By Russell F. Metcalfe, Jr. - Pastor, Butler, New Jersey
July 10, 1963
WHEN Elijah the prophet found the home in Zarephath that God had planned to use for his stay during the famine, he found a mother whose very best was about to fail. Her bitter hopelessness was revealed as she informed the man of God what she was doing with the words: "I am gathering ... that we may eat ... and die." (I Kings 17:12)
What we often pass over in the familiarity of this story is the fact that this starving widow has spoken for every mother, every father, who is striving to provide the necessities of life for their children without the benefit of a living faith that sees past living and gathering and eating and dying. Wealthy or poor, surfeited or starving, life is just eating and dying until it has been challenged by a divine encounter to put God s claims into their rightful place, ahead of everything else.
Elijah was insolent and unfeeling, by human standards. "Make me thereof a little cake first (v. 13). After he had heard her say that her supply was running out he did not offer sympathy. Instead he offered salvation by challenging her faith.
In Elijah's defense, if he really needs any, we can see that he was not at all devoid of feelings of sympathy, for he prefaced his demand with a “Fear not!” and he did not pause in speaking until he had backed it up with God’s own promise that her supply would outlast the famine. But any compromise in his message would have been disastrous to the woman, her son, and to himself as well.
Perhaps this desperate woman had some slight advantage over mothers and fathers today, for time loomed short and eternity close to her. She had only a day or so to lose, even though she faced the prospects of taking the last bite of food from her son's mouth. But the word of God brought back a spark of hope in the midst of all her human failure, and her act of faith in obeying that word from the prophet fanned the spark into a blaze that brought warmth to her soul, and light and salvation to her household.
To busy parents today, busy providing their very best for their children, God’s demands seem just as unfeeling and arbitrary as Elijah's request of food from a starving woman. Certainly the very best we can give is none too good for our sons and daughters. But actually we are cheating them of something better than our best when we fail to see the challenge of faith and the promise of God behind His just demands upon first and supreme allegiance. What may seem to be our inconvenience or downright loss is actually part of His plan for our infinite gain! As much as we love our children, God loves them more!
Keeping an old-fashioned Sabbath, paying tithes and offerings, taking time for family devotions, keeping a firm hand all intellectual, social, and spiritual development, while being active in the outreach of a spiritually alive church- all these seem to speak for more of our busy lives than we can spare.
And, in reality, we cannot spare what God demands any more than could this mother, whose son was starving to death in spite of the best she could give him in her own strength, and as parents we desperately need to come to that realization too. God's demands are not to make us any less the devoted parents, less loving, or less concerned with our children's welfare. His demands are designed to couple our best with His sufficiency.
Because she dared to put God’s revealed will ahead of her own welfare and that of her son, one widow in Zarephath of Zidon was able to give that son far better than her best. No doubt she went on gathering sticks, and preparing regular meals, and performing the usual duties of her household, but a new and wonderful ingredient had been added to her mother's love. An obedient faith went beyond what she could do in her own strength, and broke the pattern of gathering and eating and dying without hope. And an obedient faith will break that descending cycle in our homes too, and we will be making life- real life, eternal life-available to our families, where our best was about to fail.