1 Kings 17:8-16--The Widow of Zarephath

1 Kings 17:8-16
English Standard Version
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The Widow of Zarephath
8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now 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.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” 15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.

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I mentioned this part of the story at the end of yesterday's article.  The LORD just called Elijah into service to speak against King Ahab, and now he's sending him out of the country to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, to dwell there during the famine so that a widow of Zarephath can feed him and take care of him.  Usually widows can't provide for themselves and their own families, let alone others, but Elijah obeys the LORD as it is ultimately the LORD Himself that will miraculously provide to take care of the widow, her son, and Elijah.

When he arrived at the city gate of Zarephath, there was a widow there gathering sticks, probably for a fire to cook on and to keep the house warm.  He asked her for a little water, and then a small morsel of food to satisfy his thirst and hunger, and she then has to tell Elijah [and invokes the name of the LORD to do so to tell how serious the situation is] that she has no extra food prepared to give him anything without making some fresh (which takes a lot of time) and that what little she has left, she was preparing to be a last meal for herself and her son.  After that they would be out of food and expected to die from hunger.  This is the woman that the LORD said was going to feed Elijah and take care of him?

Elijah realizes the LORD has sent him there so that He can work a miracle in her life and save this woman and her son from death.  This woman is God-fearing and yet he has let her go hungry and get almost to the point of death.  Doesn't the Law say that those who obey the covenant would never go hungry, and didn't David say that he has never seen the righteous beg for bread in the Psalms?  David observed that it was the wicked who were the ones that were beggars, because they lived in a way that prevented them from experiencing the blessings the LORD wanted for them, but this woman as far as we know is not wicked, and yet is not experiencing the blessings of the LORD--yet.

Elijah tells her not to worry about the dire situation and that she should first make a little something for him and then use what is left to make food for herself and her son.  Elijah promises that neither the jar of flour nor jug of oil will be empty or dry--the LORD will provide enough for all of them as long as, by faith, she feeds Elijah first, and not only will she have enough the three of them now, but the supply of flour and oil will not run out for the entire length of the drought so that they will always have food (and will be able to make enough to provide baked goods or raw materials--for oil itself is very expensive--to others and to pay their bills).  The number of days they were fed is not given but we are simply told it was "many" days.  We learn in the New Testament in James 5:17 that there was no rain for three years and six months.  Six months of this time was a time when it was normal to have no rain, as there is a dry/arid period between rainy seasons in Israel, so the account in 1st Kings will say that the drought lasted three years.  This is not a contradiction, but consistency in that one is saying that the people didn't realize there was an issue until six months in when there should have been a rainy season and there wasn't and the other gives the total length of time there was no rain.  The LORD controls the weather and can send rain whenever He wants to as we'll see later in the book of 1 Kings.  For the purposes of today's passage though, "many days" is probably about three-and-a-half years, and it is assumed that Elijah stayed with her during this whole time and did not come before Ahab until the day that the LORD gave him the message that He was going to send rain.  That will be in the next chapter, but before then we have more that will happen with the widow of Zarephath and her son, and we'll talk about that next time.