Ambush

1 Kings 17:9
“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

Oh, the lessons to be learned from Elijah and the poor widow. She and her son were suffering and almost out of food. There had been no rain for quite some time. A severe drought was upon the land. They were down to their last bit of flour and oil. After it was used to make the last cake of bread, they would wait around to starve and die. What a grim outlook on life until Elijah arrived on the scene.

God sent Elijah to this widow, who was poor and without hope for salvation, to bless her. He (God) told Elijah to go to her and she would provide him with food. God wasn’t only preparing the way for the woman and her son, but He was also providing for His servant, Elijah. He sent Elijah to ambush her with his words. How would you feel if some guy came up and told you to give your last bit of food to him? That’s pretty bold, wouldn’t you say?

There are a lot of interesting facts about this story. The first is that God told Elijah that He’d already directed the widow to supply the food for him. Apparently, given her response when Elijah asked for the bread, she was unaware of God’s prompting in her heart! (“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” 1 Kings 17:12) The second interesting fact is this: God sent Elijah to Zarephath, which means “ambush of the mouth”, to throw this lady a curveball with his words. Not only did He send him to that specific place (Zarephath), but it was located in the region of Sidon which means “provision, food”. Sometimes God is funny!

But none of that is my point! All to often in church we, the body of Christ, are portrayed as the widow in this story. We are told of our hopelessness and our poor state of life. We are told that if we would only give up what we had, God would release His blessings upon us. We’d never be without, but we have to be willing, like this widow, to surrender even our last bit for it. I, however, like to look at it from the other side.

Folks, we are Elijah in this story, not the widow without hope, just waiting to die! We are God’s people. We have been given hope through Jesus Christ and authority in His name over the enemy (Satan) so that he will not harm us (Luke 10:19). Jesus’ words are, “...nothing will harm you.” Why then do we put ourselves back into the widow’s shoes? Christ took our sins, sickness, death, poverty, troubles, weaknesses, famine, and all other issues upon Himself at the cross and in exchange gave us the riches of Heaven!

We need to start being the Elijahs to the world. Jesus went before us to prepare the way, but we act like we’re still cutting our own paths through works and petitions of mercy to God! We need to bring our Blessing, that is, Jesus Christ’s salvation, to the lost and dying. We need to ambush the world with our mouths, just like Elijah ambushed this woman. Only instead of asking for stuff, we need to be providing the Word of God. We need to ambush the world with the provision and food that they need, the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. We, Christians, are in Christ (our Sidon--provision and food); we have to go out to those who are in need and give them a Blessing! It is simply because we are Christ’s that no matter where we go we can be a blessing to others. We need to realize our station in this world. We are not subjects to the prince of this world (John 12:31), but are heirs to the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven. Where we go, Christ is with us. Where Christ is, there is only hope (elpis [hope in Greek]-a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation).