I used to say to others, we can prepare with all the provisions we desire to hoard up, but… what happens in all that earthly preparation when you are hit by a storm? When the Hurricane’s winds blast the walls of your house and splits it into as the waters rise up and flood all you have stored up? What good was the earthly hoarding to you?
Imagine then a world gone mad and your house stood in the storm. How long will it take before the others pillage you for all your supplies…even taking the last grains, leaving nothing in store for you but a fist to the face. Sparing maybe your life if you are so fortunate.
So, that being said… yes, prepare for lean days but hoard not any thing, but be ready as the widow of Zarephath who was out gathering sticks to build a fire to cook her last grain and use her last bit of oil for bread for her and her son. Eijah asked for water and as she left to go get him some, he asked also for food. She shared she had but only enough for her and her son. But, Eijah told her to go ahead with her plan, but to make him a small cake first and then she could go back and cook more for herself and her son.
And then he said to her,”“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.’” 2 Kings 17:14. She then did what Elijah said and found his words were true. She took in Elijah and fed him of what she had. In return, God blessed her and the oil and grain never ran out in all the lean days.
Even so, as time past and her son became ill and died. She thought Elijah had brought the calamity to her and showed her dead son in her arms to Elijah. But, Elijah took her son and restored his life, bringing him back from the dead. It was not until that moment, that the woman believed, for prior to that moment…she had merely been watching and wondering. How do we know this? Because it was not until her son’s life was restored that she said it, “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.’” 1 Kings 17:24.
Now this passage shows us that God blesses us when we give to others, even when we do not have much. It also shows us that even when you may not believe or even know God or his plan for your life, he truly sends his word to all who will listen and hear it for he would not have any to perish, but all to come to him in faith. The same as Rahab at Jericho who helped Joshua, and Ruth the Moabite who stood by Naomi and later married Boaz which was the lineage that brought us David and later the Christ. Boaz’s father was Salmon and his mother was Rahab (Ruth 4:21, 1 Chron. 2:11. Could we even have imagined God’s plan or his ways? They certainly are not the ways of man.
Mathew 1:5-6 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
We are in a season of the ages unlike any other. We also, mostly do not even comprehend the way the Lord has provided all along for other nations to all come into his fold. For truly God did so love the world that he gave his only begotten son for all. It has not been a close knit bloodline of only a Hebrew weaving as some would tell us. If this were so, then we have much to think about with Rahab and Ruth woven into the blood line of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Therefore, a story of love and faith is woven with the promises of salvation in this life and in the next for eternity for all who believe and walk in God’s commands.
In this season, our survival guide is the Holy Word of God. For in His Word, and His Word only are we guided in all things to know that those who do as the Lord has said will indeed find shelter in the midst of the storm. Amen.
MAY WE EACH FIND SHELTER IN THE WORD and may we share with others freely. Standing bold in the hour, even knowing now we are at war with the dark principalities and powers that have devoured many. God has given all who believe the Holy Spirit to dwell within and greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world. Amen.
In this challenging season…may we each learn how to do ‘I LOVE YOU’. Amen.
Stay Strong and Never Surrender!
Dianne
