God turns scarcity into abundance.

 Thoughts for the Day May 8, 2020 

I love to learn about the  faith of some of our ancestors in the Bible. One of my favorite stories comes from the book of I Kings where we see extreme faith on behalf of a nameless widow. Prior to this passage we find Elijah announcing a long drought (3 years). God initially directs him to go eastward and hide by the Wadi Cherith east of the Jordan.  There he was fed bread and meat by the ravens and he drank from the wadi. But after a while the wadi dried up. God then directs him to Zarephath in the center of Baal worship, where He will command  a widow to feed Elijah:

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: 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.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

¹² “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.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘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.’”

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For 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. (I Kings 17: 8-16).

The widow in the story utters that she has nothing. She has admitted death’s victory. Still she is asked to give.  With faith she follows God’s lead and God turns scarcity into abundance. May we learn from her brave faith to step out and listen to God’s call no matter how difficult it may be. Have a blessed day!