Today’s Devotion
Topic: A Passionate Prophet Vrs His Evil King (Part 5)
(Self Assessment 205)
Background:
For the past four weeks we’ve been learning from king Ahab and prophet Elijah. These two leaders clearly had opposing orientations. The king stood for everything that desecrated the land, while the prophet did everything to bring Israel’s attention back to God.
We learnt last week, of how God used the last pot of flour and jar of oil a widow had to sustain her household and Elijah throughout the famine. This was simply because the widow chose to receive and act on the word of God given to her by the prophet.
Now this seems like a beautiful ending to the famine tragedy, right? That a widow feeds and houses a prophet and due to this, her source of supply never run out. Wonderful story!
What could go wrong under this circumstance? What could ruin such a perfect situation that seems ochestrated by God Himself?
For answers to these and more, let’s get straight into our weekly Bible discussion.
Text: 1 kings 17: 17- 21
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 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?”
19 “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. 20 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?” 21 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!” Amen
Questions:
1) Kindly read verse 17 again:
a) How do you think this widow who obeyed the word of God by feeding the prophet felt as she watched her ailing son grow from bad to worse. Till he eventually died?
b) How will you explain such a tragedy to a believer who tries nothing except to honor God in all he/she does? What would you say is the reason God allows difficult times like this to come upon the lowly?
2) Kindly explain the widows wailing and complain to Elijah in verse 18. What does that depict, and how does her utterances reflect her pain?
3. Describe Elijah’s faith in verse 19. Why is it remarkable?
4. What has the ‘upper room’ come to represent in the life of believers? Why is it necessary for each of us to get to the upper room even when the situation we confront appear dead or completely overwhelming?
5. How do you think Elijah was feeling in verse 20 when he raised those questions to God? Do these questions also go to suggest he had no idea, and as a matter of fact, didn’t even see why God will allow such a tragedy to befall an innocent household?
6. In verse 21, Elijah quit complaining and started praying. His prayer was definite and direct “Lord my God, LET THIS BOY’S LIFE RETURN TO HIM.” Share your opinion about this prayer and discuss what we can learn from it?
7) What have you learnt from the entire discussion today? Especially for those times when all hope is lost and we can’t even understand why God would allow the worst to happen to us?
Kindly share your answers with us through this same social media platform (WhatsApp/Facebook). We also learn a lot from what you share.
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