'To this end Christ both died, and
rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.'
(Rom. 14: 9)
There never was a resurrection in the world or in the Church of Christ before this one. Yet it is a resurrection in very quiet circumstances. The Lord does not make a work about His wonders, for what are wonders to Him? Sarepta was a town of Syro-Phoenicia. I have sometimes thought that the Syro-Phoenician woman belonged to this place. I should not wonder but that the Lord had gone out of the coasts of Israel in order to see it. I remember it, forty years ago. It was a place of villas for the people of Tyre. On this account the woman would spread the news all the better among the Gentiles there. But let us keep to the story of the widow. Christ refers to it, showing He had read it carefully, as setting forth the sovereignty of God. Let us look at
I. This incident as bearing on the widow.-
She must have had some acquaintance with the Hebrew truth and the Hebrew
prophets, for when Elijah appeared to her in the name of his God she was not at
all surprised, but put faith in the God of Israel. First her faith was tried,
then it was rewarded. 'Her barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of
oil fail.' Would you risk anything in faith for the Lord? Are you
conscious that you often do things simply because you believe they are God's
will? Did you ever do so without being rewarded? It is not like the Lord to
forget those who do anything for Him.
One day this woman's son sickened
and died. Could there be a greater affliction to a widowed mother? Is this the
reward of faith? No doubt she hazarded a great deal in taking in a Hebrew
prophet into her house, and is this the way the Lord rewards her? No doubt
Elijah prayed for her son; yet he died. It is remarkable how it affected her.
'Thou hast brought my sin to remembrance.' How affliction brings sin to
remembrance! It is one of the Lord's ways of convincing of sin in the case of
His own people. If you let the Spirit of the Lord work in you it will always
have this effect, and a most blessed effect it is. The Lord wanted to humble
the woman. Perhaps she was getting a little proud of her barrel of meal. Ay,
and perhaps she was beginning to feel that she deserved it, for taking the
prophet into her house. The Lord drives all this out of her. But still, is it
kind to do this to a believing woman? 'God is not unrighteous to forget your
work of faith, in that ye ministered to the saints (Heb. 6:10). Now she has
ministered to the saints. Well, God has rewarded her, and this is His way of
preparing a greater reward - a kindness such as had never been granted to a
saint since the Flood, before or after. You see the Lord empties before He
fills. When you are overtaken by some bitter grief, say, 'Now I know the way of
the Lord. He is preparing something better for me.' It ended in the widow's son
being given back to her from the grave. 'Now I know,' she says, 'that thou art
a man of God.' Did she not know that before? Yes, but have you not noticed that
there are times when the truth we know is lighted up as with a flame? I
referred to walking forty years ago on the shore at Sarepta. I well remember
how Mr. M'Cheyne and I used to say to one another, as we walked in other parts
of Palestine with our Bibles in our hands, 'We believed the Bible before, but
now we believe it more than ever.' Some of you have felt this after a time of
affliction.
II. This incident as bearing on Elijah. - I
think Elijah was a little stumbled at first. He seems not to have known what to
say. 'Give me thy son.' He goes up to his upper room, and there he is, alone
with the dead child. You see what he is about. He speaks to the Lord for him,
not to his mother. Three times he cried. It often puts me in mind of our Lord's
words, 'Ask, seek, knock.' 'Asking' is when we pray, but 'seeking' is more
earnest still, and 'knocking' is more and more in earnest. Elijah had never
heard of a resurrection before, but he does not hesitate to ask this of the
Lord. You see we may ask Him to do greater things than He has ever done yet.
Don't confine yourself to the same things over and over again. I think Elijah
took a hint from former things done for him. There was heaven, sealed and
opened again, - there was the barrel of meal not spent. 'Lord, Lord, do greater
things!' What a simple resurrection, done so quickly, done in a private house,
done in an upper room. I don't know that men would hear of it till long
afterwards. The heathen would not believe the woman's story. The Lord likes to
do great things, if we would not make a great noise about them. Let them tell
their own story. I think the Lord was preparing Elijah for greater things
still. We may in this respect compare him to David slaying the lion and the
bear by faith. When we are dealing with the Lord we always act on this
principle, 'greater still, greater still.' Here is the man who was never to die
used by God to bring life to one who was dead. God let him look into the cavern
of death, and see how He could bring back from death. And the Lord was teaching
His servant in his retirement what He could do for a dead nation.
When the
Lord gives you any remarkable visit in your retirement He means you to use it.
We need a great awakening. God does not want us to be content with what we have
got. Have you cried to the Lord for the quickening of souls as earnestly as
Elijah cried for the quickening of life in that dead lad? If we were intensely
in earnest we would see reviving.
Transcribed from Reminiscences of Andrew A.Bonar D.D.
first published
LONDON, HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27 Paternoster
Row
1895
HTML transcription files copyright © 2001-2006.
Jane Newble
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This sermon added 3 July 2001