Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
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The Questions
1) Where is Zarephath and why is this significant?
2) Why would Elijah insist on the widow making some bread for himself first before herself and her son? (verse 13)
3) How is this widow’s faith important in the story of Scripture?
1 Kings 17:8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” 10 So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” 11 As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I don’t have anything baked—only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”
13 Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, 14 for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.’”
15 So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. 16 The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through Elijah.
Original Intent
1) Where is Zarephath and why is this significant?
The town of Zarephath was nestled in the country of Sidon beyond the borders of Israel. Why does this matter? Because Elijah was Jewish and the location of Zarephath made this widow a Gentile. Jews didn’t associate with Gentiles. Jews were the chosen people of God, Gentiles were ‘everyone else’. But God told Elijah to go to this widow, this Gentile, this ‘heathen’, yet she was the one who displayed enough faith in Elijah’s God of Israel (verse 12) that the Lord God displayed His great faithfulness to her. (verse 14) She feared the God of Israel. She took the prophet at his word spoken on behalf of his God, and she trusted.
2) Why would Elijah insist on the widow making some bread for himself first before herself and her son? (verse 13)
It feels self-focused and outlandish doesn’t it? “I see you and your son are about to die, so please make your last loaf of bread for me first.” If we don’t slow down, the request comes across cold-hearted and selfish. But that isn’t Elijah’s intent or God’s heart in the slightest. The widow had heard of Elijah’s God, she knew He was powerful. (verse 12 “as the Lord your God lives”) It’s one thing to hear stories, but quite another to trust in the God of those stories when your life and the life of your son are at stake. Add to the fact this woman was Gentile and not Jewish. According to religious culture, there was no reason for the God of Israel to bless a Gentile’s faith. Which is precisely why there is a line drawn in the sand by the Lord through the prophet’s words. Make the bread for Elijah first, and trust the God of Israel will provide for you and your son despite your logical calculations. This is the challenge of faith. The widow had to choose, either trust herself and die or trust the word of the Lord and live.
3) How is this widow’s faith important in the story of Scripture?
God used the faith of this widow to paint a vivid picture of true faith that is always welcomed by God. Centuries later when that widow and her son had long been buried and turned to dust, Jesus picked up her story in Luke 4:25-26 as He spoke to His own townspeople in Nazareth. They were His own neighbors, Jews waiting expectantly for the Messiah, but like all the widows who lived in Israel in Elijah’s time, they didn’t believe Jesus at His word. They scoffed. This can’t be the Messiah, we saw Him grow up. This is Joseph’s boy, we’ve seen him run the streets his whole life. They were too familiar with Jesus to be able to accept Him at His word that He was the fulfillment of all the ancient prophecies which they had studied for so long. In fact, Jesus’ claims of being God in the flesh, of being this promised Messiah come to rescue and set free and redeem, was so impossible to the Nazarites they became furious with Jesus. They literally mobbed Jesus, throwing Him out of the temple where He’d been teaching with every intention of throwing Him over the cliff to His death. But Jesus, being exactly the God He claimed to be, walked right through the angry crowd, leaving Nazareth and His faithless neighbors behind. They had Messiah in their midst, but they wanted only to be rid of Him.
Everyday Application
1) Where is Zarephath and why is this significant?
This seemingly random story of an arbitrary widow from Zarephath was deeply intentional by the Lord God. Here in the Old Testament, God was showing Elijah, and all Jews who would later read the recorded encounter or tell it as it was passed down generation to generation, that God was for the nations. Jew and Gentile. All peoples. Yes, God used the Jews as His chosen people to setup history as the backdrop for the coming Messiah who would rescue and reconcile all who would come to Him, but His heart has always been for all. Surely, Elijah raised an eyebrow at minimum when God directed Him outside of Israel for sustenance. To the Gentiles? Yes, to the Gentiles God sent His prophet, that the Name of the Lord God would continue to be declared to all people. I wonder, how often do we do the same with such careful intentions? Do we invite the ‘comfortable Christian people’ over for dinner, or are we making space to bring God’s Name to all? How are we using our “pineapple moments” for His glory?
2) Why would Elijah insist on the widow making some bread for himself first before herself and her son? (verse 13)
This “line in the sand” is exactly how it is for every single person living past, present, or future. At some point, we must each decide if we will trust ourselves and die or trust the word of the Lord and live. If we seek to save our soul by being good enough, doing more good than bad, going to church, giving money, praying hard, or even punishing ourselves, we are damned for eternity. Our sin is too deep, too marring, too impossible to outweigh compared to the flawless righteousness required by a righteous God. If we trust ourselves to save ourselves, we are condemned to death. But if we, just like the widow from Zarephath, see the line in the sand, and choose to take God at His word that He literally took our death on Himself, died in our place, and gave us His own perfect righteous standing before the Holy God Himself to us, WE LIVE! Through His death for us, we are made alive! But not by hearing this story, not by going to church, not by ‘knowing about God’, but through faith. Faith that says, “I believe You, God, are exactly who You say You are. And on that claim, I stake my life.” That’s exactly what the widow did, and it’s precisely what God is asking each of us.
3) How is this widow’s faith important in the story of Scripture?
The widow’s story in 1 Kings, reiterated by Jesus in Luke, hits home for us in our churches, our neighborhoods, and cities. America is still known as the ‘Christian country’, the place where you’re ‘Christian’ simply because of birthplace, or because you ‘believe in God’. Let this widow’s story hit our hearts in the most tender places. Sisters, even the demons ‘believe in God’. (James 2:19) Belief in God does not save. Birthplace or home address or family tree does not save any more for us than it did for the many Jewish widows who lived in Elijah’s time or the many Jews who lived in Nazareth. Only true faith, true heart trust in the faithfulness of God to be and do exactly as He says He will be and do. Only this kind of faith saves. This is the faith of the widow from Zarephath. This is the faith of a true believer who will be rescued from the consequences of our sin, which is death and eternal separation from God. So we beg the question, “of what is our faith made of”? Have we had ‘just enough’ Jesus to make us angry at Him when His call interferes with our want? Or do we take Him at His word that He is the Divine Rescuer, come to save, redeem, and make us new?!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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