A prophet must listen to God, and a prophet must obey God. Elijah heard the word of the Lord, and Elijah obeyed the word of the Lord, even though, logically, it probably didn’t make sense to him. Verse 9 says, “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks.” There she was, exactly as the Lord said she would be. This was the place, and there was the widow, so Elijah pressed ahead and obeyed God.
If we pay attention to what God is doing in our lives, I believe we will discover that God prepares us for what is coming before are even aware it is coming. Often, it is only when we look back that we see and understand that God is always two steps ahead of any problem or challenge that the enemy tried to put in our path.
Notice that Jesus loved this man. Jesus wasn’t trying to punish him, Jesus was offering him “treasure in heaven,” and nothing is worth more than that. The question now is whether this man’s wealth was a blessing or a curse. Everyone else would say, “This man is blessed, look at how much he has!” But as Jesus had already asked back in Mark 8:36, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
