A Generous God

Surprises

Surprises are always lots of fun. This week, I managed to give my two eldest daughters a great surprise that they weren’t expecting.

Earlier in the week I learnt of a certain experience that I knew would make my daughters excited, particularly Elise.

Then on Thursday I had the opportunity to give Elise and Sienna this experience.

So, they had been home for a little while when I told them to put their shoes back on, I had a surprise for them.

They had no idea what the surprise was, but they senses it was going to be good, because they got their shoes on a lot quicker than normal.

We then jumped in the car and started driving - but still not knowing where we were going.

We drove down Lemon Tree Passage road, towards Salt Ash, the whole time trying to guess where we might possibly be going - but they couldn’t guess.

Finally, just before we got to the round about at Salt Ash, I turned into a driveway which was a property with some paddocks.

We went for a short walk, at which time Elise realised that this was going to have something to do with her great love for horses.

And there they were - two beautiful horses, just waiting to be fed.

We met the horses owner and learnt how to make up their feed.

Though we didn’t get the chance to ride them, the girls really enjoyed their little experience of just being with the horses.

Now the thing about surprises is that by their very definition, you don’t know about them. Now while sometimes we like surprises, like at birthdays and Christmas), at other times they can at times be a little scary, mostly due to the unknown factor in the whole thing.

But life is full of surprises, and just when you think your life is about the settle down, it seems more often than not, something will happen to throw it all up in the air.

Now as Christians, our lives are just as full of surprises as any one else. But the task for us as Christians is to be able to see God working through these surprises.

Now, in the case of the surprise I gave my daughters, there’s obviously a relationship I have with them, such that they can easily put it into the category of ‘Dad’s doing something we love’.

You see, something interesting that I notice in my own life. Sometimes I can be quite reflective on my life. At other times, not so much. During those times when I’m not reflecting back on my life, I can go through and think to myself - you know, God hasn’t been doing much in my life lately.

But surprises can come in all sorts of different forms, both good and bad.

Sure a few good things had happened, and a few bad ones as well, but by and large it can be easy to fail to see how God has anything to do with it.

It’s only on reflection that you begin to see that those little coincidences, take for example, randomly meeting a particular person at the perfect time, are far more than little coincidences. As you look back on how things have unraveled you realise that there is something more at play.

What I want to explore today is how we should understand the way God is working in our lives.

I’m going to do this by exploring the two stories that I just read earlier.

Now I recognise that these are not just small little coincidences. They are obviously clear miracles, and in fact represent the special way God is working during the critical point in the history of God’s unveiling plan. But that being said, we can see some patterns emerge whereby we’ll be able to apply it to our own story, even if your story might not seem as dramatic.

Context

Before I get into the two stories, let’s first give ourselves a bit of background.

We have of course been in this series on Elijah and Elisha for a few months now, and the previous messages have provided much of the background. As I’ve discussed in those, we find ourselves at a particularly low point in the history of Israel - I perhaps I should clarify, low from the perspective of their relationship with the one true God, Yahweh.

God raised up Elijah who brought Yahweh back onto the scene in a big way.

God then transferred Elijah’s ministry onto Elisha, which is what we looked at two weeks ago when I last spoke.

But before I move on, I want to draw your attention to a particular story of Elijah that we briefly looked at in .

This was in the very first message I gave on this series, and so even if you were here, you’ll be forgiven if it’s a little fuzzy.

Way back in this chapter, a drought happened by the word of Elijah, and he was taken to a widow of Zarephath.

This widow and her son had no food, but God worked a miracle through Elijah, such that the little flour and oil she had, did not run out until the famine ended.

But the chapter didn’t end there, not only was there the miracle with the flour and oil, but at a later time the son died - and so we saw a miracle whereby the dead son was brought back to life.

I’ve taken the time to highlight that now, because as we get into the two stories that we’re going to focus on this morning, you’ll notice some striking similarities - although also with some notable differences.

Widow’s Olive Oil

So let’s start with the first story.

It starts with the wife of one of the company of prophets, who unfortunately has found herself in a very difficult situation.

Firstly her husband is dead, and surely the grief of that alone would be enough to make things hard. But on top of that, she is in debt, no doubt because the one who was able to supply the support is gone.

And so she now faces another massive challenge. That is, the creditor is coming, and he is going to take the two boys as slaves.

Well, Elisha wants to help, so he asks what she has.

The answer is nothing. Or perhaps, maybe a little bit, but it’s as good as nothing.

You see, she does add at the end of verse 2 that she does have a small jar of oil, but it is only very small.

Well I suspect that even though Elisha didn’t have access to nearly as much of the Bible as we do, being close to God meant that he was already aware of how God specialises in making little things big.

It’s a motif that Jesus takes up in a big way. Jesus is the one that said that the least of these shall become the greatest. He held up a mustard seed and note how much of a significant tree would come from it. And perhaps most notably from the perspective of this story, he took just a few loaves of bread and fish and fed thousands.

God doesn’t need something big to work with. He just wants what we have and he will work with that.

Well, Elisha then tells this widow - go to all your neighbours and ask for empty jars. And he clarifies for good measure - don’t ask for just a few, in other words - get lots!

I wonder what must be going through her mind at this point. I suspect it might have been a bit like me driving my two eldest daughters down Lemon Tree Passage Road after telling them I’m taking them on a surprise. Something big is going to happen - but what?

Well, the instruction follows that they are then to go inside with the door shut, and start pouring the small bit of oil they have into the other jars.

In verse 5 she does exactly that, and what happened is nothing short of a miracle.

Jar after jar is filled, until they get to the very last one. And it is at that very point that the oil also runs out.

Now there is something perfect about this and one of the lessons that I’m actually going to draw into our own situation. It is perfect because God provided the perfect amount of oil for what they had.

Now I know that some people have suggested that perhaps if she had more faith and had acquired more jars in faith, she would have received more. I actually think that misses the point. You see, she did exactly as she was told, and God provided.

We see the result in verse 7. She is then told to sell the oil and pay her debts. But not only was she able to pay off the debt, she also had money to live on afterwards.

This will shortly bring me to the second lesson, but I want to come back to the first lesson I highlighted, namely, that God provides the perfect amount for what we need.

You see, while the specifics of what happen in this story is unlikely to happen in your own situation, what is very common is for God to provide exactly what is required.

I don’t know how many stories I’ve been told, mostly from people who’ve stepped out in faith, but who have a very specific need, and some person will seemingly randomly give them the exact amount of money, or specific need for them.

I believe the frequency in which I hear such stories is proof that this is God saying - that was not just a coincidence, that was God doing his thing.

I want to suggest that we’ll see this most dramatically when we step out in faith, but yet we can even see it in smaller things. Even in things such as the little bit of encouragement you received right when you needed it most.

But the second lesson I wanted to draw from this came from verse 7 when we saw that there was enough money to live on afterwards.

You see, while God will provide perfectly for us, we also find that he provides generously for us as well.

He looks beyond just the immediate need we might have and instead provides in a bigger way.

This widow had an immediate problem of facing a debt collector. But there was a bigger problem in that she had no means of providing a living for herself.

But here God provides.

Sometimes life can feel that it is always going backwards, but know that God is there, and he can do amazing things to provide for your needs.

Shumammites Son

Well, I want to move onto the next story, because I believe in this we will learn more about the patterns that God uses.

So let’s briefly recap the story.

In some ways it gets a little convoluted. I actually had to read it a few times to figure out exactly what was happening. But that being said, the general gist isn’t too hard to follow.

Well, the interesting thing is that the woman in this story is in a very different position to the last woman we just met. In fact, this woman is described as a well-to-do woman.

It would seem in fact that she was quite well off.

This woman comes from a town called Shunem, hence why she tends to get called the Shunammite in this story.

Well, as Elisha comes to town, she urges Elisha to stay for a meal, and eventually has the generosity to even build Elisha his own little room, set out perfectly.

Well, Elisha is quite taken by the generosity and wants to some how repay her, but what do you give to someone who has everything. Perhaps, he thinks, she might be interested in getting an inside word with the king - but even this doesn’t appeal to her.

Eventually, Elisha’s servant Gehazi, brings it to the attention of Elisha that she has no son, which is particular important in those days because it is the son who the family line passes down.

And so Elisha calls her and tells her that she will have a son.

The women seems quite apprehensive about the idea, but nevertheless, a baby is born.

Tragically however, after the boy grows, he suddenly falls ill and it would seem quite quickly dies.

The Shunammite woman gets a donkey and goes off to find Elisha.

After a little encounter between the two of them, Elisha quickly rushes back to Shunem where we see another great miracle of a dead person rising.

It involves Elisha completely stretching his body of the boy, standing up then doing it again, before we get seven sneezes from the boy, and he opens his eyes.

It’s worth noting that while this shows God’s power over death, we should see it as a preview of what God is going to do, rather than a pattern of what we can always expect. You see, throughout the Bible we see what actually amounts to a relatively small number of people who are brought back to life, but even in Jesus day, there would have been countless other people who weren’t.

My point is that while God can raise people to life, this is more frequently not his plan this side of the return of Christ.

The connections

Well, in this second story, there is a clear lesson, being, death is no obstacle, but my intention with this part of the story is to briefly explore the various connections it has with other parts of scripture. As we do, my hope is that we will begin to see some significant patterns emerge.

With Elijah

The first of which I have already alluded to when I gave the background to the story.

You see, earlier I recalled what happened with Elijah back in , namely he had a miracle involving flour and oil that didn’t run out and then raised the widows dead son to life. Sound familiar now?

In fact, I’ve had the question asked, doesn’t this lend weight the theory espoused by some, that the Old Testament is full of myths and legends that have been embellished somewhat, with stories repeating themselves with only slight changes.

I would argue quite differently. I believe these similarities are very deliberate.

Th

I almost think of it like God placing his signature on things. In a real way, I suspect that God is showing that he is with Elisha in the same way he was with Elijah.

Widow at Nain

But there is another connection with another bible story that bears some very striking resemblances. This time I’m going to take you to the New Testament.

You might recall one of Jesus’ miracles when he raises someone to life. He does this on a few occasions, but in there is a widow from the town of Nain, and Jesus approaches just as they are having a funeral for her son.

Now perhaps the most striking connection in this is lost on us because our biblical geography isn’t up to scratch.

But, the curious thing is that both Nain and Shunem were both towns located on the Hill of Moreh. Nain was on the northern side and Shunem on the southern.

Now if you compare the two stories there are big differences, yet both involve a widow and both involve the widows son dying before being brought back to life.

Now we can just dismiss this as a bit of a coincidence, but I think it is more than that.

Again, like I mentioned before, it is like God is putting his signature on the whole thing.

Application

There is more we could explore, but I want to turn now to think how this could apply to us.

You see, while I believe this shows God’s signature, that’s not to say that we can necessarily expect the same thing to happen to us today.

I mentioned before that though these resurrection stories are powerful and a reminder of what is to come, but that is what they are, a reminder of things to come, not the expectation prior to the return of Jesus.

However, while we most likely won’t see miracles quite like the ones in this chapter, there are a few patterns that we can see emerge that are evident even in our own stories.

I’ve already drawn your attention to some of these, but first, we can see how God will see our need, but not only provide for the immediate need but provide for our ongoing needs.

I remember coming to this realisation when Fiona and I both took a year leave from our works back in 2007 to do a year at Bible College. Neither of us were earning any money and so we thought that our little savings account would have been completely wiped. But God was good and by the end of the year we still had our savings plus a little bonus.

But the second pattern that I want to draw is that God is about breathing new life.

Now in Shunem, this was a very literal case of life and death, but when we reflect on our own situation, what I believe we see is God bringing us spiritually alive.

And so we see God both providing our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs.

As I reflect on my own journey, I remember in my university days when I had what I consider a spiritual awakening. I had been a believer before this, but God opened my eyes, gave me a thirst for his word, and I felt alive.

Conclusion

The point I want to get across this morning is that while life can be full of surprises, when we take the time to reflect on it, it usually doesn’t take much before we start to see God doing his thing.

We find him providing for our physical needs and making us spiritual alive.

This should fill us with great confidence, knowing that even though we can expect the unexpected, we can know that God will always be there helping us through it.

Our job is to just allow God to do his thing, because when he does, the result is always good.

Let’s pray...