1. God’s timing is always right.
We are often impatient and wonder why God is not acting. Saul knew that he should wait but he grew impatient when Samuel did not come so he took matters into his own hands. I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." I Samuel 13:12. Because he decided not to wait for the Lord’s direction he suffered severe consequences. Samuel’s words were like a dagger in his heart. "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 1 Samuel 13:13
Many of God’s servants have learned the lesson that Elijah had to learn at Kerith and at Zarephath. Joseph was left in an Egyptian prison; Daniel spent the night in a lions’ den; Paul spent time in Arabia. These men learned the lesson and passed the test but Saul failed the test when he took matters into his own hands.
Elijah was instructed by the Lord to go to Zarephath of Sidon and it was there that the Lord had commanded a widow to feed him. How the Lord commanded the widow we do not know but I am sure that as the famine that was affecting the region had affected her country as well that she had cried out to God for mercy upon her and her son. Was she a believer? The evidence from the text seems to tell us that she knew of the God of Israel and she knew that the famine was the result of Israel’s sin against Him.
Elijah was instructed to go to Sidon which was the homeland of Jezebel. Ahab and Jezebel had searched the entire region for Elijah but they never suspected that God would hide him in her own land. He was commanded to go to Zarephath which means refining. God had a further work to do in Elijah’s life before he was ready to confront the king. We are not told what the lesson was that Elijah was to learn but I am sure that the Lord was teaching him the truth of Habakkuk 2:4, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Continued tomorrow LW
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