The Prophet and the Widow
Then the word of the LORD came
to him:
“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a
widow in that place to supply you with food.”
1Kings 17:8-9
My sermon title is "the prophet and the widow". In reflection I could
have called it "two women and a prophet". Sounds like a love triangle,
doesn't it? Well it isn't.
One woman in Elijah's life is a beautiful princess. I assume she is
beautiful, but don't really know. She is a Phoenician princess who is
married to the King of Israel. She came to her new home in the city of
Samaria with a large group from her home in what is now Lebanon. Among
them is a large group of Baal priests. She is undoubtedly a
sophisticated and fashionable person who probably "wow's" the simpler
people of Israel, the way a wealthy socialite from Paris would 'wow'
them in Sooke.
This is a huge problem for Israel and their simple faith in the God who
brought them out of Egypt. That was a long time ago for them, and by
comparison, this new faith was much more accessible on many levels. To
worship Baal, they didn't have to go all the way to Jerusalem and the
temple. And worshipping Baal did not involve as much spiritual
discipline as worshipping the God of Abraham and Moses. God
expected them to live by the set of principles. We have come to know
them well, and they are no easier for us almost three thousand years
later. By contrast, Baal allowed them to conduct 'business as
usual"
provided they offered the appropriate sacrifices at the appropriate
times. Baal was a far more modern approach to spirituality. The God of
Abraham and Moses undoubtedly seemed very restrictive and limiting--a
real relic of an outdated past.
And so the queen and her followers was a real item of concern to God
who sent Elijah to confront her and her husband.
Her name was Queen Jezebel and his name was King Ahab.
The queen established a temple to Baal and was the benefactor of a
school for Baal priests, and started killing off the priests to the God
of Abraham and Moses. During her reign, the prophet Obadiah, who is a
contemporary of Elijah, hides a hundred or so of God's ministers in
caves around the region.
Ahab was politically one of the great kings of Israel. He is a clever
politician and marriage to Jezebel cements an important alliance with
the king of Tyre.
This is interesting because the Bible denounces him as one of its worst
kings, in spite of his political savvy.
When judged as a man, The Bible says Ahab is of
poor character, and roundly condemned. Jesus says in one of his
sermons, "what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose
your own soul?"
We know hardly anything about Elijah except that he comes from the
little town of Tishbe in northern Israel.
God calls him to go confront the king and queen and warn them about the
direction they are taking the people. Material prosperity at the price
of integrity is a bad bargain.
Baal worship was, at its simplest, a fertility cult which involved some
rather obscene practices including ritual prostitution. At times child
sacrifice was also a part of the practice. But the people were being
seduced to believe that if they wanted rain in season, Baal was the god
to follow.
The God of Abraham and Moses is saying, "sorry, not so. It is I who
look after you and feed you."
And so the struggle is engaged.
To make a point, God sends Elijah to Ahab with the announcement that to
show who it is brings them rain, on Elijah's word, there will be no
rain. Elijah prays for the skies to be shut against them and a sever
drought begins.
This does not make Elijah very popular with the King.
And of course all their praying to Baal does no good at all. The
drought is finally ended three years later when Elijah suggests a
confrontation on Mt. Carmel between God and Baal. You remember he calls
down fire from heaven and the Baal prophets cannot. But what is the
real clincher is that following the demonstration of fire from heaven
is that it begins to rain.
But our brief story takes place mid-way through the drought.
Elijah had been hiding out in the countryside away from the King.
He was drinking from a brook and being fed by ravens who brought him
food.
What is interesting about this is that ravens were considered an
unclean bird. So what?.... more on that in a bit.
This does not sound so great, but I suspect it suited Elijah just fine,
except for the unclean bird part.
Elijah became the most famous of all the Old Testament prophets. John
the Baptist is compared to Elijah and some people thought that Jesus
was Elijah come back again. He stood out as the larger than life notion
of what a prophet should be.
But he is not typical of the prophets at all.
Elijah is more like a western gunslinger than the typical Old Testament
prophet. In fact the role model that fits him best is The Lone Ranger.
Or Gary Cooper in High Noon, except Gary Cooper had a sweetheart.
All the other prophets lived in a community and their life in the
community was very much a part of their work.
Not so with Elijah.
You can imagine Elijah's motto might have been "God and me against the
world."
In fact toward the end of his time as a prophet, after he has defeated
Jezebel and her Baal priests, he is hiding out once again in the
wilderness. His complaint with God is, "God, I am the only one around
here who cares a thing about You or what you say."
God's answer to him is "no you aren't. I have thousands more just like
you."
Its not that Elijah thought he was special.
It's that he had a tendency to pit himself against everyone around
him-- in an "us vs them" sort of way.
What he was asked to do put him into that kind of mode, but the role
also suited him.
But God does not allow him to operate in a situation where its "you and
me God against all those heathen".
God does two things:
He feeds Elijah using ravens, an unclean bird.
The point simple. "You are flesh and blood like anybody else Elijah,
never forget that."
But the brook dries up and so now God sends Elijah to a town called
Zarephath in the region of Sidon. That is to say, its a Phoenician
village.
God is sending this prophet of his right into the very territory that
Jezebel comes from.
Not to preach on street corners, but to live in the home of a widow who
God says will take care of him.
First he is forced to eat food from ravens.
And now he is forced to go live in the home of a Phoenician widow and
her son--so that she can feed him.
God's message is clear enough.
Maybe Elijah is sent to denounce idolatry along with the king and his
wife.
But he is not to confuse his anger against Baal worship with his
attitude toward the people themselves.
What happens is touching.
It is a miraculous event, but I am not going to focus on that aspect of
it.
God tells him to go to this town, because a particular widow and her
son will house and feed him.
As it turns out the woman and her son are also starving, but God has
told Elijah, that he is to pray for them and God will supply food. God
sends Elijah to a person who is the least likely he would ever
turn to.
And the woman receives compassion from someone who she would have
thought the least likely to given her a second thought.
Funny how God works sometimes.
If God hears Elijah's prayer for food, he could have prayed out in the
desert and gotten food.
Or he could have gone to the home of a god fearing Israelite family.
But God sends him to this foreigner instead.
Jesus comments on this almost a thousand years later.
In his first public sermon, when people begin muttering about Jesus
just being a local kid and what does he know anyway, he reminds them
that Elijah was not sent to a local Israelite family, though there were
plenty he could have lived with.
Instead, he was sent to a foreigner.
The mercy of God is much bigger than the size of our understanding.
We may have many issues and beliefs where we stake out our territory.
We may think we are totally in the right about them, and maybe we are.
But we are in dangerous territory when we begin thinking that people
who hold opposite opinions are somehow beneath us.
God showed Elijah that whether he wanted it or not, he was dependent on
a Phoenician widow and she was dependent on him for their mutual
survival. And he shows us that the very people we are most likely to
want to write off as not worth the effort may in fact be the very
people who hold the key to something God is wanting to teach us.
That is why, as often as not, the same people with the same issues
often keep coming back again and again into our lives. God is trying to
teach us something. This time instead of reacting with annoyance or
superiority, pay attention. You may find the hand of God at work in the
person you are least likely to imagine.
The next time you find yourself in the most unlikely of circumstances,
take a moment and listen.
You may hear the small quiet voice of God trying to tell you something
you need to know.
Preached June 3, 2007
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
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