain the messenger of the word of the Lord. The demand to give her all is in essence the demand of the covenant that Israel had broken. This is the Old Testament counterpart of the poor widow in Luke 21:1-4 who cast in all that she had (two mites) into the treasury.
In Verse 15, when the widow woman did all that Elijah had asked of her, she received by faith the promised blessing. Israel had forsaken the covenant and followed Baal and Ashtoreth in search of prosperity. In the midst of a pagan kingdom, the widow realized that trustful obedience to the word of God is the only way that leads to life. God miraculously provided for this non-Israelite who had laid her life on the line. The Lord gave her "manna" from heaven even while He was withholding food from His unfaithful people in the promised land. A solid, Godly principle is that the Lord never forgets those who are kind to His chosen ones. One specific example of that is the harlot, Rahab, who helped God's people to overthrow Jericho. Rahab, the great-great grandmother of David (Matthew 4:1), and her father's household were saved.
Verses 17-24 describe the death of the son of the widow woman. More importantly, they describe the first instance of raising the dead recorded in Scripture. Because of Elijah's intercession for the child, the Lord raised the child back to life. Elijah had now been processed for his forthcoming victory over the prophets of Baal. In Chapter 17, Elijah had learned and appropriated humility; he had learned obedience; he had learned that he was totally dependent upon the word of the Lord in his life; and with each step of faith he had become as bold as a lion, even to the raising of the dead.
The next instance was when Elijah told the widow woman in Zarephath that if she did as he asked, then, in 1 Kings 17:14 and 16,
Then Elijah prayed for the widow's dead son.
Then comes the well-known confrontation with the prophets of Baal.
So the fire of God is not ordinary fire, but rather supernatural fire that can consume everything, even water!
After that declaration, Elijah slew 450 of the prophets of Baal. Then he prayed earnestly for rain and the Lord sent rain. Elijah was so energized by the word of the Lord that he out-ran the chariots of Ahab all the way back to Jezreel, the chief residence of Ahab, some twenty-plus miles. So Elijah would have easily beaten all of the marathon runners of today!
Elijah indeed dealt with the false prophets of Baal in his time, but he ran at the threat of a woman, Jezebel. After the Elijah of our day confronts the current prophets of Baal, who will deal with the Jezebel spirit that is so rampant in the modern-day Church? Jezebel is that independent, domineering, rebellious spirit that must have her own way. It sometimes emerges because a wife sees that her husband will not gather the spiritual manna for the family and so she says, well I will get it. In so doing, she becomes like Eve, gets out of the order of God, and causes chaos!
Elijah, of course, was not the only chosen vessel who declared the word of the Lord with no thought for himself. John the Baptist certainly did the same. He preached, "repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). He also said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious elite of the day,
Apparently, John never learned how to win friends and influence people! But he declared the word of the Lord and has his place of glory in the eternal kingdom of God.
Stephen was another such man who declared the word of the Lord with no thought of the consequences for himself. He told the Sanhedrin and the high priest,
Our final example is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. At least a dozen times Jesus said to the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and scribes of that day, "Woe unto you, hypocrites! because ..." Most of these occurrences are in Matthew 23 and Luke, Chapters 6 and 11. No one could ever doubt that Jesus declared the word of the Lord!
John the Baptist, Stephen, and Jesus all had at least three things in common. The first was the desire that the Father might be glorified. Next, all three declared the word of the Lord, even though it was very unpopular to men. And all three were slain by the religious leaders of the day. It is time for the modern-day Elijah to speak the same "hard" words to the Church. The result may be the same, but God's word must go forth! Jesus said,
The green tree is Jesus, the living Word; Jesus is the tree of life in the midst of the garden. The natural man is the dry tree ... the brown tree ... the tree in need of the river of life. The dry wood is devoid of the living Christ. There will always be spiritual warfare between life in Christ and death outside of Christ. The Lord's people need to be prepared for the difficulties yet to come.
However, God is not asleep! There is a stirring in the mulberry bushes!
Verse 1: And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
The first thing we should note is that Elijah just suddenly appears on the scene to stand up against the idolatry and apostasy in the Northern kingdom of Israel. The Lord can and has done many things suddenly. One such event is when a person is born again.
One of the few things we know about Elijah's background and upbringing is that he was a Tishbite and lived in Gilead. "Tishbite" means sojourner. Abraham, David, and others said they were sojourners on this earth. David said, in
1 Chronicles 29:15, "For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."
Hebrews 11:13-14, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country."
Elijah was a hairy man, with long thick hair. He wore a girdle of leather about his loins. He is the only man recorded in scripture who had a distinctive mantle. (More on that later.)
We next note that Elijah was simply one of the inhabitants of Gilead. He was not a ruler. The Bible does not tell us how Elijah got access to Ahab. But the Lord can do anything and do it quickly. Elijah told Ahab there would be neither dew nor rain but according to his word. What a bold prophecy! But the Lord honored the word because it was the word of the Lord. Elijah simply spoke that word.
Whenever the living Word of God speaks, as for example in creation, something must happen.
Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Recall from 1 Kings 17:1 that Elijah said that he stood before the Lord God of Israel. Many Christians believe that Elijah was also a priest. As such, he would have known that one of the three functions of a priest was to "stand before the Lord to minister unto Him" (Deuteronomy 10:8). The other two functions were to bear the ark of the covenant and to bless in His name. Those three functions still apply to all Christians today. However, when Elijah said that he stood before the Lord, I believe that it was primarily head knowledge and not yet made real in his heart. What follows in 1 Kings 17, strongly indicates that Elijah still needed some refinement in his life. As I have said before, the Lord is more interested in our character than our comfort or our good works. Nevertheless, the Lord honored Elijah's bold declaration.
Elijah declared that there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. The drought, and resulting famine, was not only a Divine judgment on a nation that had turned to idolatry, but also a demonstration that even though Baal was considered the god of fertility and lord of the rain clouds, he, Baal, was powerless to give rain. We also know, from James 5:17, that,
"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."
Verse 2: And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
Note that here, and in at least four other places, the word of the Lord came unto Elijah saying ... In other words, this represents the sovereignty of God. Elijah never asked the Lord to tell him something. The Lord just sovereignly moved on Elijah. We are not told HOW the word of the Lord came unto Elijah. This is an eternal principle. Unless the Lord comes to us, we cannot go to Him.
Verse 3: Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
Immediately after Elijah made that first, bold prophecy in Verse 1, the Lord sent him into the wilderness to work humility into Elijah. The Lord first sent him to the brook Cherith, before the Jordan.
With this command God withdrew His prophet from the Promised land and left His people isolated from His word and blessings. "Before Jordan" does not convey the proper understanding, which is on the east, or other side of the Jordan; i.e., outside of the geographical boundary of the nation of Israel. In other words, the Lord told Elijah to leave Israel. The Lord said, "get thee hence and hide thyself outside of Israel." Why? One reason was because of the famine and drought that was to come upon Israel. We likewise are called to go outside the camp of the religious system of the world.
From Hebrews 13:12-13,12 Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.13 Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
Revelation 18:4, And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Further, if Elijah were to stay in idolatrous Israel, he might be polluted. Who we fellowship with can make us or break us.
The Lord told Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith, which means a "cut." This speaks of the circumcision of the heart.
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Romans 2:28-29
The word "Cherith" also means to make a covenant by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces. This was the custom of making a covenant in those days. The Lord said, in
Jeremiah 34:18-20, "And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the People of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth."
A covenant between man and man will always be broken, sooner or later. A covenant between God and man will never be broken from God's side, but will almost always be broken from man's side. But a covenant between God the Father and God the Son can never be broken. Such a covenant is recorded in Genesis 15, Verses 9, 10, and 17.
9 And He [the Lord] said unto him [Abram], Take Me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
The smoking furnace and the burning lamp represent God the Father and God the Son (see Exodus 19:18 and Isaiah 62:1). The Lord had put Abram to sleep to make sure that he understood that the eternal covenant which can never be broken is between the Father and the Son. In other words, man has no part in that eternal covenant. It is that covenant between the Father and the Son that all Christians must enter into.
The Lord also told Elijah to "hide thyself." The same is true today. We personally know several mature men of God who are hidden away from the charismatic world. But they are simply being Divinely processed, just like Elijah was, and are waiting for the time when the Lord releases them to fulfill their ministry.
Verse 4: And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
What a humbling experience for Elijah! The great prophet must allow the ravens to feed him. You might recall, from Leviticus 11:15, that the raven was an unclean bird. We must have true humility worked within us. The Lord is processing Elijah. Recall also, from Acts 10:15, that "what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."
We do not depend only upon food and drink for our survival; rather we are dependent upon the living word of God. Jesus said, in
Matthew 4:4, "But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that is proceeding out of the mouth of God."
Romans 14:17, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Note that the Lord had commanded the ravens to feed Elijah there. Elijah would have perished anywhere different from God's appointed place. It is the same for us today. All things are possible when the Lord speaks. When the Lord commands, no one can do otherwise, not even the birds of the air. The Lord can cause an ass to speak; He can cause the rocks to cry out; He can cause water to come out of a rock; he can do ANYTHING and no one can stop Him, because He is God.
Verses 5-6: So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
The great principle in these verses is that after we hear a clear command from the Lord, we must obey.
1 Samuel 15:22, "Obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams."
When we are obedient to the rhema word of the Lord, we always see the promised result and blessing. Note also that Elijah had only two meals a day, not the three per day to which most Americans are accustomed. That is a much healthier routine. Perhaps even more amazing is that the Lord had commanded the ravens to feed Elijah ... and the ravens obeyed! Elijah never had to depend upon any man for his daily food. With this current pandemic, which may last at least two years, some folks are getting hungry for food. I believe this situation will get worse. But all those who trust in the Lord and go where the Lord says, will be nourished both physically and spiritually. Salvation is God's responsibility. No man can save himself. Our responsibility, as the old hymn says, is to trust and obey - for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus - but to trust and obey. That is the only way that we can experience real peace and joy.
Verse 7: And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
This verse has both a natural and a spiritual significance. A number of scriptures speak of rain in a spiritual sense. For example,
Psalm 72:6, "He shall come down like rain;"
and Joel 2:23, which speaks of the former and the latter rain. The drought is beginning to take its toll. The Lord did not choose to let water remain in the brook because He had further plans for Elijah. A similar drought is upon the Church today in the spiritual sense.
Amos 8:11-12, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."
Note that there shall be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There is NO famine of the Lord speaking! The opposite is true! This is a day when the Lord is pouring forth an abundance of revelation concerning Himself and His word to all those who have ears to hear. The famine is a result of our ears, which have become accustomed to hearing the words of man, even good men.
Verses 8-9: And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
This was the second, somewhat humiliating experience for Elijah, but he clearly learned his lesson. The Lord does not like the proud. Note in Verse 9 the two occurrences of the word "there." This conveys the same meaning as in Verse 4. It is only when we are in the place where God puts us that He promises to sustain us.
The word "Zarephath" means "refinement." The Lord is continuing His refining process within Elijah. Zarephath was a coastal town located between Tyre and Sidon in the territory ruled by Jezebel's father, Ethbaal (1 Kings 16:31). Moreover, Zarephath was about 100 miles from the brook Cherith. The terrain was also very mountainous. So that journey was very lengthy on foot and very tiresome. Elijah is commanded to go and reside in the heart of the very land from which Baal worship had come. But Elijah never complained and never questioned the word of the Lord. He just went. Further, he never asked, "but Lord, what will I eat and drink along the way?"
Elijah was now to be sustained through the human hands of a poor widow facing starvation (as we will see later in Verse 12). She is one of nine widows mentioned in Scripture. The number "nine" speaks of the judgment of God. She was, moreover, from outside the circle of God's own people. In fact, she was from the pagan nation that at that time (much like Egypt earlier and Babylon later) represented the forces arrayed against the kingdom of God.
Psalm 23:5, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."
Later, in Kings 19:4-8, after Elijah fled from the threat of Jezebel, we read,
4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.6 And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.7 And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
When the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, from
Psalm 78:19-20, "Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give bread also? can He provide flesh for his people?"
The answer is ... God can and will prepare a table for anyone and everyone in any place provided that we come to do the will of the Father.
Palms 37:19, "They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied."
But we should never limit the Lord as to how He will sustain us in time of famine. Many years ago a true prophet of the Lord and a personal friend of mine wrote the following:
Once a man has tasted one morsel from the table of the Lord, the very sweat from the pores of his skin will eat away the chains that bind him to the oars of the galley of the religious system.
Back to 1 Kings, Chapter 17 and Verses 10-16.
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: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.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: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.
An interesting question is, how did Elijah know that the woman he first saw at the gate of the city was a widow? Surely there were a number of widows in Zarephath. And how did he know that she was the specific widow woman that the Lord had commanded to sustain him?
And He said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. Luke 22:10
In those days, men carried wine-skins but only women carried pitchers. Therefore, a man carrying a pitcher would have been a unique event. Likewise, it appears that only men gathered sticks. Therefore, when a woman was seen gathering sticks, she must have been a widow. This thought is supported by Scripture. In the few verses in the Bible when sticks are mentioned, men gathered sticks.
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day ... Numbers 15:32And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire ...
Acts 28:3
Elijah's reliance on the Lord demonstrated the faith in the Lord that Israel should have been living by. The widow woman said, "As the Lord thy God liveth." She did not say "As the Lord my God liveth." Therefore, she acknowledged that she had some level of belief in the Lord, but that her relationship with the Lord was not yet personal and real to her. In Verse 13, Elijah told her to make him something to eat first. The widow is asked to give all that she has to sustain the messenger of the word of the Lord. The demand to give her all is in essence the demand of the covenant that Israel had broken. This is the Old Testament counterpart of the poor widow in Luke 21:1-4 who cast in all that she had (two mites) into the treasury.
In Verse 15, when the widow woman did all that Elijah had asked of her, she received by faith the promised blessing. Israel had forsaken the covenant and followed Baal and Ashtoreth in search of prosperity. In the midst of a pagan kingdom, the widow realized that trustful obedience to the word of God is the only way that leads to life. God miraculously provided for this non-Israelite who had laid her life on the line. The Lord gave her "manna" from heaven even while He was withholding food from His unfaithful people in the promised land. A solid, Godly principle is that the Lord never forgets those who are kind to His chosen ones. One specific example of that is the harlot, Rahab, who helped God's people to overthrow Jericho. Rahab, the great-great grandmother of David (Matthew 4:1), and her father's household were saved.
Verses 17-24 describe the death of the son of the widow woman. More importantly, they describe the first instance of raising the dead recorded in Scripture. Because of Elijah's intercession for the child, the Lord raised the child back to life. Elijah had now been processed for his forthcoming victory over the prophets of Baal. In Chapter 17, Elijah had learned and appropriated humility; he had learned obedience; he had learned that he was totally dependent upon the word of the Lord in his life; and with each step of faith he had become as bold as a lion, even to the raising of the dead.
3 And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. Revelation 11:3, 6
The next instance was when Elijah told the widow woman in Zarephath that if she did as he asked, then, in 1 Kings 17:14 and 16,
14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which He spake by Elijah.
Then Elijah prayed for the widow's dead son.
From 1 Kings 17:22, "And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."
We need to be very clear that Elijah only declared the word of the Lord. The Lord, Himself, is the One who brought the word to pass. Nevertheless, in order to be able to declare the word of the Lord, we must know what is the word of the Lord! Elijah's next bold declaration was to Ahab, in 1 Kings 18:17-18,
17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?18 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.
Then comes the well-known confrontation with the prophets of Baal.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word.37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again.38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God. 1 Kings 18:36-39
So the fire of God is not ordinary fire, but rather supernatural fire that can consume everything, even water!
After that declaration, Elijah slew 450 of the prophets of Baal. Then he prayed earnestly for rain and the Lord sent rain. Elijah was so energized by the word of the Lord that he out-ran the chariots of Ahab all the way back to Jezreel, the chief residence of Ahab, some twenty-plus miles. So Elijah would have easily beaten all of the marathon runners of today!
Elijah indeed dealt with the false prophets of Baal in his time, but he ran at the threat of a woman, Jezebel. After the Elijah of our day confronts the current prophets of Baal, who will deal with the Jezebel spirit that is so rampant in the modern-day Church? Jezebel is that independent, domineering, rebellious spirit that must have her own way. It sometimes emerges because a wife sees that her husband will not gather the spiritual manna for the family and so she says, well I will get it. In so doing, she becomes like Eve, gets out of the order of God, and causes chaos!
Elijah, of course, was not the only chosen vessel who declared the word of the Lord with no thought for himself. John the Baptist certainly did the same. He preached, "repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). He also said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious elite of the day,
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7
Apparently, John never learned how to win friends and influence people! But he declared the word of the Lord and has his place of glory in the eternal kingdom of God.
Stephen was another such man who declared the word of the Lord with no thought of the consequences for himself. He told the Sanhedrin and the high priest,
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of Whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Acts 7:51-53
Our final example is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. At least a dozen times Jesus said to the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and scribes of that day, "Woe unto you, hypocrites! because ..." Most of these occurrences are in Matthew 23 and Luke, Chapters 6 and 11. No one could ever doubt that Jesus declared the word of the Lord!
John the Baptist, Stephen, and Jesus all had at least three things in common. The first was the desire that the Father might be glorified. Next, all three declared the word of the Lord, even though it was very unpopular to men. And all three were slain by the religious leaders of the day. It is time for the modern-day Elijah to speak the same "hard" words to the Church. The result may be the same, but God's word must go forth! Jesus said,
28 Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
Luke 23:28-31
The green tree is Jesus, the living Word; Jesus is the tree of life in the midst of the garden. The natural man is the dry tree ... the brown tree ... the tree in need of the river of life. The dry wood is devoid of the living Christ. There will always be spiritual warfare between life in Christ and death outside of Christ. The Lord's people need to be prepared for the difficulties yet to come.
However, God is not asleep! There is a stirring in the mulberry bushes!
"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19).
God wants a company of overcomers, who, in the power of the Holy Ghost, yoke themselves with the burden of the Lord's purposes in all the world, to build up the spiritual life of His people, and to maintain His testimony in all the earth. In these last of the last days, may we submit to the refinement of the Lord as Elijah did in obedience and commitment that the Lord's will might be made manifest in all the earth. Who will consecrate himself to that end?
Amen
Amen
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