Nuggets 91: Passing the Faith Test

  • B. Shelburne
  • Mar 7, 2008
  • Series: Nuggets

King Ahab wanted Elijah dead!  It was tough to be a prophet.  Ahab had the disposition of a rattlesnake.  God sent Elijah with a message that would infuriate Ahab.  'You have told Israel that the idol Baal sends the rain.  There will be neither dew nor rain until Israel acknowledges that it is the Lord God who sends the rain.'

 

Elijah fled before the guards could arrest him.  God sent him to hide in the Cherith Ravine.  God knew exactly where Ahab would not find Elijah.  Elijah drank from the brook and the ravens brought him food.  All of nature obeys God.  Jesus promises that if we put God's kingdom first, God sees to it that our earthly needs are supplied.  And God has helpers in unlikely places.  When the brook dried up from lack of rain, God sent Elijah north to Zarephath, in pagan country. 

 

God chooses a person hardly able to help Elijah or anyone else.  She is a widow, one of many people starving because of the drought.  God chooses the weak so that the glory will be his and not man's.  When Elijah meets the widow, she is gathering sticks for cooking fire.  He asks for a drink and a cake of bread. 

"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it--and die." Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.  For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.'"

How God tests her faith!  She is to put God's assignment before her own life or her son's life.  In the world's eyes it seems completely unreasonable for God to ask this of a woman who is about to starve.  God often challenges our faith with the unreasonable.  When we turn away and say, "That's unreasonable!  God would not expect that of anyone!", we fail the challenge and miss the blessing.  Putting God's service first is a step of faith, trusting that he will provide.  People do this, for example, who put a tithe (tenth) for God at the very top of their budget, before they pay anything else.  God really does provide for us when we trust him enough to put his work first.

 

 

1 Kings 17;  Matthew 6:33;  Philippians 4:6;  Luke 4:25,26;  Mark 12:41-44;  Proverbs 3:9,10;  Matthew 16:24,25:  Malachi 3:7-11

 

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

 

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