Sermon in Minneapolis 16.09.2007

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us begin our services with opening prayer and thanksgiving. Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, again this evening, assembled before your Holy Word, we ask for your service blessings. We ask that you would open your Word so that we could, each and every one of us, be guided, fed, nourished, and instructed on this narrow way of life. Remind us of the sole reason for our salvation, which is the merit of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Be with us now and forever. Amen.

From another year assigned for this Sunday is from 1 Kings chapter 17, verses 8 through 16. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the woman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, 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, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. 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 the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruz of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruz of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. Amen.

This was during the time when the kingdom of Israel was divided into two parts, the north and the south. And as a result of the sin of Jeroboam, if I remember right, who was the son of Solomon, this division took place. But it already had reasons or roots earlier. And it was because of the unfaithfulness and sinful life of King Solomon, who began his reign as a king in his mid-life. He was considered to be the wisest man here on the earth. He expanded the kingdom to be greater and larger than it had ever been before and has ever been hereafter. But we could say his major downfall was women. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. And as a punishment for this sinful life, God then divided the unified kingdom into the north and the south. Amen.

The dark end. Can the Lamb be made obeyed? Now, during the time of the divided kingdom, the prophet Elijah, of whom it is in question here in this text, was working and prophesying. He was active and prophetic as a tool for God. The king that was on the throne during this period of time was King Ahab, who reigned for 20 years. King Ahab was disobedient; he took a wife from a foreign nation, actually from the country of Sidon where Elijah would end up here in this text. So his wife Jezebel was a daughter of a pagan king of that Gentile, that foreign country Sidon. Jezebel, the new queen, worshiped pagan idols and in fact she brought into the country 850 different pagan gods, idol gods. 400 of them were the idols of the gods of Baal and 450 were of the gods of Astarte. So the king's palace became a center of worship for pagan gods.

This is where the sin of Jeroboam comes into question. They were bringing in priests to serve there in the temple, which was not the temple of Jerusalem. The temple of Jerusalem was the only temple sanctioned by God. In the north, they wanted to have their own temples, so they erected altars in two cities in the northern country, one in the city of Dan and one in another city which I don't remember its name at this time. According to the juniper consume, they were for their own purpose. These gods brought them together and dedicated the bones were documented here reportedly.

According to the command of God since the wilderness journey when Moses received the law of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, God commanded that only men from the tribe of Levi would be priests and could function as priests in the temple. And so this was one of the sins of Jeroboam, and King Ahab continued this practice apparently by choosing men not from the tribe of Levi to be priests in these other temples, new temples, which were not sanctioned and approved of by God.

So prophet Elijah was called by God to battle against this ungodliness that had crept into the country, not only crept into the country, but swept through the country. Then King Ahab, at the command of his wicked wife Jezebel, commanded that all of the prophets of God would be slain. He was trying to, we could say, snuff out living Christianity from the face of the earth.

Now Elijah, who was a worker in the vineyard of God, was a tool of the Lord. He actually, we could say, dried up in himself. He thought that the work of King Ahab was apparently successful and that King Ahab had snuffed out, completely did away with all of living Christianity on the face of the earth. But Elijah says, I, and only I, am left remaining. I am the only true believer any longer here. I am the only true believer. Everyone else has either been killed or they have gone wayward ways and gone astray. I am the only one who is correctly believing.

But God needed to instruct Elijah. And, in fact, there was one of the servants in the house of King Ahab who was a believer and needed to instruct Prophet Elijah that, don't you know, didn't you realize that there are still 7,000 believers? Not just you, but 7,000 believers here in this country. God had protected them. God had healed. God had put them in caves. It's not you and only you who is believing correctly.

So, we can see that Prophet Elijah, even though he was a great tool in the hand of the Lord, he was faulty. He was a sinner. And he had sin corruptions. He had sin corrupt flesh, just like you and I. And the Apostle James writes in his epistle, when he alludes to this time in the history of the Old Testament, that Prophet Elijah was faulty. He was a sinner. And he had lusts and desires just like any one of us.

But God wanted to test. He wanted to try the people there in that land. So he commands Prophet Elijah to pray. We heard much about the topic of prayer this morning. God commanded Elijah to pray. God commanded Elijah to pray. God commanded Elijah to pray. God commanded Elijah to pray. God commanded Elijah to pray. God commanded Elijah to pray. And pray that it would not rain upon the face of the earth. I'm sure in that general locality for a period of three and one half years.

There was actually a reason for this. Because many of these false gods, these idols, that had been brought into the country by King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, were such gods that they were to be able to control even the weather. They were gods of the environment, the weather. So God was wishing to show through this power of God, through this power of prayer of Prophet Elijah, that in the end, even weather is in the control of the mighty hand of God, the omnipotent, the all-powerful, one and only God, who is living and here in this world.

So we know very clearly from experience what it is like if we do not have rain for a period of time. During midsummer here in this locality, we experienced a drought. I don't remember how many days it was without rain, but things were brown, dry, and the land around was turning to dust. All of the plant life was quickly dying. So this is only a period of several weeks, maybe a month, two months at the most. We could only imagine what the earth, what the ground would look like around us, if there wasn't any rain for a period of three and one half years.

Now today's theme for the text for this church calendar day is God's care, or God takes care of us. And God surely did take care of the Prophet Elijah during this period of drought, where I'm sure there was not very much food to be found at all. God led him to a stream or a brook that eventually ran into the River Jordan, Cherith, the brook of Cherith. And there God sent food to him. He was actually fed by the blackbirds or the ravens, the fowl of the air, which daily brought food to him when he was taking his abode on the banks of this small brook.

Eventually then, because of the drought, this stream or this brook dried up. And it was at this time that our text begins. And it says, at this time, and the word of the Lord came unto him, Prophet Elijah, who is now beside that dried up brook, a dry river basin, and says, Arise. Very similar to the command that Abraham once received when he was in the area of his in-laws and ancestors in Haran. And God gave him command. Abraham, rise. Leave your family. Leave your country. All of your kindred behind. And begin to travel and go to that land which I will show unto you.

I'm sure it seemed foolish, a foolish thing to do for this old man. Was he already seventy years old or more? And a wife who was ten years younger than him, to leave all her possessions, her family, their homeland behind, and go toward an unknown destination. But Abraham was obedient. He showed obedience to the command, to the voice of God, the Heavenly Father.

So now, Prophet Elijah receives, in like manner, a similar type of command. Arise and go to Zarephath, which is a pagan city in a pagan country, in the country of Sidon. It's interesting to note that this is the country from which Ahab brought his wife, that evil king, that queen of his, Jezebel. And this word, Zarephath, actually means fiery furnace. And this, in a metaphorical sense, has much meaning for many of the trials and tribulations that not only Elijah is going through, but also the people of the land of Israel are experiencing.

It was a time of drought. It was a time of famine. And we could say a great time of recession, using some terminology from economics of today. So it was a great trial, a great trial to their life of faith. And just as a metallurgist, during those times, would purify metal by heating it up to a melting point in a hot, fiery furnace, in order that the slag would come to the surface and could be removed, so that the metal would be purified. The Apostle Peter uses this analogy, and he says, and so likewise is our faith like gold, which is often tried. It is tried in a fiery furnace, so it would become more pure, or the impurities could be burned away and removed.

And so now, literally, Elijah is now going to this city, which means fiery furnace, a furnace of cleansing and purification. So, arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there. And behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you, or in other words, to provide you food.

So he was obedient to the command of God. He arose, he went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, lo and behold, who was there but the widow woman, of whom God said would provide him sustenance or food. And behold, the woman who was there was gathering sticks. So we can see even by this simple picture, that she did not have things aplenty. So she was there, so she needed to go around the city like beggars, like vagabonds, and gather pieces and tidbits of food from wherever it could be found, and find wood for her fireplace or her fire at home from wherever it could be recovered. She was literally a woman, a widow woman of poverty.

So he sees this woman as soon as he arrives at the outskirts of the city. And he calls to her and he says, fetch me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he calls to her and he says, bring me, I pray, a morsel of bread, a little bit of bread in your hand. I'm sure he had traveled a long distance. I don't, I didn't look up the distance between the brook of Cherith and the city of Zarephath. But I'm sure it was quite a distance. There was a famine already. And after this long trip, I'm sure he was truly, truly, truly famished. So he asked this woman for a little bit of water to drink and a little morsel of bread to satisfy his, I'm sure, terrible hunger.

And she said, she replied, as the Lord, your God lives, I do not have cake or any bread. She was completely out of food herself. It's interesting to note that it was very important in those days. The man was the sole provider of the home. And the woman would never work. So if there wasn't a man to provide for the home, the home was in a pretty sad condition. And therefore it was very good, very important that when a man and a woman got married, there would be children. And if for some reason or another children were not blessed into the home, it was considered that God was cursing that family. It was considered a punishment of God. The children, the offspring were needed so that they could be helpers, laborers, and workers to assist with the family.

So lo and behold, here is this woman, a widow woman. Her only provider for income and food for the family had passed away. There was no such thing back in those days as a social security system or any other social network in society where taxes would be collected from the people and somehow tax monies would be used and gathered together and there would be some tools of money to be drawn on for people who were truly in poverty and in need. So she was truly in dire straits, if we could say it in this way.

So she said, as the Lord your God lives, I don't have any food. The only thing I have left is a handful of meal, just a handful of flour left in the bin and a little bit of oil, cooking oil in a cruz or in a bottle. And behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it, use it for some purpose for me and my son. Or she's going to use the sticks, I suppose, for the fire, so she could use a little bit of flour and a little bit of cooking oil to make maybe a biscuit which would be shared between herself and her only son. So that we may eat it. And after that, we will die. We have no more food. We don't know where the next meal is coming from.

Elijah said unto her, Fear not. Go and do as I have said. But make me first. Use that little bit of, that handful of flour and that little bit of cooking oil. Make me first something to eat. And you will be provided for as well.

We could maybe think of other situations in the Old Testament where God provided as if out of nothing. We remember when Abraham was asked to go sacrifice his only son, Isaac, there on Mount Moriah. They walked a three-day journey. And the son, Isaac, maybe a teenage boy at that time already, was very familiar with the offering of sacrifices. He said, Father, you have wood. You have a little fire ready to kindle the wood. And you are going to build an altar and offer a sacrifice. You have everything except for the sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice? The only answer Abraham could say was, God will provide. Isaac is bound, laid on top of the altar. And according to the command of God, Abraham takes his knife and is ready to slay his only son. And God said, Abraham, don't do that. For I know you have feared the Lord. You have been obedient to his wishes. And lo and behold, there in the bushes behind them, or nearby, was a ram caught in the thicket. The ram was placed on the altar in place of Isaac.

We remember when Noah was asked to build the ark, which seemed like a foolish task. It was in the middle of dry land, no body of water nearby, not a drop of water had fallen from the heavens. And God said, build an ark to protect yourself from the flood. This seemed like, I'm sure, foolishness. But Noah was obedient. And lo and behold, the word of the Lord was fulfilled.

We remember at the end of the wilderness journey, then Joshua was asked to lead the people of Israel over the River Jordan into the Promised Land, which was occupied by mighty people that were well fortified and had many great arms. The first city that they came to was the city of Ai. God said to the people of Israel, you will conquer, you will take this greatly fortified city. I'm sure it seemed like foolishness. I'm sure they had no arms or weapons at all. They were greatly, I'm sure, outnumbered. God said, circle the city seven times each day for seven days, seven subsequent days. They were obedient. It seemed foolish. And lo and behold, on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho, not Ai, came to the city. And the city was falling, tumbling down.

And so here it says, Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do what I have asked you to do. But make me thereof a little bread first, bring it unto me, and after that, make for you and your son. So this widow woman was obedient. Did what the prophet commanded her to do.

When we look at today's Gospel text, two of them are from Jesus' sermon on the mount. And when we opened up Sunday School this morning, we referred to that song of Zion, or look at the bird on the branch of the tree. Its singing is so beautiful, or however it continues. And this is coming from the words of Jesus in the sixth chapter of Matthew. Instruction for his disciples were, I'm sure, many times of weak faith and many times doubting. Look at the birds, the fowls of the air. They do not plan for the next day how they will get food for themselves and for their chicks and so on and so forth. They sow not, they reap not, and so on and so forth.

But then Jesus goes on to say that aren't you human beings who are the apple of God's eye, created in the image of God, much more worthy than the birds, than the animals, and even the flowers of the field. So, we need to have this simple childlike trust. I'm sure our little children at home don't even give in to this. Don't even give it a second thought where the next meal will come from, how clothes will be provided for them, and whether they will have a roof over their head tonight, tomorrow night, and so on and so forth.

Oh, if we adults could always be like these little children, with this childlike faith and trust. We are many times so doubting and encompassed about by cares and temptations and worries. But that doesn't mean, as the old church father said, that we would be like the fisherman who goes out on the lake to fish and just takes a nap and expects the fish to start jumping into the boat. No. We need to work hard. We need to cast the lures and cast the nets into the lake or into the seas or into the oceans. We work hard. We toil hard. But God will bless. God will give the increase according to His good measure and His good will.

So we don't, as Jesus says, need to sorrow and have undue worry and concern what we shall eat. And so likewise, the prophet Elijah tells this widow woman that have no fear. Take your remaining flour, your remaining baking oil, make it into bread or a biscuit. Feed me. Feed me. And there will be enough for you as well.

Just as the time that Jesus performed that feeding miracle where there were 5,000 adult men and in addition, women and children which weren't counted during those times in history. They had five loaves of bread and three fishes, something like that. And not enough fish, not enough food to feed a dozen people, not to think of thousands of people. The food was passed out. Everyone's stomach was plump full and 12 baskets of crumbs, uneaten crumbs, were gathered up after the meal was enjoyed.

So God takes care of us, takes care of us temporally, but more so, much more so, takes care of us spiritually. We don't live of just spirit. Even though the Bible says that man does not live by bread alone, but we do need bread. We do need food on the table. We do need clothes for ourselves. We need a roof over our house. We need money in our bank accounts for tomorrow and the next day and so forth. So these things do have their place and do have their importance. But in spite of it, they are not the most important things in life.

So we have flesh and blood. We are like Elijah. We are sin corrupt. We have doubts. We have temptations. And we have the same lusts and desires like the prophet Elijah. But as this morning we heard about prayer, the prophet Elijah had been commanded to pray. Pray that rain would not come upon the earth for a period of three and a half years. And so he prayed and it came to be. Rain did not fall for three and a half years.

So the apostle James says, the prayer of the righteous avails much when it is in the truth. But when it is in the truth, it is interesting what the apostle Paul writes to the Romans. It says, only God is true and just. And all of us as human beings are nothing but liars. Only God is true and just. But we have this old portion. And this is what the apostle Paul is referring to, this old man, this sin-fallen, corrupt, perishable portion that we have.

But as believers we also have this new man, this new portion that has been washed and cleansed with the blood of the Lamb. And by and through faith we have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, as it's written in the Bible, leads us into all the truth. So we are sinners, but we are pardoned sinners. And we have by faith received this spirit of truth. So the prayer of the righteous avails much for it is in the truth.

So man does not live by bread alone. So Jesus ends the Gospel text for one of the texts for today, where he's talking about the beauty and the wisdom of Solomon. But even the flowers of the field and the grass of the pastures are much more beautiful even than all of the beauty of King Solomon. But he says that even this beauty will wither, dry up, and perish and disappear. Then he says that how much more important and greater are you in the eyes of God than even the animals and the plant life here on this earth.

So then he concludes and he says, seek first the kingdom of God. This is of number one importance, the kingdom of God. And in the kingdom of God, we find that gift of all gifts, the treasure of all treasures, which is the righteousness of Christ, which is like a treasure hidden in a field. So seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Then after this, all else, everything else will be in the kingdom of God. And then, the kingdom of God will be given unto you. Given as a gift of God, as a blessing of God, according to how God sees fit.

So God tried that woman. And I'm sure tried prophet Elijah as well. There is much more to the life of prophet Elijah. As we said, he dried up and he needed to teach him and give him many different lessons. And in the end, the life of prophet Elijah is cared for. And in the end, he is able to leave this land, leave this earth, not seeing death. Every one of us is going to one day die. Only prophet Elijah left this earth not seeing death. And then, there's another Old Testament saint mentioned in Hebrews 11 who did not see death. And then, Jesus himself when he ascended into the glory of heaven on Ascension Thursday.

But prophet Elijah was taken to heaven alive in flaming chariots, left into the glory of heaven. But our faith is many times tried. Tried like gold in a hot fire. And Peter writes in his epistle that think it not strange when you are tried and experience these fiery trials. We have this cross that we must bear and carry. He who wishes to follow me says Jesus, deny oneself daily, take up the cross and follow me. Even though it's the way of a cross, way of trials and temptations.

This journey, this road has a destination. And there at the destination is waiting for us a crown of glory, that imperishable crown which will never fade away. So it pays to believe. It pays to again renew those promises that I wish to yet endeavor. Take new steps. Not of my own strength because I'm weak, poor, faulty and faltering. But the power is in the gospel. It lifts, it carries, and will bring us one day to our eternal home.

So even now be of good cheer. Lift up your hearts to believe. Just as you find yourself. Sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood. In Jesus' name. Amen.