Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever experienced something in your life that can only be explained as God reached down from heaven, right to you and your personal situation, and God did a miracle? Were you in a desperate situation? I wonder how your miracle changed your life and maybe your family?
Yesterday, I left you in the town of Zarephath, which is in modern day Lebanon, but we are visiting there about the year 870bc. A terrible drought had gripped that region of the world for quite some time. It was a God sent drought in response to the wickedness of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the people of Israel who had abandoned God and were deep into Baal and Ashtoreth worship. Wickedness was rampant in Israel and God’s patience had run out with His rebellious people.
God sent the prophet Elijah to explain this discipline to King Ahab whose hard heart became even harder. Elijah had been led by God to this town in the Sidon region, which was home to Jezebel. God had led Elijah to a widow and her son who were gathering sticks for a fire to prepare their final meal, using the last of what little flour and oil they had left, for one loaf of bread.
Elijah has challenged their faith in God by requesting that they make a loaf of bread for him first, promising them that if they did so, God would resupply the flour and oil miraculously.
Yesterday we watched as the widow used the last of her flour and oil to make a little loaf of bread and she did share it with Elijah. (1 Kings 17:7-14) Now she’s on her way back to her little cooking area to see if the empty flour jar was still empty and the empty oil jug was still empty… or? Let’s walk with her.
What do you suppose this dear widow is thinking as her little son runs ahead to peek into the empty flour jar? How have you helped your children with their disappointment when God didn’t miraculously do what they asked God to do?
Is this widow anticipating needing to make some excuse, perhaps some rationale which will help a little boy understand flour just doesn’t magically appear in an empty jar and oil does not spontaneously refill an empty jar all by itself? Is she arguing with herself about why she shared her last little loaf of bread with a strange old man who promised God would keep her supplied with food?
Now the little boy shrieks and comes running to the widow with the flour jar. ‘Look, Mama, Look! There’s flour in the jar! But I saw you empty it, you turned it upside down and took out the very last little bit, but now there’s flour in the jar. How can it be Mama, how can it be?’ Have you ever found yourself with a child who is so excited they can hardly speak the words and your heart is simply overflowing with joy?
As this widow took the jar, sure enough, there was flour, and not only flour enough for one little loaf, but flour enough for several loaves! Now she rushed quickly to her little cooking area searching for the oil jug. There it was… almost afraid to look, the widow picked it up and peered into the pottery jug, it was hard to see, so she tipped it over and sure enough, oil came dribbling out! But how could this be? She knew for certain that she had turned upside down both the flour jar and the oil jug as she made that last loaf of bread, and BOTH were completely, totally empty.
The widow picked up her son and they danced and laughed, with tears running down both their cheeks. She ran back to the old prophet still sitting under the tree outside her home. His smile seemed to cover his whole face! They embraced each other and the old prophet probably said, ‘I think we need to thank God, right now…’ and with his eyes turned upward to the sky Elijah expressed their thanks to God for the unbelievable, the unthinkable had happened.
The widow turned to her son, ‘we need more sticks, I need to bake more bread and this time it’s miracle bread.’ The little boy ran off and I wonder if the widow turned to Elijah perhaps asking if he could please explain it to her and help her understand what it meant, and will it happen again tomorrow?
The record simply says: “So there was food everyday for Elijah and the widow and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:16)
Yes, my friends, the miracle happened again and again, day after day, for a long time. I imagine Elijah and the widow explained to her little boy that they were experiencing very much the same ‘daily bread’ provision from Almighty God that their ancestors had experienced with the Manna, everyday for 40 years, while roaming the desert with Moses! (ex. 16:21-35) And my friends, perhaps you are already thinking that it’s the same miracle as Jesus multiplying one little boy’s lunch to feed 5000 men plus women and children as recorded in Matthew 14 & John 6.
Now let’s pause right here for a moment and consider some questions:
1. WHY? Why was God providing this flour and oil for this widow, her son and Elijah when the country was in a terrible drought?
2. WHAT? What do these miracles teach us about Almighty God and His limitless power, but also His watch care over His people? (Consider Psalm 33:18-22)
3. WHAT? Is God seeing today, as He looks at Israel and Lebanon and the hearts of the people who live there and their leaders?
4.. WHO? Who are those people, both there in the middle east and where you and I live today, who are people of great faith like Elijah, this widow and her son?
Oh there’s much more to the story and we’ll rejoin Elijah and the widow tomorrow, but for now, here’s a song to help us thank God for what He’s teaching us about Himself and His involvement in our world. Do you need a miracle today?
Today’s Scripture: 1 Kings 17:13-16.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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