from Israel My Glory Vol. 60, No. 6
Looking for Christmas
by Lorna Simcox
A dispute raged a few years
ago over whether to allow
a manger scene in front of
a local municipal building. A lady
in town reportedly opined, “Isn’t it
a shame that we have to ruin
Christmas by bringing up the subject
of Jesus.”
This is the season when millions
of Americans prepare to celebrate
Christmas. And we certainly
celebrate in style. We dress up
the country from coast to coast
with bright, sparkling lights; elaborate
decorations; and cozy nostalgia
of hearth and home. On the
outside, America is a sight to
behold. But what has it become on
the inside?
Ninth-century Zarephath was
an unlikely place to find a prophet
of the Lord. It was located
in Phoenicia on the Mediterranean
coast between the major Phoenician cities of Sidon and
Tyre. Far from being backward,
Phoenicia was a thriving commercial
center with an advanced, cultured,
and prosperous society. The
Phoenicians (also called Sidonians)
were famous for their special purple
dye; exquisite textiles and
embroideries; highly prized cedar
wood; and their skills carving
ivory, working with metal, and
making glass.1 They even developed
an alphabet, revolutionized
navigation by using the stars, and
controlled the Mediterranean Sea
with their ships.2
But all was not well in
Phoenicia. Its inhabitants not only
worshiped the goddess Ashtoreth,
“the abomination of the Sidonians”
(2 Ki. 23:13), but they prostrated
themselves before Baal; burned
their children to death on his
altars; kissed his image; and
indulged in “horrendous and
repulsive aspects of the worship—
sexual excesses and perversions.”3
And the Israelites, who should
have known better, followed suit.
King Ahab (874–853 B.C.) and his
wicked wife, Jezebel, daughter of
Phoenician King Ethbaal, elevated
Baal worship until it saturated the
land and almost eradicated the
northern Kingdom worship of the
true God, Jehovah.
Part of the perversions of Baal
worship were meant to coax the
deity into providing the life-giving
rains that Israel so desperately
depended on. To convince the
Israelites of the truth, Almighty
God brought a three-and-a-halfyear-
long drought. Elijah the
prophet told Ahab, “As the LORD
God of Israel liveth, . . . there shall
not be dew nor rain these years,
but according to my word” (1 Ki.
17:1). And there was neither.
Like everyone else, Elijah, too,
was affected by the drought. For
a time God nurtured him by
the brook Cherith. But then the
brook dried up (vv. 3–7). So He
sent Elijah to, of all places,
Phoenicia—to Zarephath, to a
poor Gentile widow who had no
food, no hope, no power, and no
one who cared whether she and
her son lived or died. No one,
that is, but the Lord.
When Elijah arrived at the
city gates, she was gathering
sticks to prepare a final meal (1
Ki. 17:10). Elijah asked her to
fetch him water. When she
agreed, he asked for food.
Recognizing he was an Israelite,
she acknowledged Jehovah as
God and apologized for not
being able to bring him food:
As the LORD, thy God, liveth, I
have not a cake, but an handful
of meal in a barrel, and I am
gathering two sticks, that I
may go in and prepare it for me
and my son, that we may eat it,
and die (v. 12).
Elijah comforted her and told
her to feed him first, promising the
Lord would provide:
For thus saith the LORD God of
Israel, The barrel of meal shall
not be used up, neither shall the
cruse of oil fail, until the day that
the LORD sendeth rain upon the
earth (v. 14).
She believed and obeyed. And
God, as always, was faithful. When
her son died, she revealed her
humble heart, acknowledging that
she was a sinner; and God,
through Elijah, raised her son from
the dead (vv. 17–24).
Were there no widows in
Israel who could have used
Elijah’s help? Jesus said there
were plenty (Lk. 4:25–26). But
God was not pleased with
ancient Israel, a nation that once
knew the truth and forsook it to
worship Baal. So He sent Elijah
36 November/December 2002
to a Gentile who never received
the spiritual benefit of being part
of Israel but who sincerely trusted
the Lord. Then, about 130 years
later, He sent the Assyr ians to
wipe the northern kingdom from
the map.
God is not pleased by outward
religiosity and inward apostasy.
There was a time when Christmas
in America revolved around
Christ; when children prayed
in school, universally pledged
allegiance to their country as
one nation “under God,” and
learned to read from primers that
taught the Bible. And God
blessed America.
Israel once stood in a unique
place of blessing also, but she
apostatized. So the Lord sent
Elijah to Zarephath, where He
found someone of humble spirit
and faith in the one and only, true
and living God.
What will you celebrate this
Christmas? Will it be the incarnation
of Almighty God in the person
of Jesus Christ, who came to
redeem sinful, helpless humanity?
Or will it be Santa and the “spirit
of giving”? As God peers down
from heaven this holiday season,
will He find humbleness of heart
and genuine faith in the God of
the Bible, or will He have to look
somewhere else? “For the eyes of
the LORD run to and fro throughout
the whole earth, to show himself
strong in the behalf of them
whose heart is perfect toward
him” (2 Chr. 16:9).
E N D N O T E S
1 Ayman Ghazi, “Lebanon’s History: Phoenician
Beginnings,” “The Phoenicians,” [www.ghazi.de/
phonecia.html].
2 Howard F. Voss, “Phoenicia, Phoenicians,” Wycliffe
Bible Encyclopedia, Moody Press, Chicago, 1975, p. 1340.
3 Marvin H. Pope, “Baal Worship,” “YHWH Versus
Baal,” Encyclopaedia Judaica CD-ROM Edition.
 Lorna Simcox is the Editor-in-Chief for The Friends of Israel and her
articles appear regularly in Israel My Glory magazine.
|