Killer God

1 Kings 17: 18

So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”

What is that expression, the more things change, the more they stay the same? This might well have been said yesterday rather than long ago. There are two implications in the verse. The first one is that God punishes us for our iniquity by making bad things happen to us. The second is that it is God who takes life from people.

God answered this widow’s prayer when she was at the end of her rope with nothing to feed herself or her child. Elijah showed up, sent by God, and blessed her flour bowl and jar of oil such that neither ever ran empty. She received supernatural provision from God through Elijah. However, when her son died she immediately turned on Elijah and God blaming them for her son’s sickness and subsequent death.

Isn’t that about how we are today? When someone dies we say, “Well, God took them home.” Other people are even worse. When something bad happens they not only blame God, but they say He is punishing them for their sins. Hello!! That is a person who understands nothing about the message of the cross. Jesus took your sin and God said He doesn’t even remember it anymore. So, how is God going to punish you for something He doesn’t remember and that Jesus already paid for?

Elijah took the woman’s son to the upper room and prayed to God for the boy’s life to return to him and the boy was restored. Now, unless God is schizophrenic, it makes no sense to suggest he killed the boy. If He wanted the boy dead, He wouldn’t have brought him back to life. Or is God just a puppet master who sits in heaven playing games with us. “Hey, watch what happens when I kill this widow’s son!” You can’t know God and believe something like that. He is love and further, He doesn’t play silly games with people’s lives.

We forget, I guess, that there is a devil in the world. John 10: 10 teaches that Satan’s aim is to steal, kill and destroy. The verse does not say that God comes to kill. In fact, Jesus was speaking and said that he came to bring us abundant life. That is kind of the opposite of kill, steal and destroy.

It is amazing how twisted around we get but that is why it is called deception. God is a life giver. Blessing comes from the Father. He doesn’t even need to bring you trials. There is already plenty of that in the world. Is there anyone you love? I mean really love. Is there someone you love more than you love yourself? Do you wish to be a blessing to them or do you want to make their life a hardship? What does love do? Trust your Father to be the source of blessing. He is goodness and mercy. He will restore what the devil steals from you just like he did for the widow of Zarephath.

 Believers?

John 2: 22

When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.

Believing Jesus; believing in Jesus, ultimately should bring a person to believing the Scriptures.

We are called “believers”, but what do we believe. There are some basic tenets of the Christian faith which we are all expected to believe: the virgin birth, the resurrection, etc. surprisingly, one of those basic tenets isn’t that Jesus is the Word of God. people are taught to believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but if you listen to them, most do not actually believe what they read in the Bible.

Once, when I was a guest at a church, I heard a sermon on Jesus feeding the 5000. To this day I almost regret that I did not stand up and shout, “Blasphemy!” The pastor taught that feeding the 5000 was not a miracle of Jesus. Instead, he posited that women in the crowd fed the people. The women in the congregation appreciated his comment because good church women, especially from the south, do feed the multitude. None the less, can you see that this Pastor is not truly a believer? He does not believe what he reads in the Bible. I wonder, sometimes, how that church is doing. If the pastor teaches unbelief, what expressions of faith can you expect from the congregation?

I want to challenge you to read the Bible and then to believe what you read. Third, I want you to believe that what you read there can happen today and can happen in your life. Do you need food? Read 1 Kings 17. Do you need money? Read Matthew 17: 27. Then believe what you read. Believe that what God did for someone else, He is willing to do for you. Believe the Word of God.