Enter Elijah (v1) the Tishbite of Gilead. He appears suddenly; we are not told any more about where had been or his past. His name means, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ Just the person needed for the time! In the midst of wickedness and idolatry we have a man of God to the rescue. He 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.” What first words! What an introduction!
It tells in James 5:17,18 that Elijah was a man with a like nature to ours, and was the cause of the drought, he prayed that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t for three years. He was also the answer to it; he prayed again for rain, and it did. So much for Baal, who was supposed to be the god of the weather.
What is one man against an apostate nation? It shows that one man with God is a majority. Elijah stood firmly on his God. He was man like us, but he trusted in the Almighty God, who was far more powerful than this puny Baal. It seemed that everyone was following Baal, but one man apparently stood alone, but with God.
Having given God’s words to Ahab, the LORD then tells Elijah to leave and “…. go eastward and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.” (v2-5) It seemed strange that he was apparently running away, but it was not the case, it was for his own safety. There was a drought, and it was going to last three more years. It was not going to be pleasant, in fact, it was going to be a great problem to Israel and to Ahab. Unlike Joseph (Genesis) there was no warning of a period of plenty to prepare for the period of famine. There was little or no time to prepare, therefore, Elijah was in great danger, so the LORD sent him away for his own protection, but not before he gave the LORD’S word to Ahab. It seemed that Elijah was led one step at a time, first to Cherith until the brook dried up and then to Zarephath.
God leads us one step at a time, He is in control, and we must take the steps by faith. Often, we want to know the end before we start, but we walk by faith not by sight.
The words used by God might seem strange – “…. Hide by the brook….”. Why did he need to hide? I don’t think it is ‘hide’ as we might use the word, but rather, to go apart with God as in the form of rest and take time alone with God. There often must be times when we need to get alone with God, away from the hustle and bustle of life. Someone has said, ‘If we are too busy to spend time with God, we can be too busy.’ We need times of refreshing. In Isaiah 28:12, God offered his people times of rest and refreshing, but they would not listen.
Elijah would not be alone, because God was with him, He commanded the ravens to feed him and to drink from the brook. His needs would be met. God was going to provide for him there. Interestingly, he would be fed by ravens. This was not normal for ravens. Ravens are scavengers and feed themselves on what they could find, including dead carcasses. They are unclean animals and not known for their generosity in feeding others. This was a miracle.
Sure enough, the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he drank from the brook (v6).
This was indeed a miracle! Remember these were unclean animals, therefore, the laws about clean and unclean animals, were overturned by God’s provision. They probably brought meat from other unclean animals; there’s no knowing where the bread came from. His life depended on them, and he had trust in the miraculous provision by God, which came on time just as the manna had in the wilderness.
Compare this to Peter in Acts 10 when God sent him a vision of clean and unclean animals and told him to eat. He refused, but this God’s way of showing Peter to go to Cornelius, a Gentile with the gospel, saying, ‘Do not call unclean what God has cleansed, and instructed him to eat. Peter reluctantly agreed and Cornelius was converted.
As time passed, the brook dried up (v7) because of the lack of rain. Surely, he had prayed that it would not rain, he could have prayed for rain, but the purpose of God was more important. God had another move for him. He had to rely on God and was happy to trust in Him.
The word of the LORD came to him (v8,9). “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” This was another challenge for Elijah. Zarephath was in Gentile territory, a town of Sidon in Phoenicia. I understand that Jezebel came from there, so, it was hardly a safe place. It was enemy territory. This was God’s doing, and Elijah trusted Him. How was he going to live? A widow woman had been allocated to provide for him. Widows were usually quite poor. This Gentile woman was mentioned by the Lord Jesus himself in Luke 4:24-26, “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 except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow””
Elijah didn’t delay, he went to Zarephath, approached the gate of the city and found a widow woman gathering sticks. Hardly a promising start, it was no rich widow, but a poor one (v10,11)
He asked the widow to bring him a little water in a cup. She obviously agreed, but as she was going, he asked her to also bring a small piece of bread. We shall soon see the extent of her poverty and the situation she and her son were in. God had told Elijah that he had commanded the widow to provide for him, but she seemed to be unaware. One commentator suggests that she was ready and willing to obey when the command came in answer to Elijah’s request. It wasn’t going to be easy for her as we shall see.
She replied to Elijah that she had only a handful of flour and a little oil in a jar. She had no bread. She and her son were, apparently, on their last, and she was going to use the sticks to prepare heat to make their final meal with the flour and oil (v12). She was in real poverty. Amazing that God would send Elijah to this widow woman. How was she going to provide for him? She was resigned to the death of herself and her son after their last meal.
Notice her initial reply, “As the LORD your God lives.” She was a Gentile, and she was courteous to him, but evidently Elijah’s God was not her God. However, she recognised Elijah to be a godly man. He gave her amazing hope in his reply, “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.’” (v13,14)
Firstly, she need not fear. Fear is a paralysing thing, and God often started by saying, “Do not fear”. Jesus did the same when here on earth.
Secondly, it was quite audacious of Elijah to ask her to first make him a cake. He did not stop there; he then told her that the supply of flour would not give out nor would the oil fail if she did. In effect, he was asking her to trust in his God.
She did as she was asked and, sure enough, but not surprisingly, God’s promise was certain (v15,16). Not only was Elijah’s needs met, but also those of the widow and her son, for many days. If the supply had been given in total all at once, it would have taken away the faith factor to trust God day by day.
All going well, but then calamity stuck. The widow’s son was struck with an illness, so serious that he died (v17,18). Not surprisingly, she blamed Elijah. Her son was her future, being a widow, she needed a man to plan for her future. He was the guarantee of a bread winner. We don’t know what her life had been like, but she knew of her sin and considered that Elijah had been sent to remind her of it. Not only so, but to bring punishment for it, and that punishment was the death of her son.
Elijah was moved by her distress and asked her to give him access to her son, whose body lay in her arms (v19,20). It had evidently, only just occurred so he took him from her and carried him to the upper room where Elijah’s bed was. The room was thought to be on the roof, accessed by outside stairs, which was common in the land. He prayed earnestly to the LORD. After all, it was God who had directed him to the widow, and He could deal with the situation. He stretched himself on the child three times, who he had laid on his bed, and prayed to the LORD.
No one had ever been raised from the dead before, as far as we know, although we are told that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac if he had died on the altar where he was about to sacrifice him at God’s command (see Hebrews. 11:19). Elijah had no precedents to follow.
This was not mouth to mouth resuscitation, Elijah was calling out to the LORD in faith, nor was it CPR, as some have suggested. This was earnest prayer to the LORD, who heard him and gave back the child his life. He took the boy down to his mother and she gave thanks to the LORD and recognised that Elijah was truly a man of God (v21-24).
