Elijah had obeyed God and stayed by the brook and the ravens brought food to him. Because there had been no rain, he stayed there until the brook became a trickle, and soon there was no water left to drink. He might have made a little plan for himself, but he waited for God’s plan, and that’s the wisest thing to do for every decision we face in life.
God told him, Arise, go to Zare-phath, for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.
Now this did not seem like a good plan. Poor widows in a time of famine can’t feed anybody. But God can, and with Him it was no problem. It is impossible for a person to give you the breath of life, and it is impossible for a person to take away your sin. But God can! He has given His Son to take our sin upon Himself when He died on Calvary’s cross. The only problem is in the sinner who will not come to Him. Won’t you come and see?
Elijah went to Zarephath, and there was the widow at the city gate, stooping to gather a few dry sticks, and I’m sure there were plenty of dry sticks around. Please, called Elijah, may I have a little water in a cup? And the widow went at once to get it for him, though I’m sure water was scarce. Bring me a bit of bread in your hand, he added.
As the Lord your God lives, she said, I don’t have a cake, but only a handful of flour in a barrel and a little oil in a jar. I am gathering two sticks to make a little fire and one little pancake so that my son and I may eat it, and then we will die.
She had very little. But Elijah had a promise from God, and the widow had faith to believe it, and that made her very rich.
Elijah told her, Go and make me a little cake first and bring it to me, and after that make one for you and your son. And now came the promise: The bin of flour shall not be used up, and neither shall the jar of oil go dry, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.
Making a cake out of flour and oil was something that she did every day for herself and her son, but now will she take her last handful of flour and the last of her oil to make a cake for God’s messenger? Would God’s promise hold true that she would not run out of either flour or oil?
Can you and I do the same? Can we make our everyday duties an act of true faith in the God who is in control of all things?
Yes, the promise came true - each day there was flour in the bin and oil in the jar. The family’s needs for food were supplied one day at a time, until the Lord sent rain upon the earth.
This promise was for one widow only, and maybe her neighbors went hungry, but God’s promise today is for anybody. God says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17), and the word “whosoever” includes you. But are you choosing to leave yourself out because you don’t believe God’s promise?
Now the widow had one more thing to learn. God had another miracle that only He is able to do. Her son became sick, very sick, until he stopped breathing. Who could she turn to for help?
She called to the man of God - Elijah. She knew she was a sinner, and now that death had come to her son, her conscience made her afraid. It was God who had power not only to keep her flour and oil from running out, but to restore the life of her son too. It is good for us to remember this.
Why had this happened? Elijah was puzzled too, but he did not turn away. Give me your son, said Elijah, and he carried the child up to his room and laid him on his own bed. He stretched himself out upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to life.
Yes, the Lord heard Elijah’s prayer. The child’s soul came back to life, and Elijah took him to his mother.
The widow said, Now I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord that you speak is true.
The Bible tells us about an even more wonderful resurrection. Our Jesus rose from the dead! And when He returns to give the great shout in the sky, those who belong to Him, whether dead or alive, will rise at once to meet Him in the air.
Do you believe that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and if you are His, that you also will rise to meet Him? “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. . . . He was buried, and. . . He rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).