Next stop….Zarephath
Happy Jesus Resurrection month everyone!! And what a perfect time to look a little further into where our faithful Elijah was headed!!
We left off with Elijah at “Camp Cherith”, refresher: Cherith means to be “cut off from others and the covenant blessings”…. forcing COMPLETE RELIANCE on God and God alone!! This is a hard test if you’ve ever experienced it! I know…. I have!! It can be very lonely and long until we shift our reliance from ourselves and others solely unto God! Now, we pick up in 1 Kings 17:8-9, “Then the word of the Lord came to him (Elijah), saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and STAY THERE; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” There’s a couple things we want to pull from this passage. First, remember we discussed in our last blog that names and numbers are extremely important and significant in Gods World! The word Zarephath in the Hebrew actually means “to melt/smelt …. It means “crucible”. This place for Elijah would prove to be a further refining place! Ugh! God literally was taking Elijah from solitude (loneliness), virtually silent, and an obscure place (no where anyone would want to go) straight into a DEEPER PLACE. A DEEPER TRUST. This is where God turns up the fire and molds him into all He’s called him to be. Secondly, notice Elijah’s quick and unwavering obedience! He learned to just follow Gods lead at Cherith. Quite remarkable as we look into our own lives and often want “EXPLANATIONS” and the “WHY” behind God’s directions for us. And lastly, most importantly to always remember……CRUCIBLES CREATE CHRISTLIKENESS!! They REFINE us! Let me explain a little deeper. In a machine shop there is what is called a “heat treating department”. There, bars of metal are placed into white-hot blast furnaces. As they are heated up “slag” (USELESS MATTER that makes the metal INFERIOR) surfaces and is REMOVED. That’s what God does with us… He purposely sets/leads us into “hot/hard” places to remove the useless/inferior matter that will hold us back from the call on our lives! The next step in this process of refinement is the REFORMING/RESHAPING stage. When the “slag” is removed, harsh pounding of the metal begins and then the metal is reheated and dropped into vats of hot oil. At this point the metal SCREAMS like a trapped animal as it is being altered into what it is being created to be. Sounds painful doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is! We squirm and wonder “Why does this have to be so hard God? “The fact of the matter is that the screaming/agony of our soul is our flesh resisting while dying to SELF, SELF-RELIANCE, SELFISH MOTIVES, (ME, MYSELF AND I) We have been called as believers in Jesus Christ to be witnesses of HIM in the earth. Which means we must be willing to sacrifice our fleshly desires and step into the “crucible” for transformation! Remember we are to be “written epistles read by men”! Jesus was our most amazing example of sacrificing HIMSELF- being cut off from others and the covenant blessings (Cherith) and the epitome of being set into a sacrificial crucible – (Zarephath) for all of us! The ultimate sacrifice! This process can make our flesh scream and whale! But if we truly are going to call ourselves followers of Christ…. Well, then we have some uncomfortable times that await us in the cycles of our BOOTCAMPS!! On our Christian path of faith to “mature faith” all our paths lead us through Cherith to Zarephath!! You might say …. “ADVERSITY IS GOD’S UNIVERSITY”. I don’t know about you …. But I want to represent my Lord and Savior with strong character and have extreme devotion for all our Lord has done!!!
This Easter season….. let’s strive to let God do the INNER work He needs to in us!!! Embrace the place! Though this place is uncomfortable at times, it is vitally necessary. Let’s become the instruments of HIS miraculous power!!! Let’s allow the transformation!!
