“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”
(Isaiah 48:10-11 NASB)
It was a dark time in Israel’s history. Evil King Ahab was on the throne, and wicked Jezebel was at his side. Along with the spiritual drought gripping Israel under Ahab’s reign, God sent a physical drought to the land. He shut up the heavens so that it didn’t rain for 3 years and 6 months.
It was in this context that God sent Elijah to a nearby town to find a widow that would provide him with food and water (1 Kings 17:8-16), the sustenance he needed to survive the famine that ensued.
Elijah finds her at the gate of the city, and asks her for some bread. “I have no bread,” she said. “Only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar… I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth,’” (I Kings 17:13-14).
God not only ordains certain ends and particular circumstances to glorify Himself, He also ordains the means to those ends. And sometimes in the midst of those means and circumstances He even performs miracles. God sent a severe drought and resultant widespread famine, and yet He miraculously provided sustenance for Elijah, the widow, and her son until it was over.
The Lord didn’t stop with the drought, however. He ordained another painful experience – sickness and death of the widow’s son. But Elijah prayed… and God answered with a bona fide miracle by bringing her son back to life. Not surprising that these several circumstances, and God’s divine intervention in the midst of them, caused this widow to praise and glorify, worship and adore the God of Elijah – the God of Israel!
Regardless of the affliction we may be going through, as God’s children we are to remember in the midst of it all that our Father is sovereign. He ordained our circumstances in eternity past for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory.
Let us remember that, as Nathaniel Vincent said, “There are good things which come out of the evil of affliction,” (see Rom. 8:28). Instead of focusing on our difficulties, let us focus on our glorious God. Let us meditate on His sovereign providence as we consider this narrative of Elijah and the widow. Let us contemplate the reality that, “Our God is in the heavens, and does whatsoever He pleases,” (Ps. 115:3); that He has the power to carry out all His desires and intentions, and that He works in every circumstance of the believer’s life for the praise of His glory. We should be constantly adoring God throughout each and every day for who He is and what He does.
So, let us humbly seek His will in the midst of our afflictions, and wait patiently for Him to work His will through those circumstances to fulfill His good pleasure and bring glory to His name!
- Lord, You give power to the fainthearted, and to those that have no might You increase their strength. You comfort those who suffer, for to You, Lord, belong the issues that surround death. See the tears of those who are oppressed and have no comforter. Remember those that are in chains, that are tried in the furnace of affliction. Bind up the breach of Your people and heal their wounds.
- Lord, let the sighing of the persecuted rise like incense to Your throne. According to the greatness of Your power, preserve them. Provide for the poor, be a strength to the needy in their distress, and a refuge from the storm. Let them all trust in You.
- O Lord, every man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, but You have taught us to take up our cross daily. Yes, many are the troubles of the righteous, and especially those who are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. But nothing has befallen us but such as is common to man. O Lord, all my desires are before You, my groaning is not hid from You. Do You not offer Yourself to me, as a father does to a son? And what son is there whom the father does not discipline? As my afflictions abound, allow my comfort to abound more. I may be troubled on every side, but not distressed, perplexed, yet not in despair. Remind me that though the night may be dark, joy comes in the morning.
Further References for Isaiah 48:10-11
Isa. 1:25; Zech. 13:9; Deut. 4:20; Mal. 3:3; Ps. 66:10; Job 23:10
