Elijah's obedience to God's command to go to Zarephath, a Gentile town, demonstrates the importance of trusting God even when circumstances are difficult or unfamiliar. After his brook dried up, Elijah waited for God's word before moving, illustrating that true service requires divine direction rather than human initiative. The story of the widow in Zarephath highlights that God provides for those who obey Him, even in times of scarcity, by miraculously sustaining them through faith and obedience. The sermon concludes that God's provisions are often given daily, fostering complete dependence on Him and purifying believers through challenging circumstances.
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I'm sure sometimes you folks wonder, just those of us who are working in a local area, just what are we doing? Sometimes I wonder myself. But we're so happy that Gary and Cindy can fellowship here in the Park of the Palms. We have spent quite a bit of time in the last two years at Fort Pierce. And it was down at Fort Pierce that the Lord arrested Cindy, I guess you'd say. I think Gary too.
I'm not sure just where he got saved, but I know the Lord arrested her and turned her around for himself. And we're thankful for what he's doing in their lives. our prayer which has been continually for them since we've come to know them, that the Lord would lead them on more and more into the things of Himself. We're thankful for what the Lord is doing in their lives and we just pray that the Lord will continue and they will be obedient to follow Him. You see, beloved, The most important thing, I think, to a servant of God, serving in this type of capacity is not having big crowds to preach to or even conferences to share in, although we thoroughly have enjoyed ourselves immensely this week and are grateful for the privilege of getting to meet many of you.
But it's when you see people come to know Christ and more importantly even than that to see them go on for God. That is what is the most fulfilling in the life of someone who has the responsibility of sharing God's word with his people. to be able to put a message together, to be able to speak it fluently, and I fight for words. I'm sure you're aware of that sometimes. They come to me very difficult, very difficultly sometimes. That isn't what is important.
It's when we see people that are touched by the Spirit of God through the power of the Word that is spoken, the Word of God that is. And then to see them go on, to see them, the light open up, you know, never saw that before. My, that's something I really need in my life. And that, by the grace of God, this is what's going to happen. That is where we are really blessed in our own souls when we see this happen in the lives of the Lord's people. Now turn with me again to First Kings chapter seventeen.
And we'll begin with verse seven once again, although we're not going to spend time on it at any amount. I King seventeen and verse seven, and it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zeraphath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zeraphath, and when he came to the gate of the city, Behold, the widow woman was there gathering a stick, and he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray, the little water in a vessel that I may drink.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray, the immortal of bread in thine hand. She said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel and little oil and a cruise, and behold, I am gathering two sticks. that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me. And after make for thee and for thy son, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail.
until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did, according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal waste did not. Neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. Just a moment of prayer together. We come once again, Father, thankful for thy word and for the lessons that you share with us from that. May we our Father be receptive. May the ears of our soul be opened. May our will be subject to thine.
That we may be doers of the word as well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now we're coming to Elijah. I suppose you could say Elijah at Zeraphat and the circumstances surrounding his going there. Now you recall that in verse seven it tells us that it came to pass that after a while that the brook dried up. And it's a very interesting thing to read or not to read that anything took place after the brook dried up. Elijah remained just where he was by a dried up chariot. Even after supplied water had ceased, there wasn't any movement on his part.
What should he do? Should he take matters into his own hands? Should he have fretted and chagined, wondering what he should do next? I think if it had been me, I most likely would have gotten my roadmap out and I would have started looking for a place where there might be a spring or a well, looking for some place where I might find water. Should he try to do the best for himself? Should he not better retrace his steps and throw himself on the mercy of Ahab. After all, you can survive for quite a while without food, but you can't survive very long without water.
Bishop James Pike found that out to his dismay. You recall Bishop James Pike, who was searching for the historical Jesus in the wilderness of Judea, the same area as this, And eventually they found his dead body, one who had died of thirst. Well, that was the possibility, was it not? Should he not leave the area and wander all over the place trying to find a spring or a brook? What should he do? Or should he trust the Lord with patience, and that's the secret. until he had received some definite instructions from the Lord as to what he should do, that he might move at his command.
And that's what the interesting thing is. Although the brook dried up, he made not one step. He didn't make any complaints or murmurs. And you find in verse eight that the word of the Lord came unto him. How wonderful when that's the case. It was thus with Israel, was it not, as you would think back over their history. If you read that section in Numbers chapter nine from about eighteen to twenty-two, and I won't take the time to do it. But this is the section of the Word of God which talks about the cloud and the pillar of fire. When the pillar of fire was there, they stayed there.
When the pillar of fire moved, they moved. If the pillar of fire stayed for a year, they stayed for a year. If it moved in the middle of the night, they moved in the middle of the night. Whatever it did, they did. Because that was the manifest presence of God in their midst. And when he was ready to move, it was time for them to move. And we are told that these things have been recorded according to... Romans chapter fifteen, I believe it is. They are recorded for our instruction and comfort. And it is both our wisdom and welfare to heed what the Lord would have us do. When the Lord brings you to a drying brook, beloved, don't get panicky.
Don't start to work and strive under your own wisdom and your own rational. looking at things because you're going to run into trouble. It's when we begin to look at the Lord and say, now, Lord, you brought me here. This is the place I know that you wanted me to be. And now it seems that you don't want me here anymore. What is your will? Don't move until he gives it to you. Then it tells us that the word of the Lord came unto him. And it shows how indeed worthless and heedless where any kind of special scheming that might have been on the part of this prophet.
Remember, God has not forgotten to be gracious, one verse tells us. My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Beloved, if a Samuel is a little bit late in getting to the celebration of that feast, then we should not in our hurry to see things accomplished take to ourselves the office of priest and kill the offering and offer it up on a sacrifice you recall this is what saw did and as a result of his impatience and not willing to wait for God's time God took the kingdom stripped the kingdom from him he'd only had the kingdom a short time but because of his impatience God had to take indeed the kingdom away from Him.
We cannot help God out. And as I, the longer I live and work among the people of God, one of the things that I find more often that takes place among His people is helping God out, not waiting for Him. In one sense, playing God in the lives of others. We do that, or we don't mean to. We don't mean to, but we tend to do it. And when this happens, often it causes great heartache with those that we are seeking to help. Sometimes we get to the place like Rachel and like others who think that the end justifies the means.
And this too is a very dangerous thing. We can have the right motives and the right goal in mind and one which we believe will please and glorify the Lord. But we might use a means that would be disobedient to the Word of God or disobedient to His mind and will for us or His Word for us. And it would be just as wrong even though we had had the wrong motive in mind. God looks at this. He does not want us to use the wrong means. You say, can you illustrate that? Well, just one Very short illustration. You recall how Abraham and Sarah could not have a child.
They did not have a child. God had promised that they were going to have a child. And in their desperation to have this child who would be an heir to Abraham, for he was now getting quite old, getting close to a hundred years old. Actually he was eighty-six at the time. Eighty-six years old. And it was the temptation which came from the very closest to Abraham, and that was Sarah. She said, I have a maid here. And you know what's legal according to our marriage contract. And this was legal. The Newsom contract of that time said that if the mistress of the house was unable to pair children, that she could properly and legally give one of her maids to her husband, and any children born of that contract would belong to the mistress of the house, and not to the woman that bore it.
So, you see, she did something that was legal, according to the law of her day, but she said to something that was immoral. Now, she had the right goal in mind. She wanted to see that God's promises would be carried out. Did she not? She wanted to see that Abraham would have an heir and that having an heir, this would mean that there would be a progeny. This would mean that the promises which would make him the father of many nations could continue. Obviously he had no male heir. This could never take place. So Sarah had the right motive in mind. She had the right goal in mind of an heir for Abraham to carry out the promises of God.
but she used her own means she played God if you please and she gave Hagar to Abraham from which came Ishmael have you ever in the last about year and a half ever driven up to your gasoline station and said oh Ishmael oh Ishmael I hope you have because the reason you're paying so much for gas today for your car is because Sarah played God. That's how serious it is.
Now, if you didn't get what I'm telling you, you know that Ishmael is the father of the Arab, and Isaac's the father of the Jew, and that's why you're paying more money for gas at your gas pumps right now. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. and to hearken than the fat of rams. So when God places us in some place, wherever it might be, we must abide in that place, even though our continuance in that place is attended with hardships and apparent hazard. I want you to know something, beloved.
There's no place in the Bible that says you have to eat. Do you know that? There's no place in the Bible that says you have to have a house, a place to live. There's no place in the Bible that says you even have to drink. But there are many places in the Bible that tells me I'm to obey the Lord. That's what I'm told to do. And if for some reason or another, unknown to us, He chooses the places in a place where there's neither food nor drink or whatever, and we know that He's placed us there, That's the place that we should stay. For the only thing that we're told to do is to obey Him, whatever the situation.
Now, below it, I've never found the Lord placed somebody in that kind of a situation where he had absolutely nothing to eat or nothing to drink. It just doesn't say in the Bible we have to do it. That's all. But we do have to be obedient to Him. And so we should stay where we are until God's command comes to move. if we move on our own then how can we count on the Lord's protection his presence or his provision all three will leave if we leave the place that God puts us now it goes on to say and the word of the Lord came unto him and I want to suggest from this one other thing how often has his word come unto you and to me either by his spirit sometimes directly through his word sometimes directly through servants of God as they presented the word and we've been disobedient to the word that the Lord has brought to us I think of the response of the people of Israel when Jeremiah was talking to them about their problem before God and this is what they said to him
as for the word that thou has spoken unto us in the name of the Lord We will not hearken unto thee. That was their response. And although maybe we would not say such things in so many words, The actions, the lack of obedience, when we've been told, when we've been instructed, and we haven't followed, is just the same as if we said in the face of God, I don't want to have anything to do with that. I'm just going to forget about it. Sometimes we have things come to us, and we know we should do them, and we just ignore them. That's just as wrong. We need to learn to be obedient.
Now, why is this truth? because the Word of God is just absolutely opposed to the perverse sinful wills that we have. Remember, beloved, we still have a will that is depraved. We still have a nature that's depraved. We still have a mind that's depraved. We also have another nature. And if we allow the old nature to have its way, then, beloved, we're going to be opposed to whatever God's will is. for our lives. We're much more subtle maybe than what the children of Israel were here in Jeremiah, but the result is exactly the same.
Now notice, verse nine, arise, get thee to Zeraphat, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Now you see Elijah, here's a new step in the life of Elijah. A door was closed, a book dried up and now the Lord tells him to get out to Zarephath and he's being disciplined by further trials and humbling. This was a very humbling thing. If you don't believe it, just listen for a little while longer. You know what the word Zarephath means? It means a place of refining. It comes from a root word that signifies a crucible.
It was a place. Zarephath was a place where metals are melted. And of course, the purpose of this in the life of Elijah was to separate the dross from the fine gold. And this was distasteful to Elijah. If I were being a bit facetious, I would say it looked like he went from the drying pan into the fire. That's what it looks like to me. for this was indeed a fiery trial for him. Now, why would this be distasteful to have to leave where he was in Cherith and go to a place like Zeraphath? I think I can give you five reasons.
Number one, Zeraphath was in Zidane. Zidane was outside of the land of promise. This is very interesting. All of the promises of God to Israel are inside the land. He doesn't promise to bless Israel at any time outside of the land. The blessings to Israel are always with respect to them being inside the property. Isaac got into trouble when he got outside the land in chapter twenty six. Abraham got into trouble when he got outside the land in chapter twelve and chapter twenty.
And you can go on place after place in the word of God. where the children of Israel got outside the land and therefore they got into trouble. So I'm sure that Elijah knowing this really wondered at the Lord's command for him to go to Zeraphat, which was in Sidon, which was outside of the land of Palestine, was part of the land of the Gentiles. And it's interesting we are told, and we see it from this and from what the Lord said in Luke chapter four and verse twenty five, that the widows of Israel were bypassed. Isn't that interesting? I often wondered why. The only answer I could come up with was that there's a lot of rumors and a lot of gossip that goes quickly among people, sometimes, often among these people in Israel.
And had Elijah been held up, you know, or taken to some widow in Israel, it would have been found out. And Ahab would have come rushing. to put him in jail. Secondly, it meant that he was going to be hidden not only in Zidon, but Zidon was Jezebel's home, the woman whose actions and ways and words he hated so very much. It was actually her home district, and it was the headquarters of Baal worship that he was standing alone, at least verbally, in all of Israel. Matthew Henry says, and I quote, why did he do this?
Why, to show Jezebel the impotency of her nature, God will find a hiding place for his servant in her own country, in her backyard. Isn't the wisdom of God something to be able to do a thing like that? Thirdly, I think he was really concerned about this because this land also was cursed by a drought. At least while he was there in Cherith, and before it dried up, there was a brook, and water is a great refreshing, is it not? Also, you have to realize that this place could not be reached except by a very weary journey of one hundred miles through the very heart of the land where everybody was hunting for his head.
Very dangerous. But I want to say something here, beloved. If God sends us to some place, if God's word comes to us, even though it's a point of danger, that servant of God and his family, whatever, cannot be touched by anyone when God still has a work for that person to do. You've heard, most all of you, I'm sure, of Dan Snadden's experience as a British soldier being captured by the Japanese and how they tried to bayonet this man because he had shared his rice with a Chinese soldier.
By all manner means that man should be lying in a grave in Burma tonight. But it was the goodness of God. He had to work for the man. And they couldn't get within five feet of them until they fell down. They ran into a wall. It was a miracle, let's face it, nothing short of it. And God's servants are protected as long as the job is yet to be done and that servant's yet to be used. We see this illustrated in a future day. The two witnesses who are going to stand for three and a half years calling people away from the Antichrist and back to God will not allow, they will not be touched for the three and a half years.
until their work is done. And when their work is done, then they're going to be slain, and they're going to lie for three and a half days in the streets, not even be buried, and then eventually taken up in a miraculous way to heaven. You know the story, don't you? God protects his servants. But you know to... to finite reasoning this is difficult to travel a hundred miles over a place where i know there are posses out all over the world all over the area trying to find me to put air between my head and my body that's a scary thing it was also kind of a an abhorrence to him because after all of this when he got there he was only to be sustained by a poor widow belonging to a heathen people that sure is awfully hard to one's pride not a rich one not one that had lots of money just a poor old widow my goodness surely this was a melting furnace for cleansing out any alloy of pride or of self-reliance or of independence which might be left in this man Elijah don't you
see all of this was necessary to prepare this man for the tremendous confrontation he would have as one with God against the whole of the people of Israel and the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and of the groves of King Ahab and of Queen Jezebel and beloved we don't like the crucible I don't know of a servant of God that would say he likes the crucible we don't and so beloved Let me say this, think it not strange when God's dealings with you have been the very opposite of what you expected. He's trying to get the dross that's there to get it out.
And when we've asked him to make us more like his son, he puts us into more of the crucible because he wants the dross to come to the top. And as you've heard said, maybe it's been said many times, it might be a truism. he wants to skim the top of the molten metal until he can see his face in that gold without a without one thing one thing tomorrow in the way remember that when the Lord puts you through a difficult time in the days to come so that implicit trust and unreserved submission are what God requires from us.
And this is what he's asking for this man, Elijah. Now let's go on. Behold, he says, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee there. And man's extremity, beloved, here is God's opportunity. When cherished rise up, Zeraphat is going to be opened up. as someone has said do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will bring with it tomorrow's god worry is the interest that we collect on the trouble of tomorrow that often never comes i've always been helped by what by a little model that was in my mother's bedroom for as long as I can remember from a very young child and I used to see it and not quite understand at first what it meant but it's been a great help as I've sought to be a servant of the Lord it just says this if you trust you do not worry if you worry Yeah, I knew you knew it.
As simple as that, if you trust, you do not worry. If you worry, you did not trust. And so God's plan demanded from Elijah absolute unquestioned obedience. One commentator put it this way, those who walk with God must not only trust him implicitly, but be prepared to be entirely regulated by his word. Not only must our faith be trained by a great variety of providences, but our obedience must be trained by the divine commandments. That puts it very succinctly, does it not?
And that's what he desires from our hearts. Behold, as we said, to obey is better in sacrifice. But Elijah doesn't know of any widow in Zarephath. He's never been there. Elijah was the man who stayed within the confines of the land of Israel. He hadn't gone to Zarephath. How was he going to be sustained? And do you know the widow didn't know either who she was? That's interesting. She didn't know either who she was going to be. But God had appointed it in his counsel and he would affect it by his providences. You know, sometimes we ought to have a good message on the providences of God as he brings them into our lives. They are marvelous.
we need to be more aware of his providences and of his hand upon us than we are beloved mr william carrie said god's commands are god's enablings but how humbling it is to pride is it not to be made dependent on one of the poorest of god's people well you know that's true to human reasoning but really she wasn't one of the poorest of god's people when Elijah got there. That's the whole secret. And you know that as we get into the story. Now, when you say, well, it was kind of difficult for Elijah to have to be sustained by a woman, you know, that's pretty hard on male ego, is it not?
But, beloved, when our Lord was here, it says in Luke chapter eight in verse two that certain women ministered unto the Lord. Certain women ministered. They gave of their substance in order that the Lord and His disciples could continue their journey from place to place, preaching the kingdom of God. So I guess if it wasn't too much for the Lord, it shouldn't be too much for us. Now, we've looked at a closed door. We've looked at a command that was directed. Now let's look at a circumstance that develops. Verse ten.
He arose and began to complain about what went on and decided that, well, maybe he might better do it. No, he doesn't say that. He arose and he went to Zeraphat. And beloved, here's the proof of a true servant of God. It was going from bad to worse. because not at least when he was in chariot he had privacy he didn't have the problem of another person who might be very hard to live with and a child to boot you know it means he had to live a couple of years with a woman and a child and that's not easy sometimes you see it was in some ways to to human reasoning kind of a bad thing but as far as this man was concerned he was obedient And this is the proof that he was a true servant of God.
The path of a true servant is the path of obedience. And service and obedience, may I say, are inseparably linked together, just as the workman and his work. And I think that if we knew more about obedience, we that are servants of God. And who does that include, by the way? Hmm? Oh, all of us. It's so easy to sort of place those who minister the Word of God on some kind of a little pedestal, you know, they're, well, they're in the Lord's service, you know. I mean, they're this, they're that. They should be walking a life of faith.
After all, they're the servants of God. Oh, no. Marion, when she was here, said that someone was talking to her about this and she said don't you know don't you read the word of God and she said what do you mean it says the just shall live by faith aren't you part of the just then should you not live by faith cannot God supply your means your problems your financial problems or whatever your physical psychological or whatever can I trust him for that My, she was telling us it was a thrilling story at dinner the other day, how that she, when they had moved down there and when she had opened up her things, she knew she only had four settings of silverware and she was having a household of ten, a house full of ten people coming.
And she didn't know what she was going to do. These were poor people. She had said, come on, we'll take care of you. And she only had four sets of silverware. You know, the next morning there was a package that was left at her door by someone. And the package contained a number of things, but at the top of the package there was a setting for six. Six plus four is ten. Yeah. That's the way God does. She was willing to do it. She was willing to take it on by faith. And God blessed her by even supplying silverware. And my wife said, I never heard of anybody. getting silverware sent at just the right time well praise the Lord he can do just that if we just learned that path of faith and obedience the crying need today is our service to Christ we have sometimes got this thing backwards you hear many people say we're saved to serve we're saved to serve as if we're to be out serving others now there's nothing wrong with serving others but what comes first is serving him Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, that service to him.
And him only shalt thou serve, that service for him. In First Peter chapter two, he talks first of all about the holy priesthood, that service to Christ. And then in verse nine, after verse five, he talks about the royal priesthood, that service for Christ. And the cry in need today is service to Christ. submitting to his yoke, surrendering to his will, subjection to his commandments, and spending our time in private worship to our God. You know, this is a subject I think that we have forgotten to get on with with respect to ministering to God's people, that about worship.
It's a very, it's something that seems to be waning among us these days. I don't know why, maybe because we don't understand it. But you see, worship has to do with my, to being taken up with the person of Christ. Not so much as it relates to me, not what he has done for me. Now I know that's all part of it, but it should be, what do I see in Christ? Someone suggested if you want to know how much you really feel and know and believe about the Lord. I'd like to have you stand up and for as long as you want to speak tell me what you know about Jesus Christ you know some of us wouldn't have very long to stand we're very self-oriented from what God's blessings what he showers upon us but you see that's self-oriented with respect to our blessings and we're not taken up with the blesser and if we're kind of backward and knowing what Christ is all about.
Let's get into the Word of God and see Christ. If you could stand up for here in ten minutes and tell me what Christ is to you. He of himself. This really is the essence of worship. Someone has said worship is God is thinking God's thoughts after him concerning his son Jesus Christ. I think that's very good with respect to content. The content of worship is suggested to us in Matthew chapter two, that when they came into the house, they found Mary and his mother and the babe, and they fell down and worshipped him.
And then they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, myrrh, the gold which speaks of his glory and of his deity, of his true essence, and the frankincense which speaks of that tremendous life that was lived for God. Frankincense doesn't give its essence until it comes in contact with fire, they tell me. And our Lord came in contact with fire all through his life. And the myrrh, that bittersweet fragrance that we shared with you and the Lord's table, that bittersweet fragrance which tells us about the fragrance which comes from the cross and the burial, the resurrection.
How are your gifts coming along to Christ? Do you go back to him in your everyday living and your prayers and your prayer time and your devotional time and you offer him worship from your heart? Such a needed thing today. And you see one of the things that we noticed that he went, it says he arose and went to Zeraphath. We learned that I must tread the path myself before I can tell others to do the same thing. If I can't tread the path of faith, if I haven't learned something about the life of faith and the walk of faith, how can I share this with you? Moses is going to be taken to the back side of the desert for forty years so he can learn it before he can lead two and a half million people through that desert.
And then to learn that the disturbances and the displacements of the Lord are necessary for our spiritual lives to prosper. So when the Lord disturbs you, when He displaces you, don't get upset with Him. He has something wonderful for you. He has something wonderful for you. You see, as I said last night, it's like taking wine that has just been made and that has its drinks. and it's poured into a vessel and allowed to settle and then poured to another vessel and allowed to settle and poured to another vessel and allowed to settle until we come out with a beautiful red claret wine just as pure as can be and for this man Elijah It started out these vessels would be his home.
Jezreel, Cherith, Zarephath poured from one to another, one to another. When the Lord does this to you, he must be wanting to see something pure and beautiful and fragrant that he can enjoy. That's the secret of it. All right, what did he do? He made absolutely no delay, but he set off on this long, unpleasant journey right away. Then it goes on to say, behold, when he came to the gate of the city in verse ten, behold the widow woman was there gathering his sticks. Now the Lord, after he commands Elijah to do this, then he arranges all the circumstances at both ends of the line.
Now this is something we ought to learn. When God tells you to do something, he's already working at the other end of the line to bring it about. That's blessed. Have you ever noticed this in your life? If Jacob sends one of his sons or numbers of his sons down to get food in Egypt during famine, well, the Lord already has Joseph down there collecting all the grains so that Jacob and his family will not starve. If Israel spies are sent into Jericho, well, there's Rahab, a harlot, but a converted harlot. to take care of them, to see that their way is cared for there, and then that they're gotten back without any problems whatsoever.
If Mordecai begs the Lord for deliverance, King Ahasuerus has a bit of indigestion, and he can't sleep, and he calls for the public records, and he finds out that somebody had saved his life and that person had never been rewarded. Beloved, it's wonderful to see the providences of God. If the Ethiopian eunuch is concerned about his relationship to God, then there's a Philip who's told to leave a revival where thousands, where hundreds at least are being saved, maybe thousands, in order that he might reach just one man whom God had been speaking to. And if Cornelius is praying for the opening of the gospel to his heart, then Peter's charged by a vision that has to come down to him three times before it gets through his thick skull.
Sounds like me. Three times, and then he can go and share the gospel with Trinitas and he comes to know the Lord. Beloved, these are the providences of God. He works at one end and he tells you to do something. He's already working the answer at the other end so that the two come together. Now notice, let's go on. Verses ten and eleven. And he said unto her, he called her, and he said, Touch me, I pray, of you a little water in a vessel. that I may drink. And then he said, Bring me a morsel of bread. Now notice how courteous this man is. I call this a courteous desire. Elijah is going to test the woman to know she's God's provision.
Just as Abraham, when he was going to find a wife for his master's son, stood by the well and she said, Behold, I stand here by the well. Now show me who the young woman is that I'm supposed to tell about my master. I've gotten a real blessing out of that twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis. You know why? Because the message of that servant, and you count them some around twenty times, is my master, my master, my master, my master. We hear so much about the Holy Spirit today and I I've come to appreciate the Holy Spirit even more, having spent one whole year teaching a class on him and his personality and his work.
But something I've learned as I've studied about the Holy Spirit, he came to testify of Christ. He came to glorify Christ. He hasn't come to talk of himself. And the picture is so beautifully there in chapter twenty-four. My master, my master, my master, my master, my master, so many times. wonderful all right but notice how courteous and graceful and gracious and respectful this man is when he states his request and she passed the first test for she not only went to get him water but she didn't ask him a dollar for it there was a good reason she could have asked him a dollar for it it was very scarce why didn't she say to him sir you know how how water is today we how about contributing something so that I can pay for some more water no she was God's woman and she said okay she went and she did exactly what she was told to do and then he further tests her by saying bring me I pray thee rather he said bring me I pray thee a morsel of bread in thy hand and this I suppose was
the most difficult test of all But in reality, it was not so much Elijah who was testing her. It was God who was meeting her in her hour of her deepest need, and she didn't know it. There's one verse that my mother pointed out to me one time. I hadn't really seen it before, but it's been a blessing to me many times since. She had a way of doing that, some of you know, for she did it for you too. It's a verse in Isaiah chapter thirty and verse eighteen. Therefore will the Lord wait. We don't like that. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you.
And therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. What a wonderful verse that is. and we don't like the idea of waiting we don't like the idea that maybe it looks like it's gonna fall apart but the Lord instead of doing it right now he waits and he waits in order that he might be even the more gracious unto us Arthur pink comments on this verse and he says so often he allows things to get worse before there's any improvement he waits to be gracious why to bring us to the end of ourselves and of our resources till all seems lost and we are in despair that we may more clearly discern his delivering hand then you know it isn't yourself it isn't something that you did it isn't your own ability or your good mind or your powers of discernment it's because God's hand came and did it all.
Now notice a confession of despair here in verse twelve. She says, And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake. And she was telling the truth. She didn't have a cake ready. But I do have a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die. What a despairing confession. that we may eat it and die. Hers was the language of carnal reason, was it not. Her eyes were not upon God but on a barrel and a cruise of oiling, and it was now failing her.
Her confidence was only in the barrel, in the cruise. Her confidence was not in God, and therefore the only hope she had was death. It's a real picture of the world today. And yet you know There's a little meal in a barrel right here. And the oil speaks of the Holy Spirit. Everyone has the availability of the barrel of meal in the oil, don't they? And they think, well, what good is that? That's not going to help me in my problems now. I'm about to die. How can that be of any help to me? unbelief in death beloved are inseparably joined together are they not that's why if we do not believe in him we have already been condemned says the word of God but on the other hand beloved little is much when God is in it remember the disciples when they were asked about feeding the five thousand he says well we have five loaves and two fishes but what are they among so many And faith, you see, is not occupied with difficulties.
It's occupied with the person who can overcome the difficulties. Faith, mighty faith that promises and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities, and cries, it shall be done. We should learn that, should we not. Now notice there was a compelling demand in verse thirteen. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first. And that's the key word in that verse. Make me a cake first. You say he was awfully selfish. Why in the world should he not have shared and said, You take it and then give me what's left?
Was it selfishness that brought this on? No, it was not selfishness. It was a test of whether this woman was the woman that the Lord was really speaking to. Don't you know? If she had said, no, sir, I'm making it for myself, it would have been obvious to Elijah that this was not the widow, the widow that God had chosen to take care of him. Because he knew, he believed God. He said, I have commanded a widow woman to feed thee there. And so therefore he was taking God of his word. It was not a matter of selfishness here. It was testing to see if God was really telling him, this is the woman.
It's interesting how she answers him. As the Lord thy God liveth, that was her answer. And that was a pretty good one, wasn't it? But Elijah said, no. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel. That was the one who was being cast down and dishonored. It was Baal that was being honored. It was Baal that was said was alive. It was the Lord God, Jehovah. They said he was dead. He was no longer around. Nothing to listen to that nonsense. But says Elijah, for thus says the Lord God of Israel. And then this compelling desire carried with it a glorious promise She must share what little she had to be the recipient of the promise.
She had to obey first. And, beloved, there are many promises in God's word which we have not availed ourselves of because they carry with it the demand of obedience on our part. God gives us a lot of things just because we belong to him. You have received thirty-four things the moment you trusted Christ. Did you know that? Thirty-four separate things. But there are many other promises. There are many other promises to be appropriated for yourself and for the people around about you. But they demand obedience. If a man loves me, he'll keep my commandment.
And so we need to learn the lesson of obedience and then appropriating what God has for us. And of course, in closing, notice the complete forgiveness. He and her house did eat many days. And this was all the result of submitting to all of God's perfect will. She was obedient. Therefore, the barrel of meal did not waste. And neither did the crews of oil fail. The Lord did not fill up the barrel with meal. And he did not fill up the crews with oil. It was always down at the bottom of the barrel. There was always to reason the possibility that the next time I go back, it's going to be empty.
Why did the Lord do that? Didn't he keep her on a sort of a teeter-totter, you might say? Well, that's possible. but I think the Lord indeed allowed it to work that way so that every time she went to the barrel of meal she knew that it was the Lord God of Israel that was supplying it every time they tell the story about the man who was very wealthy and he used to every first day of the year his son would come and he would give him his stipend his portion enough to take care of him for a whole year of doing whatever he wanted this was great for the young man he would come and get his money and off he would go after New Year's Day and come back the next New Year's Day and thought the young man and thought the father you know I never get to see that fellow but the first day of the year I wonder what I can do haha he says I know so the next first New Year's Day he gave the boy enough for one day He said, now come back tomorrow and I'll give you enough for the next day and come
back the next day and I'll give you enough for the next day. That's God's way with us. We like to have enough grace to take us through the family Bible hour on Sunday till the family Bible hour next Sunday, don't we? It doesn't work that way. He gives us enough grace, enough mercy, enough peace, enough faith for today, and we've got to come back tomorrow for what we need tomorrow. And he does this, beloved, because he wants us to be completely dependent upon himself. The very essence of sin, beloved, is independence of God. How wonderful to give us the way he does in order to keep us depending on himself.
That's what Elijah had to do. That's what the woman had to do. What a blessing it was to go down there and see a miracle every day. A barrel of wheel wasted not. Neither did the cruise of oil fail. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your precious word once again, speaks to our hearts, makes us aware so often of how easily we turn independent of thee. How much our Father we are not obedient. How much indeed our Father we complain about the things that you are doing in passing us from grade to grade, from vessel to vessel, in order that we might be the kind of claret wine that is pure and fragrant and without anything to mar.
Something for your very lips something for your whole desire. For you desire fruit from us. Lord, help us to be submissive to thyself. Help us to be obedient. Help us to walk the steps of faith. And then help us to be appreciative of the barrel of meal that wastes not. And the cruise of oil which never fails. We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.