Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘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.’ ”
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “ Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “ Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
My thoughts -
It's really interesting to read through these chapters of 1 Kings and see how the sins of one kingdom lead into the next. It's like one generation's ruler gets pretty comfortable with the sins of the last and then adds his own to it, so that the sins kind of snowball here.
Elijah was a prophet when Ahab was king. A big part of the covenant with God for Israel was that they would worship and serve no other gods. Solomon broke this toward the end of his life by worshiping other gods but he still also worshipped the Lord. This trend continued for generations until Ahab, who worshipped and served Baal and built a temple for Baal.
It also says in chapter 16 that Ahab did more evil than all of the previous kings combined, which, if you've read through 1 Kings, that's really saying something. In response to all of this God calls the prophet Elijah and causes a drought.
The Lord has provided for the needs of Elijah, but the brook that provided his water dried up so he was sent to a widow the Lord chose. This is where things get interesting. The drought has been hard on the people. This widow and her son have nothing. They don.t even have enough to care for their own needs, let alone the needs of this prophet. Elijah finds them as they are preparing what is to be there last meal. Their resources have run out. They're finished. They'll eat the last of what they have and then they'll die.
I've never known trouble like that. I've never known hardship like that. I pray to God that I never do. This is beyond despair. They're without any hope. They're without any hope for any hope. They're done. Finished. This is the end of their rope. And what does Elijah do? He asks them to help him out.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead and make that last meal of yours with all you've got left. But also make me some. In fact, make mine first. I'm kinda hungry.
And the crazy thing is, the widow did it. She provided for the needs of Elijah. She who did not have enough to care for herself and her son cared for Elijah. And in doing this her jar never ran out. She cared for another and God cared for her, even to the point where when the boy grew sick and died Elijah asked God to give him life again and God did.
The widow and her son were all but dead. They had nothing left and no hope for it. And yet they did God's will. Though they could not care for themselves they cared for another. And in so doing they received life again. Though they were as good as dead the received new life.
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