1 Kings 17:1-24
Q.1. How did God save the prophet Elijah from the wrath of King Ahab? – (1 Kgs.17:1-7)
Even if Ahab would have refrained from killing Elijah, Jezebel would have had no such scruples (c.f. 1 Kgs.19:1-3). The prophet had delivered a message to the king – “As the Lord, the God Israel lives … there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word” (1 Kgs.17:1). The Lord then commanded Elijah to hide himself by the Brook Cherith east of the Jordan River. God promised to provide miraculously for His servant (1 Kgs.17:2-5). Elijah survived by drinking water from the brook, and eating bread and meat each morning and evening, which was brought to him by ravens. This continued until the water dried up (1 Kgs.17:6-7).
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Q.2. What do we learn from the requirements made before the blessing of the starving widow of Zarephath? – (1 Kgs.17:8-16)
Elijah was east of Jordan, but the Lord directed him to find refuge far away in the northern coastal town of Zarephath, in Sidon of the Gentiles (1 Kgs.17:8-9 c.f. Lk.4:25-26). It must have come as a surprise to be told that a widow would provide for him, and then to discover that she and her son were close to starvation (1 Kgs.17:10-12). The widow was to give to the prophet firstly, before she looked after herself and her son – 13Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth’ (1 Kgs.17:13-14). The widow and her son did not die of starvation as she expected. The Lord not only provided food once, but He continued to provide for them, until the threat of the famine had passed (1 Kgs.17:15-16). She accommodated Elijah in an upper room in her home (c.f. 1 Kgs.17:19-23)
Q.3. What tragedy did God use to help the widow to recognize that Elijah was a true prophet of the Lord? – (1 Kgs.17:17-24)
The Gentile woman from Sidon had known sorrow and hardship after losing her husband. She was utterly devastated when her only son died. She believed that this was divine punishment for her past sins (1 Kgs.17:17-18). However, the Lord had a gracious desire to reveal Himself to this Phoenician widow. He used Elijah to raise her son to life again (c.f. 1 Kgs.17:21). Only after her son’s resurrection from the dead, did this woman recognize the true identity of Elijah – Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth (1 Kgs.17:24). God in His grace had chosen to bless this Gentile woman above all others of her day. Jesus rightly pointed to the doubters of His hometown in Nazareth – 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow (c.f. Lk.4:25-26).