ELIJAH RAISES THE WIDOW’S SON.
1 Kings 17:17-24.
Lest the widow of Zarephath should imagine that she was singled out in preference even to the Israeli widows on account of her own merits, she was sent a trial of faith, which both made her aware of her own sinfulness, and of the possible source of potential sin: “the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” (1 KINGS 17:17-18).
Her reaction in blaming Elijah was a knee-jerk reaction against the God of Elijah, such as any of us might make on the initial impact of a hard providence. Notice that she is no longer calling God by his name, the LORD, nor is she calling Him the living God!
Yet in the end, she placed the blame on her own shoulders. She had not been sinless when called by God - none of us are - and she may well have been in danger of idolising her son who she was so concerned to protect, placing him alongside or even above God in her present life?
Elijah also questioned the LORD, but he did not lose sight of his faith, and put that faith into action in a manner God revealed to him: “And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived” (1 KINGS 17:20-22).
Now, indeed, prayer was being answered in that household, and having both her son - and her faith - restored to her: “the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth” (1 KINGS 17:24).
