WORD STUDY – SUSTAIN
I Kings 17:9 “Arise, get thee to Zarephath which is in Zidon, behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
I Corinthians 10:13: “There hath not temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Sustain: Hebrew, laklaklak – to sustain, to continually bless.
You remember this story. You hear it every time there is an appeal for offerings for some new project. Elijah came into a town where there was a widow woman who only had enough bread for one last meal which she and her son would eat and then starve to death. Elijah said: “That’s tough, but I am a man of God and I am hungry, you feed me first and you and your son can have what’s left.” Then of course she is blessed a hundred fold.
Maybe the story can be told in a little less offensive way. My study partner pointed out a good starting point which is the name of the town, Zarephath. The name means “refining gold.” Spiritually you could say this was a place where God would refine one into pure gold. Elijah enters this town, sees a poor widow collecting sticks, carrying a jar of meal and a flask of oil. If she does not have enough to carry, Elijah commands her to get him some water. Note Elijah says: “Fetch” me some water. That word “Fetch” in the Hebrew is “lakach” Remember this community was in the midst of a draught, there was little water to be had and what water there was to get, you had to be pretty aggressive to get it. If I were this woman I would have said: “Lakach your own water, I’m ready to fix my last meal and croak.” Why, in the midst of her suffering did she offer to help this perfect stranger and not only that allow him into her house?
The answer to that is found in verse 9. God had commanded her to “sustain” Elijah. The word sustain is an odd word. It is “laklaklak.” This is a lamed kap used three times. Lamed kap represents your cup being filled by the blessings of heaven. This is expressed three times, one for Elijah, another for the widow and another for her son. God had revealed to this woman in some way that a man of God would come into her community and if she blessed him He would bless her and her son in like kind. So she and her son waited expectantly for Elijah. She had a promise from God and she was saving her last portion of meal to give to the prophet so she would get her miracle.
So why was she out collecting sticks to build a fire and make the bread for herself and her son? It would appear she began to doubt her miracle. Maybe she just imagined God gave her a promise, maybe in her desperation she dreamed up the whole idea of a prophet coming into town and giving her and her son a miracle?
But soft, look in verse 12, she was not collecting a bunch of sticks, she was only looking for two sticks or two “asah.” An “asah” could be anything from a stick to a tree. There was an ancient pagan ritual which may have been an outgrowth of the shewbread in the temple and adopted by Northern Kingdom when they separated from Jerusalem. The ritual was to tie a cloth to two sticks and put two pieces of bread on the cloth and the husband and wife would carry it to an altar and eat the bread with their god as an offering to their god. It is very possible that she and her son had waited for the fulfillment of God’s promise to the point of starvation, but the man of God never came. So in a last act of desperation they were going to offer her last piece of bread to God Himself. Note in verse 12 she says: “That we may eat it and die.” The word “die” is in a strange form. Without the vowels you could say its root was either “moth”
for death, or “nathan” for give. This word has a final nun meaning to give and to receive so you can give again. She could have been saying to Elijah: “I am about to offer my final meal to God. God may show mercy and return the meal so we can live or He may not and we will die.”
This woman’s faith had reached its limits, she could not continue waiting for the miracle and decided to take matters into her own hands. The man of God showed up at the eleventh hour. God had taken this woman to the very limits of her faith. He knew how far she could go, He would not allow her to be tempted beyond what she could bear, but He knew better than she just what her limits were.
Do you ever feel like this widow woman? I know I do. I feel at times like I’ve reached the limits of my faith, I just can’t go any further and I am strongly tempted to take matters in my own hands and resort to something that is not in strict obedience to what God instructed. Yet, this story tells me that God knows better than I do just how much I can take and if I just hang in there God can take me to the limits of my faith and will teach me laklaklak (sustain – three times blessed).
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