We learned that because of King Ahab’s wickedness God brought
a famine on the land, and that He sent Elijah to inform King Ahab of what was
to come. It appears that King Ahab
didn’t take the news well and as a result God sent Elijah to a hiding place
where He provided for Elijah’s needs while King Ahab searched the country for
him.
After a while the brook where God had placed Elijah dried up
and Elijah needed a new hiding place.
God sent him to a certain widow in a city called Zarephath.
That’s where we’re going to start part 2 of our study …
Being a widow at this time in history was difficult enough but
when you add in the consequences of a famine the situation worsens. Not only was this woman a widow in the midst
of a severe drought, but she was a widow with a young son. It’s important to note here that the widow was
not homeless and that she had a house with a spare upper room (I Kings
17:19). This makes me think that maybe
there was no food to purchase or that she might have used up or possibly lost
all her money. Regardless of the why, her
situation was dire, to say the least.
Such was the case when we first meet the widow of Zarephath.
Luke 4:25-26 … 25 But I say to you in truth, there
were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for
three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; 26 and
yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of
Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
(Sidenote: Zarephath was part of the land given to the tribe
of Asher (Joshua 19:28), but Asher never controlled it, because of Israel’s failure
to destroy the Canaanites as God had instructed in Deuteronomy 20:17 and in
Judges 1:31)
When I look closely at these verses, I notice the following:
There were many widows in Israel during this famine.
The famine lasted 3 ½ years.
The famine was severe.
God sent Elijah to a particular widow outside of Israel’s
control.
This particular widow was hand-picked by God out of many.
I Kings 17:9-12 (NASB) …
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon,
and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for
you.”
The word ‘commanded’ jumped out at me in this verse and I
wanted to know if this woman had a choice, or did God force her to obey? According to Strongs, the Hebrew word for
command in this verse means charge, command, commission, appoint, ordain (of
divine act).
The NIV used the word directed in place of command, but almost
all of the other translations I looked at used the word command which to me,
has a stronger connotation.
This is one of those verses where I had to step back and look
at the whole of the Bible and of what it teaches about God. When I did that, I decided that God did not
force the widow to provide for Elijah but commanded/directed her to with the
built in option of her choosing to disobey.
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he
came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks;
and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a cup, so that
I may drink.”
God’s timing placed the right widow at the right place at the
right time.
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her
and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
Did Elijah know this woman was the widow God was sending him
to when he entered the city gates?
12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have
no food, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and
behold, I am gathering a few sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for me
and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
Was this woman a Jew or was she a Gentile, did she believe in
the one true God, did she even know about the one true God? In her desperation,
was she seeking the one true God? My
opinion is that she was a Gentile, with her only knowledge of God being hearsay
or possible occasional teachings from followers of God who passed through the
city. I find it quite easy to think that
in her desperation, she was indeed seeking the one true God, I’m pretty sure I
would have been! If she was a Gentile, she
was dependent on someone else to teach her about the one true God. Maybe God was using her to provide a place of
residence and provision for Elijah so that he could teach God’s word not only
to her but also to the pagan society in which she lived. When God guides, He provides! Teaching comes in all forms, shapes and sizes,
doesn’t it? It was how the word of God
was spread then and it’s how it’s spread now. It’s a pretty big responsibility for those who
are believers!
Since God had commanded the widow to provide for Elijah, I
wonder if she was on the lookout for him. Do you think she thought about how she would recognize
him? If the widow had been on the
lookout, how long had she been waiting and watching? I wonder if, when she was down to her last
meal, if maybe she thought that God had changed His mind about sending Elijah
to her since she no longer had any food.
If so, this would be a good reminder that God’s timing is not our timing
and that when we think we have nothing left to give that God shows up and
proves otherwise.
The widow was picking up sticks in order to build a fire to
prepare the last bit of food she had for her and her son (verse 12). Can’t you just feel the hopelessness the
widow surely felt, she had done all she could do, there was nothing left except
to prepare her and her son’s last meal and then to die. The widow desperately needed help and God was
in the process of showing up in ways that she couldn’t yet fathom.
I find it interesting that God could have provided for Elijah
any way that He wanted, hadn’t He just been doing so via ravens and a babbling
brook (I Kings 17:3-4), but instead He chose a destitute widow living in a
pagan city. One has to wonder what it
was about the widow of Zarephath that made God decide, out of all the widows He
could have chosen in Israel (Luke 4:25-26), to choose this particular one
outside of Israel?
Maybe she had a servant heart.
Maybe her location was a deciding factor.
Maybe it was that she was willing.
Maybe in her desperation she had been seeking God. God always shows up for those seeking Him.
Maybe God had a lesson for the widow to learn.
Maybe God had a lesson for everyone to learn.
Maybe it was all of the above.
What are your thoughts?
In closing I’d like to share some take-aways I came up with
from this lesson:
Our status in life has nothing to do with God’s ability to use
us.
Sometimes God has dual or even multiple purposes for things
that happen.
God works with the willing.
God gives us opportunities to serve Him.
God lets us choose.
God is always right on time.
God has a plan.
God wants everyone to have access to His saving grace.
God is faithful and trustworthy.
I’d love it if you’d share any take-aways or
insights you have over what we’ve studied in this lesson.
May you
be blessed by what you’ve read!
patsy @ From This Heart Of Mine
(c) 2023 by Patsy Norwood. All Rights
Reserved.
