The Adult's Sunday School Class - Proverbs
scripture reading: #639
Sunday
evening Vesper's at
Wednesday,
@
Preparing for change
I Kings 17.1. Now
Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in
5. So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the
Kerith Ravine, east of the
9. "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.
I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." 10. So he
went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering
sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in
a jar so I may have a drink?" 11. As she was going to get it, he called,
"And bring me, please, a piece of bread."
12. "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she
replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a
little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal
for myself and my son, that we may eat it--and
die." 13. Elijah said to her,
"Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said.
But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you
have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14.
For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `The jar of flour will not
be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives
rain on the land.'" 15. She went away and did as Elijah had told her.
So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman
and her family. 16. 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. 17. Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house
became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.
Just when you thought things were getting better... I'm reminded of that old
'Hee-Haw' song - "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at
all."
Let's look at that widow in
Zarephath. First of all, she was a widow. That was pretty much a guarantee for poverty and a
very hard life. She had a little boy (go back and double the poverty and
hard life of the last sentence).
When she was down to her last pancake's worth of flour
and oil along comes Elijah and told her to fix that last pancake for him. There
was then a period of time where she never ran out of oil and flour.
Then her son became sick and died. She blamed Elijah.
Well, why not? They were
going to die of starvation - then they had all they wanted to eat...only for
her son to then get sick and die.
I suspect she was a devotee
of "Whatever doesn't kill you only postpones the inevitable."
But
let’s look at Elijah
– he was hiding from Jezebel and Ahab. He was at that little ravine in the
desert, Kerith - “the
cutting place”. He was being fed by scavengers. Those weren’t tasty
morsels of steak and French bread.
He was finally able to get out of there, only to be sent to a
village within the shadow of the palace that was Jezebel’s family home. There it was a widow on her last
morsel…then the only child gets sick and dies.
But Elijah came through
again. Wait - was it Elijah or was it God?
How many times do we associate good or bad turns of
events with those nearby when it really isn't about them. It's about God!
"It is God who is at work in you to will and to do
His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13