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The angel Gabriel said it to Mary when he came to give her the news that she would be the mother of our Lord Jesus. The angel of the Lord said it to the Shepherds as they were abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Jesus said it to the disciples as He was walking on the water to them over the stormy seas at night. The angels said it to the women at the empty tomb on Easter morning.
The prophet Elijah said it to the widow who was resigned that she and her son would die of hunger: “Fear not.” Elijah had glad tidings of great joy for the widow: Fear not, your jar of flour will never run out, your jug of oil will never go empty. Elijah was indeed an angel to the widow and her son — a messenger who brings the good news of the Lord to people who need good news.
The widow and her son were living in the land ruled by the wicked King Ahab. Because of his terrible and wicked acts, the prophet Elijah went to the King and told him the judgment of the Lord: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” So Israel was the opposite of rainy the Texas of the last two weeks. It was in a terrible drought, and food became scarce. But it was like modern Texas: too secure in its prosperity, its idol gods working to steal the allegiance and faith of people from the true and living God.
During this drought, Elijah was fed for a while by ravens, birds that God sent with pieces of bread and meat to relieve his hunger as he lived out in the desert. Reminds one of God's care of the Israelites in the wilderness — manna from heaven, quail from heaven. When the little stream of water to quench Elijah's thirst ran dry, God sent Elijah to the widow to be fed. Elijah had no fear that his daily bread would not be provided; he lived solely on faith in God's Word. God has a history of mercy and grace he could depend on. It is God's character to be gracious and giving.
Meanwhile, The widow and her son, especially with no husband to provide for her, was down to her last measure of flour and oil, and was gathering sticks to build one last fire to make one last little cake of bread. The widow said to Elijah that this was to be their last supper before dying. She was convinced that she and her son would die from hunger. This was it — their “last supper”.
Yet, she is not bitter. She confesses that God is a “living God”: “as surely as He lives”, so surely am I going to die to this life. Yet, she did not deny the prophet his bread. She shared anyway. She still trusted God's Word to her. Death to this life was not a final end for her. She was a child of the living God. She must have been a daughter of Job: even though I will die, yet with my own eyes I shall see God. This life is fleeting; yet, I know that my Redeemer liveth.
Oh, for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by many a foe, like the widow's faith. We need it. We have our own droughts, our own trials and sufferings, attacks by sin, death, and the power of the devil. Anxiety and fear abounds around us and tempts our sinful flesh.
There's a lot of gloom and doom out there, and it's not just because of the recent rainy weather. The economy is slow to recover. Companies are slow to hire and even quicker to reduce pay, lay off, or fire. Consumers are tightening their purse strings. Yet the government is spending money it does not have and neither will our great–great–grandchildren have. Everything that was booming in the 1990's as the new millennium turned has gone bust to one degree or another. Some of you have felt that bust more directly than others. Many of you, I know, are worried about the next month's house payment and other bills.
Yet, these problems, real as they are, are mere symptoms of the underlying disease. “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Oh, that you and all sinners were as anxious about sin, death, and the power of the devil in your lives. Your sinful flesh falls time and again into serving every idol god, into serving mammon, into serving that which your eye lusts after.
Then, as if sinning were not bad enough, Satan torments your conscience with the sins of the past. This is especially true when anxieties and unfavorable events affect us, when the job is lost, the cancer is diagnosed, and the child is sick; the loved one is threatened by death. We are tempted to think there is a one–to–one connection. Satan wants us to think that God is paying us back for our sins. Satan would have you believe that God is so far beyond us in His holiness, that we can only fear His wrath and dread His coming to us.
The trials and sufferings we face are not a one–to–one punishment for sin. However, God does discipline at times in order to prod us to repentance and greater and greater dependence upon Christ and His saving, forgiving work on our behalf. Satan's accusations are false. God does not desire the death of the sinner. He sends His Gospel Word of promise, peace, and hope to those who are broken by sin and death like the widow, speaking His gracious “Fear not” to the contrite heart.
We need not fear Jesus, He is the greater Elijah. He preaches today the same Word of Gospel promise in the midst of our fears and anxieties: “Therefore I tell you, be not anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25). “Be not anxious….” Do not fear about the food that you eat or the clothes that you wear. If God cares for the ravens and birds, gives them food and a nest, and even sends them to bring food to the prophet in the desert, how much more will your Heavenly Father care for you?
Life is more than the temporal things of today. Life is more than food, more than drink, more than where the mammon of this life will come from. Despite our anxiety and the pressures we feel, life as God's children is not — in the end — about how the bills will get paid, how one survives today or tomorrow in hanging on to one's earthly possessions.
He cares for you much more than just for the sake of filling your empty stomach and putting shelter over your head and putting clothes on your back and making sure your necessities are provided. He promises to provide daily bread, what we need for each day. God is love, and eternal love at that. His love goes beyond our temporal needs. Fear not. Be not anxious. He has taken action for you, without you even asking, to care for your eternal needs.
God did the hard thing for you. It would be easy for God to snap His fingers and give you earthly things, which He does, giving us the daily bread which He promises, which He knows we need. But the harder and most necessary thing is what God has chosen to accomplish for you, to bring you His Kingdom, to give you His righteousness, His holiness, as a free gift. He chose to save you from your sins and from eternal death. God the Father sent His only begotten Son to take on your corrupted flesh. He suffered and died for us on the Cross, enduring and defeating our hunger, our poverty, our sicknesses and sufferings, our fear, our anxieties, and even our death, paying for our sins and doubts and shortcomings with His holy precious blood.
Even better, God's Son rose from the dead. He has defeated what this world says is the absolute worst thing that can happen to anyone in this temporal life — to experience death. Jesus has turned death upside down and made it something to be desired, even craved. He has attached a great promise to death, one the widow and her son and Elijah firmly trusted in. Death is now a victory, not a defeat, for God's faithful children.
By His Word of promise attached to our baptism, attached to His Holy Supper, Jesus gives you the fruit of His cross and saves you from your sin and preserves you through death for the eternal life to come. There you will live with Elijah, the widow and her son, and with all the saints, in the glorious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, where the bread and oil will truly never run out, where we will live under the eternal shelter of His Holy Presence, where we will be eternally clothed with His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness in His eternal Kingdom.
Down to the last scoop of flour, the last drips of oil? Down to finding sticks to build one last fire to cook on? Death staring at you with its cold and intimidating stare? Nevermind these things. “Fear not”, “Be not anxious”, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Heavenly Father provides for you all that you need now and for eternity, through His Word of promise and hope given us for the sake of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God has always been good on all of His promises. The cross is His ultimate proof.
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.(Isaiah 43:1–3, English Standard Version)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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