The Perplexities of God's Providences

We're gonna be looking at 1 Kings, so if you can open up to 1 Kings chapter 17. 1 Kings chapter 17 and let me go ahead and. Just pray for us. Lord, we thank you so much for this time to hear from your word, and we ask that your spirit would allure us and comfort us.

Lord, that you would take out of our mouths the names of false idols and that you would remind us. that you have betrothed us in righteousness and justice, loving kindness and mercy. And that you have betrothed us in faithfulness. We ask God, Lord, that you would help us to see your comfort and your mercies.

We pray this in Christ's name and all God's people said, Amen. Well, Pastor Milton was just talking about the passing of Rod Foist. And perhaps you have lost someone recently or have been through. A trial of your own.

I was this week just reflecting upon all the people in my vicinity that I know that have lost someone or have experienced death, particularly over the last 3 years just in our our care group, people that we've been praying for or people that are connected to us. We've had several people pass away. A gal that we're praying for, Sarah Narris, died a few days ago. Tina Gallegos, a, one of my team moms when I was coaching, passed away just last Sunday.

I had the opportunity to pray with her and her family last Saturday night. we've had, a baby pass away in the womb. We've had a best friend pass away, Madison Keith, Emily Howie's friend, passed away just a few weeks ago. and then others in our care group over the last few years, Danielle Gayoso, George Lawrence, Anita Hamrick, Rick Howie.

Papa Howie and Nancy Howie. Armita Buchanan, just to name a few, that's just people in our care group over the last few years. And then I was thinking of our staff, that, just this last year, Carlos Price, his, father passed away, Vincent Price, and Kelly's mom passed away in 2020. Mary Lytle, Donna's mother, Juanita Woods passed away in 2020.

and then you just think of our church more broadly. today is actually the anniversary of the homegoing of Gary Barfoot who passed away exactly a year ago today. I just found out, coming into this service that Lisa Stevekin passed away just yesterday. so somebody who is a, a a beloved one, here at Cornerstone, you think of others in our church here who have lost loved ones, even recently, Gary Yule lost a son just a few weeks ago, Teresa Walker passed away.

last year, we have Don Carrie's uncle, John Wilson died, died in 2020. And, just, you think of our missionaries too, Vincent Greene, who we support, his father passed away this year. Diana Whitworth passed away this year, Betty Bell, And, Betty Brown, both missionaries of ours passed away in 2020, and that's, that's not even the complete list, those are just people that come to mind in our vicinity, and, and that doesn't include, that we have saints here, who have not just lost parents, children, babies, friends, spouses, grandparents, we have people who have aging parents, sick relatives, some relatives who are very, very sick.

You expand that to other types of trials.

We have people in our midst who have watched loved ones' marriages or maybe their own marriage just go through a slow motion death. some of you have had children who used to sing God's praises and recite Bible verses at your table who are now running headlong, after Satan in the world, and you now despair of their salvation. I've talked to people in our congregation who had previously shared praise reports of answered prayers and have now been reversed and have caused them great dismay.

Some of you have, have described to me just feeling like you've awakened from what seemed like a good dream to now a proverbial nightmare and, and you find yourself asking, what is, what is going on?

What is this all about? Well, these are the types of things that we experience not just in life, but we see it in the pages of Scripture. think about the promise that was made to King David in 2 Samuel 7, and the Lord said to him, When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seat after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish His kingdom, and He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

David reigns over Israel for 40 years and his son Solomon reigns over Israel for 40 years and does build that temple, but Solomon, David's son, the one that he was expecting to fulfill this promise, he loved many foreign women.

And he led Israel with a divided heart and so he left behind a divided country. We have Reaboam in the south and then in the north, which is our subject this morning or our geographical area, we have Jeroboam in the north who serves or reigns for 22 years and engineers the golden calf revival, a festivus for the rest of us, and, and then the prophecy comes down upon his head from a, a hija. That your complete family is going to be wiped out because of the evil and it's gonna be so terrible.

The dogs are gonna just basically chew up the bodies of your loved ones and birds are gonna pick them clean.

His son Nadab only reigns for 2 years and is eventually killed and wiped out according to the word of the Lord by Basha. And then Basha reigns for 24 years, and he's just as bad if not worse. And so there's another dog and bird prophecy that comes over his head from a prophet named Jehu. He dies and his son Ela reigns for just 2 years, and he's killed by that infamous Zimri who comes and kills Elah while he's drinking himself drunk.

In Zimri only reigns for 7 days and ends up burning the house on top of himself, like the Lord of the Rings Denethor, only he succeeded. And then after Zimri you have Amri who after a tussle with a pretending king does reign for 6 years and then the capital Tirza moves the capital of Samaria and reigns another 6 years and then he has a wonderful child that we all know as Ahab and Ahab reigns for 22 years. So during these years, you do have many prophets that are sent to the north.

You have Elijah and Elisha.

You have Hosea. And you have Amos, but notice what the scriptures say in chapter 16 of this Ahab. Ahab did evil verse 30 in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. He's the worst of the worst.

And then in 1631, it says, and it came to pass. We're gonna see that phrase a lot today. As though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sense of Gerald Bam. And he took a wife, Jezebel, the daughter of Eth Baal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him, set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria, and then he makes a wooden image.

Nahab did more to provoke the Lord God to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Doesn't take anything to provoke God to gentleness or mercy. He doesn't need to be provoked that way, but he does need to be provoked towards wrath, and Ahab did more to provoke him towards wrath than any previous king. And one of the illustrations of that is it seems like he supported the rebuilding project of Jericho.

Jericho symbolizing basically the movement away from foreign idols and gods to Yahweh worship and so in a matter of about 60 years, that from the time of, of Solomon, turning over the kingdom to Jeroboam down to Ahab, 60 years you go from Solomon, who had built a temple of the Lord to Ahab building a temple of Baal. Think about it. This is the equivalent today. the time period we're talking about would be like from the 1960s to the present.

Think where most of you, a lot of you weren't born in the 1960s, but I was, but think about 1960 to 2022. That's the length of time from the end of Solomon's reign all the way down to Ahab. That's how far Israel has descended. And imagine being a believer in Israel with Ahab as the president and Jezebel as his conjugal vice president.

where were the believers in Israel? Well, we know there were 7000 prophets and there were people that were being hid by a really nice guy named Obadiah. He has to hide them from Jezebel, but it just begs the question, what happened to the Davidic Promise? What happened to the promise that was made to David that it seemed like Solomon was going to fulfill, and then 60 years later, we've got this chaos.

Well, in 1 Kings 17. The word of the Lord does direct nature. People circumstances to cause his judgments and his promises to come to pass. And we're gonna see how the Lord uses pressures, he uses physical needs, and even despair.

To lead a Gentile widow to know that the word of the Lord is the truth amidst all of this chaos in Israel and all the crazy politics, God takes interest in a Gentile widow and moves situations around to get her to come to him. Why would God even care? And what does this have to do with the promises that were made to David? Well, let's break up our text into what we're gonna call 5 words that come to pass, 5 words that come to pass.

And the first word is judgment comes to pass. Children, that's your fill in judgment comes to pass. Let's look at verse 1, chapter 17. And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.

And so God sends someone named Elijah, which means Yahweh is my God. He hails from Tishbe, seems to come from the other side of the Jordan, Jordan in the wilderness of Gilead, and he is sent to Ahab because Ahab is the political leader and the representative of Israel at this time. And his word to Ahab is as the Lord God of Israel lives. He gives a solemn pronouncement that neither dew nor rain shall come to pass on Ahab's Israel without a word from Elijah.

So he says, as Yahweh, God of Israel, he reminds Ahab that Yahweh is still God, even though you have set Baal up as the pretender, and he lives, he is alive. And by the way, I stand before him awaiting orders, awaiting for God to tell me where to go and what to do and what God has ordered is that there will not be dew or rain for years unless the Lord gives me a word and then like a true prophet, he runs away. Seems like prophets are always delivering words and then scatting.

That's just what you see in in First Kings.

But just notice some things here that are going on in this, in this very first verse that we've said that it's a living God and, and he is the true God, even if if Baal is the pretender and, and Elijah who is basically saying Yahweh is my God is ready to take orders and deliver this word. I do want to point out, a little thing about the, the grammar here. He says, there shall not be dew nor rain, that there shall be is a Hebrew construction that we see all throughout the Bible and it gets a lot of play in First Kings.

And when you put the words together, the idea, take the knot out of there, it's basically shall come or shall happen or shall come to pass.

If you look at the King James in, in this chapter and many chapters in the Bible, you'll, you'll see this phrase happen over and over again. This thing came to pass, that thing came to pass, and we're gonna see that phrase all throughout this chapter and what God is causing to come to pass is that there will be no rain to come down upon Israel. Now when he says that there is no rain, Elijah is not making this, this solemn pronouncement of judgment in a vacuum. This hails back to Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and cursings that if Israel would continue to worship God and not worship false gods, that blessing would come down upon their kings and their land.

But if they moved to false gods like Baal, for instance, then God would withhold rain as a sign of judgment. And so this is a Deuteronomy 28 pronouncement of judgment that rain is being withheld from Ahab's Israel. Let me go back for a moment here to this phrase, and it came to pass. The idea, this, this goes all the way back to Genesis 1:3, when you see the Lord, pronouncing their, let there be light, let there be, that's our word, and light came to pass as the literal rendering.

God says, let there be light and what? Light came to pass when God pronounces a word, it comes to pass. His words are always connected to happenings and activity, whatever he says comes to pass. We see it all over, our, our Bible we see it particularly here in this in this chapter and so Elijah brings this particular judgment.

to stand over Ahab and then the Lord moves him out of the situation which brings us to our second word, judgment comes to pass, but number 2, a supernatural provision comes to pass. Supernatural provision comes to pass. Look at verse 2 with me down to around verse 6. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook Kereth which flows into the Jordan, and it will be that's our and it shall come to pass that you shall drink from the brook and and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the brook Hereth, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. This is my secret fantasy to just go live in a ravine by a brook and have ravens bring me my meals for several weeks so I could just be by myself in nature for a while, but this happens to Elijah. God takes him out of the pressure cooker situation and takes him off to a private place.

Notice it says then the word of the Lord verse 2 came to him. Whenever we see word of the Lord, we should again not read that in a vacuum either, that the New Testament as we've been studying the book of John tells us who the word of the Lord is, and that is Jesus Christ. And throughout the whole Old Testament, you see this phrase word of the Lord, and many times the word of the Lord shows up physically like to Abraham in Genesis 18. many times you see the word of the Lord appear as the angel of the Lord, but whenever we see word of the Lord, don't just think of like some words being spoken into the air.

Think of Jesus Christ, who is the word of the Lord. And so the word of the Lord came to him, and here's what Christ had to say to Elijah, get away from here and turn eastward, hide by the brook Hereth, which flows into. The Jordan. So he's actually telling them to get away from Ahab and Jezebel, and he wants him to hide, and it's gonna be in a ravine or a brook and probably on the eastern side of the Jordan.

And then he says, he, he tells them, here's how you're gonna be provided for it. You're gonna, you're gonna drink from the brook, and I have also commanded or directed ravens to feed you there, which is pretty odd. I, I don't know if anybody wants to raise your hand. Has anybody ever been fed by ravens before?

Yeah, I haven't. And where I grew up in Anaheim, we did have crows that would drop walnuts periodically onto the, the, the street and you could run out and grab the walnuts and I guess in that sense, I was fed by crows periodically. but this is definitely a supernatural event. where Elijah's being provided for, and I don't think that him being provided for by birds or ravens is accidental, as we just reviewed earlier that there is this prophecy that was going to come on the family of Jeroboam and then later Basha that birds were gonna pluck their bodies clean, a sign of judgment.

And so this is almost, this is meant to be a curse reversal in the in in what's happening with Elijah that rather than him being picked clean, he's actually being fed by birds, being fed by ravens. Some early Jewish scholars actually think that we're just, I'm sure they're just guessing that these birds got the, the materials from Ahab's own table. which is an interesting thought. I, I actually like that thought, although I don't know that there's any proof for it.

But just by virtue of the fact that what's described in verse six. Well, so he, he obeys the word of the Lord in verse 5, and he does go down to the area. But the ravens, they bring him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. The words that are being used here is this is a prepared meal.

this is something you could stick in the microwave. this is not bread that he had to cook for himself or meat that had to be cooked. It showed up ready to eat. ready to eat meals being delivered by these ravens, and then he's drinking from the brook.

Now, some people try to make different arguments about this and try to dismiss the miraculous element, but I just think, I've, I've been able to train my dog to do a few things and if people can train dogs to do things and train birds to do things, and I once met a hawker that could get hawks to do whatever he wanted. I think that the creator of all of these animals could also order them to do what he wants and to think that God can't do what human beings can clearly do just seems downright silly.

so that this would be a miracle that God is directing to take care of Elijah doesn't seem hard to imagine at all. And so we, we have this pronouncement of judgment.

But then a supernatural provision that comes to pass, that's definitely a sign that Elijah, while judgment is being pronounced to Ahab, that Elijah is one of the ones that is getting protection and grace. And so the judgment that's coming on Ahab is really, partially in view of God trying to protect his people, protect his, his bride, so to speak, as represented by Elijah. by the way, when we get to our next section here is, is that the, the very judgment that is pronounced upon Ahab causes a problem eventually for Elijah, and that brings us to our third word, and that is personal provision comes to pass.

Personal provision comes to pass.

It comes to pass that the brook dries up, so the word of the Lord sends Elijah to a Gentile widow. Whom the Lord has directed to provide for him. Let's look at verse 7, and then we'll look at the rest of the paragraph. It says in verse 7, and it and it happened.

That's our phrase, and it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Question, why had there been no rain in the land? Because of God's pronounced judgment through Elijah, there had been no rain in the land and so there's this fallout that happens to Elijah. He ends up experiencing what we could call providential fallout.

God brings judgment upon Ahab. He delivers Elijah from his hand, but eventually. The brook dries up and so believers can also be affected by pronounced judgments, by implication and so what does God do and what does Elijah do? Well, the word of the Lord came to him, so we have the word of the Lord again, and he basically tells him in verse 9, arise.

And go to Zaraath, which belongs to Seidon, and dwell there. CIF commanded or directed a widow there to provide for you. Now there's all kinds of problems with this verse, if you're reading this from Elijah's perspective. The first problem is that he tells him to go to Zarafa, which belongs to Seidon.

Anybody know who's from that area? Jezebel, Jezebel's daddy's from that area. And so he's basically saying, get up and go to Jezebelburg, go to Gentile land, get over there in Heathensville, and that's where I'm going to provide for you now. dwell there.

I have directed a widow there to provide for you, which to us should sound silly. A widow who has no means to even provide for herself is going to provide for Elijah. So the Lord is doing some upside down activity. Elijah, what does he do in verse 10?

He arose and he went to Zara Zarafa. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. So how would he know that this was a widow? He would obviously look at her garb and be able to tell that she's not very wealthy, and the fact that she's out gathering sticks is probably a clue as well.

But he may not know that this is the widow that he's being sent to, and so then there's some back and forth that occurs. And he called to her and said, please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink. That sounds a little bit like Jesus and the woman at the well. Bring me a little water.

Verse 11, and as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And by the way, bring me some bread. this was probably, John Gill says this is said to still further try whether she was the person that was to sustain him and also so that he could continue having some discourse. So he's probably putting out a little bit of a fleece to see if, if this is the widow that's going to provide.

Then verse 12, and so she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil and a jar, and see, I am gathering a couple sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself, my son, that we may eat it and die. So notice that she says, as Yahweh, your God lives, uses a similar phrase that Elijah uses in verse one. She recognizes him as a prophet of Yahweh. Notice that she calls him your God, so at this point, it's probably not her God, but it's Elijah's God.

How would she recognize Elijah? How would she know that he's a follower of Yahweh or a prophet of God? Well, he's Jewish in non-Jewish territory. It's probably not a, it doesn't happen very often that you see a Jew wandering up to Zarafa in Jezebel's town.

and then also, you guys remember how Elijah dressed, right? So he sticks out like a sore thumb with his camel's hair and his belt and stuff like that. And so she would have recognized that he is unusual dressing like a prophet, but then to the request about bread, she basically just tells him the facts. I don't have any bread.

All I've got some flour, a little bit of oil. I'm just gathering some sticks so we can eat our last meal and die and she doesn't seem to be exaggerating. She fully expects that this is gonna be it for her and her son. And so to that Elijah responds, Elijah said to her, do not fear, just love that that's just so many, so many times all throughout the Bible we see God's messengers, we see Jesus Christ, the word just telling, telling us don't fear, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterwards make some for yourself and your son.

Now he breaks into prophetic speech and gives her a nice thus says the Lord. Here comes a promise, verse 14, for thus says the Lord God of Israel. You're right. You called, Israel my God.

Here's what the living God has to say to you. The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day Yahweh sends rain. On the earth while God is the one who has caused this famine and this drought for you, God is going to provide for you until the rain comes back. So what did she do?

She went away and did according to the word of Elijah. She believed and she, she believed what Elijah had told her in his thus says the Lord pronouncement, and she went and, and she and her household ate for. Many days. And the bin of flour was not used up nor the jar of oil run dry according to what the word of the Lord which he had spoken by Christ.

The very bread of life comes and gives her bread, and it does not run dry until the rains come. When it says many days, many commentators would say that this is at least 1 year, maybe longer, maybe up to 2 years based on what we see later in the context. That the Lord is just providing time and time again. And just imagine, being this, this widow, that's like, the idea seems to be here.

She opens up her cupboard, so to speak, and there's enough flour and oil in there to make the meal for the day and her and her son and Elijah eat, and then she goes to bed and gets up in the morning and opens up the cupboard and there's enough for the next day, and then there's enough for the next day, and it goes on that way for a year or two. And this is just the way the Lord rolls in providing for Elijah and this widow. By the way, this very story Jesus calls to mind when he's in his hometown in Nazareth, and he's basically gives them that word from the Lord when he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor and to bring healing to the suffering and so on, and he says this is fulfilled in your midst and their response is.

Hey, that's, isn't that just Mary's son over there?

Who is this guy? Who does this guy think he is? And Jesus responds in this way in Luke chapter 4, assuredly I say to you that no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows in were in Israel in the days of Elijah, but, the heaven was shut up 3 years and 6 months, and there was a great famine throughout the land, but to none of them was Elijah sent except Zeraha in the region of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.

Four marks against her. She's from Zarafath, Sidon, she's a woman, and she's a widow. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, and they try to kill Christ. Why in the world would they try to kill Jesus about this wonderful little story?

Because there the message of Christ was very clear that Christ had sent the word of the Lord had sent Elijah not to any Israelite widows, the, the golden calf campaign and the bail revival had been effective. There were no other worshiping widows in Israel. The only remaining believers were Elijah and his band of prophets, and so in order to go find someone who would listen to the gospel and listen to the word of God, Elijah sent up into Gentile land up into Jezebel's country.

And, and so Israel, the Jews get very, very angry about this, and yet we have this widow being pronounced do not fear it's gonna be provided for you, things are gonna be OK, and the word of the Lord and his promise is fulfilled.

But then that brings us to our 4th word. Our fourth word is calamity and questions come to pass, and I really think that this is these two verses are the center of what's going on here, the center of the conflict, calamity and questions come to pass, and it comes to pass after these things that the widow's son gets sick and dies. Let's look at verse 17 and 18. It, it'd be nice if the story ended in verse 16.

Wouldn't that be nice? Just run the credits right there. Everything's, everything's going good. But then, as the Bible always does, the Bible's always messing things up.

The Bible doesn't tell the story very well, at least in our mindset. It's like, it's always bringing in these bad news situations. Verse 17. Now it came to pass that now it happened or it came to pass after these things, literally the, the Hebrew there is after these matters, after these words, it could be that after these words from the Lord or just after these things that God caused to happen, but after these things or after these words that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick.

And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. In other words, he died. And so she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son?

Can't you just relate with the lady's misery? It's like God has done all these wonderful things. For such a time. This widow who has just escaped all the terrors of Baal worship is beginning to taste and see that Yahweh is good.

And what does Yahweh do? He crushes her. And kills her son is the words that she says. And it just begs the question, you can relate.

I think most of us can relate with her question, does God make us glad only to increase our pain? Does he lift us up higher just to let us drop harder? Is that what is going on here? And, and where is she gonna go with the death of her, her child?

And notice the, the way that she's communicating this that what have I to do with you, a man of God? In other words, why did you really come here? Oh, I get it now. I get it.

You're the prophet who prayed for no rain. And God sent you here to call my sins to remembrance. You can imagine what it might be like to live with a prophet like Elijah. this lady who had come out of baal worship in Gentile land, it's like she's living with a prophet.

And when the bad stuff comes down, she's like, OK, I get it. God sent you here to punish me for my sins, and she doesn't tell us what those sins are, but she knows what they are. And maybe the presence of Elijah has brought those sins to mind, almost like when Jesus was visiting Peter on the beach and Peter says, depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. Something about Elijah's presence has called her sins remembrance, but she had been comforted by just the daily provisions of the Lord and was tasting and seeing that the Lord indeed is good, but then when her son dies in her lap.

She's like, OK, the other shoe has dropped. Now. I, I see what's really going on here. God sent you here to kill my son for my sins.

And I don't know about you, but I've had that type of response to bad things in my life. Things have happened to me where I find myself thinking, OK, I get it. The Lord is causing this to happen now because of what I did back then. And the thing is, is we do have a theology that tells us that God does punish sin.

that's why rain has been withheld from Ahab's Israel. God does punish sin. He is a just God, and in our conscience, we all know that we deserve judgment, right? And so when bad things happen, it can be easy to assign reasons for those things to some particular sin because we are sinners.

But is that why, is that ultimately why God brought Elijah? To this woman's house. she's not the only one in the Bible to ask these kinds of questions. You could turn over to 2 Kings chapter 4 where the Lord had brought Elisha to a wealthy woman's house and, and then by God's prophetic word, she has a baby in her old age and, and this child grows up and they're enjoying the beauty of this child, and then he's in the field one day and my head, my head, and then he dies in her arms.

And she goes to Elijah and she's like, I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for the sun. Did you do this just to crush me? Or what about Mary and Martha with their brother Lazarus, that Jesus, while he's hanging out with the boys a few miles outside of the city, Lazarus dies and then Jesus shows up afterwards and Mary runs up and says, where were you?

Why weren't you here? If you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. We see John the Baptist himself, he seems to have believed in the promises of the coming Messiah and perhaps had a certain concept of the Davidic throne and the promises, but then finds himself in prison one day. And sends a couple of his messengers over to Christ and says, are you the coming one or do we look for another?

Jesus' response to John the Baptist, his cousin, is very interesting. Over in Matthew chapter 10 verse 4, he says, Go and tell John the things which you hear. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

The Bible does not shy away from these kinds of questioning of the word of the Lord. In fact, the Words himself, when he's on the cross, he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus was the answer to years of hopes and prayers, and then he is in an instant taken away. Is the Lord going to forsake us?

Is the Lord just raising up to crush us? Is he blessing us to do harm to us? What is the Lord up to in his work of Providence? That brings us to the final word that we'll talk about.

Number 5. Number 5, resurrection promises come to pass. Resurrection promises come to pass, and it comes to pass that the Lord hears Elijah's prayers, revives the child, and then the word of the Lord directs Elijah back to Ahab with the promise of sending rain onto the land again. Let's look at verse 19 and following.

And he said to her, now notice what Elijah does not do. Elijah doesn't turn to the widow and say. Where is your faith in this instance? He does not chide her.

He does not rebuke her. What does he do? He says, give me your son. So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.

And so we, we now get the clue. We don't know up until this point that this is a child. This is a child that Elijah can carry upstairs, puts him on his own bed, makes his own bed unclean with a dead body. And then he cried out to the Lord and said, And this is always the part that gets me, oh Lord my God.

Have you Also brought tragedy on this widow. With whom I lodge by killing. By killing her son. What Elijah does is he just takes the cry of the widow and then he cries out to the Lord with that same cry.

That becomes his cry. Notice he doesn't Alter the covenant name. He still calls Lord Yahweh, the covenant Yahweh. He calls him my God.

Have you brought this tragedy that's, that's actually probably a soft way to put that word, calamity, even the word evil over in 16 verse 25 when it says Amre did evil, it's the exact same word. Have you Lord brought this evil on this woman with whom I lodged. She showed me hospitality by killing her son. Are you really?

You're gonna kill her son? And bring this into her life. So he owns the woman's question. And the Lord owns our questions when he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Verse 21 and he stretched himself out onto the child 3 times and then he cries out again to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray let this child's soul come back to him. In stretching himself out on this sun, he does what a lot of prophets would do. It's a typical symbolic act that would have been familiar of the prophetic movement in Israel, basically acting out. what he is praying, let the lifeless body, be as my lively body as I pray to you, really prayer being operative, but We see this type of thing even in the New Testament when a, when a boy falls out of a widow out of, out of a window and, and, and Paul runs over and grabs the boy and then basically the boy is saved.

we see a lot of interesting things happening all throughout the Bible, even, a lady with a flow of blood reaching out and just touching the hymn of Christ's garment and being healed. And so this isn't some abracadabra. this is not some religious magical act. He is a servant who is crying out to the Lord and prostrating himself on the boy and crying out to the Lord, but it's interesting what he asked for.

And if, if we don't draw attention to this, we can, we can miss it. I pray, let the child's soul come back to him. This is, unprecedented. Up to this point, we, when we read the scriptures, we see a lot of resurrections, but this has never been asked for in the Bible up to this point.

This has never occurred. It's not like Elijah asked for something that there's a long history of resurrections. This had never occurred. Nobody had ever asked for it, and it had never been seen.

It is absolutely without precedent, and this is the first time in the Bible that we have any hint that anybody would be raised from the dead. What would make Elijah ask for such a thing? Well, he's a prophet and he's no doubt uttering the Lord's own heart. Perhaps as a good prophet, he remembers Torah and remembers at least the promise that was made to Abraham through Isaac that if he were to die, that he could be raised from the dead.

But we don't really know, but for some reason, he asked for something that had never occurred before and notice how the Lord responds in verse 22. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back and he revived. He was resurrected. There was a separation of soul and body, but God brings the soul and body back together in this, this boy is, is revived, and then Elijah takes the child and he brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother.

And Elijah said, see your son lives this has had to be absolutely amazing if you can just imagine being this mother that there's no hope that that could possibly happen because it's never even been heard of, it's never been done. We've seen, ravens feeding and, people and we've seen oil and flour and that stuff, but who would have ever thought of such a thing. And then her response is, is amazing. Verse 24, the woman said to Elijah, now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.

It's not that she didn't know that Elijah was a man of God before that, she'd been living and experiencing the blessings with him for over a year. And she had heard truth from the mouth of Elijah, but now she seems to say, now I know by experience that the word of the Lord is truth. Now I know the word of the Lord. Now I know the word and grace and truth.

And, and his word is in your mouth, and it seems like her faith is increased at this moment. Perhaps like John the Baptist that once he hears the words of what Christ is doing while he's in a prison, he hears the words of Christ preaching the gospel to the poor and healing the sick and the blind, and even raising the dead, and this gives her faith and hope. And then it's out of this context. That we see and, and really, this is probably, I, I'm not always a huge fan of where our chapter breaks are.

you need to remember that chapter breaks are, were instituted many, many years later. They're not inspired. But what you have in 18 verse 1 is, and it came to pass. After many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the 3rd year, saying, Go present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.

What comes to pass, is just like God had brought the rain or take the rain away, he's now gonna bring it back, and he's sending Elijah to go pronounce this coming blessing. To pronounce this grace that God is going to send the rain, and he has kept his promise to provide for this widow throughout those throughout that time, and he's even raised this widow's son from the dead. Amazing. And so how would Ahab, how should of Ahab responded to both the judgment, the pronouncement of judgment and the pronouncement of grace?

Well, we see all throughout the Bible that God will pronounce things through his prophets that were meant to relent. We're meant to repent, so God will relent. Ahab, as soon as he heard the pronouncement of, of rain not coming down upon Israel, should have recalled Deuteronomy 28 and repented like he actually does later. He actually does put on sackcloth and ashes later, and God immediately sends a prophet.

Back to pronounce grace over him, but this went on for 3 years. God now is going to approach Ahab. We're gonna move now into the Mount Carmel showdown. It's gonna seem like everything's gravy and that Ahab repents, but you guys know where the story's going from there.

There's another fleeing from Jezebel scene, but let's stick here with this and let's, let's ask some questions here of, of this text. Why is this text in our Bibles? Is this text in our Bibles just so that we'll know a little bit about how God used some birds and and and and rose somebody from the dead. Well, I think that this text is in our Bibles partly to point us to the word of the Lord.

Partly to point us to the, the God who causes things to come to pass, he just says things and they come, and he sends his spirit and it goes and, and Jesus Christ pronounces things and says, let there be light, and there was light, and then God the Father sends the son into the world and then he comes and pronounces good news. To the whole world, we've had a promise to David that his son would sit on the throne and, and the end of his reign would never end, and that promise is ultimately to the second David to Jesus Christ.

He's the coming king, and by the way, he is the wise king in the place of Solomon, and he will be the ultimate prophet that will far outshine Elijah. Revelation 1:18 tells us where Jesus says, I am he who lives and was dead.

And behold, I'm alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Hades and death. Jesus Christ is the one that cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then he went into the grave and he was raised from the dead. And now he holds the keys to raise all from the dead who would place their faith in Him.

And so this text is meant to point us to the word of the Lord. But it's also meant to be a warning to idolaters and haters of God and His people. Ahab and Jezebel and they're like hated God, loved Baal, hated God's people. Jezebel was on a killing spree of God's prophets to where Obadiah has to hide a few 100 here and a few 100 there.

And even Yahweh, according to the word of the Lord, is sending Elijah off and hiding to protect him from those who hate God and His people. And so warnings like or passages like this should warn all God haters and all idolaters that if you mess with God's people, he will mess with you. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 talks about how that Christ will come back and flaming fire, taking vengeance upon his enemies and all those who disobey the gospel, those who reap tribulation upon the heads of God's people.

He will comfort them by bringing tribulation upon their persecutors.

And so a passage like this should warn anybody here who would despise God and go after idols and do damage to God's bride, you dare not touch his anointed. Thirdly, this is a comfort to you as people to strengthen your faith. We can ask the question, it's great that the widow's son was raised from the dead, but what about my child? What about Elizabeth Myers that passed away in 2004?

What about David Alcarez that passed away in 2002? What about your loved ones who have passed away? Why hasn't the Lord raised them from the dead? Well, this is a sign passage.

Just like Jerrius's daughter and the widow of Nain and Lazarus, sign passages should not be despised. After all, they are significant, and they point to the one who has power over death, who was raised from the dead himself and who plunders his prey at will. God Jesus Christ is the one. Who has been raised as the first fruits and points to our own resurrection and all of your loved ones who have died in Christ, we do not sorrow as the world.

The world many times tries to say that death and sickness is an illusion. but we look and we see, no, these are real trials that we experienced. This is real death. This is real sickness.

But as First Thessalonians 4 tells us, we do not sorrow as the world because those of our loved ones who believed in Christ, they've died to sleep only to be raised again at Christ's return. And so we can comfort one another with these words, as Hebrews 11:35 says that, women received back their dead by resurrection. That just as women in the past as signed passages receive their dead back, so we shall too be raised and receive our dead back, all who die in Christ. Years ago there was a a pastor whose wife had passed away in faith in Christ, and after she passed, he had, he quoted this part of the Westminster catechism, the question is what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer the soul of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory. And their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. All you have lost loved ones in Christ, they have immediately passed into glory and are now completely holy without any more struggle of sin, and they are still united with Christ, including their bodies. When Christ returns, we shall appear with Him.

These are great words of comfort. It makes me think of our missionary Lee Whitworth when his dear beloved Diana passed away. He was at her bedside, and as soon as she passed into glory, he shouted, Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Only a Christian can make such a pronouncement over someone who has passed. And so this son that has died and that and and and was left in the widow's arms that was raised from the dead, it points forward to our own resurrection, but it also points forward to something that God is doing for all his, his beloved, both in Israel and in and Gentiles. Let me just end by Reading a section from Hosea, Hosea was a prophet to the northern tribes. He's a prophet that spoke to these people who had been overtaken by golden calf bale worship, and, and where there were just so few believers left in the land.

But notice the prophecy that Hosea has to say in chapter two, starting at verse 14. Says, therefore behold, this is Yahweh speaking through Hosea. I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her.

I will give her her vineyards from there in the valley of Achor as a door of hope. She shall sing there and in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband. And no longer call me my master, for I will take from her mouth the names of the bales, and they shall be remembered by, their name no more.

He's gonna take the idolatry out of their mouth. He will do that for her. Verse 18. In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground.

He's actually going to make a covenant with the animals to where they will do no harm to his people anymore. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth and make them lie down safely. Verse 19, I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. Just as the widow knew the word of the Lord and truth, God is going to bring His people to know His faithfulness and righteousness and kindness, and we will know Him. Verse 21, it shall come to pass that day that I will answer, says the Lord, and I will answer the heavens. And they shall answer the earth.

The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, with oil. They shall answer Jezreel. In other words, God's going to cause rain to come down as rain of grace, and the earth will respond, but with fruit. Verse 23, finally, then I will sow her for myself and the earth.

I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God. This is a prophecy of what will it, what it'll be like in the end when God draws all of his loved ones to. Himself, taking the bales out of our mouths and throwing away our idols, proving Himself faithful to us, causing even the animals to have a covenant with us where all warfare will be laid down, sins will be forgiven, and we will be with the true David, the fulfilled David, the second David forever and ever and ever.

Amen. I pray, Lord, that, that this has been a blessing to you as it's been to me. I know that there are many of us in our body who have been through great suffering the last several years. And yet we do not suffer as those who have no hope, and we can comfort one another with these words.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this wonderful text and these reminders, Lord, that this widow who lived up in a, a pagan area with no hope of the gospel, Lord, that you moved and caused circumstances to occur in such a way to go out and grab this lady and to save her and her son and to pronounce comfort not just over her but as a sign to us. We thank you, Lord, that while we don't always understand the things that you cause to come to pass, we see your faithfulness in this text, we see your faithfulness to us through the Word, through Jesus Christ.

We ask God that you would increase our faith.

Lord, help us not to, to be ashamed or to shy away from the questions that we have. We thank you, Lord, that as this woman was able to raise her questions, those questions are reflected in Elijah. And even reflected in our own savior Jesus Christ on the cross, we pray, Father, that the same questions, Lord, would, would turn into faith as we see that Jesus is the one that holds the keys and that he is the one that will bring comfort to all his people. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name.

All God's people said, Amen.