Elijah's obedience and faith are highlighted through his encounter with the widow of Zarephath, demonstrating God's provision during times of trial and purification. The sermon traces Elijah's journey from the drying brook Cherith to Zarephath, a place of affliction, emphasizing that God often isolates individuals for deeper reliance and transformation. The core lesson is that obedience, especially when God's plans are unclear or difficult, leads to unexpected provision and spiritual growth, mirroring Christ's own humility and obedience. Ultimately, the story of Elijah and the widow serves as a powerful example of God honoring faith and obedience, ensuring that needs are met when His commands are prioritized.
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I want to tell you, my heart is refreshed by the fellowship of God's people in this place. Before we look to the Word, let us look to the Lord. Father, unless your Holy Spirit gives light on the sacred page, we shall not benefit from this time together. We ask that He, the Spirit of truth, will guide us into all truth. Exalt your Son, draw our hearts to him, and our lives to the obedience of thy word.
We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his glory. Amen. I'm reading this morning from the seventeenth chapter of First Kings, beginning at verse seven. First Kings chapter seventeen beginning at verse seven. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, Arise, go to Zarephath. which belongs to Zidon and dwell there.
See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks, and he called her and said, Please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. So she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour and a bin and a little oil in a jar. And see, 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 make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me. And afterward, make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah."
What an exciting character this man Elijah is. Edersheim said, Elijah was the personification of the Old Testament in its grandeur and judgment. First he was a man of prayer. In secret he got power from God. There in the mountains of Gilead, and then when he had delivered the message to Ahab in Samaria, God said, go hide yourself by the brook chariot.
Elijah spent twelve months alone with God by the brook chariot. And there Elijah was to learn that God unfolds his will as we obey. That often he gets us alone in order to teach us to lean on him. And that sometimes we must sit by drying brooks. Elijah had a long wait. It was a test of his faith. I think also of his patience. And during that time, so far as the biblical record is concerned, there's not a word that escapes his lips.
Well, I'm sure that there must have been times of prayer. But so far is any word of complaint, any word of argument with God, any commiserating with himself. There's no word. Not a word does Elijah say during those months. F. Meemar has written this. Let me share it with you. Open not your mouth. Silence. A word will grieve, disturb the heavenly dove.
Hush. Not a word. Are you misunderstood? Never mind. Will it hurt your influence and weaken your power for good? Leave it to him. You are his care and charge. Are you wronged and your good name tarnished? All right. Be it yours to be meek and lowly, simple and gentle, not a word. Let him keep you in perfect peace. Stay your mind on him. Trust in him. Hush. Be quiet before the world and rest.
in him. This is the way to honor and to know him. Not a word, not the last word. Listen to obey. Words make trouble. Be still. This is the voice of the Spirit. Restlessness, fret and worry make the place of his abiding unpleasant. Let him control, and the sound of gentle stillness will permeate your very being, spreading the sweet aroma of peace and delight upon all around. By hearing him, in the hush of his presence and the joy of his delight, you will be glad that you uttered not a word.
And during those months beside the brook Cherith, there's no word recorded from Elijah during that time. There was no word that came out of the Midian desert for those forty years that Moses was there, although Moses had forsaken Pharaoh's household. No word. There's some imagery in the forty-eighth chapter of Jeremiah. It's some imagery as applied to Moab. I'm sure easily recognized by those people upon those terraced hills that were filled with vineyards.
And in Jeremiah, verse eleven, the prophet writes, Moab has been at ease from his youth. He has settled on his dregs and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent has not changed. Do you get the drift of that? As I said, it's the imagery of the collecting, the crushing of the grape and the collecting of the fruit of the grape, the juice of the grape.
And then there starts this process of emptying from vessel to vessel, of shifting, of changing, of emptying, of disturbing. Why? In order to get rid of the scum and the sediment, in order to bring that grape juice to the ultimate in fluidity. And with that emptying from vessel to vessel, the obnoxious smell goes away. It was not so with Moab.
He had settled upon his drakes. You say, what does that have to do with Elijah here and this picture before us? Just this, dear friends. at the height of spiritual attainment in our lives seldom comes without this process of emptying, of this disturbing, of this changing from vessel to vessel. For Elijah, first it was in the mountains of Gilead, and then across the Jordan to Samaria, and then back across the Jordan to the brook Cherith. And now, finally, to Zarephath.
And there was this process, the disturbings, the displacements, the emptying. I'm sure that in all of our lives, there have been such. And sometimes we may question why God orders this move. why he permits this circumstance, why there should be this displacing or emptying in our lives. And all the time it's a purifying process.
And if you are like I am, there comes a time when you begin to reason. and with the reason there comes fidgeting and impatience. How much better to exercise faith in what God is doing with us and say, Lord, I don't understand it. I don't particularly relish it. But whatever you're doing, in this emptying, in this displacing.
I know that you are doing it in order to conform me to the image of Christ. How we need to exercise faith in what God is doing. I believe that Elijah exercised that faith. Reason. Unstrung the heart to see wherein the music dwells. Faith pours a hallelujah song and heavenly rapture swells. While reason strives to count the drops that lave our narrow strand, faith launches o'er the mighty deep to seek a better land.
By faith, Elijah waged besides the drying brook at Cherith. Notice when the call came to Elijah to go from Cherith. It was when God had closed the door at Cherith. The brook dried up. Not till then. Not till God had closed the door at Cherith. Did the word come to Elijah for him to go to Zarephath? I'm sure you must be aware of it, beloved friends. that this is a day of great unrest. I have in my desk drawer file at home a file folder that thick.
And in that file folder are letters from men all across this country. men who have written me to see if I could assist them in finding a place to serve. There is restlessness. And the pastor always looks greener on the other side of the fence. Some of those letters say, Brother Van Gorter, I need a place where I can contend for the faith.
I hope you understand I say it graciously this morning. Some of those, dear brethren, are wanting a place to contend for the faith because they have been contentious where they have been. And there's great restlessness. I remember years ago, while I was still in the pastored in Atlanta, one Sunday we had the joy of having with us Dr. Harry Ironside. He had just announced his resignation at Moody Church. He had not left there yet. He had just announced his resignation just a couple of weeks before.
And we were back in my study and I said, Dr. Arnside, do the people at Moody have in mind someone as your successor there? And in his gracious loving way, he said, No, my brother, but there are twelve men who have informed us that they are available. But it is. It's a day of restlessness. Remember, God had called Elijah from Gilead to Samaria. And God had instructed Elijah to to go from Samaria to the brook Cherith.
And now God was calling Elijah to leave the brook Cherith and go to Zeraphath. Notice the call itself in verse nine. First clause. Arise, go to Zeraphath. Simple enough, isn't it? Zeraphath means smelting house. or furnace. Well, that's not a very fine assignment, is it? In other words, God said, I'm going to take you from this brook that's dried up. I'm going to take you over a hundred miles of scorched, parched earth.
And I'm going to take you to a beautiful, lovely oasis. No, he said, I'm going to take you to a place of affliction. From a drying brook over parched ground to Zarephath, the furnace of affliction. And not a word escapes the lips of the prophet. You'll notice the implicit obedience here. He arose and went. Verse ten. Oh, dear Christians, God's plans always demand this.
Implicit obedience. There are Christians today whose joy has faded because they're living in disobedience to God's will. Perhaps at a time past, there came a clear, distinct command from the Lord to do something. And they disobeyed it. And the light is gone. And they wonder why they cannot ascertain the will of God for their lives. Elijah arose and went just like that.
God said, go to Zarephath. Elijah arose and went. This is what marked the life of our blessed Lord. He said, I come to do thy will. In the volume of the book it is written of me. And he did always those things which pleased the Father. And near the end of his earthly pilgrimage he could say, looking up to the Father, I have finished the work. which thou gavest me to do. Obedience marked his life.
Remember, Elijah was a man of like passions as we are. He had a nature like ours. May it be so in our lives that when the word of the Lord comes to us, we will be quick to obey. There were some conditions laid down. When God said to Elijah, go to Cherith, he said, I've commanded the ravens to feed you there. And on the surface, that doesn't seem to mean much, except that you know that the raven was an unclean bird. In the eleventh chapter of Leviticus, where there are listed the unclean animals and the unclean birds, The raven was one of these.
So when he went to Cherith, here was this humiliating thing for a Jew that an unclean bird should feed him. And now when he goes to Zarephath, the Lord says, go over to Zarephath. I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee. A widow. Yes, and a Gentile at that. Now you know where Zarephath was located. It was up between Tar and Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean. First of all, it was a considerable journey.
It was not an easy journey at all for Elijah to make his way to that coastal city. And then when he got there in that heathen country, the country of the Phoenicians. When he got there to that heathen country, he was going to be sustained by a Gentile widow. Our Lord was being entertained in a home. And into that home came a Sira Phoenician woman, a Gentile. And she desired that the Lord Jesus would do something for her daughter. And the Lord Jesus said to her, it is not fit, it is not proper to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs.
Now, he was not speaking disrespectfully of that Sarah Phoenician woman, but this was the barrier between Jew and Gentile. Gentiles were the uncircumcised. Gentiles were considered by Israel as dogs. And do you remember that sweet reply of faith when that Sirephanician woman said, I understand, Lord. But even the dogs get a few crumbs from the master's table. And he honored her faith and granted her request.
And here the word of the Lord comes to Elijah, to go to Zarephath, to the smelting house, there to be provided for, to be sustained by a widow, a Gentile widow. Umbling, isn't it? But the way up is down. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God thought it not something to be grasped, to be equal with God? He humbled himself, made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
those tremendous descending steps that he took. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. And as it was in the life of our blessed Savior, so in the lives of his followers that is down and then up. What were the results? Well, Elijah tramped the sands and the park's ground, and he arrived at the outskirts of the city. And whom does he meet?
The widow. This story reads, if we did not know it was the inspired word of God, reads almost like fiction does in romance. Here, when he arrives at Theravad, The first one that he meets is this widow who's out gathering a little wood, a few sticks in order to make a fire to provide, to prepare the last meal before she and her son die of starvation. And the prophet says, Bring me a little water and a cup.
And she acquiesces to that request and she turns to go to get the water. And as she's going, he adds to the request. And he says, oh, bake me a little cake and bring it to me. And you know her reply. She said, we don't have any bread. In fact, all that we have is just a handful of flour and a little bit of oil. Now, ladies, there's not much chance of preparing a sizable meal with that, is her.
And she says to him this, and in verse thirteen, hear this prophet. in a Gentile land confronting a Gentile widow makes a further request not only that she bake him a small cake with what is left but that she bring that cake to him first and then she can consider what she will do for herself and for her son But there was never a cake like that.
She baked that cake. And here you see, not only the obedience of the prophet in following the command of God to go to Zarephath, but the obedience of the widow in following the command of the prophet. And there is indication here in the context that this widow may have been a believer in Jehovah. At least she recognized that Elijah was a servant of the true and living God.
So she went away and did according to the words of Elijah, and she and he and her household Eight for many days. She had had a divine recipe, dear friends. You know what it was? It was a heaping cup of obedience. You see it in the life of the prophet. You learn it in the life of the widow of Zarephath. What was it? Do what the Lord says and do it first. No, I need not tell you this morning, for you have come from fellowships of believers all over this continent.
You have seen in operation in your own life and in the life of the assemblies, this principle, that when God's people do what the Lord commands and do it first, then the other needs are met. It works that way. I wish I were of a mind and had the liberty to recount to you this morning as to how God took an assembly of believers in East Point, Georgia, and gave to them a willingness to obey his command to get the gospel to the ends of the earth and thrust out from that company of believers, seventeen of its own young people to the ends of the earth.
And with that, through very difficult times, met every need of that local assembly. I am firmly convinced, beloved, that if we do what the Lord commands in his word and do it first, then God's going to take care of the needs. He's going to supply what is needed. He's going to be faithful to those who obey him. And this is the principle that for the first of everything belongs to God.
And sometimes we've reversed the order and the cake has become heavy and soggy. Well, I ask this question as we close this morning. Did it pay to heed the request of the prophet? Verse sixteen tells the story. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry. according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. Days lengthened into weeks, and yet the supply did not fail. Not only was this widow and her son and the prophet supported, but as a result of this incident, the name of this widow is written high in God's Hall of Fame.
Centuries later, Our Lord used this incident, the example of this widow, as he spoke in words of condemnation concerning Nazareth, for he was in Nazareth and he said, Prophets not received in his own country. Verse twenty-five of Luke four, but I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah. when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land. Many widows in Israel.
But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zeraphat, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And our Lord chose, some seven centuries later, to reach back into Old Testament history and take this incident and say, some faith was exercised. And I chose at that time not to minister to the widows in Israel, but to send Elijah to a widow in Zeraphat, and her need was supplied. God honors faith.
And God honors obedience. I recall those words of Mary, of Bethany. Mary, his mother, rather. John, too. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. I heard his call, come follow. That was all. that was all. Who would not follow if they heard his call? My gold grew dim.