April 28, 2019
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah strides onto the stage of Scripture with holy fire in his eyes and divine authority in his voice.
“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!” 1 Kings 17:1
I have marveled at Elijah’s ministry before. His passion, his capacity for emotional response, and his showdowns with Ahab and Baal’s false prophets — these make for fabulous stories. Flannelgraph just doesn’t do the drama justice, though it is easy to see why Elijah is a Sunday school favorite.
While the prophet Elijah feels like a familiar friend, something was new when my pastor here in the bush taught 1 Kings 17 this morning. Living in another culture expands our perspective, enabling us to view Scripture through eyes not our own (which is important, since no Scripture was penned from a Western worldview).
May I invite you to see 1 Kings 17 with me and my friends in PNG?
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King Ahab has led the northern kingdom into the evil of Baal worship. The people who bear God’s name have broken His covenant. Judgment is coming, and it will be a great “hevi” for the entire nation: no rain or dew for three years. (Hevi is a Pidgin word used for a burden, a problem, a trial – anything that is “heavy” to bear up.)
What happens if it doesn’t rain for three years? The rivers and streams dry up. The trees and grass wither and die. Food doesn’t grow, and people starve. No rain means people will die.
My friends understand what that is like. They have suffered through droughts when their gardens didn’t yield and their families were hungry, and so they click their tongues knowingly at the severity of three years with no rain.
After Elijah announces this judgment, what happens? God gives him very specific directions. God will provide for His prophet, but Elijah must follow the word God gives Him. This is a hevi for him too: everybody suffers when there is no rain. But in Elijah’s suffering, he still obeys the Lord. And God provides by the brook Cherith.
(In the Pidgin Bible, Cherith is rendered Kerit, although every reading of that word is followed by a dozen whispers, “Cherith,” since a missionary by that name is known and loved here.)
This provision is strange! Did God cook the meat for Elijah and then give it to the ravens for delivery? Or did God send raw meat for Elijah to cook and eat? The Bible doesn’t say, and we smile as we wonder. Either way, Elijah obeyed God during the hevi, and God provided for him.
After some time, of course, the brook Cherith dries up. The hevi continues. Again, God gives a command, and again, Elijah obeys. Now, another character is introduced. Elijah is sent to a widow and her one son.
A widow’s life is hard, harder still during drought and famine. This woman has survived so far, but she is down to her last reserve of food with no hope of finding more. There is no Wal-Mart or welfare. She can’t get more food, and so she expects to die, probably after watching her son die.
(The son seems to be little, since mom is the one gathering the sticks, and later we read that she held her son in her arms. Little children can crash so quickly when sickness comes after malnutrition, so he probably would have died first.)
Elijah dares to request water from a widow, during a drought. She doesn’t hesitate, but goes to fetch it, which speaks well of her grace and hospitality. And then the stakes are raised. “Bring me some food too.”
Of course, her food supply is short. She tells Elijah she doesn’t have enough for him and her son. The prophet tells her to not be afraid, but to make food for him first…and then she’ll still have some for herself and the boy, because God promises to provide for them all.
Naturally, she would be afraid of fulfilling Elijah’s request. She has probably already seen other people’s children die. She has made every effort to protect her son from that fate. So now she has a choice. In her hevi, will she fear death and do what she thinks best? Or will she believe the prophet’s promise and obey his order?
She does the same thing Elijah has been doing every day of this hevi. She obeys the word of the Lord. And God provides for her and her household.
They must have been so happy, every day! They must have been singing and praising God every time they ate the food He miraculously provided for them.
But then, another hevi comes, greater than hunger. The widow’s son is taken by some sickness. His sickness grows greater until he dies.
We know what that looks like. The people sitting around me have watched children fall prey to sickness, progressively worsening, until they are past recovery…and they die. We hear Pastor Ben read 1 Kings 17:17, and we know what that means.
So the mother responds with a question. “Why did this happen? It must be because of my sin. It couldn’t just have happened because the world is broken and cursed. Surely someone is responsible for bringing this hevi.” Adding to her agony, she feels that it’s her own fault.
My friends understand this too. The worldview they grew up with reasons that if someone becomes sick or dies, there has to be a cause. Did someone work witchcraft against him? Did the sick person do something wrong that brought the hevi as retribution? Who is responsible? Finding that out is critically important. If the sufferer is to be healed, someone must discover the source of the hevi.
Where does this mother take her question and grief? She doesn’t summon a witch doctor to blow on her son’s body in ritual. She carries her dead child to Elijah, the man of God.
When we are going through a hevi, where do we look for help? We must take our hevis TO God, instead of turning our back on Him. This woman shows us what that looks like.
Elijah doesn’t answer her questions. He just takes the child from her arms and carries him upstairs. He lays the limp little body onto his own bed and weeps, asking God why He sent this hevi.
My friends have done this too. They have deeply mourned in dark, smoke-filled huts, crouching around a child’s body. There is no mask for death here. No funeral homes, no padded caskets, no embalming. Just a haus krai the day or two (typically) after the last breath, and a burial following. They stroke the arms and legs and face of their beloved, tears streaming and voices wailing. So they understand this widow’s hevi. They see it.
Then what does Elijah do? Does he work magic over the little boy? No. He simply leans over the child and prays. God doesn’t respond. Elijah repeats the action and request. Still no response. Elijah continues.
And God hears his prophet’s voice, and He raises the child back to life. Elijah carries him downstairs and gives him back to his mother, who declares (can we assume through tears of rejoicing?), “You are a man of God, and the words that you speak must truly come from the Lord!”
What can we learn from 1 Kings 17? God provides for His people. And it is foolish and sinful to turn our back to God when hevis come. We must stand strong in the faith of our God, and carry our hevis to Him.
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As Pastor concluded the sermon this morning, I wondered, “But when there is no reviving, what then? What about when the child dies and isn’t raised? What about when the ravens don’t come and God’s people are hungry?”
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psalm 84:11
God always provides Himself, even if He (in infinite wisdom) doesn’t provide what we asked for. Sometimes His kind providence leaves us lacking lesser things so He can satisfy us more deeply with Himself.
The hevi of a child’s sickness and death can crush the soul. So can chronic pain. And broken relationships. And a thousand other forms of suffering that flow from the fountainhead of the fall. But like God’s people in 1 Kings 17, may we carry our hevis to our God, to the Savior Who already carried them on the cross. For “surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”
Ours is the God Who always provides for His people. He is our help, a very present help, in all our hevis.