Faith of a Mother
Notes
Transcript
What is the Faith of a Mother worth?
What is the Faith of a Mother worth?
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.”
We pick up the story of Elijah just after he proclaims there will be a drought.
Now God tells him to go to Zarephath.
Why?
Because God has told a widow to provide for him there.
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 in a cup, that I may drink.”
Elijah is a prophet of God, what is he going to do?
He heads to Zarephath.
Sure enough, there’s a widow gathering sticks.
So he asks for a glass of water.
And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
Just one more thing...
While your at it, can you get me a bite to eat as well?
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.”
I don’t have any bread.
All I’ve got is a handful of flour and a little oil.
I’m going to cook it up for my son and myself for our last meal.
Not a very hearty last meal uh?
She’s going to cook all she has left, then sit back and die.
What kind of provision is this?
God did say he commanded a widow to provide for Elijah.
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.
OK, go ahead and cook up what you’ve got,
But make me a small cake first.
THEN make some for yourself and your son.
What would you think?
This “man of God” asks for first dibs on your last meal.
Not just your last meal, but he last meal of you son as well.
Sounds arrogant, doesn’t it?
I mean, common sense says the widow should save what little she has for her and her son.
Sharing it means they’ll die that much sooner.
Why should she listen to this guy that just walked into her life?
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.’ ”
But there’s more,
God says the flour won’t be used up and the oil will not run dry until the drought is over.
Now the mother has a decision to make.
Is this guy REALLY a man of God?
Did God REALLY promise to provide for them until the drought is over?
And how is God going to do that?
What will happen when she grabs what little flour and oil are left?
This is not just a decision for herself,
But for the life of her son.
Mothers make decisions all the time.
Sometimes they’re good, sometimes not so much.
Will she trust this Man of God or not.
The future of both this widow and her son rests on her next decision.
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.
She does what Elijah asks,
She took what little she had, gave the first of it to the man of God and the rest was for her and her son.
And the flour was not used up.
The jar of oil did not run dry.
Just as Elijah had said.
A Mother’s Decision
A Mother’s Decision
There are those who act like motherhood is not a calling,
That it’s just a fall-back position for those who can’t have a career.
Even many of those who become mothers leave the raising of the children to others.
Day-care, school, nannies and baby-sitters.
But the decisions a mother makes have a tremendous influence on the future of their children,
And through their children, society and future generations.
This mother in Zarephath had a decision to make that would have an immediate impact on her son.
To trust the man of God or not.
This story is often taught as an example of God’s provision and love.
I also see the faith of a mother,
But today what I see is a mother making a decision on whether to trust what the man of God said.
And being rewarded.
I wonder what impact that will have on her son as he grows.
God told Elijah the widow would provide for him,
But it was God who provided through the widow.
Not just for Elijah, but for the widow and her son.
What provision is God going to provide someone else through you,
If you would only trust Him?
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
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?”
After the widow and her son are saved by God, the son gets sick and dies.
Have you ever noticed how often the children of Israel react to difficult situations by assuming it is God out to get them?
God rescues them from Egypt, they ask if it’s so He can drown them in the sea.
God parts the sea, they ask if it’s so He can kill them in the desert.
God takes them out of the desert, they ask if it was so He could kill them with giants.
And here, the widow ask’s Elijah if he, after saving her and her son, have come to remind her of her sin and kill her son.
But we don’t do that… Do we?
When things happen we don’t like, we tend to blame God.
When 9/11 happened, how many people, even those in the church, asked “Where was God?”
When the Wuhan virus was killing thousands, people asked “Where is God?”
Do you know where God is?
Right where you asked Him to be!
If you asked Him to be by your side, He was there.
If you asked Him to leave you alone, He did.
When life gets difficult, where will God be for your children?
Right where you asked Him to be.
So where is God when this widow’s son dies?
Standing right in front of her in the form of one of His prophets.
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. Then 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?”
Even Elijah asks God if He has brought this tragedy upon the widow.
Mothers loose their sons every day in this world.
We don’t like to think about it, but it’s true.
Do we blame God for that?
Should I have blamed God for the death of my mother and my step-mother?
Should I have blamed God when a childhood friend died in a four-wheeler accident?
Or when another took her own life?
Should Mothers blame God when their children dies?
Or, should they entrust them to the heavenly Father that loves them.
The widow gave her son to the man of God.
Was it an act of faith or desperation?
I’m not sure.
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.
Elijah, by faith, tries to warm the body.
Crying out to the Lord for the child’s soul to return.
The third time, the Lord heard Elijah’s voice...
Did God not hear him the first two times?
Did God not know what was going on?
God always answers prayer,
Sometimes He answers “yes”,
Sometimes He answers “no”,
And sometimes, He answers “Not Yet”.
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.”
Now that God has done this miracle through Elijah,
Now the widow believes that he is a man of God.
That Gods Words are in His mouth.
Even though she trusted him with both her life and the life of her son when it came to the flour and oil.
Have you ever wondered if maybe what is happening to you is to help your faith?
Or maybe the faith of another?
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Do we need to see the miracle before we will believe God?
Or are we blessed because we have not seen, yet have believed?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Whatever message to take from the story of the widow at Zarephath, remember this.
God did His work through the faith of a mother.
It was the faith of the mother that saved not only her, but her son and Elijah.
It was the faith of the mother that the Man of God could do something about her dead son.
And it was the faith of the Mother that was rewarded with her living child.
As we celebrate Mothers today, remember this.
Your life was molded in part by the faith of your mother.
Who you are is due in large part to the faith of your mother.
And if for some reason your mother wasn’t around, you probably feel the loss very deeply.
That is because our mother’s faith had a deep and lasting impact on our lives.
Your mother may not have saved the life of a man of God,
And may not have brought you back from the dead,
But without your mother, you would not be here in the first place.
So let us thank God for our mothers,
Whether they are living or dead,
For all the things they did right,
And all the things they did wrong.
Let us be thankful that in God’s creation, we have mothers.