Elijah and Elisha for Today

The Schooling of the Prophet

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

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Genre: Sermon Series

Lesson: 3 of 16

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[Rushdoony] Our scripture this evening is from I Kings 17 verses 8-24. I Kings 17 verses 8-24.

“And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,  Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.  And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.  And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.  And Elijah said unto 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 for 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.  And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.  And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.  And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?  And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?  And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.  And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.  And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.”

We do face difficult times and it is distressing to know that yesterday men were elected to office, re-elected to office who were under conviction for a variety of criminal offenses and a man sat this morning, James Owen, in a courtroom in mount Vernon Ohio on trial because his daughter is in a Christian school. It reminds us indeed of the times of Elijah, vast apostasy in the name of the Lord; Baal worship by people who called themselves God fearing. And yet today it is not as in Elijah’s time in this respect, Elijah was alone, but it was a joy to see there for the few moments that I stepped into the outer chamber other men, ministers there to be witnesses. The reverend Levi Whisner, the Reverend Alan Grover, the reverend Frank Hamlin and other men. So that today God has His own who are making a stand who are advancing in the face of the enemy, establishing Christian schools, establishing churches, and making known to men and to the nations that Jesus Christ is Lord. And yet there is a sadness to even that because as I meet these men and men elsewhere I so often find that their problems are not only with the world but also with the church. And men and officers, elders who should be standing by their side like Aaron and Hurr to uphold their hands sometimes are working to pin down their hands.

When the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying “arise and get thee to Zarephath, dwell there with the widow.” Church boards, missionary agencies, and ministerial groups would be rushing today to council an Elijah and say “now Elijah let’s think about this, don’t you realize what people will say if you go there to live with a widow? She’s a young woman with a child still in her arms. True you’re going to live in a loft which is on the rooftop, with an outside staircase, that was the custom in those days, but all the same don’t you think you’d better think about it and think twice before you say the Lord is calling you there?” But the Lord said “Arise, get thee to Zarephath and dwell there, behold I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee.” Now Zarephath was not in the holy land, it was not in Israel, it was a Sidonian city. If you take a look at your maps of Syria, locate Damascus and then go straight westward towards the coast there you will find Zarephath. And here in a foreign country, in an alien environment, there is a woman who loves the Lord; a woman with a background of unbelief once, and of sin by her own statement, now a woman of faith, but also a woman in distress, a young widow in a time of famine out to gather a couple of sticks to start fire to fix the last meal for herself and her child, and then to die.

Elijah met her outside the gate, he called her first and said “fetch me I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink, and she went to do it. But as she was going to fetch it Elijah added the further requirement; “bring me I pray Thee a morsel of bread in Thy hand.” The women did not refuse, but she told him too “I have not a cake but only a handful of meal in a barrel, little oil in a cruse, and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said “fear not, go and do as thou hast said” because she agreed to go, “but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me. And after make for thee and for 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 sends rain upon the earth.”  And she did it.

Now notice Elijah’s requirement “make it for me first, and feed me first.” Elijah was here demanding it as unto the Lord rather than to himself. He was asserting the principle of the tithe because the requirement of the tithe is that first we give to the Lord before we take anything and spend a penny of it or a morsel of it for ourselves. This was quite a test, but she obeyed. She honored Elijah as the prophet of God and gave unto the Lord through Elijah. She was a women who took the word of God seriously in a time of crisis, it is easy to obey God when it costs us nothing, when it is not our last morsel virtually, but she took the laws of hospitality very seriously. Remember the laws of hospitality which are given to us not only in the Old but also in the New Testament were very much stressed, and we are told to be hospitable, to entertain God’s people when they come, and we are reminded that some have entertained angels or messengers of God unawares.

Those verses were always very, very compelling to me. When I was among the Indians the thing that struck me very forcibly was this, the older Indians all had been taught the Bible in the days when, by compulsion they were taken away from their families and put in government boarding schools. So they knew what was there, they would not come to the mission, most of them, but if they went out of the mountains down into the cities and were there over a weekend, very often they would step inside of a church, they would sit through service. And they would come back to me and they would say “there are no Christians. I read that book when I was a boy in school, and I read what was commanded to Christians with regard to strangers and what the Lord said concerning taking them in, in his parable of judgment and no-one yet see me an Indian and poor and a stranger has yet said to me ‘come, let us go to my home, or let us go to a restaurant and eat.’ And their verdict was, I like you, maybe yes, but there are no Christians. What are you teaching us, something that is dead? That doesn’t exist anymore on the earth?

This widow when she was near starvation gave unto the Lord and took the laws of hospitality seriously. And there two of the great miracles of scriptures occurred; a miraculous feeding and resurrection. The resurrection of her son. That widow manifested faith and she was blessed. Moreover consider this too, this was a time of schooling for Elijah. Elijah by the brook Cherith and here in Zarephath was being prepared by the Lord for the greatest moment of his life, the confrontation with Ahab, the prophets of Baal, and the entire nation of Israel. It was one of the great moments of history, one of the most dramatic, one of the few occasions when a man of God has been able to come face to face with an entire nation and confront them with sin and show unto them the power of God. But in this situation God prepares His servant Elijah to trust in Him at the brook Cherith, and to be concerned and to pray with agony to the Lord for the widow’s child, so that Ahab as he was confronted by Elijah was confronted by the man who was mindful not only of the greatest issues of the day, but also of an alien widow and her need.

One of the things scripture makes clear to us about the Lord is that there is nothing to great, nor to small, for the Lord. Now things escape our notice, one of the things that troubles me so much is that because my word is sometimes very heavy, this month for example I am gone 24 days, I was gone a great deal the last month, and I’ll be gone part of December as well, I get home and there will be carton boxes of mail, much of it urgent and I try to take care of things and then I’m embarrassed and pained always to see how many things that I should of taken care of and I forgot about. Or telephones calls and the list of calls I have to return from all over the country, that because I got a busy signal and I forgot that I neglected later to take care of, and sometimes I’m very much ashamed. It happens all the time, but never with the Lord. There is nothing too great or too small for Him. He uses Elijah to minister to a widow in her need, and He uses Elijah to humble a king and a nation and to destroy the prophets of Baal.

This is why we can pray to the Lord, because we with our needs, and our problems and our burdens, our hopes and our joys are indeed insignificant. What are our grief’s and heartbreaks compared with the enormities of our time? The Christian school persecution, the growing persecution of the faith in our land; or as I get letters, as I did recently, from a very, very fine Christian Jewish pastor in Israel describing the persecution he has faced lately and the mob breaking up their prayer meeting and assaulting many of those present, including their hostesses Mrs. Goldberg. And then when I turn and pray about that and think of my needs sometimes, I’m almost tempted to forgo them because they seem so trifling. But God never treats them as such, there is nothing to great or too small for the Lord. “A bruised reed shall he not break, nor a smoking flax shall he quench.” An amazing verse because what does the Lord tell us there? Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect in whom My soul delighteth” speaking of Christ who is to come Isaiah declares in Isaiah 42 verse 1 following “I have put my spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles.” Or to the nations, “he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.” Now here he comes the king, King of kings, Lord of lords, to bring judgment upon the nations. And yet in the midst of that picture we have this amazing statement, a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”

A reed is an insignificant thing, and a bruised reed that is leaning and falling over, who would give any attention to it? And a smoking flax, a torch about finished and about to go out, two figures of insignificance, of worthlessness, but we are told that the Lord who comes to judge the nations will be mindful of that which is as nothing in our sight. And so in the midst of dealing with His covenant nation he takes his prophet out of the land to deal with a widow, a women with a background that she remembers with anguish as sin. Because a bruised reed he does not break, nor does He quench a smoking flax. This is an amazing incident, and God tells us again in His word Isaiah 43 “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee oh Jacob, and He that formed Thee oh Israel, fear not for I have redeemed Thee, I have called Thee by Thy name, Thou art mine. When thou passeth through the waters I will be with Thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow Thee. When thou walketh through the fire thou shall not be burned, neither shall flame kindle upon thee.” Our God is He that goes before us, eternal God is Thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.

When I was quite young I heard an elderly, but very fiery preacher preach about Elijah and the widow, Zeraphath, and he described the two miracles and he said there were three. He said it’s an amazing example of the providence of the Lord, and he said “God tells Elijah, ‘behold I have commanded a woman,’ that’s a miracle he said.” [laughter] Well the Lord commanded the widow woman, He went before Elijah and prepared a place for him, and he hails us as we serve and obey Him. That before we reach the point and the place of service He has prepared the hearts of men, that His will might be done. He goes before us. “I have commanded a widow woman.” It is settled in advanced, therefore go Elijah. And you and I have commanded to go, whether our calling in the work we must do in the name of the Lord and the service we render Him is a small thing or a great one God prepares the way and commands that which is to come. We arrive at the point of service, and the Lord’s already there.

Is it any wonder that John tells us this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith? When we walk in the Lord we find that the Lord walks not only in us and is with us, but He goes before us, he is always there, all the days of our life. Through the valley of the shadow of [abrupt audio disruption] I go to prepare a place for you, that where I end, there ye may be also. Is it any wonder that Moses declares that the eternal God is Thy refuge? And underneath all the experiences of life are God’s everlasting arms. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father we thank Thee that Thou art He who will not crush a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax. And we thank Thee that Thou art He who doest come to judge the nations and to confound the worshippers of Baal and to set down the Ahab’s of this world past, present, and future. Great and marvelous are Thy ways oh Lord, and we rejoice in Thee. We give Thee thanks for James Owen and for his faith. Strengthen and encourage his heart, confound the workers of iniquity and the high priests of humanism and grant that Thy true church stand forth in these difficult days in Thy Spirit and by Thy word and witness a mighty witness unto the nations, unto all peoples, that the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Grant us this we beseech Thee in Jesus name, amen.