Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 36:1-23, 16-25; Colossians 4:1-18
This Week’s Readings: I Kings 17:8-16
“And Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.’” (I Kings 17:13)
The Lord had instructed Elijah to go to Zarephath where he met a widow who was about to make a final meal for herself and her son from the pitifully little provisions she had left, “that we may eat it, and die” (v. 12). She was husbandless, she lived with her only son, and she was in a land that was suffering from severe drought. But Elijah commanded her to make a cake for him first, and then to make food for her and her son. She did as Elijah asked. And as the woman kept drawing out oil from her jar and flour from her bin, the oil and flour did not stop flowing. She gave up the certain for the uncertain; she trusted the word of the Lord even when it seemed not to make sense.
The Lord does not ask you to understand His Word; He does not ask you to figure it out, especially when it seems to you that His Word makes little or no sense. He commands you to believe it. And when, by God-given faith, you believe His holy Word, you are placing all your trust in that Word, thereby trusting God Himself.
The Lord gives you forgiveness through words spoken by your pastor as from God Himself. The Lord gives you forgiveness through water and Word in Holy Baptism, and through bread and wine which are His Body and Blood in His Supper. Don’t try to figure these things out. Receive them, and believe by faith what they deliver. Then you will not suffer from want of the Lord’s gifts.
I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God and Lord; and this my faith confessing, unmoved I stand on His sure Word. Our reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound; who trusts in human wisdom relies on shifting ground. God’s Word is all-sufficient, it makes divinely sure; and trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure. (LSB 587:1)
The Reverend Gregory Schultz, pastor of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Campbell Hill, IL, is the author for this portion of the Trinity season.