#DailyDevotion The LORD’s Promises Accomplish What They Say

1 Kings 17:8–16

⁸Then the LORD spoke to him: ⁹“Leave and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. I’ve ordered a widow there to feed you.” ¹⁰He left and went to Zarephath. As he came to the gate of the town, a widow was gathering wood, and he called to her: “Please bring a little water in a jar for me to drink.” ¹¹As she was going to get it, he called to her again: “Please bring me a bite of bread.” ¹²“As the LORD your God lives,” she answered, “I don’t have anything baked; only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in the jug. I’m gathering a few sticks. I will go and prepare something for myself and my boy so we may eat it and then die.” ¹³“Don’t be afraid,” Elijah told her. “Go and do as you said, but first make me a little cake of it, bring it to me, and after that prepare something for yourself and your boy. ¹⁴The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: “The jar of flour will never get empty, and the jug will never lack oil until the LORD sends rain on the land.’” ¹⁵She went and did what Elijah told her, and so she, he, and her family ate for a long while. ¹⁶The jar of flour never got empty, and the jug never lacked olive oil, as the LORD had promised by Elijah.

The LORD our God works in mysterious ways. It is apparent he has more control or rather can have more control over us than we think we have sometimes. Consider verse nine. The LORD tells Elijah he ordered a widow in Zarephath to feed him. Well, just how did and does that work? We have no report of the LORD speaking to the widow. We have no report of someone else going to her telling her the LORD commands her to do so. Yet, when Elijah finds her and asks her to give him some water and make cake for him she does so.

Now you have to remember that Elijah prayed there would be no rain and that is why there is a famine in the land in the first place. This was because of the sins of King Ahab and Israel. It’s a “Lets see if the false fertility gods answer your prayers now” type of situation. Zarephath was itself not in Israel. The widow is not an Israelite but a pagan. When Elijah asks the widow for some water in a jar, she practices good middle eastern hospitality and brings it to him. However when he asks her to bring him a bite of bread, we see her desperate situation. She is gathering wood to make her son and herself their last meal before they die of starvation and she lets him know as much. She swears it to him in a manner only an unbeliever could, “As the LORD your God lives.” You see, not her God but your God.

To this Elijah makes a promise to her in the name of the LORD, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: The jar of flour will never get empty, and the jug will never lack oil until the LORD sends rain on the land.’” With this promise, she does what Elijah asks. Ah, now we see how the LORD commanded her to feed Elijah. The command came through the promise. The promise gave her faith to believe and to do. And so it was fulfilled as the LORD had promised Elijah.

Now the LORD has made a promise to you. Trust in Jesus Christ his Son, be baptized into his name and your sins will be forgiven, you will raised to eternal life on the Last Day and you will inherit the kingdom of God.

Heavenly Father through the promise of Jesus create faith in us as you did the widow so we may have our sins forgiven and enter into eternal life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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