John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: November 12

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: November 12


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Zarephath

1Ki_17:7-14

Faith is the great word to be written in the forefront of Elijah’s history. He was “a man of like passions as we are,”—tempted as we are, open as we are to joy and pain—yet of him, of all men that had lived since “the father of the faithful,” it was of him most eminently true that “he staggered not at the promises” or commands “of God through unbelief.”

The chapter before us is full of faith—nothing but faith.

The waters of the brook Cherith began to fail. Now, in such a case it is to be feared, that you who read and we who write these words, should not have been perfectly at ease. The Arabs will go away when this water is done; then what shall we do for food? And even more than that, what for water? We should tremble to see the stream decreasing from day to day. What a sinking of the heart, when we wake one morning and note that the water-mark is lower than it was yesterday; and so, day by day, to see the stream of our life getting lower and lower, till at length there is but a narrow thread of water through the midst of the channel; and at last we are obliged to seek the water in the hollows, or to scoop hollows with our hands to collect the dribbling waters! It is such slow processes that try faith most of all. Many possess the faith for any sudden, great and heroic deed—for one who can maintain his faith unshaken in the midst of such slow trials as this.

This trial the faith of Elijah stood. Yet it may be, that now and then, in his solitary musings upon the ways of God, the thought may have occurred to him, that this one stream might have been spared for his sake. But there was faith even in such a doubt. Such an exemption of this stream would, however, have brought crowds of people thither for water, and thus his retreat would have been discovered. In a time when water was everywhere sought for, the fact that it was to be found in the brook Cherith, could not long have remained hidden from the people. Besides, God does not always exempt those whom He loves from their share in such visitations as these. “It is,” says Bishop Hall, “no unusual thing with God, to suffer his own dear children to be enwrapped in the common calamities of offenders. He makes difference in the use and issue of their stripes, not in the infliction. The corn is cut down with the weeds, but to a better purpose.”

We cannot doubt that Elijah awaited the gradual failure of his means with untroubled thoughts, believing that the Lord whom he served would in due time appear to make provision for his wants; and He did so—but not until the brook was actually “dried up.” We may say that the Lord might have relieved his anxiety sooner. But he had probably no anxiety in the matter; and it very often happens that the Lord does not appear for help until the last moment of our exigency—when to delay any longer were to let us perish. Not that He takes pleasure in our trials; but He cares above all things for our soul’s welfare, and therefore subjects us to such wholesome discipline as may help to build us up in the faith, and bring our souls nearer to him. It is when help comes but at the last pinch, that we value it the more, and are proportionally more thankful to our helper.

The relief came in the very extraordinary shape of an order to proceed across the country to Zarephath, in the country of Zidon, where a widow woman had been commanded to feed him. Strange it must have seemed, that he should be directed to go into that very country which had been, by its gods and by its Jezebel, the occasion of all Israel’s troubles, and which, as appears by the sequel, had a common share in the calamity. Doubt might have asked, Why send him to such a country—subject to the same visitation; and why, out of all there, to a poor widow, who could have little means of providing for his subsistence? And if a widow, why not rather to one of the thousands of widows in Israel? But the high-hearted prophet knew that his course was not to reason and speculate, but to hear and obey. So he forthwith girded his hairy mantle closer to his body, and taking his staff in hand, set forth at a strong pace upon his journey.

When he approached Zarephath, he encountered a woman gathering sticks. He accosted her. He had drunk no water since he left the brook; and, devoured with keen thirst as he was, his first thought was naturally of water. “Fetch me,” he said, “a little water, I pray thee, that I may drink.” This was a great thing to ask in such a time of drought; but although the poor woman perceived from his appearance and accent, that he was a Hebrew, and even gathered from his hairy mantle and leathern girdle, that he was a prophet of the God of Israel—she was hastening to satisfy his want, when he called after her with the additional request—“Bring me a morsel of bread in thine hand.” On this she spoke; for this thing was more than she could do—“As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Here note that, as among the Germans at this day, “two” is equivalent to “a few.”

By this Elijah knew that he beheld the woman to whom he was sent. But how came she to know the Lord? That she was a worshipper of Him, as some have thought, is not likely, and betrays some ignorance of the extent to which the heathen were disposed to recognize the gods of other nations as gods—and powerful gods—but not as their gods. Besides, she says “thy God”—an addition which she would not be likely to have made, had the Lord been her God also. The prophetic garb of Elijah pointed him out as not one of the votaries of Baal, but a worshipper of Jehovah, and, as such, it was a civility to mention his God; besides that, she really had such notions of the Lord’s power as inclined her to speak well of his name; and, moreover, it had probably reached this quarter, that the existing drought was owing to the wrath of the God of Israel against his people, which could not but raise a fear of offending him, and a desire to mention his name with honor.

We see that the kindness of this poor woman shrunk from this test. Human kindness can scarcely come to the pitch of giving the last meal of yourself and child to another. The prophet hastened to reassure her—“Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” Now here was a demand upon the faith of this woman—from a foreign man and a foreign God, as large as any exacted from the great prophet himself. See how it stands. First, she was to make up her provisions for Elijah, trusting that, as he had said, more would then come miraculously to supply her own wants. What a trial! What would the “bird in the hand worth two in the bush” principle, say to this? Who could find the heart to blame her had she declined to run what was under the circumstances so hard a risk? Who would blame her if she had discredited this stranger? How could she know but that, after he had eaten up her precious bread, he might laugh in her face? Besides, was not his very anxiety to be served first of all very suspicious? Looked it not as if he were determined, at all hazards, to secure a meal for himself; and could we call it unreasonable had she asked for the proof first—which could be given as well before as after—that it should be as he had said? But nothing of this occurred. She went and did as Elijah had told her, and found the result as he had promised. That barrel from which she had taken the prophet’s dole, never wanted meal, and the flask was never void of oil, during all the three years more that passed before the rains again watered the gasping earth. This was faith of the true sort—heroic faith—the faith that asks no questions. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.”