Fleeing from the wrath of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel, the Prophet Elijah finds himself driven by the Lord to the home of a poor widow and her son. Elijah has already proven to the widow that God can provide food enough for her and her son, even though they only have a tiny amount of meal and oil. By God\u2019s own power, the Lord makes the meager provisions last far longer than they should and proves God\u2019s word spoken by the prophet. When the poor woman\u2019s son later dies, she expresses her grief and frustration by blaming her misfortune on Elijah\u2019s presence. Elijah offers no defense for himself or for God. Instead, he takes the child to the upper room and expresses his own frustration with the God who brought this upon them all. God proves faithful and answers Elijah\u2019s prayer. In doing so, God shows, in ways that seem impossible, that God does indeed care for the \u201cwidow and orphan,\u201d and confirms the faith the widow of Zarephath. Therefore, she responds, \u201cNow I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psalmist expresses joy in and gratitude to the Lord in response to some restoration that the Lord has wrought in the psalmist\u2019s life. The writer proclaims, Lord has \u201cturned my morning into dancing\u201d and \u201cput off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.\u201d Interestingly, the Psalmist seems to say that their sense of desolation was brought about by their own complacency: \u201cWhile I felt secure, I said, \u2018I shall never be disturbed. You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.\u2019 Then you hid your face, and I was filled with fear.\u201d In calling out to the Lord and appealing to God\u2019s mercy to restore them to spiritual life, the Psalmist is heard, and in relief is able to say, \u201cHis wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, his favor for a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever Paul gives his testimony, it is quite beautiful. But he never tells his story for its own sake; it always serves a purpose. Here, Paul uses the narrative of his spiritual journey to make two points. First, he is at pains to show the Galatians that adopting Jewish ways is not only unnecessary to follow Jesus, but also detrimental. Paul is urging the Galatians not to \u201cregress\u201d (so to speak, since this is a primarily Gentile audience). If Paul, who was as Jewish as they came, put away Jewish identity markers after his conversion, how much more should Gentiles not seek to become artificially Jewish? As Paul will later declare, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, but both are now one in Christ (3:28). The distinction is no longer relevant. The terms and conditions have been updated, and now Gentiles are eligible to receive the promise of Abraham. Second, Paul is defending his apostolicity and the validity of his preaching against the charges of those who are misleading the Galatians. This is not about protecting his reputation; this is about the very nature of the Gospel itself. Ultimately, Paul, like a good pastor, is looking out for the well being of his flock, his spiritual children whom he loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is evident that Luke sees, in this resuscitation by Jesus of a widow\u2019s son, an echo of Elijah\u2019s raising of a widow\u2019s son. Like the widow in 1 Kings, the people in the Gospel, when they see the wonder worked, affirm the legitimacy of Jesus\u2019 office: \u201cA great prophet has risen among us!\u201d Interestingly, Jesus does not pray to God to raise the boy, but instead merely commands the young man, \u201cRise!\u201d In a way, Elijah himself is almost incidental to his miracle; it is really only the power of God doing the work. But Jesus speaks as if he himself has the power and authority to reverse death. Jesus is not incidental. He is not the instrument. He is no mere prophet. He is himself, to use his later words, \u201cthe God the living\u201d (20:38).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 Kings 17:17-24 Fleeing from the wrath of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel, the Prophet Elijah finds himself driven by the Lord to the home of a poor widow and her son. Elijah has already proven to the widow that God can provide food enough for her and her son, even though they only have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201221,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,52,33,3],"tags":[368],"class_list":["post-766705","bible_study","type-bible_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-studies","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-5c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Bible Studies"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":368,"label":"Proper 5C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bible_study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952322,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766705\/revisions\/952322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}