The Widow Who Helped Elijah

1 Kings 17:8-24 (NLT)

8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”

10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.”

12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”

13 But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”

15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. 16 There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.

17 Some time later the woman’s son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. 18 Then she said to Elijah, “O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?”

19 But Elijah replied, “Give me your son.” And he took the child’s body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed. 20 Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?”

21 And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, please let this child’s life return to him.” 22 The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived! 23 Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. “Look!” he said. “Your son is alive!”

24 Then the woman told Elijah, “Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.”

Dear God,

What made this woman so obedient to Elijah? Was it inherent kindness? Was it respect for men in that culture? I am surprised by how quickly she responds to his requests.

Hold it. Let me back up. You instructed a poor widow to support Elijah? My logic would have sent Elijah to a wealthy family that had enough resources to care for Elijah. I would not have sent him to a widow with a child. Widows had a hard enough time providing for themselves in that culture, much less adding another mouth to feed. I never thought about this before, but maybe you already knew her son would die, and she would need Elijah. You knew the son would need Elijah. It is too bad we do not know who this son became, but it is obvious to me now that you were not as much providing for Elijah in this situation—you could have done that anywhere—but you were providing for the widow and her son.

I am glad I saw this because I was going to join Elijah in his prayer when he said, “O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?” Did Elijah have a limited level of vision of you, where he thought you sent good things to those who love you and bad things to those who do not? I guess this process was part of his own education and refining too. Of course, he was also responding to the pressure of the moment and the fog of war that he was in. After all, he had a dead boy in front of him and a distraught woman saying, “O man of God, what have you [emphasis mine] done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?” Again, the link between you sending punishment for sin instead of a view that life is life and tragedy will sometimes come regardless of the level of holiness in someone’s heart.

One more thing on Elijah before I return to the widow. I love how excited he is to have raised the son. “Look! Your son is alive!” I think the translators probably added exclamation points that weren’t in the original text, but still. What a relief! What a time to celebrate! He had to be thinking, “Oh, thank you, God!”

Going back to the widow, she woke up one morning in the midst of a famine and she knew she was at the end of the line. One more day’s worth of food. Then she was done. No more food to buy. No more food to cook. It was time to face the facts. Their lives were ending. Then you sent this guy into her life, and she had nothing left to lose, so she listened to him. I wonder if she would have helped him out a week before. Did she need to be at the end of her rope as a widow and a mother before she would help him? Maybe not. Maybe she would have helped him. But you certainly exhibited your power to her. After Elijah left, I would think there would never be a reason for her to doubt you or your love for her again.

Father, thank you for the reminder we are sometimes just doing the best we can with the circumstances in front of us. That is what she was doing. In this case, you had a plan for her and her son’s lives. I do not know what you did with the rest of their lives or how they have rippled through time to impact mine, except for me sitting here, learning from them thousands of years later. She never knew she and her son would be part of your Scripture. It is a reminder that I have no idea what you are doing at any given moment or how my life will work out, but it is not important that I know. I must be faithful to you and rest in the peace that you are in control.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen