The Unfailing Barrel and Cruse
“The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by
Elijah.” — i Kings 17: 16.
God’s Method often changes, while His Purpose remains the Same.
His purpose was to preserve the prophet. For a while the brook and the ravens served his purpose. But the brook dried up, and instead of ordering the ravens to bring wrater also, he sends the prophet to a poor widow of Zarephath. Thus God’s plan of keeping His people is constantly changing, while His loving purpose remains the same. Joseph was preserved equally well in the house of Potiphar, in the jail, and as ruler of Egypt. God’s purpose was to raise up a man who would deliver Israel from their task-masters. He kept him at first in the ark of bulrushes, then in the loving arms of his mother, then in the court and schools of Egypt, and then in the back side of the desert. Daniel fared equally well as a boy in the palace of the king, as an officer over the provinces of Persia, and as a servant of God among the lions. If we are children of God, His mind is made up to take us to heaven, and to give us just the treatment that will best fit us for the place. If He gives us wealth, it is because He knows that wealth is the best for us; if He gives us poverty, it is because He knows that we will be best preserved by struggle. Trust His wisdom and goodness to do the right thing.
When all things seem to be against us, remember that God is for us, and He never ceases to be master of the situation. The burgomaster of Hamburg bade Mr. Onken cease holding religious services, and, holding up his hand before him, angrily asked, “Do you see that little finger? As long as I can move that little finger, I will put down you Baptists.” “Yes,” replied Onken, “I see your little finger, and I also sec a great arm which you cannot sec. As long as the great arm of God is lifted in our behalf, your little finger will have no terror for us.” It is not our part to be looking at the little fingers against us, but at the great arm that is for us. Those who see the great arm need not fear ten thousand little fingers. Whatever relation these fingers may bear to us, we may be calm in the assurance that the purpose of God is His glory in our preservation, and, though His plans may change, His purpose remains the same.
We learn also from this unfailing barrel and cruse that
God has a Way of selecting whom He pleases as Agents to carry out His Will.
Jesus tells us that there were many widows in Sarepta who were passed by, while this one was selected. She was not the one we should have chosen. We should have looked for a house where there was a little more meal and oil and wood. A poor woman gathering sticks outside the city gates was the last person to be thought a fit host for the prophet. But God thought otherwise. And so
He thinks to-day in the selection of His workers. Who would have thought of R. W. McAll as the proper person to undertake the evangelization of Paris — an Englishman over fifty years of age, who could not speak a word of French? And yet he was the man of God’s choice. Jerry McAuley, the river pirate, would hardly have been chosen by us as the man above all others to bring the bread of life to the outcasts of New York. If we had met Saul on his way to Damascus, it wrould not have occurred to us that this cruel persecutor was the man chosen of God to take the lead in building up the cause he was trying to destroy. God is constantly surprising the world by selecting agents we in our wisdom have rejected. Bunyan, the tinker, was no fit man to write such a book as “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” John Wesley and George Whitefield, the bisnops thought, were not the men to preach to the people. Mr. Booth was doing no good with his wild methods of work among the poor in the Whitechapel district of London, and the bishop must needs bid him change his plans or leave the church. Mr. Moody was not even a fit man to speak and pray in a prayer-meeting, and his pastor kindly told him so. But God had a mission for him and for all these men. Whom the Lord has chosen, let us not reject. God ordains many a man for mighty work whom any council for ordination would be ashamed to lay hands upon. He is constantly passing by tall Eliab, that He may select little David. It may be because little David is willing to be used and give Him the glory. Whatever may be said about the men as to whose fitness for great wrork God and the world have different opinions, they were all willing to be used. The widow of Sarepta, though she felt unable, was willing to entertain the prophet; and our usefulness depends far more upon our willingness than upon our ability. If you are downright willing to be used of God, He can make you capable and He will. “My people shall be a willing people.” Willingness is capacity, for what else we need God is pledged to supply.
Let us learn again from this unfailing barrel and cruse that
in helping Others we help Ourselves. If the widow had kept her little meal and oil for her own use, she and her son had starved. Dividing multiplied it. Such is God’s arithmetic. To keep is to lose. To hold and hoard is to diminish. To * scatter is to increase. Men who put their bodies wholly into the service of God with implicit trust in Him do not break down from overwork. It is the worry, fretting, and chafing resulting from a failure thus to commit to God which shatters nerves and calls for protracted vacations. After one has been in the pastorate for many years, there is danger of his barrel of sermons failing, and, if it does, it is because his thinking and time have not been wholly given to God. The lad with the few loaves and fishes had the pleasure of seeing them multiplied into enough to feed the five thousand. The secret of such success was that he committed his little supply to Jesus, and He always sees to it that what is given wholly to Him shall not fail, but multiply. Churches and enterprises fail for the lack of consecration. If we use for God every barrel and cruse of money, time, talent, and opportunity we have, there will be plenty and to spare.