Elijah: A Man Just Like Us - Part 4

1 Kings 17v7-10a

Continuing the story of Elijah, we read:

1 Kings 17v7-10a
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Then the word of the LORD came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food". So he went to Zarephath.

Elijah had prophesied that it wouldn't rain. He'd prayed that it wouldn't rain. And it didn't rain. The society he lived in was enduring drought. And, unsurprisingly, the brook that Elijah was drinking from dried up.

Some of those who teach what others call the "prosperity gospel" seem to me to miss an important point. Many with that emphasis in their teaching come from a prosperous society. And they sometimes fail to observe that the prosperity of the individual depends to some extent on the prosperity of the society. We are not just individuals, we are members of a society, a nation, a people group, which God may or may not be blessing with material or other wealth. And God's people in that society must share some of the burden of that society.

Many of those who teach that God wants material blessings for his people live in the USA. I happen to think that they're right; God wants to bless his people and wealth is better than poverty, just as health is better than sickness. And the USA, which for many years was a leading Christian nation, has known God's blessing, in financial and other ways, because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. But if, as it seems to me, the USA is turning away from its Christian heritage, then this blessing from God will decrease. And the Christians in the USA will share the consequences with the non-Christians.

God told Elijah to go to a town in Lebanon. It would probably have challenged Elijah's theology that God would provide for him through a Phoenician heathen, not by an Israelite believer. But as before, it wasn't too difficult for Elijah to obey this word from God; he had no water, and he was a wanted man in Israel.

God is much bigger than our theology, and sometimes it takes an extreme situation for us to see something that God wants, but which is beyond our current understanding.

If Elijah had been living in prosperity, how much more difficult would it have been for him to acknowledge that God had told him to move to Lebanon, and to be fed by a heathen?

God knows exactly which circumstances we need, to have sufficient motivation to obey him, and so come into all the goodness that He plans for us.

Do you think that your love for God is sufficient motivation for you to obey Him in all things?

Do you?

Then why do you still sin?

God is far more merciful to us than we realise. He doesn't only forgive our sins, He provides us with the circumstances that will help us to hear and obey Him, and to form our character after His own.

For another example of this, see:

2 Corinthians 12v7-9
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Paul had a problem with being conceited. To help Paul to remain humble, God permitted him to be ill, and refused to heal him. God's overall plan for our sanctification is more important than our present comfort.

And God's plan of salvation for Israel and the church are more important than Elijah's theology - or ours.