I Kings 17:8-24
8
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 "Go now to
Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow
there to feed you." 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath.
When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he
called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I
may drink." 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her
and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 12
But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a
handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a
couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son,
that we may eat it, and die." 13 Elijah said to her, "Do
not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of
it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.
14 For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will
not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD
sends rain on the earth." 15 She went and did as Elijah said,
so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16
The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to
the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah. 17 After this the son
of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe
that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah,
"What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my
sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" 19 But
he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom,
carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his
own bed. 20 He cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you
brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her
son?" 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times,
and cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this child's life come into
him again." 22 The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the
life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah
took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and
gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." 24
So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and
that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Elijah appears suddenly in the canonical context as a clearly drawn historical figure. He is unapproachable, unpredictable, feared, and hated, but always someone with whom others need to deal. He is a man of enormous powers. He came from Gilead, the territory east of the Jordan, colonized by Israel, a land that preserved the original allegiance of the people of the covenant to the Lord. We can understand his horror at the syncretism with which he was brought into contact when he when he went west. This syncretism began with the entry into Canaan. It entered a new phase when David incorporated into the empire of Israel large tracts of Canaanite territory that were then evangelized. The effect of the coincidental increase was to swell the Canaanite element. It occurred slowly, as the old ideas held about the covenant with the Lord gave way to the rites and practices of those who worshipped Baal. A notable change occurred when Omri moved the center of his kingdom to Samaria. It possessed a temple of Baal. The process increased with the marriage of Jezebel from Tyre to Ahab. In country districts, people still worshipped the Lord, but at court and in the upper classes in the city worship was given to Baal. The subject of the stories of Elijah is the Lord, who brought everything to pass and gave the answer to the momentous question before Israel. He comes into the action only momentarily. He does so only to vanish and then to mysteriously and for no obvious reason reappear elsewhere. He shunned society and lived alone, with no fixed abode, roaming from place to place. The keen edge to his polemic makes it possible that he would have allowed that Baal did exercise divine power, though of an inferior sort. The proposition that Israel belonged to the Lord alone, a belief deriving from the earlies days of their existence as a people of the Lord, found in Elijah a champion such as it had never had before. The Lord is resolved not to tolerate apostasy from these people and will revolt against them. I Kings 17 relate the story of Elijah and the widow at Zarepeth. Elijah told Ahab that a famine will come and will not end unless his word ends it. His mention of dew and rain challenges the notion that Baal, celebrated as god of fresh water, is responsible for them. The drought is limited to Israelite territory and persisted for a while. It came to be seen as unnatural. The Lord is the source of rain and abundant crops (Deuteronomy 11:13-17). The Lord told him to go to Wadi Cherith (Transjordan, which while part of Israel was outside the jurisdiction of Ahab), where the ravens, ritually unclean in Deuteronomy 14:14 and Leviticus 11:15, will feed him. He drank from the wadi, but after a while, it dried up. The story is like the man of God in chapter 13, where Elijah must be careful about his food and drink. He is sent away from places of royal power and provision to places that promise little. He will have a period of solitude. He serves as an example for us that we need time for solitude for the Lord to feed us so that we can feed others. The point of such miracle stories about Elijah illustrate that the Lord protected and provided for his sustenance. He would in turn provide sustenance for others. The Lord responded to his prayers. As the severity of the drought deepens and dries up local water, the Lord directs Elijah to Zarephath in Phoenician territory. The Lord sends Elijah into the heart of the land of Baal. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 "Go now to the coastal city of Zarephath, which is seven miles from Sidon and belongs to Sidon, the home of Jezebel, and live there. The Lord’s influence and providence is not only in Israel but also in Gentile lands, notably here in the center of Baal-worship. The Lord has ordered Elijah into enemy territory with no rations. For I have commanded a non-Israelite widow there to feed you." Not only was he in enemy territory, but the land was amid a horrific drought, and food was scarce. Of all the people in Zarephath whom the Lord could command to feed him, a widow would be the least likely to have any food to offer him because widows were among the most vulnerable and destitute people in ancient society. 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks. The story presupposes there was an external sign that differentiated widows, who were poor, from other women, which might include an item of dress. She remains nameless in the two stories about her that follow because the point is to celebrate the named prophet. We should note that the position of women without a breadwinner was precarious. He called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 12But she said, using the oath formula, "As the LORD your (Elijah’s) God lives, not one of her own gods/goddesses, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." Thus, in addition to her vulnerable position as a widow, she had another mouth to feed in the person of her son. Amid this miracle story, we get an intimate look at life outside the palace. While kings vie for power and wealth, a widow and her son struggle for their daily bread. When the king chooses wrongly, the humble live with and die by the consequences. 13 Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth." 15 She resignedly agrees and went and did as Elijah said, knowing that she was giving up her last possible meal for herself and her son. To be where the Lord is means going beyond the limits of our comfort and safety. We receive our lives as gifts instead of guarding them as our possessions. We share the life and love we have received rather than bottling it for our own consumption. We let our lives overflow to touch the lives of others. Think of your life as a magic vase, filled to the brim. We cannot dip from it. It overflows into the hand that drops treasures into it. If we drop in hate, it will overflow with hate. If we drop in love, we will overflow with love. Yet, the result was that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. Part of the point here is that God is a god of abundance rather than scarcity. We see a similar approach at points in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus provided so much bread that there are twelve large baskets of leftover scraps (John 6:5-15). Jesus causes the anglers to catch so many fish that the boat nearly sinks (Luke 5:1-7). We can expect that at moments, the Lord does not give us just enough. The Lord gives more than enough, more than that for which we dared to ask. God is generous. Seeing such divine generosity means we need be in a place of faith, relying fully upon God, and genuine love for God. 16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah. The prediction of the prophet is fulfilled immediately. 17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God (more than 70 times in the OT)? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" She thinks some obscure sin must be the reason for the death of her son. The holy was incompatible with sickness. 19 But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. The separate room was necessary, especially to observe Semitic hospitality without embarrassment. 20 He cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again." Elijah attempted artificial respiration on the child, who was critically ill but not dead. Then he offered a prayer on behalf of the child. A healing procedure in some Mesopotamian incantations against demons instructs the healer to superimpose his body over that of the patient, head-to-head, hand to hand, foot to foot. 22 The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah acted as well as prayed. Some suggest that in this passage, as well parallel passages in II Kings 4:32ff and Acts 20:10, we find an example of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or chest compression. The text is careful in not saying that the boy was dead. God transmits the health of Elijah to the boy. The point of the passages is that their actions showed that God could bring life even over the power of death. In the end, the boy attained full virility. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." 24 So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, a term that emphasizes the superhuman powers of the prophet, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth." His success as a wonderworker is what convinces the widow that he was indeed a prophet. The power to intercede with the Lord was a prophetic gift. Into a hopeless situation, the Lord brings new life.
We should note that miracles in the Old Testament are not commonplace. They occur only at important periods of history, when historical circumstances meant the people of God needed the power of God to sustain them and their testimony. Such miracles preserve the true faith in the presence of efforts to destroy the knowledge of the Lord. In the light of the context of the battle between Yahweh and Baal (more especially the battle in the hearts of the Israelites over which God to serve), the miracle stories make sense. The culminating story is that which occurs on Mt. Carmel (I Kings 18:1 ff.). As to comparable stories related to Jesus, Luke 4:22 ff. records Jesus’ favorable citation of that very event. Jesus himself went outside Jewish territory to the same region that Elijah had gone, when he healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (see Mark 7:24-31). We should also note that Jesus restores to life three people (Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus).
Felix Mendelssohn’s great choral oratorio Elijah offers a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 4:29 and Jeremiah 29:13 as its central theme. The Lord is speaking: “If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, then ye shall ever surely find me.” In its expansion of the biblical Elijah stories, the musical presentation itself becomes almost biblical as it thunders out the message of divine punishment, yet offers divine hope if Israel (and we, through Jesus Christ) will earnestly repent and worship/trust in the Lord alone and obeys the Lord fully. God providentially promises to be with us and provide for our needs.
We still live in a world full of "Baal" -- a world full of false gods promising endless supply. He comes in different forms these days. He comes in the form of a career promising a lasting sense of success and total security, so long as you lay inappropriate amounts of time and devotion upon the altar. He comes in the form of Botox injections, laser hair removal, the newest iPhone and the latest trends each subtly promising, in their own ways, the gift of personal relevance and perpetual youth. He comes in the form of philosophies like the secular humanism spewed by an adjunct philosophy professor at the college your daughter is attending and you are paying too much for. It is an idea that promises enlightenment and self-actualization minus any belief in a light-giver, and the value of boundaries and constraints. It is an intriguing idea -- until you realize that if there is no room for the divine, ipso facto, there is also no room or basis for ultimate meaning and morality. He comes in the form of Powerball lotteries giving away hundreds of millions and reality television offering fame to the masses. However, to enjoy either you have to avert your eyes from the fact that few who play ever win and even those who win kind of lose.
Baal is alive -- still fake -- but alive. The essential premise of Baal, however, is that we tend to bow down, duped by the promise of endless supply, failing to realize that what Baal offers is never enough and what Baal gives is not what we need, and that there are billions of others tasting the drought. Billions who, like the widow with Elijah, are feeling the effects of empty promises, suffering through unsatisfactory supply, and are skeptical that any more "god-sent guarantees" are worth trusting in.
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