Kings chapter 17. 1 Kings chapter 17. We looked at this in our studies on Wednesday night. Did seem to me that the Elijah narratives deserve further exposure, so I wanted to bring this message tonight. And God willing, we'll look at chapter 18 next Lord's Day.
But I want to read chapter 17. This is the early ministry of Elijah the prophet. We'll begin reading in chapter 17 at verse one. And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dune or rain these years except at my word.
Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook Kareth, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and stayed by the brook Kereth, which flows into the Jordan.
The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, please bring me a little water and a cup that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
So she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, do not fear, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.
So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick, and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him.
So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? And he said to her, give me your son. So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.
And he cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son? And he stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother.
And Elijah said, See, your son lives. Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God. and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for the written word and we pray now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide us and grant us understanding into these things. We thank you for your graciousness, for your provision, for your kindness, for your mercy toward your people. Help us to learn first and foremost in 1st Kings 17 of our God. Help us to see your wonderful ways, as the hymn we sang says, that you do in fact move in mysterious ways your wonders to perform, feeding and sustaining a man through ravens and through a widow.
God, truly you are indeed an amazing God, a God worthy of our praise and exaltation, God-worthy of adoration. And we would pray that Your Spirit would help us now. And we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well,
Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 17
Elijah in many respects is a larger-than-life sort of a character that the Bible presents. And as I said, the Elijah narratives in 1 Kings do indeed show us many glorious things concerning our God.
Introduction
Paul House comments concerning Elijah. It says, without question, Elijah is one of the most distinctive and diversely talented individuals in the Bible. He is a prophet, preacher, political reformer, and miracle worker, all at the same time. At the heart of this multifaceted person, though, rests one overriding conviction.
Elijah hates Baalism as much as Jezebel loves the cult, and he desires to magnify Yahweh over Baal and defeat the interloping religion once and for all. That is a great way to understand what Elijah's doing here on the pages of 1 Kings. In fact, here in chapter 17 at verse 1, all the way till Elijah's death, we see his constant opposition to idolatry and to oppression. and especially his war against Baalism in the contest at Carmel in chapter 18. But as we look at this particular section,
Three Things to Notice
I want us to notice three things, and I think they do testify concerning God and concerning this man Elijah. In the first place, we ought to see the prediction of drought in verse 1. Secondly, the provision of the prophet in verses 2 to 16. And then thirdly, the power of the God of Israel in verses 17 to 24.
Now note verse 1. It says, "...Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, To love the way and appreciate the fact, there's no introduction. Elijah just appears on the scene. It's almost as if he parachutes out of heaven to stand right before Ahab and to declare the word of the Lord God to him.
He says, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word. Now, there are several things we ought to appreciate with reference to this verse. In the first regard,
Divine Response to Wicked Kings
it is the divine response to wicked kings. If you go back to chapter 16, we get a sketch of the northern kingdom at this time in Israel's history. Essentially, what we have is the wretched condition of Israel set forth in chapter 16. Basha, a king, ascended the throne after assassinating Nadab.
His son Elah was assassinated by Zimri while he, Elah, was drinking himself drunk. Zimri reigned for seven days. It's really a description of the not best and brightest who indeed served as kings in Israel. And then Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all who were before him.
Again, this is all in chapter 16. Omri is the one who founded the capital of Samaria. Omri is the one who moved essentially religion and politics to Samaria for the northern tribes of the northern kingdom. Now Omri's son was Ahab, and Ahab was incredibly wretched.
In fact, look at chapter 16, very specifically at verse 29, just to give a flavor and a sense of the days in which Elijah the prophet lived. It says, in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel. Remember, the kingdom was divided in 1 Kings chapter 12. You have the one people of Israel, the one nation of Israel, divided in chapter 12.
So you have ten northern tribes, they go by the name Israel, and then you have two southern tribes, and they are called Judah. And so the narrator tells us, in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah. So what's going on in the south is that Asa is the king. Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel up in the north.
And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel and Samaria 22 years. Now, just as an aside, we often get discouraged about how bad the times in which we live are. And I'm not going to suggest otherwise. But brethren, if we get a bad prime minister, we get a bad president, the most that they can rule or reign is for eight years.
Now, I realize that in the midst of that eight years, it seems like an eternity. It seems like forever. But we don't have a man at the helm there for 22 years. Manasseh is what, 55 years?
I mean, there are some terrible kings in the northern kingdom, and these men lived a long time and reigned a long time, and their reigns were marked by wickedness and evil. So I want us to appreciate the fact that when we say something like, it's so bad out there, nobody's ever seen the sort of turmoil that we have seen. We need to guard our hearts and we need to watch ourselves because in this particular instance, as we'll see as we move on in this description of Ahab, he institutionalizes Baal worship right there amongst the covenant community of Israel. So, yes, we have difficulties in our day, but they certainly had difficulties in their day.
Now notice in verse 30, now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He was the first king of the Israelites. Jeroboam becomes rather a standard for wicked kings.
In the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshipped him. So, get that. Get that in your head. Understand what's happening.
So when we get to 17.1 and Elijah the Tishbite appears before Ahab and threatens drought, this is the context. He marries Jezebel and he goes and he serves Baal and he worships him. But that wasn't enough for Ahab. Notice what happens in verse 32.
Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. So that newfound capital of the north has become a place where there's a temple to Baal, and there's an altar to Baal, and sacrifices are offered up to Baal. Not Yahweh, not the God of Israel. And Ahab made a wooden image.
Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So as we drop down now to 17.1, and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, we ought to see practically that this is the divine response to the wretched condition created by these godless kings in Israel. In other words, we oftentimes see things and we believe that it's going to flourish and thrive and ultimately bury the kingdom of God. Not so is the case.
God sends Elijah to confront, frontally, this wicked Ahab. One man makes this observation, for to see Elijah appear thus, i.e. so suddenly, reminds us that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth. Imagine if you were living in the days of chapter 16. Imagine if you knew your new king took a wretched woman by the name of Jezebel as his wife, a woman from Sidon, and he engaged in Baal worship there, and then he took Baal worship right into the heart of Israel, right into the northern kingdom.
You might be tempted to conclude that the religion of Yahweh is all but gone. So this man says, it reminds us that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth. For we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly prepared His counter-movement. God has always His ways of working underground to undermine the stability of evil.
This passage teaches us to learn this. This passage teaches us to expect this. You hear it today. Oh, Islam is growing so rapidly.
It's the fastest growing religion in North America. And the sort of unspoken implication seems to be that it's all going to wipe out Christianity. What does Daniel tell Nebuchadnezzar? That in the days of these kings, God will in fact set up a kingdom that will remain forever and ever.
Brethren, we don't need to worry about the kingdom of God. We need to be faithful in the kingdom of God. We need to pray for the kingdom of God. We need to prosper the kingdom of God in terms of our prayer and our witness and our service in the church, but we ought not to fear that the Lord is going to lose in history.
He goes on to say, God can raise men for His service from nowhere. Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish. For at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there, ready with His man and His movement and His plans to ensure that His own cause will never fail." That's 17-1.
That's the arrival of Elijah the Tishbite. It is God's indictment upon Ahab and upon Baalism and upon the entirety of the nation of Israel. And note the divine presence with his servant. I love the way Elijah describes this in verse 1.
He says, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, Brethren, does that describe your Christianity, before whom I stand? Do you live life quorum Deo in the presence of God, conscious of His face or conscious of His presence in your life? Elijah the prophet is a man who can say on earth, he is indeed the Lord God before whom I stand. And then
Elijah's Prayer and Baal's Domain
note the prophet's prayer concerning the intervention of God at the end of verse one, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word. Now, let us not miss the significance of this particular statement by the prophet Elijah. In James 5, 17, it tells us, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
So we see that this prayer of Elijah was indeed according to the will of God because it was a curse of the covenant that God would indeed send drought upon Israel. In Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 28 and sprinkled elsewhere in those particular books, God tells Israel that if they are faithless, if they break the covenant, if they go whoring away from God after other gods, then God will send drought. And so Elijah prays this in accordance with the will of God, and God hears and answers his particular prayer. But as well, this whole idea of drought is a direct attack against Baalism.
Now the god Baal, we know he doesn't exist, and we know that all these gods spoken of, Asherah, and Moloch, and Baal, they were figments of men's imaginations. But each of them was attached with a particular significance. You know what Baal's job was? Baal was the storm god.
Baal's job was to bring rain upon the earth in order to water the crops and to promote fertility. He was a fertility god. His job was to provide rain. Now do you see the significance of the prophet's words at this particular point?
Ahab has now instituted Baalism as the religion in Israel. Baal's job is to provide rain and so when God counters Ahab and Baal, he sends Elijah the prophet who says, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word. That's an assault upon Baalism. That is a direct assault upon the religion that celebrates Baal as the God of fertility and the God who brings rain upon the people.
The author is telling us that the God of heaven and earth is indeed the God of fertility, the God of rain, the God who controls these things, and this is what the nation of Israel would learn by the manifestation of Elijah the prophet, of the inhabitants of Gilead, he would come to seek to correct things that was going on. Now certainly, as Baal, was unable to provide rain, it would be common for his apologists to provide a rationale as to why. Now just think with me for a moment. You're a Baal worshiper in this particular era, and you go months, years, and there's no rain.
You'd think, wouldn't you, that you would conclude there's no Baal? If his job is to send rain and there's no rain, we must conclude there's no Baal. Well, the apologists of Baal would explain that the god Maat, the god Maat was the god of death or the god of the underworld. And there would be times when Baal would submit to him and basically go into the underworld for a period of time.
And then Anath, who was a goddess, would eventually rescue Baal out from the underworld and then he would perform his services in terms of rain and fertility upon the land. The gods of the Canaanites were very, very multiple. Very, very silly when we consider it from the standpoint of biblical religion. But nevertheless, that was the context in which the prophet ministered.
And as Proven says, what is being taught is that it is Yahweh, not Baal, who brings fertility. It is Yahweh's presence and judgment that leads to infertility rather than his absence in death as it did with Baal. So
Provision of the Prophet
let's look secondly now at the provision of the prophet. And just before we start the exposition, we ought to appreciate the God of heaven and earth because His ways are so wondrous. We just sang that, didn't we? God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders too perform.
This God feeds, sustains, and blesses His prophet through ravens and a widow. You know what that should do, practically? It should make you want to read your Bible. The Bible's exciting.
The Bible's thrilling. The Bible is just amazing in that it holds forth to us a God who could have indeed created a Costco and had Elijah live right there in the lobby and go fetch whatever it is he wanted, you know, those Kirkland products that, you know, you go in for one thing and you've got to buy that big of a thing. God could have done that. He's God, right?
But He uses unclean birds and an unlikely woman to sustain His servant in a particular geographical region that is once again an assault upon Baalism.
Provision Through Ravens
Let's look first at the provision through ravens in verses 2 to 7. Note that Elijah works according to the word of the Lord. Verse 2, then the word of the Lord came to him saying, and the specific instructions is that Elijah was to hide by the brook Kereth. Now he's supposed to hide because Ahab and Jezebel are in the business of liquidating the true prophets, the prophets of Yahweh.
In fact, Obadiah in chapter 18 hides several prophets from the murderous regime of Jezebel. In chapter 18.10, Obadiah tells Elijah that Ahab has basically looked for him everywhere. And so the Lord God tells Elijah to hide by the brook Carith, and it will be there that these ravens will sustain him with provision. There's also another significance to this idea of Elijah hiding by the brook Carith.
And the significance seems to be this. The word of the Lord comes to Elijah. Elijah is the prophet of God. Elijah is the voice of God.
Elijah is the mouthpiece of God. So if Elijah is hiding by the brook Kareth, what does that mean for the nation of Israel? It means the absence of the word of the Lord. It means that God is bringing judgment to bear upon them.
It means that sin has consequences. It means that when you build an altar to Baal, and when you build a temple to Baal, and when you bow to Baal, or when you're Ahab and you marry Jezebel, when you engage in that sort of corruption and that sort of wickedness, the Lord God Most High will withdraw His prophet. He will, in fact, withdraw the word from the people who at one time had it. Davis says, the disappearance of Elijah spells the absence of the Word of God from the life of Israel.
Israel's judgment is the drought of the land and the silence of the Lord. You see that Elijah is hiding does not spell good news for the people in Israel. That Elijah is hiding spells God's judgment. So yes, there will be drought, which is a direct assault upon Baal and his supposed ability, but as well, the fact that God has withdrawn his word from the nation of Israel.
We see that 1 Samuel 28, Saul's at the end of his rope. He's got to go into battle, but he wants a divine word. There is no word from God for Saul. So what does Saul do?
He employs the witch at Endor to try to provide for him some sort of a guidance or some sort of a word so that he can operate in terms of battle. You see in the prophet Amos that the Lord God threatens upon Israel a famine, not a famine of bread, not a famine of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Brethren, we ought never to take lightly the fact that we have the scriptures. We ought never to take lightly that we have our Bibles, that we have good Christian books, that we have access to churches, that we have access to sermon audio, that we have in many respects a great glut of the word of God.
There were times in history where the nation of Israel itself did not know that word because of their sins against God. The fact is, we have been blessed immeasurably, and we ought to appreciate the Lord God for His goodness and for His kindness. So He is told to hide by the brook Kerith, and He is promised provision via ravens. Now, ravens were unclean.
Leviticus 11, 15, and Deuteronomy 14, 14. He's not being told to eat the ravens, so it's not a violation of the law. He is being told to eat what the ravens deliver. Now, I doubt the ravens delivered pizza.
I doubt they delivered In-N-Out burgers. I doubt they delivered something that looked incredibly sumptuous to Elijah, but they would, in fact, bring that which was able to sustain the prophet here, by the brook, carrot. Davis says, what kind of meat would ravens bring? Don't ask, simply cook it very well and eat up.
I think that's an accurate description of the sort of fare that Elijah was privy to there by the brook, carrot. God doesn't always promise us steak and lobster. He does, in fact, say that He will sustain, that He will provide our daily bread. And this is precisely what Elijah is learning here by the brook Kareth.
So the prophet obeys God. The prophet is sustained the way Israel was in the wilderness, meet and provision by God in a supernatural sort of way. And the prophet ultimately has to move on. Notice in verse seven, It happened after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Remember chapter 17, verse 1, there will not be any dew nor rain these years except at my word. 17.1 is crucial to keep in mind throughout 17 and 18. It provides the very context for the contest at Carmel. This is the goal that Elijah has when he goes up to Carmel is to challenge these false prophets in terms of who indeed is the real God.
Provision Through the Widow
Now notice secondly the provision for or through a widow. In verses 8 and 9, the word of the Lord again comes to Elijah. Came to him saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.
So he arose and went to Zarephath. We'll read on in a moment, but it's important for us to locate Zarephath on the map. If you were to look at the back of your Bible and you looked at the maps, you would see a region north and west called Phoenicia. And there in Phoenicia you have Sidon, you have Zarephath, and you have Tyre.
This is the Tyre and Sidon we read of this morning in chapter 11 in Matthew's gospel. And the Lord Jesus upbraids the cities of Galilee and he says, if Tyre and Sidon would have seen the things that you saw, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. So this is the region of Phoenicia. This is the homeland of Baal.
It's very important that we understand this geographical note. Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you, so he arose and went to Zarephath. Look back at chapter 16 in verse 31.
It describes Jezebel, the end of verse 31, as the daughter of Echbaal, king of the Sidonians. That again is in Phoenicia, just a bit further south from... Zarephath is just a bit further south from Sidon. So it is Baal's home turf.
It is Baal land, Baal vill. It is the city of Baal or the region rather of Baal. And so Elijah is told to go to Baal land and there meet up with this particular woman. Now the woman was indeed a Gentile, and the city, as I said, is the hub for Baal's worship.
The storm god failed, not only in Israel, but also in his own homeland. You would think that Baal, if he was able to do anything, would certainly do it in Phoenicia. But it's not the case. This woman and her son are destitute, and they are at the point of death.
Matthew Henry says Jezebel was Elijah's greatest enemy, yet to show her the impotency of her malice, God will find a hiding place for him, even in her own country. You gotta appreciate what's happening here. Elijah is sent to where Jezebel hails from. Elijah is sent to the hub of Baal worship, and it's there that Elijah will be sustained by a widow at Zarephath, a non-Israelite.
What's the author saying? That while Israel has essentially shut itself off from the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord is not stopped. The word of the Lord will find its mark in the heart of this widow at Zarephath. The word of the Lord will be fleshed out right before Baal's eyes in his own hometown.
The word of the Lord will go forth conquering and to conquer and it will not be stopped. You see, the emphasis throughout the book of 1 Kings is that God cannot be stopped. The emphasis in Daniel chapter 2, God cannot be stopped. The emphasis throughout the Psalter, God cannot be stopped.
The emphasis throughout the New Testament, what does Christ say? All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations." What is Christ telling us? He cannot be stopped.
His kingdom cannot be thwarted. It cannot be sidetracked. It cannot be taken off the course of history. One other man says, to demonstrate on Phoenician soil where Baal is worshipped, that Yahweh has power over things in which Baal has failed.
This is the significance of the geography involved. Now
Meeting the Widow at Zarephath
note the meeting with the woman there in verse 10. When he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, please, bring me a little water and a cup that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
Now note the desperate and pathetic and terrible condition of this widow in Zarephath, verse 12. As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and may die. It's terrible, isn't it?
I mean, doesn't your heart go out to this woman? This is the result of idolatry. This is the result of false godism. This is what happens when you worship Baal rather than the God of heaven and earth.
There is drought in the land. Remember reading a book some years ago on the issue of economics, and we're inclined to think that those nations that prosper and those nations that have many good things just were somehow fitted with sewage systems and railways and skyscrapers and all that sort of thing, and that those nations that are in abject poverty are that way because they lacked the natural resources. The author points out that it's a matter of faith. I'm not suggesting that Canada and the United States of America are the bastions of godly faith, but there were men who came initially that had some fear of God.
They had some commitment to the principles of Holy Scripture. The idea being that the land prospers not because of your ingenuity or wisdom. The land prospers not because of your savvy. The land prospers not because of your social engineering, but the land prospers insofar as you are faithful to the God of heaven and earth. and that those lands that are in abject poverty, it oftentimes can be traced back to the reality that they worship sticks and stones.
They worship idols. They are engaged in rebellion against the living and the true God. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. This is the Proverbs.
This is Solomon's wisdom. You see, brethren, what we find in this instance is that this pathetic woman is about to die because she lives in a region that subscribes to Baal as the storm god, the god of fertility. Now
Faith of the Widow
notice the provision of the prophet very closely in verses 13 to 18. Note the gravity of Elijah's demand. You'll see this at Carmel as well. Elijah is a larger than life sort of figure.
Look what he says, do not fear, he prefaces it with do not fear, that's a blessing, but go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me. Go and do as you have said. What has she said? She's gonna cook up the last little bit of flour she has and take the last little bit of water she has, give it to her son, give it to herself and die.
Elijah says, okay, go ahead and proceed, but make sure you feed me first. This runs absolutely contrary to anything and everything that this woman would hold dear. Ladies, let me ask you, what is most important in your life? Your children.
I hope men would say the same thing as well. We wouldn't ever say, oh yeah, let me go feed this prophet and watch my son pass away. Now, you've got to keep in mind, brethren, we know how the narrative ends. The widow at Zarephath doesn't know Elijah from any other Tishbite.
She's never heard of a Tishbite. Doesn't know who the inhabitants of Gilead are. Has no clue whatsoever what's happening down in Israel. Has no clue whatsoever what's happening with Jezebel and with Ahab and with the institutionalization of Baal worship in the place where the God of Israel is to be feared and hallowed.
So he says, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterward make some for yourself and your son. It's a pretty Bold statement there, but he couches it in the kindness and the grace and mercy of God. He says, for thus says the Lord God of Israel. Remember, brethren, she is not a Yahweh worshiper.
She is a Gentile. She is a heathen. She lives in Phoenicia. She's been taught to bow to Baal.
And for Elijah to highlight this reality, he is teaching this woman something. And her response, as we see it fleshed out in the narrative, is the response of faith. We see her conversion. We are seeing her called out of darkness into marvelous light.
We are seeing her brought into that sphere of redemptive religion. We are seeing her born again by the power of the Christian gospel. We are seeing the grace and mercy of God Most High. For thus says Yahweh of Israel, verse 14, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.
Now note, the woman does according to the word of Elijah. She went away and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah." Davis helpfully points out, faith is staking everything upon Yahweh's sheer word, wagering all upon the veracity of God. That's beautiful.
I know it's 605, and I know it's warm, and I know that this is an old, antiquated passage that may not seem particularly relevant for us today, but observe this woman. She goes against the natural affections of her heart. She goes against the natural affections of every woman's heart. She gives the last of her bread and water to the prophet.
This is taking God at His word. This is responding the way that we should. This is hearing Matthew 11, 28 and coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is staking everything upon Yahweh's sheer word, wagering all upon the veracity of God.
Taking John 6 37 into our hearts and reckoning that Jesus says all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. I am going to stake my all on the truthfulness of the Word of God. When Christ says, come to me, I'm going to come. And I'm going to know that He is not going to cast me out because the Bible is replete.
The Bible is repetitious. The Bible goes on with that blessed refrain that those who come to Him will indeed find Him. Ask, seek, knock. What does the Lord say?
When you ask, you're going to be frustrated. When you seek, you will not find. When you knock, the door is going to be closed unto you. That's not what Christ says.
He gives gracious, glorious invitations for us to ask and seek and knock. Hebrews 11.6, without faith it is impossible to please Him. Why? Because he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him.
That's what this woman does. The prophet says, give me the bread first, and she does it. Brethren, this is an expression of great, great faith. You might think, wow, Phoenicia, Zarephath, widow, eh, what's the big deal?
Her faith puts us to shame. Now notice, well, before we move on, the surprising ways of our God. Matthew Poole says, God's providing for His prophet, first by an unclean bird and then by a Gentile, whom the Jews esteemed unclean, was a notable presage of the calling of the Gentiles. The fact that this Zarephathian woman comes to God Most High is a down payment of the New Covenant, isn't it?
The fact that the gospel will be preached to all nations, that men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will be included in the redemptive plan of God. And then Davis, in his pithy way, makes this observation concerning the surprising ways of God. Is this not vintage Yahweh? Who else would ever design to use unclean ravens and the unlikely widow as sustainers of his servant?
Who am I to object if Yahweh delights to use dirty birds and hopeless women? We should, however, adore the scintillating, and that simply means brilliant or excitingly clever or skillful, we ought to adore the scintillating creativity of a God who brings help to his people through channels they would never suspect. This is why you should read your Bible, because it's exciting. Have you ever heard that?
Oh, the Bible is so boring. What Bible are you reading? Because this is incredible. I mean, come on, who would have ever thought that the man who is indeed God's response to institutionalized idolatry in Israel would be a man sustained by the brook Kareth by dirty birds and would be sustained in Phoenicia, the homeland of Baal by a woman of Zarephath.
Who would have ever imagined that such would be the case? Behold your God. the Word of God declares.
Power of the God of Israel
Now notice finally the power of God in verses 17 to 24. We see the death of the son, verses 17 and 18. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick, and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. Now some suggest that he was in a coma. that he was in a coma and that when Elijah laid down on him three times, it was a form of sort of, you know, pre-modern CPR, that when he laid down on him three times, it got the heart beating again, perhaps he breathed in, no, no, no, the boy was dead.
It says his soul returned to him. The boy was dead, and this is what we ought to see in this passage. His sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God?
Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? Now, we ought to at least observe the ways of God. Continuing the theme, the surprising ways of God. She's a new believer, isn't she?
She has just confessed the God of Israel. Now, I know it's not in the same sort of way that you and I have confessed the God of Israel. She wasn't baptized. There wasn't a luncheon afterward.
The fact that she received the word of the prophet Elijah and she hands her last morsels to him based on the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah, indicates that she had passed from death to life. She is a believer. Now notice what happens to this brand new believer. Her son dies.
She wouldn't have been a fan of Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen. She would have said, that's not been my experience. As soon as I came to the God of Israel, my son died. You see, it's not all rosy on this side of heaven for the people of God.
If you have it in your mind that bad things don't happen to believers, you've not read Scripture. You are not familiar with the truth. You have not come to grips with the statement of Job 1, 21. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
I mean, Job, this widow at Zarephath, a whole host of others, will indicate to you that the Christian life at times is punctuated with hardship, trials, and afflictions. Now, thankfully, the story turns out nicely for her, but brethren, it doesn't always. God would be no less God if this boy had died. God would be no less God if this boy had remained in the grave.
So this widow understands something that the modern age oftentimes misses. The Christian life is at times punctuated with trial, sorrow, afflictions, and woes, and this woman has understood it. Now note,
Elijah's Intercession
The intercession of Elijah in verses 19 and following. He said to her, give me your son. So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. Then he cried out to the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodged by killing her son?
Isn't that amazing? He imitates what the widow said. Appreciate what the prophet does not do here. Verse 18, she says to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God?
Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? He doesn't say, how dare you ever utter such a thing in the presence of the God of Israel whom I serve. No, Elijah doesn't do that. He doesn't reprove her.
He doesn't shut her up. He hears her cry. And he takes that cry to the throne of grace, almost word for word. I mean, there's obviously some differences semantically, lexically, but he essentially takes her prayer to the Lord.
Verse 20, O Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son? Elijah shows himself as perplexed as she. You see, brethren, this is the way we can minister to one another at times of grief and in times of pain. If a brother or sister is sorrowing and hurting, they may not necessarily need a three-point sermon by you on why they should never sorrow or hurt.
Sometimes they may need you to take their complaint to the throne of grace. That's what the prophet does here. Now there are times if somebody is sorrowful or hurting and it's their own fault or they've done something foolish or they're living in rebellion against God, it's good for us to gently encourage them to consider their situation and all that sort of a thing. But for this particular widow, Elijah doesn't upbraid her.
Notice Job's counselors. They were great in terms of the wisdom that he needed to hear, only he didn't need to hear it. He just needed them to cry with him. He needed to sympathize with them.
He needed them to take his complaint to the throne of grace. We can be like Job's friends at times. Somebody's hurting. Somebody's full of sorrow, and we want to lecture them.
It happens in marriage, doesn't it? I mean, come on, men, we want to lecture our wives when they're sorrowing or they're hurting. We don't want to enter in. We don't want to embrace their situation.
It can happen conversely as well. Men aren't the, or women aren't the only ones who sorrow and hurt. Men can go through sorrow and hurt and pain. Last thing they may need is their wife to lecture them at that particular time on how they need to buck up and be a better you.
Maybe they just need us to cry with them. to internalize their pain, to externalize it at the throne of grace. That's what Elijah does with this widow. Verse 20, he cried out to Yahweh and said, O Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodged by killing her son? He stretched himself out on the child three times.
I don't think this was an act of CPR. It was what's called an acted parable. You'll often see the prophets engaged in not only word, but in deed to symbolize the fact that they are calling upon God to do a very specific thing. He falls on the son, or he lays himself on the child three times, and he cries out to the Lord and says, O Lord my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him.
Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. Now again, we ought to appreciate the amazingness of God in raising this dead boy from the dead, but also appreciate it in the context of Dale. Baal could not only not bring rain, but he certainly couldn't raise people from the dead. In fact, Baal, the god, was in the underworld subject to the god Maat.
So you see, Yahweh is not like Baal. Yahweh has the power over life and death. Yahweh has the ability to hear the prophet Elijah and to raise this boy from the dead. And his soul returned unto him.
Gil makes the observation, which shows that the child was really dead and a proof that the soul dies not with the body, but exists in a separate state without it. So God hears the prayer of Elijah. The soul returns to the boy and he revives. And then
Confirmation of the Prophetic Word
notice the confirmation here of the prophetic word. Verse 23, Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son lives. Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.
It seems to me, brethren, this is the particular and the proper interpretation of the miraculous. In other words, she's happy to see her son, I do not doubt. I mean, she expressed great grief at the fact that he had died. Now that she sees him breathing and wanting bread and water, no doubt her heart has gone out to him with great affection and with great joy.
But what's the significance of the miraculous for this particular woman? Now I know that the word you speak is in fact the word of Yahweh. You see, miracles are not given in the Bible simply to amaze. Miracles are not given in the Bible simply to return dead boys to their grieving mothers.
Miracles are given in the Bible to confirm the revelatory word, to confirm the fact that Elijah is in fact God's mouthpiece, to confirm the fact that the God of Israel is no dumb God, he's no dead God, he is not subject to Mott, but rather he is in the heavens, and he not only does whatever he pleases, but he speaks through his servant, the Tishbite, from the inhabitants of Gilead. This is underscored by the woman. In fact, I think this woman could teach the Charismatics and the Pentecostals a thing or two about the miraculous. Now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.
Application
So there's our exposition. We ought to just close with three observations. First, the utter futility of Baalism. The judgment upon Baal begins here.
It's going to come to fruition or it's going to come to a head in chapter 18. I mean, that great scene when Elijah challenges those prophets of Baal to that contest at Carmel. But it begins here in chapter 17 at verse one with the presence of a drought. That demonstrates the futility of Baal.
Brethren, if your God can't do what he's supposed to be able to do, you ought to abandon him. No, I said your brethren. You get the point. If you find yourself worshiping something that can't do what it's supposed to do, You can't say that as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. He is the God of heaven and earth. He is the God of fertility.
He is the God who rains. He is the God who lightenings. He is the God who thunders. He is the God who causes snow.
He is the God who gave us this beautiful day today. He is the God of absolute, unrivaled, unparalleled sovereign majesty, and he always acts consistent with his being, with his character. The presence of the drought indicates the storm god couldn't deliver rain. The inability to sustain life.
The woman in Phoenicia was going to die. Who sustained her? Who kept her going? Certainly the provision in view is to Elijah.
We are seeing Elijah gloriously upheld by ravens and by this widow. But according to verse 12, the widow is about to die. Guess what God is doing in Baal's homeland? He's upholding one of Baal's subjects.
And then as well, the inability to bring back life. God raised the boy from the dead. Secondly, we ought to appreciate the perfections of the God of Israel. We see His justice.
The justice of God is demonstrated through His answer to prayer of Elijah. In terms of the drought, the no dew, the no rain, this is God's judgment upon. the nation of Israel for their Baalism. We see the faithfulness of God in his provision of the prophet through ravens and the widow. He calls this man to serve and he sustains him in order to serve.
God demonstrates His faithfulness. As well, we see the graciousness of God in His conversion of a Gentile, a woman of Phoenicia, a woman tucked up there in Zarephath, homeland of Baal. The fact that God went after her through the prophet Elijah and brought her into the sphere of redemptive religion highlights His grace. And as well, we ought to appreciate the power of God in the resurrection of the dead son.
And then finally, the typical significance of the chapter. In other words, how does it point us forward? The conversion first of this Phoenician woman. I hope it reminds you of Matthew's gospel.
I realize we're in Matthew 15 a long time ago, but there was a Phoenician woman that comes to the Lord Jesus, and what does he do? He saves her. That wasn't new. That's consistent with who God is.
God saves this Phoenician woman at the time of Elijah, the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead, and he saves a Phoenician woman in Matthew 15. It is intriguing in that Matthew 15 context. It's verses 21 to 28. The previous section was on the unbelief of the Pharisees.
Similar to the structure here, we have chapter 16 ending with basically the unbelief of Israel as they've turned from God to Baal. And what happens to the Phoenician woman? She comes to God from Baal. As well, we have the doctrine of sovereign election and divine judgment.
Now I realize that may seem a bit of a stretch. I've tried to sort of sketch it a little bit, the withdrawal of the Word of God from Israel. The fact that Elijah goes to this widow at Zarephath indicates that this is indeed God's judgment upon Israel. And if you doubt this application or the typical significance,
Typical Significance in Luke 4
please turn quickly to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, this is precisely how Jesus interprets the 1st Kings 17 incident. In Luke chapter 4, Remember the scene, it's beginning in verse 16, we don't have time to sketch the whole, but Jesus comes to Nazareth where he'd been brought up, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. He takes the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, he reads Isaiah 61, 1 and 2, he takes it, hands it back to the attendant, sits down and says, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Imagine being there for that. The scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. The Christ, of whom the prophet wrote, is here in your midst. Now note the response.
Verse 22, So all bore witness to him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is this not Joseph's son? He said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.
Then he said, assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. What is Jesus saying to Israel at His time?
The fact that you are not coming to me, the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that you are not stepping out of darkness into marvelous light to embrace the Messiah promised in Isaiah 61 is akin to that time in 1 Kings 17. There were a whole host of widows in Israel at the time of Elijah. But what does God do? God sends Elijah out of Israel up to Zarephath.
What is that indicative of? It is indicative of the fact that God is judging Israel. God's justice is upon Israel. The Word of the Lord departs from the confines of Israel, goes up to Phoenicia, and there the widow of Zarephath comes to know her God.
They understood, these people understood what Jesus was saying. Because as we read on, note verse 27, many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. See, same sort of thing. There were plenty there to be healed in Israel, but notice that God didn't do that through Elisha.
He healed the one. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. You hear what the preaching of sovereign grace does to people? Go back to verse 22, let's just see it.
So all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? that they marvel. But what does Jesus do? He lowers the boom.
He brings the word of judgment. He speaks of reprobation. He speaks of God's sovereignty in justice and God's sovereignty in judgment. And this provokes a different response.
They're no longer marveling at the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth. Verse 28, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city. And they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff. You see, that's what you get when you're the Lord Jesus Christ and you apply Isaiah the prophet in the midst of the heroes in Nazareth.
It is akin to what Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead faced at the time of Ahab. We see the resurrection from the dead, not just the particular boy, but the resurrection from the dead. This boy, along with Jairus' daughter, the widow at Nain's son, and Lazarus, they all typify the power and the glory of God to be able to raise the dead. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Never miss that typological connection between Elijah in 1 Kings 17.1 and what James tells us in James 5.16-18. But primarily, what we see, I think, in terms of the typical significance is the utter veracity of God's Word. And rest assured that if the God who promised this widow at Zarephath that her jar would never run dry, that her cupboards would never run bare, and has offered to give her life, that God who brought that to pass is the same God of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The widow believed and she was saved.
May you indeed believe and be saved. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this account in 1 Kings 17, the life and the ministry of Elijah the prophet, certainly a wonderful type himself, of our Lord Jesus and of John the Baptist. and a man that was used mightily by God. We ask that you would help us to appreciate the things we've learned tonight, help us to see your provision to us in ways unexpected, and may we indeed be submissive to the divine will, and may we be submissive to the divine word. Go with us now and watch over us in this coming week, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. We'll close with a brief.