“And Elijah said to her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake FIRST and bring it to me, and AFTER make for thee and for thy son” (1 Kings 17:13).
The sin in the land was great. Ahab, a monster of iniquity, only surpassed in wickedness by his queen, Jezebel, whose name has passed into a byword for sin, sat upon the throne of Israel.
God had, by the mouth of His fiery prophet, Elijah, the Tishbite, pronounced judgment upon the land. For three years and six months, the same length of time, be it noted, as the gracious public ministry of the Son of God, famine was to hold the land in a strangle grip. Soon the dry, parched ground told its own tale. “A great famine was throughout all the land” (Luke 4:25). Prices rose. Food was scarce. Men and beasts perished. Prospects were black indeed.
Is there not a parallel today? Is not God visiting these countries in which war is raging, and more or less the whole world? Are not war, famine, and pestilence His agents for the chastisement of men, His means of awakening those whom prosperity had been ruining for time and eternity?
In the midst of all this many Christians are intensely tried. True, many are making better wages than they have ever made, but others are feeling the pinch of rising prices and the drain of increased taxes. Nay, more, the seeming prosperity of high prices is more or less a fallacy. They must come out of the pockets of the people in the end, and what then? As the months roll by so the pinch will become accentuated.
Economy must be practised rigorously, but how? We hear of missions in heathen lands having to be abandoned for lack of funds; we hear of good sound Bible literature having to be withdrawn because subscribers and distributors have dropped off. We hear of publishers of such literature being faced by heavy rises in the cost of paper and production.
Is economy in this direction right? Is it true sound economy?
A little examination of our text and its context will help us greatly to furnish an answer.
When the drought first gripped the land the prophet was fed by ravens and refreshed by the waters of the Brook Cherith. But the stream ran dry. What could God do for the needy prophet then? Some of us, perhaps many of us, know something about creature streams running dry, our cherished Cheriths failing just when they seemed most necessary.
But if Elijah knew God’s care, love, and power, the drying up of the Cherith need have occasioned him no anguish of spirit, no burden of care, no anxious inquiry what was to become of him. If Cherith ran dry, he had God, and that was sufficient. Have we not as much?
How did relief come for Elijah? God had His eye on a widow woman. She was a woman without strength or resources. She lived in Zarephath, in Zidon, a Canaanite.
The prophet was directed to her. On the surface it did not look like a valiant or noble deed for a prophet to billet himself, nolens volens, on a widow woman; and she belonging to a Gentile nation. What claim could he have upon her, and what resource had she to fall back upon?
The prophet introduced himself by asking for a drink of water, and a morsel of bread. Surely under the circumstances not a very welcome introduction!
The widow’s answer revealed depths of poverty, staggering and appalling.
Her food possessions consisted of a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse. All she wanted was two sticks, little enough fuel, but sufficient to prepare the scanty meal for herself and her son. That done, her resources would be exhausted, and death literally stared them in the face.
Surely the prophet, if only governed by humanitarian instincts, would cast about for ways and means to help such a case of abject need?
We answer, Yes and no. No; for he did not go about it by FIRST meeting her need, and AFTER considering his own. Yes; for in FIRST meeting his own need, as the true representative of God, he met her need then and AFTER, as long as the need lasted. In one moment the widow was to be delivered, and sustained as long as sustainment was needed.
Observe the method by which relief came. How encouraging for Christians today! How 1 Kings 17:13 sparkles like a well-cut gem, its facets answering to the light of examination.
The prophet insisted upon the order,
GOD “FIRST”
SELF “AFTER.”
But how could she make a little cake for the prophet FIRST, and then AFTER make a second cake for herself and her son? How could materials, sufficient for one cake, be stretched into enough for two? How? Nature cries impossible. Common sense suggests expedients. Let the prophet try at another door, where there may be more “wherewithal.”
But no, the widow was about to learn a wonderful lesson—“FIRST” and AFTER.” What did it mean?
The prophet said, “Make me a little cake FIRST, and bring it to me, and AFTER make for thee and thy son.”
But how could it be done? Only thus; if she cared for God’s interests “FIRST,” He would care for her’s “AFTER.” This putting God first brought her the brightest reward of her life.
She went to the barrel of meal, took out its remaining handful, all that stood between her and a lingering death by starvation, and, lo! there was no diminution of the meal. What she took out did not affect the quantity she found. She went to the cruse of oil. She poured out the oil, but still the quantity left was equal to what she found there. And this went on “many days”—indeed, all the days of need. What a story!
And wherein does our spiritual prosperity, and it may be our temporal prosperity, lie today?
Just in observing the order “FIRST” and “AFTER.”
What a blessed “FIRST”—to be allowed the sublime luxury of caring for God’s interests in a world of need.
What a happy “AFTER”—to have God caring for every need as long as we are in the land of need.
If we acted on these lines there would be no withdrawal of God’s workers in foreign fields, there would be no cessation of useful and God-honoured Scriptural literature, there would be no slackening of efforts in God’s things. Then we should learn the truth of Holy Writ:
“There is that scatters, and yet increases” (Prov. 11:24).
“The liberal soul shall be made fat” (Prov. 11:25).
“Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).
May writer and reader know the blessedness of putting
GOD “FIRST”
SELF “AFTER,”
making God’s interests FIRST, and experiencing God’s blessed AFTER, how He cares for our interests, even through darkest days. Let us put Him to the test.