I Kings 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee
First Kings 17 is one of these wonderful stories that you may have heard when you were a child in Sunday School. It is a story of God’s prophet Elijah during a spiritually trying time in the land of Israel and a very difficult time of famine that God had sent upon wicked King Ahab. Elijah is the instrument God used to proclaim this time of dearth in the land. Not only was King Ahab under this famine, but Elijah himself was under this famine.
God provided for Elijah in two extraordinary ways. One, ravens were commanded by God to bring food to Elijah. Second, God tells Elijah in verse 9 “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” Why in the world would God send a hungry prophet to a widowed woman? Of all the people who had nothing to give, certainly a widow would be chief among them, yet that is where God sent Elijah. There is a very important lesson here: God always supplies for those who give. God doesn’t only want to give to you; God wants to give through you. If God is giving through you, then you yourself will be provided for.
What would this widow of Zarephath tell us if she were here today? I think she would say three things. One, do what you can. In verse 12 she said, “As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: 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.” She didn’t have much, just a little bit of meal and oil and two sticks. This was an economy that only a starving person could have. She had the very sticks counted! She was planning to eat this last meal and die.
Let me tell you that everyone who was ever used of God obeyed even though they were in over their head. This woman said, “I don’t have a lot. I have only two sticks to start this fire and prepare this meal.” Elijah told her, “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.” Was this prophet completely heartless? Or did God have a plan of providing for her even as He provided through her?
Second, give what you can. She didn’t have much, but she gave what she had. God doesn’t provide primarily through wealthy people; God provides through generous, obedient people who may be wealthy or poor. You can’t give what you don’t have, but when you give what you do have, that giving bumps you up in line for God’s provision. We are not talking about health and wealth. We are saying that when I give, I can be assured that God will provide for me. God gives to those who are givers.
Years ago, my grandfather used to give a speech every Monday to the adults who had come with groups to the Bill Rice Ranch. He would say, “If ever you have lived for someone else, make it this week at camp.” My dad was a young man who would be there all summer in the heat with no air conditioning, and he heard this speech every Monday. He thought to himself, “Dad, you are asking these people to live for someone else for one week, what about us poor people who have to live for someone else all summer long?” Then Dad would say, “One day I realized that is the way I should live every day anyway.” So, do what you can, give what you can.
Third, trust God to do more than you can. God is not limited by your prospects. “I have not,” she said. “I have only two sticks,” she said. “I have only a little oil and meal,” she said. Yet, God is not limited by your prospects.
God is not limited by your power. She was a Gentile, a widow, a woman, which at that time would not have been a position of great power, yet she was a woman of power because she was a woman who submitted to God’s guidance in her life.
God is not limited by your provision, what you have. Was she asked to do the impossible? Well, it wasn’t impossible for God. Things are impossible for me sometimes, but never for God. So, what she was asked to give, she did have, yet she did not have more than that. Still God used this to provide what she did not have. Verse 14 says, “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth 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.”
You see, the God who allowed the need can supply the need. To wicked King Ahab, this drought was a judgment. To Elijah, this drought was a test. To this widow, this drought was the beginning of God’s special provision because God always supplies those who give.