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1 Kings 17:8 Go to Zerephath - Day 287

Good afternoon friends

Some time ago in an adult Sunday School class, Pat showed us one of many Ray Vanderlaan videos.  This one was about understanding the word picture of Psalm 23 - "green pastures" of the Middle East shepherd was not very appealing/  It was green in relative terms, not absolute.  So this came to mind as a worked on today's devotional.

Blessings,

Jeff

This seems like a good place to mention one of the themes of God's provision.  In general, He gives just enough to get from one place to another.  Elijah has just been fed by ravens and drawn water from a brook for some period of time.  Not exactly "your best life now".  Then the brook dries up.  Natural reaction would be to get all worried about where next drink of water was going to come from.  But God has a plan.

The widow in Zarephath (outside of the promised land, a Gentile) will feed you.  Maybe Elijah thought that this was going to be a step up from what the ravens had provided.  Instead, the widow has given up hope and preparing a last meal for herself and her son.  Well this isn't looking very good.  So to provide for Elijah, God provides for the widow and her family in the midst of an ongoing famine.  Not a 7 course meal every day, but enough.

Jesus uses this story to reprimand Jews in Nazareth. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. Luke 4:25-26

So these events are not just to tell a story, but to teach a lesson.  Maybe Elijah wondered why God was using non-Israelites.

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