When You're Pushed Over the Edge

By Jane Irmler, May 12, 2024

When You're Pushed Over the Edge

Jane Irmler

1 Kings 17:7-16 NASB

7 It happened after * a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold,a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink." 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only * a handful * of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die." 13 Then Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. 14 "For thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.’ " 15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

Note: God prepares to unsettle us when the resources needed to sustain us in our current position start to shrivel and drop up. (Finances, emotional reserves in a relationship, physical energy required to continue the pace of life start to diminish —look to God.

Let the brook go dry. Don’t your own water supply, let lead you straight to Zarephath.

Remember: Some of us retreat at the first sign of risk. Elijah was being haunted but God was directing him to the very place where these people were from.

Truths about the season of deficiency or when you’re pushed over the edge:

  1. Anywhere but Here (uncomfortable)

9a "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; Note: Zarephath - comes from a word that means “smelting furnace” or “refining”

Remember: God positions me to where I should be heading. God sent a Jewish man to an uncomfortable place.

  1. Sidon - Outside of Israel (a Gentile nation) • God’s love knows no bounds. Remember: Place of obscurity prepares us for a place of influence (Elijah)

  2. Sidon - a place of idolatry hub • King of Sidon (Ethbaak)’s daughter was Jezebel. • Baal - storm god • Baal’s wife, Asherah - goddess of fertility

  3. Sidon - people here were responsible for the famine and drought. Remember: Being in ministry, we also see the sad part when people pass. The last part is being in hospice (to make them comfortable). Are you staying at a comfortable place where your faith is no longer growing and being challenged?

Question: Are you in a place or position where it’s uncomfortable, or even painful?

“He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

  1. Anyone but Her (uncommon) behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 9b Remember: God prompts the unexpected people to partner with His plan. Elijah was being fed with ravens. It’s one thing to be fed by the birds, its another thing to be fed by someone who can’t even help themselves. Imagine how Elijah felt: Please don’t make me ask her.
  1. Insignificant • Women - weakest, most vulnerable people on the socioeconomic ladder during Elijah’s day • Unmarried and widowed - living with out protection or provision and benefits of kinship. • No name

God commanded in the OT to leave some of the harvest to the widows

  1. Insufficient • No access to the public square, getting the scraps • She can’t work. • God will use people in your life during this season to show you that God is still there.

Note: Moms, isn’t it amazing how much God uses our children to teach us? And sometimes to humble us? To remind us that we need Him? I’ve never been so humbled in my life until I became a mom. I’ve never felt so weak until I became a mom.

God could’ve used a Jewish widow to provide for his need but He chose a Gentile widow to show His redemption plan. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)

  1. Anything but This (unreasonable) “… behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only * a handful * of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die."

Remember: God purges me from what’s holding me back. Elijah asked the widow her last meal. Last meal - before she and her son dies. Mother’s love

Illustration: Moms have given up their hot meals, hot coffee, had probably even eaten chewed up food because we love our children.

  1. Generosity takes place during inconvenient times. Remember: She gave part of her last meal. Generosity doesn’t only mean finances but also , , patience, . Time - engaging time in a relationship, responding to texts Moms - the daily routine is where we give. Our children is who we get to reflect Jesus to. You’re investing in your family as part of your Kingdom work.

  2. Impossibility is God’s starting point. Zarephath strategically brings you face to face with someone else’s impossibility — terminal diagnosis, unreachable child, the failing marriage, the crippling depression.

Note: In the moment of her weakness, God sent her Elijah.

  1. Sufficient provision is promised.

15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah. • Daily food means daily faith. God did not provide an annual provision at once. (Wouldn’t that be nice that once you give to the offering, you can check your bank account and see the money right away?) • God didn’t stop the drought nor did He send rain. I wonder what the widow did every day looking through her bowl of flour and jar of oil. A little bit of flour and oil

Question: Are you going to keep giving? When you hang on to it, it runs out faster.

  1. Anytime but Now (untimely and unforeseen)

17 Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!” 19 He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where * he was living, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He called to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD and said,"O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child's life return to him." 22 The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. 23 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 is alive.” 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

The widow took Elijah in for 3.5 years during the famine and God took care of them. They thought they’d dodged the famine bullet. But now it all seemed for nothing. This mother’s greatest fear had become her reality anyway.

  1. Blaming ends to bitterness. • I forget God’s blessings when I start blaming. The widow forgot the provision of oil and flour and the added years when her son died. • Too loyal to our limitations

  2. Prayer changes my perspective. • Elijah’s response: instead of defending himself, taking offense at her attack as the man of God, he was mainly silent, calm and compassionate. He took his concerns into prayer.

Changes my perspective on these:

  • Pride for humility
  • Self-assurance for reliance
  • Independence for divine dependence
  • Doubt for firmness of faith
  • Panic for peace

• Prioritize prayer. • Where is your place of prayer? • Expect God to answer unreasonable prayers. • Elijah touched a dead body - vile and unclean (Jewish law). His level of expectation and trust in God is what He needed to prepare Him for Mt. Carmel.

Remember: God prepares me for something better.

Widow: 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”

Luke 4:25-26: “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Note: She is honest, and was transparent with her limitations, authentic inventory.

Be authentic of your need. Be honest with what you have available and let God work with what you have. Are you honest with God about your deficiency and limitations? Do you have patience enough for water but not enough for bread? Do you have the Time, skill, talent that’s not enough that’s being required of you for your marriage, parenting?

Take Away: Mount Carmel is coming.

Remember: Zarephath comes before Mt. Carmel. If we want the that calls down fire from heaven, we need to be refined first by that .