I Kings 17:17-24; Elijah's Truth

"After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah, ‘What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!’ 19 But he said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?’ 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ 22 The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, ‘See, your son is alive.’ 24 So the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.’"

Introduction

Beginning in I Kings 17 we are introduced to a new phenomenon in the Old Testament--prophetic narratives that describe both the speech and wonder-working capabilities of the man of God. Elijah is the first person so portrayed. While the story in I Kings 17, and the shorter unit of text printed above, might give the impression that it is the widow's faith that is at issue here, in fact the "subtext" of the passage is about Elijah's faith. In short, what Elijah learns in I Kings 17 is the importance absolute dependence on the goodness and provision of God to supply his needs. He learns this through the visible provision of food (by ravens), then the invisible provision of food (the meal and oil) and, finally, the healing power of God through prayer and laying atop the "spiritless" son of the widow. We can look at this passage from the perspective of the widow, and then from the perspective of Elijah.

The Widow's World

The widow, in short, lives in despair. The famine in the land, brought about by none other than the Word of the Lord through Elijah, took its toll on her and her son. When Elijah met her she was at wits end. Her reply to Elijah, when he had urged her to give him water and food, says it all:

"As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die" (17:12).

We gather. We eat what is left. We die. Life is as simple and as desperate as that. We are not told her reaction when Elijah enters her world and is able to make sure that the food keeps on coming and the oil continues to flow (v. 16). Sometimes people are so sunk in their hopelessness that even when a sign of deliverance comes, they don't recognize it as such. They are able to receive the fruit of the deliverance, but cannot change their mental outlook or their expectations.

The widow appears to be this kind of person, for when the food is flowing and another disaster hits her and her boy (his death or near death--the text isn't absolutely clear on this one), she reenters her world of despair. To be fair to her, however, even if she had turned handsprings of faith at the provision of food by Elijah, she could be forgiven for thinking that the presence of the man of God not only would bless her but also might judge her and her son. When Elijah heals her son, however, she gives a confession of faith not unlike people in the Gospels when Jesus has cast out a demon or healed them--"Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth" (17:24).

A Story About Elijah

Even though we might try to draw lessons for life and faith from the faith of the widow, the real story here is how Elijah's faith grows. It grows when he witnesses the faithfulness of God. There can be no doubt that what he ultimately learns from this chapter is that if you fully trust God, placing your whole confidence in God, you will find that God is worthy of that trust. In the words of Francis Ridley Havergal's hymn "Like a River Glorious," Elijah learned the following:

"Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true."

Thus, I see I Kings 17 as a narrative of trust and of the way that God accommodates to our nature in building our trust. We, like Elijah, aren't just told to trust in God's resurrection ability from the start. First we are given a physical example of God's provision; then a "spiritual" example and then the big example.

Once I have made this point I really don't need to lay out the case much more clearly. The ravens come and feed Elijah at the specific command of God. But Elijah knows that God has so appointed the ravens to feed him (17:4). Thus when they appear and feed him, Elijah has both an interpretive filter through which to understand this feeding as well as an encouragement to trust God for other things.

Those other things come soon enough. He is commanded by God to go to the home of a woman, who will feed him. Elijah is probably thinking that her larder is full, and that she, like the ravens, will just bring him the food. Trust is becoming an "easy" concept. But, instead, he discovers that she is in desperate straits, and he "goes out on a limb" by promising that God will provide food for her. Elijah now trusts God enough to "speak for God" in a situation where he knows that God will provide. And so it happens.

The last scene (our text for today) takes things even further. Here, as part of Elijah's "trust regimen," he has to learn not only that God will provide in invisible ways but that sometimes it is a good part of spirituality to complain to God about what appears to be inequitable or painful treatment. So he complains. But before God answers, Elijah does what he considers to be necessary in the situation--he lays himself out over the son three times, and prayed earnestly to God that the boy's spirit might be restored to him.

Conclusion

A close and sympathetic study of this chapter of the Elijah narrative encourages us to look at the ways where we are hesitant to depend fully on God for all things in life. Through the life of the prophet of God, we are brought face to face with the centrality of trust or absolute dependence on God. This lesson is always in season.

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