Swallowing the Egg

I have always enjoyed the account of Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). When Su and I visited Israel, it was a special privilege to walk around at the top and imagine events as the prophet of God faced off against the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. The story has everything you could ask for: drama, humor and, in the end, God wins. It is better than a movie - certainly better than the one we started to watch yesterday!

Still, Elijah had to go through Chapter 17 before he could get to Chapter 18. He had to go through the proving ground for his faith before he could experience the victory on the mountain.

God told Elijah exactly where to go and what to do (1 Kings 17:2-7). He allowed Elijah to drink from the brook and He sent the ravens to provide bread and meat for him every day. However, the time eventually came when the brook dried up and Elijah had to move on. Did this mean that Elijah had sinned or had done something wrong? No. It only meant that God had another place for him. It was a reminder to Elijah to trust God and not the brook or the ravens.

God's Word will always lead God's people in a time of testing. However, this word must have seemed a bit strange to Elijah. “Go to Zarephath (Gentile territory) where I have commanded a widow to feed you.” “Zarephath” means “refining” or "smelting." God was certainly putting Elijah through the furnace.

Can you imagine Elijah’s feelings when he discovered how poor the widow was and that she was about to prepare her last meal? I can. I once stayed with a family in a communist country who were so poor they only had one egg. On the day of my departure the wife fried the egg for me and the whole family watched while I ate it. I have eaten many strange foods under difficult circumstances - I have never eaten anything that was as hard to swallow as that egg.

In my experience, you can count on times of testing to follow hard on the heels of times of blessing. After being fed at the brook and seeing the jar of flour and the jug of oil being replenished, Elijah still had to deal with the harsh reality of the death of the widow's son. I can only imagine that Elijah had become rather fond of the boy. He must have seen the widow's grief while experiencing his own. When he takes the corpse up to his upper room you can hear some of his anguish when he prays, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" (1 Kings 17:20)

It says that Elijah prayed three times for the boy before God brought him back to life (the first resurrection in the Bible). It must have been hard to pray the third time. God didn't answer the first time. He didn't answer the second time. Why pray again? Still, it was only after persistent prayer that God chose to answer.

One of the things that impresses me with Elijah in Chapter 18 is his confidence in God. The pagan prophets are dancing around, cutting themselves and otherwise proving by their public displays of emotion that they were not Minnesotans. Elijah says, "God, do what you are going to do."

That kind of confidence only comes out of times of testing, obedience and seeing the truth of God's Word. Probably a good reminder for all of us as we begin another year of ministry.