Event IV
ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW FROM ZAREPHATH
by Charles Quigley
In our study of rewarding relationships between Jews and Gentiles in Biblical history, we have considered people and events ranging in time from Joseph’s dealings with the Gentile Pharaoh, King of Egypt; Moses’ experience with the Gentile Reuel, priest of Midian; and following the return of the nation of Israel to Canaan, the experience of the Gentile Ruth with her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi and the community of Bethlehem. We have been introduced to commoners, to nation-leaders, and even one later considered an intercessor between the Jewish people and God.
Next we view an altogether different sort on the social ladder, a Hebrew prophet, not the sort of person one would expect to associate with Jewish people generally, much less with Gentiles. And the theme of our discussion, after all, is the rewarding relationships between Jews and Gentiles. But we get ahead of our story.
"For thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.'"
So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah. (1 Kings 17:14-16)
Association of the prophets with the common people during early biblical times is not clearly defined in scripture, but we infer that such occurrences were quite rare.
E. H. Merrill(1) offers an illuminating picture of the prophets and their society, which we briefly summarize, on the way to our incident. In early times, the last judge of Israel Samuel apparently founded the school of prophets which later would include members such as Nathan and Gad, persons who were especially chosen by GOD to announce the Word of GOD to the kings under whom they served. They frequently would appear in groups or bands and participated in some kind of communal life. The function of the Hebrew prophet was to proclaim and interpret the Word of GOD, to exhort the rulers and the people to a course of action as prescribed by GOD, and to declare GOD’s judgment. Their mission, basically, was to act as GOD’s messenger and make known GOD’s will.
While the Bible narrative describes false as well as true prophets, the false prophet would be known as such if he spoke in the name of the Lord and the certain thing of which he spoke did not come to pass. Just one failure was enough! The penalty of a false prophet was death by stoning!
On the other hand, a true prophet was one who always, without exception, spoke what ultimately came to pass — one hundred percent correct, without any error! (How many of our modern-day so-called prophets have that track record?)
The prophets of the surrounding regions were typically pagan diviners and practitioners of magic, actively seeking to manipulate their god to their own plans and purposes. (We are reminded of the prophet Balaam, hired by Balak king of Moab to curse the sons of Israel, just about to return into the land of Canaan.)(2) But the Jewish prophets on the other hand were passive instruments of GOD who knew His mind only as He chose to reveal Himself. Consequently, none of the Jewish prophets could call down fire and brimstone, nor speak an incantation to cause someone’s death, nor to raise someone to life, unless GOD willed it.
As to a prophet’s interaction with the common people in ordinary life, according to scripture, that was rare indeed. More often, a prophet would suddenly appear at some critical point in history, having never before been heard from.(3,4,5)
Perhaps the only example of everyday life appears in the illuminating story which concerns the prophet Elisha, shortly after he receives Elijah’s mantle. As he passed near Bethel one day, young boys came out from the city and mocked him. Elisha responded by cursing them, and two female bears came out and killed forty-two of the boys! Yes, interaction between Jewish prophets and common people in everyday life was apparently rare indeed.
IF INTERACTION of Jewish prophets with Jewish common people was rare, outside of the performance of the prophet’s office that is, interaction with Gentile common people was even rarer. One such example occurs as a logical outcome of Elijah’s first meeting with King Ahab of the Northern Kindom Israel.
Elijah had appeared at the command of the Lord to declare to Ahab GOD’s curse upon the land: a great famine in which there would be no rainfall at all until Elijah would declare it. After declaring the famine to Ahab, Elijah now flees from Ahab at GOD’s command to hide himself by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan River. There, he would drink of the brook and be fed by the ravens, sent from GOD. But soon the brook dries up, so that GOD sends him to a widow at Zarephath, which was part of Sidon, in Gentile territory. (Zarephath is located along the Mediterranean coast in what is now Lebanon, about 25 miles north of Acre.)
When Elijah requests water and a piece of bread from the widow, she declares that she has none, only a little flour and oil with which she is about to prepare a last meal for her and her son, after which they would die. Presented with this somber news, Elijah responds in a curious manner, that she should do just as she had said, only feed Elijah first and only then prepare food for herself and her son. This was surely a most curious command, for there were only supplies enough for food for two, but Elijah says, in effect, "No, feed me first!"
Lest she (and the reader) might misunderstand, thinking Elijah selfish, even heartless, he explains by the word of the Lord, declaring the good thing that would come to this household that day and for many months to come, to last throughout the period of the drought.(6) And so it comes to pass, just as he/He had said.
But wait, the best of the story is yet to come!
Later, the widow’s son becomes sick, so that finally he no longer breathes. Now the reader will recall from our discussion of Ruth and Naomi, that a woman’s welfare depended upon her husband, that when her husband died she was destitute, without any source of income. While the widow’s son in this story was just a child, she yet had hope that when he grew, he would be able to provide for his mother. But now he also is dead. And so the widow confronts Elijah, asking in effect in what way she had mistreated the prophet that he would call down a curse on her by afflicting her son, her only hope.
There follows the remarkable narrative in which Elijah calls upon the name of the Lord to ask if it was GOD’s purpose to judge the widow, and to ask that the life of the child be restored. And there is the dramatic scene in which Elijah stretches himself across the still form of the boy, as though to impart some of the prophet’s life to restore the boy, perhaps even to give the boy Elijah’s own life if that was GOD’s will. GOD hears Elijah’s prayer and the life of the boy is restored.
When Elijah takes the child and brings him to his mother, restored to life, the widow declares, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth." (Here unfortunately the English translation is not so obvious, that by speaking of the LORD, she means Yahweh, the God of Israel.) It is interesting to observe that it is not the miracle of the multiplying of the flour and oil that reveals this truth to the Gentile widow, but rather the restoration of her son’s life.
We close this incident with an interesting question. Consider who it was who was blessed more by this unusual encounter of a Jewish prophet and Gentile widow. Surely, by the widow’s hand, the prophet was sustained by food for many months. But by the prophet’s ministry, this Gentile widow was given true life!
(1) E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996. Pp. 196; 378-381.
(2) Numbers 22-24.
(3) See for example Elijah's sudden first appearance to King Ahab, 1 Kings 17.
(4) See also the prophet Nathan, who first appears to David to declare GOD's judgment for David's sin with Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 5.
(5) Again, see concerning the building of the Temple, 2 Samuel 7.
(6) 1 Kings 17:14.
