Matt Parry - Class 2: A Lesson for Elijah

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   All right, everybody, we're going to get started with our second class in a couple moments. Before we begin, our brother Matt has asked us to read from 1 Kings chapter 17, and I've asked our brother Isaiah to read that for us, 1 Kings 17. All right, reading with you 1 Kings chapter 17.

2. 0:46

   And the word of Yahweh came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of Yahweh, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.

3. 1:17

   And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of Yahweh came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there, gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee.

4. 1:46

   A 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 thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As Yahweh thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but 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 and die.

5. 2:13

   And 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 Yahweh God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sendeth rain upon the earth.

6. 2:36

   And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and her and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick.

7. 2:58

   And the sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in it. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son.

8. 3:18

   And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto Yahweh and said, O Yahweh my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I have sojourned by slaying her son? And he fetched himself and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto Yahweh and said, O Yahweh my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.

9. 3:47

   And Yahweh heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him into his mother. And Elijah said, See thy son live. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of Yahweh in thy mouth is truth.

10. 4:17

    And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this time we'll call up our brother Matt who's speaking to us on the topic of Elijah and his second class is titled A Lesson for Elijah. Brother Matt.

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    Okay. So we can now start to look into the story here as we go. We saw hopefully last class a graphic picture of how bad the nation was spiritually, both the kings and the people. Those at this time Ahab had won the prize. He had been crowned the worst that were all before him.

12. 5:08

    Okay. He allowed Jezebel to use him and to persecute that. And we contrasted that to Elijah, didn't we? We saw Elijah was a man of total conviction and dedication. A man that chose to live in isolation in the wilderness, away from people. He was black and white, almost to a fault, as we'll see in a minute.

13. 5:30

    He was unbendable, unmovable. We saw in James as well. We saw in James as well that off his own initiative, his own idea, he prayed because he wanted the rain to stop. He prayed as a way to bring the people back to God, to bring drought, to shake them out of this empathy and to bring them back to God.

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    And amazingly, we saw that God agreed with this plan, not because it was necessarily the best plan, but because he saw the passion and he wanted to work in Elijah's life and use this situation to help to mould and to shape and to make Elijah a better man for his future work. And we saw, of course, that God's doing the same thing to us and we can keep putting ourselves into this story as we go along.

15. 6:14

    And so now we come to the start of this. As we said, Elijah bursts onto the scene. He delivers this uncompromising message. There's not a message of repent. There's not even a chance for Ahab to sort of react positively to this. It's there's going to be no rain and he bursts out. And so Ahab sort of almost, I guess, as his only response, wants to seek Elijah, wants to find him again, find out more, probably kill him as well.

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    And so Elijah has to flee. And we see this verse 2 of chapter 17. And the word of Yahweh came to him saying. So this is what we talked about last class, wasn't it? It's not that God didn't appear. He just didn't appear in verse 1. But here, verse 2, God's now taking control and directing Elijah's life.

17. 7:00

    And he says to him, get thee hence and turn the eastward and hide thyself by the book Cherith that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shall drink of the brook that I have come and I have commanded ravens to feed thee. So Elijah is this powerful, this motivated prophet. And what does God do with him?

18. 7:19

    Go and spend the next year living by yourself, being sustained by me. And so he makes his way. Get this to work. There it is. There it is. Makes his way here to the brook in the middle of nowhere. And what would have been going through his mind while he's sitting there? I suppose at the start it would have been, okay, well, I assume some retaliation.

19. 7:44

    I assume this was sort of what would happen. I'd need to hide. But as month after month after month goes by, surely Elijah would have started wondering, what am I doing here? What's the point? This is a total waste. And to some degree, it was a waste. Elijah could have been out preaching.

20. 8:03

    He could have been talking to the people. He could have been trying to spread God's word. Working in the school of the prophets, doing all of these things. But because he had chosen the method of drought as his way to preach, this is one of the consequences. He was now being hunted. He needed to stay away from people.

21. 8:20

    You see, I think God is starting now to educate Elijah on the ramifications of what he prayed for. And here he sets him down because he needs to teach him some lessons before he can move on with his preaching. And I think the two main lessons that God is going to teach Elijah here over this next year by this brook.

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    One, it's what I call the lesson of the brook. And then as well, the lesson of the ravens. You see, verse 7 here, let's read this again. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up. Why did the brook dry up? Because there had been no rain in the land.

23. 8:55

    So imagine how helpless Elijah would have felt. Slowly, day by day, the brook starts to dry up. His only source of water would have just been a nice flowing brook and then a little bit. And each morning, it gets a little bit muddier. A little less water. Elijah's wondering what's going to happen.

24. 9:12

    Until finally, he wakes up there that morning and there's no water left. And who does Elijah have to bring? Well, the verse is very clear, isn't it? Why there was no water. There was no water because there was no rain in the land. Why was there no rain? Because that's what Elijah had prayed for.

25. 9:28

    He had asked the rain to stop. He was the very reason there was no rain. Why he now had no water to survive on. I think Elijah, so God is showing Elijah the implications of what he's prayed for. This is how other people in the land were feeling as well. Their water was drying up.

26. 9:46

    They were going through this exact same thing. And then God's going to take Elijah to a widow who's about to cook her last meal. And then her and her son are going to die because of Elijah. These are real people, Elijah, suffering because of what you prayed for. And it would have been very humbling for him to experience that.

27. 10:05

    And suddenly what seems so black and white, living up in the wilderness of Gilead by himself. The people had sinned. The Old Testament says they need to be whipped back into shape. Now, we're going to pray for a drought and turn them all around. Suddenly it's not so black and white. And the real life implications are being shown to him.

28. 10:23

    And he's hitting him on a very personal level as he finds himself completely without water. We'll show as we continue that God is going to continue to remind him this with the widow's house. What about the lesson of the ravens? Well, day and night he would have witnessed the miracle of the ravens bringing him food.

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    And at first, no doubt, being a good, devout Jew, that would have disgusted him, ravens being unclean. But after a while, he would have seen that they served a purpose, that they were there because God had sent them and they were useful and they were beneficial. And the ravens have a very clear type in the Bible that you're probably aware of.

30. 11:02

    Here, Job. Who provideth the raven for food? When his young ones cry out, God, cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. Psalms. He giveth the beast his food to the young ravens when they cry. Luke, consider the ravens, Jesus says, for they neither sow nor reap, neither have any storehouse nor barn, but God feedeth them.

31. 11:23

    How much more are you better than the fowls? The type is very clear in the Bible. God looks after and provides and cares for the raven. They are helpless, but God doesn't ignore them. Instead, he makes a point of providing for them. So we have this unclean thing that is actually beneficial and it's important to God.

32. 11:44

    And God specifically goes out of his way to care and to look for them, even if they seem insignificant. And the next verse here in Kings locks these ideas together. Because we're in verse 9 of chapter 17. Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee.

33. 12:06

    And you probably know this as well. These phrases are exactly the same phrases. I've commanded the ravens to feed thee. I've commanded a widow woman to sustain. Or it's the same word, to feed thee. The only difference is the widow and the raven are different. And the widows as well had a very specific type and a very specific point in the Bible.

34. 12:30

    Let's go to this next one. It's the same thing. How they mentioned he executeth judgment for the orphan and for the widows. He loves the foreigner and gives them food and clothing. A father to the orphans and to advocate for the widows is God in his holy dwelling place. Widows are defenseless people.

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    That God looks after and protects. It's exactly the same as the ravens, isn't it? This Gentile woman, is she any different to the raven? Both are unclean. Both rely on God to care for them. Both serve a role and are important to God. And God goes out of his way to make sure that they are okay.

36. 13:10

    And both of them now in this story are going to go out of their way to sustain Elijah. And doing so, God's going to spiritually sustain the widow by sending Elijah as well. So there's his lesson here. So why didn't God send Elijah to the widow straight away? Why wait at the brook?

37. 13:27

    As I said, I think he needed to learn the lesson of the brook. But as well, he needed to be taught his lesson of the raven. That is, no matter who you are or who these people are, God cares for them and provides for them. See, Elijah was, as we said, a typical Jew at that time.

38. 13:43

    He looked down on Gentiles. We've already seen he wasn't the greatest people person that there was. And so he probably wouldn't have been able to help this woman if he first just met her. So first of all, God needed to spend a year working with Elijah, preparing him, shaping his mind, getting him in the right mindset before he could go and help this widow.

39. 14:03

    And it's not an uncommon approach. Familiar with Acts chapter 10, just before God sends Peter up to baptize the Gentiles. He needed to spend time preparing him. He sent him those visions of the unclean animals twice to try and prepare his mind. So he was ready that when he went to the Gentile family, he could baptize them.

40. 14:24

    It's same here with Elijah. God needed to spend a year working and preparing him. So he was ready for this, to help this widow. And for me, that's such a powerful example of our loving God. All of this, this time spent at the brook, organizing the ravens. God could have organized for, you know, food to be there.

41. 14:44

    Why choose the ravens? Why spend all of this effort and work doing this? All of this, a year of Elijah's life, all of it invested an effort into converting just this one individual family. And that's the big powerful lesson for Elijah being taught and for us as well here today. That God cares for the little people.

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    God looks after the individuals. No one is too small. No one's too insignificant for God. He saw those verses, the tiny little baby raven crying out for food. God hears that and he does something about it. The lonely single mother there. God looked after her, provided for her spiritually and materially. It's a wonderful insight into our heavenly father's character.

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    It comes out time and time again throughout the life of Elijah. And it's one hopefully that we can take and take comfort from ourselves this weekend. No one is too small. No one is too insignificant for our God to care about and to provide for.

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    Because the other great thing about this is Elijah is not the only one to learn the lesson of the ravens. They have a very specific lesson that's also important to us as young people as well. We also can learn the lesson of the ravens. See, Jesus uses the ravens to teach us a lesson as well.

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    Come across to Luke 12, the quote that we talked on the screen before about ravens. Jesus uses that as well. And we have our own lesson of ravens to learn and to gain comfort from. Come across to Luke 12 and verse 22. Jesus is talking unto his disciples. He says to them in verse 22, Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life or what you shall eat, neither for the body or what you shall put on.

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    This life is more than meat and this body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, Jesus says to us. For they neither sow nor reap. They neither have storehouses nor barns. But God feedeth them. How much more are you better than these birds? Jesus says, don't worry or give any thought about your life.

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    Don't worry about how you will be fed. Don't worry about the clothes you wear. I will take care of those things. Life is so much bigger than any of those things he says. He says, think about the raven. Does it worry about any of those things? Does it plan out its life? Is it anxious for what's happened tomorrow?

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    What college it's going to go to? What's it going to do? Who's it going to marry? Does the raven worry about any of those things? Of course it doesn't. But God cares for them. The raven doesn't go without food. So if God does this for his pets, isn't he going to do it for his children as well, Jesus says to us?

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    Do we believe that? Do we trust that God is actually looking after us? That he will provide all that we need? Not what we want, but what we need. I'm about to say this is the exact attitude of this widow. She had this same mindset here that Jesus is talking about, this mindset that we need to develop of putting our trust absolutely on God.

50. 17:54

    Jesus says here in continuing on verse 25, which of you taking thought can add to his statue one cubit? If then you be not able to do the things which are least, why take ye thought for the rest? Now, one cubit is actually sort of from our fingers to our elbows. So it's actually a fairly significant amount when we think about height.

51. 18:14

    So other translations actually have you talking about our lifespan. ESV has this beautiful translation which says, which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life? I just think that's a beautiful, beautiful phrase Jesus says here. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your life?

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    What is being anxious ever worried about? What is worrying ever achieved? Can't do anything, can it? Doesn't add any time to our life. It doesn't take away. Now, it's easy to say these things. Of course it is. Hard to do, definitely. But we've got to say these things to ourselves. Train our brain to remember these things.

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    Being anxious about things brings no benefit to us all. It's a beautiful quote that says, Worrying never robs tomorrow of its sorrow. It only saps today of its joy. See, worrying actually doesn't do anything about what's going to happen. All it does is it takes the joy out of now. No one can add anything to their life by worrying.

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    It doesn't solve anything. Being anxious about things doesn't solve anything. It just robs us of joy now. As I said, easy to say. Jesus is asking us to remember these things. He gives us very practical tips for dealing with anxiety and worry in our life. These three things he talks about here. First of all, he says, is our life not more than?

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    He asks us, reminds us that life is bigger than the things that we're worrying about. Ask us to put our anxiety into perspective. Really, is life so important about what you wear or what you do or the things, the choices that you make? He's asking us to step out of that, to try and think of the bigger picture.

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    Anxiety can wrap us up and really get us minutely focusing on these things, these things that seem so insurmountable in our life. Jesus is asking us to take a step back. Think about what's bigger here. He says here, are you not much better than that? We have proof around us, the animals, the kingdom, the miracles around us, that God takes care of his creation.

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    He takes care of the animals. We have proof that he will take care of us. See later on that God says, it is my joy to give you the kingdom. God is working in our lives. He wants us to do it. If he can care for the ravens, young people, we must believe he can care for us as well.

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    He will do what is best for us, always, always what is best for us. And then we see there, and which of you being anxious can? Remember that beautiful quote. Remind ourselves that this doesn't actually achieve anything. It's our brain trying to convince us that there's something wrong. It's our brain trying to feed on that anxiety.

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    Saying we're bigger than that. Now he goes on to say some more tips here. Look at verse 29. And seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things the nations of the world do seek after. And your father knoweth that you have need of these things.

60. 21:27

    God knows what we want. It's not that we're here and God's up there and he doesn't understand me, doesn't know what I'm going through. God doesn't get it. I know what you want. I created it. I've done this a few million times with some people. I've got this. Don't worry. I know what you need.

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    So he says, rather than that, seek ye the kingdom of God and all of these things shall be added unto you. See, Jesus doesn't leave us with this list of don'ts. Okay? Because dealing with anxiety is more than just don't worry about it. Get over it. It's not that. Jesus understood that. He said, here's some things to focus on not.

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    But here's some positive things to replace that within our life as well. Firstly, remind ourselves that our heavenly father is involved in our life. He knows exactly what we need. He knows what's best for us. So instead of focusing on the worry, he said, replace that by focusing on God and his righteousness.

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    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of these things shall be added unto you. What's right? Focus on that spiritual plan. Focus on what would Jesus do? What's the right path here? That we can replace anxiety with. What does God want us to do? What's God's choice here? And that's what I'll choose.

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    When I don't know what to do, when I'm anxious about choices, what's the one that will get me to the kingdom? And then we have this final beautiful quote to wrap all of this up in verse 32. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Is this this final thing?

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    If we've gone through all those stages and we're still there, Jesus leaves us with this foundation of don't worry. I know it's hard. Don't worry. I want to give you the kingdom. I'm going to give you the kingdom. Trust in me. Because sometimes we can't do it ourselves. Sometimes we can go through all this and we're still anxious.

66. 23:15

    We still have the anxiety. And the final thing is we are just sheep. Just give in to that. Don't worry, little flock. We don't know what we're doing. We're wandering around aimlessly eating grass. We don't really know. Don't worry. We don't have to have the answers. We don't have to have it solved.

67. 23:30

    We don't know to know what's going on. We're hopeless in all of this. And it's just our God leading us. And he'll get us to the kingdom if we give in to him. That's all that matters. We don't have to have the right answers. And I think it's just this beautiful little lessons that Jesus is walking us through here.

68. 23:46

    What I call the lessons of the ravens for us. Lesson of the raven for Elijah was dealing with other people and understanding that the little people matter. There's a lesson for the ravens from us here in Jesus as well. To just be the raven. To allow God to direct us. To call out and he will feed us and look after us.

69. 24:05

    And teach us where we need to go. Okay. Let's come back then to Elijah and see what's next step in 1 Kings. He's now been at this brook for a year or so now. The water's dried up. The ravens have been feeding him. And now God is going to appear to him. And so you need to move on.

70. 24:23

    And so he's going to make his way up here to Zarephath. Now, once again, bear in mind, this is a fairly significant, it's a three-day journey from Israel. In the middle of a drought. This is not just around the corner. And it's not only is it Zarephath, the Gentile country as we know, it's Jezebel's old neighborhood.

71. 24:45

    A hugely dangerous area to be. It's a big ask of God to ask Elijah. But without any questions, without anything, Elijah gets up and goes. Elijah has lessons to learn. There's no doubt about that. As we all do. But there's no questioning his obedience and his passion and his loyalty to God. There's only one time he goes somewhere where God didn't ask.

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    And we'll look at that on Sunday. But every other time God asks him to do something, he does it exactly as God asks. There's no questioning his obedience and loyalty to God. So verse 10, he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering sticks.

73. 25:24

    Behold the widow woman. And we glaze over that. But think about that. What a logistical feat that would have been for the angels behind the scenes. To get all of this orchestrated in perfect timing. As I said, it's at least a three-day journey from where he was. He could have arrived at any time in that window.

74. 25:42

    The widow could have gone out and got sticks at any time of that day. But through the divine hand, here they meet randomly out the front at the perfect time. Perhaps Elijah would have been thinking about the passage in Job that talks about the raven wandering around looking for lack of meat and looking around.

75. 26:00

    And here's this widow in her black flowing gowns, walking around, bending over, picking up sticks, maybe looking like a raven walking around. And he would have recognized that this is who God is sending him to serve. She looked exactly like this raven. And so he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.

76. 26:21

    Now, yes, this is a big ask. But in those days, people were a lot more hospitable. Here was someone traveling in the middle of a drought. Of course, you would go and get them some water from the well to sustain them. What Elijah is going to ask next in verse 11 is the big test.

77. 26:38

    Elijah says to her, he's going to take it one step further. And as she was going to fetch the water, he called her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said unto him, as Yahweh thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise.

78. 26:56

    And behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and then die. Pretty bleak situation of where she's at. And like many stories in the Bible, we need to sort of piece this together and understand a bit more about the background, try and understand this person here from a bit of information we've got.

79. 27:17

    First thing we notice is that she obviously recognized Elijah. She uses his catch cry as Yahweh thy God liveth. That's what Elijah says when he goes, Yahweh liveth, there's going to be no rain, is what he said. And then she turns it back on him. And I suppose that would have been expected.

80. 27:33

    The nation was in drought. Everyone would have been talking about this great hairy man that had caused the drought. Ahab, as we read before, has gone from country to country, trying to search out Elijah, looking for his description. So everyone would have known about this. So here's this woman that was about to, her and her son were about to die.

81. 27:51

    And here standing in front of her is the man that had caused all of this, that had brought about this drought, the very reason she had no food or water. Does she accuse him? Does she blame him? Does she attack him even? All of those are reasonable things to do. If we look at chapter 18, verse 7, how does Ahab react when he sees him?

82. 28:13

    Chapter 18, verse 17, And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said, aren't he that troubleth Israel? He didn't have a merciful attitude straight away. He was blaming Elijah. You're the one that's caused all of this trouble. He attacks him. This widow woman doesn't. She just lays the facts out in the situation there.

83. 28:33

    Now, she does use his catchphrase, but notice there's a slight change. Elijah in verse 1 says, As Yahweh Elohim of Israel liveth. What does this widow woman say here? As Yahweh thy God liveth. So although she does know Elijah, it appears she's not a faithful. She hasn't taken on God at this time.

84. 28:54

    But she knows about God and she knows about Elijah. So she says, look, I can't. I've only got a handful of meal and a little oil to make up. Now, like most things in the Bible, this is not some random pair of ingredients. This is significant. And it ties into what Elijah is going to talk and teach this widow about.

85. 29:13

    Come across to Leviticus chapter 2, where we have these same two ingredients. Leviticus 2 and verse 1. It says there, And when any will offer a meat offering unto Yahweh, a minkah or a freewill offering, this offering shall be with fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it.

86. 29:44

    So here we have these same things, a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil made up, the minkah, the meat offering. And what would happen next to this offering? Verse 2, And he shall bring it unto Aaron's sons, the priest, and he shall take thereof his handful of flour thereof, and the oil and the frankincense.

87. 30:02

    And he shall burn that part on the memorial of the altar as an offering by fire, a sweet-smelling sauer to Yahweh. And the remnant of the meat offering shall Aaron and his sons eat. It shall be at most holy of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire. So you'd come up with your little bit of flour and your little bit of oil and frankincense, and you'd take it, you'd make a cake out of it, you'd take a little bit of that off, and that would be God's portion, that would be a memorial, a thanks to God, and the rest then could be eaten by the priests and used.

88. 30:31

    So a handful of meal and a little oil. This was God's portion. So when you brought up a voluntary offering, it was a reminder that it was in thanks to God. And God gave you this, and you give your first bit back to God first. That's what Elijah is asking of this widow.

89. 30:47

    She's got this little bit left, and Elijah, if we come back to 1 Kings 17, sorry, I should have asked you to keep your hand there. 1 Kings 17, that's what Elijah says to her. She says, this is all I've got, just this little offering. And he says to her, verse 13,

90. 31:02

    Fear not, go and do as thou said, but make me therefore first a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son. But thus saith Yahweh, that God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sendeth rain upon the earth.

91. 31:21

    So she's got this, and he says, that's fine. Take off the little bit for me first, and then you can have the rest. And he's saying, if you dedicate that part to you, if you dedicate your portion to God, he will ensure that you are provided for. And it's a massive test of faith for her.

92. 31:38

    He was literally asking her to put her life on the line, to dedicate essentially all that she had to this stranger's God, and that he would save her. And notice God would provide just enough. There weren't going to be awash with flour and oil. They would just have enough. Each day there would just be enough in there.

93. 31:57

    Their daily needs would be met. And this is how God works with us. We shouldn't expect him to provide more than just that, our daily needs. If we dedicate ourselves to God, if we give him his portion first of everything that he's given us, then he will provide for our daily needs, as we saw with Jesus' words in Matthew.

94. 32:17

    He'll provide and look after us, ensure that we just have enough. He's not going to make it rich. He's not going to make life easy. Many churches preach that today. It's a popular message that if you give to God, he'll give back and overflowing and reward you. It happens. But that's not what God is about.

95. 32:34

    I'll give you just enough to survive and it won't run out. But you need to provide for me first and give that first portion to God and everything that we do. And the remarkable thing is that that's what this widow did. Verse 15, And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah.

96. 32:50

    And she and he and her house did eat many days. And just remember for this widow, there were no second chances here. What if she'd made up that flower for, you know, she had just enough for her and her son. So she takes her portion and she gives that to Elijah. What if he just ate it and then kept walking?

97. 33:08

    Which is entirely possible. Oh, that's it. Either her or her son wouldn't get that last meal. They wouldn't get those few extra days together. She was literally putting her life on the line here for this God that she didn't know. And yet that's faithfulness. The seed of faith was there and she went ahead and did it.

98. 33:28

    And, of course, God did that remarkable miracle and she didn't run out. She was rewarded. She was sustained. And probably for two years, Elijah lived there with that family. Every morning, the miracle would have happened. There was a little bit of flower and a little bit of oil just there. Every morning it would come back.

99. 33:50

    It was like manna for her. And, in fact, that's how manna is described. Here in Numbers, people went about and gathered it and ground it to mills or bed it to mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it. And what did it taste like? It tasted like fresh oil, a bit of flour and a little bit of oil.

100. 34:06

     So, as we'll see, although she had manna every day, essentially, was given to her with Elijah there, we'll see that, unfortunately, it didn't totally convince her. And it was the same with the children of Israel in the wilderness, wasn't it? They had their manna every morning. They had their pillar of fire at night.

101. 34:25

     They had their smoke every day for 40 years. And yet they still struggled with their faith. And it can be the same with us, can't it, as well? Human nature is a funny thing. Become complacent in the amazing blessings that we have every day. Our family, our lives, our jobs, our ecclesias, our friends, our young people.

102. 34:45

     These are all everyday blessings that God blessed us with. We have this little bit of manna every single day, a little bit of flour, a little bit of oil that God gives us every day. But sometimes, like Elijah, we want to chase the big things. We want to see the mighty things. We forget about the little things.

103. 35:01

     But this is what God provides for us, his promise to give us. Now, why do I say that she wasn't totally converted? Well, look at verse 17 there, the next verse. It came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore and there was no breath left in him.

104. 35:21

     Now, why does God use this specific word, the mistress of the house? It seems strange. The only time it's used in two other places would seem to indicate that maybe there's a bit more to her story here. You see there that it's used of the witch of Endor and also of witches as well.

105. 35:39

     Then said unto Saul, seek at a woman, a familiar spirit, that go unto a woman that hath a familiar spirit is that word mistress there. And once again, the mistress of witchcrafts. So it would seem, why is God using this word? It would seem to indicate that she hasn't fully been converted over.

106. 35:55

     There's still some of her old Gentile life that's there. And now God's going to work with that. And this next test is to develop her faith and to finalise the converting of her and as well to teach Elijah a lesson as we'll see. And she says to Elijah, verse 18, she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O man of God?

107. 36:16

     Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? So this widow believes that her son has died because of her past or maybe even her present sinful life, which was seen to be indicated by this mistress. So she's saying, I've been doing bad things and now God's killed my son.

108. 36:35

     And you can't really blame her for having this connection. She's been living with Elijah for the last two years, who now no doubt would have explained to her that, well, I brought the drought because the people have sinned. The people have sinned and therefore God's punishing them. So she sees this, well, I'm being punished.

109. 36:52

     My son's died. Something bad's happened. So it must be because of my sin. And she has this relation. And God's going to show that this isn't always the case.

110. 37:02

     That's how Elijah saw it, black and white. And so he's going to sort of work in these events to bring this about. My son has died. God is punishing me. And this is what he's going to teach her. So Elijah says, okay, verse 19, and we saw this before. He's very sympathetic answer.

111. 37:19

     Give me thy son. He grabs her, not really caring much about it, and takes it up. And says he took her out of her bosom and carried him up onto a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto Yahweh and said, oh, Yahweh, my God, why hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son?

112. 37:42

     I think it's a really interesting insight into Elijah as what he believed God was doing here as well. Now, it's really important to remember that if Elijah hadn't arrived when he did two years ago, that both this child and this widow would have died from lack of food due to the drought. Remember, that's what she said.

113. 38:00

     I'm about to eat my last thing, and then we're about to go and die. So the question is, would Elijah have acted this way if on the day that he arrived some random Gentile boy died? Would he have rushed to this child and grabbed him and taken him up to God and prayed earnestly that this child was resurrected from the dead?

114. 38:19

     Would he have connected with him and tried to do these things? From what I've seen with Elijah so far, I don't think so. I don't think that would have been his reaction. But now that he's spent time with this family, he's gotten to know them, he's befriended them, that when this boy dies, he earnestly prays for God to raise him up.

115. 38:38

     He has a personal relationship and a personal connection now with this son. And Elijah's prayer is interesting. He says, why hast thou also brought evil on the widow? But ESV says, why have you brought calamity even unto this widow? Elijah was genuinely confused as to why God would do this to this widow who was sustaining him, someone that seemed to be accepting the truth.

116. 39:02

     But as I said, the son would have died anyway from Elijah's famine, wouldn't he? He was already dead. God didn't do this. He was dying anyway. And you see, that's the problem with what Elijah have asked of God. It was a broad brush approach. It was affecting the good and the bad. Here's just one example God's showing us.

117. 39:22

     What about those 7,000 remnant that still remained? How many of their sons were close to death because of the drought? This is two years on from when the widow was about to die. How many others were feeling the pinch and the pain because of this drought? How many of them were facing salvation because of what Elijah had prayed for?

118. 39:40

     And once again, I think God is getting Elijah to understand the consequences of what he's asked for, getting him to appreciate maybe for the first time in his life what it feels like to have a connection with people, showing Elijah the power that comes from spending time with people, with building relationships with them, not brushing our past, but spending time and understanding people.

119. 40:05

     Keeping with our theme of birds, Matthew 10, 29, God knows when a little sparrow passes away. That is how connected he is to all of those people and to all the people. So how Elijah is feeling now that this boy is dying is how God has felt for every single other one of those families that have suffered, that have lost people because of this drought.

120. 40:26

     That's how God intimately feels. And Elijah is now just experiencing this. This is contrasted to Elijah before, a man who chose to live in isolation in the wilderness, but not connected or cared for anyone in a long time. But God has brought these events about. He's orchestrated it to force him to connect with this family.

121. 40:48

     And now suddenly Elijah appreciates how God looks on people. He appreciates, as we said before, that individual people matter. And so what does Elijah do? He stretched, verse 21, and he stretches himself upon the child three times and cries unto Yahweh and says, Yahweh, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come back into again.

122. 41:09

     And this just shows Elijah's, the amount of faith that he has in God. You may know, but this is the first time someone is resurrected in the Bible. Okay? Elijah has this amazing faith to even ask God to do this. He's fully prepared to pray for the impossible. He doesn't know that this is possible.

123. 41:29

     No one's ever done this before. There's no indication that God could raise up from the dead or God would do it. That doesn't stop Elijah. That's why he's such an amazing man. The faith that he has in God and in prayer, he's prepared to do this. And Elijah at this point now has learned what it means to want to save people, to care for them, to empathize with them.

124. 41:52

     As I said, for so long, he's been alone. He's been angry with the nation for their idolatry. He's wanted to bring pain and suffering on them. But now it's the complete opposite. He's desperate to save. He doesn't know what to do. And so he's going to ask God to do the impossible for this small child.

125. 42:09

     This rugged, big, hairy man lays himself gently on this child, trying to connect with him. Stretch means to measure out. It's exactly the same word that is used of Elisha when he raises up his son. And I believe he would have copied him. I think this is exactly what he did. Let's look at what happens here with Elisha.

126. 42:29

     When he's come into the house, he laid him on the bed. He went in there and shut the door. He prayed unto God. Verse 4, he went up and he lay upon the child. He put his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, his hands on his hands. He stretched himself upon that child.

127. 42:45

     He only wanted that it would have done this because Elijah told him, well, this is what I did. And you could not get a more intimate connection with this boy, could you? Elijah identifies, he connects in every way with this boy. Maybe he's drawing from Genesis of the breath of life in there potentially, but he's one with this child.

128. 43:04

     And he prays once, nothing. Prays twice, nothing. This is the faith of this man. He continues to pray. And in verse 22, what happens? And Yahweh heard the voice of Elijah. The soul of the child came into him and he revived. Not the earthquake, not the fire. God heard the still, small voice of Elijah.

129. 43:28

     He saw Elijah identifying with an individual, pleading for this young man's life. James 5, 16, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. He put everything into his, desperate for this one person to be saved. And God heard that voice. And in verse 23, Elijah took the child and brought him down unto the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother.

130. 43:54

     And Elijah said, see, your son liveth. And the woman said unto Elijah, now by this I know that thou art the son of God and that the word of Yahweh in thy mouth is true. And this final conversion of this woman is completed. Now I know. She has seen Elijah's passion to save matched what he'd been talking about.

131. 44:18

     Before it was all about punishment and forcing the people to turn around. But now that she's seen his desire to save and God's mercy, now she finally believes.

132. 44:30

     It wasn't the miracles every single day. It wasn't the living with a prophet. It was seeing the passion and the desire for him to save that converted this woman. In conclusion, come across to Luke chapter 4 because Jesus talks about this widow woman as well. And it's the same context of what we're talking about here.

133. 44:53

     Come across to Luke 4 and verse 16. It's the exact same lesson. And Jesus here is going to speak and he's in his hometown. Just look at what the emphasis here is in these verses. Luke 4, verse 16 to 20. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. As his custom was, he went into the synagogue and he started to preach.

134. 45:20

     And there was delivered unto him a book, the prophet Isaiah. When he opened the book, he found where it was written and he started to speak. Verse 18, the spirit of Yahweh is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recover the sight of the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the law.

135. 45:43

     And he closed the book and gave it unto the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fasted on him. So he reads and then he stops. And all the eyes are looking at him. And what does he say? These people are looking at him. He says, verse 21, this day is scripture fulfilled in your ears.

136. 46:02

     Not in your eyes, but in your ears. You're hearing this. And verse 22, and they all bear witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And said, are we not, is this not Joseph's son? And he goes on to say that you wanted me to show you miracles and to do great things.

137. 46:21

     But you don't accept me. So I'm not going to do all these powerful things. So what does he do instead? Verse 25. Behold, I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout the land.

138. 46:36

     But none of them was Elijah sent unto Zarephath, city of Zidon, unto a woman, unto a widow, sort of progressively words. And what did Elijah do in this situation? He used the words, didn't he? He preached the gospel to the poor. He healed the brokenhearted, just as he read there. And she believed in those words.

139. 46:59

     And the people in Nazareth, they wouldn't accept Jesus. They wouldn't accept his words. Because when he says this, verse 28, when they heard this, they were filled with wrath. They didn't have the faith of the Gentile woman. And so Christ left them. And what did he do? If we go down to verse 31 here at the end, he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee.

140. 47:19

     And he taught them. And they were astonished at his doctrines, for his word was with power. So all of this, everything, Elijah, everything about is all about the word, the power of the still small voice to affect people's life. That that connection, that desperate desire to save individuals is what gets results. That's what the focus was.

141. 47:44

     You see, Elijah wanted to convert a whole nation at once. He wanted great signs. He wanted great miracles to wow the people into loving God. But God had other ideas for this prophet. He says, no, Elijah, I'm actually going to take a three-year detour out of your life. I want actually, in all of this, I'm interested in this one little Gentile widow over here and her son.

142. 48:08

     That's who I want to convert. So I'm going to spend three years for you just to focus on one woman. First, you need to spend a year by yourself. You need to get yourself right and get yourself prepared. And then I need you to go and to talk and to work and to convert this woman.

143. 48:27

     And as you said, what was the thing that finally made her believe? Was it the cloudless skies? The magical bread? Living with Elijah himself, having a one-on-one prophet for two years? None of those things did the final conversion. To some degree, it wasn't even the resurrection. She wasn't said, now that you've raised my son, I know that you're telling the truth.

144. 48:49

     It was the fact that Elijah built up a relationship with her and her son, that he wanted to try to do the impossible to save her, that he cared that much, that he was willing to put his own faith into action to save her. That is what showed her that there's something special about this God, this Yahweh who you worship.

145. 49:09

     That it became, the theory became real when she saw it acted out in his passion and love for her son. And it's such a powerful lesson for us today. We've seen clearly that God is interested in the individuals. No one is too small. No one is insignificant for God. He wants to make a connection with us one-on-one, as we should as well.

146. 49:34

     How are we interacting with the people around us? How are we showing them that we care? That we're invested in their lives? That we want God to help in their lives as well? How are we being like Elijah with that still small voice? And we'll do a lot more detail in that in our Sunday school as well as we look at how can we apply the still small voice in our life?

147. 49:54

     But here's one very powerful thing. The other thing for us as well is we don't live in a time of big showy miracles, do we? It needs to all be about the still small voice. Holy Spirit gifts, the show of powers, those have dried up. The only thing we have left is the Bible.

148. 50:13

     The still small voice to have interaction with us. To take it in a little bit by each day, a little day. That is enough. That's what has the ability to change lives, to strengthen our faith and our belief and to help others as we're seeing today. So we'll leave Elijah here with this.

149. 50:29

     Really what we see is the absolute climax of his whole mission, his first mission here. And then after lunch we'll take a look at the contest on einmal. Thanks. Thank you.