Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20030803.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part XIX: Obtaining God's Livelihood Provisions In Hard Times
(1 Kings 17:1, 2-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. Many of us can recall the 1 Kings 17 record of God's provisions for Elijah during three years of drought!
    2. Well, that chapter reveals how God will meet our living needs in hard times if we heed Him as Elijah did:
  2. Obtaining God's Livelihood Provisions In Hard Times, 1 Kings 17:1, 2-24.
    1. Factor One - God meets our livelihood needs as we are busy fulfilling God's revealed will for our lives:
      1. Elijah's name means "Yahweh (Israel's covenant God) is Elohim (the Creator [Gen. 1])." This name reveals Elijah came from godly parents who worshipped God in contrast to Ahab's false Baal religion!
      2. In favor of his naming by godly parents, God planned that Elijah's ministry counter Baal worship, a fact evidenced in God's leading him to call for a drought against Baal, a god of rain, B.K.C.O.T. , 522.
      3. Additionally, God planned that Elijah come to challenge Baal's promoters in Ahab and Jezebel:
        1. By having Elijah hide by Wadi Cherith in Gilead, Elijah's homeland, God dared Ahab to find Elijah over God's power to hide him as Ahab would start looking first for Elijah there, 1 Kings 17:1, 2-3.
        2. By then relocating Elijah to Zarephath, a suburb of Sidon and hometown of Jezebel, God led Elijah to challenge Jezebel to find him over God's power to hide him in the land she knew, 17:9; 16:31!
      4. Thus, God met his livelihood needs when Elijah busied himself doing God's will to counter Baalism!
    2. Factor Two - God meets our livelihood needs as we obey His Word's specific orders: Elijah's living needs were met at Wadi Cherith and at Zarephath, both places where God's Word told him to go, 17:3-4, 8-9.
    3. Factor Three - God meets our livelihood needs when we heed His Word above our human worries:
      1. As Elijah was a hunted outlaw of the court, for him to hide in Gilead where Ahab would likely look for him, and then move to a town that Jezebel knew well could have tempted Elijah to be afraid, 18:10, 17.
      2. For Elijah to see the brook gradually dry up could have tempted him to move before God led, 17:7.
      3. For Elijah to be fed by a widow, the first to die in a drought, he might have cause for worry, 17:7, 9.
      4. Yet, only as Elijah heeded God's Word against such human concerns did God meet his needs, 17:2-15!
    4. Factor Four - God meets our livelihood needs when we trust the full implications of His Word:
      1. Elijah trusted God would raise the widow's son as His word said he would eat until it rained, 17:12-15.
      2. Then, Elijah knew God would handle his water needs at Cherith though the book dried up, and that by God's food supply in accord with His word, 17: 4b, 6-7: ravens can neglect their young (Ibid., p. 524) and, as crows they can eat rotting food (Z.P.E.B., vol. Five, p. 40); yet, God ordered ravens regularly to give Elijah a balanced, humanly edible diet so he could live! If God miraculously supplied food to sustain his life, Elijah knew God would supply the water he also needed were the brook to dry up!
    5. Factor Five - God meets our livelihood needs when we look [in practicality] both to His miraculous AND non-miraculous realms to meet our needs: God eventually wanted Elijah to move to Zarephath, so, at Cherith, He told Elijah to rely on both the shrinking brook and the miraculous food supply by the birds!
    6. Factor Six - God meets our livelihood needs when we follow His Word one-step-at-a-time:
      1. Elijah knew God would supply adequate food for the widow and her son were she first to feed him, for God's Word at 1 Kings 17:9 denoted she would be enabled to meet Elijah's needs long-term, so there would have to be enough food miraculously supplied to feed herself so she could KEEP feeding him!
      2. Since a mother would give her own food to her child to keep him alive, Elijah knew the boy with his mother and Elijah would live miraculously on God's provision through the widow's food, 17:9, 12-15.
    7. Factor Seven - God meets our livelihood needs when we pray in accord with His Word and will: God answered Elijah's prayer for the unprecedented resurrection of the widow's son in accord with God's word that the boy would live at least long enough to eat of God's food provision until it rained, 17:13-15, 21.
    8. Factor Eight - God meets our livelihood needs regardless who we are when we trust in Him: though Elijah lived under the Law when Gentiles were strangers to the commonwealth of God (Eph. 2:11-12), God met this widow's needs above the widows of Israel as she alone fully followed God, cf. Luke 4:24-26.
Lesson: (1) Regardless who we are, (2) if we focus on doing God's will for us, (3) heeding His Word (4) fully (5) at every step (6) above our human fears, (7) if we pray for His help in accord with His Word (8) and look both to regular and miraculous realms for His answer, God will meet our livelihood needs!