Reflections on 1 Kings 17

1 Kings 17 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Elijah was a prophet from Tishbe in Gilead. One day he went to King Ahab and said, "I'm a servant of the living LORD, the God of Israel. And I swear in his name that it won't rain until I say so. There won't even be any dew on the ground."
   
2. Later, the LORD said to Elijah,
   
3. "Leave and go across the Jordan River so you can hide near Cherith Creek.
   
4. You can drink water from the creek, and eat the food I've told the ravens to bring you."
   
5. Elijah obeyed the LORD and went to live near Cherith Creek.
   
6. Ravens brought him bread and meat twice a day, and he drank water from the creek.
   
7. But after a while, it dried up because there was no rain.
   
8. The LORD told Elijah,
   
9. "Go to the town of Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I've told a widow in that town to give you food."
   
10. When Elijah came near the town gate of Zarephath, he saw a widow gathering sticks for a fire. "Would you please bring me a cup of water?" he asked.
    
11. As she left to get it, he asked, "Would you also please bring me a piece of bread?"
    
12. The widow answered, "In the name of the living LORD your God, I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour and a little olive oil. I'm on my way home now with these few sticks to cook what I have for my son and me. After that, we will starve to death."
    
13. Elijah said, "Everything will be fine. Do what you said. Go home and fix something for you and your son. But first, please make a small piece of bread and bring it to me.
    
14. The LORD God of Israel has promised that your jar of flour won't run out and your bottle of oil won't dry up before he sends rain for the crops."
    
15. The widow went home and did exactly what Elijah had told her. She and Elijah and her family had enough food for a long time.
    
16. The LORD kept the promise that his prophet Elijah had made, and she did not run out of flour or oil.
    
17. Several days later, the son of the woman who owned the house got sick, and he kept getting worse, until finally he died.
    
18. The woman shouted at Elijah, "What have I done to you? I thought you were God's prophet. Did you come here to cause the death of my son as a reminder that I've sinned against God?"
    
19. "Bring me your son," Elijah said. Then he took the boy from her arms and carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying. Elijah laid the boy on his bed
    
20. and prayed, "LORD God, why did you do such a terrible thing to this woman? She's letting me stay here, and now you've let her son die."
    
21. Elijah stretched himself out over the boy three times, while praying, "LORD God, bring this boy back to life!"
    
22. The LORD answered Elijah's prayer, and the boy started breathing again.
    
23. Elijah picked him up and carried him downstairs. He gave the boy to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive."
    
24. "You are God's prophet!" the woman replied. "Now I know that you really do speak for the LORD."
    

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At this time Ahab, son of Omri, was on the throne in Israel while Asa was still king in Judah. Each succeeding king in Israel was said to be more evil than any who proceeded him, and Ahab topped them all. With his marriage to Jezebel, daughter of a Sidonian king, they raised idolatry in Israel to a new level. So Israel was now serving and worshipping Baal.

God decided it was time to act and brought a new prophet by the scene by the name of Elijah. He sent Elijah to Ahab with the message that "there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!" (17:1) In dealing with the sin of Ahab and of Israel, God was not only going to punish Israel with hardship but was also going to challenge the god they had chosen to worship showing how impotent it was. Since Baal was thought to be the god of rain, God chose to withdraw rain from Israel and challenge their new god to overpower Him to restore their rain.

Meanwhile, the prophet God used to make the announcement of the coming drought disappeared until Ahab became desperate. God sent Elijah away to a seasonal brook east of the Jordan River. There the Lord provided for him using ravens to bring him food. When the brook dried up, God sent Elijah to Zarephath, a town along the Mediterranean coast in Phoenicia, Jezebel's home country. There the Lord had prepared a widow who was not a Baal worshiper. She, a widow, would be the least likely to have food for Elijah. But it was she who the Lord now used to provide for him. This was no doubt a further challenge of Baal. Rather than sending Elijah away from Baal worshipers as if he were running from them, God sent him to the heart of Baal worship. There He used a native Phoenician to feed him.

When Elijah arrived in Zarephath he saw a widow gathering wood at the city gate. He may have sensed this to be the woman God prepared for him, but he posed a test to her, simply asking for a drink of water. When she responded favorably, turning to get the water, Elijah made a further request of her.  "Please bring me a piece of bread," he asked of her. (17:11) Though a seemingly simple request, it was a supreme test, for this woman had only enough flour remaining to make one more meal for her and her son before they starved to death. But Elijah encouraged her to go make this last meal for herself and her son, but to first make a small loaf of bread for him. He assured her that if she did this the Lord promised to keep her flour jar and oil jug filled. What did she have to lose? She and her son faced starvation anyway. What was one more meal in light of the possibility of sufficient food until the end of the drought? She did as Elijah asked and sure enough, her flour and oil did not run out.

After a while, the Lord performed another miracle for this woman. Her son became ill and died. She evidently thought this to be punishment for some sin of hers, and said to Elijah, "Have you come to remind me of my guilt and to kill my son?" (17:18) This is a common idea when calamity comes - that God is punishing us for our sin. The boy's death was a normal circumstance of life, but God wanted to use it to do something wonderful for this woman. We tend to be short-sighted, seeing only the problem facing us rather than the miracle waiting for us beyond the problem. Elijah took the dead boy to his room on the roof and prayed over him and stretched himself out over the boy three times. The Lord heard and the boy's life was restored. When Elijah brought the boy back to his mother alive, the widow said, "Now I know you are a man of God and the LORD's word in your mouth is the truth." (17:24)