Elijah’s and Widow’s Faith in the Word of the LORD: the Key to Mission, the Church’s Faith
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· 2 viewsNot only our personal faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD, but also our neighbor's (in short, the church's) faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD is the key to mission: the word of the LORD is fulfilled in this world.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Context
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah suddenly appeared in front of king Ahab and proclaimed to him, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (17:1) According to his proclamation, the drought happens to Israel and the neighbors. In the Old Testament, if the people of Israel broke the covenant with God in their unfaithfulness and disobedience, God would not send rain on the earth as curse (Deut 11:16–17; 1 Kings 8:35–36; 2 Chr 6:26–27).
Plot
The LORD commanded Elijah to go to Zarephath for a widow to feed him there. But Elijah encounters a widow who are about to be starved to die with her son due to drought. The widow has “only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.” Nevertheless, Elijah requests her to bake bread and to bring first it to himself. Elijah also tell her the promise of the LORD, "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” (v. 14). A widow obeys Elijah and experienced what Elijah told her.
Body
1. Elijah’s faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD (1 Kings 17:8–10)
In 1 Kings 17:3–4, God commanded Elijah to go to live by the brook Cherith and drink water there and to fed by the ravens with bread and meat in the morning and evening. In 1 Kings 17:8–9, God also commanded Elijah to go to live in Zarephath and be fed by a widow there.
In both of the story, we can see the same pattern through Elijah’s response to God. Let’s see the passage, “So he went and did according to the word of the LORD” (v. 5) and “So he arose and went to Zarephath” (v. 10). Elijah’s common response to the word of the LORD is that Elijah trusted in and obeyed the word of the LORD.
Elijah, who obeyed the word of the LORD, went to live by the brook Cherith and was fed by the ravens with bread and meat in the morning and evening and drunk water from the brook. As a result, Elijah experienced the word of the LORD was fulfilled.
Elijah, who also obeyed the word of the LORD, went to live in Zarephath and was fed by a widow. As a result,Elijah experienced that the word of the LORD was fulfilled.
We may wonder if Elijah did not trust in and obey the word of the LORD. We could not see the development of this story but another story. Elijah might have not experienced that the word of the LORD was fulfilled.
As a result, our faith and obedience is the key for the word of the LORD to be fulfilled and brought in this world. The idea of mission is same. If we didn’t trust in and obeyed it, the word of the LORD might not be brought in this world. Furthermore, the word of the LORD is not only kept in our mind. But it is not until we live it out in our common life that the word of the LORD is brought in this world. In other words, mission depends on our faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD, which we live out in our common life.
2. A widow’s faith in the word of the LORD through Elijah (1 Kings 17:12–16)
God sent a prophet Elijah to save the people of Israel from their sinfulness and wickedness. However, interestingly, the LORD did send him not to Israel soon but to Zarephath to be fed by a widow. Why not Israel but Zarephath?
In the gospel of Luke of the New Testament, when Jesus visited his hometown, Nazareth and taught there, some people said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” and rejected Jesus Lk 4:22). Then Jesus identifies himself as Elijah and says in front of the people, “Elijah was sent to none of them (the people of Israel) but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow” (Lk 4:25–26). This means that even if God sent Elijah to the people of Israel, the word of the LORD which Elijah speaks might not accepted by them.
And Zarephath was one of the metropolis in Syria which prospered as a trading hub of land and sea. Baalism, which Israel had accepted, was popular among the people. The people believed in Baal as a god, who can bring rain from heave to the earth and flourish. However, in that time, Baal could not send rain and the people would suffer from drought.
Elijah encounters a widow gathering sticks at the gate of Zarephath and requests her to bring him a little water in a vessel. as soon as she is going to bring it, Elijah requests her again to bring him a morsel of bread. And a widow opens her mouth and says, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in 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.” (17:12).
When she was asked to bring him “a little water,” a widow didn’t hesitate to try to bring it. And it might be easy for a widow to bring a little water, because she was commanded to feed Elijah and thought she can feed him only by a little water. But a widow would get upset, because Elijah requests her to bring not only a little water but also a morsel of bread. A widow confesses to Elijah how she is going to eat bread and die with her son.
But Elijah requests her to bake bread and bring it first to himself, “first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me” (17:13). However, Elijah’s request is not so relentless, because he says, “afterward make something for yourself and your son” (17:13). Furthermore, Elijah told her the promise of God, “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” (17:14).
Elijah’s words to a widow means, “You might believe Baal send rain on this land. But now I declare that until the LORD sends rain on this land, He himself protects and grantees your life.”
“And she went and did as Elijah said” (v. 15).
A widow responds to Elijah, as Elijah did to the word of the LORD in Cherith and Zarephath. A widow trusts in and obeys the word of the LORD through Elijah. And a widow as well as Elijah experiences the fulfillment of the word of the LORD. Since “the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty” (v. 16), a widow, her son, and her family could eat. And Elijah could live with them in Zarephath.
The story that Elijah was fed by the ravens is similar to the story that he was fed by a widow at the point that Elijah’s life was fed. But the only different point is that Elijah needed a widow’s faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD.
A widow believed in Baal. She encountered death with a son. We imagine that she might be in worry, fear, sorrow, grief, despair, indignation, and angry. Nevertheless, Elijah takes a chance on such an unreliable, weak, and fragile widow’s faith. We can see Elijah’s generosity and firm reliability here to a widow. Of course, we can see also Elijah’s faith that the word of the LORD surely would be fulfilled.
We might be like a widow. We are not always happy as we live in this world. In particular, 2020 started with an eruption of Mt. Taal, followed by African swine fever, covid-19, then typhoons and floods. In this world, we might feel afraid, anxious, sorrowful, grieved, hopeless, desperate, helpless, angry. In that time, the LORD encourages us to trust and obey himself and his word.
Conclusion
I told you that mission depends on our faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD, which we live out in our common life. In addition, what we can learn from the story of a widow, mission depends on not only our personal or individual but also our community’s, in a word, the church’s faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD, which we live out in our common life. The word of the LORD was not fulfilled only through Elijah’s faith in and obedience to it. An unreliable, weak, and fragile widow’s faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD was necessary and significant for it to be fulfilled. The word of the LORD is entrusted to not only each of us but also brothers and sisters in the church who walk with each of us. Our brothers and sisters’s faith and obedience is necessary and significant for the word of the LORD to be fulfilled. So if we have brothers and sisters who are feeling afraid, grieved, hopeless, and angry, let us keep praying, and encouraging that person to keep his/her faith in and obedience to the word of the LORD, as Elijah did to a widow. And let us as the church of Christ walk together to trust and obey the word of the LORD so that it may be fulfilled in this world.