Protector of Widows

This morning's sermon scripture reading is found in the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 17, verses 8 through 24.

1 Kings 17:8–24

You can follow along in your bulletin and or in your pew Bible.

Here now the reading of God's holy word.

Then the word of the Lord came to him.

Arise, go to Zarepheth, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.

So he arose and went to Zarepheth.

And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

And he called to her and said, Bring me a little water and a vessel that I may drink.

And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

And she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a jar, and a little oil and a jug.

And now 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.

And Elijah said to her, Do not fear.

Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.

For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.

And she went and did as Elijah said.

And she and he and her household ate for many days.

The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

And she said to Elijah, What have you against me, O man of God?

You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son.

And he said to her, Give me your son.

And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.

And he cried to the Lord, O Lord, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn by killing her son?

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again.

And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah.

And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother.

And Elijah said, See, your son lives.

And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.

Amen.

Lord, we are a needy people, and we need even this morning for your spirit to accompany this word.

Lord, that we would not hold on to the letter, but Lord, that you would bring your life with it and part it to us, even as we come under your authority and your power this morning.

And so, Lord, we come with that expectation.

We ask for your goodness to be revealed and made known to us even this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Well, over the next few weeks, we're beginning a new series on God's heart for the needy, particularly as it pertains to three groups of people that God took time to ensure that they were provided for when he gave the law, namely the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner.

God gave explicit attention to communicate his concern that they be protected and provided for.

And in this remarkable story that we've just read, we see God's heart and mercy extended not only for a needy widow, but for a needy widow who needed to find her hope in Yahweh's power alone.

And that leads to our question this morning.

How does God protect and provide for this woman?

Because the hope is that in answering this question, we would be more equipped to minister to those within our families, in the church, to our neighbors, and even to our own souls in this way.

God's heart is for a justice to be established toward the widow.

Now, the point is not to deny or disregard the fact that we all at times experience problems and afflictions and have needs.

And so, in that sense, this morning, we can all apply these truths to our lives.

Don't tune out.

But the reality is there are some who, by degree, have less ability to deal with the calamity and the trouble that happens to them.

Their situation is such that they are more vulnerable because of the often fewer resources available to them.

And so it's not a surprise for us to see Elijah come to this widow and for God to deal with her in regard to food and necessity.

But first, what do we know about this woman?

Well, we know that this was a woman who was from the area of Sidon, which is in modern-day Lebanon.

And we can deduce that this woman may actually have heard something of the God of Israel.

But like many today, she was someone who believed in a bit of everything.

She was a polytheist, a worshiper of many gods.

There was Baal, who was believed to be the God of fertility and life.

And then there was Mot, who was believed to be the God of the underworld.

And so the Lord chose to send his prophet Elijah to dwell with this woman, that he might show her that the word of the Lord is truth.

Capital T.

That he and he alone is the God of creation and life and has power over death.

And so it's instructive that we see this passage begin and be littered by the phrase, the word of the Lord.

That's hope-giving.

Why?

Because when God's word goes forth, life happens.

And if we see anything today, it's often of a devaluing of the relevance of his word and of its power.

When God withdraws his spirit, he also withdraws his word, which is a sign of judgment.

And that's exactly what was going on at this time.

Israel had closed their ears and hearts to God's word.

They had departed from it, they despised it.

And so he sent his prophet to give voice elsewhere, even in the land of Canaan, Israel's enemy.

The point was to show Israel the severity of their attitude toward God and to arouse a holy jealousy, that they might repent and rekindle their desire toward him.

And so it doesn't take much study of this text to understand that this is less about a widow and more about the word of the Lord.

And that in turn has everything to do with the widow.

Because here's the thing: if the word of the Lord does not come from Elijah, this woman dies along with her son.

This woman was at the end of a rope, down to her last meal.

Little by little she had seen her positions diminish as famine plagued the land.

And now she was all but ready to give up hope.

And of course, it's not uncommon for those who suffer under the weight of affliction to feel this kind of despair.

Perhaps you've experienced people in your own lives, perhaps you yourself have experienced despair that comes from affliction.

It can be a tendency for people who face various afflictions to feel the weight of their cares to the point of being overwhelmed.

Where the weight and the troubles that they face, the if-onlies in life, begin to pile up.

And as they do, hope begins to dwindle.

And as that hope is deferred over time, as desires continue to go unmet, the heart grows sick.

Hope fades.

That's the reality of grief.

It's been said, where there's life, there's hope.

More profound, though, is the reverse.

Where there's hope, there's life.

We were made as hoping creatures.

God's design from the very beginning was for us to experience vitality that stems from hope.

If the light of hope goes out, then we enter into mere existence.

Something far short of God's intended design.

And so Elijah obeys the word of the Lord, and he goes and travels to see this woman.

Now we know that there were other widows, of course, in Israel at this time.

But God sends his prophet to this particular widow.

This is personal.

I think it's a reminder that God's electing love is always personal, since he is sovereign over it all.

And Elijah gives this woman a promise to her.

One promise.

That's all she got at this point.

That her jar of flour would not be spent, and the jug of oil would not go empty until the day the Lord sent rain.

Here's the first promise for her to take hold of.

And she does.

She takes hold of this promise, and her life begins to change.

And notice that God through Elijah first provides her with food.

And I think this is a reminder that there is a legitimate need for Christians to respond to the tangible, most basic needs of people.

This is ministry indeed.

This is our faith expressing itself in works.

God's heart for the widow is demonstrated in his life-giving provision.

And there are a number of examples of this throughout Scripture.

We see this from the early days in the Old Testament.

It was part of the law that those who owned fields or vineyards were not to harvest the entire field.

They were to leave some left over for those who were needy and vulnerable to glean from.

We see an example of this with in the book of Ruth, where Naomi and Ruth calm back, and Naomi gleans from the field of Boaz.

And then in Acts 2, we see the Spirit being poured out at Pentecost.

And one of the first things that happens is a situation concerning the widows who were among them and their need to be ministered to.

And so when the Spirit of God is poured out upon a people, when God's heart is communicated to his people, there is inevitably a concern for the poor among them.

Because it's a concern of his.

To me, but I sure know that you have something to do with it.

When calamity happens, we may not always have the answers.

But we can come alongside others and help them bring their questions and complaints, concerns, and tears to God, even when they lack the faith and hope to do so themselves.

Don't think that we need to have all the answers.

Now, at the same time, don't confuse this holy act of complaint with unholy murmuring, which is a sign of pride through a general lack of ingratitude.

This kind of complaint is humble, it's honest, and it's often specific.

The more specific we can be, the more help we often receive.

Specific complaint often sharpens our prayers.

Author and pastor Mark Rogop in his book, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, shares an example of such trouble in his own life.

He writes, Discovering this practice of laying out my frustrations in candid terms has been life-giving.

There were some days after the loss of Sylvia when I would wake up feeling frustrated.

My first emotions of those days were dark.

Few things are more unhelpful than being assaulted with discouragement as you climb out of bed.

But through this I learned the value of simply telling the Lord what was running through my soul.

The more clear and blunt I could be, the better.

Sometimes I wrestled to put to words what I was feeling because, frankly, I was embarrassed.

I had to remind myself often that my struggles were not a surprise to God.

Some days I would list and adjournal everything that was troubling me.

My practice was to write out a list of complaints and then to talk to God about them.

I found that my pain made me myopic.

It tended to narrow my focus on the sorrow that took over my life.

Nothing else mattered.

At least it felt that way.

With this desperation for relief, it was easy to become preoccupied with the weight of sorrow, the unfairness of life, or the fear of never being happy again.

Left unchecked, this could create a self-focused emotional spiral.

But as I wrote out my complaints and talked to the Lord about them, it was surprising how they lost their hold on me.

Sometimes I even found myself laughing at the silly things I listed.

Complaints helped me see myself and my situation more clearly.

I like that.

And so I begs the question: are you and I familiar with this form of communication with God?

If you struggle to answer this, may I suggest the Psalms.

There are a number of psalms that express complaint.

And they can aid us in helping us to give expression to our feelings and bringing them to God for comfort.

And on that point, I think it's important to define comfort.

When we often think of the word comfort, we tend to think of a couch or some kind of place of rest, not pain.

But the word for comfort in the Greek conveys this idea of renewal of strength through encouragement.

It's the idea that we need strength to keep us going so as to be able to arise to every occasion.

That's how we minister to our own souls and to those who face affliction.

We draw near to them to renew and strengthen them through encouragement.

That's what it means when we read that we're to comfort those with the same comfort that we ourselves have received from God.

And so complaint is often a forerunner to a deeper and more secure trust in God.

William Law, a minister in the Church of England in the 17th and 18th century, encouraged those in his days, saying, Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, darkness, and desolation with both your hands as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self and entering into a fuller fellowship with your self-denying, suffering Savior.

Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view.

Reject every other thought about it.

And then every kind of trouble, trial, or distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity.

Law is essentially saying don't waste your troubles and sorrows.

Use it to look outside of yourself.

Use distress as an opportunity.

Use it to turn to Christ and enter into a fuller fellowship with Him and His people.

That is the blessed day of prosperity.

Only Christianity teaches that there is redemptive hope and that God uses suffering and affliction for good.

Emmanuel Kant understood the importance of this when he asked, What can we hope?

Kant's response to this was a vain hope.

He essentially wanted to believe that our souls are immortal, and that there really is a God who designed the world in accordance with just principles.

And yet his hope was unfounded.

Not so the Christian because of the resurrection.

And the hope for us is that this same power that raised Christ from the dead is now also at work in us who believe by the Spirit.

God answers Elijah's prayer, and this woman's son is brought back to life.

A remarkable miracle and manifestation of God's power.

This woman just got a glimpse of this.

Just a small taste.

She was given a glimpse to see life beyond her wildest imagination and the resurrection power of God.

Something completely outside of herself and her own experience.

God answers Elijah's prayer.

She came to see something of the resurrection power of God, and that is what people need.

That's what transforms lives.

That's what gives people who feel that as though they have lost or are losing everything needed hope.

That's what we have to offer people through this precious gospel.

We've already read a confession from John Bunyan this morning.

But in his allegory of the Christian life, Pilgrim's Progress, the character named Christian finds himself at one point in a place called Doubting Castle.

If you've read it, you'd be reminded of that place.

And it's in that castle that he and his friend Hopeful experience some very hard times, deep trouble.

And after some time in the dungeon, there is a moment of realization where Christian recalls that he has a way out.

He laments by saying, What a fool I've been to lie like this in a stinking dungeon when I could have just as well walked free.

In my chest pocket I have a key called promise that will I am thoroughly persuaded.

Open any lock in doubting castle.

Then said Hopeful, this is good news.

My good brother, do immediately take it out of your chest pocket and try it.

Then Christian took the key from his chest and began to try the lock of the dungeon door.

And as he turned the key, the bolt unlocked, and the door flew open with ease, so that Christian and hopeful immediately came out.

I think what Bunyan, who himself was imprisoned for his faith, was illustrating was this whole idea of God's promises being hidden in his heart by memorization.

It was the discovery that these promises were not to lie dormant, but to be seized upon, to be held on to.

He understood that God's promises were accessible to him and of help and comfort even in the midst of the prison that held him.

And so these promises he no doubt knew beforehand began to take on a new power as they were itched more deeply and sweetly into his heart.

And so it was there that he became more attuned to this man of sorrows, where his faith in Christ became clearer and his fellowship deeper.

This was how the word sustained and strengthened him, even in the midst of challenging circumstances.

That's the value of resurrection power.

And so it's through this visible act of resurrection that this woman confesses her newly found understanding and belief in the invisible God and his revelation.

Now I know, she says, that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.

Not my truth, but the truth.

In other words, now I know that there is revelation beyond myself that has power, that is supernatural.

Now I do believe that the word you have bought is the very word of God.

And there is no rival who can do the same.

We have kids in the service this morning, this Sunday of the month.

And many of us had a great time at VBS this past week.

Right, kids?

Trying to see everyone.

Kids, I wonder if you remember the constant refrain that Mrs.

Spees had continually had us recite and call out.

It was the words, it's true.

Right?

It's truth.

Capital T.

Whatever God says comes to pass.

God's word is truth.

Bank your life upon it.

Grab hold of God's promises in it.

And as it shapes you by its power, give thanks to God for it.

Oh, may God give you children and all of us the conviction to hold on to and to cherish this truth.

Amen.

Please let's pray.

O gracious God, we are amazed at times of your gracious provision for us.

We thank you for your heart, your concern for the needy, for the vulnerable, for the widows.

O Lord, we thank you for the way in which you have taught us to minister to one another in love and how you do also minister to us in such gracious and faithful ways.

Lord, we pray that you would give us a greater confidence in your resurrection power that we may be faithful servants to minister to others in your name and for your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.