Our first reading is as you see on the screen there.
In the 30th, 38th year of Aza, king of Judah,
son, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel
and he reigned in Samaria over Israel 22 years. Ahab
son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord
than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to
commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat but he also married
Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians and
began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the
temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also
made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the
Lord, the God of Israel than did all the kings of Israel
before him. In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel
rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his
firstborn son, Biram and he set up its gates at the cost
of his younger son, Segev in accordance with the word of the Lord
spoken by Joshua son of Nun.
Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord the
God of Israel lives whom I serve there will be neither
dew nor rain in the next few years at my word. Then the word of the Lord
came to Elijah, leave here turn eastward and hide in the
Kirith ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink
from the brook and I have directed the ravens
to supply you with food there. So he did what the Lord had told him,
he went to the Kirith ravine east of the Jordan and stayed
there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread
and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook. To God be the glory for
his word.
Starting at verse seven.
Sometime later the brook dried up because there'd been no rain in the land.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, go at once to Zeraphath in the region of
Sidon and stay there. I've directed a widow there to supply
you with food. So he went to Zeraphath when he came to
the town gate a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and
asked would you bring me a little water in a
jar so that I may have a drink. As she was going to get it he called
and bring me please a piece of bread. As surely as the Lord your God lives she
replied I don't have any bread only a handful of flour in a jar
and a little olive oil in a jug. I'm gathering a few sticks to take home
and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it
and die. Elijah said to her don't be afraid
go home and do as you have said but first make a small loaf of bread for me
from what you have and bring it to me and then make something for yourself and
your son for this is what the Lord the God of
Israel says the jar of flour will not be used up
and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on
the land. She went away and did as Elijah had told
her so there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman
and her family for the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not
run dry in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became
ill he grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing.
She said to Elijah what do you have against me man of God
did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son
give me your son Elijah replied. He took him from her arms
carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him
on his bed then he cried out to the Lord
Lord my God have you brought tragedy even on this widow I'm staying with by
causing her son to die then he stretched himself out on the
boy three times and cried out to the Lord Lord my God
let this boy's life return to him the Lord heard Elijah's cry and the
boy's life returned to him and he lived Elijah picked up the child and
carried him down from the room into the house he gave him to his mother
and said look your son is alive then the woman said to
Elijah now I know that you are a man of God
and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.
Well good morning church it's great to be with you this morning
if I haven't met you before my name is Josh Van Decoy I'm a
pastor at a sister church of yours now you guys are a Presbyterian Church
which means you're a church connected to another
a whole group of churches here in both here in WA and across our country
called WPC and I serve typically at one of those WPC churches
that's located in Bull Creek which you may
be familiar with. Having said that at the moment I'm actually
working at another WPC church I'm actually at
the church plant from Bull Creek that has gone to
Victoria Park there's a Presbyterian Church there and I'm currently there just
for a little while because the pastor of that church a
young guy named Matt Dodd who you may be familiar with
he's about to go away on three months sabbatical three months study leave
and so I'm there to help keep things going while he goes away so
so yeah I'm kind of in two places at once at the moment but it's great to be
here this morning with you and I've seen some familiar faces also
some new faces as well so yeah like I said if I haven't met you
before I'd love to do that after the service.
Well do keep your Bible open we're going to be tracking through
particularly chapter 17 of one Kings together but let's let's get into it.
Now a few weeks ago as I said I mentioned I work at a Bull Creek
church a few weeks ago or maybe a month or two ago now
we had a break-in at our church now that's never happened as far as I
can tell I've been at Bull Creek for a long time I could never think of that
happening before this point so we had we had a minor
break-in someone got inside inside our church building early one
morning when no one was around and they tried to get into one of our
offices to get it because there was a safe in one of them
so they tried to break into one of them praise God
our alarm system did its job and the intruders left without taking anything
and as I said no one was in the building at the time but I don't know if
you've ever experienced something like that a break-in at home
perhaps now that's never happened to me personally I know it does happen
to a lot of people and from what I understand it's it's something that can
be really quite traumatizing and not just
because of the initial shock that someone has
intruded upon really your most personal space the place you call home
that the one place you're meant to be safe
but also I think there's there's extra shock because it it makes you realize
well you're not as secure as you thought you were
now security is something that we all long for isn't it it's something we're
all searching for that's why we have security
systems that's why we have alarms on our cars why we use passwords
for our online accounts it's a reality really of of living in a
world that's full of sin and so my question for you this morning
is where do you find security I don't mean where do you find alarm
systems or that or whatnot I mean where in your life where's your
place of greatest security is there
somewhere somewhere like that for you a place where you feel truly secure if
not I suspect that'd be a good thing to discover
wouldn't it be so in our passage this morning one king's
chapter 17 well we find an answer to this question
where can we find greatest security but there's no alarm systems to be seen
you would have noticed that if we read the passage no
rather it's all to do with the prophet Elijah's
initial actions now I say initial actions because
with no introduction and no notice Elijah arrives in this story like a
sudden thunderstorm now it's one of a number of
unusual events that we find in chapter 17 and I say it's unusual because at this
point we don't know anything about Elijah this is the first we're
hearing about him we don't know what he does we don't know what standing
he has in the Israelite community all we know all the
information we're given is that he's of Tishba in Gilead
that's it and so this this guy comes seemingly
out of nowhere and bam he's there before the king of Israel to
pronounce a curse now he says he might arrive like a
sudden thunderstorm but he's there to say now
that there's going to be no thunderstorms and no rain at all
for the next few years okay that's all going away he says
okay now with one important qualifier what is it well he says there'll be no
Jew or no rain except by my word
that's Elijah speaking for God as God's prophet
now why would he need to do this why would he need to pronounce
a curse well we saw it earlier in the end of chapter 16 didn't we we saw the
reason there the current king of Israel a guy named
Ahab well he's the worst king yet he's so bad in fact
that the author of One Kings describes him as doing
more evil quote than any of those before him
end quote that's chapter 16 verse 30 so no wonder
God has to bring a curse of judgment upon Israel because their king
is leading them astray now what kind of response do you think
the king is going to give upon hearing Elijah tell him the water is about to be
turned off I bet Elijah wasn't feeling very secure
at that moment well we're not told we're not told what the king's response
is because just as soon as Elijah has suddenly
appeared well then he suddenly disappears and he goes out into the outback
at God's command and there we're told he spends in
some indefinite period of time out by a brook
in the bush
and God promises while he's there to look after him he says I'm going to feed
you with ravens and you imagine that ravens
it's it's some sort of ancient version of uber eats
and he's well he's fed pretty well while he's out there he's looked after he gets
two square meals a day now that's better than the Israelites got
when they were in the old the exodus wilderness but yet it's
it's it's a strange scenario because ravens and you'll know this if you're
familiar with the old testament are food laws ravens are unclean animals
and so the food they're bringing him not just being brought by
unclean animals but the food it's described as
meat in verse eight well let's just say it's probably not a medium rare
steak that they're bringing in more like rare
roadkill which again would would have not have fit
into the old testament category of clean foods but again we're not told
we're not given any comment about these strange occurrences we're just
given the information we're just told God promised it would happen that he'd
be looked after and it happens that's it
again it raises the question why why should he go out there in the first
place why not just continue hanging around
town i mean that's where all the the good food is that's where all the
comfort is all the security is why not hang around civilization
where you don't need to eat roadkill well you might be thinking well maybe
Elijah's on the run i mean he's just given this evil king bad news maybe he's
expecting retribution so that's why he's out there
but we need to look closely to see what's actually really going on here
and as always it's the context the context of the passage
that gives us the clues now given we've already heard that the king of
israel is wicked and evil more so than any before him
well it makes sense that what we see here with Elijah's movements
isn't as one bible teacher puts it it's not
God's witness protection program no what we're seeing
is God's pronouncement of judgment against Israel and he brings this
judgment not with flashes of lightning and and
peer and thunder the appeals of thunder
no he brings the judgment by going silent
by moving his prophet his mouthpiece out far away into the
wilderness imagine it'd be something like if
grace christian church armadale suddenly stopped sending out its newsletter
or if you stopped having announcements at church or
if you stopped having sermons on sundays right if that happened you'd know
something has gone badly wrong and that's what's happened here something
has gone badly wrong and what is it well it's that israel
has stopped listening to god at the end of chapter 16 makes that
clear israel's more interested in listening to other gods
and so the true god goes silent as the king of israel
leads the people astray and so god he sends his spokesman away from
the king away from the people in a sign of judgment now it's a sign
in fact that we see repeated throughout the scripture not just here in the old
testament we see it as well even with jesus in
the new testament so you could have a look for example at the
gospel of mark and there we see jesus regularly leaves locations
where religious leaders or people are against him
so there's an example of this i'll read it to you briefly from
mark chapter 3 verse 6 and 7 if you're familiar with that passage jesus
has just healed a man who had a withered hand and
he's done that in a synagogue on the sabbath and the watching
Pharisees they're right there they're watching him they're waiting to accuse
him we're told because they're they're legalists so you
can't do anything on the sabbath and here comes jesus he heals this man
and when they see him do it we read in verse 6 then the
Pharisees went out and began to plot with the herodians who
are the Pharisees enemies they began to plot with the
herodians how they might kill jesus and what happens that the
very next verse the very next words after this what does mark say he says
jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake now i think that's a very
conscious decision about the choice of word there that's
withdrew that's not jesus suddenly decided he's going to go on a road trip
no it's as if jesus is saying well you don't want to listen fine i'll go
now that's that's the devastating reality of sin
if we refuse or choose to to refuse to listen to god if we
stick our fingers in our ears and shout la la la la la la
he's not going to force us to listen to him
he'll just stop speaking it's like that the lifeguard who warns the person
swimming in shark-infested waters that they are in mortal danger he warns
them over and over again only for the person to
steadfastly refuse to even acknowledge the warning
so what does the lifeguard do well he packs up and he goes home
and that's the terrifying nature of god's judgment that we're seeing here
in this passage not that god says something that we
don't like but that he doesn't say anything and he just leaves us in our
sin and misery
but elijah's story doesn't end there because after a while the brook that he's
staying at it dries up his water's gone and so before we move on
actually it's worth saying that while it doesn't seem it in this
moment this is actually a big deal the fact that
the the the curse of no water has come to
fruition and if the fact that the drought has arrived
and its impact says something really significant
because it tells us what we're seeing in this passage is not just some
local event we're actually seeing a battle
between elijah's god and a local god how so well historical contest that
context will help us here we know that from the end of chapter 16
that ahab has led the people of israel to following other gods
but what god in particular did you catch it as we read it
it's one god in particular the god named baal
now you've probably heard of him he pops up a number of times in the old
testament and what we know about the god baal is
that he is the storm god of the canaanites in other words he's
the one who provides rain so he's god right in the
in the clearest terms saying you want to see who controls the rain
let me show you and we see as we see as we read this story it
becomes quickly apparent well this battle is not much of a
contest by the end of these first seven verses it's already abundantly clear
god one baal zero and so then god sends elijah off to a
new location he leaves the brook and heads off
elsewhere but he doesn't go back to israel he doesn't go back to
home base doesn't go back to the king in fact he leaves israel all together he
heads out to some foreign land he goes to sidon we're told so out onto the
west coast right up against the mediterranean sea
and who's he there to see who's he there to visit well apparently
some random widow in fact we don't even know her name
but god promises or god has promised that she will look after
elijah and so he goes there now the initial conversation between
elijah and this widow will might make you do a bit of a double
take again i don't know if you pick this up as we're reading it
remember there's a drought going on there's not much water and that means
there's not much resources around generally
and for someone like a widow with no husband to provide for her
it's likely that she's only just scraping by
but elijah meets this widow and what's the first thing he says
he says can you get me some water and she goes to appears to comply with that
off she goes and then while she's on her way oh
actually can you get me some bread too now she she balks at this second request
from elijah telling him she's about to go and prepare
the last meal for her and her son that's how meager her supplies are at that
moment but that doesn't stop elijah he says
this in verse 13 don't be afraid go home and do as you have said but
first first make a small loaf of bread for me
from what you have and bring it to me and then make something
for yourself and your son i don't know if you were reading that if you just
feel like come on elijah that's a bit harsh isn't it i mean how
can he be so bold to ask this of a woman who's in the
middle of a drought who's got basically nothing
now god well god promises to sustain he promises to continue sustaining
not just elijah but the widow and her son even with the most meager resources
that they have on hand but for god well that's not a problem
is it he can create miracles out of the meager and as we keep reading
that's exactly what we see this woman and her son and now elijah too
they all feast on these apparent morsels
for days right up until the rain returns with some indeterminate period of time
now how how has this happened well because like we read in verse 16
says it was in keeping with the word of the lord in other words
it all happens exactly like god says it will happen
but even with this kind of surprising miracle
while things are about to get a lot worse for elijah because
no sooner do things seem to have settled down
that the widow's son suddenly dies now it's not from lack of food but from
an illness and unsurprisingly this brings the
widow's anger to bear against elijah as she says in verse 18
what do you have against me man of god did you come to remind me of my sin
and kill my son
now this this tells us something of what the
the pagan gods of the day were really like now she's saying you've brought this
upon me because of my sin that's why my son is
dead it tells you that the the pagan gods
from that that time and place must have been known
as vengeful beings that's similar to perhaps the the gods that we might be
familiar with the ones from the greeks and the romans know gods who who
if you do the wrong thing they'll pay you back
you step out of line and you'll get in trouble
now in this case the widow is saying the payback for her sin
is the taking of her own son's life her only son's life
but here's the question is that a fair critique
of elijah's god is it a fair critique of our god
well let's let's see what happens next elijah takes the boy he takes him
upstairs he he cries out to god for help he
stretches himself over the boy three times symbolizing
the request he's making to god that for the boy's body to become
alive like his and what happens what do we see
well verse 22 it reads the lord heard elijah's cry and the boy's life returned
to him and he lived what does this tell us
it tells us this isn't a god who takes life in vengeance no this is a god who
gives life and so here's god again
intervening in this specific situation it's not the the king's son who has
died some public figure no this is again just
some random pagan family in a random pagan
city completely unconnected from from israel and yet the god of life
intervenes with what is the first resurrection in the pages of
scripture the first one that you'll read about
it's god two bail zero
now what are we meant to make of all this well there's a couple of things we
could say but first i think it's important that we
say something about how we're meant to read
a passage like this how are we meant to read it
well why should we do this well frankly because
if you like me we have a tendency to insert ourselves
into the story as the main character in this case as elijah we read his story
we think yeah that's that's what i'm meant to do
but it doesn't take long to realize well this doesn't work
let's be honest i mean we shouldn't be expected to be fed roadkill by ravens
anytime soon so if this story is not
primarily then about elijah then what is it about
well elijah's name actually gives us the clue or points us in the right
direction now here's the the literal translation
of his name okay here's what elijah means it means
my god is yaway it's it's as if elijah himself is a giant
neon sign pointing right to god and so that tells us that the main
character in this story as it is throughout the whole bible is is god
he's the main main character in this story
and so that means when we come to a story like this the question we want to
be asking is not how am i like the the the main earthly
character but like how does this story tell us about god
what does this story tell us about our god
so in that vein is two things that we can say as we kind of
draw things together first thing to say relates to our perception of god
now i imagine that if you were an israelite in this day and age
if you were one of god's people it might have looked like while this was going on
it might have looked like god just wasn't doing anything
like he was taking a holiday right that the rain's gone away
and there's been nothing from god just drought
he's gone silent right he must just be away doing other things
but the as we read this passage we see that the details tell us that couldn't
be further from the truth because what we're seeing is
god is at work now sure he's he's working
with a foreign family in a foreign city but he's at work nonetheless
and so the the first lesson to grasp is god is always at work even if we
can't see it i think that's an important thing to keep in mind isn't it
now here at church i'm sure for you guys there
are many things that happen in a repeated pattern over and over again
the same thing's happening again and again
every week you've got a church service like we're doing now
every week you've got connect groups you've got your
ladies prayer meetings fellowship teas now we would get together and have the
same chats with each other after church
but let's not be fooled or for a second lulled into thinking
that just because maybe it appears as if nothing
visibly remarkable is happening or just if even if it might appear that way
you know we perhaps haven't seen waves of conversions or us or a congregation
doubling in size overnight or just because it might appear that way
doesn't mean that god isn't at work because what we're seeing here is he
is at work even if i can't see it and and that is
because he often works in the ordinary things
of life i mean in this story he provides a handful of oil and a handful of flour
as a miracle but that mega miracle