God Cannot Fail
“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” I Kings 17:8-9
Officials in our present administration are telling us that a food shortage is on the way. I have observed that if this administration predicts something, it will do everything in its power to make it happen–a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have been reading about several food processing plants which have burned down or been badly damaged over the last few months. I saw online that thousands of cattle had died because of the heat. Many acres of U.S. farmland are being bought up by the Chinese or Bill Gates which seems ominous. American farmers are having a rough time making ends meet with the high cost of fertilizer, cattle feed, farm equipment, fuel, and battling severe weather patterns. Farmers have always operated at very tight margins, but this current inflation has made it worse. Some are calling it quits. All of this doesn’t portend a rosy future for people who like to eat. I feel the smart thing to do is to stock up on non-perishables, like canned goods, rice, and dried beans. At this time, Walmart’s shelves are well stocked, but during COVID, many items were out of stock. It wouldn’t take but one serious disaster to empty the shelves. Can you imagine walking into the grocery section of a Walmart or into a Kroger and finding nothing on the shelves. The worse kind of panic would set in, and there would be chaos in the streets.
In Biblical times, there were several famines which occurred throughout the land of Israel and beyond. Elijah, after telling King Ahab that a drought and resulting famine were coming, was commanded by God to hide. Food and water were provided for him, but the brook from which he drank eventually dried up. It was then when God told him to go to Zarephath, a Gentile city of Zidon, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This would begin the next phase of Elijah’s mission. (Zarephath is the Hebrew name of the city, and Sarepta is the Greek name-Luke 4:25-26). It is interesting to note that the LORD sent Elijah to a Gentile city rather than a city inside Israel. He would be the first prophet sent to the Gentiles, indicating that God had planned to be the Savior of not only the Jews but of the Gentiles right from the beginning.
Elijah, being the obedient prophet that he was, arose and traveled to Zarephath. Upon arriving at the city gate, and, as God would arrange it, the person, a widow lady, who was meant to help Elijah was nearby gathering some kindling for a fire. I wonder if when he saw her, he thought, “Surely this is not the one whom God is going to use to help me.” She was the one who looked like she needed help. The old saying fits here: “Never judge a book by its cover”. Even if Elijah had doubts, he called out to her and told her to bring him some water. In those days, folks were accustomed to helping travelers in need. As she turned to get the water, he also called for a piece of bread. I can only imagine what she was thinking about now: “Are you serious? Don’t you know that there is a famine in the land? Do I look like a rich woman?” Perhaps she wanted to help him, but she only had just enough meal and oil to make a piece of bread for her son and herself to eat one last meal and then starve to death. That’s why she was gathering sticks–to make a fire to cook the meal. She might have thought that he would go elsewhere if he could see her plight.
Elijah admonished her to do as she planned, but to make him some bread first, then feed her son and herself. If she was anything like folks are today, she would have perhaps thought, “Boy, he has a lot of nerve. How could this stranger ask this of me?” However, Elijah told her not to fear because the LORD would provide them meal and oil, enough to feed them until the drought broke and crops would grow again. Remember that this lady is a Gentile who, as far as we know, did not worship the LORD God. But what did she have to lose? She and her son were going to die anyway, thus she complied with Elijah’s request. She poured the meal out of her barrel, added the small amount of oil, mixed it, and cooked it on the fire, giving Elijah the first piece and then discovered there was enough for her and her son to eat. Under normal circumstances, after cooking, the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil would have been empty, but they weren’t. It took faith for this lady to go back to her pantry and look to see if Elijah’s prophecy had come true. Without faith, she would have assumed that the meal and oil were depleted and not checked her containers. She would have been like the lady who put a roast in the oven, went to church, prayed that her roast would not burn, came home, found her roast burned, and said, “Just as I thought!” Real faith is believing without seeing.
God cares about each one of us. Whatever happens in the future concerning even more hardships which may come upon us, we don’t have to worry for God will take care of us. King David wrote in Psalm 37:25 that throughout his life he had never seen the righteous forsaken nor the children of the righteous begging for food. We can rest assured that we will always, like the widow, have what we need for each day. What a privilege to know and love the Lord.