March 25, 2020: Day 53 – I Kings 17

We find ourselves introduced in this chapter to Elijah, one of the most well known prophets of God.  You can see above where the map where he undertook his ministry.  It all took place in the north, so that means it all took place under the watchful eye of the kings of the north, including Ahab.  He is from the place called Tishbe which is right to the east of the Jordan.  We find him opening his ministry by speaking against Ahab in vs.1 warning him that there will be no rain or dew until Elijah says so.  Which basically means until God tells Elijah.

As a result he goes and settles just south of his home town in a little wadi, which basically means a small stream.  But since there was a drought, as he predicted, that stream dried up and he was without water.  The word of God sends him to a town to live with a widow and her boy.  I hope you noticed in vs.13 that  Elijah encourages her to take a chance and serve him first and then she and her boy would be served throughout the whole time of the drought.  She believes him and serves him for a long time and so the water and the oil do not run out, which is a miracle, by the way.  She took the risk of using up her last ingredients, and she was paid back by being provided for throughout the drought.

But then her boy is sick and basically dies.  She yells at the prophet wondering where God was in the midst of all of this.  How soon she forgot her words from vs.12 that she was going home to die before she met the prophet.  Elijah takes the boy up to the room, yells at God by saying: “have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying?”  And then he adds: “Let this child’s life come into him again.”  

The miracle takes place, the boy rises from the dead, and it isn’t until that happens that the widow states: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”  It took the raising of her son, not the daily provision which was in and of itself a miracle, which made the difference.

I pray that we are able to see the hand of God at work in our life before God has to actually work specific miracles that blow us away.  I pray that we are able to see the hand of God even in the ordinary every day things in life.