Elijah : A man who dies to self 1 Kings 17:17-24
In the first week we saw Elijah as he seemed to come out of no
where and in a round about way he confronts king Ahab about his sin. He just said, "There will be no more rain until I say so." And as I said, this was an attack on the god Baal, who was the rain god. Basically, what he was saying was, the rain god can’t deliver and that of course was the beginning of a three and a half year drought.
The second week we looked at the man Elijah and saw him
described by James as a man of like passions which just means he has all the same drives and desires that you and I have. And since he is the same as you and I, this tells me that God uses common, ordinary, everyday people. People just like you and I. He uses us the way He used Elijah and He gets the glory. And what I mean by that is we are his spokes people not necessarily His miracle workers. It says in11 Corinthians 4:7, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." The treasure we have is the Holy Spirit of the living God and He lives in us. And notice that we are described as an earthen vessel. An earthen vessel is a clay pot. It’s not something very valuable but it is useful. When you’re finished with it you can just throw it out and get another one. This tells me that when my time on earth is done then God will be finished with this earthen vessel and then He’s going to give me another one. One that one will look even better than this one. Can you imagine what it’s going to look like?
Then we saw Elijah living in the desert area of Cherith where he was fed by God by birds bringing him bread and meat and he had water from the brook to drink. And then when it was time for him to go, God just dried up the brook and we assume that the birds also stopped delivering the food.
The third week Elijah left Cherith and traveled to Zaraphath which is enemy territory. It was the home of Jezebel and the capital city of Baal worship. Here he stayed with a widow and her son where God tested her as Elijah asked her to provide for him out of her absolute poverty. You remember that I said she only had enough meal to make a couple of tea biscuits and that she and her son were going to eat them and die. Jack Wyrtzen said, "God doesn’t look at how much we give but how much we give in proportion to how much we keep." And you will remember that I pointed out how Jesus had commended three people for their giving and each of them gave of the last of their possessions. So she gave and God provided for her, her son and the prophet in a supernatural way as the meal and oil kept on appearing until after the affects of the drought had passed. It’s interesting to see that each day they received enough just for that day. In other words God didn’t give them enough for a month or even a week at a time. They received just enough to get by each day and that continued until they could get food from other means.
Today we see the woman confronted by the common enemy of
death. As Romans 5:12 says, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." This tells us that all of us are born in sin and all of us will die.
So death cannot be avoided. As I said a couple of weeks ago, only two men have ever left this world without going through the experience of death. They were Enoch and Elijah. And of course there will be those who are caught up in the rapture.
One of my favorite short stories was written by a man named Somerset Maugham. It goes like this, "There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, ’Master, just now when I was in the market place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw, it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, he dug his spurs in it’s flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market place and he saw me, Death, standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?" "That was not a threatening gesture." I said. "It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
As the scripture says in Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto man
once to die, and after this the judgement." People will go to any extreme to avoid the subject of death but nevertheless each of us will die when our time comes. And so we come to the widow who has had her share of sorrow. She’s a widow so her husband had died and now her child.
I Widow’s past problems.
A It came to pass after these things. We ask ourselves what ’things’ is it referring to. It’s God’s miraculous provision of the food in the time of drought. God had also miraculously provided someone for the widow to fellowship with in that the prophet was in her home. I remember talking to a woman who worked in a bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was new in the ministry and was buying a book on death to help me with funerals and she thought I had lost someone significant. She explained her situation and how her husband had died a couple of years before and she had taken the job in the bookstore just to keep herself occupied. She said she turned on the radio when she was got home just to hear a voice in the house and then she went on to speak about the loneliness of losing someone after thirty-five years of marriage. Someone described the process of grief as being like the ’Gordian Knot’ which was a mythological knot that was tied so tight no one could untie it. Grief is like that, it’s something that must be experienced to be understood. As Proverbs 14:10 says, "The heart knows it’s own bitterness."
B She was a widow so she was acquainted with grief. Psychologists tell us there are three stages of grief. The first one is the crisis stage. They say it almost feels like a physical blow when the news comes. Whether the one who dies goes suddenly or it takes a while, their death still comes with shock and surprise. There’s a sense of numbness and emotional release. This stage lasts until the funeral. A long lingering illness can prolong the grieving process because of the emotional drain one goes through during the illness itself. During this time the best thing we can do is too be there and listen. I heard of one guy who spoke for half an hour and the widower couldn’t wait for him to leave. And then another came and sat, prayed and listened, and the widower wished he had stayed all day. This tells me that our presence speaks much more than our words.
The second stage is the crucible stage. This last twelve weeks or
more. And it’s more intense in the first six weeks. During this period the one who is grieving is breaking emotional ties with the past and rearranging future plans that were tied up with the one who died. We know that sympathy flows like a river right after the death of a loved one but one or two months later is when loneliness and loss make their greatest impact. Friends are needed most at this time. This is a good time to visit or write a note to let them know you share their loss.
Then the third stage is the construction stage. It’s a time when we
realize that God still has a purpose for our lives. And during this time we need to recreate patterns of living that are not tied to our past. Some people take a part time job, while others might do volunteer work. We do realize that God can use us to be a comfort to others. II Corinthians 1:3,4, "Blessed be God. the God of all comfort who comforts us in our tribulations, so that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." I remember we had a lady in our church in Guelph who had cancer. After she had gone through her chemotherapy treatment she was the first to visit the homes of others in the church who got the news that they had any form of cancer. She had a special ministry to those who were experiencing what she experienced. There is a nursery rhyme that says,
Hark, hark, the dogs do bark
The beggars are coming to town
Some in rags, and some in tags
And some in velvet gowns.
All around us are beggars who will some day need to be comforted.
C People say the strangest things to those who are sorrowing. I
remember my uncle Buddy coming to the funeral home when my
grandmother died. Everyone was grieving and he said, "Nice funeral
home." You have to understand my uncle wasn’t trying to be insensitive, he just didn’t know what to say. Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing.
There was an article in a magazine called, "My wife died." A man said to the one who mourning, "I’m sorry to hear you lost your wife. " He said, "I know where she is, I’m the one who’s lost." Sometimes the best thing we can do is assure people we’re praying for them. And then do it.
Some people feel guilty because of their depth of grief. It’s like they
think their faith should somehow overcome their sorrow. The scripture
says, "We sorrow not as those who have no hope." But, we do sorrow. In the article I mentioned the man also said, "You never get over the death of someone you love, you just have to learn to live with it."
We realize that we can be a comfort those who grieving. At the same time we always fear we’ll say the wrong thing and appear insensitive and uncaring. We’re afraid we’ll reopen the wound by speaking about the one who died. In reality the wound never really heals but talking about them helps. I believe our presence speaks volumes. So, she had problems in the past and now it seems like she has more than she can handle.
II The widows present problem. Her son dies and she responds with
anger, guilt and confusion.
A First we see her anger as she lashes out against the prophet and says, "What have I to do with you?" Phillip Keller wrote, "The whole scene is repeated ten thousand times in the lives of men and woman who come in contact with the living Lord. People somehow, are given to believe either through wrong teaching or false preaching, that if they put their confidence in Christ, if they are obedient to His commands, if they act in forthright faith, all will be well for the rest of their days.They conclude somehow that they will automatically be exempted from the tragedy and turmoil of their times."
Her anger is typical of those who can’t handle what’s happening to them. I had a friend who did a funeral for a young teen who was murdered. He said everyone in the congregation looked like they wanted to tear him apart. Basically, they were saying, if God allowed this and you represent God then we don’t want anything to do with you. The fact is, in times of great emotion we have a tendency to say things that we regret later on.
B Then we see her guilt. "Are you coming to bring my sin to
remembrance?" In other words, is God doing this to punish me for my
past sins? It’s strange how some people see themselves as too bad for God to forgive while others see themselves as pretty good even though they’re wicked. I think I mentioned before that I had worked one summer on a private island for a multi-millionaire. During the week we would get supplies delivered by boat from the town which was about eight miles away. The man and his son would deliver our supplies and the man would always tell me how wicked the people were who lived in town. I was mentioning this to the man who owned the island when he came up one day and he said, "That old man tells you how wicked his neighbors are but he neglected to mention that his son was born of incest from his daughter." He saw everyone else as wicked but himself. I remember reading the dying words of a gunfighter. I think it was Jessie James. He said, "He was a peaceful man who only wanted to lead a quiet life." He had killed some thirty men in gunfights but he saw himself a lot differently than those around him.
The widow’s comment is really typical of someone whose heart is unforgiven. She saw everything bad as the result of her sin. She was sure his death was the result of her sin. And that makes us wonder, how bad was she? Or how bad did she think she was? We have no way of knowing but memory is a phenomenal thing. We forget much more than we remember. But think about this. God remembers everything. And everything someday will come back. In Luke 16 we have Abraham taking to the rich man in hell and he says, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus evil things." The rich man had forgotten all his sumptuous meals by now, but God didn’t. God remembered every bite he took while the rich man ignored the hunger pains of those around him. Your minds does a weird thing with guilt when something bad happens. I was traveling with a gospel band back in 1974. We played from Toronto to Vancouver and everywhere in between. During a stop in Sudbury, Ontario we were staying at the home of this young couple named Richard and Peggy. They were missionary candidates who were preparing to leave for the field with their six-month old baby. We had just come back from playing at their church and were waiting to have lunch when Peggy went to the nursery to check on the baby. The baby had slipped through the rungs on the crib and strangled to death. During the next day or so the couple were not only devastated by their loss which was understandable but they were constantly blaming themselves for the death of the child. They said things like, "Maybe we didn’t love her enough. We should have checked her more often. Maybe we are out of God’s will. And we shouldn’t have bought a second hand crib." When something terrible happens and particularly when it’s unexplainable from a human perspective we have a tendency to blame ourselves even though we would never have allowed it to happen if we could. And so we see this widow first was consumed with anger and then she was racked with guilt.
This is where someone must remind us of the basics. For instance,
God forgives us for our sin. The scriptures tell us that, "He removes it as far as the east is from the west." Anybody know how far that is? Corrie Ten Boom used to say. "God throws our sin into the depth of the sea and then puts up a no fishing sign." So, our sin is forgiven. And then we need to be reminded that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The devil tries to present the same bill time and again. He shows us a charge on our account and we have to remind him as well as ourselves that the bill has been paid in full. That’s the literal meaning of the last words that Jesus said from the cross. “It is finished” means paid in full. That’s why we sing, "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." God never punishes the one who has received His pardon.
Whenever the devil bothers you, robbing you of joy and reminding
you of past sins and failures. Just stop yourself from listening and buying his line. Change your line of thinking by praising God for salvation, then thank Him for your fellow believers and the fellowship of the church and then ask Him for opportunities to be a witness. I guarantee you that Satan will stop bothering you as soon as you begin to use his attacks to make you a better and more affective Christian.
Beside her anger and guilt we also see her confusion as she asks
the question, why did God allow this to happen to me? Time and time
again people get saved and think salvation should somehow exempt
them from pain and problems. I remember a young guy who got saved in Toronto. First he was really excited and then after a while he had all sorts of problems and ended up leaving our group. I remember the last words he said to me were, "If God’s going to treat me like that, then forget it." It’s not that she’s giving up any kind of faith it’s just that she’s questioning the very nature of God. And as much as we hate to admit it, most of us can relate to her reaction. We wonder why God allows certain things to happen, especially when we can’t see any benefit from them.
Christianity brings it’s own unique problems into all of our lives.
There are pressures at home. Sometimes there are Christians and non-Christians sharing the same space and that brings certain kinds of conflict but sometimes when there are only Christians in the home even then they can have certain expectations of one other. Then there are problems at work or school when non-Christians have certain kinds of expectations of us. How many times have you heard, “I didn’t know Christians did that, said that or talked like that?” And there are temptations that come into our lives that we might have never even considered before. I think it has to do with being told that something is forbidden. For instance, when I was on dialysis for nine and a-half years there was all kinds of foods I couldn’t eat. So, basically I just had to rearrange my style of eating. After I got a transplant they said I could eat anything I want to; except grapefruit. Do you know what? I don’t even care for grapefruit. So I figured it’s not something that would bother me. Right? Every time I pass grapefruit in the grocery store or see someone eating one in a restaurant I want a grapefruit. Well, regardless of the problems we encounter it’s good to know that we have an anchor. Like the song says, "We have an anchor that keeps the soul, steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love." So, the widow’s son dies and she experiences anger, guilt and confusion. And none of this surprises us because each of us in our own way has or will experience a sense of loss in our lives.
III The prophets response
a Response
1 He doesn’t defend himself. He could have reminded her that they both would have been dead long before from starvation if he hadn’t come along. He could have said that he was not there by his own choice but he was sent by God so it wasn’t his fault. The fact is, he wasn’t there to argue. No doubt he had been there long enough that he had felt bad about her son as well. The scripture says, "A soft answer turneth away wrath." and so, he just said, "Give me your son."
2 Keep in mind that Elijah was a prophet and there were certain rules that applied to him from the law. In Leviticus 21:1-4 we read, “And the Lord said unto Moses, speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, there shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, and for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath no husband; for her he may be defiled. But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people to profane himself.” They were only to touch the dead body of a close relative. So by touching this boy Elijah was saying to her, "I’ve taken you into my heart, this boy is like my own son. You two are like my own family." He was joining her in her sorrow as Jesus does in John 11:35 at the grave of Lazarus where He enters into the sorrow of His friends.
b Retreat
He took the lifeless body to his room. He wants to be in private so he can pour his heart out to God. He’s not looking for any recognition he’s just looking for an answer.
c Request
He asks God to do what only God can do. He asks Him to give life to the dead. We say, what a prayer! But how much faith does it take to ask such a prayer. Keep in mind that no one else in the history of the world had ever risen from the dead. Abraham believed it was possible but Elijah proved it.
It says he prayed three times. He didn’t just go upstairs and come right back down and say, "Well, I tried and nothing happened. I guess it isn’t God’s will." Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Have you asked? Try seeking. Have you sought? Then try knocking. Whatever you do, don’t give up. Elijah knew how to come boldly into the presence of God and then saw God answer.
Because he had died to self he was asking God for life. We know he died to self because we saw him preach to the king then he hid in the desert, he wasn’t concerned about his position or pension plan. Then he asked a poor widow for food, normally that would be humiliating but not to him. Then we saw that he didn’t retaliate when he was accused by this widow of being the source of her problems. Then we saw him going against everything he was ever taught and touching a dead body. I don’t think you could offend Elijah for the simple reason that he was dead to self.
I believe that if we are to see God give spiritual life to those around us we must know what it means to die to self. And then we might see God move as we learn one of the many lessons of Elijah that, "Effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Effectual means according to His word and according to His will. And fervent implies a willingness to comply. In other words one is willing to be part of the solution. It’s like saying, "God I really want someone to talk to that person and I’m willing to be the one to do the talking if you open the door."
I was thinking about this situation the other night and it occurred to me that we don’t know how long he was upstairs. He might have been praying for a few minutes or even a few hours. He wasn’t in a hurry, he was waiting for God to answer. At the same time I wondered what the woman was doing? No doubt she was distraught about her son and wondered what the prophet was up to. He didn’t tell her his what he was planning to do. It’s interesting to see that Elijah didn’t even ask her to join him when he went upstairs to pray. Usually we think that the more people you have praying then the better off you are. I’ve heard people say that if we get everybody praying for something then God will have to hear us. God may well hear us but I don’t think He gives in to pressure or large scale lobbying. God listens to hearts that are truly burdened.
We see that Elijah came down the stairs bringing her son in good health and then he says, “See, your son lives.” And in verse 24 she says in response to the miracle. "Now I know you are a man of God." The miracle wasn’t the source of her faith but the confirmation of Elijah’s ministry.
Death is a strange thing to even think about. We all die and so it should never come as a shock to any of us when we hear about someone else dying but it always does. Even when we hear about someone dying who is a hundred years old we never say, “Well. It’s about time.” The fact is, we’re eternal beings and we are shocked by the interruption of life.
I heard a story about how death is so unexpected. “A king gave his servant a little silver bell and said, "When you find someone who is a bigger fool than you give him this bell." Many years had passed and one day the king lay on his deathbed. He said to his servant, "I’m going on a long journey and I’m not prepared for it." The servant asked him, "Is it an unexpected journey?" "No" the king said, “I’ve known it was coming for many years but I’ve been so busy with the business of life that I’ve given this matter very little attention." The servant handed the king the little silver bell.”
As I quoted before Hebrew 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgement." All of us have an appointment with God. It’s the law of life. The scripture says, “The soul that sins shall die.” How often have you been caught breaking traffic laws? I’ve received tickets in the past for speeding, once or twice. I used to drive the 401 in Toronto and got used to the pace. The speed limit was 110 km per hour but everyone went ten over. The problem is, when you get off the 401 and slow down to 80 km your still twenty over the limit. So, I was pulled over a few times and my general reaction was one of anger. Stupid cop - why isn’t he out catching real criminals. Dumb city officials - everyone knows how to drive, there’s no need of such laws. Rotten insurance company - now they’re going to raise my rates for multiple infractions. Mad at the department of motor vehicles - now I had to go for another interview and risk losing my licence. And of course I was really ticked off at my wife. Because she’s always telling me to slow down and I ignored her and now she’ll say, “Well, I told you to slow down and you wouldn’t listen and now Mr. Mario Andretti has to get everyone killed.”
Once I stop long enough to think rationally I realize that the only one I’m really angry with is myself. I broke the law. It was confirmed by the traffic cop, the highway sign, the department of motor vehicles, the insurance company and then my wife. And we all have evidence that we’ve broken God’s law. The word of God tells us, our conscience confirms it, we wrestle with our interpersonal relationships, our lives are affected by desires that we know are wrong and we fear death.
Knowing this we are told that each of us will one day face God and He will be our Savior or our judge. The big question is, are you ready?
