The Call to Service
1 KINGS 17:8-16
Elijah at Cherith: “the brook dried up…” [17:7].
- In the sanctuary provided by God: “provide for you there…” [17:4].
- Provision? No word from God!
- Title: Testing & Evangelism – personal ministry in evangelising others.
- THE CALL TO SERVICE
1. The Communication
In the place where the “brook runs dry” [17:7] the word of the Lord came to Elijah again: “arise, go…stay…” [17:9].
§ ~Wq - “arise” [17:9], qal imperative, ‘take upright position’; ‘move from position of rest’
§ %le - “go” [17:9], qal imperative, ‘to travel’; ‘make your journey’; ‘point of departure & destination’;
The servant of God must move on…
2. The Place
The country: “to Sidon…” [17:9].
§ !Adyci - “Sidon” [17:9], 100 miles away north of Samaria on the Mediterranean coast.
§ Elijah had to pass through Israel, and travel northwards between Tyre and Sidon.
§ T'b.v;y - “stay” [17:9], qal perfect, ‘to dwell’; ‘to rest’;
a. Smelting Furnace
The place: “Zarephath…” [17:9].
§ ht'p;r>c - “Zarephath” [17:9], ‘to melt/smelt’; ‘to refine/purify’; ‘to test’; used with reference to “goldsmiths” [Neh.3:31].
§ Divine goldsmith: “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God” [Zec.13:9].
i. Danger
The birthplace of Jezebel: “Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians…” [16:31].
§ Danger: “Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord…” [18:3].
ii. Idolatry
This was the heartland of Baalism: “Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal, and worshipped him” [16:31].
§ Interestingly, the word p;r>c is used with reference to the making of idols: “the workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over…” [Isa.40:19].
Application.
Elijah’s trial: directed to the place where he would be despised and hated; the place of danger, in the centre of enemy territory.
3. The Encounter
Elijah is called from place of solitude to testing in a small important area of ministry.
a. The Instrument > Humbling
The instrument: “I have commanded a widow there…” [17:9].
§ hn"m'l.a - “widow” [17:9], enjoyed the protection of God in the Old Testament: God hears their cry [Exo.22:21-22]; God executes judgement of their behalf [Deu.10:18].
§ Yet ‘a symbol of the loss of economic and social security and protection’; a symbol of need and frailty, obliged to live on charity: “if I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail” [Job.31:16].
b. The Power & Sovereignty of God
The provision: “I have commanded…to sustain there to sustain you” [17:9].
§ ytiyWIc - “commanded” [17:9], qal perfect, God’s empowering, creative, enabling word.
§ ^l,K.l.k;l - “provide” [17:9], basic meaning ‘to calculate’ or ‘to contain’ as in a vessel’; ‘to nourish’; ‘to provide’.
§ ~v - “there” [17:9], ‘in that place’; locational and directional.
Application.
Elijah’s trial: the humbling prospect of being provided for by the poorest in society.
§ Cherith was an impossible place but God provided: “I have commanded the ravens…” [17:4].
§ Elijah has learned that God is faithful: “So he went…and the ravens brought…” [17:5-6].
§ God’s provision would come at the hand of a widow; Elijah must walk by faith and not by sight.
§ A major decision: move to another place, another country
- FAITH IN THE FURNACE
1. The Encounter
a. Elijah
Elijah faced with an impossible situation, but God’s command is an empowering Word: “So he arose and went…” [17:10].
§ ~q'Y"w - “arose” [17:10],
§ %l,YEw: - “went” [17:10],
b. The Widow
On arrival at Zarephath: “he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow was there…” [17:10].
§ ~v'-hNEh - “behold there” [17:10], ‘locational and directional’;
§ xt;P - “gate” [17:10], from xt;P ‘to open’; ‘to set free’; ‘opening’; ‘doorway’; the “entrance” into the city.
i. God’s Sovereignty
The word given to Elijah: “I have commanded a widow…” [17:8].
§ ytiyWIc - “commanded” [17:9], qal perfect, God’s empowering, creative, enabling word.
§ There is no indication that the “widow” was at the gate because she was aware that God “commanded” her!
Application
Note that Elijah did not move until the “word of the Lord came unto him” [17:8].
The marvel of the living sovereignty of God:
§ Elijah moving to Zarephath in obedience to God
§ The widow at the gate of the city ‘by chance’?
§ The widow is in the right place at the right time on time.
2. The Communication.
a. The Call
“Fetch me, I pray thee…” [17:10].
§ yxiq - “fetch” [17:10], qal imperative, ‘to take, acquire, bring’;
§ an"- - “pray” [17:10],
§ yxiq.l - “Bring” [17:11], qal imperative, ‘to take, acquire, bring’;
i. The Request
Request for a little: “a little water…a morsel of bread…” [17:11].
§ ~yIm;-j[;m - “little water” 17:10],
§ ~x,l,-tP - “morsel of bread” [17:11]. ‘a piece’;
Application.
Elijah/God first; then the widow and her son.
- THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF FAITH
1. Widow’s Response
a. Confession of Faith
Widow’s response: “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread…” [17:12].
i. A Living Faith
He is the living God: “the Lord your God lives…” [17:12].
§ yx – “lives” [17:12], ‘to have life’; energy; vibrancy; dynamic; life-giving.
§ Contrast Baal: “all other gods are idols dumb, which blinded nations fear…” [Psa.96:5]; “they have mouths but they speak not…” [Psa.115:5ff].
ii. A Weak Faith
He is Elijah’s God: “as the Lord your God lives…” [17:12].
§ ^yh,l{a - “your God” [17:12],
§ She has doubts and fears, but she has faith.
§ Elijah is in a foreign land, in the heartland of Baalism, but this widow clings to a living God.
iii. Sovereign Grace
The grace of God extends beyond unbelieving Israel:
§ “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah…and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath…to a woman who was a widow” [Lk.4:25-26].
b. The Widow’s Poverty >>> Elijah’s Trial
The widow’s poverty: “I have not a cake, but a handful of meal…” [17:12].
i. The Widow’s Activity
The woman is using the means of survival: “there gathering sticks…” [17:10].
ii. Hopeless
Everything of her own and of others is gone: “that we may eat it, and die” [17:12].
§ She has nothing to hope for! All she can see is death.
§ She has no life in her own hand; and that not because of her inactivity.
Application.
The “God of Elijah” [17:12] is a foreign God; He is not a God for the Gentiles?
§ She has no rights and no personal claims on Yahweh.
§ Elijah and the human response: ‘What You See is What You Get’.
2. The Widow’s Trial
a. The Response
i. Exhortation
Elijah’s response to the widow: “Do not fear…” [17:13].
§ yair>yTi-la - “do not fear” [17:12],
ii. Command
Elijah’s command: “Go, do as I have said…” [17:13].
§ yaiB - “Go” [17:13], qal imperative, ‘to go’; ‘to enter into’;
§ yfi[ - “do” [17:13], qal imperative, ‘to do, fashion, accomplish’;
iii. Promise
Elijah’s promise: “For thus says the Lord God of Israel…” [17:14].
§ dK - “barrel” [17:14], ‘a jar’; a pitcher carried by women on their shoulder [Gen.24:14]; a jar containing flour.
§ hl'k.t - “waste” [17:14], qal imperfect, ‘to cease, to end, to finish’;
§ tx;P;c - “cruse” [17:14], ‘a jug’;
§ rs'x.t - “fail” [17:14], qal imperfect, ‘to lack’; ‘to have a need’; ‘lacking’;
b. The Priority
The widow must first give: “make me first…then after…” [17:13].
§ hn"voarIb - “first” [17:13], ‘the head’; ‘the top’; ‘the chief’; ‘the primary’;
§ hn"rox]a;B - “after” [17:13], ‘to tarry’; ‘to delay’; ‘afterwards’;
Application.
Humanly speaking: the danger zone; the distance; the provision! How?
§ Hope: the “Lord God of Israel” [17:14] could be her God.
§ Nothing between the widow and death but the promise! If the promise fails she dies!
§ There is no proof! There is no evidence! A call to “trust” in Elijah’s word.
3. The Encouragement of Faith
a. Obedience
The widow obeyed: “she went and did according to the saying…” [17:15].
§ The “seed” of faith drives the widow to obedience: “she went and did…” [17:15].
b. Mutual Encouragement
The mutual encouragement: “she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not…” [17:15-16].
i. God’s Faithfulness
The undying faithfulness of God: “
Application.
No need to “fear” [17:13]! Every morning there is enough!
§ Encouragement for older faith in seeing the activity of new faith.
