I would love to see the liturgy y'all are using at the newly revived First Congregational. Is it based on a historic congregationalist liturgy or are you mainly using the BCP?
This is a very good sermon but seems to be an error in how he views the widow Zarephath. God commanded and used her, but she was not an Israelite and therefore never in covenant with God in any formal sense.
Jesus alludes to her in Luke 4:26 one outside Israel. She was not “apostate” but called by God to be faithful to Him and she was. But calling Yahweh “the Lord your God” to Elijah was accurate.
You make a good point. My reason for framing it the way I did comes from Obadiah 20, "The exiles in Halah who are of the people of Israel shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb."
My note, based on Iain M. Duguid et al., 1 Samuel - 2 Chronicles, Vol. 3 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 656, reads "Sometimes God’s prophets and saints must live in cursed land. In Obadiah 20, Zarephath is restored to the exiles, suggesting that it should never have been under Baal’s control."
Again, that is *my* note, not a direct quote from the commentary, and, as I said, I don't have the commentary in front of me to go back and double check.
The widow was not "apostate" but suffers *from* the apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel and by virtue of her faith she is reckoned a saint. Does one have to be an Israelite to benefit from the covenant grace? I think the point of Elijah's visitation to her and Jesus' point in Luke 4:26 is no.
But your point is well taken that Proverbs 31:20 would not formally bind her as a non-Israelite.
We agree that the widow should be counted a saint and a beneficiary of the covenant of grace. In fact, the land in question should have been part of Israel since the tribe of Asher was given the land where Zarephath was located (Josh 19:24 to 33) as it lies between Tyre and Sidon.
So the faithlessness of Israel meant that Zarephath was not conquered by Israel and left to Baal. The same could be said of Philistia.
In the OT, we get foretastes of God’s plan for redemption in Jesus Christ. Although several people groups were cursed and excluded from the commonwealth of Israel such as Moab (Deut 23:3), nevertheless Ruth is welcomed and she is the great grandmother of David in whose line came Christ.
I think Obadiah is referring more to how the nations became Christ’s possession and we now have believers from around the world, because I do not think the exiles from Babylon ever took Zarephath. Indeed, we are called exiles (1 Pet 1:1). Grace and peace.
I would love to see the liturgy y'all are using at the newly revived First Congregational. Is it based on a historic congregationalist liturgy or are you mainly using the BCP?
It's pretty much the historic Congo/Presby liturgy, which itself lifted a lot from the BCP.
I've (re-)introduced the metrical psalms the past two Sundays, sung acapella since we don't have an organist.
This is a very good sermon but seems to be an error in how he views the widow Zarephath. God commanded and used her, but she was not an Israelite and therefore never in covenant with God in any formal sense.
Jesus alludes to her in Luke 4:26 one outside Israel. She was not “apostate” but called by God to be faithful to Him and she was. But calling Yahweh “the Lord your God” to Elijah was accurate.
You make a good point. My reason for framing it the way I did comes from Obadiah 20, "The exiles in Halah who are of the people of Israel shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb."
My note, based on Iain M. Duguid et al., 1 Samuel - 2 Chronicles, Vol. 3 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 656, reads "Sometimes God’s prophets and saints must live in cursed land. In Obadiah 20, Zarephath is restored to the exiles, suggesting that it should never have been under Baal’s control."
Again, that is *my* note, not a direct quote from the commentary, and, as I said, I don't have the commentary in front of me to go back and double check.
The widow was not "apostate" but suffers *from* the apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel and by virtue of her faith she is reckoned a saint. Does one have to be an Israelite to benefit from the covenant grace? I think the point of Elijah's visitation to her and Jesus' point in Luke 4:26 is no.
But your point is well taken that Proverbs 31:20 would not formally bind her as a non-Israelite.
We agree that the widow should be counted a saint and a beneficiary of the covenant of grace. In fact, the land in question should have been part of Israel since the tribe of Asher was given the land where Zarephath was located (Josh 19:24 to 33) as it lies between Tyre and Sidon.
So the faithlessness of Israel meant that Zarephath was not conquered by Israel and left to Baal. The same could be said of Philistia.
In the OT, we get foretastes of God’s plan for redemption in Jesus Christ. Although several people groups were cursed and excluded from the commonwealth of Israel such as Moab (Deut 23:3), nevertheless Ruth is welcomed and she is the great grandmother of David in whose line came Christ.
I think Obadiah is referring more to how the nations became Christ’s possession and we now have believers from around the world, because I do not think the exiles from Babylon ever took Zarephath. Indeed, we are called exiles (1 Pet 1:1). Grace and peace.
Thank you for pointing out where my sermon needed correction and clarification.