Trust Beyond Measure: Lessons from Two Widows
Our meditation for the 25th week after Pentecost deals with two widows who lived about 700 years apart. Both demonstrated extraordinary trust in God to provide for them. I appreciate your taking time to read, and encourage you to pass it on to others by subscribing, forwarding, or sharing on social media. Also, you can listen to the audio version at my podcast, God's Time, at https://godstime.buzzsprout.com Thanks for reading and listening, and I hope your Sunday is wonderful!
Trust Beyond Measure: Lessons from Two Widows
Mark 12:38-44 (NIV)
As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."
An Example of Faith and Trust
This week's passage from Mark puts Jesus in the Temple during the last week of his earthly ministry. Always the teacher, he draws lessons for his disciples from the people who pass by him. After condemning religious leaders for public posturing in their finery, a quiet, unassuming widow catches Jesus’ attention.
This unnamed widow demonstrates an essential spiritual trait – complete trust in God. However, before we hear her story, let’s go back about 700 years before Christ and visit another widow, in equally dire circumstances, and see how she expresses her faith in God.
The Cost of Trust
During a severe drought in ancient Israel, when rain refused to fall and hope had run dry, we encounter one of the most powerful stories of trust in Scripture. In the town of Zarephath, a widow and her son were preparing for their last meal. Their flour jar was nearly empty, and their oil jug almost dry. Death by starvation seemed certain.
Widows and orphans inhabited the margins of social life in ancient Israel. Of course, God’s law commanded society to care for them, but Israel often failed to do so. More than once God chastises the nation for ignoring those least able to care for themselves.
One reason for Israel’s callous unconcern at this time was their new king, King Ahab. Disapprovingly, the Bible says that “Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord that any of those before him.” (1 Kings 16:30)
Which is saying a lot because the previous kings of Israel weren’t choir boys themselves!
One of the evils Ahab brought on Israel was Baal worship. He erected a temple and altar to Baal in Samaria. Ahab probably started worshipping Baal because of his wife, Jezebel, a woman so cunning and cruel that her name has become the definition of an evil woman.
Enter the prophet Elijah, who confronts Ahab about his Baal worship. Elijah’s visit with Ahab does not go well, so Elijah shows Ahab the consequences of his sin against God. Elijah proclaims, “As the Lord God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” (1 Kings17:1)
Israel depended upon its agriculture to feed its people, and to trade with foreign countries. Elijah’s judgment of drought would affect the farmers, shepherds, and common folks of Israel. Without water, crops could not grow, livestock could not be watered or fed, and the people in Israel would suffer.
After his confrontation with Ahab, God tells Elijah to go to “Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” Obediently, Elijah sets out. As he arrives in Zarephath, Elijah encounters a widow gathering sticks for a small cooking fire.
He asks her, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink? And, bring me please, a piece of bread.”
Sadly, the widow explains to Elijah that she doesn’t have any bread. And close to tears, she further informs Elijah she has only enough flour and oil to make one small loaf of bread. She and her son will have a meal of that last loaf, and then they will wait to die of starvation.
In her distress, the widow must have thought Elijah’s request impossible. What she didn’t know was that Elijah’s request came with God’s promise: "The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land" (1 Kings 17:14).
In a moment of extraordinary faith, the widow chose to trust God. She made bread for Elijah, rather than for herself and her son. But after Elijah had eaten, “there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.” Her flour and oil did not fail for all the years the drought gripped Israel.
This widow gave what she could not afford to give, believing in God's promise to provide. Her quiet act of obedience, far from the halls of power where King Ahab and the prophets of Baal held sway, demonstrated true devotion to God.
A Scene Repeated
Centuries later, in first century Jerusalem, Jesus sits in the Temple courtyard, observing another contrast between arrogance and humility. The religious leaders, preened about, commanding attention with their flowing robes and lengthy prayers, and making a show of their donations. In the midst of this scene, almost unnoticed, a poor widow approaches the treasury to give her offering.
Like her predecessor in Zarephath, this widow gives everything she has - two small copper coins, her entire livelihood. And like the widow before her, she demonstrates trust in God that defies logic or self-preservation. Her gift, though modest in monetary terms, represents complete trust in God's provision.
True Devotion Versus Empty Display
In both stories, we see a stark contrast between authentic faith and arrogant religious performance. The Zarephath widow’s simple act of trust demonstrated her faith, a faith God honored and remembered.
Similarly, Jesus points out the sharp distinction between the teachers of the law, with their ostentatious displays of piety, and this widow's quiet act of devotion. Jesus described their dishonest seizing of widows’ property as "devouring widows' houses." Their long prayers and flowing robes served as a cover for their exploitation of the vulnerable. This was the opposite of the widow's selfless giving.
The Heart of Worship
What makes both widows' actions so remarkable is not the size of their gifts, but the magnitude of their trust. Each woman gave "all she had to live on," demonstrating faith that holds nothing back from God. Both of their actions flow, not from a desire to be seen or praised, but from hearts of genuine devotion.
This kind of trust - giving our all in the present while trusting God for the future - stands in sharp contrast to calculated pious showmanship. In contrast, the widows' actions flowed from humble faith and complete surrender to God.
Authentic Faith Today
These ancient stories speak powerfully to our modern lives. All of us have seen prominent personalities use religion as a public performance. Billy Graham, America’s beloved evangelist, was profoundly disappointed in President Richard Nixon when Nixon's conduct was revealed by the Watergate investigation. Graham felt that Nixon’s expression of faith had been a calculated attempt to curry favor both with him and American voters. While we all want to look good in the eyes of others, using sacred commitments for personal profit is condemned many times in the Bible.
The widows challenge us to examine our hearts. Their examples call us to a deeper trust in God's provision and to a more authentic expression of faith. True devotion, their stories teach us, flows not from proud public displays but from humble obedience and trust.
Living in Trust
Today, we're called to follow in the footsteps of these faithful women. This might mean:
- Giving generously while trusting God for the future;
- Serving God without seeking recognition or fame;
- Believing God's promises even in desperate circumstances; or,
- Choosing humble obedience over public performance.
Like these widows, we're invited to discover that when we surrender everything to God, we open ourselves to experience His faithful provision.
Prayer
Lord, give us the courage to trust you completely, as these faithful women did. Help us to find our security not in what we can hold onto, but in your faithful provision. Create in us humble hearts that seek to please you alone. Amen.
Reflections for the Week Ahead
Monday: Read 1 Kings 17:7-16. What would it look like for you to trust God as completely as the widow of Zarephath did?
Tuesday: Consider what you're holding back from God out of fear or self-preservation. How might God be calling you to deeper trust?
Wednesday: Examine your motivations for giving and serving. Are they focused on others' recognition or on pleasing God?
Thursday: Reflect on times when God has provided for you in unexpected ways. How might these memories encourage greater trust today?
Friday: Look for opportunities to give or serve in ways that only God will notice.
Saturday: Consider what it means to give "everything" to God. What area of your life needs to be surrendered more fully to Him?
