“God Will Provide if…”

June 06, 2010

1 Kings 17:8-24

It is not uncommon for my children to ask me for things. Nearly every day they ask me for something and once
in a while they actually ask for things that they need or things that might actually be useful. As we prepare to
move to Barnesville, Ohio, Patti and I have begun to look at the wants, needs and desires of our children, as well
as our own, in an entirely different way. As more of our belongings are packed into boxes and await the moving
truck for the big trip, we are buying less and less. I find that even the purchase of things that are genuinely useful,
and things that we might actually need, are being postponed. A phrase that has frequently been used in our home
lately is, “There’s no sense in moving it. If we need it, we can buy it after we move.” Make no mistake, our
children are still getting the food that they need and all they have what they need for school and for basic survival
but beyond that most of our effort is focused on a single goal, moving. For all of us, we are crossing lines of trust
that we often do not have to cross and we are testing just how much trust we really have.

Our children know that we do often buy them things that they want and they know that we do often allow them to
buy some things with their own money. Even though, at the moment, they are not allowed to get the things that
they want, they (for the most part) trust us enough to know that this time of scarcity will not last forever. On June
21st, almost everything that we own will be loaded onto a big truck and we will all have to trust that the moving
company will show up at our new house on June 22nd and give it all back. We are all trusting that we will be able
to make new friends, find new doctors, new mechanics, new everything. All of us are taking a leap of faith in
trusting that God is in this process of moving and that he will care for us and meet our needs in a new place.
Likewise, Everyone here is trusting that God has been a part of the process that is guiding Pastor Rick Burkhardt
to this congregation.

Not surprisingly, scripture has many stories about God’s people traveling to new places and being asked to do
new things. In 1 Kings 17:8-24, we hear a story about the prophet Elijah. In this story, not only is Elijah asked
to go to a new place, but also others are asked to receive him and to provide him food and shelter at significant
expense to themselves.
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Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have
commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the
town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in
a jar so I may have a drink?" 11 As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."
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"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar
and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we
may eat it—and die."
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Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for
me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what
the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the
day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "
15
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and
her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of
the LORD spoken by Elijah.

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Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally
stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me
of my sin and kill my son?"
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"Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was
staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy
also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy
three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
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The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and
carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"
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Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from
your mouth is the truth."

God sent Elijah to a new place and in that place he asked someone to provide food and a place to live for his
prophet. Through Elijah, God works an amazing miracle and allows the flour and oil necessary to feed the
widow, her son, and Elijah until the rains come and the drought ends. Like me, Elijah was asked to go to a new
place and to live among a new people. Like you, God sent a stranger to live with the widow and her son and
expected them to provide for him. Even worse, because of the drought, and because of her poverty (likely due to
being a widow without a husband or male family member to provide for her) the widow had only enough oil and
flour to feed them for one more day. The first lesson that we learn is that this was not unexpected. God knew
that this was going to happen and was always able to provide for the needs of his people as well as those who care
for them. God’s ability to provide is the immediate lesson but it is only the first of several that we should see in
this story.

In the case of the widow, her son and Elijah, God’s provision is based on several requirements. While it may not
be immediately apparent, we can see that neither Elijah nor the widow was able to see God’s providence without
first meeting God’s demands. In each case, what God required before he poured out his grace was faith, trust and
obedience.

God called Elijah to go to Zarephath of Sidon knowing only that God would provide a widow to care for him.
Before Elijah could see what God would do, he had to first have faith that God would do as he said he would,
second, he had to have faith that God was able to do as he said he would do, and third, put action to his faith and
pick up his possessions and go to Zarephath. God had prepared amazing things for Elijah to see and to do in
Zarephath, but he would see none of it until he had faith and trust in God and put actions behind his faith. As a
prophet, Elijah walked away from the life that he had known and the life that his family had planned for him. He
gave up any status that he might have had and any wealth that his family might have had and agreed to live by
whatever means that God give to him to live. For a time when he was being hunted by the king, Elijah lived in
the wilderness and God sent ravens to bring him meat and bread each morning and evening. Suddenly the brook
that provided fresh water dries up and Elijah leaves behind the wilderness, packs up what few belongings that he
has to his name and trusts that God will be with him in a new place.

In Zarephath of Sidon, a widow struggles to make it through each day and as the drought comes to her village she
knows that both she and her young son will soon eat their last meal and die. Before they give up, Elijah arrives in
Sidon, a Phoenician country to the north of Galilee in what is now the nation of Lebanon. Elijah arrives and tells
them that his god, the God of Israel has sent him and asks that she share what little that she has left so that she can
feed him. In exchange, Elijah tells her that his God, not one of her gods, will perform a miracle so that her oil
and flour will not run out until the rains come and the drought is ended. The widow has no real reason to believe
this. To her, Elijah is a stranger. To her, he very likely dresses oddly, his language is alien to her and his God is

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foreign to her. The widow has no reason to believe that Elijah can speak to God or speak for God. She has no
real reason to believe that Israel’s God is capable of providing for her when the gods of her own country have
not… And yet she believes. Having every reason to believe that Elijah is as nutty as a fruit bat, she believes that
he speaks the truth. Perhaps as she faces certain starvation she is willing to risk in exchange for hope. Perhaps
knowing that her own gods have failed to save her, she is willing to put her faith in the God of Israel, but for
whatever reason, she believes and places her faith in Elijah’s God. God had prepared amazing things for the
widow of Zarephath to see, but she would see none of them until she had faith and trust in God and put actions
behind her faith. Before the widow can see the miracle, she has to believe and she has to do the thing that Elijah
asked her to do. Before the widow can be blessed by God, she has to trust God with everything that she has left
and in fact, she has to trust God with her life and with the life of her only son.

As we prepare for a new adventure in our lives, it would benefit us to look to the lessons contained in the story of
Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. We know that God has promised to provide for his people and we know that
while God provides as much as we need, he does not always provide as much as we want. As we look at this
story, we are reminded of several other important lessons. Before God will provide, he requires that we have
faith in his desire and in his ability to provide. Before God will provide he often requires that we trust him with
the things that he has already given to us and sometimes he requires that we be willing to trust him with
everything that we have.

Trusting God is a lot like setting sail on a boat. Have you ever gone for a ride in a boat? It is impossible to only
half-trust. You cannot be half on the shore and half in the boat, either you trust the boat or you don’t, you either
trust the captain to steer the ship to your destination or you don’t. Getting in the boat requires that you get all the
way into the boat and trust the captain and his crew to carry you. As we prepare for our new adventure, we must
choose whether we trust God to lead us or not. We must understand that God may ask us to do something
difficult and that he may ask us to share more of what he has given us that we think is possible, but we must
decide whether we trust him to be our provider or not. It is not possible for us to half-trust God. If we are
unwilling to trust him completely, it may well be that he will set sail and leave us behind on the shore. How
many times have we tried to half-trust? How many times have we said, “Evangelism is important… I hope the
pastor does something about that,” or “Vacation Bible School is important… I hope that someone volunteers for
that,” or “Reaching out to the people in our community, or to the homeless, or to single parents, or to Muslims, or
to any number of mission projects is important… I hope that somebody else does it.” We can’t half-trust and we
can’t have faith and hope that somebody else will put their actions behind our trust. It doesn’t work like that.

As my family prepares to move to a new place, as Johnsville and Steam Corners prepare to welcome a new
pastor, as they also prepare to begin discussing a merger or other significant changes, and as all of us find our way
through the turmoil, changes and storms of life, we can see Jesus, the captain of our ship reaching out and calling
us forward.

Jesus beckons us forward calls to us asking, ‘How much will you trust me? Show me.’

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All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.