Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”
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 vv8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 24 As the troubles of the Saints of God are…
As the troubles of the Saints of God are many, so his mercy is ever at hand to deliver them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv8–24 1Ki 17:8 And the word of the LORD came…
1Ki 17:8 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
Ver. 8. And the word of the Lord.] See 1Ki 17:2.
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 vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 Zarephath; a city between Tyrus and Sidon, called Sarepta…
Zarephath; a city between Tyrus and Sidon, called Sarepta by Luk 4:26, by Pliny, and others.
To Zidon; to the jurisdiction of that city, which therefore was inhabited by Gentiles. See Luk 4:25. And God’s providing for his prophet, first by an unclean bird, and then by a Gentile, whom the Jews esteemed unclean, was a notable presage of the calling of the Gentiles, and of the rejection of the Jews.
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I have commanded, i.e. appointed or provided, as before, 1Ki 17:4; for that she had as yet no revelation or command of God about it, appears from 1Ki 17:12.
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 vv8, 17 We have here an account of the further protection…
We have here an account of the further protection Elijah was taken under, and the further provision made for him in his retirement. At destruction and famine he shall laugh that has God for his friend to guard and maintain him. The brook Cherith is dried up, but God's care of his people, and kindness to them, never slacken, never fail, but are still the same, are still continued and drawn out to those that know him, Psa 36:10. When the brook was dried up Jordan was not; why did not God send him thither? Surely because he would show that he has a variety of ways to provide for his people and is not tied to any one. God will now provide for him where he shall have some company and opportunity of usefulness, and not be, as he had been, buried alive. Observe,
I. The place he is sent to, to Zarephath, or Sarepta, a city of Sidon, out of the borders of the land of Israel, Kg1 17:9. Our Saviour takes notice of this as an early and ancient indication of the favour of God designed for the poor Gentiles, in the fulness of time, Luk 4:25, Luk 4:26. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, and some, it is likely, that would have bidden him welcome to their houses; yet he is sent to honour and bless with his presence a city of Sidon, a Gentile city, and so becomes (says Dr. Lightfoot) the first prophet of the Gentiles. Israel had corrupted themselves with the idolatries of the nations and become worse than they; justly therefore is the casting off of them the riches of the world. Elijah was hated and driven out by his countrymen; therefore, lo, he turns to the Gentiles, as the apostles were afterwards ordered to do, Act 18:6. But why to a city of Sidon? Perhaps because the worship of Baal, which was now the crying sin of Israel, came lately thence with Jezebel, who was a Sidonian (Kg1 16:31); therefore thither he shall go, that thence may be fetched the destroyer of that idolatry, "Even out of Sidon have I called my prophet, my reformer." Jezebel was Elijah's greatest enemy; yet, to show her the impotency of her malice, God will find a hiding-place for him even in her country. Christ never went among the Gentiles except once into the coast of Sidon, Mat 15:21.
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II. The person that is appointed to entertain him, not one of the rich merchants or great men, of Sidon, not such a one as Obadiah, that was governor of Ahab's house and fed the prophets; but a poor widow woman, destitute and desolate, is commanded (that is, is made both able and willing) to sustain him. It is God's way, and it is his glory, to make use of the weak and foolish things of the world and put honour upon them. He is, in a special manner, the widows' God, and feeds them, and therefore they must study what they shall render to him.
III. The provision made for him there. Providence brought the widow woman to meet him very opportunely at the gate of the city (Kg1 17:10), and, by what is here related of what passed between Elijah and her, we find,
1. Her case and character; and it appears, (1.) That she was very poor and necessitous. She had nothing to live upon but a handful of meal and a little oil, needy at the best, and now, by the general scarcity, reduced to the last extremity. When she has eaten the little she has, for aught she yet sees, she must die for want, she and her son, Kg1 17:12. She had no fuel but the sticks she gathered in the streets, and, having no servant, she must gather them herself (Kg1 17:10), being thus more in a condition to receive alms than give entertainment. To her Elijah was sent, that he might still live upon Providence as much as he did when the ravens fed him. It was in compassion to the low estate of his handmaiden that God sent the prophet to her, not to beg of her, but to board with her, and he would pay well for his table. (2.) That she was very humble and industrious. He found her gathering sticks, and preparing to bake her own bread, Kg1 17:10, Kg1 17:12. Her mind was brought to her condition, and she complained not of the hardship she was brought to, nor quarrelled with the divine Providence for withholding rain, but accommodated herself to it as well as she could. Such as are of this temper in a day of trouble are best prepared for honour and relief from God. (3.) That she was very charitable and generous. When this stranger desired her to go and fetch him some water to drink, she readily went, at the first word, Kg1 17:10, Kg1 17:11. She objected not to the present scarcity of it, nor asked him what he would give her for a draught of water (for now it was worth money), nor hinted that he was a stranger, an Israelite, with whom perhaps the Sidonians cared not for having any dealings, any more than the Samaritans, Joh 4:9. She did not excuse herself on account of her weakness through famine, or the urgency of her own affairs, did not tell him she had something else to do than to go on his errands, but left off gathering the sticks for herself to fetch water for him, which perhaps she did the more willingly, being moved with the gravity of his aspect. We should be ready to do any office of kindness even to strangers; if we have not wherewith to give to the distressed, we must be the more ready to work for them. A cup of cold water, though it cost us no more than the labour of fetching, shall in no wise lose its reward. (4.) That she had a great confidence in the word of God. It was a great trial for her faith and obedience when, having gold the prophet how low her stock of meal and oil was and that she had but just enough for herself and her son, he bade her make a cake for him, and make his first, and then prepare for herself and her son. If we consider, it will appear as great a trial as could be in so small a matter. "Let the children first be served" (might she have said); "charity begins at home. I cannot be expected to give, having but little, and not knowing, when that is gone, where to obtain more." She had much more reason than Nabal to ask, "Shall I take my meat and my oil and give it to one that I know not whence he is?" Elijah, it is true, made mention of the God of Israel (Kg1 17:14), but what was that to a Sidonian? Or if she had a veneration for the name Jehovah, and valued the God of Israel as the true God, yet what assurance had she that this stranger was his prophet or had any warrant to speak in his name? It was easy for a hungry vagrant to impose upon her. But she gets over all these objections, and obeys the precept in dependence upon the promise: She went and did according to the saying of Elijah, Kg1 17:15. O woman! great was thy faith; one has not found the like, no, not in Israel: all things considered, it exceeded that of the widow who, when she had but two mites, cast them into the treasury. She took the prophet's word, that she should not lose by it, but it should be repaid with interest. Those that can venture upon the promise of God will make no difficulty of exposing and emptying themselves in his service, by giving him his dues out of a little and giving him his part first. Those that deal with God must deal upon trust; seek first his kingdom, and then other things shall be added. By the law, the first-fruits were God's, the tithe was taken out first, and the heave-offering of their dough was first offered, Num 15:20, Num 15:21. But surely the increase of this widow's faith, to such a degree as to enable her thus to deny herself and to depend upon the divine promise, was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace as the increase of her oil was in the kingdom of providence. Happy are those who can thus, against hope, believe and obey in hope.
2. The care God took of her guest: The barrel of meal wasted not, nor did the cruse of oil fail, but still as they took from them more was added to them by the divine power, Kg1 17:16. Never did corn or olive so increase in the growing (says bishop Hall) as these did in the using; but the multiplying of the seed sown (Co2 9:10) in the common course of providence is an instance of the power and goodness of God not to be overlooked because common. The meal and the oil multiplied, not in the hoarding, but in the spending; for there is that scattereth and yet increaseth. When God blesses a little, it will go a great way, even beyond expectation; as, on the contrary, though there be abundance, if he blow upon it, it comes to little, Hag 1:9; Hag 2:16. (1.) This was a maintenance for the prophet. Still miracles shall be his daily bread. Hitherto he had been fed with bread and flesh, now he was fed with bread and oil, which they used as we do butter. Manna was both, for the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil, Num 11:8. This Elijah was thankful for, though he had been used to flesh twice a day and now had none at all. Those that cannot live without flesh, once a day at least, because they have been used to it, could not have boarded contentedly with Elijah, no, not to live upon a miracle. (2.) It was a maintenance for the poor widow and her son, and a recompence to her for entertaining the prophet. There is nothing lost by being kind to God's people and ministers; she that received a prophet had a prophet's reward; she gave him house-room, and he repaid her with food for her household. Christ has promised to those who open their doors to him that he will come in to them, and sup with them, and they with him, Rev 3:20. Like Elijah here, he brings to those who bid him welcome, not only his own entertainment, but theirs too. See how the reward answered the service. She generously made one cake for the prophet, and was repaid with many for herself and her son. When Abraham offers his only son to God he is told he shall be the father of multitudes. What is laid out in piety or charity is let out to the best interest, upon the best securities. One poor meal's meat this poor widow gave the prophet, and, in recompence of it, she and her son did eat many days (Kg1 17:15), above two years, in a time of general scarcity; and to have their food from God's special favour, and to eat it in such good company as Elijah's, made it more than doubly sweet. It is promised to those that trust in God that they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, but in the days of famine they shall be satisfied, Psa 37:19.
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 vv8–23 And the word of the Lord came unto him,....…
And the word of the Lord came unto him,.... As before, after he had been a year at the brook, and that was dried up:
saying; as follows.
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 vv9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Zarephath - A city between Tyre and Sidon, called…
Zarephath - A city between Tyre and Sidon, called Sarepta by St. Luke iv, 26, and others. Zidon - To the jurisdiction of that city, which was inhabited by Gentiles. And God's providing for his prophet, first, by an unclean bird, and then by a Gentile, whom the Jews esteemed unclean, was a presage of the calling of the Gentiles, and rejection of the Jews. So Elijah was the first prophet of the Gentiles. Commanded - Appointed or provided, for that she had as yet no Revelation or command of God about it, appears from ver. 12.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24 Verse 9. Get thee to Zarephath] This was a…
Verse 9. Get thee to Zarephath] This was a town between Tyre and Sidon, but nearer to the latter, and is therefore called in the text Zarephath which belongeth to Sidon; or, as the Vulgate and other versions express it, Sarepta of the Sidonians. Sarepta is the name by which it goes in the New Testament; but its present name is Sarphan. Mr. Maundrell, who visited it, describes it as consisting of a few houses only on the tops of the mountains; but supposes that it anciently stood in the plain below, where there are still ruins of a considerable extent.
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 vv9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 1Ki 17:9. Arise, get thee to Zarephath — A…
1Ki 17:9. Arise, get thee to Zarephath — A city between Tyre and Sidon, called Sarepta by St. Luk 4:26, and others. Which belongeth to Zidon — To the jurisdiction of that city, which was inhabited by Gentiles. And God’s providing for his prophet, first, by an unclean bird, and then by a Gentile, whom the Jews esteemed unclean, was a presage of the calling of the Gentiles, and rejection of the Jews. So Elijah was the first prophet of the Gentiles. Commanded a widow woman — That is, appointed or provided; for that she had as yet received no revelation or command of God about it, appears from 1Ki 17:12.
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 vv9, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 The dependence of Zarephath (Sarepta) on Sidon is indicated…
The dependence of Zarephath (Sarepta) on Sidon is indicated in the inscriptions of Sennacherib, where it is mentioned as belonging to Luliya (Elulaeus), king of Sidon, and as submitting to the Assyrian monarch on Luliya’s flight from his capital. Elijah may have been sent to this place, so near the city of Jezebel’s father, as one which it was most unlikely that he would visit.
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 vv9, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24 Sidonians, and nearer their city than it was to…
Sidonians, and nearer their city than it was to Tyre. (Calmet) --- Commanded, or provided that she shall feed thee. So he commanded the ravens, ver. 4. (Menochius) --- It appears that the widow had received no precise intimation, ver. 12. She was not an Israelite, (Luke iv. 25.) but probably a pagan. (St. Chrysostom, &c.) --- Many suppose that Elias did not know, at first, that she was to entertain him. (Calmet) --- But both the one and the other might be divinely instructed how to act. In due time the widow and the prophet became acquainted with the will of God, and complied with it. (Haydock)
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 vv8, 17 HE IS SENT TO A WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH. (Kg1…
HE IS SENT TO A WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH. (Kg1 17:8-16)
the word of the Lord came to him--Zarephath, Sarepta, now Surafend, whither he was directed to go, was far away on the western coast of Palestine, about nine miles south of Sidon, and within the dominions of Jezebel's impious father, where the famine also prevailed. Meeting, at his entrance into the town, the very woman who was appointed by divine providence to support him, his faith was severely tested by learning from her that her supplies were exhausted and that she was preparing her last meal for herself and son. The Spirit of God having prompted him to ask, and her to grant, some necessary succor, she received a prophet's reward (Mat 10:41-42), and for the one meal afforded to him, God, by a miraculous increase of the little stock, afforded many to her.
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 vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 9. Zarephath — An ancient city about half way…
9. Zarephath — An ancient city about half way between Sidon and Tyre, called Sarepta in Luk_4:26, and at present Surafend. “It would seem,” says Dr. Robinson, “that the former city of Sarepta stood near the seashore; and that the present village bearing the same name upon the adjacent hills, has sprung up since the time of the crusades; the people having probably chosen to remove thither for the same reason, whatever it may have been, which has caused the abandonment of all the rest of the plain. In the rocks along the foot of the hills are many excavated tombs, once doubtless belonging to the ancient city.” The ancient site is marked by “broken foundations and irregular heaps of stones.”
I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee — The widow, like the ravens, supplies Elijah by Divine command; a command, however, not audibly laid upon them. As the ravens obeyed, unconscious of the Divine power that controlled them, so largely with this woman.
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 vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 8–16. Elijah sent to Zarephath and sustained by a…
8–16. Elijah sent to Zarephath and sustained by a widow woman (Not in Chronicles)
9. get thee to Zarephath] This was the city which was known in later times (Luk_4:26) as Sarepta. Josephus says it lay between Sidon and Tyre. There the enemy of Baal-worship would hardly be expected to have sought refuge.
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and dwell there] These words are omitted in the LXX.
I have commanded a widow woman] A source of sustenance hardly less precarious than the supply of the ravens. As in the former case, so here, the command implies that God has prompted her to fulfil His purpose. Elijah has been called, from this event, the first Apostle to the Gentiles.
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 vv9, 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 24 (9) Zarephath—the Sarepta of the LXX. and of the…
(9) Zarephath—the Sarepta of the LXX. and of the New Testament (Luk_4:26). It is said by Josephus to have lain between Tyre and Sidon, and by St. Jerome to have been on the great coast-road. Hence it has been identified with a modern village, Surafend, in that position. The words, “which belongeth to Zidon,” appear to be emphatic, marking the striking providence of God, which, when the land of Israel was apostate and unsafe, found for the prophet a refuge and a welcome in a heathen country, which was moreover the native place of his deadliest enemy.
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 vv8–24 And the word of the Lord came unto him,…
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
Vers. 8-16.
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The Furnace of Trial.
The village of Zarephath appears to have borrowed its name from the furnace or furnaces created there for the smelting of metals. See note on ver. 9. A great lexicographer interprets the word to mean, a "workshop for the melting and refining of metals." But that name might with scarcely less propriety have been bestowed upon it from the circumstances recorded in this section. It was a veritable furnace for men; a place of assay and refining both for the prophet and the widow with whom he lodged. "Surely there is a place for gold where they fine it". (Job_28:1)
I IT WAS A PLACE OF TRIAL FOR ELIJAH. In connexion with it he was subjected to the following trials of his faith and courage
1. He had to leave his hiding place. For months he had dwelt safely in the deep, sequestered, peaceful wady. That he must hide there, and bide so long, showed how great was the danger to which he was exposed. But now he is commanded to quit his asylum, to go forth into the world, to run the risk of recognition, of betrayal, of death; and to do so, we cannot doubt, would cost him a struggle, and put his faith in God to the proof.
2. He had to seek a home in Zidon. How those words would strike upon his ears, "Which belongeth unto Zidon"! Zidon was the capital of Ethbaal. The father of Jezebel, his implacable enemy, held sway there. It was like going into the lion"s den. His feeling would be something like that of David"s men, "Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah". (1Sa_23:3) Of all hiding places, that would seem to him to be the most to be dreaded. How can he escape detection there! He might well have taken fright, as at a later period, and have fled further into the desert. Or he might have petitioned, like Lot, (Gen_19:20) to be allowed to find some other refuge. But he did neither. "He arose and went to Zarephath." He was "strong in faith, giving glory to. (Rom_4:20)
3. He had to be sustained by a widow woman. The position and circumstances of the Eastern widow are to be remembered here. The seclusion in which Oriental women live makes its difficult for a widow to find a livelihood, even if there were work for her to do. And we have only to consider what the position of widows amongst ourselves would be, if there were no such things as investments, no means of putting out money to usury. (Deu_23:19) Hence the repeated injunctions to remember the widow (Deu_14:29 Deu_16:11, 14 24:17, 19-21; Job_24:21 Job_29:18; Psa_146:9) Hence the special provision for widows in the early Church (Act_6:1; 1Ti_5:4-9) The widow was an object for charity, and needed sustenance. And now Elijah learns that by a widow he is to be sheltered and sustained. And this widow a foreigner, probably an idolater an alien both in race and religion. Surely there was a trial both of his faith and of his obedience here.
4. He finds the widow in the extremest poverty. He encounters her "gathering of sticks." That in itself was not an encouraging sign. Next he hears from her lips that her cupboard is empty. She has not food for herself, much less for a stranger. "A handful of meal," a "little oil," this is all her store. She who was to sustain his life is herself ready to die. But he knows in whom he has believed. He "argued not against Heaven"s will." He did not "bate a jot of heart or hope." "Make me a little cake first." He is assured that "they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied". (Psa_37:9) He knows that "God will not suffer his word to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips". (Psa_89:8)
5. He is immured in her house for two years. Those two years were years of banishment from his country and his work. Three years and a half had he to wait, and most of the time in a strange land, ere his recal; cut off, "not from life, yet from usefulness, which is the end and comfort of life." Which of us would not have been impatient, or, like the Baptist in his fortress-prison, tempted to think God had forgotten us? And he knew that all this time his people were suffering. We think it strange if a servant of God is laid aside for a few months from his ministry. But the greatest of the prophets was silenced, was buried alive, for the mystical period of forty and two months, for "time and times and half a time". (Rev_11:2, 8 12:6, 14) "When we cannot work for God we must sit still quietly for him" (Henry). "They also serve who only stand and wait.
6. His presence there is no protection against sickness. Of the three inmates of the cottage home, one sickens and droops to his grave. This sickness causes us no surprise, but it did Elijah (ver. 20); and that because he lived under the dispensation of temporal rewards. Sickness was then regarded as, and it often was, the scourge of the Almighty (Deu_7:15 Deu_28:61; cf. 1Co_11:30) It was a trial, consequently, of Elijah"s faith. It looked as if the hand of the Lord was gone out against him. It seemed as if he was to be always the author of misfortune ("Hast thou also," etc.); as if the widow by whom he had been housed, and who had hidden him at the risk of her life, was to be requited with cruel punishment for her good deed. But let us now see in Zarephath
II A FURNACE OF TRIAL FOR THE WIDOW. It was this in two ways
1. A stranger demands a share of her last meal. Or, rather, he demands the first share. "Make me a little cake first." Now consider her position. She is reduced to her last morsel So sore is the famine that she and her son, after they have eaten this meal together, are about to lie down and wait for death. They must have suffered hunger enough already; they must have dreaded the hunger even unto death which awaited them. At this moment a stranger suddenly appears before her, and says he must eat first. It is true that he wears the aspect el a prophet, and appeals to the Lord God of Israel, but prophets were often deceivers, (1Ki_13:18 1Ki_22:12) and foreign gods could be expected to show her no favour. And at home, her own flesh and blood, the son of her womb, stretches out his skinny fingers, attenuated by famine, and cries for all she has to give. Moreover if this prophet could multiply food, as he professed to be able to do, why should he ask her for bread? Was it reasonable that she should part with her last morsel on the strength of such a promise? "Charity begins at home." "Let the children first be filled." "Shall I take my bread and my water and give it to one that I know not whence he is"? (1Sa_25:11) Thus she might justly have argued. We could not have wondered had the ordeal been too great for her; had she kept fast hold of her children"s bread and denied it to "dogs." But, like that other Syro-Phoenician woman, (Mat_15:21 sqq.) her faith was equal to the test; she "went and did according to the saying of Elijah." And, therefore, of her also it might justly be said, "I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.
2. Her son falls sick and lies apparently lifeless. The tie between a mother and an only son is, perhaps, the closest and tenderest of all blood relationships; and it has been remarked that it is peculiarly strong and sacred in the East. "The only son of his mother and she was a widow": (Luk_7:12) who does not feel the pathos of these words? And the tie would be all the stronger in this case because they had suffered together; because he had been given back to her from the jaws of death (ver. 12). It is said by some that we value things in proportion to what they have cost us, and on this principle they would explain the deep love of the mother for her offspring. Goethe"s mother used to say that "she and her Wolfgang had always clung to each other, because they had been young together;" but to have hungered together, to have, hand in hand, looked Death in the face, to have seen the spectre retreating, surely this communion in suffering, this sumpaqeia, this compassio, would beget a much profounder sympathy. And now this boy, whose life had been miraculously preserved, is so sick that there is no breath left in him. What could this fond and anxious mother think? Was the prophet who had given them bread unable to defend them from sickness? Or was this God"s recompense for her hospitality? She might have had hard thoughts of God, or unworthy thoughts of the prophet. It is a wonder she held fast her integrity. But she only thought hardly of herself. It must be, she argued, a judgment for her sin. The man of God had read her life; had brought her sin to the remembrance of his Master (ver. 18). It never occurs to her, strong as was the temptation, to arraign God"s providence. But her faith and patience must have been sorely tried.
It now remains for us to consider how these assays of faith, which have given to this Phoenician workshop its tame and immortality, were "more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire". (1Pe_1:7) In that workshop God Himself sat "as a refiner and purifier of silver.
It is said that when the crucible, the fining pot for silver, (Pro_17:8) is put into the furnace, the chymist has a sure and ready test of its purity; a means of knowing when his long processes have accomplished their object. When he sees his face reflected in the glowing and untarnished metal, he knows that the purification is complete.
It was that Elijah and his hostess might learn to know God, might be transformed into the image of God, that they experienced this two years" purgation in the furnace. It was that the dross might be purely purged, and the tin taken away; (Isa_1:25) that they might be changed into the image of their Creator (Col_3:10; 2Co_3:18)
Now the historian does not record the results of this assay, except incidentally. But we can clearly see that the faith of Elijah and the widow alike grew stronger by the exercise. How much Elijah gained; how the discipline told on his subsequent career; how the trying of his faith wrought patience, (Jam_1:8) we cannot now discover. But we can see that it resulted in the widow"s conversion, or in the confirmation of her faith, and in the glory and praise of God (ver. 24). And that is not all. Its issues are in eternity. The cross was the forerunner of the crown. (Jam_1:12)
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 vv9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 24 Arise, get thee to Zarephath.
1Ki_17:9
Arise, get thee to Zarephath.
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Ordered to Zarephath
A friend of mine, spending a few days in the neighbourhood of our English lakes, came upon the most beautiful shrubs he had ever seen. Arrested by their extraordinary luxuriance, he inquired the cause; and learnt that it was due to a judicious system of transplanting, constantly pursued. Whatever may be the effect of such a process In nature, it is certainly true that our heavenly Father employs similar methods to secure the highest results in us. He is constantly transplanting us. And though these changes threaten at times to hinder all steady progress in the Divine life, yet, if they are rightly borne, they result in the most exquisite manifestations of Christian character and experience. Another illustration of the same truth is given by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer_48:11). The quiet life is by no means the greatest life. Some characters can only reach the highest standard of spirituality by the disturbings or displacings in the order of Gods providence. Will not this cast light upon Gods dealings with Elijah? Once he stood in the vessel, Home; then emptied into the vessel, Jezreel; then into the vessel, Cherith; and now into the fourth vessel, Zarephath: and all that he might not settle upon his lees. Believe only that your circumstances are those most suited to develop your character. To one who lives ever in the presence of the unchanging God, and who can say, Thus saith Jehovah, before whom I stand, the ever-varying conditions of our lot touch only the outer rim of life; whatever they take away, they cannot take away that; whatever they bring, they cannot give more than that. The consciousness of that Presence is the one all-mastering thought; the inspiration, the solace, the comfort, of every waking hour.
I. Faith awaits Gods plans. It came to pass, after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Week after week, with unfaltering and steadfast spirit, Elijah watched that dwindling brook; often tempted to stagger through unbelief, but refusing to allow his circumstances to come between himself and God. Unbelief sees God through circumstances, as we sometimes see the sun shorn of his rays through the smoky air; but faith puts God between itself and circumstances, and looks at them through Him. Only then, to his patient and unwavering spirit, the word of the Lord came, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath. Most of us would have got anxious and worn with planning long before that. We should have ceased our songs, as soon as the streamlet carolled less musically over its rocky bed. And, probably, long ere the brook was dry, we should have devised some plan, and asking Gods blessing on it, would have started off elsewhere. Alas! we are all too full of our own schemes, and plans, and contrivings. Lord, show me Thy way; teach me to do Thy will: show me the way wherein I should walk, for unto Thee do I lift up my soul.
II. Gods plans demand implicit obedience. So he arose and went to Zarephath, as before he had gone to Cherith, and as presently he would go to show himself to Ahab. We catch sight of Gods ideal; we are enamoured with it; we vow to be only His; we use the most emphatic words; we dedicate ourselves upon the altar. For awhile we seem to tread another world, bathed in heavenly light. Then there comes a command clear and unmistakable. We must leave some beloved Cherith, and go to some unwelcome Zarephath; we must speak some word, take some step, cut off some habit: and we shrink from it--the cost is too great. But, directly we refuse obedience, the light dies off the landscape of our lives, and dark clouds fling their shadows far and near. Search the Bible from board to board, and see if strict, implicit, and instant obedience has not been the secret of the noblest lives.
III. Implicit obedience sometimes brings us into a smelting-furnace. Zarephath means a smelting-furnace. It lay outside the Land of Canaan, occupying the site of the modern Surafend, which stands on a long ridge, backed by the snowclad steeps of Hermon, and overlooking the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Many things might have made it distasteful to the prophet. It belonged to the land from which Jezebel had brought her impious tribe. It was as much cursed by the terrible drought as Canaan. It was impossible to reach it save by a weary journey of 100 miles through the heart of the land, where his name was execrated, and his person proscribed. And then to be sustained by a widow woman belonging to a heathen people! Surely it was a smelting-furnace for cleansing out any alloy of pride, or self-reliance, or independence which might be lurking in the recesses of his heart. And there was much of the refining fire in the character of his reception. When he reached the straggling town it was probably toward nightfall; and at the city gate a widow woman was gathering a few sticks to prepare the evening meal. To some it might have seemed a coincidence; but there is no such word in faiths vocabulary--that which, to human judgment Is a coincidence, to faith is a Providence. Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean (Num_31:23). If, then, there is aught in you that can bear the ordeal, be sure you will be put into the furnace. But the fire shall not destroy; it shall only cleanse you.
IV. When God puts His people into the furnace, He will supply all their need. God had said that he should be fed, and by that widow; and so it should be, though the earth and heaven should pass away. Difficulties are to faith what gymnastic apparatus are to boys, means of strengthening the muscular fibre. Like the fabled salamander, faith feeds on fire. And so with heroic faith Elijah said: Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. Our only need is to inquire if we are at that point in Gods pattern where He would have us be. If we are, though it seem impossible for us to be maintained, the thing impossible shall be done. (F. B. Meyer, M. A.)
I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.--
The widow of Zarephath
1. This woman was a Phoenician, of Jezebels own race and country, and by birth and training a believer in those very idolatries which the bloody Queen was then establishing in Palestine, and against which it was the chief part of the prophets burden to witness. From earliest days she had adored her gods. Doubtless the gorgeous ritual of Baal-worship had impressed and awed her senses, and under the terror of Astarte, the lover of blood, she had lived and cowered. Yet it is in her home that the persecuted Preacher of Jehovah finds refuge and welcome! And it is to her home that, in turn, he brings blessing. The Prophet of the Separation is also the Apostle of the Reconciliation. The essential germ of ultimate universality, that was in the Church from the beginning, bursts forth even in him who is the vindicator of her Dispensational exclusiveness. What a world of suggestion lies in the picture of Hebrew Prophet and Phoenician widow, Jehovahs champion and Jezebels countrywoman, under the same roof, sharing the same meal, in friendship and fellowship! The sternest anti-idolater of history by the side of an idolater, blessed and blessing! It is a forecast and prophecy, amid the worlds enmities and hates, of the reconciliation of the future to be wrought out by a greater than Elijah.
2. We have here, too, an illustration of the part which, in the economy of God, suffering plays in the education and perfection of men. The presence of common woe or want, of common peril or pain, has been to multitudes as the very angel of God, conciliating feuds, softening asperities, enlightening prejudices, cementing sundered souls, and forming those sympathetic attachments which give warmth to character and sweetness to life. These two in that marrow house at Zarephath, dwelling in harmony under the pressure of a common straitening, represent in themselves the emollient and healthful influence of suffering in softening and sweetening souls. They illustrate the part which the Divine economy of pain plays in purifying from prejudice, in bridging over the chasms of alienations and the gulches of hate. Dearth, drought, and the wrath of evil men drove these two to their meeting, a meeting for the gain of both, and of us too, and of all who have come between.
3. In this widow we have also a beautiful example of that faith that pleases God and is blessing to the soul in which it abides. I dare say there are some who may so unworthily judge about the matter as to think that she somewhat superstitiously concluded that this stranger was a miracle-worker, or that he was a God-possessed man, and that her faith was simply the credulity that led her to that conclusion. But I hope such persons are few. Lot us not draw that sharp line between faith and faithfulness which such a way of thinking implies. The two are not, indeed, as some would seem to say, the same thing. There is a difference; but it is such a difference as that which exists between bud and flower, flower and fruit, or fountain and flow. Faithfulness is that which impels a man to walk in the way of duty or charity, no matter how hard it may be, and to bear the consequences, be they what they may. Faith makes him do all that, but it adds its own element too. Her faithfulness would have made her do her duty: her faith made the doing of it to be religious. In this spirit and confidence she received her guest, followed her purest instincts--the dictates of her womanly affections--into the ways of self-forgetful charity, and looking up to the giving God overhead, left issues to Him. I do not say she thought or reasoned about it any more than a child would be likely to think or reason about the laws of respiration before breathing, or a flower to speculate scientifically before giving out its aroma. She herself was good, and kind, and self-denying, and she lovingly did her duty so as, according to her light, to please the power of the skies. A very commonplace village woman, in a lowly rut of life, tenderly doing the duty that lay next to her hand; and, within, a trustful heart, and an eye to look up.
4. But the point to which, just now, I must give the chief and closing emphasis is that she was a heathen. But of a truth I say unto you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, and unto none of them was Elijah sent, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Zidon, unto a woman that was a widow. The point to which he here calls attention, and which was so distasteful to the Jews, is that the prophet was not sent to any of those within the circle of the visible Church, but to one living outside, in the darkness of a heathen land. And in her, the child of disprivilege, he found that faith which he found not among the children of privilege. (G. M. Grant, B. D.)
The widow of Zarephath
I. Faith in the promises of God.
II. Obedience. Elijah obeys God at the risk of his own life. The widow obeys when requested by the prophet to bring him first a little water, and then a little cake. As disobedience led to the ruin of our first parents, so is it ever still the cause of endless difficulties and dangers in our spiritual course.
III. That Gods demands often increase gradually in their stringency. The prophet asks the widow first for a little water, and afterwards, as if water was not sufficiently difficult to be obtained in such a time of drought, he further requests a little cake, when only a small store of meal and oil was left to the poor widow. So God demands often the lighter sacrifices from us first, and then, as our faith and our patience increase, He afterwards asks from us sacrifices of a higher character; until at length, when, by a course of afflictions He has weaned us from earthly attachments, He exclaims, My son, give Me thy heart.
IV. That the darkest hour often precedes the dawn. It was when the widow woman was about to resign herself to despair, and to despondently await death, that the prophet appeared with the promise of prolonged support for life. The darkest cloud frequently has a silver lining. Never despair, is a good motto, and is a still better one if coupled with another maxim, Put your trust in God.
V. That God is no respecter of persons. This moral our Lord Himself draws from the story of this widow of Zarephath, or Sarepta. The lesson that to the Gentiles also the mercies of God were to be shown, was one that the prejudiced and self-righteous Jews were loath to admit. In the same way the modern Pharisee is disinclined to allow that salvation is possible for those who are outside his own little coterie of professors. (R. Young, M. A.)
Lessons from the obedient widow
I. The personalness of the Divine providence. It is always toward a Providential personalness that the Bible reads, e.g. Joseph in his dungeon; Daniel in Babylon; Saul in the house of Judas in the street called Straight--how beautiful that is, God knew the street and number of the praying Saul who became Paul; Elijah at Cherith; this widow at Zeraphath. In hard times get vision of this fact and lean your heart against the solid truth of the personalness of Providence.
II. What seem to be often our worst trials, are really our best blessings. What could seem worse to this widow than the advent of Elijah demanding that she make him the little cake? But what seemed worst embosomed what was best--the unwasting meal, the unfailing oil. Do not let us be overmuch scared at black trials; they may hold the best benignancies.
III. How small soever our resources, we can still do something for God.
IV. The value of sharing. This woman gave one meal to the prophet and God sustained her for two years. It is as we give we get. This is specially true in religious experience. If we seek to impart the blessedness of our own faith we infallibly get increase of faith.
V. God first. Elijah, representing God, commanded, Make me a little cake first. Ah, that first I Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
Gracious people outside the church
Nature has her wild flowers, and they have their own loose lawless beauty. Yet the finest effects in form, colour, and fragrance are only to be found under careful cultivation. Wild roses are no argument against the value of gardening; for even cultivated flowers, if left to themselves, will revert little by little to their wild, rude state. And so outside the church of Jesus Christ there are good and noble, end in some senses morally winsome souls: and yet it is true that, for the full cultivation of Christian character, we need the garden of the Lord, Christ Jesus, by His Spirit being the Chief Gardener. Even the wild flowers, in whatever measure they possess beauty and perfume, get it, from His secret influence, though they know it not. In the realm of spirit it is as true as in nature and history, He upholdeth all things by the word of His power. (H. O. Mackey.)
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 vv8, 17 1Ki_17:9. Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon—Sarepta, situate between Tyre…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1Ki_17:9. Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon—Sarepta, situate between Tyre and Sidon, in the native land of Jezebel. Yet this “widow” knew JEHOVAH (1Ki_17:12), and appealed to His High Name in verification of her words.
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1Ki_17:13. Fear not; go and do, &c.—A severe test of faith, for there was nothing between her and death except the promise of 1Ki_17:14. Nevertheless, with nought save a promise to assure her, she made her solitary cake, and saw it eaten by Elijah. Yet starvation was not the issue, but salvation.
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki_17:8-16
RESCUE IN EXTREMITY
I. That a time of extremity reveals the Divine source of our daily comforts. The water of the brook on which Elijah had depended for daily refreshment gradually diminished, and at length altogether disappeared, and the prophet was again reminded of his absolute dependence on God for hourly sustenance. The greatest blessings are apt to be regarded with indifference because of the constancy of their supply. The daily return of the sunlight, the equal diffusion of the air we breathe, the regular beat of the life-pulse, the abundant yield of the soil on which we tread, are bestowed with such uniformity and faithfulness, that there is danger we should forget the great source of them all. When we are deprived for a time of the most ordinary blessings of life, then do we become vividly conscious of their former presence and of their unspeakable value. Every new day should be vocal with new thanksgivings and praises for the new mercies which it brings.
II. That a time of extremity induces a spirit of ready obedience. “So he arose and went to Zarephath” (1Ki_17:10). Elijah might be tempted to question: Why may not the same Divine power which sends the ravens with food keep the Cherith in perpetual flow? And if I must remove, why not go back to Israel rather than into Phœnicia, the idolatrous home of Jezebel, whose enormities I am commissioned to punish? But the instinct of obedience was stronger than all such questionings; and that instinct was sharpened by the difficulties in which he found himself. To remain was to perish, and to obey opened the only prospect of relief and sustenance. “Servants rise when the bell rings,” says the proverb; and Elijah at once set out on his long and adventurous journey. He was like Israel in the wilderness. “At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed.” So God often leads his people out by a way that they know not, and the reluctance to follow the Divine leading is overcome by the utter perplexity of the circumstances into which they are sometimes brought, and their inability to discover a better way than the one indicated. It is the triumph of self-surrender to God when the believer can say—
Nor will I hear, nor will I speak,
Of any other will but Thine.
III. That a time of extremity encourages faith in God amid the most unfavourable appearances (1Ki_17:10-12). The prophet was to be dependent on a woman, and she a Gentile, when there were many women in Israel any of whom would have counted it a coveted honour to minister to the wants of the persecuted champion of Jehovah; a widow woman, and a widow woman in such abject poverty that she and her emaciated son were reduced to the last point, of starvation (1Ki_17:12). It seemed very unlikely that a woman in whose home famine had wrought such havoc should be the future hostess of the famishing prophet. But Elijah, undaunted by the ghastly and unpromising appearance of things, had faith in God; he who quailed not in the presence of Ahab and Jezebel, yielded not in the presence of improbabilities which were even more difficult to confront. True faith triumphs over the most forbidding circumstances; above all external things it sees God and His all-conquering promise. Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform” (Rom_4:20-21). Faith eats its way through all Alps of opposition.
IV. That a time of extremity affords opportunity for the most signal display of Divine power (1Ki_17:12-16).
1. It reveals how God has His hidden ones in the most unlikely places. This Gentile woman was not ignorant of Jehovah, and she at once recognized Elijah as His prophet. “As the Lord thy God liveth” (1Ki_17:12). She was probably a believer (Luk_4:26), however imperfect might be her faith, and the narrative shows she was capable of the most disinterested kindness, and of the most implicit confidence in the word of God (1Ki_17:14-15). “Phenicia was the last place in the world to have found a worshipper of the Lord, the living God. It was also the last place in the world to have found an Elijah. And yet both are here—the one a lily among thorns, the other, in the quaint but fine thought of Lightfoot, the first apostle to the Gentiles.” The rarest virtues are sometimes found in the most unexpected places. During the last journey of Livingstone, the veteran African traveller, he was compelled, in consequence of a tribal war, to change his route, and pass through a country where no rain had fallen, and the grass, mostly burnt off, left a surface covered with black ashes, from which the heat radiated as from a furnace. Yet, out of this hard, hot surface, the flowers would persist in coming. So amid the moral wastes of heathendom, where the soil is hard and black, and apparently unfertile, and where our missionaries have toiled so long with such earnestness and devotion, the delicate flowers of Christian virtues have pushed their way, displaying their modest beauty, and scattering their hallowing fragrance—foretokens of the coming period when the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Isa_35:1)
2. It reveals the boundless resources of Jehovah in supplying the needs of His people (1Ki_17:16). With God nothing is impossible, and rather than His people should perish He will work a miracle. The same power that multiplied the loaves and fishes to the multitude on the shores of Galilee could, with equal ease, replenish the meal barrel and oil cruse in the home of the Sareptan widow. “So that,” writes Maurice, “the person from whom Elijah was to receive sustenance, and whom, as a return for that favour, he was to teach trust in the Lord God of Israel that her barrel of meal should not waste, neither her cruse of oil fail, was a woman of that very country from which Jezebel had come—the very country from which the Baal worship had been imported. The Lord God of the nation, then, was one in whom the weak and poor of all nations might confide, one from whom they might ask their daily bread, and on whom they might cast their heaviest cares.” God will be no debtor to them who trust Him in extremity, or who show kindness to His servants.
LESSONS:—
1. God is not indifferent to the wants and sufferings of His people.
2. A time of temporal straitness is often one of richest spiritual blessing.
3. We cannot grieve God more than by distrusting Him.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ki_17:8-16. The barrel of meal and the cruse of oil. Learn from this incident: I. The uncertainty of earthly comforts. When Elijah went to Cherith he would never dream of that brook becoming exhausted. He would settle down there till the drought passed away. But, when least expecting it, the word of the Lord came: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath.” Cherith, with all its pleasant associations, had to be left. What a picture of human life! How many are there of whose worldly comforts it may be said: “After a while the brook dried up.” One man is settled in life, with circumstances all that could be desired, and he contemplates the future with pleasure; but unexpectedly something arises—bank failure or commercial crisis—which tells him that the brook is dried up, and he has to leave his Cherith. Another looks with pride and hope upon a child—his pleasure and joy flow from that child—but, unnoticed, disease settles upon it and takes it away. So with earthly comforts. They are uncertain, and do not warrant the eagerness with which they are sought, or the value with which they are invested. II. The certainty of God’s care. God made provision for Elijah at Zarephath before He commanded him to leave Cherith. Decay and change may characterise all our earthly comforts, but they do not characterise God; He remains the same, and His care can never fail. Many changes are permitted to our circumstances, to lead us to more implicit confidence in the unchangeable God. III. Godly generosity shall not lose its reward. This woman had a truly generous spirit, which was bounded only by her means. She listened readily to Elijah’s request, and showed a spirit willing to accede to it; and her generosity secured her abundance. God blessed her house for entertaining His servant, as He blessed the house of Obed Edom for sheltering the ark.—The Study and Pulpit.
1Ki_17:10-13. Now here was a demand upon the faith of this woman—from a foreign man and a foreign God—as large as any exacted from the great prophet himself. See how it stands: First, she was to make up her provisions for Elijah, trusting that, as he had said, more would then come miraculously to supply her own wants. What a trial! What would the bird in the hand worth two in the bush principle say to this? Who could have it in his heart to blame her had she declined to run what was, under the circumstances, so hard a risk? Who would condemn her if she had discredited this stranger? How could she know but that, after he had eaten up her precious bread, he might laugh in her face? Besides, was not his very anxiety to be served first of all very suspicious? Looked it not as if he were determined, at all hazards, to secure a meal for himself; and could we call it unreasonable had she asked for the proof first—which could be given as well before as after—that it should be as he had said? But nothing of this occurred. She went and did as Elijah had told her, and found the result as he had promised. This was faith of the true sort, heroic faith, the faith that asks no questions.—Kitto.
1Ki_17:10. “So he arose and went to Zarephath.” Compared with 1Ki_17:15 : Obedience to God. I. Should be prompt and unquestioning. II. Involves sacrifice and suffering. III. Is always rewarded with blessing.
1Ki_17:12. Happy was it for this widow that she did not shut her hand to the man of God, that she was no niggard of her last handful; never corn or oil did so increase in growing as here in consuming. This barrel, this cruse of hers, had no bottom; the barrel of meal wasted not, the cruse of oil failed not. Behold, not getting, not saving, is the way to abundance, but giving. The mercy of God crowns our beneficence with the blessing of store. Who can fear want by a merciful liberality, when he sees the Sareptan had famished if she had not given, and by giving abounded? With what thankful devotion must this woman every day needs look upon her barrel and cruse, wherein she saw the mercy of God renewed to her continually? Doubtless her soul was no less fed by faith than her body by this supernatural provision.—Bp. Hall.
1Ki_17:13. Fear not! Ah! how often has a child of God bemoaned—Now all is lost! I have nothing more, and know nothing more. The operations of the Spirit of God have ceased for me; the meal and oil are gone! And yet, where there is nothing more amid the night and the darkness, the morning brings something upon which one can live and find nourishment for the soul, although the time be miserable.—Lange.
1Ki_17:15. It was one of those sudden recognitions of unknown kindred souls, one of those cross-purposes of Providence, which come in with a peculiar charm to chequer the commonplace course of ecclesiastical history. The Phœnician mother knew not what great destinies lay in the hand of that gaunt figure at the city gate, worn with travel, and famine, and drought. She obeyed only the natural instinct of humanity; but she saved in him the deliverer of herself and her son. It may be that this incident is the basis of the sacred blessing of the Prophet of prophets on those who, even by a cup of cold water, receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward.—Stanley.
1Ki_17:16. The same God who spoke by means of Elijah—The meal in the barrel shall not be wasted, and the oil in the cruse shall not fail—has also promised, as long as the earth lasts, seed-time and harvest, frost and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease (Gen_8:22). We are astonished at the little miracle in the cabin at Sarepta, but we pass over with indifference, and without attention, the large miracle.—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.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v9 Zarephath called Sarepta, Oba 1:20; Luk 4:26.
Zarephath called Sarepta, Oba 1:20; Luk 4:26.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv8, 17 Elijah in Zarephath
Elijah in Zarephath
v. 8. And the word of the Lord came unto him, when the brook no longer furnished him water to drink, saying,
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v. 9. Arise, get thee to Zarephath, in the Phoenician country, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee, He had made provisions to take further care of His prophet, and would in due time influence her heart to do His bidding.
v. 10. So he, Elijah, arose, and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks, Elijah recognizing her as a widow either by her clothes or by the fact that she was engaged in this lowly task. And he called to her, to find out whether she were the woman of whom the Lord had spoken, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink, the vessel being his own drinking-cup, which he had carried with him from the land of Israel.
v. 11. And as she, readily complying with his request, was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand, the smallest-sized loaf, in the form of a cake or bun, being understood, as such were baked in hot ashes.
v. 12. And she said, As the Lord, thy God, liveth, her oath being in the name of Jehovah, whom she undoubtedly worshiped, although surrounded on all sides by heathen, I have not a cake, such as she understood Elijah to have reference to, but an handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse, the oil being mixed with the flour in baking; and, behold, I am gathering two, that is, a few, sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, bake a last batch, that we may eat it and die, for she saw starvation staring her in the face.
v. 13. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. To the word of comfort was added a demand, which must have been a sore test for the woman’s faith.
v. 14. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, not be consumed, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth, whose fruitfulness would thereby be restored and the famine broken.
v. 15. And she, with a faith which would scarcely hare been found in Israel, went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house, including not only her son, but such other relatives as partook of her bounty, did eat many days, a long while.
v. 16. And 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, and with which He had reassured her. The story of this widow is used by Christ Luk 4:25, in order to warn all men against despising His Word. God is not mocked; when men reject His message of salvation, they have but themselves to blame if they are overlooked in the distribution of spiritual blessings.
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 vv8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 22 The word of Yahweh came
The word of Yahweh came
This idiom means God spoke. See how you translated this in 1 Kings 6:11. AT: "Yahweh spoke his message" (See: Idiom)
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came to him
Here the word "him" refers to Elijah.
Zarephath
This is a town. (See: How to Translate Names)
Look, I
"Pay attention, because what I am about to say is both true and important: I"
translationWords
Sidon
life
gate
call
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 vv9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 17:9-16 Elijah’s faith was tested further. At Kerith Brook,…
17:9-16 Elijah’s faith was tested further. At Kerith Brook, God had supplied his needs directly. With these supplies cut off, Elijah now had to depend on a foreign woman’s response to a divine test. The account details the setting (17:8-10a), Elijah’s test for the widow (17:10b-14), the woman’s compliance, and God’s reward (17:15-16).
17:9-11 Zarephath was in Phoenician territory about seven miles south of Sidon, away from Ahab’s jurisdiction. Ironically, God provided Elijah a place of refuge in Jezebel’s homeland, which was associated with worship of Baal. • So he went: Elijah again (see 17:5) obeyed the Lord’s command. Obedience (1 Sam 15:22; Ps 40:1-6; Isa 1:10-20), trust (Ps 37:3; Prov 3:5-6), and faithfulness (Ps 18:25; Rev 2:10) are foundational attributes for successful spiritual service. • God’s ongoing provision for Elijah and the widow of Zarephath demonstrated God’s concern for all people who put him first. • water . . . bread: Elijah asked for the basic staples of life, but these were in scarce supply as the drought spread into Phoenician territory.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.