Sketched XI Day 5 Faith Forward: Digging Deeper
June 23, 2023
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
1 Kings 17:8-24
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.
17 After this, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. His illness got worse until he stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “Man of God, what do you have against me? Have you come to call attention to my iniquity so that my son is put to death?” 19 But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again!”
22 So the Lord listened to Elijah, and the boy’s life came into him again, and he lived. 23 Then Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upstairs room into the house, and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, “Look, your son is alive.” 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know you are a man of God and the Lord’s word from your mouth is true.”
The Original Intent
1) Why would God provide for Elijah through a widow with such meager means? (verse 12)
When Elijah obeyed God in Zarephath by asking a widow for food, she told him she only had “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.” (1 Kings 17:12) David Guzik notes, “Widows were notorious for their poverty in the ancient world. God told Elijah to go to a Gentile widow and receive provision; it probably seemed to make more sense to wait beside a dry brook.”
God could have sent Elijah anywhere, but he chose an impoverished widow to supply his needs so Elijah would know that God can provide through seemingly impossible circumstances. (Jeremiah 32:17) A widow with minimal food was as useful to God as someone with a storehouse of grain. God was not dependent upon her supply. He only needed her willingness and obedience to cooperate with His purposes. (Philippians 2:13)
God was also stretching and strengthening Elijah to do His will. Donald Wiseman notes, “Elijah was visiting enemy territory and showing the power of God in an area where Baal was worshiped.” Every time God moved Elijah to a new place, he learned to trust God more and believe in His promises and His provision. Garrett Kell suggests, “God doesn’t train His children to trust Him in just one situation; He often changes our circumstances to teach us to trust Him in new ways.”
Elijah learned that no matter what God led him to, He could always be trusted to provide (Philippians 4:19) and keep His Word (Hebrews 10:23).
The Everyday Application
1) Why would God provide for Elijah through a widow with such meager means? (verse 12)
As a child, I read voraciously. One day I grabbed a book of my Dad’s called Hey God! by Frank Foglio. It portrayed an extremely poor Italian-American family who became Christians and decided to share Jesus with everyone they met.
One day Papa Foglio brought visitors home for dinner so he could share Jesus with them, but Mama Foglio didn’t have enough food for her large family, let alone extra mouths. So they prayed, and she just kept pulling spaghetti out of the pot until everyone in the house had eaten their fill!
As a child, reading Foglio’s unwavering faith that God would provide, made a big impact on me. It was just one in a string of testimonies that built my faith in God and taught me that He can be trusted even when circumstances say otherwise. (Psalm 56:3)
The same kind of faith played a role in the events surrounding Elijah and impoverished widow of 1 Kings 17:12. God sent Elijah to her to be fed and housed, even though she was preparing to cook her last supply of oil and flour on the day they met. Elijah trusted she was the one God provided, even though it looked like she was the last person who could help him. The widow made Elijah the loaf of bread in faith, trusting his words about the flour and oil not running out would prove true.
If the widow’s pantry had been full, all Elijah would have gotten was a meal. Instead he reaffirmed he could hear God and trust what He said. Elijah also became the means of blessing a faithful servant of the Lord who would have starved to death had he not come.
The Original Intent
2) Why did Elijah question God regarding the tragedy of the boy’s death? (verse 20)
God sent Elijah to the home of a widow and her son in Zarephath, where He miraculously fed Elijah by replenishing the widow’s meager store of flour and oil. (verses 13-16) Elijah’s presence saved the widow and her son from starvation, but the son grew ill and died during Elijah’s stay. (verse 17)
The grieving widow brought her lifeless son to Elijah who “cried out to the Lord and said, ‘Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?’” (1 Kings 17:20) Elijah assumed that all of his trials followed him to the poor widow’s house and brought her tragedy as well.
Authors Keil & Delitzsch propose, “These words, in which the [Hebrew] word also refers to the other calamities occasioned by the drought, contain no reproach of God, but are expressive of the heartiest compassion for the suffering of his benefactress and the deepest lamentation, which, springing from living faith, pours out the whole heart before God in the hour of distress.”
Elijah was certain God led him to this widow, as evidenced by the miracle with the flour and the oil not running out. Elijah could only trust God and implore Him to heal the son of this faithful servant. His faith in God’s direction was solid, as was his belief in God’s mercy and compassion (Psalm 145:8)
The Geneva Study Bible also suggests “He was afraid lest God’s name be blasphemed and his ministry condemned, unless he continued His mercies as He had begun them, especially while he remained there.”
Elijah knew God had shown Himself Good and Faithful to Elijah, and he trusted that God had led him to this widow’s home to show Himself Good and Faithful to her as well.
The Everyday Application
2) Why did Elijah question God regarding the tragedy of the boy’s death? (verse 20)
Elijah was finding it difficult to be the Lord’s prophet when he arrived at the poor widow’s home. He was going from one trouble to another, trusting in God to sustain him day by day. By the time the widow brought her dead son to him, he was overwhelmed with the amount of troubles in his path, and he “cried out to the Lord and said, ‘Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?’” (1 Kings 17:20).
Elijah was not blaming God or even complaining so much as he was exclaiming, “Here’s yet another hardship God is bringing me through.”
By now, Elijah’s reflex response was to go directly to God with his need and throw himself upon God’s love and mercy. (Hebrews 4:16). Although he was weary of the problems, he trusted God was with him in the midst of it all. (Psalm 23:4)
Most of us, like Elijah, have cried out at the addition of yet one more hardship in our lives. Relationship struggles, financial burdens, health challenges and anxious thoughts can make us feel like we can’t handle everything we need to manage.
Like Elijah, we need to turn immediately to God with every struggle that threatens to overwhelm us and allow Him to help us. He may bring immediate healing or deliverance, or He may provide assistance through friends or family, but He promises to always meet every need (Philippians 4:19) and never leave us alone (Joshua 1:9).
We can trust in His provision no matter how trying the situation becomes.
The Original Intent
3) Why did it take Elijah raising her son from the dead for the woman to believe Elijah was a man of God? (verse 24)
Although Elijah stayed with the widow and she witnessed the daily miracle of no decrease in her store of flour and oil, it was only after Elijah prayed and her son was raised from the dead that the widow proclaimed, “Now I know you are a man of God and the Lord’s word from your mouth is true.” (1 Kings 17:24)
While experiencing the blessing of food on the table every day surely convinced her that Elijah was sent by his God, having her son restored to her showed her the Hebrew God was personal. She went from learning about Jehovah from Elijah to personally experiencing His power and love in a life-changing way.
“Whatever stage her religious belief had before reached, she now advances beyond it, and acknowledges Jehovah as truth itself.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) Elijah was led to this widow’s home so God could meet her physical needs, but also so He could meet her spiritual needs. The visit from Elijah was just as much a ministry and display of God’s power, authority, and personal love for the widow as it was for Elijah.
Author J. Hampton Keathley III suggests that the Lord “was more concerned that she get to know Him because He was her real need.” Bringing a person back to life was something only a powerful, benevolent God could do, and it was what the Lord chose to use to reach this widow with His Truth.
As He had done with Elijah, using his hardships to teach him about faith and trust in Him (Romans 8:28), so God did with the widow, using the famine and her son’s death to teach her about the powerful and loving nature of Jehovah.
The Everyday Application
3) Why did it take Elijah raising her son from the dead for the woman to believe Elijah was a man of God? (verse 24)
My husband is a public school teacher, but we both agreed homeschooling was the best option for our family. I had been a teacher before our children were born, so he left most of the homeschooling duties and decisions to me.
One day, a friend hired him to tutor their homeschooled children in Spanish for a quarter. Every week he came home excited about the benefits of homeschooling. He was enthused about the opportunities available due to the nature of home education. He had been on board with homeschooling before his hands-on experience, but now he was an active proponent of home learning. Teaching in a homeschool environment made him a bona fide “homeschooler,” and that helped him engage in our own homeschool adventures in a way he never had before.
Having a deeply personal encounter with the God of Elijah changed things for the widow. Before her son was raised from the dead, she was glad to have the man of God in her home, grateful for the food his presence provided, but when he prayed on her behalf and God resurrected her son, she exclaimed, “Now I know you are a man of God and the Lord’s word from your mouth is true.” (1 Kings 17:24)
She went from believing Elijah was God’s prophet to experiencing God for herself in an unforgettable way. This is what God desires for each of us; it’s what He’s building the journey of our lives around. He is pleased for us to learn about Him, but more than anything He wants us to know Him. Personally. Deeply. (1 John 5:20)
He loves us so much that He longs for communion with us. (John 15:4-5) He wants us to know Him deeper and become more like Him every day. He uses every experience in our lives, positive and negative, to bring us closer to Him. (1 Peter 5:10)
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