The Prophecy of Elijah (1)

The book turns and centers on the clash between King Ahab of Israel and the prophet Elijah, or more rightly, the word of Yahweh. Elijah came from the east side of the Jordan River. As with all kings of Judah and Israel, their goal was to expand their power and wealth. The concern of the prophets of Yahweh was to turn the hearts of the nation back to faith, back to wholeheartedly following Yahweh. The clash between Ahab and Elijah was legendary.

Without an introduction to the narrative, Elijah appeared before Ahab—the text mentioning only that he was raised in rugged terrain east of the Jordan. According to Moses, when the nation drifted, Yahweh promised He would send prophets who were going to show up and call Israel to return, and the nation would ultimately be judged by how they responded to those prophets (Deuteronomy 18:18-21).

Elijah did show up and announce to Ahaz the suspension of the rainy season from December and March and an end to the heavy dew season the rest of the year until he declared an end to the drought (1).  

Elijah Hides at Cherith (2-7)

As soon as Elijah delivered his prophecy to Ahab, God directed him to a brook east of the Jordan, back toward his home. He might have needed to escape the anger of Ahab and even the petition of a people growing thirsty and hungry as the famine continued (2-3). The brook fed the Jordan River, and it was there that Elijah was miraculously fed by ravens at the command of the Lord (4-6) and drank from the brook, until one day the brook dried up (7).

The question becomes, why hide? Was Elijah only running from Ahab and famine-angered mobs, or was there more—was this part of the prophetic message? No doubt Elijah was also directed by Yahweh to withdraw his prophetic voice from Israel as a part of God’s judgment. As the word was withdrawing, Yahweh was telling the nation, little by little, that they were running off Yahweh Himself. The real drought from the land was the prophetic voice of Yahweh.  

Elijah Hides at Zarephath (8-16)

Once the brook dried up, the Lord directed Elijah to cross back over the Jordan River and travel to a village in Sidon called Zarephath. Zarephath was about eight miles south of Sidon and 13 miles north of Tyre. Elijah was headed to the home of Jezebel’s father, Ethbaal. He was going to “Pagantown” to press into service someone outside the regions of Israel. We know the widow’s address, but we don’t know her name. In going to Zarephath, Yahweh was signaling judgment, which Jesus later interpreted for the religious scholars of His day (Luke 4:25-26). Elijah could have visited plenty of widows in Israel, but only the widow in “Pagansville” would have a heart to respond in faith, wholehearted devotion. Only a non-Israelite widow acted as Yahweh had hoped the kings of Judah and Israel and their kingdom would act. 

There in Zarephath, he was told God’s provision would continue to be under the radar, as a widow would care for him (8-9). While being cared for under the radar, God took Elijah to the home area of Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, into the heart of Baal worship, just north of Tyre. 

1. Elijah Asks for Water (10)

   When Elijah came to the city’s gate, a widow was gathering sticks for her oven to cook the last of her bread. She was without a husband, thus a means of income; she was gathering sticks, thus poor; and she was out of bread, thus the famine in Israel was affecting grain surplus among the Phoenicians. Elijah asked for some water, and as was customary, the widow considered it her sacred duty to fetch some (10).  

2. Elijah Asks for Bread (11-12) 

   As Elijah was drinking the water, he intensified his request by asking for a small piece of bread (11). The woman, recognizing him to be an Israelite, swore by Elijah’s God, Yahweh, that she had just enough bread and oil to cook a last meal. She had been planning on cooking it that day, and then she and her son would prepare for death (12).

3. The Miracle of Provision (13-16)

   Elijah challenged her faith, calling upon her to use the last of her flour and oil to make him a cake first and let him eat. He was not demanding as he began with the conciliatory phrase, “Do not fear.” Then, Elijah promised by the word of Yahweh that if she obeyed, neither her jar of flour nor jug of oil would empty until the rain returned (13-14). 

   The widow received Yahweh’s word, wholeheartedly devoted herself to Yahweh, and baked the bread for Elijah at the word of Yahweh. She made Elijah the bread, and for many days the widow and her son, her relatives, and Elijah ate from the flour jar and the oil jug (15-16). 

   It was her wholehearted devotion that was so rare in Israel. 

The Resurrection of the Widow’s Son (17-24)

All three of these stories from this chapter are united in theme. They all focus on preservation, and in each story, preservation is threatened. While the prophetic voice was absent, the prophetic voice was being preserved for a time of reappearing. 

• In the first story, the life stream of water dries up.

• In the second story, the life and food stream of the widow, through whom Yahweh was going to provide life for Elijah, dried up.

• In the third story, the life stream of the widow’s hope—her son—had dried up. 

The prophetic voice must be preserved, and yet there are obstacles and threats to that preservation. Death could not attach to Elijah, so it sought to do the next best thing. It sought to threaten the widow’s son, who had been promised provision and life. God’s reputation was at stake, for the prophetic word had entered the widow’s life to preserve the life of her family and the man of God. 

Day by day, the widow went to her humble cupboard, and there it was reappearing, the miracle of provision. The life-sustaining provision continued, but one day, her son became severely ailing, short of breath, and then expired (17). The woman was stuck with the age-old question, “Why was there miraculous provision in the jar, followed by devastating death in her son? Why does God stretch out His hand to preserve life and then at the same time reverse life?”

The widow was certain that Elijah had brought her home and had drawn the attention of God to her past sins. The widow assumed Elijah had intentionally picked her out, not caring about exposing her past pagan ways to the judgment of his God, Yahweh. The worship of Jezebel’s father, the ruler of the area, was decadent, filled with all sorts of sexually explicit activities. Her son may have been the result of prostitution she had entered into at the local shrine to support herself after her husband had prematurely died.  

She saw no other explanation for the death of her son except that God was repaying her for her past (18). 

Elijah did not attempt to correct the woman’s poor theology but asked for her son to be brought to him. He carried him to his room and laid him on his own bed (19). 

Once in the room, Elijah asked God why He had brought such a trial upon the woman who had shown him such hospitality. Notice that Elijah did not launch into some lofty prayer about healing, nor did he waddle into quoting some text. Elijah abandoned himself to the woman’s pain and the woman’s poor theology, “... have you brought calamity …?” as though God Himself had attacked the son and killed him. Oddly, the prophet himself was caught up in the deception of the death of the widow’s son as being an act of God, seemingly asking, “Why have You” (20). We have no idea what the Lord said to Elijah, but we do know He moved him to lie across the child three times and cry out, “O Lord God, let this child’s life come into him again.” This would be an odd response if Yahweh had done the killing.

It would seem Elijah was finally certain, no matter why the son had died or how the widow or he thought God to be involved, the boy would be given his life back. The woman’s personal sin could not have been the cause or source of death within her home, any more than God had been the direct source of death (21).  

It is there in that home where Yahweh sought to make clear that He had ultimate authority, not only over the death ravaging the earth but over the death seeking to ravage us all. This moment in the widow’s house with the refilling of the jug and jar had been visited by death, not a death sent by Yahweh but a death that normally attacks with vengeful injustice wherever it is given opportunity. 

Elijah finally did not see it as something Yahweh had done, for he prayed for the boy to be brought back to life. Had Elijah continued to think the boy’s death was God-sent, he would never have prayed that the will of God be reversed; death is a final sentence.  

Elijah came to see death as an invader and Yahweh as having supreme power over the ultimate death, which seeks to destroy every life. This is certainly not a New Creation resurrection as with Jesus. This was a signpost resurrection as with Jarius’ daughter (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43), the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), and Lazarus (John 11).

Elijah had no reason to correct the woman’s poor theology from verse 18, accusing him of causing the death of her son because of her past sin. He was more gripped to demonstrate that when the seeming injustice of death strikes at our life, there is One who has the ultimate power over death. Yahweh listened to Elijah; the boy was revived, and Elijah returned him to his mother, wanting her to notice Yahweh had power even over death (22-23). 

The widow had believed in Yahweh at some level and in the prophet maybe as a voice of some impersonal power, but had not believed Yahweh to be personal. Elijah was a mere man of God, but the word he spoke was the liberating, ultimate truth of Yahweh. At this moment, the widow was not merely a believer, but she became an all-out follower of Yahweh, the Speaker of all truth (24).