Silence Has
Its Beauty
1 Kings 17: 7-24 NIV
Purpose: After listening to the sermon, we will reconcile with God for all the misunderstandings in our lives.
7
Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the
land.
8
Then the word of the LORD came to him:
9
“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon
10
So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there
gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little
water in a jar so I may have a drink?”
11
As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of
bread.”
12
“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any
bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am
gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that
we may eat it—and die.”
13
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But
first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me,
and then make something for yourself and your son.
14
For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not
be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends
rain on the land.’”
15
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for
Elijah and for the woman and her family.
16
For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in
keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
17
Sometime 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!”
22
The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he
lived.
23
Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house.
He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24
Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from
your mouth is the truth.”
This is the Word of God,
for the people of God.
Praise be to God,
Amen
Silence Has
Its Beauty
1 Kings 17: 7-24 NIV
Purpose: After listening
to the sermon, we will reconcile with God for all the
misunderstandings in our lives.
Outline
I.
Introduction
II.
Silence
according to us when it has to relate with reconciliation vs. silence
according to God when it has to relate with reconciliation
III.
Explanation/Interpretation of the text
IV.
Prayer
IV. Conclusions
Silence Has
Its Beauty
1 Kings 17: 7-24 NIV
Purpose: After listening
to the sermon, we will reconcile with God for all the
misunderstandings that we blamed Him in our lives.
How
many times does silence mean distance??? How many times does silence mean
struggle??? How many times does silence mean resentment and bitterness??? If I
am right, it was just a generation ago or a little more when we had to obey our
parents in silence. It was not acceptable to talk back or to question them.
Silence was expected from the children to the parents. I used to think that it
was not fair to receive instructions and just get the order done with silent
obedience. That means that silence was expected from a well behaved and
obedient child. We didn’t have the opportunity to say our point of view,
because through our silence our parents assumed that we had to agree. Sometimes
this kind of silence creates fear, anger, and resentment. And, please, I am not
saying that we should let our children talk back to us. No, I am saying that
probably some of our parents really liked silence obedience.
In
fact, one example of silent obedience, was the prophet Elijah, who received
instructions from God on what to do and where to go. God told him, go to
Zeraphathin the region of Sidon
give
you food. It seems like silent obedience is beautiful because argument is not
present. It is beautiful because everything goes well and smooth. It is
beautiful because it is trust in the setting.
On
the other hand, I wonder if it is healthy to keep in silence our thoughts and
opinions??? Well, it depends of the circumstances. In the context
of us, to be silent before an order or command of our parents was to be smart,
because we wanted to avoid punishment with long speeches of
why
we had to be obedient. In the context of the prophet Elijah, he surely trusted
in God and in His directions for his profession and for his life. Elijah knew
and lived the beauty of the silence.
But
what about the widow, because she speaks the first time to let Elijah know that
she doesn’t have much to share. This woman, who according to the society of
biblical times, was a lonely person who was going to die with her son, because
they didn’t have anything to eat. Truly speaking, it was worse than that, she
didn’t have the possibility of changing her future and the future of her son.
She was trapped in her circumstances and in her reality. She was stuck in
her bad luck of being a widow. I am pretty sure that she was mad, very mad with
God.
Have
you been mad, very mad with God??? Have you felt or have you thought that God
has failed you??? For example, we have a healthy husband or wife, and
suddenly from nowhere he or she becomes sick and dies. Besides the reality
of being devastated and feeling afraid and lonely, we need to face the
chaotic situation of funeral expenses, sometimes no life insurance or a little
one, because we probably need to keep paying the mortgage of the house, the car
payments, and all the living expenses. We have just our income which is not enough
to cover all our bills. Here is when we start asking God, why, why does it
happen to me??? Why are You mad at me??? What did I do to deserve such a storm
in my life??? After expressing all our frustration, fears, and even anger to
God, we decided to be silent and started a voluntary separation from God. Here
is the bad side of silence, the side that tells God that we are angry with
Him.
We
started feeling a great pressure in our chest. We discovered that is pain and
fear and both of them are killing us. We keep feeding through our silence the
wrong thinking that God is indifferent toward our loss, pain, and fear. Time
has passed, first days, later months, and now years and years and the anger and
pain still there and our relationship with God is very deteriorated or even
lost. I am pretty sure that the woman in the text was
extremely
angry and distant with God.
Sam
Alexander was a young preacher who decided to marry the most amazing woman in
the world. After some time, they received the arrival of their little son.
Sadly at some point of their marriage, his wife developed a type of cancer
which no one could stop. She fought for 10 years. During the time that she was
struggling with the treatments, she asked God if she failed Him, and if it was
now the turn of God to fail her. Sam wanted to keep preaching the good news of
the Gospel. However, he had lost his faith,1 because he didn’t have a
relationship with God anymore.
At
some point both Sam, the preacher, and the widow of the text, broke the silent
and confronted God. Sam did it in a very direct way, taking to God. In the case
of the widow, she confronted God through the prophet Elijah, when she breaks
her silence the second time. She tells Elijah, what do you have against me, man
of God??? What do you have against me God??? Did you come to remind me of my
sin and kill me??? Did you come, God to punish me that is why you took my
son, or my wife, or my husband, or my friend???
Notice
that silence had to be broken in order to make room for reconciliation. After
the reconciliation was made, silence came to place again. The only words that
she had said are in order to recognize the power of God. Many, many times, we
don’t have to say a word to experience reconciliation. We just have to know
that we are before God in silent adoration, in silent expectation, and in
silent hope knowing that everything in our hearts and minds is going to be
okay, and this my everything in our hearts and minds is going to be okay, and
this my dear ones is one of the most beautiful things of silence.
Let us pray
Dear God
You have given us the wonderful gift of silence through which we can experience real and everlasting reconciliation with You. Help us to be aware
of its beauty and apply it more often in our lives.
In Jesus name, we pray. Amen
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