October 15 A Little Skill

If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success. ~Ecclesiastes 10:10

Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the Word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” 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?” As she was going to get it, he called to her: “and bring me, please, a piece of bread?” “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 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.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 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 gives rain on the earth.” “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. 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. ~1 Kings 17:7-16

In 1 Kings 17, we have examples of two different ways that God chose to provide for His servant Elijah. The first way is just mentioned at the beginning of the quoted text. God told Elijah to go to a brook, during a drought and the ravens, scavenger birds, would feed him bread and meat every morning and evening. It was an outright miracle. When we see miraculous provision in our lives, we are certain that the Lord is blessing our course of action. Everything is just falling into place, it’s obvious that God is meeting our needs and guarding our paths and guiding us to a wonderful, God blessed outcome for His glory.

But what happens when the blessing dries up, provision is gone? Are we still in His Will? In Elijah’s case, God led him to a very unlikely source as a next step: a pagan, nonbeliever, a poor widow who was about to eat her last meal with her son. How could this possibly be God’s leading? How could blessing come from this? You could say that God was handing Elijah a dull ax to meet his needs. Skill would be required for the blessing of both.

Sometimes God calls us to trust in what may look, on the surface, like very dull axes. We can’t see how in the world, the seen world that is, how we will ever get the job done. However, again, as with yesterday, wisdom, coupled with strength, according to God’s Will, will accomplish what looks impossible when we continue to trust in doing things His way.

Skill comes from discipline. In the physical world it’s knowing how to do work arounds and having an understanding beyond just knowing the basics. In the spiritual realm it requires taking the time to know your calling well and not being deterred by obstacles and setbacks. We don’t know where Elijah came from initially, but we do know that when he came on the scene, he already had a solid relationship with God. When he prayed, God stopped the rain for more than three years. “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” (James 5:17-18)

During this drought time, Elijah spent time alone with God, by a brook, for probably months. He stayed in a perpetual quiet time, fellowshipping with the Lord until the supplies were gone and God told him it was time for plan B. Now, he might have been what we would consider, “super spiritual.” He has skill in his prayer life, he is certain that he can trust God, so, God sends him a challenge to put his skill to the test.

He sends him to an unlikely source, a woman who, many years later, Jesus spoke of favorably when He said: “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” (Luke 4:25-26)

She was the one that would believe Elijah and trust God through him more than those who had been brought up in the faith of the Promised Land, but I’m sure she would probably not have been Elijah’s first choice. Yet, Elijah demonstrated his trust in God by obeying and connecting with this dull ax. The woman obeyed Elijah’s instructions, even though it meant giving up a portion of her son’s last meal, and God did the rest, as He always does when we put our trust in His direction for our lives.

You could say that the woman faced the dilemma of Desert Pete, the man who was crossing the desert and came across a well. The man had no water of his own, but next to the well was a jar of water. The sign said to use the water to prime the pump and the traveler would have enough water and more to meet his needs. Does the thirsty traveler drink the water or prime the pump? Should the woman trust Elijah and share her last meal with him, possibly depriving her son, or should she use what she has to meet her need and trust that, if Elijah is truly a man of God, he’ll get help from somewhere? After all, Elijah isn’t her responsibility. God will provide.

She chose trust, in a stranger, for the chance at a future. “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor His delight in the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” (Psalm 147:10-11) When everything is the way we want it, we will tend to credit ourselves and our skills and, maybe even our faith. Over and over, God demonstrates in His Word that He gets the glory by using us, imperfect though we may be, with apparently inadequate resources, to accomplish His Will on Earth. God has the greatest skill of all, so the gets the glory and credit for any work done, even using the dullest axes, like me. Aren’t you glad He does?

Prayer: Father thank you for the skills and strength and power to do your work, namely your skills, strength and power to mold me into a useful servant. May I be responsive and useful to you as You sharpen me for my tasks. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: I Am a Servant