God Who Sends Us Into Situations We Cannot Understand

(1 Kings 17:8–24)

1. Why did God tell the prophet Elijah—who had boldly declared to Israel’s evil king Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, whom I serve, lives, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word”—to “leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan” (1 Kgs 17:1–3)?

a. Why would God say there would be “neither dew nor rain for years” except at Elijah’s word, and then command him to hide at the brook Kerith? Surely God knew that if no rain fell, the waters of the brook would inevitably dry up (v. 7).

(1) Why does God sometimes tell those who boldly proclaim His Word to go and hide? Shouldn’t we continue proclaiming His Word with boldness?

(2) Why does God sometimes not send us refreshing showers, but instead allows us to experience dryness?

2. Why, when “the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land” (v. 7), did God then say to Elijah, “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there” (vv. 8–9)?

a. Why did God not lead Elijah to a safe place within Israel itself, away from King Ahab’s reach, but instead send him to Zarephath in Sidon, a foreign land? God surely knew that Sidon was the homeland of Ahab’s wife Jezebel, whose father, “Ethbaal king of the Sidonians” (the name Ethbaal means “with Baal”), ruled there—a nation devoted to Baal worship (16:31).

(1) Why does God rescue us from one difficult situation—like the brook Kerith that soon dried up (17:7)—only to lead us into what seems an even worse situation, like Sidon? Why does He send us from a bad place into a worse one?

(2) Why does God sometimes command us to go to places we least want to go?

3. Why, in Zarephath of Sidon (v. 9), out of all the people, did God command that a widow—who herself was preparing a final meal for her son and herself before starving to death (v. 12)—be the one to provide food for Elijah?

a. Why didn’t God command a more wealthy widow, one with resources, to provide not only food but other necessities for Elijah? Why did He choose the poor widow who said, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug” (v. 12), and command her to give food to Elijah (v. 9)? Surely God knew she and her son were about to eat their last meal and then die of hunger (v. 12).

(1) Why does God sometimes send us from poverty into even greater poverty?

(2) Why does God sometimes send us to those who, from a human point of view, seem the most destitute and pitiable?

4. Why did God, after providing food so that the widow and her son could eat for many days (v. 15), later allow her son to fall ill and grow worse until he finally died (v. 17)?

a. Would it not have been better to let the widow and her son eat their last meal together and die, rather than prolong their lives only for the son to suffer a serious illness and die later (v. 17)? Surely God knew the widow would blame Elijah for her son’s death (v. 18).

(1) Why does God sometimes rescue our loved ones—those standing at the brink of death—only to allow them to suffer long through illness and eventually die?

(2) Why does God allow disaster to come upon the poor and pitiable (v. 20)?

5. Our God is the God who sends us from “the brook Kerith” to “Sidon.”

a. Our God is the God who sends us from Sidon to a widow living in Zarephath.

(1) God made the widow of Zarephath provide for Elijah, just as Elijah obeyed God’s word, and the widow obeyed Elijah’s word.

(a) Elijah believed the word of the LORD, who said, “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land” (v. 14). The widow also believed the Word of God spoken through Elijah (v. 24), and therefore she was able to obey (v. 15).

(i) As a result, they saw that “the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah” (v. 16). They ate for many days (v. 15).

6. Our God is the God who rescues us from one crisis only to permit (or lead us into) an even greater crisis.

a. God rescued the widow and her son from dying of hunger after their last meal, but later allowed her son to fall ill and die.

(1) His purpose was that the Lord, who is the resurrection and the life, might hear Elijah’s cry and raise her son back to life.

(a) God’s purpose in raising her son was to also revive (save) the widow’s own dead soul.

(i) And it was to bring her to confess that Elijah truly was “a man of God” and that “the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth” (v. 24; cf. 18:36).