The jar of meal was not emptied (1 Kings 16:31-17:16)
1 Kings 16:31-17:16 (NRSV)
31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made a sacred pole. Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua son of Nun.
17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. 7 But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
October 30, 2016 Sermon Notes
“The jar of meal was not emptied”
It is very easy when we look back on the past to be overcome with a bit of nostalgia. This is a very human thing. We like to remember the past as an idyllic time without all the problems that we encounter in today’s world. The vitriol of our current campaign season does not help this phenomenon. It is easy to ourselves, our church, and our country as worse off than we have ever been. We see real problems, think back on where we once were, and start to imagine that all hope is lost.
This is very much the situation in which the prophet Elijah found himself in today’s text. Once upon a time he had been the nation’s most powerful prophet tasked by God with confronting the corrupt power of an unjust king. Unfortunately for Elijah, challenging Ahab began a downward spiral that eventually forced him to flee to the desert where he survived on morsels dropped by ravens. Even that did not last. Soon the stream dried up and he had to resort to begging food from a foreign (presumably idolatrous) widow. How much lower could his situation get?
This text is a reminder of the fact that God’s provision does not always take the form that we would like it to take. God forced Elijah to rely on birds that were so unclean they were forbidden to eat. Elijah’s faithfulness to God’s call required him to give up everything that he had previously known and flee to the land of the very god he just denounced. How willing are we to follow God’s call and possibly give up all that we have known?
The good news is that, like Elijah and the widow, we have no reason to fear. God will be with us in the most unexpected of ways. In fact, God may use our faithfulness to provide for others. The widow had no reason to trust this foreign prophet’s promise. However, when she did, not only was her life spared, so was the life of her son. Through her actions the world was changed.
As our congregation prepares for our annual budget meeting, let us remember that God’s faithfulness is real. The jar of meal is not empty. God is still working within our midst. Just as Elijah’s presence transformed the widow’s life, Christ’s presence transforms our world. We have no greater reminder of this truth than to look at the growth of the church in some of the most expected places.
Even in situations where material wealth is non-existent, the Holy Spirit at work. Refugees fleeing oppression and economic disaster bring the love of God with them. Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees in Calais, France planted their own church with nothing more than Christ’s love and few tarps. If their jar of meal is not empty, how can we behave as if ours were? What would it look like if we had the widow’s faith and entrusted everything we have to God’s purpose and provision?
