Read: 1 Kings 15:25-17:24; Acts 10:23b-48; Psalm 134:1-3; Proverbs 17:9-11
All the kings are either measured by David who followed God with all his heart, or Jeroboam who caused Israel to worship golden calves. Asa had become king of Judah and he got rid of the idolatry in Judah, meanwhile Israel was changing kings like we change clothes. Each king was worse than the last. They were killing off all the offspring of the last king so the kingship no longer became a succession of family but one of military power. The last king we read about today for Israel was Ahab who was one of Israel’s most notable kings. He married Jezebel and everyone has heard about her. Together they brought the worship of Baal to Israel.
Into this mess of idolatry enters Elijah, God’s prophet. He is probably the only person in Israel who was not afraid of Ahab and told him what God was saying. Elijah announced that there would be no rain until he said it then he went and hid. God sent the raven to feed him and a brook for water. When that dried up, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath. Zarephath means “a place of refining.” Even the man of God needs refining. When he met this “new supply”, she was gathering sticks to make her last meal for her and her son because she was out of food. I wonder if Elijah was tempted to doubt this was his supply. Obviously he got it together because he told her to make him some bread first then she would never be without. She did and her jar of flour and her jug of oil never ran dry.
That is the answer to our needs. We have to give first to the Lord, then he will supply what we need. This widow gave her life and the life of her son for Elijah and Elijah was able to give the life of her son and her life back to her.
In Acts, Peter brought Cornelius before his Jewish followers so they could see what God was doing with the Gentiles. This was a huge shift in their thinking since they thought that God was the god of the Jews only. Now, they saw that he was everyone’s God and like Jesus had said right before he left, God wanted to save everyone. He had sent them to the uttermost parts of the earth to preach the good news.
Lord, open our eyes to the people you want us to minister to and love into the kingdom.
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