Elijah’s name is a compound word meaning the Lord (Yah or
Jah) is God (Eli), the theme of his ministry, that there is but one God and
Yahweh is His Name. He came from Gilead,
one of the tribes that settled on “the other side” of the Jordan, or east of
Israel proper. Elijah appears out of
nowhere to speak to the wicked king Ahab concerning a drought that the Lord is
bringing on the land as a result of Ahab’s apostasy. Afterwards, Elijah withdraws across the
Jordan to live during this drought. For
a time, the ravens brought him bread and meat twice a day and he drank from the
brook where he was commanded to live.
Ultimately, because of the drought, the brook dried up and the Lord told
Elijah to move to the region of Sidon, which is west and north of the conquered
land on the sea in what is Lebanon. There,
the Lord tells Elijah he will find a widow who has been chosen as his
host. When he meets her, she is
gathering up sticks to make a fire on which to cook the last of her provisions. Elijah commands her to make him a cake first
and then something for her and the son but with the promise that neither the
meal nor the oil will run out. The
woman, in faith, does as the prophet says and for “many days” they marvel at
the continuing provision of meal and oil.
Suddenly, the son dies and the woman blames the prophet for exposing her
sin in the death of the son she had, at the beginning of the story, been
preparing to die with. What “sin” is it she now believes is exposed? The Lord has blessed her these many days and
now, she believes He is punishing her through the prophet. Whatever it is, the
raising of the son serves as an expression of God’s grace in a fresh way, the
“sin” is forgiven.
These wise men are likely Chaldeans from Babylon. Why do they know about this star and the
child? If we look back to the book of
Daniel we find our answer. Daniel saved
these men’s lives by saving their fathers’ lives. When the king had a dream he couldn’t
understand he called the Chaldeans to come and not only interpret the dream but
tell him what it was. When they could
not do as he asked, Nebuchadnezzar ordered them killed but Daniel stepped up
and asked for an opportunity to do what they could not. His ability to both tell the dream and
interpret the dream and his plea for these men’s lives, ensured they would have
progeny. They were interested in the God
of Daniel and these men had studied the religious texts that informed Daniel so
now they come in response to the fulfillment of the prophetic word concerning
the birth of the king. The leaders of
the Jews seem uninterested in these wise men, no one offered to go with them to
Bethlehem. Herod, however, always
insecure, determined this child might pose a threat to him and decides to try
and kill him but the wise men are warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
just as two days ago the unknown man of God didn’t return the way he had
come. Interesting isn’t it that God
spoke to these men in a dream considering how their fathers’ inability to
interpret a dream had been the reason they knew this little prophetic secret in
the first place?
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit…” How much of what we do is from these two
motives? If we consider the second part
of that sentence, “but in humility count others more significant than
yourselves…” we begin to see how to live in keeping with kingdom ethics. As Paul says, that is the way of Christ who
did this very thing by not only the incarnation but also the cross. If Jesus had not come, lived, and died on
that cross we would have no life at all but all of His life was based on the
ultimate condescension of the creator becoming like and subject to His own
creation out of love. Just as Elijah was
sent specifically to this widow because God wanted her to know forgiveness of
sins and the blessing of life restored, so we are sent into the world in His
Name. We may never know why we are in
one another’s lives, but it is always about revealing the grace and love of
God. Isn’t it best if we are intentional
about that?
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