God Provides

“ God Provides!”  I Kings 17:8-24, Luke 7:11-17

 

   One of the hardest things for us to understand is how God provides .  We worry, fret, stew, plot, plan hard and still find we are in doubt.  The Christian has all they need for this life and the life to come.  Our eternal life is secure we think.  We hope.  We fret over that too and when death comes some of us think , “  sure hope there is something to this!”  Instead Jesus in this lesson today from Luke shows us a grieving mother who He has compassion on.

 

    Note the account in Luke 7.  The miracle is done openly by Jesus.  Many people were around.  Jesus was at the gate of the city.  Two processions met.  Jesus had come from around Capernaum and the other procession of course was the funeral procession.

 

    Note first the love of Jesus for the woman.  “ ….there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow; and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, ‘ Weep not.’  “   That is something we need to hear again as well when we experience death in the family or tragedy.  “ Weep not”  Now Jesus is not saying we should not show our emotion.  He is saying to the woman that He is concerned beyond what she can think about or imagine.  As the eternal person of the Trinity, He tells her to weep not.  For He is Lord over life and death too.  As truly man , He knew sorrow and wept I am sure with her for her loss.  We have a hard time understanding this fact.  True man, and True God, yet these natures are not mixed.  But both are there and are they are real. 

 

   Note next “  and He touched the bier….”  Action follows words.  ACTA Non Verba was my college’s motto.  Deeds, not words.  But both are necessary.  This is true compassion.    This is hard for us as well.  Finding the right actions to accompany our compassion for those who are feeling unwell or suffering is difficult.  We do not know the mind of the other person, but we want to help.   And sometimes people just want to be left alone and have peace and quiet on their own terms.  We have to know the boundaries. Visiting in the hospital is one way we can show our concern.  That says more than anything of our feeling.  But knowing when to leave the room and let the person have their time to rest and recover is also important.

 

    Then Jesus speaks, “ Young man, I say unto thee, arise.” “ He talked to him as though he could hear him.  So He could hear him!  He talked to him as though he was alive.  He was alive!  The body was dead.  The man was not dead.  No man is ever dead when his body lies dead!  There is dissolution between the spirit and the body , but not death.” Morgan, Studies in the Four Gospels.  The voice of Jesus is the voice of the Divine. 

 

     And, “ he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak.  And he gave him to his mother.”  When God acts, it is done.  The miracle was complete.

 

      The reaction of the people was “ and great fear took a hold on all, and they glorified God.”

 

       God does provide for us in the smallest and in the largest things of our lives .  We do not always realize it but this is true .  Our response should be as the people too.  They glorified God.