18 February 2020

The Always Faithful God

It amazes me how God works countless wonders and yet this does not always translate into faith.  God miraculously brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land after sustaining them for 40 years.  He caused water to flow from a rock and provided bread from heaven, yet they continued to lean on their own understanding, walking by sight instead of faith in Him.  This same tendency goes for me too, for none of us are immune to this short-sighted folly.

Yesterday I read 1 Kings 17 which provides an illustration of how slow people are to recognise God's miraculous provision.  During a severe drought and famine God directed the prophet Elijah to go to a widow woman.  When he found her she was gathering sticks to light a fire to bake her last meal for herself and her son.  All they had was a scant amount of flour and oil and once that was gone they were without hope of survival.  Elijah asked her to bake a cake for him first and promised in 1 Kings 17:14-16:  "For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'" 15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah."

In her desperate plight the woman did as Elijah asked because she had nothing to lose.  She exercised a degree of faith in God which was rewarded with enough flour and oil to live on.  One might imagine the woman cooked food daily in amazement and worship of God that food which could have only supplied a meal for her and her son could last for months while feeding a grown man too!  The poor woman who had already lost her husband eventually faced the death of her child from illness.  She confronted Elijah in grief, accusing him of bringing her sin to remembrance and killing her son!  Though God daily provided the food she ate, her resentment caused her faith to whither.  She was at one point resigned to the death of her son, but after his death she bristled with unbelief.  She questioned the motives and legitimacy of this freeloading prophet who had taken up residence with her.  Isn't this inconsistency strangely familiar in us?

Elijah took the child to the room the widow had provided for him and prayed for the child.  1 Kings 17:21-24 reads, "And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him." 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."  The woman could have known Elijah was a man of God and spoke truth because the flour and oil was divinely sustained, but it seems that miracle was lost on her:  it took the death and revival of her son to realise Elijah was indeed a prophet of the God of Israel.  I wonder:  how many miracles does God do for us which are lost on us?  He has blessed and saved us and yet we doubt Him and accuse those He sends to help us.

Praise the LORD not one of His miracles is wasted, for there is always more where that came from as our eternal, benevolent, gracious King.  His mercies are without end and His grace is sufficient for us day by day.  We will all go the way of the earth when our time comes, but praise the LORD our times are in the hands of the everlasting God who will never leave or forsake us.  We are not always faithful, but He is ever faithful and good.

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