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The word of Yahweh came to Elijah, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As Yahweh eloheka lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says Yahweh elohe of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that sends [the gift of] rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh that he spoke by Elijah.
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This is the Track 2 Old Testament reading selection for churches set upon that path, to be read aloud on the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 27], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. If this path is taken, then Psalm 146 will be sung as a companion, saying, “[Yahweh will be] Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger.” This pairing will precede a reading from Hebrews, where Paul wrote: “And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” All will accompany the Gospel reading from Mark, where it is written: “A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then [Jesus] called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”
I wrote about this reading selection the last time it came up in the lectionary cycle (2018). If you would care to read those observations, they can be viewed by clicking on this link. Because I offered many valid opinions on the meaning of this reading, I will not attempt to reproduce what has already been written. Feel free to read that commentary, as well as the many other commentaries I offer, and comment as you see fit. Today, I will address this reading from a slightly different angle.
In 2018, I was not concerned with the routine mistranslation of the Hebrew into English, as I was then like most Christians (then and still today), putting complete faith in the English translations that many different versions of the Holy Bible are published in. I am reminded of an old episode of Gunsmoke, where Marshall Dillon and his sidekick Festus were stuck in the wilderness, expecting to die soon. Matt said it would be nice to read something from the Bible at that time. Festus told him he had a Bible. Matt said, “I didn’t know you could read.” Festus said he could not read, but liked carrying a Bible with him. Matt told Festus to get him his copy of the Bible; and, Festus gives Matt a copy of Little Women. Matt looked at it and asked Festus if someone told him that was a Bible; and, Festus said, “Yessir. He said that was a good book.”
I mention this because Christians are just as illiterate as Festus, full of beliefs that are based on what someone told them to believe. They cannot read for themselves. They do not speak Hebrew or Greek, and they do not seek to learn to read at such a late stage in their lives; so, they bow down and give all honor and praise to someone who is only in the Bible business to make a buck. They will gladly say what the people want to hear, for a profit. The name of Yahweh is “Yahweh” [“יְהוָ֖ה”] and all Old Testament Scripture states that plain as day. However, translators change that to “the Lord,” which is wrong.
In verse one of this chapter, we read of “Elijah the Tishbite” telling Ahab (the King of Israel, the Northern Kingdom) that “Yahweh elohe Israel” would not let rain fall until Elijah said it was time. Ahab was married to the foreigner Jezebel, who imported all kinds of evil prophets of Ba’al. Ba’al was “the lord” of Jezebel, and thus Ahab. Thus, from that history of Israel and from the mouth of a true prophet, anyone who likes to rely on the words of false prophets and call Yahweh “the Lord” will have no rain of insight fall upon their souls. In my version of the reading selection today, you will note where I restored "Yahweh" in bold text. This corrects the wrong.
This correction need mirrors the mistranslations commonly presented for forms of “elohim” – a word that is clearly the plural Hebrew for “el,” meaning “gods.” Translation services make all the Festus-like 'Christians' of the world bow down and worship lower-case “gods” as “God.” This, again, is the false religions of polytheism, which Jezebel loved so much. The use of "elohim" is a statement of humans possessed by spirits or the Spirit, as enslaved mutations or elevated creations of souls. Elijah was one of Yahweh’s elohim, as an extension of Yahweh in the flesh, as a true prophet. His soul was married to Yahweh, meaning Yahweh's Spirit possessed the soul of Elijah. An elohim written in association with the name "Yahweh" means all who serve Yahweh as His angels in the flesh – His hands on the earth. Only a “Yahweh elohim Israel” has the power to decide when rain will fall. That means it is important to open your eyes and read the truth, or be misled.
When we read that Yahweh sent Elijah to Zarephath, a place of Sidon, the name “Zarephath” means “Blast Furnace, Workshop For Smelting And Refining Metals.” The name “Sidon” means “Fishery, Hunting Place.” These two places are capitalized, meaning they bear a divinely elevated meaning that goes beyond the names of two places. This elevation comes forth from realizing the meanings of the words chosen to be the names of places.
This should be realized as being geographically along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where fishing would have been a source of plentiful food for the people. As a seaport, Zarephath would have been where ores were shipped, in order to be refined. For Yahweh to send His prophet to a region outside Israel [Assyrian controlled] and find Israelites living there suffering from the same famine from a lack of rain, this says the lack of rain or drought was wherever Israelites lived. This makes the lack of rain controlled by Elijah be more than physical rain from the sky, but also a drought in the spirituality of faith. That lack was caused by those who allowed Ahab and Jezebel to govern their commitments to Yahweh. To send Elijah to a mining-smelting town means he was sent to where people suffered to make valuable metals for kings and queens. The elevation becomes a statement of labors [worshiping] for valuables taken from the earth, not worshiping values obtained from the ethereal.
Elijah was told that a widow woman would provide for Elijah, as commanded by Yahweh. That says the widow, like Naomi, was a soul married to Yahweh and would do everything Yahweh ordered. Elijah heard that and his belief in Yahweh speaking the truth led him to ask the widow woman for a cup of water first. That request was a test if the woman he met was the one who would provide for him. After asking the widow woman to get him water to drink, she went to draw Elijah water; so, Elijah then further tested her as the one, asking for a morsel of bread. Water and bread are then metaphor for an everlasting soul married to Yahweh (cup of water) and a word of truth from the inner guide (a morsel of bread). The test was for spiritual proof, not material means. The widow woman provided Elijah with what he asked for.
When the widow woman said to Elijah, after he requested a morsel of bread, “as lives Yahweh to whom you are one of His elohim [the truth of “eloheka”] I do not have any bread,” that expressed how her soul knew Elijah was a soul married to Yahweh. One must realize that she had never met Elijah before. There was no social media or television to promote Elijah as some celebrity televangelist, who she recognized. Her soul was also married to Yahweh, as was Naomi’s, so she knew who Elijah was through divine inspiration. Her soul sensed that another like her, albeit one more elevated in devotion to Yahweh than she, was in her presence.
This must take one back [if one has been following these lessons I offer, through this Ordinary season after Pentecost] to the story of Elijah “falling asleep under a broom tree.” I said then that Elijah died and was reborn as a most divine Son of Yahweh on earth, which would allow his body to later ascend without seeming to physically die. It was after this transformation of Elijah that Scripture calls him “Elijah the Tishbite.” Elijah has yet to die, as this story is soon after he is introduced in Scripture. His introduction also identifies him as a "Tishbite." The name “Tishbite” means “Returnee.” Thus, the widow woman was one preparing to become like Elijah and lie down preparing for physical death, before being released as was Elijah’s soul. Elijah’s soul, having returned to be with Yahweh while still in living flesh (à la Jesus’ resurrection), was sent to this servant of Yahweh to save her and her son, reviving the spirit of Israel in the true faithful. Elijah was sent to bring the rain of Yahweh.
When the widow woman said all she had was a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug, showing that she had gathered two sticks to burn in the oven for their last supper for her and her son, Elijah told her to have no fear. That was a command from Yahweh, telling the soul of the widow that Yahweh was there. As a wife to Yahweh, her only fear should be losing Yahweh. Elijah assured her that Yahweh was there; so, Elijah told her to make him a cake. He assured her it would feed him and her and her son.
This is where a translation that says, “For thus says the Lord God of Israel” is meaningless. Where does “the Lord God of Israel” say, “The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth,” anywhere other than here in First Kings seventeen? Nowhere!!! This is because Elijah said those words, as “Yahweh’s angel in the flesh [“elohe”] who was “One Who Retains Yahweh as one of His elohim” [the meaning of “Israel”]. That identified Elijah the Returnee making that promise, as a servant of Yahweh [an "elohe"]. It is the same as Jesus telling his disciples to feed well over five thousand people (including women and children) with five loaves of bread and two fish. Only Yahweh elohim can make miracles happen. The “jar of flour and the jug of oil will not fail” as they will continue to feed spiritual food and anoint His wives as messiahs [Anointed ones], until the rain of salvation comes.
This is the promise made by Yahweh to all His servants (divine wives). Naomi and Ruth were the equivalent of the widow and her son, as all they had in this world was Yahweh. They trusted in Yahweh and were not afraid of death. Yahweh spoke to them all and told them He would provide, so they could provide.
When Paul wrote that “Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands,” so many Christians read those words and think they say, “Jesus did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands.” The Greek word “Christos” means “Anointed one,” which is a soul that has the Spirit of Yahweh poured out upon it, forever, like Yahweh "Anointed" David's soul. Paul wrote his words meaning Jesus the Tishbite did not enter a sanctuary "made by human hands.” Elijah was like Jesus Christ, as Elijah Christ. The sanctuary Elijah entered was the soul of the widow woman and her son. The spiritual food of Yahweh was raining down upon them, Anointing them as His beloveds.
That eternal presence is what so many Christians today lack. Christianity is suffering from a spiritual famine, due to a drought of heavenly rains. Jesus the Returnee would be sent to the United States of America, where it has so many hunting and fishing for precious metals (even the printed on paper 'ores'), so they can heat everything up to make molten images of the gods they love to call “my Lord.” Where are the widows who live only on the presence of Yahweh within … when no Christians these days are taught the name Yahweh, much less how to call upon Him in divine marriage? America today is filled with fears, having strayed so far from Yahweh they cannot possible conceive how to fear losing the One God none have been raised to know personally.
In the accompanying Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus warned his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” That must be seen as a perfect fit for all the popes, bishops, and priests that love pretending they have some inside skinny on what Jesus would say, if Jesus were here today. If they had that, then there would be no spiritual drought leading the Western world to ruin and destruction!
The lesson is Jesus should be here today, in those who are truly Anointed ones – the Christs of Yahweh – all who have become the resurrections of Jesus within their own souls – a most holy possession. Jesus should be here as the high priest in all who proclaim to be Christians.
But, he is not. Those who profess to be Christian 'scribes' are liars. They are false shepherds. They are the drought upon the land, because the people look to them for spiritual feeding [that does not come]. They are the cause of the spiritual famine, because they are the Ahabs and Jezebels who seek to destroy Elijah the Tishbite. Their later ancestors, Christian predecessors, would nail Jesus to a cross, thinking that act had killed him. However, Yahweh cannot be killed.
The reading of this Track 2 Old Testament selection on the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, presents a lesson that says there are true Christians in the world who are suffering. They are preparing to leave this world and let it have itself to destroy all that is good in true Christianity. When the last true Christians leave, those left behind will be condemned prisoners of earth – souls destined to reincarnate over and over, until the world is no longer an inhabitable environment. Then, all hell is let loose upon the wayward souls. Now represents the last times to be sent by Yahweh to save others whose souls are married to Yahweh. The question is, “Are there any who will hear the voice of Yahweh and say, “Here I am. Send me.”’
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