TRUTH TO POWER
Opening Prayer
Sanctify me, Lord, through your Word (see John 17:17). Help me today to live according to the truth – the living Word that you have made known.
Read 1 KINGS 17
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Elijah Announces a Great Drought
17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
Elijah Fed by Ravens
2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 17:1 Or Tishbite, of the settlers
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Pray for the courage to call out wrongdoing, even if it’s costly for you.
Think Further
As if from nowhere, Elijah the prophet appears. Ahab’s kingship had marked a new low for Israel,1 but now Elijah challenges his attempt to establish Baal worship as the state religion of Israel. The Lord, not Baal,2 is God of Israel (v. 1). Baal was the Canaanite storm god, but the Lord is the one in control. There would be no more rain until Elijah spoke.
Not surprisingly, this didn’t go down well with King Ahab, but the Lord was in control. While Israel had to endure drought and the accompanying famine, the Lord told Elijah where to hide. The ravine at Kerith was secure, had water, and was exactly the kind of place where ravens roost and store surplus food. Elijah was learning that the Lord can be trusted. As we shall soon see, however, he doesn’t always deliver in the way we expect.
The brook eventually dries up, but the Lord stays faithful and sends Elijah to Zarephath for food (v. 9). Ironically, Zarephath is outside Israelite territory in Phoenicia, the home of the one from whom he is escaping!3 At the town gate, where hospitality was usually dispensed, he meets a widow and asks for a little water and a piece of bread. In a famine this was a big ask – she is right at the end of her resources (v. 12). Elijah, however, asks her to go home and make some bread (v. 13). God will provide. Remarkably, she does just that and Elijah’s promise is fulfilled (v. 16). There is one more test for her. Even though God has provided food, her son later dies. Elijah has no explanation but cries out to the Lord (v. 21) – and the Lord responds (vv. 22, 23).
Apply
Centuries later, Jesus commends this woman’s faith,4 even though she was a Phoenician. Are there people who surprise you by their willingness to obey God?
Closing prayer
Spirit of the Living God, make me sensitive and faithful to your leading as you orchestrate meetings for me that can bring eternal blessing.
1 1 Kings 16:30 2 1 Kings 16:31 3 1 Kings 18:4; 16:31 4 Luke 4:24–26
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