Super Man?

1 Kings 17:9 KJV

Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

Elijah is one of the most intriguing characters of the Old Testament to me. Nothing is told us of his early years or rise to such influence. Those ordained of the Lord need not climb the ladder of success. God will place them where He wants them without such human manipulations.
When we first find Elijah he is doing powerful things; the last we hear of Elijah he is riding a chariot to glory. It would not be impossible to view him as sort of Super human.

But there are indications of his humanity in this first account of him, such as his prayer for the widow's son when he is taken ill. Gill sees in this verse a trial not only for the widow woman but for Elijah.

• She is a Gentile. He will be sustained by one whom the Jews would have not stayed in their home
• She is a widow, there are questions of propriety here.
• He is assured she had been commanded to care for him but She does not know it. God has determined that she provides for him but he has to tell her that
• She is about to starve. To instruct her to feed him first was a surely a step of faith for him as obedience was for her

I wonder how often it is that the congregation who hears the preacher realizes that to preach the message he brings them is as much a trial of his faith as their submission and following that message will be for them? Years ago one of the newer Christians in our church volunteered as my secretary a couple of days per week. After a bit she approached me and suggested that everyone should do that once in a while to find out that I am just a regular guy. (She specifically mentioned that I whistled when I worked and made up my own words to the songs that I sang.) Comments similar to that make me to know that sometimes the congregation doesn't see the pastor as having "like passions."

But Elijah was a man of like passions. Though God used him he was merely a man. And that God used him, or any of us who are preachers, is not an indication of our super humanity but of God's sovereignty. He is great, not those He is pleased to use.