Sermons
Refining At Zarephath
Series: Days of Elijah: God’s Righteous Mountain ManREFINING AT ZAREPHATH
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / February 04, 2018
? Mary Stottlemyer’s birthday is this Saturday. Let’s all send her a card - - address is in today’s FamilyMatters. ?
} Open your Bible to 1Kgs.17:8-16 |
Let me give a sixty-second recap before we begin today’s sermon.
Elijah condemns King Ahab, declaring that God is bringing a drought because of his wicked leadership.
A multi-year drought in the land of Israel translated into a very serious famine.
After Elijah’s prognostication, God directs Elijah to go into hiding by the brook Cherith.
Cherith provides a safe-haven for Elijah, sheltering him from the wrath of Jezebel, Ahab’s Baal-worshipping wife.
But Cherith is more than just a SAFE-HAVEN,
it is a SCHOOL that teaches Elijah the importance of leaning on God.
Elijah is there for about a year - - sustained by the brook and the food delivered by raven’s.
Eventually, due to the severity of the drought, the brook dries up.
WHAT WILL ELIJAH DO NOW?
His trusting obedience keeps him at Cherith until God gives him additional guidance.
This new directive comes in 1Kgs.17:8-9 - - Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘Arise, go to
Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.’
Puzzled though Elijah may have been, he promptly obeys. 1Kgs.17:10a states, So he arose and went to Zarephath…
Before we explore what happens at his newly-appointed place of habitation, let me offer some background info.
For the last year Elijah has been in Cherith, well-hidden from King Ahab and Jezebel.
Now God sends him far away to Zarephath - - a distance of c. 100 miles NW of Cherith on eastern edge of the Great Sea.
Since names are often significant, it is worth noting that “Zarephath” means to melt…to smelt…or to refine.
The noun form of this word means crucible. Zarephath got its name from a smelting plant that was located there.
If the brook Cherith was a kind of “boot camp”, Zarephath might be viewed as a king of “graduate school”.
At Zarephath the prophet Elijah will be undertaking courses of study that will continue to stretch him and mold him.
It will become a place of extended REFINING, where God continues to shape him for future assignments.
At first glance this seems like a very odd (and dangerous) place to send Elijah.
We know from 1Kgs.18:4 & 10 that Jezebel is “on the warpath” - - she wants Elijah dead.
Zarephath was a city in the very heart and hub of Baal-worship, just eight miles from Jezebel’s hometown of Sidon.
It’s very likely that Elijah knew this. He may have been a mountain man, but he knew the times (cf. 1Kgs.16:31).
On a more optimistic note, part of God’s plan may have included the following:
Zarephath was far removed, outside of Israel, and thus not subject to the careful scrutiny of Ahab’s thugs.
(Who in their right mind would intentionally seek a safe harbor in Jezebel’s old stopping grounds?)
Being a coastal seaport, Zarephath was home to many strangers making a new face less likely to arouse suspicion.
Of all places, why did Jehovah God send Elijah to Zarephath?
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thought than your thoughts. / Isa.55:8-9.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! / Rom.11:33
Luke’s gospel provides a little insight.
Although Jesus was born in Nazareth, He chose to make Capernaum his early base of operation (Mt.4:13).
Lk.4:16f tells of an occasion after His temptation in the wilderness when Jesus revisited Nazareth.
Lk.4:22-26 notes the following - -
All were speaking well of (Jesus), and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips;
And they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’ And He said to them, ‘No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, “Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your home town as well”.’
And He said, ‘Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his home town.
But I say to you in truth, there were many widows IN ISRAEL in the days of Elijah, when the sky
was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet
Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.’
One can’t help but wonder?
Why did God send Elijah to the house of a widow?
If it had to be a widow, why didn’t God send Elijah to the house of a rich widow rather than a poor widow?
Were none of the widows in Israel worthy of Elijah’s presence?
Could it be that the widow of Zarephath was actually a dis-placed member of the household of Israel?
(Some of her verbiage seems to indicate that she believed in Jehovah God and not Baal).
Or was this an instance where God gives a sneak preview of His plan of redemption for others outside of Israel?
Was this a case where God had heard cries for help from a poor widow from a Gentile nation?
Elijah makes this lengthy journey (see map), probably traveling north and then west, in order to avoid detection.
Remember that Ahab and Jezebel are out to get Elijah.
1Kgs.17:10-12 records:
So he arose and went to Zarephath,
and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks;
and he called to her and said, ‘Please give me a little water in a jar that I may drink.’
And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.’
But she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and little oil in the jar;
and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.’
Now, if we stopped reading at the juncture we might conclude that God flubbed the dub on this one.
Why would Jehovah God knowingly send Elijah to find shelter in the home of a destitute widow?
According to her own testimony, she and her son were about to consume their last supper.
If we continue reading we will once again discover that Jehovah is a God of good surprises (a God of grace).
1Kgs.17:13-16 completes this initial introduction.
Then Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first,
and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.’
For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the
jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of earth.’
So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household at for many days.
The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty,
according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.
There are many lessons of faith in this impressive story.
But I want to underscore one - - we’ll just call it an important postscript - - and then we will close in pray.
(This is a covered-dish Sunday and I have determined not to be long-winded).
There is a great danger in being blindsided by first impressions.
Have you ever found yourself guilty of arriving at bad (erroneous) first impression of someone else?
I remember one episode of America’s Got Talent that featured a shy young man appearing on stage with a girl sidekick.
The boy was quite over weight. He was dressed sharply. He was extremely nervous and seemed to lack confidence.
First impressions seemed to lead the judges and the audience to sense that a major flop was about to unfold.
Simon was wearing that haughty smirk that made one think he might reject the contestant before he even began.
But when this contestant opened his mouth to sing, it was astounding - - he sounded like Andrea Bocelli (talian tenor).
The crowd sat in awe and Simon appeared to be in an utter state of disbelief.
We’ve all acted like Simon in various settings. We have jumped to faulty conclusions. We have prejudged others.
I can’t help but wonder if Elijah may have done guilty of doing the same when he arrived in Zarephath.
“Lord, why did You send me here?”
God has an uncanny knack for humbling us, doesn’t He?!
When Paul wrote his first letter to the high-minded Corinthians here is what reminded them (1Cor.1:27-30a/NCV) - -
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,
and He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose what the world thinks is unimportant and what the world looks down
on and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.
God did this so that no one can brag in His presence. Because of God you are in Christ Jesus…
Elijah spent a couple of years in Zarephath, being refined by the Lord.
Some of us need to realize that we are but lumps of clay, ill-shaped and in need of some serious molding.
Let us not dread the Zarephath’s of life - - for it is often there that the Lord shapes us and forms us.
