[Listen to an audio version here].
According to ancient records, King Ahab did a good job in building the Israelite economy. He also made strategic alliances, evidenced by his marriage to Jezebel, that brought security to Israel’s borders.
The problem with Ahab was that he did not serve the Lord. In fact, he was worse than the bad Israelite kings who came before him. The previous kings had worshiped the Lord, Jehovah, but in a wrong way, through a golden calf. Ahab worshiped the gods of the nations around them, Baal and Asherah, the fertility gods of the Canaanites.
Enter Elijah
God had promised that if His people turned away to other gods, He would call them back to Himself through judgments and through messengers or prophets. At this low point in the life of Israel, God called one of the greatest of those messengers into public service. His name was Elijah.
People looked back on Elijah with a veneration equal only to that given to Moses. They looked for another Elijah to come in their time of need. He was from the hill country on the east bank of the Jordan, a sort of highlander or mountain man. During his labors, God did amazing things. This is captured wonderfully in the song, “The Days of Elijah.”
In spite of these amazing things, the story of Elijah is remarkably human, just as Moses’ is. It conveys the fears, challenges, exhilaration, doubts, loneliness, and difficulties Elijah faced in doing such momentous work. In a time of crisis, Elijah’s ministry offers us many lessons for how God takes care of us in the ups and downs in life in general and the more wild swings of a time of great anxiety.
In the book of 1 Kings, Elijah appears out of nowhere, like a flash of lightning. All of a sudden, he stood before King Ahab’s entourage and announced, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). And then he was gone.
You can imagine that the response was probably laughter. It would take a long time, probably many months, for the King and his men to start to believe that this prophecy was going to be a reality. Once they did, Elijah would be persona non grata, and Ahab would hunt for his life. It was not easy to be the messenger of the Lord.
Isolation
After that moment of exhilaration in public service, God called Elijah to something very different. He called him to isolation. Elijah went into hiding by the Kerith Ravine. He went into isolation for a long period of time.
We are not certain where this was, but it is most likely one of the little streams or wadis east of the Jordan River. Here is a description of what one of these was like, possibly the very one where Elijah hid:
In some places it is not less than five hundred feet deep, and just wide enough to give passage to a streamlet like a silver thread, and to afford space for its narrow fringe of oleander [shrubs]. The banks are almost sheer precipices of naked limestone, and are here and there pierced with the dark openings of caves and grottoes, in some one of which Elijah may have lain concealed.
It was very isolated and a good place to hide.
There, Elijah sat. What did he do all day? What was it like to simply be in hiding for all that time, especially after the excitement of giving the Lord’s message to King Ahab? How did he deal with being alone? How did he remain productive and active? Why did the Lord put him in such isolation? These are all questions we may wonder about. The fact is that the Bible records this time of his life for us. It reminds us that isolation as well as activity were alternating parts of the prophet’s life, just as they will be for us.
But there is something else. God took care of him there. God miraculously sent birds to bring Elijah his daily bread. Day by day, he would be reminded of the sufficiency of God and His faithfulness and love as the birds brought him his food. What a time of struggle in isolation! But what a time of experiencing God’s working!
On to Zarephath
When I lived in South Dakota, Spearfish Creek would rush through Spearfish Canyon in the springtime. Then, slowly, the rocks would reappear until it was just a trickle. Then, it would disappear altogether. That’s probably what Elijah experienced in the ravine. Did he know what would happen next or how he would be taken care of? The text does not tell us.
At some point, God told him that it was time to move on. He was to go outside the land of Israel, to a Gentile widow who would take care of him. He would go to the town of Zarephath in modern day Lebanon.
When he arrived, the widow was gathering sticks. She was down to her last meal for her and her son. After that meal, she would have literally nothing left to eat. Americans often say, “There’s nothing to eat!” What that usually means is that the particular food we want isn’t there. When this widow said it, she was saying it for real.
Now, imagine that you are down to your last piece of ice-cream birthday cake. You have celebrated your birthday, and you are ready to enjoy the last taste of your birthday celebration. Then, your brother comes in and says, can I have that piece of cake? No way! would probably be your most immediate thought.
That’s something of what Elijah did. He told the widow, “Prepare me a meal first, and you will never run out of food during this entire famine.” Would you have done it? For some reason, this woman was convinced that Elijah’s word was true. She did what he asked. What an act of faith! It’s one thing to give out of an abundance. It’s another thing to give your last penny. This woman showed more faith than any in Israel and became a prophecy of the future calling of the Gentiles to faith in the God of Israel.
And God was faithful to His promise. He provided for that widow the entire time. God is sufficient to supply all our needs. Jesus is the bread from heaven that God gives us that can supply every want. This refers first and foremost to our spiritual needs, but it also refers to the things we need for this life. Seek first the kingdom, Jesus says, and all these things will be given to you as well.
A young woman in our church wrote to me this week and said this:
The lady I am working for wrote the quote, “…God is your source, everything else is a resource.” As long as we remember our One true source, then I believe some things we have deemed necessary prior to this time do merely become resources that we realize we don’t need for fulfillment or even for survival. I’m trying to grow in that way!
I think that that this young woman is learning the lesson that Elijah and the widow learned.
And Then It Got Worse
Have you ever been through a hard time and then experienced God’s amazing provision? And then, something worse happens? All the doubts and fears rush in again.
That’s what happened to this widow. After seeing God’s miraculous provision of food, her only son got very ill. The sickness ran its course, and her only child finally died.
The widow was angry with Elijah. “What do you have against me, man of God?” She cried out. “Did you come here to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” When we face something challenging, it’s easy for us to lash out at something or someone in front of us. You can’t really do anything about death, but you can attack the person in front of you. It’s an extremely common and human way of dealing with loss.
Elijah was wise and understood this. He did not defend himself. Instead, he brought the son before the Lord. He had his own doubts. Why would God do this? He brought his complaint before the Lord. That’s the right way to deal with our emotions. The Psalms are an amazing resource to teach us this. They teach us to bring our emotions before the Lord and resolve them there. It’s almost shocking to find the psalmist venting his emotions before God. However, by the end of the psalm, the psalmist is ready to go forth into the world with faith. That’s what Elijah was doing: processing his emotions before the Lord.
Elijah did not stop there, though. He prayed three times for God to do what was impossible for human beings: to restore this boy to life. And that’s what God did. He restored the boy to life. Then, Elijah brought him to his Mother.
At that point, the widow’s faith was strengthened. She said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth” ( 1 Kings 17:24).
And now she had the answer. Why all the trials? Why make things worse for her? So that she could learn to trust the astonishing and glorious all-sufficiency of God, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think.