In the 17th chapter of the first
book of Kings, we read of the entrance of Elijah the Tishbite
into the scene of Israel. In the day of the kings and in
the reign of King Ahab, a wicked and an evil king, who did wickedness
on a scale greater than all the kings before him. And Elijah
the Tishbite said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth
before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years
but according to my word. And the Lord sent Elijah to dwell
by the brook Cherith before Jordan. And he sustained him by that
brook in these days of no rain and famine by the feeding of
ravens. And eventually the brook dried
up, and in verse 8 we read this. The word of the Lord came unto
Elijah again, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to
Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gaveling of sticks.
And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little
water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to
fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee,
a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy
God, live if I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I'm gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son. that we
may eat it and die. Elijah said unto her, Fear not,
go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the
cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain
upon the earth. And she went and did according
to the say of Elijah. And she and he and her house
did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted
not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word
of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after
these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the
house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah,
What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said
unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom,
and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him
upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and
said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said,
O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him
again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and
he revived. And Elijah took the child, and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son
liveth. And the woman said to Elijah,
Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the
word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Elijah took the child and brought
him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto
his mother and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. This account in the midst of
the wicked and evil reign of King Ahab who did more to provoke the Lord
God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were
before him, it tells us. This account is a remarkable
picture of the gospel in the midst of the reign of a king
over the nation of Israel who was evil and sought not God and
led the people away from God. to worship Baal, false gods,
false worship. In the midst of such a reign,
God sends a prophet to his people, Elijah the Tishbite, who in this
account is set before us. In many respects, as a picture
of that prophet that God sent to his people again, just before
the coming of Christ, John the Baptist. He's sent to
the king and he tells the king that there shall not be rain
upon the nation. God judges the nation and this
king and judges him through the prophecy of this prophet. that
I will withdraw my blessing from you because of your wickedness.
And it comes to pass. And Elijah is sent to the brook
Cherith before Jordan. He dwells by Jordan as John dwelt
by Jordan. He's sustained by animals in
the wilderness by the feeding of ravens in a day of famine.
Remarkably, miraculously fed and sustained, kept by his God. Picture of John. He prepares
the way for the coming of the Saviour. And in picture and type
and figure, this account of his being then led to the woman,
the widow woman in Zarephath, And the account of the death
of her son, the sickness, and then the way in which Elijah,
through God, brings him to life again, is a tremendous picture
of the sending of God's son into this wicked world. A world led
by an evil king. A world led astray from God and
his ways. A world that is corrupt and sinful. It's a tremendous picture of
God sending his son into that world. To die. To die for the sins of others. But in the end, to be brought
to life again. That he may set that people free.
That he may bring a blessing. That he might demonstrate an
almighty power that his speech is the word of the Lord, that
his speech is truth, that his gospel brings life everlasting. At the end of this chapter, the
widow woman's son having been brought to life again, she cries
unto Elijah, now by this I know that thou art a man of God and
that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. She knew it. And when God sent
His Son into the world, and He died and He rose again victorious
over sin, death and hell, and He sent forth His Gospel in power,
those who heard that Gospel by His Spirit, and those today who
heard that Gospel by His Spirit, know when they hear it, that He is a man sent of God,
that Christ is the man sent of God, the God-man, and that the
word of the Lord in his mouth is truth, truth which brings
life, truth which sets the sinner free, truth which is everlasting. Truth. Elijah is sent to Zarephath and
the Lord had commanded a widow woman there to sustain him. A
woman with a son. A woman who was feeling the effects
of the famine around her. A woman whose husband had died. A woman who is a picture of the
church. into which God sent his Son.
A picture of the church. That church which sustains the
message of God in this world. That church which sustains God's
prophets and sustains the message of Christ by those prophets.
and here God commands a widow woman to sustain his prophet
as a picture of the church to which the prophet is sent to
which the word of God is sent by which that word of God is
sustained and made known in the midst of an evil world a picture
of Christ as the son of the widow woman as the son given to the
woman, the church, as the son born in the midst of an evil
world, born during the reign of a wicked king. When Christ
was sent to Israel, Israel was ruled by Herod, who sought to
put this rival to his throne to death, who sought not God's
ways, but his own ways. And when he heard of the birth
of Christ, He had the firstborn slain. So here we see a picture
of a woman and a son in the midst of Ahab's evil reign. She's a
widow woman, a widow woman. Her former husband is dead and
she's ready to die. Picture of the law to which the
bride of Christ is once married. before being brought to her new
husband. That husband which could do her
no good, that law which only condemned her, that law which
only condemns the people of God and finds out their sin. and
accuses them and brings them to nothing that law by which
they think they must live and yet they strive and try to keep
it and they find no ability in themselves to keep it for they're
unrighteous they are sinful through and through and all the law does
to them is to discover that sin the law was given as the knowledge
of sin to bring the knowledge of sin And that's all it ever
does, it never brings to life. It never brings salvation. It
never provides the righteousness it demands, but it leaves us
starving under its rule and its reign. It leaves us ready to
die, it slays us. And here's a woman whose former
husband has died and she's ready to die too. There's no life,
she's in a famine. but she brings forth a son and
the word of the Lord comes unto her by his prophet and that prophet
is sent unto her to be sustained by her but also in the providence
of God to sustain her because Elijah comes unto her and asks
her for some water which she fetches and then he asks her
for a morsel of bread And she plaintively says, as the Lord
thy God, live if I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two
sticks that I may go and dress it for me and my son that we
may eat it and die. She's got no food. She's in a
famine. She's ready to die. She's got
hardly anything left. And here's the prophet saying,
may I eat? May I drink? But the Prophet
says under her, in such a state, fear not. Go and do as thou hast
said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto
me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither
shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth
rain upon the earth. And so it was. Because she went
and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and
her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted
not. Neither did the cruise of oil
fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. What a tremendous miracle. But
what a tremendous picture of the miracle of God's gospel.
that gospel which feeds his church and his people that meal that
bread and that wine which feeds them and which never fails which is food in a wilderness
which is drink in a wilderness as pictured by the water and
the manner which God provided for his people as they journeyed
through the wilderness by Moses. He provides for his people. He
provides for them though they're near to the point of death, though
they're in a famine, though there's no food, though they can't get
themselves any food by their own strength, though they've
exhausted all natural means, though they've done all they
can to live, and now they're ready to die. They've strived,
they've worked, they've tried to attain unto righteousness,
they've tried to live right before God, they've tried to take away
their sins, and they can do no more. Their works are as nothing,
their works have got them nowhere. the law has condemned them and
they're ready to die and they can't do anything about it and
here comes the word of God in his gospel by his prophet and
here he comes and he provides food and water that sustains
them and never fails it never fails The barrel of meal wasted
not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word
of the Lord which he spake by his prophet Elijah. It never
fails, his gospel keeps them. It keeps his people, it can keep
you and me in whatever state we find ourselves. If we're brought
to the end of our own works, if we're brought to the end of
our own strength and we're brought to hear Christ in his gospel,
and brought to feed on that bread of life and brought to drink
of that water of life which he makes known in his gospel it
will never fail it will keep us alive in the wilderness it
will keep us alive though we were on the brink of death and
it keeps us alive not because of anything that we have done
and not because of anything that we can or will do but entirely
because God in grace looked upon us in mercy and sent his word
unto us by his prophet and sent life into the midst of darkness
and death and brought that bread and that wine and break it and
gave it unto us and we drank and we ate and we were filled
and sustained and we lived Have you drunk? Have you ate
of this gospel? Has the word of God come unto
you by his prophet? Have you found yourself on the
brink of death, a sinner, condemned by your own sin and your own
guilt? exhaust in the works and strength
of your own might and righteousness. Your righteousnesses you have
found are as filthy rags and you can do nothing to please
God and nothing to bring yourself life and nothing to spare yourself
from death and judgment to come. Have you heard this gospel come
unto you? of a God who provides for His
people, of a God who sustains them in the wilderness, of a
God who takes away their sin and makes them righteous that
they might stand before Him. Have you heard? The woman was gathering two sticks
that she might take what little she had and eat and die. An allusion to the cross, two
sticks taking this meal to the point of death. But God would
take his son and place him upon two sticks, two planks of wood
and nail him to that cross that he should die and not his people. and that through his death his
body would be broken, that the bread of life might be broken
for them, and his blood might be shed, that the water of life
might be given to them, that they might drink freely, and that they might never die. The
barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruze of oil fail according
to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. The wonderful
provision of God for his people in a wilderness. For this world
is a wilderness. And your soul is a wilderness. There's no good here. There's
no good there. There's no life there. There's
no righteousness there. it's a plane of death and if
you wander around in this world on your road and never have this
gospel sent to you and never heard the word of God by his
prophet then die in the wilderness you will and die in everlasting
darkness you will but if God in grace and mercy sends his
prophet to you as he sent to this widow woman
in Zarephath then you will know as she came to know that thou
art a man of God and the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth
you will know that Christ in his gospel speaks truth and that
truth set you free we must be set free we're bound
Our sins bind us fast and we cannot escape them. But praise God there's one that
sets free. A man, the son of God, who was
nailed to a tree, who was bound that we might be set free. Who
died that we might live. Who was judged that we might
be declared not guilty. who suffered that we might rejoice
in God our Saviour. His death, His glorious death
for sinners, the sacrifice of God's precious Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ for sinners, is wonderfully set forth here in
the latter part of the chapter as we read of the son of the
woman, And the sickness that came upon him so sore that there
was no breath left in him. Oh what a sickness came upon
him that left no breath in him. And what a sickness came upon
Christ the Son of God, the Son of the woman, the church, the
Son of God given unto that church. What a sickness came upon him
that there was no breath left in him. When the sins of all
his people were met upon him, and when he drank the cup of
God's wrath against those sins, that God should judge them and
destroy them, what sufferings he entered into, sickness so
sore that no breath was left in him. Have you beheld him? Have you ever seen the suffering
and the depth of suffering of Christ upon the cross? Have you
considered the sickness that your sins brought upon him? He died. He was sent, Christ
was sent into this world. Born of a virgin, born of Mary. And there were those who waited
for Him and those who rejoiced at the coming of Messiah. And
when the world around rejected Mary's son, and when he was led
to the cross and nailed to it and lifted up to die, oh the
sorrow of Mary and the sorrow of the other women and the sorrow
of the disciples as they looked on and this one in whom they
hoped, Christ, this Son of God, this One whom they hoped would
deliver Israel from its sins, this One whom they hoped would
bring back the Kingdom to Israel. Here He was being crucified,
and what sorrow they had in their hearts. And they, like the widow
here, would have shared her sentiment, for she cries out to Elijah,
What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? What's this
all about? You came here, you fed me, you
sustained me in the wilderness, and now my son is dead. Why? Why have you taken my son
from me? So the disciples thought that
salvation had come unto them when Christ had come unto them
and here he was being slain and they could not understand. Why
is God taking Christ? Why is Jesus slain in whom we
hoped? Elijah said unto the woman, give
me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him
upon his own bed. He took him up to a height, and
he laid him upon his own bed. And he cried, Elijah cried unto
the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? Why, he says,
Why is this son to die? Why? Why? Why send thy son into this
world only to die? Well of course the answer is
because he came to die in the place of sinners. He came to
save sinners. and though he was all-powerful
and though he could come into this world and slay all his opponents
and though he could rule over the world and though he could
bring all things to pass God is just and God won't just turn
a blind eye to the sin which is in the world and the sin which
is in his people But he must judge that sin. It must be taken
away before he can bring in a kingdom in which dwelleth righteousness,
reigneth righteousness. God will have a people to reign
with him forevermore and they will reign in a new heavens and
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But how can that
come about in a world in which sin and death has entered? only
if God justly takes that sin and judges it and there's only
one way in which he can judge that sin and that is in the death
of a substitute on the part of that people and that substitute
must be righteous and perfect and he must be a man like they
are men and women and the only one who could die as a substitute
for men and women the only one who was righteous and without
sin was God's own Son whom he sent into this world to suffer
and to die for sinners like you and me. He must die. God could save his people no
other way. He must die. So the disciples
wondered when Christ died, but Christ had told them that the
Son of God must die. He told them that I must be slain
and told them that I must rise again the third day. And they
had not understood, yet He must die to take our sins away. So Elijah stretched himself upon
the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord
my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah. And the soul of the child came
into him again and he revived. and Elijah took the child and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered
him under his mother and Elijah said see thy son liveth see thy
son liveth God took his son and he was slain and he as it were
took him up in death into the heights above into this loft
into the heavens And he laid upon his own son three times,
an allusion to the three days and the third day on which Christ
rose again. And God sent life into his son
again, the life went back into his son and Christ rose from
the grave on the third day. The soul of the child came into
him again and he revived. And he was brought down into
the house, brought back into the house of God, brought back
to his people. Christ was presented the Son
of God under his people, under his mother. The mother of Jesus,
the women, came to the tomb. And Christ, risen again, met
them. And God, as it were, said unto
them, see, My son, the son born unto you my people, thy son liveth. See thy son liveth. There's life
in the gospel because the son of God liveth. He had power to
lay down his life for sin. He had power to take the sin
of His people and to blot it out in His death. And having
taken it all away, and having paid the price to the uttermost,
He had power to take it again. He lives! The Son of God lives and He lives
and reigns today. He's risen again. See thy Son
liveth, see people of God, see woman, The Church, behold the
Son born unto you, the Son sent unto you, the Son who died for
your sins is alive. There's life in the resurrection
in the Gospel. Have you seen this son who's
risen again in power? Have you heard his voice, his
risen voice speaking unto you? Have you heard his word who cries
out from the midst of heaven? Who comes down from that loft
above? Who comes and cries out into
this world down below that I am alive? I died and I have risen
again and I reign victorious on high I have saved all my people
I have blotted out their sins I have brought in salvation believe
on me and thou shalt have everlasting life believe on me and I shall
wash thee in my blood Believe on me and I shall cleanse you
from your sins. Sinner, have you seen this sign?
Have you seen him die? Have you heard the prophet come
in the gospel and declare him unto you? Have you seen your
need of him? Do you know that you're in a
wilderness ready to die because of your sins? Do you know that
you need that child to die, that you should be set free? Do you
know that he died an effectual death, once and for all, never
to be repeated again? a death which brings in life
for his people, a death by which his blood is shed and his body
is broken, a death by which there is a barrel of meal which wastes
not, and a cruise of oil which never fails. a death by which
there is the bread of life ever to be broken for His people to
feed them by and water of life that they should drink and never
be thirsty. Have you seen Him? Have you tasted
Him? Have you beheld Him by faith?
You only will if the Spirit makes His voice known unto you. You
only will if the Spirit by Elijah declares His gospel unto you.
But if He does, If he does, then you as the woman here will say
to Elijah, will say to your Lord, now by this I know that thou
art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth
is truth. Oh what a picture of faith is
presented here, the faith which God wrought in this woman's heart.
To look upon Him, to look upon these things, to see through
them to Christ in the Gospel, to see that that greater Son
should live, having died for her. The word of the Lord in
thy mouth is truth, and the truth shall set you free. Oh, have
you seen it? Can you see the gospel in this
picture? There is a similar account with
Elijah's son, as it were, Elisha, the prophet that follows him.
Elisha in two kings goes to a Shunammite woman whose son dies. and whose son is raised again
in a very similar fashion to this and again we see there the
picture of the woman and the son and the gospel the gospel God sent his only
begotten son into this world that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish but have everlasting life. See, thy son liveth. Can you see? Has God given you
faith to see? See, thy son liveth. Praise God, amen.