Power UP: The Power of Serving – 1 Kings 17
The Power of Serving
1 Kings 17:8-25
INTRODUCTION:
On the morning of October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts barricaded himself inside West Nickel Mines Amish School. After murdering five young girls and wounding six others, Roberts committed suicide. It was a dark day for the Amish community of West Nickel Mines, but it was also a dark day for Marie Roberts, the wife of the gunman, and her two young children.
On the following Saturday, Marie went to her husband’s funeral. She and her children watched in amazement as Amish families—about half of the seventy-five mourners present—came and stood alongside them in the midst of their blinding grief. Despite the horrific crimes the man had committed against them, the Amish came to mourn Charles Carl Roberts as a husband and daddy.
Bruce Porter, a fire department chaplain who attended the service, was profoundly moved: “It’s the love, the heartfelt forgiveness they have toward the family. I broke down and cried seeing it displayed.” He said Marie Roberts was also touched. “She was absolutely, deeply moved by the love shown.”
Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 235.
Sometimes the “Power of Serving” is in just extending forgiveness and compassion.
Elijah is introduced here for the first time - the most important prophet, behind Moses, in the whole OT Scriptures. He is mentioned 63 times in the OT. He is mentioned 29 times in the NT. Elijah He is from Tisbeh, east of the Jordan River. Elijah is identified as “Elijah the Tishbite” 6 times in the historical books. There is some speculation that Elijah, living among the settlers of Gilead, was a Gentile, an Ishmaelite. Of course, if he was, it would be extraordinary that God would have a Gentile prophet rebuke His own people for their idolatry. It is a fact that the widow we’re going to talk about is a Gentile and Jesus will cite this story in the synagogue of Nazareth as a illustration of how God sent His prophet to a Gentile woman to bless her (Luke 4:25-26).
King Ahab was a wicked, evil king. Notice in the prior chapter: “Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Ki 16:30–33).
To show that Elijah is the messenger of the true God, Jehovah God, Elijah promises that there will not be dew nor rain for years, until Elijah himself gives the word (ver. 1). God had promised Israel before they crossed the Jordan River and took over the Promised Land that if they turned to idolatry, God would strike them with drought: Deut. 11:16-17; 28:23.
Queen Jezebel was in the habit of killing the prophets of God (18:4), so God told Elijah to leave and hide himself near the book Cherith, east of the Jordan. God said Elijah could drink from the brook and God would provide food for him through the use of ravens.
Elijah obeyed Jehovah God (ver. 5), and God fulfilled for Elijah what He promised (ver. 6). But because of the drought, the brook Cherith dried up (ver. 7). That’s when God gave Elijah a second task, to test the faith of this widow in Zarephath.
GOD COMMANDED THE WIDOW TO PROVIDE FOR ELIJAH - 17:8-11:
“Sidon” is a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is mentioned 22 times in the OT; the city was given to the tribe of Asher to inhabit, but they did not drive out entirely the pagans living there (Judges 1:31). Because Israel did not serve God faithfully, they gave themselves to the gods of Sidon (Judges 10:6). Because Sidon became a thorn in the side of Israel for many years, decades, the prophets rebuke Sidon and prophesy her downfall - Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 25, 27, 47; Ezekiel 27, 28; Joel 3; Zechariah 9.
So we should understand here in the days of Elijah that Sidon is not on the best of terms with Israel. God sends Elijah to this widow in Zarephath to have his needs provided. This village is only mentioned in this context and in Obadiah 20.
When Elijah approaches, the widow was gathering sticks, likely to build a fire. Elijah is respectful: “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” Observe that Elijah does not demand the widow to serve him. As I pointed out last Sunday night in my sermon on prayer for submission, you don’t require submission. It comes from the heart. That’s why Elijah says, “Please…”
As the widow was going, Elijah then calls out to her: “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” It appears from the ensuing dialogue that this was intended to test the widow’s faith.
THE WIDOW’S FAITH IS TESTED - 17:12-16:
The widow begins by making an oath - “As the Lord your God lives” is an oath; it’s oath language. This exact form of the oath is only used twice but the form “As the Lord lives” is used 35 times in the OT.
So the widow emphasizes that she has no bread. All she has is a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in a jar. In fact, she says she is gathering sticks to prepare something to eat which she assumes is going to be her last meal: “that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
Elijah then furthers the test of faith: “Do not fear” he says - an expression used 58 times in the OT. He says, “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.”
The promise of blessing, which motivates to faith, is given in verse 14: “For thus says the Lord God of Israel” (an expression used 14 times, in a different expression - “thus says the Lord” - found 419 times):
“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 the earth.”
There is the test. God promises that the famine is going to be over - the flour will not be exhausted nor will the oil be empty until God sends more rain. Will the widow trust God, serving His messenger first?
She did… Verse 15: “She went and did according to the word of Elijah,” and she and he and her household ate for many days.” “According to the word…” is found 38 times in the OT, emphasizing the power of God’s message.
To emphasize the point, verse 16 states that the flour was not exhausted and the jar of oil did not empty, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through Elijah.
God’s message came true. Will you believe it?
JESUS PROMISES BLESSINGS FOR THOSE WHO SERVE:
Just as Jesus left the glories of heaven to be a servant to man (Phil. 2:5-8), so He calls us to “power up” to serve our fellow man as well. “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. “And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Mt 10:41–42).
“Many who are first will be last; and the last, first” (Matt. 19:30). In other words, if you put the other person first by serving their needs, God will reward you.
“The last shall be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).
As Jesus was moving around Galilee teaching, preaching, and healing, His disciples entered into an argument among themselves. They had come into Capernaum - Mark 9 - and Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” The disciples kept silent because they had been arguing over which was the greatest among them. But Jesus knew their thoughts and their hearts and He sat down and called the twelve to Him:
“If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:33). Do you want to be “great?” Be a servant. Jesus took a child and set him in front of these adult men and hugged the boy and said, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”
The power of service is the power of living like Christ. It's the power to reflect the nature of Christ into the lives of others.
PROVING FAITHFUL IN SMALL SERVICE WILL BRING GREATER BLESSINGS: 1 Kings 17:17-25:
At some point, likely during the famine, the son of this widow became sick so that he died; “there was no breath left in him.”
In fear and exasperation, she asked Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!” While she did not forget the miraculous multiplication of the bread and oil, she now thinks that Elijah is actually there to punish her for some sin that she has committed. “Iniquity” is used 233 times in the OT; it means “wickedness.”
But the follower of God is patient and says, “Give me your son.” Elijah took the boy to his own room and laid him on his bed. Elijah prayed to God: “O Lord my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” Notice that Elijah wonders if God has intentionally brought calamity on the widow, causing the son to die. Everything does not happen for a reason, but some things do happen for a reason.
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in Him” (9:3). In other words, as John wrote about the first miracle Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee, Jesus “manifested His glory [here, we would say “divinity”] and His disciples believed in Him” (2:11).
The purpose of miracles was to vindicate the message of the servant of God…
Why did God allow, or even cause, the death of the widow’s son?
In verse 21, the historian tells us that Elijah stretched himself out on the child three times, and prayed to Jehovah, “O Lord my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.” Observe that the “life” is distinct from the body. There is a spirit inside the human body that leaves the body at death, but that can return to the body in a resurrection. Now, James uses this account as an illustration of the power of prayer in James 5:17-18.
“The body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26); the body with a returned spirit is a resurrected body.
Verse 18 - “The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.” The word “life” here is “soul” (nephesh) which is generally used as a synonym for “spirit.” The soul left; the soul returned. And the child was alive again.
So Elijah took the child and brought him downstairs and gave him to his mother, saying: “See, your son is alive.”
Then the woman expressed the point that I have just made: “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” Write down beside this verse John 20:30-31 - the purpose of miracles is to give us a reason to trust God’s word. That’s why the Bible is full of accounts of miracles, especially those of Jesus Christ. So we will trust His word, from Genesis to Revelation.
Now, while we cannot perform miracles today, the acts of service we do have a similar impact on the hearts and spirits of those around us. When we do acts of service, when we show people we love them and we care, then it makes it easier and more likely for them to listen to what we have to say. Evangelism does not occur in a vacuum. It happens when we show people we want what is best for them. Ultimately, what is best, of course, is for them to obey the gospel and have a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. But to get to that point, we fertilize the soil of their heart by serving them in love, compassion, and kindness.
In the Parable of the Talents, when the five talent man served and brought a return on his service, Jesus said, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).
It doesn’t matter what type of service we do - big or small. When the two-talent man served and brought a return on his service, Jesus said the same thing to him: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master’” (Matt. 25:23).
Take home message: The power to serve is found in imitating Jesus, knowing that great blessings are in store for us, and even greater glory.