A Little Goes a Long Way
Notes
Transcript
1 Kings 17:8-24
A Little Goes a Long Way
Intro:
Read Verses: 1 Kings 17:8-24
Main Point: God rules his Kingdom and all things are dependent on Him and subservient to Him. The last part of that is from theologian Louis Berkhof
Exposition
I. God Rules Over the Natural World (17:8-16)
Ahab becomes King and starts worshipping Baal the Canaanite weather and agriculture god, Elijah Tells the king that there will be a drought until he or really God decides to turn the rain back on. In the Baal story, the people explained the winter time as the time that Baal died or went into the underworld. And in the spring baal, came back. So this battle ensues between God baal in a sense, to prove that Yahweh is real and all powerful and baal is nonexistent.
One commentator says Drought is pictured as coming at the will of Yahweh, not as a result of his or Baal’s submission to death. If, according to Canaanite mythology, Baal has to struggle periodically with death and lose, in 1 Kings 17–19 Yahweh confronts death, and wins.
And the battle continues here on earth as well. Ahab views Elijah as his enemy because he thinks Elijah is the troubler of Israel.
At the end of verse 7, the brook or. Wadi that God played Elijah has dried up and so in verse 9 God directs Elijah to Zaraphath, to find a widow. Where is Zarephath? It is in Sidon, which is in Phoenicia or Canaan it is the same country. This is the heart of Baalism. It is like going to Mecca and preaching about Christ against Muhammed. Or like when Jonah went to Assyria. God sends his prophets into enemy territory.
In verse. 17, God uses Ravens to deliver food to Elijah and now God is going to use a widow to deliver food. So we see this control that God has. First animals and now people. But God is not only going to bless Elijah, he is going to bless a widow and her son as well.
The drought has been going on for a little while now, we don’t get any good time references, but it must be a little while because when Elijah shows up to Zaraphath, he asks the widow for some water.
As she is getting the water, Elijah says bring me a morsel of bread as well.
And here we see how dire the situation must be. look at verse 12. As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, I Only a handful of oil and flour and I was making a fire, and then making some bread for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. Old mother Hubbard with nothing in her cupboards.
I remember some of the older Tom and Jerry cartoons, where Tom and Jerry are sharing the last bean they have. And they know this is it.
Has anyone else been there in their life, where you say, well this is it. Its over. A marriage, a money, maybe you have even been there with your own life. The Drought was temporary, albeit long. Those situations are temporary. They can be fixed you can earn more money or you will get paid. But it can get better.
And here is where it gets supernatural. Elijah says just make it for me and then your flour and oil will not run out. Oh by the way, you have trust in me and God because you have to split your potential last meal three ways now instead of two. Verse 15 and 16 tell us that the jars lasted until the rain came back.
God controls death and the natural world by keeping. Little bit of resources going which keeps His prophet, a widow and her son Allie as well. Especially because the Widow was prepared to die after their resources ran out.
Application
1) God will always provide enough
God tells Elijah that He will send birds or people to sustain him. But the Widow did not make the oil and flour last. God did that. Remember He is the I Am or El Shaddai, the Almighty. Baal was not doing anything to help sustain the people.
2) You can Trust His Word
When discussing the flour and oil jugs, there are two sets of phrases:
The Jugs WILL not run out and
The Jugs DID not run out.
The first tells the future and the latter confirms that the prophecy came true. Couple this with the fact that God is withholding the rain by His word we can trust what God says.
Even though at this point only a handful of people are being sustained, Yahweh still possesses his power to maintain life in the face of death, the drying up of the wadi and the widow’s sparse supply of food notwithstanding.
Go is sovereign over his kingdom. God has taken special interest in the widow for some reason, just like he has an overall special interest with His highest creation, Mankind.
Likewise, God’s word foretold the coming of the messiah which happened and it foretells the rest of the future of the world. The end times. And so if we know that a lot of the prophecies have come true so we can take it that the other ones will come true.
3) You can Be Content with His provision
Does being content mean you will only accept your dream car happily or being happy with a working car to get you around town to work and the store?
Is it refusing to eat anything other than filet mignonette and caviar. Or being content with bread that will sustain you.
We live in a world of choice and you can get variety. I am not saying you need to eek out a meager existence on bread and water. But What I am saying is that if we view that what we get and when we get it is a gift from God, then we should not turn it down.
Elijah is essentially in a battle with Ahab and he is sent into that region. He has to trust God to protect him and feed him.
Philippians 4:19 ESV
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:25 ESV
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Genesis 22:13-14
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Romans 8:32 ESV
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
And we see that the most important thing you need and I need is peace with God. We need Grace from our sins and wrong doing. That grace is in the form of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. His life, death and resurrection sustain us. And here we are at our outpost. In enemy territory in a sense, or at least our embassy reaching out to people so they can understand the peace treaty that has been signed and given to them.
Revelation 13:8 says Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This means that the plan of jesus’ sacrifice was always THE plan. We must endure and have patience like Revelation 13:10 says.
This will give them peace, but also anyone who accepts this gift now gets to partake in the victory over death, because God rules over the natural world, and part of that is ruling over death.
II. God Rules Over Death (17:17-24)
Some time goes by and eventually the woman’s son gets ill and dies. And she thinks Elijah is punishing her for her sins. Even Elijah thinks maybe God has repayed evil for good. But it seems like its only for a moment. His faith kicks in and he prays “ Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”God Let this boy live.”
Paul House says Elijah’s faith in the midst of uncertainty allows God to use him to demonstrate God’s life-giving power, his constant watchfulness, and his compassion even on those outside the elect nation (Luke 8:40–56).
The child revives because Yahweh hears Elijah’s plea, not because of the prophet’s prowess. Yahweh is God, not Baal, not Elijah.
The widow finally sees that Yahwe is living and real. He provided an never ending supply of basic food and now has brought back her son.
All around her, The world seems to be dying from the drought. But she and her family have been kept alive by Yahweh, who isn’t even their God yet.
God gave them special grace for their lives and so He saved her son.
In the Gospels, we see a few resurrections. Jesus revives Jairus’ daughter, they were Romans, but had Jairus had faith in Jesus ability and came to him. and also Lazarus. He got yelled at by Mary and Martha because He let Lazarus die.
Application
1) Don’t look at hardships as a punishment from God
The woman instantly goes to Elijah and thinks that her son is sick and dying because of what she had committed. But it was a way for her to trust God. A god that she had not trusted just yet.
2) Look for God
But it allowed Elijah to pray and cry out to God and let him work his power and sovereignty on the child. and when we Find God
3) Be Amazed
And then she was amazed at what happened. How many times have you been amazed at what God has done in front of your yes, or answered your prayers or maybe you find out a small bit of information that makes a situation make sense that it could only be God working and orchestrating events?
When we see miraculous things give credit and glory Psalm 118:23 says
This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes
John 11:17-27 tells us the scene of Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead
I Am the Resurrection and the Life
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
John 11:38-44 Jesus Raises Lazarus
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
As the Pharisees and the world would find out in about a week from the resurrection of Lazarus, Death cannot stop God from enacting his purposes on the cross on Calvary and a newly cut grave. Death and Satan unwittingly played into God’s hands in their own defeat .
Conclusion
God rules his kingdom. He controls the natural resources and death. And his will in doing so is a mystery to us until He reveals himself. The greatest revelation of His Will that we have is in God’s Word about His Good news that Jesus is the Son of God and he is God and has come down out of heaven and out of time, to make our wrongs against God right with God.
This is why Christmas and Easter are such a big deal. it is not just that baby is born. But the incarnation reveals God’s will for his world and more importantly His love for his creation.
When we face hard times, it should activate our faith even more. We can dig into God and look for His will in our life and the circumstances. God’s love and Our faith, like the Jar of oil and flour, will never run out and we see A little goes a long way.