Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

The Lord is rocking Naaman's world.  Just not in the way he we expecting.  Just not in the way he thought he wanted. So....

anger. rage. harsh words. insulting a whole country. and stomping away.  

Then again, it is the "little people" who come to the rescue.  Maybe it is the same servant girl.  They challenge Naamen to actually do the ridiculous thing that Elisha's MESSENGER has told him to do.  Naamen's whole future depends on what he does in verse 13 ½, just like the decision point of verse "13 ½" of the Widow of Zarapheth story.  

Listen and find out what Naamen does.  It changes everything.  It will outrage the people of Nazareth a few hundred years later.  It may outrage you today.

Luke 4 tells us that this is an important story.  An offensive story.  A story so good/bad that after people from Jesus' hometown even hear a REFERENCE to it, they want to kill Jesus.

We have a mighty general who has leprosy
We have a slave girl, captured, away from home but faithful
Then we have the upper level negotiation of king to king
And then, the prophet of God who is administering all of this.

Big and Little.  Pride and Humility.  What I think God should be and who God actually is.  Listen.  It's all here.

Elijah brings his need before the Lord in a most practical, visual way today.  He STRETCHES HIMSELF OUT UPON the Widow of Zarephath's son.  He cries out.  He does the verbal and physical humility before the Lord and asks.

And the so very sobering part: The Lord Listens to the voice of Elijah.  

Perhaps, just perhaps, He will listen to our voices today.  We have already listened to Him, today we trust He will listen to us.

My son just died but the first thing that I mention that is bothering me is that MY SIN IS BROUGHT TO REMEMBRANCE.

When God is active, this happens:  my sin is brought to remembrance.

If someone says, "I'm OK, You're OK", or "Man is basically good", is almost a universal marker for hard heartedness.  That is not what is happening here.  The Widow of Zarephath is being convicted and exposed and challenged and undone by her sin.  This means that God is in the building.  He is speaking and acting and making Himself known to her.  It is not a pleasant process, but it is the best news ever.

Listen and see if YOUR sin gets brought to remembrance.  Yikes!  Enjoy the ride if so!

There is something so offensive about today's story that they tried to throw Jesus off a literal cliff because of it.  There is also something so intimate and sweet that God chose to put it in His precious book for all time.  Let's find both!

Whether you "think you are in" or whether you "think you are out" of God's kingdom, there is something in the story for you. 

If you KNOW you are out, you have an advantage.  Sounds crazy, but that the way God works.  He specializes in those OUTSIDE and then brings them INSIDE.  We get to see the widow of Zarephath make her decision; vote with her flour and water and oil; put all her chips in with what God told her.  The problem for her and all of us is that she had to BELIEVE first.  That is where the critical work of verse 14 ½ was done.

Jesus volleys  the tennis ball of the Bible back to the Old Testament.  You recall the story of the Widow of Zarephath don't you?  Wait, you don't?!?  He basically tells us that we SHOULD; that there is something there for us; that it is important for the New Testament story.  We'd best give it a look.

What we find there is bleak.  Famine. Drought. Nothing in storage. Food insecurity to the point of starvation. Dead husbands. Not in the main place where God is active on the earth at the time. And yet, we find God speaking, meeting and challenging this desperate widow who thinks she has ONE meal left on earth.  Then this prophet shows up and asks that she MAKE HIM A LITTLE CAKE.  

This widow had a little heads up that Elijah was coming.  She was "commanded" (which she could disobey, it is a common phenomenon in the history of the Bible and the world) to feed Elijah.  So, she had been waiting and if she is like every other person who is commanded by God, WRESTLING. This all happens in "Verse 14 ½". She is at the end of her rope; the end of her food; the end of her life.  WHAT WILL SHE DO?  Who gets the last handful of flour and splash of oil?

As in all time BEHAVIOR BETRAYS BELIEF.   What ever you do, don't read verse 15.

Today we move from Good news, proclaiming liberty to captives to We are going to throw you off a cliff.  What was the big change?  What triggered the wrath?  What was the problem.

There are two ways to stone a person.  One is to bring the stones to the person.  The other is to bring the person to the stones.  That is what they were trying to do here.  

There are two offenses.  One is that they understood Jesus correctly in saying He was God.  The other, is that nobody can assume they are part of His new kingdom by birth, or location or affiliation.  Being from NAZARATH, just doesn't cut the mustard in and of itself.  

Listen as the story of Jesus visiting his hometown gets REALLY interesting.

Jesus in our passage claims the Old Testament is about Himself.
He summarizes the good news of His message.
His hometown listeners started with attention, deference, good reporting and even marveling.  So far so good.

He might be getting a little under their skin though in His claims to basically be God; the messiah. And about knowing what they were thinking. And about claiming that our favorite Isaiah passage was specifically about Him.

But for today we will end with marveling.  Tomorrow, we will throw you off a cliff.  

Peter and Jesus get front and center in the Walking on Water business.  However, there are 11 other people present for the spiritual and physical drama.  What happens to them?

Worship is the appropriate response to the revelation of God.  This is exactly what we see in the disciples.  They see Jesus in a new way.  Then they worship.  They declare truths about him in a new way.  They respond to the revelation given.

We "heard the same words".  We "Saw the same miracles".  We get to respond just like they did.

Listen and worship today as WE say, "We worship YOU saying, You are..."

You get the sense that Peter does almost everything right in this story.  I think Jesus is for the most part thrilled with his progress.

He identifies the right Commander
He submits to being commanded by the Commander
He receives a command from the Commander
He obeys the command
He progresses toward the command accomplishment
BUT... there is a bump in the road and he hits some trouble
BUT...when there is trouble Peter calls to the Lord for rescue

He almost has it.  It is as if he is riding a bike and ALMOST gets it.  Listen and enjoy Peter's ride.