Unknown Truth!
Second Sunday after Pentecost 6-10-07
Rev. Steven D. Spencer
1 Kings 17:17–24
1 Kings 17:17 Now it came about after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!" 19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD, and said, "O LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child's life return to him." 22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Just a day before our text, the Prophet Elijah made his proclamation to King Ahab that his kingdom would fall. His work and ministry took a dramatic change. He was removed from what he might be considered his primary calling, that of being a prophet of the Lord. He was sent to minister to a poor widow and her son outside the land of Israel to the gentile Phoenician town of Zarephath. This woman was not just a poor widow, but destitute, materially as well as spiritually. She was ready to eat her last meal, give up and then lie down and die with her son in her arms.
But instead of that happening, into this woman’s life comes the prophet Elijah. Suddenly, now her life makes a dramatic change. Instead of physical starvation and death, there is now food provided daily by a miracle of God. How exciting it must have been to be sustained with such a miraculous supply of food, one without end, just as the prophet had promised (1 Kings. 17:14, 16). In place of spiritual poverty, there was in a man of God, in her home, with the knowledge of God who surely taught them about Yahweh. Rather than spiritual starvation and death, there was the opportunity to be fed on the truth of God. Some of the Early Church Fathers see an allegory here in the flour and oil mixed together and baked into bread, they believe this picture is a foreshadow of The Lord’s Supper.
I. The Death of the Son
Our text starts with these words, “After this…” (1 Kings 17:17) These words introduces us to a tragic chain of events in the life of the widow, the very one to whom Elijah was sent to minister. It’s an event that affected both the widow and the Prophet. That’s the way life is. Suffering affects all of us. Your suffering may not be directly mine, but because we are all family we are all in it together.
Secondly, while we all have accidents, we stumble, we fall, we get hurt, you name it, still, from God’s perspective there are no accidents in the life that don’t matter. Whatever happens, only God can work together for the good! It is so comforting to know that with God, the One who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, infinite, and faithful, there are no surprises. God knows all the situations and trials of life and has from all eternity.
How, then, should this knowledge affect us? Well, that’s precisely the point of this passage. Let me take a moment to add to this Psalm 138:8 with 139:1-12 for you. Psalm 138:8: “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever-- do not abandon the works of your hands.” And Psalm 139:1-4: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.”
Psalm 138 & 139 concerns God’s purpose for one’s life. The NIV says, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.” What a wonderful truth to gird our hearts and strengthen our faith as we go through the hills and valleys of life.
Verse17 of our text says: “Now it came about after these things.” After what things? It’s important not to miss this! The death of the widow’s son occurred after the blessings and miraculous daily provisions mentioned in the previous verses. His death occurred after the appearance of the prophet to help the widow, after the response of faith by the woman. And after the continuing miracle of supplying flour and oil by which they were all sustained. In other words, after everything seemed to be alright, God allowed this boy to die.
How was the woman to deal with this? How would we deal with this? How would you, deal with the loss of your child? Here God had miraculously supplied for the needs the woman and her son, keeping them alive. But now, suddenly, her son is dead. Can you imagine what her thoughts must have been? Probably something like, “I don’t understand this, God! You provided all of these blessings, and now you take away my son?” “It doesn’t make any sense, why?” “It’s not fair.” Have you ever felt like that? I have! I imagine we all have, and maybe we will feel like that again.
Quite unexpectedly, in the midst of a period of God’s supply and blessing, a quiet, disaster strikes. The widow’s son is taken sick and actually dies--with the prophet of the living God living right in her home! No doubt Elijah had been teaching this lady and her son the truth of God. Maybe she, like so many people today, was more interested in the physical blessings, in the entertainment element of a spiritual life or in that daily miracle of food. Maybe she really wasn’t really getting to know God. The Lord, however, was more concerned that she gets to know Him, because He is her real need.
As we experience God’s blessing and provision, especially after some kind of test or trial, there is always a subtle temptation for us to think we have passed the test and everything is going to be easier from now on. The worst is past. The storm is over. From here on it’s going to be smooth sailing. But this attitude ignores some basic truths:
First, this world isn’t the Garden of Eden, nor is it heaven. We should never expect from a fallen world what it cannot give. We live in a fallen world where sin and Satan are ever active and where even nature, God’s own creation, groans under the curse of the fall. An earthquake, for instance, is but one of the groanings of a world that has been cursed because of sin (Rom. 8:18-22). God wants us to long for the joys of eternity. In fact, it is this focus and hope of eternity which is to lighten the burdens of this life (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Secondly, we tend to forget that Scripture sets forth the many reasons for necessity of suffering. The Lord knows that it is simply not good for us to float along without trials because so often we can’t seem to stand prosperity. We so easily become independent and self-centered. With prosperity comes the temptation to forget the Lord. We live to be comfortable, trying to create our own heaven on earth, rather than to know God and grow into being Christ-like. Don’t get me wrong, God doesn’t condemn prosperity, quite the opposite it is to be considered a blessing. But He does warn us in Deuteronomy 8:11-14: "Beware lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; 12 lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, 14 then your heart becomes proud, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
II. The Reaction of the Widow
But back to the widow’s problems! It appears she thought that with the prophet in her home she was immune to problems. A lot of people are like that today. This thinking is promoted by the preachers of prosperity theology on the radio or by tele-evangelists. Some people think if they do things right, follow the right principles, listen to the Bible, live around other Christians--life will flow along smoothly. But such an attitude is usually moves people away from developing a deep relationship with God wherein God alone becomes the sole source of strength and joy.
The widow being around this man of God also suggests another aspect of her thinking which is so common. She felt guilt and thought perhaps she was to blame for the child’s death. Because she didn’t understand what the Scripture teaches about suffering, she may have thought all suffering was caused by her personal sin. Perhaps there were some skeletons in her closet. Surely the question, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God?” followed by the statement, “You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to put my son to death!” most likely means something like: “What have I done to displease your God.” “What did I do to deserve this?” “Why has your God done this? Haven’t I given you shelter?”
Because her eyes were not on the Lord, because her expectations were all wrong, she felt guilty thinking maybe she was to blame in some way. Her guilt and pain took the form of despair, anger, then resentment, and then finally blame. She took the downward process. Pain is never wrong. It’s natural and God allows us to feel pain. The problem comes when we allow our pain to twist and deform us and cause us to react rather than respond to what God is seeking to do in us or in others.
It’s typical and ironic. When things take a turn we aren’t expecting, rather than looking up to the Lord to drawing upon His resources and learn what He is seeking to teach us, we so often take out our anger on the very person or persons whom God has used to bless and minister to us.
Remember the woman told Elijah he had caused the death of her son. Elijah didn’t react to widow’s scorn but responded to her need. Elijah takes action and goes to the Lord with the need. But what was he to do? The boy had died. He is dead. No one had ever been raised from the dead before--at least, not in the record of Scripture up to this point. What Elijah did was a first. Here was tremendous faith, but he knew nothing was impossible with the God, nothing.
The child was dead. The child could do nothing to save himself. Only God could save him. Elijah stretched across the child three times and cried to God, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah.” And his life returned. The child could not save himself, he was dead. But that day unknown truth came to that child, the truth of the resurrection of life.
Conclusion
Some 900 years later Jesus would be walking into the small town called Nain. A similar situation would occur. A widow would be morning the death of her only son. The boy would be on a burial stretcher heading to the cemetery. Jesus would reach out and touch him. And he would come back to life. He too would be unable to save himself but would be touched by unknown truth, the truth of the resurrection of life personified.
None of us can save ourselves for we too were dead before being touched by the unknown truth. St. Paul says in our Epistle reading: “For I would have you know, brothers that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” For unless God reveals Himself to you, He remains unknown!
He sought us when we sought Him not. He came and amazed us by His grace. Without the intercession of God we too would never know the truth. But God did reveal Himself to us, in His Son Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Through His Word, through the waters of baptism, through His Holy Supper He touches us and reveals Himself to us. He reveals to us the truth of the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection to life everlasting. For now the truth is no longer unknown but is known in Jesus Christ, in Jesus name, AMEN!