Only Two Sticks

I Kings 17:12 states, “And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

After riding 14 miles on horseback, we began setting up camp for the night. Amid a drenching downpour, the first thing we did was cover our saddles with a plastic tarp. The storm did not let up. My tent was not waterproof, except for the plastic floor. My clothes and sleeping bag were sopping wet. This was a survival trip—it was each man for himself. I cut some lower branches out of a large fir tree and huddled out of the rain. I stretched my tent out in the limbs and added a couple of small poles made from saplings. The floor of the tent shed the rain. Under my lean-to, I built a small fire with dry sticks and branches I found under trees. By 10:00 that night, I had dried my clothes and sleeping bag, piled up some pine needles for a bed, and gone to sleep. This could not have happened without a few dry sticks.

When Elijah came upon the widow of Zarephath, she had two survival sticks. She was going to use them to make a fire to cook a handful of meal that would make a small cake for her and her son—their last meal before starving to death in the famine.

Where are you today? Hopefully life is good and the sun is shining on your parade. The other day I drove past a row of makeshift “tents” on the city sidewalk. The homeless people, regardless of why they were in their situation, were trying to survive another night of below-freezing temperatures. My heart was broken with their desperate state.

We may have all the creature comforts, and yet wonder how we will survive another day of life. A day is coming when “the loftiness of man shall be bowed down” and “they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:17 & 19).

The famine in Elijah’s day was ordained by God. He does not enjoy famine, but uses it to deal with sin in the land. God also knows how to take care of His own. He took care of Elijah with a brook and some ravens (I Kings 17:4). God chose to move him from there and have a widow woman sustain him. What did the widow have to offer? Everything she had! God promised that He would take care of her. Oh how the blessings flow when we give our little possessions to Him. Why hold on to two little sticks when the God of the famine calls?

The widow’s faith was tested when her son fell sick and died. As she held him in her bosom, once again Elijah asked her to give all she loved to him. In this case, God restored the lad to life. 

I remember the morning my dad told me that my brother, Bobby, had died. For three hours I cried and begged God to restore him to life. He did not, but helped me to see that I would see him alive again if I walked with God, and trusted that He knew best.

I love the hymn, “Only Trust Him” by John H. Stockton, where he calls the soul by sin oppressed to trust God’s Word. God gave His all when He gave His only son. He knows what it is like to turn loose of what He loves. The answer is in giving all. All He wants from you and me is only two sticks!