14 Days in the Company of Elijahনমুনা

Day 2: Elijah and the Widow (1 Kings 17:7–16)

1 Kings 17:7 inverts Elijah’s story with an abrupt shift. Without warning, Elijah’s brook dries up (it’s not immune to the effects of the very drought he predicted), and the prophet’s season of seclusion and refreshing from God’s hand seems to be over. But then comes the divine imperative once again, with instructions that must have seemed as strange to Elijah as the ones that sent him out to be fed by ravens. “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you” (1 Ki 17:9, NLT). Sidon—live in non-Israelite territory? A Gentile widow is getting instructions from the God of Israel? Despite the unusual nature of the commands, Elijah recognizes the Lord’s voice and responds once again with unquestioning obedience—he goes to Zarephath (1 Ki 17:10).

And there we meet this wonderful Phoenician woman. As she’s gathering sticks just outside the village gate, the prophet asks her for a cup of water. With prompt and gracious hospitality (a high virtue in that culture), she heads off to get his drink. As she goes, he boldly presses his request: “Bring me a bite of bread, too” (1 Ki 17:11, NLT). Her response to Elijah reveals a lot about her situation: “I swear by the Lord your God” (1 Ki 17:12a, NLT)—she seems to recognize Elijah and his relationship to Israel’s God while at the same time setting herself apart as an outsider. She makes an oath in the Lord’s name, demonstrating her respect for Israel’s God, then describes her situation: “I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug” (1 Ki 17:12b, NLT). The sticks she was gathering were to make a cooking fire for baking the last of the flour and oil into bread for a final meal for her son and herself. Because of the famine (which had spread beyond the borders of Israel), her little family, already in a precarious situation after the death of her husband, was facing certain starvation.

What she doesn’t seem to know is that God has chosen her to feed Elijah! However, God has been preparing her for this moment; she doesn’t yet see it. But when the man of God speaks the word of God to her, she recognizes the authority of the voice and responds with the same bold obedience that Elijah has demonstrated. He tells her to go ahead and bake that last loaf of bread—but feed it to him! And as she does so, she’ll discover a little more oil and flour left in the containers for feeding her family. Then Elijah gives this foreign woman a solemn promise from “the Lord, God of Israel” (1 Ki 17:14a, NLT). To this non-Israelite woman, Yahweh promises an unending supply of just enough flour and oil for the three of them to eat daily “until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!” (1 Ki 17:14b, NLT). The narrator reports that she did as Elijah said (1 Ki 17:15), and they experienced that miraculous provision for many days. Together, Elijah the Israelite and this unnamed non-Israelite widow demonstrate the essential quality of biblical faithfulness:

They did just as the Lord said, even when it made little sense through the lens of human logic.