Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 30:16-20 Hearts set to seek the Lord - Day 359

Good morning fellow members of the household of God, After writing the devotional, I am thinking about the Passover as a household event.  In ancient Israel, the physical household of man was covered by the blood of the lamb.  Now, it is the spiritual household of God that is covered by the blood of the Lamb. Blessings, Jeff The account of the greatest celebration of Passover since time of Solomon (v 26).   Observations: One of the things that made this one great is participation of some of the tribes from the northern kingdom.  Israel was a united kingdom and Solomon and now toward the end of the northern kingdom, there is at least a semblance of being united. God allows some exemptions: Who offers the sacrifice:  The original Passover was a family by family sacrifice of a lamb.  However in  Deuteronomy 16:5-6 this changed to a centralized location once they entered the promised land.  (You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 35:23-26 Lament for the last good king - Day 364

Good morning fellow exiles and pilgrims, One more day of devotions.  We are indeed exiles and pilgrims in this world as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  The 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks can serve as a reminder that this world is not our home. Blessings, Jeff The lamentations for Josiah written by Jeremiah.  However, the book of Lamentations does not include any reference to Josiah as they are focused on the fall of Jerusalem.  While these lost lamentations were "made the rule" there are only 4 more kings and none of them were good like Josiah and none died in Jerusalem.  The phrase "to this day" generally refers to the time of the author (post exile).  Taken together, it may be that these laments were for the last good king and during the exile the people were longing for the next good king. Zerubbabel in a way was the next good king as temple and Jerusalem were rebuilt. But Jesus truly was the next king and He...
Post a Comment
Read more