and it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.' So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and stayed by the brook Kareth, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed, a widow was there gathering sticks.
And he called to her and said, please bring me a little water and a cup that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. So she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.
And Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days.
The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick, and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son?
And he said to her, Give me your son. So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. Then he cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son? And he stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him.
Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son lives. Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.
Amen.
Introduction to Elijah's Ministry
So here specifically we see the emphasis is upon Elijah, a prophet in the northern kingdom at the time of Ahab. And as I said earlier, the focus of the narrative will be on these two men primarily until the end of chapter 22 after Ahab dies, the scene shifts to Jehoshaphat, who is a southern king, and then when we get to 2 Kings 1, we see the death of Elijah there in chapters 1 and 2. So Elijah is a very important figure in redemptive history. Just to quote a man by the name of House, Paul House, he says, without question, Elijah is one of the most distinctive and diversely talented individuals in the Bible.
He is a prophet, preacher, political reformer, and miracle worker all at the same time. At the heart of this multifaceted man, though, rests one overriding conviction. Elijah hates Baalism as much as Jezebel loves the cult. And he desires to magnify Yahweh over Baal and defeat the interloping religion once and for all.
And I think that is a good description. That's his purpose at this particular time, is to oppose Baalism, to oppose idolatry in all of its forms, and to oppose the government or political oppression that has come as a result of Ahab's turning to Baal rather than to Yahweh. So
Sermon Overview and Structure
this chapter breaks down into three particular sections. First, there is the prediction of drought in verse 1. Secondly, the provision for the prophet in verses 2 to 16. And then thirdly, the power of God in verses 17 to 24.
Now that's not to suggest the power of God isn't present prior to that, but it's directly connected to the raising of this widow's dead son. But
Prediction of Drought
note in the first place, with reference to the prediction of drought, as I said earlier, this is the divine response to a wicked king. Just back up for a moment to chapter 16, just to get a bit of a refresher on just who this king Ahab was. It says in verse 29, in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years.
Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. So he outshines even Jeroboam the son of Nebat in terms of wickedness. And then it gives a particular application of this, or illustration, in who he chose as a bride.
Notice in the middle of verse 31, that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshipped him. So here you have the reigning king in Israel marrying this woman who's absolutely wicked. As we move through the rest of 1 Kings, this woman is a terrible human being and oftentimes is the impetus behind Ahab. Ahab's a wretch to begin with, but Jezebel is something of the power behind the wretch.
So he goes and he worships Baal and serves him. But notice that's not enough. In verse 32, it says, then he, this is Ahab, set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. So within the confines of Israel, the persons or the people that belong in a peculiar way to Yahweh, king of Israel, you see that Ahab sets up a temple and an altar for the worship of Baal.
It goes on in verse 33, and Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. And then notice in chapter 17 at verse 1, and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, He just drops onto the pages of Scripture, as it were, out of nowhere. There's no introduction, there's no genealogy, there's no statement concerning his father or his mother, where he went to school, the kind of family life that he enjoyed.
He just suddenly appears on the scene as God's response to the wickedness that is Ahab. One particular commentator makes this observation. He says, For to see Elijah appear thus, i.e. so suddenly, reminds us that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth. For we may be sure that God in unexpected places, has already prepared his counter-movement.
God has always His ways of working underground to undermine the stability of evil. God can raise men for His service from nowhere. Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish.
For at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there, ready with His man and His movement and His plans to ensure that His own cause will never fail." I think that's a very good description of the arrival of Elijah smack dab in this particular context. Prior to Ahab, you had a bunch of real winners in the northern kingdom. Omri, who made Samaria the political capital. You had Zimri, who reigned for only seven days.
You had Elah, who was drinking himself drunk when he was assassinated. So it was a time of tumult and turmoil and great apostasy in the land of Israel. And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, We note the divine presence with his prophet. I love the statement in verse 1 as Elijah describes it.
As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand. Now he is standing before King Ahab, but he's operating in concert with the living and the true God. before the Lord or before whom I stand." It's a truly remarkable statement concerning God's presence with God's man in opposition to a rebel king that needs to be put down. And then notice the prophet's prayer for the intervention of God. It's a bit ambiguous.
Notice that he says, "...there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word." He doesn't say that God sent me to tell you this. Rather, it was indeed the prayer of Elijah. James chapter 5 tells us, that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
So Elijah prays to bring the judgment of God, and it is indeed in accordance with the will of God. And this was a proper response to idolatry in the land. Deuteronomy 11 and the curses of the covenant in Deuteronomy 28 indicate that when the nation of Israel goes a whoring from God, when they turn to idols, then it would be the case that God would indeed bring drought. There would be no rain, there would be no fertility, there would be no growth, there would be no bounty or benefit, and this is a legitimate and a just punishment.
If men turn their back upon the living and the true God, God will indeed send judgment, and He promised to do so in Deuteronomy chapter 28, and that is precisely what Elijah says is going to be the case with reference to Israel at this time. Now, this was indeed a direct assault upon Baal. Remember that Baal was the storm god. Baal was in charge of sending rain.
So you see, when Elijah says, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word, he is directly attacking the false god or the idol Baal. Now, he was indeed responsible for this. Now, of course we know that life, God's universe, is seasonal. There are rainy seasons and there are non-rainy seasons.
How do you think they coped under the storm god Baal during the dry seasons? Well, the Baal apologists had to explain that there were certain periods of the year, vis-Ã -vis the dry seasons, where Maat, the god of death, would overcome Baal. And then Baal's sister, a goddess named Ainat, assisted by another goddess, would fetch Baal out of the underworld, and then Aenad would bring judgment to bear upon Maat. I know it sounds bizarre, and I know it sounds odd, but this is the kind of thing that was happening during the reign of Ahab.
And it's bad enough that the pagans subscribe to this. It's bad enough that the Canaanites bowed to Baal and to Maat and to Aenad and all the other pantheon that they had, but when we see Ahab, The leader of Israel plunging the nation down into that same cesspit of idolatry, it truly is shocking. And it truly is an affront to the living and the true God. And so you see this particular judgment, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word, is particularly fitted to bring shame to the name of Baal. to show him and to demonstrate and to highlight the reality that Baal is not God.
This will be the grand contest in chapter 18. In fact, 17.1 prepares the stage for the contest at Carmel in chapter 18. What we have in 17.2-24 is to show us the early ministry of Elijah, to show us that he is indeed God's man, for God's hour to confirm and authenticate the reality that Yahweh sent him. So that when we get to Mount Carmel in chapter 18, the contest is between Yahweh or Baal.
Probably a lot of Israelites would have liked to have Yahweh and Baal, but this is why Elijah the prophet says, choose you this day, whom you will serve. If Baal is God, then serve him. If Yahweh is God, then serve him. Remember that when this idolatry was introduced into Israel, they tried to marry Baal and Yahweh.
They had all these other gods already. What's one more or two more? And so Elijah lays down the gauntlet and says to Israel, you can't have Yahweh and Baal. It's either Yahweh or nothing.
And so chapter 17 verse 1 and the drought that has been imposed by God in answer to the prayer of Elijah serves as the background for that particular contest which was in essence a battle of the gods and of course Yahweh reigns victorious in chapter 18. So
Provision for the Prophet
let's move now secondly to the provision of the prophet. In verses 2 to 16, God provides for the prophet first via ravens and secondly via a widow. In the first place, notice that
Elijah Fed by Ravens at the Brook
Elijah operates according to the word of the Lord. That is a conspicuous statement in this chapter. Notice in verse 2, then the word of the Lord came to him. Verse 5, so he went and did according to the word of the Lord.
Verse 8, then the word of the Lord came to him. Verse 15, she responds according to the word of Elijah. And then in verse 16, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. Verse 24, that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.
That is the conspicuous element in view in this particular chapter. Baal is impotent, Baal is weak, Baal is no God, Baal cannot bring rain, and Baal cannot bring truth. Yahweh, conversely, is the true and living God. He is sovereign and omnipotent and powerful, even down to the ravens of the earth.
He is sovereign and powerful and omnipotent in Baal's background. This is no accident that Elijah is dispatched to Zarephath. Zarephath is in the very hub of Baal worship. And so God is demonstrating his power in Baal's playground to sustain his servant and even one of Baal's previous, a previous follower of Baal in this particular woman.
So God's demonstration of His power is evident throughout this chapter. But note the specific instructions given to Elijah in verses 3 and 4. The word of the Lord comes to him, and it says, God says, get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the brook Kareth, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
Now the prophet is probably supposed to hide from murderers Jezebel and Ahab. Certainly Jezebel is in the business of killing prophets. In chapter 18 at verse 10, Elijah says, as the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master... I'm sorry, this is Obadiah the prophet to Elijah.
There is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you. And when they said he is not here, he took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. So there is no doubt a vested interest by God in the protection of his prophet. But this hiding probably suggests something more.
The problem in Israel isn't only a lack of water. The problem in Israel is that the mouthpiece of God is hiding. In other words, there is an absence of the Word of God for the nation of Israel as a whole. Because as Elijah, the mouthpiece of God, goes into hiding, that cuts off the nation from the Word of God.
So their biggest problem isn't a lack of water from the heavens. Their biggest problem is a lack of the information that God would convey to them through the prophetic word. Davis says, the disappearance of Elijah spells the absence of the word of God from the life of Israel. Israel's judgment is the drought of the land and the silence of the Lord.
And that God uses ravens. I mean, the whole scenario as we unfold it here is just beautiful. Ravens were unclean animals. They were unclean birds according to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy chapter 14.
Davis has a funny quip. What kind of meat does a raven bring? I mean, just think about it. Would a raven give meat to a human being?
No, ravens are scavenger animals and they're going to eat any bit of meat that they come across. But Davis says, what kind of meat would ravens bring? Don't ask. Simply cook it very well and eat up.
This is God's provision for his prophet at the brook Careth. The brook had not dried up at this particular point, so he would be able to drink from the brook, and he would indeed command the ravens to bring food to his servant. It does image, or it does parallel, Israel in the wilderness. Doesn't God feed Israel in the wilderness with bread and with meat?
God sustains His people when they're in that particular situation, and the same is the case here with Elijah. So in verses 5 to 7, he obeys God. The prophet is sustained by God on a continual basis. Notice, the ravens, verse 6, brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
It's a beautiful situation. It's a glorious display of God's sovereignty and power and purpose in terms of the provision of His prophet Elijah. There is drought in the land. Some speculate that the ravens took the food.
It's really speculation at best. Did they take the food from the committed people of God, the 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal? We don't know. But the ravens brought food for Elijah and sustained him.
But notice in verse 7, it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. So it's not the case that God is going to let His servant perish. Now He provides provision through a widow.
Sent to the Widow at Zarephath
Notice in verses 8 and 9, the word of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. If you're in this section, it's not far off to see up in chapter 16 at verse 31. About halfway through, in terms of the description of Jezebel, He took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians.
And he went and served Baal and worshiped him. So you've got this region called Phoenicia. You've got Tyre and Sidon. And Zarephath is right about in the middle.
This is the hub. This is sort of the origin point of Baal worship. This is where it all began, as it were. And so what you have is the significance here of Elijah being sent to a Gentile woman of Zarephath.
It is going to be her that is the means by which God's provision to Elijah is going to continue. And I think what the author is indicating is that the storm god Baal failed not only in Israel to provide rain and sustenance and nourishment to persons, but he failed in his own hometown. Local boy doesn't make good. He can't even water Zarephath because this woman is starving to death.
She is going to take the last bit of flour, the last bit of oil, and have the last supper for her and her son. And so when Elijah goes there, Yahweh demonstrates his power in Baal's hometown to sustain not only his prophet Elijah, but this woman from Zarephath who had previously worshipped Baal. God has absolute supremacy and God has absolute sovereignty. Matthew Henry says Jezebel was Elijah's greatest enemy.
Yet to show her the impotency of her malice, God will find a hiding place for him even in her country. Gotta think geography here, brethren. This is not haphazard. Elijah is sent into the very place where Baalism originates, and the text specifies that very clearly.
Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon. The reader there should go, oh, Sidon is in Phoenicia, and that's Baal country. Elijah is going to hide out in Baal country, and there God's going to provide for him? Yes, Baal can't do it because he's impotent.
If Jezebel gets wind of this, she's going to see how impotent Baal really is. Another commentator says, to demonstrate on Phoenician soil where Baal is worshipped that Yahweh has power over things in which Baal has failed. You've probably heard before that the 10 plagues in Egypt each answered to a specific deity in Egypt. They worshipped the river, they worshipped the sun, they worshipped this and they worshipped that.
So each of the 10 plagues was calculated to show the futility of the god or the idol that was connected to that particular aspect. That's what's happening here. Baalism is false. Baalism is wrong.
Baalism is impotent. Baalism is weak. The God of Israel is the one who sustains his faithful Israelite prophet up in the hometown of Baal himself. And added to that, this widow, who was previously a worshipper of Baal, becomes a worshipper of Yahweh, right under Baal's nose.
It really is a display of the omnipotence of God and the impotence of Baal. Now,
The Meeting and Elijah's Demand
notice the meeting with the widow in verses 10 to 12. He arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, please bring me a little water and a cup that I may drink.
And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. You see, this all just fits so nicely together because it tells us that of her desperate condition. She doesn't have extra food. She doesn't have a pantry at all.
There's no Costco for her to go to. She is going to serve up the last meal for her and her son, and they're going to die. Thank you very much, and that is essentially what she says. As the Lord, notice, your God lives.
She acknowledges Yahweh of Israel, but at this particular point, she calls Yahweh your God. So it's probably not the case she's already a believer, and so Elijah is sent to this little bastion. No, she becomes a believer, but subsequent to this. We're going to see how Jesus refers to this in his own ministry as a proof of sovereign election and divine judgment.
There were many widows in Israel at this particular time, but Elijah was sent to a Gentile up in Baal country. God is not only blessing Elijah in terms of provision, and this widow at Zarephath in terms of provision and conversion, but He is bringing judgment to bear upon the Israelites, because they have rejected and refused and resisted the Word of God Most High. Now notice, she indicates her condition, and then note verse 13. Elijah makes this most grave demand. that is completely contrary to natural affection.
Look at what Elijah says, do not fear, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son. Ladies, if you were in this situation, you would probably say, no, my son's going to eat first, thank you very much. It is the affection of a mother to tend to her son. And the prophet here challenges that natural affection and says, what you're going to do is good, but feed me first.
Think about that. But he doesn't do it just like that. He prefaces it with, do not fear. The prophetic encouragement, do not fear.
And the reason why she is not to fear is in verse 14. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. In other words, widow of Zarephath, God is going to keep you. God is going to tend to you.
God is going to provide for you. Now
Faithful Obedience and Miraculous Provision
notice the provision of the prophet in verses 15 to 16. It says, "...she went away and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah." You see sort of similarities here with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ and how the bread and the fish just keep multiplying as they're being passed out. The Lord Jesus Christ is the antitype in many ways of Elijah and Elisha, the prophet.
And so the woman does what she is told, and Davis makes the observation here, and I think it's very excellent. Faith is staking everything upon God's sheer word, wagering all upon the veracity of God. So this is a faith, right? Look at what verse 15 says.
She went away and did according to the word of Elijah. She said, wait a minute, my son, he's just pining away. My son really needs this. No, do not fear.
God has promised he will sustain you. And she operates based on that. That's the kind of faith you and I need to have. What God says, we do.
What God commands, we obey. How is it in the Christian church today? We want to sort of barter with God. Well, I know you say that, but I want to do this.
No, let's be like this woman who just does what the prophet commands. Now certainly there's a vested interest in her or with her in terms of her sustenance and provision, but there's always a vested interest for us in obeying God. It's always better to obey. It is always better to follow Yahweh.
It is always better to do what the Lord commands rather than trying to negotiate our way around commandments or to try and navigate through the clear word of God and say, I know what's written here, and I know what it says there, and I know what God commands here, but I want to go and sin, or I want to go and be lazy, or I want to go and be apathetic, or I don't want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's be like this woman who did according to the word of Elijah. Now, before we move on, just admire the surprising ways of God. He uses unclean birds and an unlikely candidate to feed Elijah.
I mean, isn't this God's way? Elijah probably would have thought, you know, let me just go sit in Jerusalem and, you know, feast on the dainties and the verities that are provided in the royal court down in the South. Because they're hostile and they're opposing up in the North, so let me go down to the South and, you know, chill there for a bit of R&R and eat and whatnot. Matthew Poole said God's providing for his prophet First by an unclean bird and then by a Gentile, whom the Jews esteemed unclean, was a notable presage of the calling of the Gentiles.
Many have recognized that the prophet Elijah was the very first evangelist to the Gentiles. Remember, Phoenicia, not Israel. The woman of Zarephath is as Gentile as you and I. She was not an Israelite.
She was not a covenant member. She was not an obedient servant of Yahweh. This was a missionary enterprise to the Gentiles. Davis makes this observation concerning the birds and the widow.
Is this not vintage Yahweh? Who else would ever design to use unclean ravens and the unlikely widow as sustainers of his servant? Who am I to object if Yahweh delights to use dirty birds and hopeless women? We should, however, adore the scintillating, and that means brilliantly and excitingly clever or skillful.
And it really is scintillating, isn't it? I mean, think about it. Brilliantly and excitingly clever or skillful. We ought to adore that creativity of a God who brings help to His people through channels they would never suspect.
I mean, who would have thought that a prophet of Israel would be sustained by ravens? Now, he wasn't contaminated in terms of uncleanness and violating the ceremonial law. He wasn't told to eat the raven. He was told to eat what fell from the raven's mouth or claws or however the raven transported said meat and bread.
You know, this is absolutely incredible. The fact that he goes to Phoenicia, into Baal's background, Baal's homeland, and there, this widow is the one who provides sustenance for Elijah. I think Davis is right. We should, however, adore the scintillating creativity of a God who brings help to his people through channels they would never suspect.
I think it was in one of the Building on the Rock stories where there were some boys that saw a woman or a man praying for their daily bread The boys that were watching thought it was just a sham and it was foolish. Why would you ever pray to God to provide bread? These kids were atheistic or deniers of the Lord, and so they thought they'd play a cruel joke and put bread on the windowsill for this particular lady or man that was praying. Guess what?
God provided the bread and answer to the prayer through these skeptical wretches. You see, it never ceases to amaze us how the Lord operates in ways that we would never, ever conceive of. And frankly, brethren, this makes the Bible excellent reading. Those who say the Bible is a boring old tome haven't read the Bible.
How do you not read about Elijah at the brook Kerith being fed by unclean birds and a woman of Zarephath who was about to eat her last meal with her son? How do you read that and not be compelled to worship the God who is revealed herein? And the God who sends his prophet on a mission to declare, in fact, that there would be a drought and direct assault upon Baal, the God of rain. I mean, men don't make such things up.
The divinity of Scripture is all over it. Men would never conceive of this God. It's absolutely incredible as He reveals Himself to us in this passage. Now
Power of God: The Widow's Son
note, thirdly, in terms of the power of God in verses 17 to 24. You have the death of the Son in verses 17 and 18. Now, some suspect or some suppose that what we have here was a boy who was comatose. He wasn't really dead.
But the language of the prophet in verses 20 and 22, and the fact that the soul returns to the boy, indicates that he was dead. He wasn't mostly dead, he was in fact dead. So verse 17, it happened after these things. So it's directly connected to what's gone on before it.
That the son of a woman who owned the house became sick. And this sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. Now, I realize that says there was no breath left in him. There is a bit of a translation issue where some have concluded that it was comatose, but verses 20 to 22 indicate it wasn't comatose.
So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? I thought of something interesting today, and I'm always hesitant to say something that I don't find in the commentaries, but it is intriguing when she says, have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance? There is that innate sense that mankind has, according to Romans 1.32, wherein we know it's righteous with God to punish us for our sin.
I mean, that is stated and stipulated there. But it is intriguing. There's probably no bail no redemption for sin and Baalism. Well, I know there's not.
You know, this pantheon of gods that the Canaanites all serve, none of them were a forgiving God, none of them were a merciful God. So it was a direct causal and effect sort of a thing. I do bad and bad things happen to me. And so she indicts the prophet here.
What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? Now, if you follow the flow of the narrative at this particular point, you probably want to scratch your head and say, why would God do this? Promise to provide for her and her son until the drought is over.
Now, we know how the story ends. Okay? We know what's going to happen. We know that Elijah is going to take that young man up onto the bed.
He's going to fall on him three times, and the Lord is going to restore his life. But at this particular point, neither Elijah nor the widow at Zarephath has any clue whatsoever that this is going to transpire. So why? Well, I think it does illustrate to us that even in the midst of God's provision and kindness and mercy, it doesn't remove all trials and difficulties and tribulations from our lives.
You know, this was a lesson that a new believer learned at this particular instance, that new believers learn today. You know, we get saved, we get converted, everything's great, we're walking with the Lord, and then some calamity happens. We go to the doctor, we find out we have cancer, and we wonder, why is that, Lord? Because we operate on this particular level, that I'm in Christ and no bad thing should ever touch me.
But why do we operate on that level? Because our Christ says that in this world you will have tribulation. And she is realizing this all too early in her own Christian experience. She has come to embrace Israel's God.
She has come to be blessed by Israel's God, and now she sees that there's not just blessing to be had from Yahweh, but there is genuine bafflement. There is genuine perplexity. There is genuine hardship and difficulty that the Christian life brings. It's not all peaches and cream.
It's not all zippity-doo-dah. It's not all bluebirds and never-ending jars of oil or never-ending bins of flour. That's just not the reality for most of us as God's people. So she learned very quickly that indeed the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. And it might be a tough lesson, and if the text or the narrative stopped at verse 18, and her son was dead, and she continued on, you know, that is a display of the sovereignty and the power and the majesty of God. Now, I suspect that the narrative continues the way that it does to further confirm and affirm that Elijah is indeed God's man, and to further demonstrate that God is the God of the universe. Baal can't even make rain.
God not only provides rain, but God also provides sustenance during drought. God also provides even to a widow in Zarephath, right in Baal's hometown, and God is able to raise from the dead. This is the God that Israel has refused, rejected, and resisted in favor of this loser named Baal. In many respects, the text really does indict the Israelites of that age for their absolute wretchedness in rebelling against God.
So nevertheless, the son dies, and then in
Elijah's Prayer and the Resurrection
verses 19 to 23, we see Elijah act. Verse 19, he says, give me your son. Give me your son. When he comes back down, he says, see, your son lives.
Beautiful. But he says, give me your son. He takes him upstairs, up to the upper room where he was staying, laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodged by killing her son?
Isn't that beautiful? He takes her complaint and voices it to God in prayer. Notice that he doesn't reprove the woman. He doesn't say, how dare you say that about my God?
No, he goes to God with her complaint and he brings it to the mercy seat. What does God do? God answers his prayer. You see, sometimes people may not need a lecture.
They may need us to pray on their behalf. They may not need a particular theological bit of education at that juncture or time. They may need us just to take their complaint to the mercy seat. And this is what is evidenced here specifically with Elijah.
He takes her complaint, he brings it before the Lord. He cries out to the Lord and says, O Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son? I mean, he is expressing her grief at the throne of grace. Job's friends could have learned from Elijah.
Instead of lecturing, instead of reproving, instead of reprimanding him, they should have just prayed for the man. They should have wept with the man. They should have ached with the man. And sometimes, brethren, that needs to be our response with people as well.
You know, not everybody needs a three-point sermon when they mess up. They may need you to go to the throne of grace, take their complaint, take their agony, take their misery to God, and pour it out on their behalf. This is what Elijah does. Notice, verse 21, he stretched himself out on the child three times.
Some suggest he was doing a form of, you know, ancient Hebrew CPR. It was probably an acted parable. You see this through the prophets. You see acted parables.
They do symbolic things as they communicate the word of God Most High. It's not that the symbol, it's not that the act has any intrinsic, you know, magical properties. It's just an acted parable. You see it done even in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he does this three times upon this child, and then he prays. He says, O Lord my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. John Gill makes the observation, which shows that the child was really dead.
So even Gil had to contend with people at that day and age that said, oh, no, it wasn't death. He was just in a coma. Gil also makes the observation and a proof that the soul dies not with the body, but exists in a separate state without it. If you ever want to debate the existence of souls, this would be a great text to go to.
The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. Now notice, verse 23, Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, See, your son lives. Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth. Proven, Ian Proven says this, here is the ultimate test of the Lord's authority.
Think about this, up to this point, God has preserved Elijah and the widow from death. But up to this point, he hasn't reclaimed anyone back from death. You see how this is sort of shaping up. Here is the ultimate test of the Lord's authority.
It is one thing to rescue people from the jaws of death, but can God do anything when death has clamped tight its jaws and swallowed the victim up? God can, rather, act across the border from Israel and Sidon. But is there a border that He ultimately cannot cross? A kingdom in which He has no power?
When faced by Mot, this God of death, the God of the underworld, must the Lord, like Baal, bow the knee? Of course not. Baal must bow the knee because he ain't real. But God doesn't bow the knee to Maat because Maat's not real.
And God is the one sovereign over life, death, underworld, whatever you want to call it. So he brings this boy back to life to demonstrate his sovereignty, his power, and his glory, to confirm the prophet Elijah, and to further humiliate the storm god Baal. And
Purpose of Miracles and the Widow's Confession
with reference to her confession, brethren, I submit that this is the reason for miracles in the Bible. Now, by this, I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth. This is the purpose for miracles. Certainly the woman's son was returned, and that's a blessing.
But the miracles conducted in scripture come with the revelatory word. In other words, miracles come at the time of Moses, miracles come at the time of the prophets, miracles come at the time of the apostles, and miracles come at the time of Jesus and the apostles. That's it! They come when the Word is being revealed, and the miracles attest that the one speaking the word is in fact a mouthpiece of God.
This woman could teach the Pentecostals and Charismatics something about the purpose for miracles. It is to confirm and verify that God the Lord is speaking through Elijah the prophet. And with reference to her confession, again, Proven says, in one sense, she already believed it, but now that she has seen death transformed into life, she knows. She is the first to know what will soon be public knowledge when Elijah's credentials are put to the test in confrontation with hundreds of others who claim to be prophets of a living God, but who are found wanting.
You see, chapter 17 is the necessary background for chapter 18. You know, we think about those 450 prophets of Baal that are on Ahab and Jezebel's dime. Actually, the taxpayers' dime. There were also 400 prophets of Asherah.
When Elijah stands up on Mount Carmel on that day, he is grossly outnumbered. He is the one alone who stands before the living God. But when we the reader come with him to Mount Carmel in chapter 18, we say, he's got this. because of chapter 17. If God can command the ravens to drop food into the mouth of Elijah at the brook Kareth, and he can command this woman of Sidon to be the provider and benefactress of Elijah, and if he can, through Elijah, bring this young boy back to death, these 850 false prophets ain't nothing.
They're going down. See, by the time we get to chapter 18, if we've rightly understood chapter 17, there ought not to be any fear whatsoever. And we'll murmur and scoff and laugh when we hear Ahab actually accuse Elijah of being the troubler of Israel. Now, we've already seen about your total destruction of a marriage to Jezebel.
We have seen how you've built an altar and a temple to Baal in Israel, we have seen that you are the true troubler of Israel. So when we get to chapter 18 in Mount Carmel, we know who's going to win that exchange. We know because chapter 17 tells us so. Well,
Application and Typological Significance
in conclusion, we do see, again, I think the excellence of the prophet Elijah. That's a good name for boys. Many of you young mothers need a bit of encouragement. Man, Elijah, what a hero.
I mean, just chapter 17. If we had nothing else in the pages of scripture. I mean, he just appears right there. Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.
He is standing before the reigning king and he is not flinching one bit. This is the kind of man that should serve as heroes to our sons, to our daughters. This is the kind of man that we as God's men ought to aspire to be. This is the kind of confidence and courage, not in our own strength or in our own ability, but in the God before whom we stand, we ought to conduct ourselves.
Let us live like Elijah the prophet in this present evil age. Secondly, we ought to appreciate the condemnation of Baalism. It will be more obvious when we get to chapter 18 and we see those false prophets cutting themselves and dancing around in a frenzy, bleeding on themselves, trying to get Baal to consume their sacrifice. I mean, the narrator must have had a bit of fun or pleasure as he wrote this, just to show the absolute futility of Baalism.
But we see that futility even in this chapter. the presence of a drought, the storm God couldn't produce rain. I mean, that just tells me you shouldn't have that job. I mean, isn't that Trump's response in terms of Comey? He was doing a bad job, so he got fired.
Bail's doing a bad job. If you've got three and a half years of drought, you don't deserve to be the storm god. You may have an off season. You may miss a few months.
We'll grant you that. But for three and a half years, you don't rain on your people, you ought to be fired. You ought to be sent packing. As well, the inability to sustain life.
The widow in bail land was about to die, her and her son. Elijah comes and God continues to supply bread, or flour rather, in the bin and oil in the jar. And the inability to bring back life, God raised this boy from the dead. And of course, throughout we see the glory of the God of Israel, judgment upon Israel by a drought, the provision of the prophet through ravens and the widow, the conversion of a Gentile, the resurrection from the dead, and the absolute truthfulness of His Word.
But
Typological Connections to Christ
I want to end with reference to the typical significance. There's a lot going on here that should point us to the New Testament. In the first place, the conversion of a Phoenician woman. You see this happen in the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
You can turn to Matthew 15. Matthew 15. the conversion of a Phoenician woman, that same region where this widow of Zarephath was. Matthew 15, specifically in verse 21, then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely demon-possessed.
He is merciful, He is gracious, He saves her. Great is your faith, verse 28, let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. You have a widow in Phoenicia, a woman in Phoenicia with a sick daughter and Jesus comes and He heals.
This is Elijah-like conduct on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is intriguing as well. In the previous section there in Matthew 15, what does Jesus say concerning the Pharisees? They reject the Word.
They want nothing to do with the Word. How does chapter 16 in 1 Kings end? In verse 34, we read of this man, Heel, in the days of Ahab, Heel, tried to fortify the city of Jericho. And he paid with his sons, Abiram and Segub, in accordance with the prophetic word from Joshua chapter 6 at verse 26.
So in chapter 16, verse 34, you see the absolute repudiation of the word of God. How does chapter 17 end? A Gentile embracing the word of God. It's the same flow that you see here in Matthew 15.
The Pharisees and the religious leaders reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and this Phoenician woman shows and displays great faith right here in the presence of Christ. As well, the resurrection of a widow's son, Luke chapter 7. Jesus comes into the city of Nain. There he sees a woman. who has a widow whose son is dead.
And it says that he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. And he raised the boy from the dead. So I mentioned previously the doctrine of sovereign election and divine judgment. Look at Luke chapter 4.
Luke chapter 4. This is that intriguing section where Jesus takes the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He reads it and he says, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Notice in verse 22, so all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is this not Joseph's son? They're marveling at this. They are just in awe and in a favorable way. Now notice what Christ goes on to do.
He said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country. Then he said, assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land.
But to none of them was Elijah sent. You hear what Christ is doing? Christ is bringing judgment to bear upon his generation. He is saying this is the same sort of situation that we saw in the days of Ahab, when Elijah could have gone to any number of widows in Israel, but God said, no, go to the Gentiles.
Because in that, there is the blessed provision for the salvation of the Gentiles, but there is condemnation upon the God-rejecting rebels who resist the prophets in their midst. Notice, but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. Now, do not miss the significance of what follows here.
They knew what he was saying. They got his point. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. They were just marveling at the gracious words that dripped from his mouth.
Now they're filled with wrath because he preaches sovereign election and their exclusion from the covenant promises of God. He is saying Gentiles from Phoenicia are included, but you have been neglected. Just like it was in the days of Elijah when there were no shortage of widows in Israel, but God sent the prophet up to Zarephath to deal with that Gentile woman. So they are filled with wrath.
They rise up and thrust him out of the city. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff. So next time you're on Facebook and you start throwing down Calvinistically and somebody gives you a thumbs down, do not think that you have been persecuted for sovereign grace. They wanted to throw him off a cliff for preaching sovereign grace.
That is what we find in 1 Kings 17 as well. Davis makes this comment. He says, Yahweh's grace is being extended through Elijah beyond Israel because that grace has been ignored within Israel. It is a sobering personal word as well.
If you go on despising his word, God may withdraw his light and allow you to walk in the darkness you seem to prefer. It's a very sobering way to end. There's other things we could draw out, the whole idea of resurrection from the dead. It's not as developed as that empty tomb in Matthew's gospel in chapter 28, but the raising of this woman's son from the dead functions the way Lazarus functions, the way Jairus' daughter functions, the way that this widow at Nain's son functions.
It shows us that God the Lord is the one who removes the sting from death. and then Elijah as an effective man, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James says, he's like us. He was a man of like passions. The doctrine of impassibility, that's the same language.
Elijah was passable like us. He's just like us. I mean, certainly he comes on the scene as wearing a cape and superhuman and all that sort of a thing, but he wasn't. He was a man of passions like us.
And we'll see that after the victory at Carmel. Does he go and celebrate with a bottle of champagne? No, he sits under a broom tree and asks God to take his life. So he was a man like us, and so James tells us we can pray like that too.
We can ask God to intervene on behalf of the situation we find ourselves in. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, we thank You for its unity, its consistency, its consent of all the parts, and our Father, we just thank You that You provide men like Elijah in the Old Testament to show us the glory of Jesus Christ, to show us the power of the Word, to show us Your power over nature, over humans, over life, over death. God, certainly You are the true and the living God, and we thank You that You've called us to fellowship in Your Son, and we just pray that You would cause us to be obedient to that Word, cause us to glorify and honor You, and we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.