Through the Bible - Amos 7-9, Revelation 8
Good morning,
If someone were to ask you where you would go to be "refined" how would you respond? Perhaps to an ivy league school, a school for the performing arts, a theological seminary or possibly serve as an apprentice to a high level public official. How many of you thought of the wilderness, being relocated to a small destitute town in the boonies, during a famine?
The men's Bible study group that I'm in has been studying the life of Elijah.
Elijah had been led away from society and he found himself in a desert place and we read in 1 Kings 17 that he drank water from a trickle in a gully and was fed by ravens. From there the Lord led him to a small town, Zarephath, where he approached a woman for some food and water. We'll go there for today's verses.
1 Kings 17:8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." 10 So he went to Zarephath. NIV
It may seem like an odd verse to choose, but follow me on this.
Elijah's water supply literally dried up and Elijah had to relocate. Instead of sending him to the big city, he sent him to a small town on the edge of the wilderness, a place that itself was running short of food during a time of famine.
The name Zarephath literally means "refinement" and comes from the Hebrew root OT:6884 tsaraph (tsaw-raf'); a primitive root; to fuse (metal), i.e. refine (literally or figuratively):
God sent him here to be refined, to be strengthened, for his will to be "fused" with God's. God was preparing him for greater things, but he first had to go through the refining process. Most importantly he had to learn to depend upon God daily for subsistance. First it came by water from the wadi and food from ravens (unclean to the Jews). Then he approaches a widow and requests her last bit of food.
In a time of despair, she trusts him, or perhaps thinks "why not, I'm going to die anyway". But she provides for him.
Read the rest of the passage below. Take some time to think about the situation. What would Elijah have looked like after spending time in the desert, eating "roadkill" and presumably not having a change of clothes? What would be the modern day equivalent. If you were yourself preparing the last food in the cupboard, would you give it to a foreigner who asked for it?
Where might you be refined? Perhaps you don't need to go anywhere? Perhaps it could be Kenya, Haiti, Mexico or somewhere else on a missions trip where you will find people who live day to day for their not knowing where their next meal will come from.
If God speaks to you and says to go to your "Zarephath" your place of refining, will you go?
Wherever that place may be, across the globe, across town, or in your home may you follow and be able to say "blessed be your name" as He leads you.
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
God had greater things in store for Elijah, but he first had to learn to trust in the Lord, day by day, every day for his provision, physically and spiritually. What does He have in store for you?
Elijah and the Widow
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink." 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."
12 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 in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die."
13 And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.'"
15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.
NKJV
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