Have you ever had an occasion where you thought that your faith was being tested, especially in unusual circumstances? If so, you’re not alone. Sometimes God uses unusual circumstances to test a person’s faith. For example, in 1 Kings 17:8-24 he told Elijah to go to an unlikely place-Zarapeth, the very centre of Baal worship and the home of Queen Jezebel. He told Elijah to go at the unlikely time when King Ahab of Israel wanted to kill him. Then God sent him to an unlikely person-a poor Gentile widow from a Baal-worshipping nation. In addition to testing Elijah’s faith, the circumstances provided God with an opportunity to demonstrate his power and his compassion to people living outside of Israel.
Elijah is in foreign territory where the people worship a different god. They were very different, but they taught him something about God. God sends people like Elijah to tell us about God all of the time, and sometimes they come from the unlikeliest of places. Elijah heard God’s commands and acted on them. To hear God, one must first adopt a discipline of listening for God’s word.
Elijah went outside of Israel’s borders to provide for a widow’s needs and to heal her son. The church has to go outside of its comfort zone in order for its members to find true faith in God. The widow in this story is a good example of faith found in someone who wasn’t a Jew.
The widow’s resources were too limited to meet the need in her own family. Elijah asked her to act in faith, feeding him first, and when she put God first, he provided. People often worry about future needs, but Elijah’s experience reveals God’s miraculous provision for each day, just like he provided every day for the needs of the Israelites when they spent 40 years in the desert. When God is the supplier, he has what a person needs. He does not run dry. With God, a little goes a long way. A good example of this is the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus took the lunch of one small boy-a lunch that was just enough for the boy-and used it to feed the multitudes. God’s choice of a widow to feed Elijah is a demonstration of his power. He uses the least and the unlikeliest to accomplish a seemingly impossible task.
The widow was convinced of the truth of Elijah’s religion by the demonstration of God’s power. In a world where there is only one true God, everything in the end must rely on his power. When Elijah asked the widow to use her last supply of oil and flour to bake a cake for him, it was a true test of faith. She stepped out in faith, giving up the certain for the uncertain and obediently trusting his word. Her reward was an unending supply of oil and flour.
Those who suffer will receive comfort from God, even in dire circumstances. We might be standing in front of an almost empty cupboard, staring at the very little we have when God is inviting us to participate in his generous, life-giving abundance. If that's the reality we're living by, then we have given in to life-stealing circumstances and world-imposed limitations and forgotten that God's reality for our lives can be so much different.
Our love for God is measured and tested by the hold we have on our possessions. Everything we have starts from God. He gives us our possessions and our jobs. If we put God first in our lives like the widow put God first, we will give him the first fruits, not the leftovers. If we put God first, he will take care of us.
The ultimate test of her faith was the resurrection of her dead son. Her faith was immature, and she assumed that her son’s death was God’s punishment for sin in her life. That was a common belief at that time. Unfortunately, some people have the same belief today. She believed that Elijah’s saintly presence drew God’s attention to her. When the boy came back to life, the miracle reinforced Elijah’s faith. It gave him courage to face King Ahab. Ahab would only be a puppet in God’s hands. As Elijah later prophesied, God played a role in Ahab’s death.
Tragedy comes into the lives of both believers and the ungodly. Part of life involves dealing with the unexpected circumstances life sends our way. When her son died, the widow blamed God. In contrast, Elijah took the situation to God and asked him to restore the boy’s life. In the lives of believers, God can take tragedy and use it for his glory. He will wipe away our tears. He is a friend who is closer to us than a brother.
Supernatural events in the Old Testament were uncommon. They were mainly used by God to show the weakness of pagan religions and call the people of Israel to repentance and faith. God heard Elijah’s cry to restore the boy to life. Similarly, he will hear and answer our prayers. Miracles don’t happen when things are comfortable. They happen when things are uncomfortable. They don’t happen when we are in our comfort zone. They happen when we’re on edge or scared to death or insecure.
The Canaanites believed that Baal had to submit periodically to the god of death, Mot. But here, deep in Baal country, God demonstrated not only his power to sustain life in a time of drought, but his power to overcome death. This is the first time in the Bible when a servant of God raises a dead person to life, but it won’t be the last. Like Elijah, Jesus raised a widow’s son from death, and he also raised Lazarus from the dead. All of these resurrections demonstrated that God came to help his people.
The true focus of this story should be on God. It is God who caused the drought, sent Elijah to Sidon, and provided food for the widow. Why does the story commence with God saving this poor Phoenician woman? There are probably many answers to that question, but let me offer three in particular:
1. Saving a Phoenician woman demonstrates God’s care for the world. Although God will judge the Phoenician Jezebel, this is not a judgment on all Phoenicians.
2. In this story about competing religious claims, God’s ability both to commence and to end drought undercuts the claim of both Israelites and foreigners that Baal is the only effective weather god, not only in Israel, but also across the globe.
3. This is a story about the effects of economic injustice. The powerful, like Ahab and Jezebel are not starving, although they live in the same drought-stricken area. While they claim that the gods are on their side, the story reveals that God is on the side of those ignored by policy-makers. Time and time again God breaks the rules and blesses the younger and not the older, the least important and not the most privileged, the poor and not the rich. Pope Francis has declared 2016 to be a “Year of Mercy”. He has called us to be in solidarity with the poor and find ways to reveal God’s love for them through our words and actions. When we help the people in the world who need it, we proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.
Elijah’s real power, the Lord’s truth in his mouth, is that he can bring about life. This is the truth that is more difficult to believe, the one that flies in the face of all we know about the world, where death always seems to have the last word. Elijah’s miraculous, never-ending oil jar hints at such life-giving power, but it is the widow’s witnessing of her child’s renewed life that convinces her.
The widow’s doubt, as well as her profession of faith, may also be our own. It is easy to believe in death-dealing powers, for that is what we witness in the world every day. It is much harder to imagine the power of love that conquers death. Read anew in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the story of Elijah and the widow adds to that “great cloud of witnesses” who affirm God’s ultimate sovereignty over even death itself.
Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe that God loves you? Do you believe that Christ died for the forgiveness of your sins? Are you willing to trust him to lead and guide you and use you as an instrument of his peace and love? Are you willing to go where he sends you and speak and act in his name? It all boils down to a matter of trust.
