The Place of Preparation

God had great things in store for Elijah, but he needed moulding and preparing. This process had started at Brook Cherith and now was to continue in the home of a poor, destitute widow in a foreign land. Elijah had been stripped of all the things that were familiar to him. He had been removed from the sheep and hills of Tishbe and taken via Samaria and a dwindling brook to a town named after a smelter. The brook that he had come to rely on had run dry, his calling and authority as a prophet of Israel was of little value in the heathen town of Zarephath and his reputation counted for nothing. All the things that Elijah had relied on for his strength; his own inner resources, his religious calling and life, his resourcefulness were all stripped away, he was not the centre of attention, and there was no obvious ministry for him, In Zarephath he was just a shepherd from out of town looking for a handout. Elijah was going to be prepared in the home of a widow and her son, among ordinary, everyday cares and concerns and in the middle of real need.

The widow and her son were in difficult circumstances. There had been a famine for some time and she was down to the ingredients for her last meal. There was no social security system in Zarephath and it does not appear that she had friends or family to draw on. Now a houseguest arrives insisting that she feed him out of her last remaining food supply. The widow fully expected to die, the prospect of watching her son starve to death in front of her must have been devastating and yet she responded to Elijah’s request and provided for him. Few, if any of us would have experienced the enormity of the distress this woman would have felt and yet all of us understand the pressures of having to cope with the demands of the world with meagre resources. The pressure on relationships and frayed emotions when added demands are placed on us cause us to act in ways we would rather not, and the atmosphere of the home can be anything but calm and peaceful. But this is the home that Elijah was called to.

There was no male figure, apart from the son, in the home and the fact of Elijah living there may have raised some questions among the neighbours. On top of this there is no record of Elijah having any experience as a father or family man and now he was going to live with this woman and her son for some time. He was going to be forced to deal with all the challenges of home life without the benefit of being eased into it. How was he expected to cope with the burdens of being part of a home in difficult circumstances? What preparation did he have for dealing with the highly charged emotional atmosphere of a single mother and her son coping with every day needs when they didn’t have the resources to meet them? How was Elijah going to conduct himself and maintain his testimony as a righteous man?

Most of us are familiar with the demands of every day home life. They can be frustrating and challenging. Things don’t always go as they are planned and not everyone in the household shares the same dreams and expectations. How do we maintain our faith and vision while coping with the pressures of home life? The way we do it reflects the real character of our Christian life and it is how well we conduct ourselves there that will determine how much God can use us in the ministry he has prepared for us. Most of us know how much easier it is to be spiritual in our place of ministry or service than it is at home. Home is where everybody knows what we are really like, it is where our patience is tested, where our frustration levels rise and where annoyance gives way to irritation and quickly becomes anger. Home is where we are when the bills seem overwhelming, when those we say we love seem to be able to say just the wrong thing at the wrong time and when the last argument leaves us bitter and resentful. But home is also the place of refuge, the place where we run when everything seems to be going wrong, where people forgive our indiscretions. Home can be a place of refreshment but it is certainly a place of testing.

The home that Elijah was to live in was beset with great difficulties and problems, probably beyond those we have experienced and it was the ideal preparation for him. The widow is unknown beyond the pages of the bible, but Jesus testified of her, and elsewhere declared that whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the person who receives another because he is righteous will receive a righteous persons reward (Matthew 10:41). This woman’s reward would be great, in fact no less than Elijah’s own, but your reward is equally as great if your home is one in which others are prepared for the work of God’s kingdom. Does your home provide an atmosphere in which people are prepared for service? Are others received into your family or do they feel uneasy or even unwelcome? Is our care for our possessions greater than our willingness to receive strangers?

Elijah needed to be prepared for his encounters with the prophets of Baal and King Ahab by seeing the miracle working power of God in the home. It is your home that will not only prepare others for their work but will prepare you for the spiritual battles that you will face. The way you and I live in our home reveals our character and the depth of our spiritual life, the widow was able to say of Elijah ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth’, what would your family testify of you?