Today's reading tells the story of the Prophet Elijah in a time of drought. God sent Elijah to being the drought on Israel to expose King Ahab's sins of injustice and idolatry. For the first year of the drought, Elijah lived by a stream and God sent ravens to bring him food. But then the stream went dry and God sent Elijah to a gentile town, Zarapheth, to find a new way to live there. The story is a portrait of God's strange provision and the deep love of a mother for her son in impossible circumstances. Jesus points to this story in his first sermon in his hometown to show that God's special care isn't just for the people of Israel.
May God bless you in surprising ways this week,
Sam
1 Kings 17:8-16
8Then the word of the Lord
came to him, saying, 9“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon,
and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10So
he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow
was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water
in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11As she was going to bring it,
he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12But
she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing
baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now
gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself
and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
13Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and
do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me,
and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus
says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not
be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15She went and did as
Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16The
jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the
word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
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