Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The Latin term for ‘widow’, vidua, is related to a root meaning ‘to place apart’. 2 As will become clear in the chapters which follow, in most cases widows are, in fact, placed apart from much more than just their husbands.

In the Bible the word is practically synonymous with “poor” because in the ancient Near East widows were largely unprotected by law & were easily exploited

Widowhood= separation that occurs upon the death of a husband

Scripture says:

; ; ; ;

; ; ;

Deuteronomy 24:20; 26;12

;

1 Timothy 5:5

1 Timothy 5:10

Why is the widow so important in scripture?

She has lost her provider and he to whom she is identified.

So now she has to possibly depend on the unknown & unseen for her provision.

Is the widow an example or illustration of the type of dependence on  & faith in we should have of the LORD God?

We normally associate  with widows what we can do for them.

But have you ever considered what the widow can do in serving and ministering to you?  Widows have a God given Ministry and testimony to the church

Illustration: Between Poverty And The Pyre: Moments In The History of Widowhood by J. Bremmer & L. Van Den Bosch

“It has been noted that widows are in general more involved in religious activities than widowers or married women.

Jan Bremmer, for example, notes the great number of widows among the first followers of Jesus”

Transition To Body

In our text today, the prophet Elijah goes to Zarephath and is served or rather ministered to by a widow

The prophet receives a word from the LORD and then clearly communicates that word to the people of God.

In the Old Testament as well as New Testament, the word from the LORD is often corrective in nature and encourages faithfulness, change, or repentance (returning or turning)  towards the LORD.

In the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, and even today, not everybody who shows up at the sanctuary wants to hear a word from the LORD.

They want to hear a word but not necessarily from the LORD.

So the prophet is in a precarious situation-  they life is on the line.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 4

But God’s Word also protects & preserves the prophet...

In no uncertain terms that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is more powerful than the Canaanite god Baal, who was worshipped as the god of rain and fertility and the vanquished of death:

Baal was worshipped as the god of rain and fertility and the vanquished of death

But in the God of Israel provided sustenance during a famine & proved his power over death in the raising of a child (v22).

The next chapter , recounts the triumph of Yahweh & his prophet over Baal & his prophets

God’s command to Elijah to remain in the home of a pagan widow must have seemed strange.

Jesus cited this story as an example of how a prophet is often unwelcome in his home country ()

Body

The LORD’S Word Is Always Relevant ()

- as the LORD lives, before whom I stand

The LORD’S Word Is Always Timely ()

Illustrate: Dottie People’s On Time God

He's an on time God, yes he is (oh oh oh)

On time God, yes he is

Job said He may not come when you want him

But he'll Be there right on time

I'll tell you He's an on time God, yes he is

Isaiah 55

Obeying The LORD’s Word Can Be Inconvenient ()

Elijah’s calling does not require home court advantage

Illustration:  Statistics on the value of home court advantage in the NBA & NFL

Obeying The LORD’s Word Leads To Blessings (1 Kings 7:15-16)

Illustrate:  “when the praises go up, the blessings will come down”.

That’s not recorded in the Bible, but we can recite it in our sleep

But...

Psalm 1:

Transition To Close

Psalm 119:

Close

Illustration:  Reading Homer’s Odyssey during the summer of 1987 while going into the 9th grade

No one who has heard ‘Penelope’s Lament’ by the Italian composer Monteverdi will ever forget the grief of this Homeric grass widow, whose faithfulness to her missing husband Odysseus was eventually rewarded by his return.

Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius of Spartaand his wife Periboea.

She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War.

She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband,[5] during which she devises various strategies to delay marrying one of the 108[6] suitors (led by Antinous and including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros).

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful.

She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished.

Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful slave women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.

Penelope, in Greek mythology, a daughter of Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea and wife of the hero Odysseus.

They had one son, Telemachus.

Homer’s Odyssey tells the story of how, during her husband’s long absence after the Trojan War, many chieftains of Ithaca and nearby islands become her suitors.

To spare herself their importunities she insists that they wait until she has woven a shroud for Laertes, father of Odysseus.

Every night for three years, until one of her maids reveals the secret, she unravels the piece that she has woven by day so that she will not have to give up hope for the return of her beloved husband and remarry.

When at length Odysseus does return, she makes him prove his identity and finally accepts him.

How is the widow in Zarephath an exemplary model of truth faith in LORD

“And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, '"Physician, heal yourself."

What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'"

And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭4:23-26‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.

He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.”

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/2ki.5.1.esv

“After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.

Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.

Roman Centurion

And Jesus went with them.

When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Therefore I did not presume to come to you.

But say the word, and let my servant be healed.

For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭7:1-3, 6-9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/luk.7.1-3,6-9.esv

“As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭7:12-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/luk.7.12-13.esv

Persistent widow

“And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.'

And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.