WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 6)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

Hebrews 11:11-12, 35a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When a Christian believer exercises steadfast faith in the God through which all things are possible, amazing things can happen.

Miraculous things.

Consider the account of Abraham (Abram) and Sarah (Sarai) in the Old Testament. When Abraham was called by God to leave his home and land in Haran and travel to a place only God knew about, and Abraham responded in complete obedience, the scriptures tell us this about the prospect of any childbirth happening:

Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive. Genesis 11:30

And yet, God promised Abraham that if he did as he was commanded, then he would “make (him) into a great nation” and would “bless (him)”. He further vowed to make Abraham’s “name great” and make him “a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-3). He finally added that the child who would be Abraham’s heir would be a son from his own flesh and that the total sum of all his offspring would rival the stars in the sky (Genesis 12:4-5) Despite the improbability of it all, God assured Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child together and Abraham believed God, a faith that was “credited to him as righteousness” Genesis 12:6).

With this, we know that this is what occurred, even despite Abraham and Sarah trying to make it come to be on different terms. You’ll remember Sarah giving Abraham her maidservant Hagar and they bore a son who was named Ishmael but he was not the heir God intended (Genesis 16). The heir would be a son born by Sarah and his name was Isaac (Genesis 17:19, 21:1-7). In miraculous fashion, the faith of Abraham and Sarah coupled with their obedience to go and do as God commanded, resulted in the impossible becoming possible.

Later in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we read where faith led to other miracles in the Old Testament, specifically the resurrection of the dead to women. Going to the scriptures, we find two such accounts.

First, there was the son of a widow who lived in Zarephath. Here’s the account in 1 Kings, chapter 17:

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him (Elijah):

“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” 1 Kings 17:7-24

Here we find the Lord revealing himself in miraculous ways twice.

First, the widow experience constantly replenished jars of flour and oil, ever providing food for her and her son. Elijah made sure she knew that the miracle was coming from the Lord because no mere human being could hold such incredible power.

We read where the Lord then sent resurrecting power to bring the widow’s son back from the dead after Elijah called on Him to act.

Did I mention that miracles happen when a person holds onto faith in the God who can do all things?

Moving to 2 Kings, the fourth chapter, we find yet another moment where God put His miraculous, death defying might on full display. Look at the account of the Shunammite and her son.

One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”

She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.

Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”

“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!”

His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.

She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”

“Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”

“That’s all right,” she said.

She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”

“Everything is all right,” she said.

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”

“Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out. 2 Kings 4:8-37

Here we read about Elijah’s successor, the prophet Elisha. He has an encounter with a Shunammite woman and her husband who recognized Elisha as a “holy man of God” and provided special hospitality by making a room for the prophet to use when he would visit Shumen.

Appreciative of their generosity, Elisha decided to bless her in a special way. The scriptures tell us that her husband was old and so she was unable to bear children but Elisha, invoking the miraculous power of God, promised that the woman would have a son in her arms within a year’s time...and that’s exactly what happened.

It was a great gift from God for the woman and her husband but tragedy struck when the boy experienced severe head pain before being taken from the fields to his mother where he died in her arms.

Distraught with grief, the woman quickly traveled to Mount Carmel to confront Elisha over what had happened. She was in utter disbelief that such a blessing could be given her by God only to be cruelly taken away in such horrific fashion.

Hearing the news, Elisha went to the woman’s home and in a very similar way to Elijah (lying stretched out on the boy), God resurrected the son back to life. Faith had once again led to a miraculous work.

Friends, today our Lord continues to do amazing things each and every day for Christian believers who maintain a steadfast faith in Him, despite the circumstances and odds. Like Abraham and Sarah, the widow of Zarephath, and the Shunammite woman, God rewards those who trust Him and His ability to do anything He wills to do.

Faith can bring miracles. We need to always remember this.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.