So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”
As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son. For Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.’ ”
She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil didn’t fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah. After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”
He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again.”
Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “Behold, your son lives.”
The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that Yahweh’s word in your mouth is truth.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 24 All this was to strengthen the faith of Elijah,…
All this was to strengthen the faith of Elijah, to the intent that he should look upon nothing worldly, but only trust on God’s providence.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–24 1Ki 17:10 So he arose and went to Zarephath.…
1Ki 17:10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman [was] there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
Ver. 10. Gathering of sticks.] {a} Which showeth her low condition. God chooseth "the poor in this world rich in faith." {Jas 2:5}
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A little water in a vessel.] Or, In this vessel, viz., that he had used at the brook Cherith, after his long journey; from whence he might well be thirsty, hungry, and weary.
{a} Ea nempe ligna quae prima obviam habebat. - Vat.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 He called to her; knowing by Divine suggestion that…
He called to her; knowing by Divine suggestion that this was the woman designed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v17 We have here a further recompence made to the…
We have here a further recompence made to the widow for her kindness to the prophet; as if it were a small thing to be kept alive, her son, when dead, is restored to life, and so restored to her. Observe,
I. The sickness and death of the child. For aught that appears he was her only son, the comfort of her widowed estate. He was fed miraculously, and yet that did not secure him from sickness and death. Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead, but there is bread of which a man may eat and not die, which was given for the life of the world, Joh 6:49, Joh 6:50. The affliction was to this widow as a thorn in the flesh, lest she should be lifted up above measure with the favours that were done her and the honours that were put upon her. 1. She was nurse to a great prophet, was employed to sustain him, and had strong reason to think the Lord would do her good; yet now she loses her child. Note, We must not think it strange if we meet with very sharp afflictions, even when we are in the way of duty, and of eminent service to God. 2. She was herself nursed by miracle, and kept a good house without charge or care, by a distinguishing blessing from heaven; and in the midst of all this satisfaction she was thus afflicted. Note, When we have the clearest manifestations of God's favour and good-will towards us, even then we must prepare for the rebukes of Providence. Our mountain never stands so strong but it may be moved, and therefore, in this world, we must always rejoice with trembling.
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II. Her pathetic complaint to the prophet of this affliction. It should seem, the child died suddenly, else she would have applied to Elijah, while he was sick, for the cure of him; but being dead, dead in her bosom, she expostulates with the prophet upon it, rather to give vent to her sorrow than in any hope of relief, Kg1 17:18. 1. She expresses herself passionately: What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? How calmly had she spoken of her own and her child's death when she expected to die for want (Kg1 17:12) - that we may eat, and die! Yet now that her child dies, and not so miserably as by famine, she is extremely disturbed at it. We may speak lightly of an affliction at a distance, but when it toucheth us we are troubled, Job 4:5. Then she spoke deliberately, now in haste; the death of her child was now a surprise to her, and it is hard to keep our spirits composed when troubles come upon us suddenly and unexpectedly, and in the midst of our peace and prosperity. She calls him a man of God, and yet quarrels with him as if he had occasioned the death of her child, and is ready to which she had never seen him, forgetting past mercies and miracles: "What have I done against thee?" (so some understand it), "Wherein have I offended thee, or been wanting in my duty? Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." 2. Yet she expresses herself penitently: "Hast thou come to call my sin to thy remembrance, as the cause of the affliction, and so to call it to my remembrance, as the effect of the affliction?" Perhaps she knew of Elijah's intercession against Israel, and, being conscious to herself of sin, perhaps her former worshipping of Baal the god of the Sidonians, she apprehends he had made intercession against her. Note, (1.) When God removes our comforts from use he remembers our sins against us, perhaps the iniquities of our youth, though long since past, Job 13:26. Our sins are the death of our children. (2.) When God thus remembers our sins against us he designs thereby to make us remember them against ourselves and repent of them.
III. The prophet's address to God upon this occasion. He gave no answer to her expostulation, but brought it to God, and laid the case before him, not knowing what to say to it himself. He took the dead child from the mother's bosom to his own bed, Kg1 17:19. Probably he had taken a particular kindness to the child, and found the affliction his own more than by sympathy. He retired to his chamber, and, 1. He humbly reasons with God concerning the death of the child, Kg1 17:20. He sees death striking by commission from God: Thou hast brought this evil for is there any evil of this kind in the city, in the family, and the Lord has not done it? He pleads the greatness of the affliction to the poor mother: "It is evil upon the widow; thou art the widow's God, and dost not usually bring evil upon widows; it is affliction added to the afflicted." He pleads his own concern: "It is the widow with whom I sojourn; wilt thou, that art my God, bring evil upon one of the best of my benefactors? I shall be reflected upon, and others will be afraid of entertaining me, if I bring death into the house where I come." 2. He earnestly begs of God to restore the child to life again, Kg1 17:21. We do not read before this of any that were raised to life; yet Elijah, by a divine impulse, prays for the resurrection of this child, which yet will not warrant us to do the like. David expected not, by fasting and prayer, to bring his child back to life (Sa2 12:23), but Elijah had a power to work miracles, which David had not. He stretched himself upon the child, to affect himself with the case and to show how much he was affected with it and how desirous he was of the restoration of the child - he would if he could put life into him by his own breath and warmth; also to give a sign of what God would do by his power, and what he does by his grace, in raising dead souls to a spiritual life; the Holy Ghost comes upon them, overshadows them, and puts life into them. He is very particular in his prayer: I pray thee let this child's soul come into him again, which plainly supposes the existence of the soul in a state of separation from the body, and consequently its immortality, which Grotius thinks God designed by this miracle to give intimation and evidence of, for the encouragement of his suffering people.
IV. The resurrection of the child, and the great satisfaction it gave to the mother: the child revived, Kg1 17:22. See the power of prayer and the power of him that hears prayer, who kills and makes alive. Elijah brought him to his mother, who, we may suppose, could scarcely believe her own eyes, and therefore Elijah assures her it is her own: "It is thy son that liveth; see it is thy own, and not another," Kg1 17:23. The good woman hereupon cries out, Now I know that thou art a man of God; though she knew it before, by the increase of her meal, yet the death of her child she took so unkindly that she began to question it (a good man surely would not serve her so); but now she was abundantly satisfied that he had both the power and goodness of a man of God, and will never doubt of it again, but give up herself to the direction of his word and the worship of the God of Israel. Thus the death of the child (like that of Lazarus, Joh 11:4) was for the glory of God and the honour of his prophet.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–23 So he arose, and went to Zarephath,.... Which, according…
So he arose, and went to Zarephath,.... Which, according to Bunting (f), was one hundred miles from the brook Cherith:
and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering sticks: perhaps out of an hedge just without the city this shows her to be a poor woman, who had no other way of coming at fuel but this, and no servant to fetch it for her: Bunting tells us, that now before the gate of the city there is showed a certain chapel, where they say Elias first spoke with the widow:
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and he called to her, and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink; being thirsty through travelling, and supposing this to be the woman he was directed to, made trial of her this way; some render it, "in this vessel" (g), which he had with him, and made use of at the brook Cherith.
(f) Ut supra, (Travels, &c.) p. 203. (g) "in hoc vase", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12–22 She said - Therefore though she was a Gentile,…
She said - Therefore though she was a Gentile, yet she owned the God of Israel as the true God. Two sticks - A few sticks, that number being often used indefinitely for any small number. And die - For having no more provision, we must needs perish with hunger. For though the famine was chiefly in the land of Israel, yet the effects of it were in Tyre and Sidon, which were fed by the corn of that land. But what a poor supporter was this likely to be? who had no fuel, but what she gathered in the streets, and nothing to live upon herself, but an handful of meal and a little oil! To her Elijah is sent, that he might live upon providence, as much as he had done when the ravens fed him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24 Verse 12. A handful of meal in a barrel]…
Verse 12. A handful of meal in a barrel] The word כד cad is to be understood as implying an earthen jar; not a wooden vessel, or barrel of any kind. In the East they preserve their corn and meal in such vessels; without which precaution the insects would destroy them. Travellers in Asiatic countries abound with observations of this kind.
The word cruse, צפחת tsappachath, says Jarchi, signifies what in our tongue is expressed by bouteille, a bottle. Jarchi was a French rabbin.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 1Ki 17:10-12. Behold, the widow woman was gathering sticks…
1Ki 17:10-12. Behold, the widow woman was gathering sticks — He knew, by some secret divine intimations, that this was the woman that was to sustain him. Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water — Water, in consequence of the long drought, was doubtless scarce there as well as in the land of Israel; yet, being a pious woman, and therefore ready to succour a stranger in distress, she readily goes to fetch it. He called and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand — This he probably said chiefly to try her, and to make way for what follows. She said, As the Lord thy God liveth — By this she discovers, that though she was a Gentile, yet she owned the God of Israel as the true God. I am gathering two sticks — A few sticks, that number being often used indefinitely for any small number. That we may eat it and die — For having no more provision, we must needs perish with hunger. Although the famine was chiefly in the land of Israel, yet the effects of it were felt in Tyre and Sidon, which were supported by the corn of that land. But what a poor supporter was this widow likely to be! who had no fuel, but what she gathered in the streets, and nothing to live upon herself, but a handful of meal and a little oil! To her Elijah is sent, that he might live upon Providence, as much as he had done when the ravens fed him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 As the Lord thy God liveth - The words…
As the Lord thy God liveth - The words do not prove that the woman was an Israelite, or a worshipper of the true God; any Phoenician, recognizing in Elijah’s appearance the garb and manner of a Jehovistic prophet, might have thus addressed him: Baal-worshippers would have admitted Yahweh to be “a” living God. The woman does not say “as the Lord my God liveth.”
That we may eat it and die - Phoenicia always depended for its cereal supplies on the harvests of Palestine (1Ki 5:9 note); and it is evident that the famine was afflicting the Phoenicians at this time no less than the Israelites.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24 First. He puts the faith of the widow to…
First. He puts the faith of the widow to a severe trial; and the gospel requires nothing more perfect than what she practised. The true faith, which she then received, was her first and most precious recompense; and we shall soon see, that her guest drew down blessings upon her. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v17 HE RAISES HER SON TO LIFE. (Kg1 17:17-24)
HE RAISES HER SON TO LIFE. (Kg1 17:17-24)
the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick--A severe domestic calamity seems to have led her to think that, as God had shut up heaven upon a sinful land in consequence of the prophet, she was suffering on a similar account. Without answering her bitter upbraiding, the prophet takes the child, lays it on his bed, and after a very earnest prayer, had the happiness of seeing its restoration, and along with it, gladness to the widow's heart and home. The prophet was sent to this widow, not merely for his own security, but on account of her faith, to strengthen and promote which he was directed to go to her rather than to many widows in Israel, who would have eagerly received him on the same privileged terms of exception from the grinding famine. The relief of her bodily necessities became the preparatory means of supplying her spiritual wants, and bringing her and her son, through the teachings of the prophet, to a clear knowledge of God, and a firm faith in His word (Luk 4:25).
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Next: 1 Kings Chapter 18
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 10. He came to the gate — An old…
10. He came to the gate — An old tradition points out the spot on the south of the ancient city where Elijah first saw the widow, and the crusaders built a small chapel over the reputed spot of the widow’s house.
Gathering of sticks — A scene that often meets the traveller’s eye in Palestine.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 10. gathering of sticks] R.V. modernizes the language by…
10. gathering of sticks] R.V. modernizes the language by omitting the preposition. The abject poverty of the widow is seen from her coming forth to pick up any chance bits of wood which might have fallen from the trees outside the city walls.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 24 (12) I have not a cake.—The famine may have…
(12) I have not a cake.—The famine may have already extended to Phœnicia; for there, according to Menander, it lasted for a year; or, since the country depended upon Israel for supplies, the distress may have been only the reflex effect of the famine in Israel.
As the Lord thy God liveth.—The phrase indicates a recognition of Elijah as a prophet of Jehovah the God of Israel, but probably (as, indeed, seems to be implied by the use of the words “thy God”) no acknowledgment of Him as yet by the woman herself, such as the neighbouring heathen (as, for example, Hiram in the days of Solomon) often yielded.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–24 So he arose and went to Zarephath It does…
So he arose and went to Zarephath It does not follow that his route lay over the "White Promontory," or Ladder of Tyre, the way our Lord took when He "departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon". (Mat_15:21) If his place of concealment was anywhere near "Abara, or Bethshean, it is probable he would keep east of the Jordan, as far as Banias or Dan, where the river is fordable, and whence a road leads direct to Sidon. He would thus avoid Tyro. And when he came to the gate of the city the ruins of Surafend are still very considerable (see Thomson,"Land and Book," 1:235) and prove it to have been a place of importance, a town with gates and walls. "Gate," however, is used somewhat loosely in the O.T. of the entrance to a village, or even of the place of concourse and of judgment, behold, the Heb. a. He did not yet know that this was the widow to whom he was sent. Her replies to his requests first informed him that this was the object of his search widow woman was there Heb. behold there, a widow woman gathering of sticks This was not a promising sign. It only proved her poverty: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel Heb. the vessel. Bahr understands the drinking-cup that Elijah had brought with him from the Wady Cherith; but surely it is extremely improbable that he would carry either cup or bottle with him. "The vessel" probably imports the ordinary vessel used for the purpose the "potter"s earthen bottle". (Jer_19:1) That this was used for fetching water, we know, (Isa_30:14) that I may drink.
Vers. 10-16.
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The Barrel of Meal.
In the East the people kept their corn in earthen jars to protect it from insects which swarm in the heat of the sun. What in our translation is called a "barrel" (dk) was one of these vessels. The store in this case was run low; there was but a "handful" left; yet this was so multiplied by the power of God that three persons found at least in it sufficient provision for two and a half years. Let us inquire
I HOW ITS CONDITION BECAME KNOWN.
1. Elijah came to Zarephath in quest of the widow.
(1) Such were his instructions (vers. 8, 9). But was there only one widow in this city of "smelting furnaces", (comp. 1Ki_7:14) this hive of industry, this centre of population? How, then, is he to discover the right one?
(2) God knows her, and that is enough for the prophet. The Word of the Lord who came to him at Samaria and at Cherith will now guide him. (See Isa_42:16)
(3) Let us follow the light we have and God will give us more. So was Abraham"s faithful servant guided to Rebecca (Ge 24)
2. He found her at the gate of the city.
(1) She was there on an errand of her own, viz., to gather a few dry sticks to kindle a fire to cook her last meal in this world.
(2) She was there also, though unknown to herself, on an errand from God. She was commanded to sustain the prophet of Israel
(3) Yet these two errands harmonize. God uses man"s purposes to work out His own. Man proposeth; God disposeth.
3. He readily identified her.
(1) He asked her for water, which, with admirable promptitude, she went to fetch. This was the sign by which Abraham"s servant identified Rebecca. (Gen_24:14) The cup of cold water has its promise of reward. (Mat_10:42)
(2) Then he asked for bread, which further request opened the way for the whole truth, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but," etc. (ver. 12). From these words it is evident that she recognized Elijah, at least as an Israelite, and probably as the prophet of Israel; for he was a person of pronounced individuality. His profusion of hair, probably, placed Elisha in such contrast to him that Elisha was mocked as a "bald head." (Comp. 2Ki_1:8, and 2:23.)
II How ITS RESOURCES WERE MAINTAINED.
1. By the miracle-working power of God.
(1) "The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah." This supplied not only the guest but the widow and her son for two years and a half. As Bp. Hall remarks, "Never did corn or olive so increase in the growing as these did in the using.
(2) This miracle was similar to that of the manna. The off was used as butter for the meal, and the taste of the manna was like fresh oil. (Num_11:8) Also to Christ"s miracles of the loaves.
(3) The lessons are the same. The miracles all teach that "man lives not by bread alone, but by the word of God." That this spiritual food is the gift of God. That it differs essentially from the bread that perishes. Not only is it imperishable, but it multiplies in the using, grows as it is dispensed. How delightful were the spiritual feasts of that two years and a half in the widow"s dwelling (See Rev_3:20)
2. Through the faith of the widow.
(1) She was predisposed to believe. God saw this, else He had not honoured her with His command to sustain his prophet. (See Luk_4:24-26) Let us ever live in that moral fitness to be employed by God.
(2) This disposition was encouraged. She waited for something to justify her faith in God, and she got it: "And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said," de. (vers. 13, 14). She knew that the word of the Lord was with Elijah And this instruction to make first a little cake for the prophet was according to God"s order. (See Num_15:20, Num_15:21)
(3) She proved the genuineness of her faith by her works. "She did according to the saying of Elijah." By works faith is perfected, And God justified the faith that justified him. J.A.M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv13, 15, 16, 17, 24 Make me thereof a little cake first.
1Ki_17:13
Make me thereof a little cake first.
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Faith tested
First, take the narrative in its literal sense; then, examine the truths which are suggested by it; and finally, note its mystical import.
I. Literal sense.
1. Here is a test of faith: Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. It was a sharp test. Famine brings out selfishness in hideous shapes (2Ki_6:28-29). To be asked to give to a stranger a little cake from the handful of meal that was left, before she met the cravings of hunger in herself and her son, must have been a searching demand.
2. A woman, too, of Zidon, like the woman in the Gospel, when Jesus came into those coasts; a woman without the privileges of the covenant of Israel and the opportunities of Gods people; a flower in the common hedge, not in the hothouse, but yet a flower--able to respond to the claim of God through His prophet--Make me a little cake first; for he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Mat_10:37).
3. It was more than a test of faith; it was a test of trust. This is something more. The prophets demand appealed to the will, and not merely to the assent of the understanding. She had to make a sacrifice; it was a trifle in itself--a little cake; but when people are starving it was not a trifle; and she had to trust to a promise, from the standpoint of human calculation, least likely to be fulfilled.
4. She went and did according to the saying of the prophet (1Ki_17:15).
II. The truths which the prophets demand suggests.
1. God to be served first. God must be loved--to use the language of divinity--with a love of preference. As a king, St. Chrysostom says, should be served as a king, so God should be loved as God, that is to say, preferably to all creatures. In the same way, the claims of God and His service must stand first. The demand, Make me thereof a little cake first, is like that which our Lord gave on the mount, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is the law of the first-fruits.
2. Gods commands are to be taken upon trust. His positive commands test not only our obedience, but our confidence in Him. Moral commands are echoed from within, so that not to obey them is not folly alone, but also impiety (St. Augustine); but commands of which we do not see the reason, yet which must be obeyed as simply coming from God, are touchstones of trust in Him.
3. How little, after all, God requires of us! Make Me a little cake. He gave our first parents licence to eat of every tree in the garden save one--just an acknowledgment of His Sovereignty. He turns the water into wine; we have only to fill the water-pots. His commandments are not grievous (1Jn_5:3), but we may have made obedience difficult through having abused our powers. God asks little, but makes a large return (Mat_25:23). The barrel of meal did not waste, etc.
III. Its mystical import. When Aristotle in logic, and Plato in philosophy, ruled the day (twelfth century), Hugo and Richard de St. Victor were the great mystics of the period (Milman), and it is from the former of these I transcribe the mystical interpretation of the subject in hand. The widow of Zarephath represents the holy Church--a widow--waiting for the advent of the Saviour. Elijah came to the woman, when Christ, through the mystery of the Incarnation, came to the Church. The woman was gathering two sticks; for the holy Church received the faith of the Cross. The handful of meal is said to signify the imperfection of Divine knowledge at the time when Christ came; and the little oil in a cruse, the scarcity of grace. But Elijah multiplied both, because Christ, full of grace and truth, imparted both to mankind. The woman sustained Elijah; for the faith and holy works of the Church refresh the Lord: I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Rev_3:20).
IV. Lessons.
1. The leading lesson throughout is one of trust. Fear not. The woman of Zarephath affords a striking instance of obedience and submission, not only of the will, but of the judgment.
2. To remember that God should have the first claim upon us and upon our substance, which increases through parting with it, as did the five loaves as they were distributed to others by the disciples hands.
3. It is a great mistake to suppose that only the rich should give into the treasury of God. The poor widows two mites were more to Christ than the large gifts of the rich, because it was her all. (The Thinker.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v17 1Ki_17:17. Fell sick … no breath left in him—This…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1Ki_17:17. Fell sick … no breath left in him—This phrase does not absolutely imply death (comp. Dan_10:17; also 1Ki_10:17). Josephus renders the incident thus—ὡς καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀφεῖναι καὶ δόξαι νεκρόν. We may concede that the boy was in a state of fatal exhaustion, sinking away into death, and not absolutely dead. But whichever was the case, his recovery was as really supernatural and miraculous.
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1Ki_17:18. What have I to do with thee?—The bitter upbraiding of incoherent grief. My sin to remembrance—No particular sin, but the current error that affliction was a punishment (comp. Joh_9:3). In the first passion and dismay of sorrow we strangely misread God’s design.
1Ki_17:19. Carried him into a loft—The upper chamber; alone there with God, to plead for Divine interpretation and removal of this unexpected calamity.
1Ki_17:21. Stretched himself upon the child three times—“Stretched himself,” &c., thereby employing rational means for warming, and thus revivifying the body; but not relying on natural methods for his restoration, but on God’s intervention, using means of themselves ineffectual for the miraculous result. “Three times” “because the calling upon the name of Jehovah in the old covenant was a threefold act (Psa_55:18; Dan_6:10); thrice in the high priestly benediction was the name of Jehovah laid upon Israel (Num_6:22); thrice did the seraphim before the throne of Jehovah cry out holy (Isa_6:3).”—Lange. And Jesus himself “left them and went away and prayed the third time, saying the same words.” (Mat_26:44).
1Ki_17:24. Now by this I know—“Because thou hast seen thou hast believed;” yet she had already shown faith when proof was not visible. This was a most gracious seal to her faith, which had thus been doubly end sorely tried.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki_17:17-24
THE MARVELLOUS POWER OF AN INTREPID FAITH
I. We see here how an intrepid faith may be sorely tried.
1. By sudden and unexpected bereavement (1Ki_17:17). The youth who had escaped from the merciless fangs of famine, and who, for some time, was sustained by a miraculous supply of God, is smitten down with a mysterious disease, and, as it would appear, with appalling suddenness, expires. It is sad to lose our health, sad to lose our fortune, but it is sadder still to lose the loved ones of our hearth and home.
’Tis hard to lay our darling
Deep in the cold, damp earth;
His empty crib to see, his silent nursery,
Once gladsome with his mirth.
The thought of death gives a tinge of melancholy to every event of life, and reveals the frailty and transitoriness of all earthly things. The Roman Emperor who had commanded a world, exclaimed, when he came to die, “I was everything, and have found that everything is nothing.” And yet, if it were something, in one moment death robs us of it all. No wonder that while complaining of life we turn away from death. “We live hating life, yet full of fear to die.” And when death comes, slowly or suddenly, it tests the faith of the staunchest believer.
2. By the spectacle of a bewildering sorrow (1Ki_17:18). Only a mother knows a mother’s grief. How ready we are, says Bishop Hall, to mistake the grounds of our afflictions, and to cast them upon false causes. The passionate mother cannot find weather to impute the death of her son but to the presence of Elijah, to whom she ones distracted with perplexity, not without an unkind challenge of him from whom she had received both that life she had lost and that she had: “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?” As if her son could not have died if Elijah had not been her guest, whereas her son had died but for him. Why should she think that the prophet had saved him from the famine to kill him with sickness? He who had appeased God towards her is suspected to have incensed him. This wrongful misconstruction was enough to move any patience. Elijah was of a hot and fiery temperament, and a strain was put upon his self-control. But his faith in God, and the sympathy roused within him for the afflicted widow, not only taught him forbearance, but made him the more anxious to do what he could to alleviate her anguish.
II. We see here how an intrepid faith is sustained and strengthened by earnest and importunate prayer (1Ki_17:19-21). This incident brings out for the first time in his history one of the most marked and powerful features of Elijah’s character as a man of prayer He was personally deeply moved by the distress which this bereavement had brought into the widow’s home; and his prayer is an urgent appeal to God, as a just and merciful and righteous Being. He pleaded for the restoration of life to the dead boy—a bold and hitherto unheard of request from the lips of mortal man! “We can imagine the Tishbite pacing up and down his little chamber in importunate, impassioned prayer; but yet with no doubt as to the result of his intercession. It was a mighty demand, indeed, for a mortal to make a request that had no previous parallel in praying lips. It was nothing short of this: that unassailable death be stormed in his own strongholds; that the iron crown be plucked from the head of the king of terrors. When Elijah does manifest faith, it is always of the noblest type.” The higher exercises of faith are possible only to earnest, resolute, and incessant prayer.
III. We see here how an intrepid faith is honoured by a signal display of Divine power (1Ki_17:22-23). This is the first recorded instance of a resurrection from the dead. Many suppose that this youth afterwards became the servant of Elijah (1Ki_18:43; 1Ki_19:3): and an old Jewish tradition identifies him with the prophet Jonah. “It was a proud thought for Greece that on one and the same day she gained the battle of Platæa on the land, and the battle of Mycalè on the sea. And what would be the grateful joy of this widow woman that by one and the same agency, in the retirement of her home, and in a period of the severest national distress, in place of two victims there had been two victories—a victory over famine, a victory also over death.” Nothing is impossible to believing prayer. If Elijah by his fervent supplications could bring about supernatural results, why should we fail in securing blessings with. In the ordinary sphere of nature, by the agency of prayer?
IV. We see here how an intrepid faith is the means of strengthening and confirming the weak (1Ki_17:24). This Sareptan widow believed in God before, but she is a stronger and more decided believer now. The miraculous replenishing of her store convinced her of the mercy and love of God, and the raising of her son from the dead gave her a still deeper insight into the Divine Majesty and power, and invested the mission of the prophet with a still more awful authority. The design of miracles is not for display, or to excite wonder, but for the confirmation of truth. The strongest faith sometimes gives way and needs heavenly support. Had this widow’s son continued dead, her belief had been buried in his grave: notwithstanding her meal and oil, her soul had languished. The condescension of God provides new helps for our infirmities, and meets us on our own ground, that he may work out our faith and salvation. The onus of unbelief is thrown wholly on man. God takes care there shall be no lack of evidence for the encouragement and building up of faith.
LESSONS:—
1. Bereavement and sorrow intensify our sympathy with humanity.
2. The soul in its deepest suffering finds rest and consolation alone in God.
3. Faith in God achieves the grandest moral victories.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ki_17:17-24. Raising the Widow’s Song of Solomon 1. No home exempt from the trials and sufferings of this life. This widow would doubtless be looked upon with envy by her neighbours. They would think that in the midst of the distress suffered by them she was free and protected by an unseen hand from wretchedness and woe. But a deeper sorrow than they imagined was soon her portion. In looking upon some homes, we are apt to think they are strangers to the ordinary trials and sorrows of life. But there is no home that can exclude these. However well provided temporarily, however diligent and devoted in the path of Christian duty the inmates may be, still there comes to them, more or less, trial and suffering of one kind or another—affliction, disappointment, bereavement. To know this should prepare us to meet trials when they come.
2. The deepest sorrow may be the instrument of our highest good. Nothing could have been a greater affliction to this woman than the death of her son; but it gave God the opportunity of exercising His power in raising him from the dead. By means of this she was enlightened, and her faith in God confirmed. She was on the borderland of true faith before; now she enters into its fulness. “Now, by this, I know, &c.” Many have been similarly blessed by trial and sorrow; they have obtained clearer and loftier views of God and stronger faith in Him. ‘J hey have been raised up into a higher region of life and affection (Heb_12:11).
3. An illustration of the power of prayer. How differently would this woman regard prayer to Jehovah to what she had done before! She would see that it was the way of access to God and of prevailing with Him; and lead her to imitate that earnest and confident prayer of Elijah which brought her son back from the regions of the dead. We have many rich and valuable illustrations of the power of prayer in Holy Writ and in our own history, which should lead us to a more earnest and persevering use of it.—The Study and Pulpit.
1Ki_17:18. The voice of conscience.
1. Is heard in the midst of calamity.
2. Is an unfailing remembrancer of sin.
3. May mislead as to the reasons for which calamity is permitted to overtake us.
4. Should be listened to with a view of moral improvement.
1Ki_17:19-21. Behold this great man in his chamber, alone with the corpse of that fair child. See how vehemently he strides up and down, gradually working himself up to the height of the great demand which gleams before his thought, a demand which had not crossed the mind of man since the beginning of the world, only because no man before had had the same degree of faith—the faith to deem it possible that the dead might be restored to life at man’s urgent prayer. It is done. His purpose is taken. The child may live. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. It is as easy for Him to give back life as to take it; and He will do this if asked with adequate faith. Elijah knew that men too often expect to move the mountains by such faith as suffices not to shake the mole-hills; and that because, from the insufficiency of the means, the hoped-for results do not follow, the power of faith is disparaged. But he felt the true mountain-moving faith heaving strong within him, and he gave it unrestrained vent. He threw himself upon the corpse, as if, in the vehement energy of his will, to force his own life into it; and he cried with mighty and resistless urgency to God to send back to this cold frame the breath he had taken away. Faith conquered. It was adequate, and therefore irresistible.—Kitto.
1Ki_17:22. Even if the Lord do no miracle, there are still a thousand ways and means by which He sends comfort and strength, or help and salvation, in answer to the believing prayer of His faithful servants. Each granting of prayer is indeed a miracle, and never is one humble, believing prayer uttered in vain—no, not even when it is refused.—Menken.
—The illimitable power of God.
1. Has absolute control over life and death.
2. Can accomplish whatever does not imply a contradiction: it is never uselessly employed.
3. Is exerted in answer to believing prayer.
4. Confirms the faith of the wavering.
1Ki_17:23. He who testified that man did not live from hour to hour by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, testified also to a stranger from the commonwealth of Israel that God can give back that life which He has taken away. The poor woman of Zidon learnt the amazing lesson that the power which she had looked upon as emphatically the destroyer, is warring with death, and can win a victory over it, not for some great and holy person, but for her whose sins had been brought to remembrance by the presence of the prophet and the death of her child—Maurice.
1Ki_17:24. Real knowledge of the truth. I. There is a kind of knowledge of scriptural things which leaves a man perfectly satisfied with himself. This widow seems to have been acquainted with the God of Israel, in the way of providence, and seems to have known Elijah to be a prophet by his dress; and her obedience appears to have been of that kind which springs from the intellectual knowledge that a man has, that God is almighty; that, being perfect, He is therefore faithful; and that what He says must come to pass; but it does not seem to have been that which springs from a heart knowledge of Him as a just God and a Saviour, who “pardoneth iniquity,” and which knowledge begets an appropriation of God as “my God” to the heart—for, you observe, she says, “As the Lord thy God liveth.” She does not say, “As the Lord my God liveth!” This lesson of knowing God as our God she has yet to learn. And this she was to learn in the school of affliction—a furnace in which many of God’s children are chosen and made to know Him. There are many persons in the same state as the widow of Zarephath before the prophet came to her. Like her, they have heard of God; they have heard that there is a God; they do not deny the truth and power of God; they believe that the Word of God is true; they do not hesitate to render a sort of outside obedience to His commands. We find them continually speaking calmly of death, just as this woman did; but all the peace which apparently accompanies this calm statement about death is false. It arises from ignorance of sin. When this is brought vividly and clearly to remembrance, then their peace flies away, because there is no real acquaintance with Christ. They know the inconvenience of sin, they know the disgrace of it; but as to the real nature of sin, they are ignorant of it, because no man ever can abide under a knowledge of the nature of sin without fleeing to Jesus for the remedy that God has provided in Him.
II. This kind of knowledge is shown not to be a real acquaintance with truth, by impatience under affliction. “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?” By some this is understood to express her deep sense of the vast difference between herself and the prophet, and the feeling she entertained in consequence; as when Peter, astonished at the marvellous draught of fishes, exclaimed, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But it seems as if the words are expressive of a feeling of impatience of the sorrow which had come upon her, in consequence, as she thought, of the presence of the prophet: as if she had said, “If this be the consequence of thy visit, would I had never seen thee.” She forgets God’s goodness, and thinks only of her trial. Are there not many who go on for years partaking of God’s bounty, who are favoured above thousands around them, but who have no knowledge of the state of their own hearts, and who, when the Lord afflicts them, are irritated, and think themselves hardly dealt by; or when, by the preaching of the Word of God; He graciously opens their eyes to the condition of their hearts, are impatient at those doctrines, those statements, which God frequently makes use of to affirm His purpose of love? This widow saw in Elijah not the servant of the Lord, so much as one who brought her sins to remembrance, and slew her son; and this she could not bear. Trials which mellow and ripen the saint, irritate and enrage the graceless sinner; and heart-searching preaching leads men to speak evil of the way of truth. This woman could not have talked so calmly of dying if she had known what her sins were; but when she was stripped of self-confidence, of all those false hopes which were dear to her as her son—and when God calls upon men now-a-days to relinquish their all to Him, in His love He will take them off from every false confidence, till they are left like the childless widow, with their sins staring them in the face, and all their creature-comforts gone, stripped and made bare by God’s Holy Spirit, then they are alive to the Scripture truth that they are in themselves “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
III. It is generally under a deep sense of sin, or through deep waters, that God leads to real acquaintance with the truth. “And he said unto her, Give me thy son: and he took him out of her bosom.” The dead son she can part with readily; she is brought so low, she is willing to do anything for a remedy. She sees matters cannot be worse, and therefore she is willing to listen to any remedy which may make them better. And that is just the point which a man is brought to who receives the Lord Jesus with thankfulness. He sees things cannot be worse; he sees a truth which the world is very slow to believe, that there is no such thing as exaggerating the evil of sin. And when the Lord says to the convicted sinner, “Give me thine heart,” that heart which is dead to every hope but that which the Gospel gives, it is immediately yielded up. As God gave back life to the widow’s son, so in regeneration does God give back that principle of eternal life which was forfeited in Adam; God breathes into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living soul again, in contradistinction to what he is naturally, in Scripture language, “dead in trespasses and sins.” Thus was the widow taught what she did not know, perhaps, in heart before, and by means which were utterly at variance with her best affections; and thus also our proud hearts are humbled, and made to know that those doctrines and statements of the Word of God which they long scoffed at are truth.
LESSONS.—
1. There is such a thing as being acquainted with the Word, and obeying it in a certain outward sense, and being calm in the prospect of death, and yet not knowing that Word experimentally to be truth.
2. Until we are brought to know the evil of sin, we shall be ignorant of the spiritual meaning of the Word of God, and in that degree resist the truth.
3. Until we yield ourselves wholly to God, we shall never know the truth savingly, or find peace really.—The Pulpit.
—We pass through much grief and humiliation before, with joyful assurance, we can say to Him who is greater than Elijah, Now know I that thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God. Only by means of individual experience does each man come to the blessed confession that the Word of the Lord is truth. He only is a servant of God in whose mouth the Word of the Lord is truth, not mere appearance and sham.—Lange.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v17 The Dead Boy Restored to Life
The Dead Boy Restored to Life
v. 17. And it came to pass after these things, after the widow and her family had been so miraculously preserved, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, the illness took such a severe turn,that there was no breath left in him, the boy died.
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v. 18. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Her distress was so great that she was inclined to blame Elijah for the unfortunate turn of events. Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, her sensitiveness causing her to believe that her own sinfulness stood out all the more strongly by contrast with the holiness of the prophet, and to slay my son? The woman supposed that in the same degree in which she was learning to acknowledge her sin God was taking account of it in order to punish her.
v. 19. And he, instead of arguing with her, said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, as she held him clasped tightly in her arms,and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, in the upper room of the house, and laid him upon his own bed, evidently deeply perplexed by this act of Jehovah and yet ready to wrestle for the boy’s life in prayer in the loneliness of his chamber.
v. 20. 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? It was a cry of deep distress over the fact that the tribulations of the famine were now increased by this new calamity, but also a prayer of faith that God surely would not permit death to hold the boy in these circumstances.
v. 21. And he stretched himself upon the child three times, measuring his full length over him, and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, I pray Thee, let this child’s soul come into him again, taking full possession of his entire body once more.
v. 22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, he came back to life.
v. 23. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, into the main part of the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
v. 24. And the woman said to Elijah, who by this miracle had proved himself a type of the great Master and Lord of death, Now, by this I know that thou art a man of God, her conviction was now most assured, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth, to be accepted with implicit faith. The example of the widow of Zarephath shows that the Lord has His elect in the very midst of a reprobate people
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 14, 17, 19, 22 As Yahweh your God lives
As Yahweh your God lives
This phrase is an oath to emphasize that what she will say is true.
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only a handful of meal
"only a little bit of meal"
meal
"flour." This what is used to make bread.
See, I
"Let me tell you what I am doing: I"
two sticks
This may refer to two sticks or to only a few sticks. (See: Numbers)
that we may eat it, and die
It is implied that they will die because they do not have anymore food. AT: "that we may eat. Afterwards, we will starve to death" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
afterward make some for you and for your son
It is implicit that there would be enough flour and oil to make more bread. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Yahweh
God
oil
die
Elijah
fear
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 17:12 by the Lord your God (literally as surely…
17:12 by the Lord your God (literally as surely as the Lord your God lives): The wording reflects Elijah’s oath and pronouncement to Ahab (17:1). The Gentile woman’s oath does not necessarily claim that the Lord is her god, but it does affirm to Elijah that what she says is the truth.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.