Sending the Prophet Away
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” The word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the wadi. But after a while the wadi dried up because there was no rain in the land.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there, for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
1 Kings 17:1-9
God sent the prophet Elijah to King Ahab to tell him a drought was coming. Then God sent the drought, and He sent His prophet to a foreign land to minister to gentiles. God predicted the drought so everyone would see His hand at work through it. The drought was God’s judgment for Israel’s repeated cycle of evil and God’s decision to send Elijah to a foreign land to minister to gentiles was an indication that God had removed His favor from Israel. How did God’s chosen people, the people of the covenant, get to that awful place? What does this mean for us today? Let’s take a deeper look.
Bolstered by the fundamental belief that humans are in control and worthy of worship, many around us would have us believe current droughts are exclusively caused by humans, carbon-based air-borne pollutants and climate change, and good arguments exist for that understanding. But if God is in control and He controls the rain, does He have a role in it?
As we begin the analysis, please remember that God is sovereign. He can do anything and control everything. God controls the rain. When God appeared to Job in the whirlwind, He presented Himself as controlling the rain by sarcastically asking,
“Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
on the desert, which is empty of human life,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground put forth grass? Job 38:25-27
If drought occurs, God either allows it or causes it, and I’m not sure the distinction matters. With this in mind, the question is why? Was the drought Elijah predicted an enactment of God’s judgment? Was God trying to get His people’s attention to encourage them to change? And if it was God’s judgment, are the current droughts affecting western Europe and western US God’s judgment?
Last week we considered Israel’s rebellion when they rejected God and asked for a human king. God explained in detail how this would go poorly for them, concluding that they would be enslaved to their human king (see 1 Samuel 8:17); nonetheless, they insisted on a human king. God allowed them to have it their way and appointed Saul, then David, then Solomon. After Solomon died, the nation divided. The north followed Jeroboam; the south followed Rehoboam; and they both led their followers astray.
Rehoboam explained his ruling philosophy saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions” (1 Kings 12:14). Separated from the temple in Jerusalem, Jeroboam set up golden calves for his followers to worship, one in Dan and the other in Bethel (see 1 Kings 12:25-30), and appointed pagan priests to the high places (see 1 Kings 13:33). Speaking to Jeroboam, God said, “you have done evil above all those who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and cast images, provoking me to anger, and have thrust me behind your back…” (1 Kings 14:9).
With few exceptions, king after king led Israel and Judah away from God. Here are a few examples. Zimri committed suicide by fire “because of the sins that he committed, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for the sin he committed, causing Israel to sin” (1 Kings 16:19). Omri “walked in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and in the sins that he caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols” (1 Kings 16:26). “Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30).
Ahab completely ignored God’s direct commands. He worshiped other gods, rebuilt Jericho (see 1 Kings 16:26 and Joshua 6:26), and married Jezebel of Sidon (see 1 Kings 16:31), who was responsible for the slaughter of God’s prophets (see 1 Kings 18:4), who supported prophets of Baal and Asherah (see 1 Kings 18:19), who ruthlessly used her royal privilege (see 1 Kings 21:1-16), and who had incredibly wide influence as her daughter became queen of Judah (see 2 Kings 8:18).[1]
Elijah appeared as prophet during Ahab’s reign. He met with Ahab and said that a drought was coming that would last years and that rain would only come at his command (see 1 Kings 17:1). Then the Lord sent Elijah to the wilderness east of the Jordan River where ravens delivered meat and bread for Elijah to eat. When his source of water dried, God sent Elijah to Zarephath, a gentile town on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre in present-day Lebanon, where God had called a widow to provide for Elijah.
God sent His spokesperson, Elijah, to the wilderness where ravens provided for him, and then to Jezebel’s homeland where most people worshiped Baal and Asherah, to have a widow provide for him. Throughout the Old Testament prophets urge their listeners to care for orphans and widows because they had nothing and no means to provide for themselves. God sent Elijah to a gentile widow who had nothing. In fact, when Elijah met her, she was preparing to die because her food supply had reached its end.
Why did God send Elijah to her? God sent him to a destitute widow so there could be no doubt that God was providing for them. Through their utter desperation and total inability to provide for themselves, God’s glory was revealed day after day, with just enough for them to eat that day, so they were forced to rely on Him.
Why did God choose to send Elijah beyond Israel and Judah, to the gentile land of Baal worshiping Phoenicians? Israel and Judah lost God’s favor. God’s holy word connects our pursuit of Him to His favor, saying
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
so that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover them with favor as with a shield. Psalm 5:11-12
God sending Elijah to bless a woman in Zarephath was an indictment of God’s people. It demonstrated how far they had strayed from God and was a sign God had removed His favor from them. King after king had led God’s chosen people astray, and Ahab was the worst. God is patient, but He needed to get everyone’s attention, so He sent His prophet to minister to gentiles in a foreign land. He sent His prophet away from His people. He removed His favor.
Jesus makes this connection when He discusses Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. When He taught at the synagogue in Nazareth, His hometown, everyone was amazed by His teaching, but they could not believe because they had known Him as a child and they knew His family. Jesus knew they were unable to see the truth and He compared His ministry to Elijah’s ministry in Zarephath. Here is an excerpt, taken just after Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah.
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. Luke 4:20-30
God’s favor does not follow bloodlines or ancestry. He bestows His favor upon those who seek Him and pursue His righteousness, and a gentile widow in Zarephath heard God’s call to care for Elijah. God bestowed His favor upon her and God saved her and her son.
What does this mean for us? Perhaps good scientific explanations exist indicating the droughts are caused by the factors leading to climate change, and climate change itself. But God is still sovereign. He can deliver rain anytime and any place He chooses. Is God trying to get our attention? Can you think of any reason He might want to? Is God removing His favor from our nation?
We know that God favors those who seek Him, who exult Him, who praise His holy name, who seek to live righteously. This is only possibly by living in communion with Him. An entire nation is transformed one heart at a time. May you seek Him and know Him and love Him. Amen.
[1] “Jezebel,” HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, HarperOne (1989), p.471