THE FAMINE OF FAITH (1 KINGS 17:8-24)
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When the machine is operating on a busy road, traffic is halted and the cars lined up in opposite directions are allowed to proceed alternately. A veteran operator of one of those big machines decided one day to try to relieve the tension that inevitably results from such a traffic backup. Consequently on both the front and rear of his grader a sign now appears, declaring, “The Road to Happiness is Almost Always Under Construction.”
What do you do when things are rough and not rosy? How does you faith in God work in worrisome and wearisome circumstances? Why is faith indispensable in big and small things?
Try New Frontiers
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.”
A magician had a job on a cruise ship doing his act for the customers during at sea periods. The captain of this particular ship had a pet parrot; he loved the parrot and spoiled it, catering to it constantly. This particular parrot had a habit of going to the magician's act every time he performed it.
After a while, the parrot began to tell the audience how the tricks were done. Comments like “Look up his sleeve, awrk!”, and “There's a false bottom in the trunk, awrk!” became common place, so that the people thought the team were a comedy act. This infuriated the magician, as he took his job very seriously. However, as the parrot had the captain's favor, he was at a loss of what to do about it.
One night, the ship sank, and the magician found himself clinging to a small piece of wreckage. Wouldn't you know it, the parrot was perching there on the wreckage with him. After two days of silence, the parrot says “OK, I give up. What did you do with the ship?”
Have you found yourself shocked, stuck and stretched? How would you respond in unusual, untried circumstances? A drought is as fierce a test as any of a person’s faith in God. The people who have experienced famine included Abram (Gen 12:10), Isaac (Gen 26:1), Joseph (Gen 41:27), Ruth (Ruth 1:1) and David (2 Sam 21:1). Sometimes our faith is unexpectedly tested, tried and tossed.
Elijah had “hid” himself (1 Kings 17:3) for some time after announcing the absence of rain to Ahab, in the best tradition of David who hid himself (1 Sam 20:5, 19, 24, 23:19, 26:1). Prophets and kings had to do the same in history. The story began with a dire warning (v 7). There had been no rain in the land, later up to three years and six months, according to the book of James (James 5:17). The introductory phrase “the word of the Lord came” is identified with Elijah more than any prophet or person in the Bible (1 Kings 17:2, 8, 18:1, 19:9, 21:17, 28). The greatness of Elijah is not an understatement. Just as Moses represented the law, Elijah was the flagbearer for the prophets. He did not die but was taken up in a chariot of fire by a whirlwind into heaven (2 Kings 2:11), only to appear in the New Testament with Moses to talk with Jesus about his pending death in Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31). But even greatness and godliness had limits with the lack of water and hygiene.
Elijah was commanded to dwell in Zarephath in the Canaanite city of Sidon near the border (Gen 10:19). The distance was approximately 85 to 100 miles by the most direct route (Fred Teagle). It was an unsafe, unappealing and undesirable safe place to be for Elijah because Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians (1 Kings 16:31), where Zarephath was located (v 9). Elijah could have been amazed, afraid and aghast, but there was no choice or contingency because of the fierce drought.
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The verb “to supply with food” (v 9) is nourish (Gen 45:11), provide (2 Sam 19:32) and feed (2 Sam 19:33). It was enough to blow Elijah’s mind listening to God’s plan, the place and now the person involved. First, he was commanded with two imperatives (arise, go, KJV) to enter hostile, even heedless and hateful Gentile territory. Second his contact was not only a woman, but a helpless widow. God’s plan stretched Elijah’s credibility as a powerful prophet, the woman’s capability as a poor widow and the unlikely contact of a Jewish man with a Gentile widow. Third, it was not a one day stay (v 8), but days to come. Elijah’s stay was not straight and simple like before when a raven fed the prophet, with not much human interaction. A drought was never a day long but months and seasons piled up.
Trust New Faces
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.
1. Once, all villagers decided to pray for rain, on the day of prayer all the People gathered but only one boy came with an umbrella... THAT'S FAITH
2. When you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch her... THAT'S TRUST
3 .Every night we go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next Morning but still we set the alarms in our watch to wake up... THAT'S HOPE
4. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future or having any certainty of uncertainties... THAT'S CONFIDENCE
With the keenness of a prophet Elijah immediately spotted his unsuspecting contact. When Elijah arrived, he did not ask for food, but just water (v 10), especially after enduring the long walk, crossing into Gentile territory and meeting under weird circumstances. When he saw the widow was willing to do as he requested (v 11), he startled her with a sterner test, to provide him with a piece of bread. Elijah did not want to be greedy or make it hard for her. Ravens previously supplied him with bread (1 Kings 17:6), but here just a piece (V 11) would do.
The woman’s reply showed her faith because she punctuated her speech with “Yahweh thy God” (v 12). It was remarkable faith in Israel’s God shown by the local native. The divine name that fell from her lips suggests she was an admirer, believer or convert. It was not done with reproach, regret and resentment because she expected death from the drought anyway. She explained to him that he barely had enough for her and his son, but Elijah urged her to make a “piece of bread” for him first from the “handful” of flour in a jar – there could still be slightly left after making Elijah his piece of bread. It was exactly the act and demonstration of faith that God wanted to reap and raise from godless Gentiles that He found rare and missing in ungodly Israel
Elijah further confirmed the Lord God is the God of Israel (v 14), and He promised them flour will not be used up and oil will not run dry (v 14). Used up (v 14) is finish (Gen 2:1), end (Gen 2:2), spent (Gen 21:15), done (Gen 24:15) and consume (Gen 41:30), whereas “run dry” is abate (Gen 8:3), decrease (Gen 8:5), lack (Gen 18:28), want (Deut 15:8) and lower (Ps 8:5). Verse 15 is days in plural in Hebrew. “Used up” is nothing left, whereas “run dry” is nothing less. The first is fail, but the second is fall. Expositor’s Commentary suggested he was there two years. God required more faith from the Gentile than an Israelite, but she passed the test, because she was using her last for a Jewish prophet (v 18).
Tame New Fears
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.”
A doctor was once asked by a patient who had met with a serious accident, “Doctor, how long shall I have to lie here?” The answer, “Only a day at a time.” (from Illustrations of Bible Truths # 232)
Ill (v 17) is sick (Gen 48:1), weak (Judg 16:7), diseased (1 Kings 15:23), wounded (1 Kings 22:34) and infirmity (Ps 77:10). The second word for “sickness” (KJV) means the severity - malady, anxiety, calamity, followed by “sore” (Hebrew) or mighty (Ex 3:19), loud (Ex 19:16) and hottest (2 Sam 11:15) plus “so” or many or very. The young boy was feverish, faint and feeble. Stopped (v 17) or “left” in Hebrew means the rest (Ex 28:10), remain (Ex 29:34) or residue (Ezek 48:18). The word “breathing” (v 17) is not the Hebrew word for “soul,” but for pulse, movement and vitality. Ill is to describe sickness of body, but stop is to describe shortness of breath.
In her fury and frustration, the woman questioned Elijah and blamed herself, all the while maintaining her regard for the “man of God.” She confessed to undisclosed, unpardonable and ugly sin (v 18) and at the same time censured Elijah for being harsh, hardhearted and hurtful, even harmful.
Elijah replied with a command: “give” me your son. The power was not in Elijah but in his “cry to the Lord” (v 20), which he repeated in the next verse (v 21). Elijah the prophet, more than any other, was associated with “cry unto the Lord.” What was so special and fascinating about Elijah’s prayer? The last person to call the Lord as “Lord my God” (v 20) was Solomon (1 Kings 8:28), the last king or person to do so. No king or prophet had since done so. It was so long ago that the kingdom had divided into two since, north and south. The cry of Elijah was consuming, compelling and consecrating, even though at times both the widow and Elijah bordered on despair, demand, disgust, dismay and displeasure.
The purpose of narrative was not the guiltlessness of the child and mother or the gutsiness of the prophet but the greatness, goodness and glory of God who was at work inside or outside Israel. The clause “the Lord heard the voice” (KJV) is reserved for Elijah and no other single individual in the Bible. It was in the context of the king-led, priest-corrupted (1 Kings 13:33) country-wide unfaithfulness that the Lord heard the voice of Elijah to use a Gentile to testify against Israel’s apostasy, adultery and arrogance.
Conclusion: When I returned to USA in 2018 I bought a shirt as souvenirs to some friends that read, “Pray. Obey. Love. Repeat.” Do you pray patiently, persistently and passionately? Do you obey God through thick and thin, tests and temptations, trials and tribulations? Do you have love for others – care, compassion and companionship for them?
