27 Oct Is your God too small?

1 Kings 17:8-24

1 Kings 17:17-24 – ¹⁷ After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” ¹⁹ And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰ And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” ²² And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. ²³ And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” ²⁴ And 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.”

Have you ever felt confused in your walk with God? All of us believe in natural consequences. We believe in cause and effect. For every effect, there needs to be a cause. It is the unbreakable law of physics. If we are hungry and don’t want to be hungry, we eat. If we are tired and want to be energized, we rest. If we are out of shape and want to be in shape, we work out. So, we understand that for every effect there needs to be a cause. However, we also understand that not every cause leads to a desirable effect. Life is not a set of formulas where E is always equal to MC square. It works in physics but not in life, especially in a relationship. A single man can read a book on how to win a woman’s heart and do everything the book says, but it does not guarantee he will win the woman’s heart. Do you know why? Because women are complicated. We know that relationship does not work based on a formula. But we oftentimes turn our relationship with God into a formula. We think we can control the outcome. If we do A, then God will certainly do B. If we do C, then it will lead God to do D. And when he doesn’t, we are disappointed. The truth is God is infinitely wiser and greater than anyone in the universe. If we can’t understand the complexity of our relationship with one another, what makes us think we can understand and control God?

Today we are starting a new sermon series, “Living by faith.” In this series, we will look at the lives of two great heroes of faith in the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha, and what their lives teach us about living by faith. We won’t look at all their stories, instead, we will look at seven defining stories from their lives that highlight what it means to live by faith. I am sure if you grew up in church you heard this phrase before. “We need to live by faith and not by sight.” And this is true. Our relationship with God needs to be by faith and not by sight. But what does it mean to live by faith? Does it mean we trust God blindly and don’t use our minds? Does it mean we trust whatever the preacher says and never ask questions? Or does it mean something else? That’s what we are going to talk about in this series.

Let me give you the context of the sermon first. At this time, Israel is already separated into two Kingdoms: The Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The one who reigns over the Northern Kingdom of Israel is a king by the name of Ahab. And Ahab is not a good king. The Bible writes that Ahab did more evil to provoke God than all who were before him. He does not fear God at all. What happened? Ahab married a non-Israelite woman by the name of Jezebel and Jezebel led Ahab and Israel to worship other gods called Baal. Before Ahab, Israel had always been tempted by the gods of other nations. But for the first time in history, the worship of other gods became official in Israel. Ahab and Jezebel created the power structure to support the worship of Baal in Israel. And the prophets of God were thrown out and killed. Amid this dire situation, Elijah suddenly showed up out of nowhere and said, “There will be no rain in Israel unless I say so”, and he disappeared. We don’t know anything about Elijah’s background. But we know his name means, “My God is Yahweh.” What a name. And that is the story of Elijah’s life. Elijah’s life is about the confrontation between Yahweh and Baal. Ever since that day, there has been a massive drought in Israel. Ahab looked everywhere for Elijah but could not find him. Elijah hid in the brook Cherith, and God sent a raven to bring bread and meat for him every day. But the brook eventually dried up because there was no rain in the land. Elijah needed to find other ways to survive the drought. That’s where we pick up the story.

Here are my three points for the sermon: the God who saves; the God who provides; the God who confuses.

The God who saves

1 Kings 17:8-9 – ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him, ⁹ “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

I am sure Elijah must have been utterly shocked when he heard God tell him to go to Zarephath of Sidon. Why? Because Sidon is Jezebel’s hometown. It is Baal’s territory. And God tells Elijah to go there because he has commanded a widow there to feed Elijah. Elijah must be thinking, “God, why are you making my life more complicated? Why can’t I just stay here? Why can’t you just send manna from heaven? You did it in the past. Why not now? Why do you want me to go to Jezebel’s hometown? This does not make any sense.” Don’t forget that Elijah is a wanted man. There is a price on his head. And the journey from Brook Cherith to Sidon is very long and difficult. It will take days. So why would God send Elijah to Zarephath? In Ancient times, the belief is that every god has his own territories. The stronger a god is, the stronger his territories. And now Baal has invaded Israel. It seems like the God of Israel is weaker than Baal. But if Baal has invaded Israel, the God of Israel is now sending his prophet to the heart of Baal’s territory. Why? Because God wants to show Elijah and us that God’s power is not limited by territories. God can provide for his people right in the middle of the enemy’s home turf. So, Elijah obeys God.

1 Kings 17:10-12 – ¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” ¹¹ And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

I don’t know what comes to Elijah’s mind when God says he will use a widow to feed him. But logic tells us that if God is going to use a widow to provide for Elijah, that widow must have more than enough for herself. Otherwise, how could she feed Elijah? But when Elijah gets to Zarephath, who he meets is not a rich widow; he meets a suicidal widow. Elijah asks her for a drink and bread, and she replies, “This is the only flour and oil I have left. I am about to prepare the last meal for myself and my son, and then we are going to die.” Elijah is probably thinking, “I am definitely talking to the wrong widow here. Is there any other widow around here? She doesn’t even have enough food for herself and her child. How can she feed me?” But she is the widow that God has in mind to feed Elijah. And notice the timing. Elijah arrives exactly at the right time. If Elijah had arrived a few days later, this widow and her son would have died already. This widow does not know it, but when she is about to die, God sends his prophet to save her and her son. Let’s hit the pause button on the story.

Do you know that Jesus used this story for his very first public sermon? This is what he said. Luke 4:25-26 – ²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, ²⁶ and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And do you remember what happened next? The people wanted to kill Jesus. I don’t remember much about my first sermon. I’m sure it was terrible, but no one tried to kick me out of the church. My parents told me they were proud of me and took me out to eat. But after Jesus’ first sermon, people tried to throw him off a cliff. They did not like what Jesus said at all. Why? Because the Jews assumed that they were better than other races. They were God’s chosen people. If God would save anyone during the great famine, it would be them. So, why did God send Elijah to Sidon? Why was Elijah sent to a widow who had a different race and a different religion? Why not use a widow in Israel to feed Elijah? This had baffled their mind for centuries.

Here is what Jesus is trying to teach them and us. There is a big difference between the gods of religion and the God of grace. The God of the Bible is the God of grace. Let me explain. The gods of religion always say, “Obey me, listen to my commandments, make me happy, and I will bless you. If you don’t, I am not going to save you.” In other words, the gods of religion are the gods who basically judge us based on our performance. If we pray enough, if we read the Bible enough, if we minister enough, then they will save us. But the God of grace is radically different. The God of grace comes to those who are outcasts, those who are undeserved, those who are unworthy, and says, “I have come to save you. I don’t need you to be good enough because I am good enough. I just need you to trust me.” And let me tell you, people want religion; they hate grace. Why? Because grace is wild. Grace cannot be earned. Grace is given according to the pleasure of the giver, and we don’t like it. We want a God we can control. We want God to reward the insiders, those who have it all together. That’s how religion works. Religion always blesses the insider. But the God of the Bible is the God of the outsider. It means it doesn’t matter who we are, it doesn’t matter what we have done, there is room in God’s family for us. I love the way J.D. Greear puts it. “In every other religion God favours and rewards the insiders. God loves us and accepts us because we keep the rules. But the true God reaches out for the outsider, because the true religion is not about our ability to earn God’s favour; it is about God’s gracious love in bestowing it as a gift.” God is the God who saves by grace and not by works. Is your God too small? Let’s continue with the story.

The God who provides

1 Kings 17:13 – And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.

This verse is one of preachers’ favourite verses. Do you know what it teaches us? If you see me hungry, and you are hungry as well, but you are holding a burger while I have nothing to eat, do you know what you must do? Feed the preacher first. Okay, that is not what the text is teaching us. So, if you hear a preacher say, “I know you only have $50 left in your account. You don’t know how you are going to live after you use that money. But God wants me to tell you that just like the widow in Zarephath gave all she had for Elijah, if you send that last $50 to my ministry, God will make sure your account will never be empty”, you can ignore it. That’s not what the text is teaching us. This is a specific word for this widow and not a general command for everyone. But I do want you to feel the tension of this story. Because Elijah does make a crazy demand to this widow. Elijah is telling her to feed him first with whatever she has left, and then make something for her and her son. Rather than relieving her of her trouble, Elijah intensifies her trouble. What is Elijah doing? He is asking the widow, “Are you willing to trust God above all? Are you willing to put God first in your life? Are you willing to take God at his word even though it does not make sense?”

But Elijah doesn’t stop there. 1 Kings 17:14 – For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” The word ‘for’ at the beginning of verse 14 gives the basis for the radical obedience Elijah calls for in verse 13. Here is the reason why the widow doesn’t need to be afraid to risk everything. For God will not fail to provide for her. The little that she has left will never run out until the day God sends rain upon the earth. So yes, this is a frightening command, but this frightening command comes with a reassuring promise. Now imagine if you are that widow and your life and the life of your child are at stake. What would you do? What would you do with your last burger?

1 Kings 17:15-16 – ¹⁵ And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. The widow obeys God’s word through Elijah and a miracle happens. Her supply never runs out. And it’s not as though there are suddenly several bags of food that appear out of nowhere in her kitchen. That’s not how it happens. Instead, it is a daily drama of the jar and the jug. When she goes to the cupboard on Monday there is enough flour in the jar and some oil in the jug for that day. When she goes to the cupboard on Tuesday, there is enough for Tuesday. When she goes on Wednesday, there is enough for Wednesday. And so it goes for months. Every morning is a new episode of God’s faithfulness to his promise. She trusts God one day at a time and God’s mercy is new every morning. Every morning there is enough provision for that day. Do you see? God demands from her more than she could give and gives to her more than she could expect.

What can we learn from this story? This story shows us what living by faith looks like. Living by faith is staking everything upon God’s word, even though we don’t fully understand it. Now, I am not saying that faith is blind. I am not saying that faith does not require understanding. But I am saying that faith takes God at his word and is willing to risk everything because we know who God is. In other words, faith that pleases God is faith that has the right object. Every faith must have an object. And the quality of faith is not determined by the strength of the subject of faith but by the strength of the object of faith. Let me give an example. One of my recurrent nightmares is one where I fell off a high cliff. Anyone ever had this free-fall nightmare and woke up with their feet in the air? Imagine that happens in real life. And as we fall, just beside us is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is our only hope, and it is more than strong enough to support our weight. How can it save us? If our mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support us, but we don’t reach out and grab it, well, astalavista. But if our mind is instead filled with uncertainty that the branch can hold us, but we reach out and grab it anyway, we will be saved. Why? Because it is not how much faith we have in the branch that saves us; it is the branch that saves us. It is not the subject of faith but the object of faith that makes all the difference. If we know who the object of our faith is, then we can stake everything in his word even though we don’t fully understand it. Why? Because we know who God is.

The question is, do we trust God? Do we trust God’s word even though we don’t fully understand it? Or is our God too small so we have to understand it first before we trust his word? Here is the thing about living by faith. We will only experience the wonderful promises of God if we take a step of faith. This widow will not experience God’s supernatural provision if she does not take a step of faith. If we don’t trust God enough to take that step of faith, we will never know his ability to supernaturally provide. Every story of faith in the Bible always begins with God asking a person to do something that does not make sense. Let me give you one of my favourite stories in the Bible: the fall of Jericho. Israel is about to enter the Promised Land, but right in front of them stands the mighty wall of Jericho. Now, I have zero real war experiences, but I read lots of Manga. According to the Mangas that I read, the right strategy for this battle is siege war. So, you would barricade the city, starve the city, wait until the city is out of resources, and attack when it opens the gates. But God’s strategy is extremely weird. It is a strategy that does not make sense.

Imagine the conversation Joshua has with his war council.
“Guys, God gave me the strategy to destroy the wall of Jericho.”
“That’s great, general. While you were away, we also came up with a few different plans. We can do siege war. We can create a catapult and destroy the wall. Or we can build a ramp for our army to climb over Jericho’s wall. Which one does God want us to do?”
“Errr… None of them.”
“Wow. Just as expected of God. He must have come up with this super genius strategy. Tell us about it. What should we do? We are ready to fight.”
“Actually, we are going to leave this one to the praise and worship team.”
“Praise and worship team. Got it. Wait. What?”
“God’s strategy is to have the praise and worship team lead our army to march around the city for 7 days. And oh, we are not allowed to talk. We must keep our mouths shut while we march around the city.”

Can we agree that this battle plan does not make sense? But notice. It is a silly plan but it’s doable. The question is not whether they can or cannot. The question is whether they trust God or not. This is a battle of faith. Do they trust God enough to obey his word even though they don’t fully understand it? And they do. Do you know what happens because of it? The mighty wall of Jericho crumbles. The reason the wall of Jericho falls flat is because the people of God trust God’s word and God destroys the wall in response to their faith. Do you see? What God requires of us is simply for us to trust him. He wants our faith because it is through our faith that God does his mighty works in and through us. Do you want to see God’s supernatural work in and through your life? Don’t take the preacher at his word. Take God at his word. And if the preacher’s mouth and God’s mouth are saying the same thing, listen to the preacher. Take that step of faith and you will see God’s supernatural provision in your life. On the other hand, if what’s coming out of the preacher’s mouth is not coming out of God’s mouth, you have the wrong preacher. Let’s continue. What happens next is very perplexing.

The God who confuses

1 Kings 17:17-18 – ¹⁷ After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”

Can you see why this is confusing? The widow trusted in God’s word. She acted on God’s word and experienced the supernatural provision from God. Day after day she witnessed how God is faithful to his word. But then her son became ill and died. And she is confused. Why would God let her son die? If God was going to let her son die anyway, why did God even bother to provide for them in the first place? Here is the truth about the God of the Bible. He sustains life and he takes it away. Or in the word of Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Now, Christians have no problem with “the Lord gave.” But many Christians have a problem with “the Lord has taken away.” They say that God never takes away. It is the enemy that takes away. Job simply had a wrong view of God. I understand why they say that. The problem is when Job said those words, the Bible tells us that Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. So, it is the testimony of the Bible that God does take away. Living by faith in God does not mean we are exempted from pain and suffering. And when pain hits, we are often confused in trying to understand why. This is what happens to this widow. She comes to Elijah and asks, “Why did my son die? Is it because of my sin? Is God finally demanding a payback for what I did in the past?” That’s what pain does to us. Pain leads us to question the goodness of God. This widow has enough faith for the good times, but not the bad times. She has faith for life, but not for death. Her view of God is too small, and she is confused.

Here is what we can learn. The God of the Bible is the God who cannot be tamed. He both provides and confuses. God is different from an idol. An idol is a god we created to fit our minds. An idol is a god who’s under our control. An idol is a god who doesn’t confuse us. But that’s not the living God of the Bible. How do we know if we have the living God in our lives? Here’s what Tim Keller said. “You know you have a living God when he says things you don’t understand and you don’t like but you still obey him and when he sends things you don’t understand and you don’t like but you still serve him.” That’s how we know we have a living God. If our god fits our mind, if our god never does anything that confuses or upsets us, then we have invented that god. Our god is too small and that’s an idol. The living God cannot be tamed and cannot be controlled.

1 Kings 17:19-22 – ¹⁹ And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰ And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” ²² And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

Elijah is as confused as the widow as to why God let her son die. But here’s what he does. He takes his concerns to God. He prays to God. Elijah stretches himself upon the child three times and cries out to God in faith for the child to come back to life. Listen. When we are confused about what God is doing in our lives, we have a throne to approach. We might not have an answer, but we have a God who cares. This is a picture of true faith. True faith is a humble faith; it is a faith that comes to God with our questions instead of pointing fingers at God or running from God. And what happens next is beyond what anyone could imagine at the time. God listens to Elijah and the dead child comes alive. This is shocking. Because prior to this event, God has performed many wonders. God has supernaturally provided for his people. God has healed many sicknesses. But never before the dead is returned to life. This is the first resurrection in human history. Elijah has no miraculous example upon which to base his prayer. He simply trusts God’s power, and God answers with resurrection.

1 Kings 17:23-24 – ²³ And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” ²⁴ And 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.” When the woman sees what happened, she is shocked. And notice what she says when Elijah brings her son back to her alive. “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” It means that prior to this, the woman believed God, but she was yet to fully believe in the God of Israel as the one true God. Her view of God was too small. But after witnessing her son’s resurrection, she finally sees that the God of Israel is not like other gods who make promises they cannot keep. The word of God is true and trustworthy. At the end of her trial, she sees God in a new way that she has not before. The God of Israel is far bigger than she had thought.

There is an important lesson for us here. The love of God for us may often include confusion and disappointment. God will disappoint us. God says in Isaiah 55, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” We will experience times when we don’t understand why God allows this and that into our lives. There will be days when we cry out, “God where are you? Why did you allow this to happen to me? I don’t get it.” But listen. God often disappoints us not because he does not care but because he loves us. And it is a painful process. There was an ancient tribe in Japan that was renowned for its pottery. What they would do is that after they created a magnificent, beautifully painted vessel, they would smash it against a rock into hundreds of pieces. Then they would join the hundreds of pieces back together with melted gold sealing the seams. And the restored pottery was so much more precious than it was before it had been broken. This is what God is doing in our lives. Sometimes God allows circumstances to smash us to pieces so that he can fill the broken places in our lives with himself. God knows that what we need more than what we want is him. And he uses pains to give us himself. Do you see? God’s love for us is not about sparing us from pain but giving us more of himself through pain. Is your God too small?

The question is, how can we trust God when we don’t understand what God is doing? Here is how. The woman asked Elijah, “Why did my son die? Is it because of my sin? Is that what happened?” This woman understood something. For every sin, there must be a payment. God is a just God who will not leave sin unpunished. But then her son was resurrected. It’s God’s way of saying, “No, your son did not die for your sin.” But then where will the payment for her sin come? Who will pay for the woman’s sin? God answers that question many centuries later. In the gospel, God is saying to this woman, “No, your son did not die for your sin because my son will die for your sin.” The only way for us to know that what happens to us is not a payback for sin is because the only son who was without sin was punished for sin. Why? Because that’s what it takes to give us resurrection. If Jesus did not come and live the perfect life we could not and die the death we should have, there would be no resurrection for us. All of us would be condemned for our sins and die. But because Jesus took the payments of sins, we who put our faith in Jesus can have the confidence that God is not punishing us for our sins. Jesus was resurrected from the dead to let us know that the debt of our sins has been paid in full.

So whatever God is allowing into our lives is simply him shaping us for our future resurrection. The boy’s resurrection was only a shadow of the real future resurrection that we will experience. Because the boy was going to have to die again. But God raised him from the dead to give us a hint of the future. It’s almost as if God could not contain himself, it is as if he could not hold back his power over death, to let us know that he is the God of resurrection. There is a future resurrection waiting for us who put our faith in Jesus where we will never taste death anymore. Does it mean we no longer pray to God for miracles today? No, we still pray asking God to do miracles among us. We can pray with the faith of Elijah and ask God boldly to do what he only can do. But our faith is not dependent on miracles but on the God of the miracles who have guaranteed our future resurrection. We can trust God’s word even though we don’t fully understand it because we know who he is and what he has done for us on the cross. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Explain the difference between the gods of religion and the God of grace. Why do you think people prefer religion over grace?
3. Have you ever been in a position where God required you to take a step of faith? What happened and what made taking the step of faith hard for you?
4. “The love of God for us may often include confusion and disappointment.” Explain the meaning of this statement in your relationship with God.
5. How does the gospel enable you to trust God when you don’t understand what God is doing?