Proverbs 3:5 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding… Will you dare to trust God? Last week we began a look at 1 Kings 17 and how the prophet Elijah dared to trust God. Review: 1 Kings 17:1-16. The very first words of chapter 17 are startling. 1 Kings 17:1 (ESV) Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word. Out of nowhere we have someone named Elijah on the scene. We are not given any warmup or background about Elijah. Suddenly he arrives and delivers God’s word to Ahab, the most wicked king that Israel has ever seen. Drought was punishment for covenant disobedience, so Elijah was confronting Ahab’s and the nation’s sin. This is the first act that shows how Elijah dared to trust God.
After saying these words, God tells Elijah to go hide himself. It is a dangerous time to be a follower of God. God tells Elijah to go east of the Jordan. It hardly made sense to head into the wilderness during an extended and severe drought, but Elijah doesn’t rely on his own understanding, instead he trusts in the Lord with all his heart and does what he is told. 1 Kings 17:5 (NIV) So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. And Elijah’s trust in the Lord is affirmed as God delivers exactly what he promised: food and water daily. 1 Kings 17:6 (NASB) And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
But verse 7 tells us the brook dried up. No more water for Elijah to drink. The water runs dry. God tests our trust. God wants to see what we will do when the brook dries up. God does not always make it easy for his people. He does not make it easy for Elijah. God is not forgetting Elijah; He is challenging Elijah. How do you react when the “brook dries up?” Do you panic or do you dare to trust the Lord? God could have kept that brook flowing with water for Elijah to enjoy. But God tests our faith sometimes because the testing of your faith produces perseverance (James 1:3).
But Elijah was tested even further when God told Elijah to go to Zarephath in the region of Sidon (1 Kings 17:9). This was in the heart of pagan country, Jezebel’s backyard. But that isn’t the end of the test. Once there, Elijah will be provided for by a poor pagan widow, who herself is down to her last meal (1 Kings 17:12). But once again, Elijah refuses to lean on his own understanding and instead puts all his trust in God. He dared to trust God, and the Lord provided, “there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family” (1 Kings 17:15).
Think about the amount of trust required in 1 Kings 17:7-16. God tells Elijah to leave the nation of Israel and go to Sidon, the home turf of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, and the land of Baal worship. Further, go to Zarephathand a widow is going to feed you. Widows were not typically providers. Being a widow in ancient times was like having a death sentence and a pagan widow, during an extreme famine and drought, was certainly not a provider. But God said to go, so Elijah placed his trust in God’s word and went. What would you have done? Would you have done like Elijah and dared to trust God?
What about the woman? She was likely a Baal worshiper. But she is told to not be afraid because the God of Israel says that the flour and oil will not run out (1 Kings 17:14). Just trust God’s Word and feed Elijah first. In verse 15 we see that she did exactly as Elijah said. Then in verse 16 we see that the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. The woman dared to trust God.
Suddenly in verse 17, the opening of the third passage, it appears that things do not go according to plan. 1 Kings 17:17 (NIV) Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. The widow’s son gets sick and goes downhill until he dies. It looks as if the boy has been saved from starvation only to die of some unnamed illness.
What looked like hope and help through Elijah now appears to be pain and loss. You can imagine what went through this poor woman’s mind. She thought life was going to be great, oil and flour continued to be provided every day. But now her son dies.
Scholars argue about whether the boy was dead or just close to death. Critics seek to discredit this miracle by saying the boy wasn’t really dead and the text leaves a hint of doubt. Most major translations say that the boy stopped breathing. The ESV says “there was no breath left in him.” The NIV states that he “stopped breathing.” The NASB says “he was no longer breathing.” The NKJ and KJ say, “there was no breath left in him.” Only the NLT, which is technically a paraphrase version, says “he died.” But it is certainly implied in all the translations. If you piece together the three Hebrew words translated in the phrase “stopped breathing” from the NIV, you get a phrase like: “the boy’s life left him”, or he was “without life”. So, it is safe to assume that the boy died.
So, sometime after the events recorded in the first 16 verses, we are not told how long, but we are told that sometime after the promises of 1 Kings 17:14 the woman’s son gets sick and dies. We can imagine the happy days of provision in the household of the widow. Their needs were supplied by a continuing miracle of God. Yet those happy days were eventually covered by a dark shadow, the sickness and death of the widow’s son. The death of the son was a double blow. Not only did she suffer as any mother who loses a child, but she also suffered as one who lost her only hope for the future. The expectation was that her son would grow and provide for her in her old age. Now that expectation was gone. Further, there is no word from the Lord. There is no explanation for the boy’s illness nor is there any authoritative word on how this event figures into God’s plan. This unexpected turn leaves both the widow and Elijah searching for an explanation. Would they dare to trust God now?
1 Kings 17:18 (NIV) She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” In her grief the widow’s reaction is to turn on Elijah. What kind of “man of God” saves a mother and son from starvation only to allow the son to die of illness?
I wonder if she says “man of God” with sarcasm? If her son dies, then Elijah and his god, despite all the miraculous provision, are powerless. Or perhaps she thinks Elijah is powerful, a man of a cruel God. Perhaps these miracles were merely tricks, in which she is given hope, only to have it torn away — designed to punish her mercilessly for her sins. While it seems the widow indirectly blamed Elijah, she more directly blamed herself and her unnamed sin. This is important because she connects sin as the cause of the son’s death. Whatever her sin was, the guilty memory of it was always close to her.
The woman isn’t totally wrong. Sin does lead to death. Romans 6:23 (NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Soon this woman will receive a gift from God, her son will be restored to life. This foreshadows what Christ will do in conquering death. Our sin earns us a death sentence, but the gift of God is eternal life, if we are in Christ Jesus.
1 Kings 17:19 (NIV) “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. This vivid detail shows that the widow clutched the dead child tightly in her arms. Elijah seems shocked by this turn of events as well, for Elijah does not say, “Do not worry, this is all part of the plan.” Or “God would not do such a thing.” He simply says, “Give me your son.” Elijah takes the dead son, which is an unclean action, and carries him to the upper room and lays him on the bed. Elijah will intercede on behalf of the Gentile woman. He even seems to have a hard time with what God has done.
1 Kings 17:20 (NASB) And he called to the Lord and said, “Lord, my God, have You also brought catastrophe upon the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” Behind closed doors, he cries out to God and Elijah seems angry. Death is never convenient, it is not a respecter of persons, and it makes us angry. It even made Jesus angry. And it seems that in this moment, Elijah is angry with the LORD. It’s as if he is saying to the Lord, “What are you doing? You bring me to stay with this widow who has nothing and make me rely on her hospitality; and then you thank her by killing her son?”
We know from Scripture that Elijah was a man of powerful prayer (James 5:17-18), and powerful prayer is honest prayer. Elijah does not hide his doubt or his anger as he cries out to the LORD. But he maintained his reverence for the LORD and he placed sovereignty over the situation in God’s hands.
1 Kings 17:21 (NASB) Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times, and called to the Lord and said, “Lord, my God, please, let this boy’s life return to him.” This was an unusual prayer technique. Some believe Elijah did this to bring some natural warmth to the body of the child, to prepare it to receive the departed spirit. This was similar, though not the same as what Elisha would later do when he (by the power of God) raised the Shunamite’s son in 2 Kings 4:34 (As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm). And like what Paul did to Eutychus in Acts 20:10 (Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him). But it was not because of this technique, but because of his faith that God will answer Elijah’s prayer.
The prayer itself was very simple and direct (NKJ): “O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” Elijah prayed with great heart and intimacy with God. He brought this seemingly unexplainable and irredeemable tragedy to God in prayer. Since he knew God led him to this widow, Elijah laid this tragedy on God and asked Him to fix it. He dared to trust God.
1 Kings 17:22 (NIV) The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. God responds and the boy revives. The son is restored to life. This is the first account in the Bible of someone being raised from the dead. The notion of a resurrection was an unheard-of experience at this time. In response to Elijah’s prayer God does something God has never done before (and will only do again through Elisha-2 Kings 4, 13) until Jesus comes on the scene. He undoes death. God doesn’t always answer our prayers immediately or in the way we want. But in this instance, He did. The God of Elijah, the God of Israel, the one true God, shows power over death. Elijah’s God, the real God, has the power to give life, to rescue from death, and He can break through sin. All of this is a foreshadowing of what Christ will do.
1 Kings 17:23 (NASB) Elijah then took the boy and brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive. Can you imagine the mother’s reaction at this moment?
Can you imagine what she must have thought and felt when her dead son was brought back to her alive and well? God provided for the widow on every level, not only with the miraculous supply of food, but also with the restoration of her son.
1 Kings 17:24 (ESV) And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” The pagan widow feels compelled to affirm that Elijah is indeed a man of God and that the word of the God of Israel is truth. This affirms that God’s power reaches beyond Israel. Notice the “I know” statement did not come when the flour and the oil were being provided for her daily. The “I know” moment came through agonizing experiences. Both the widow and the prophet are saved by faith. They dared to trust God, even in perplexing circumstances, as their trust was tested again and again.
Dare to Trust God! Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Both the widow and Elijah were repeatedly tested throughout this chapter. But God always came through and took care of them. But God doesn’t always provide understanding as he provides. Everything that happens in 1 Kings 17 defies human understanding. Why would you let the brook run dry while you are caring for Elijah. (1 Kings 17:1-7)? Why would you let the son die while providing for the widow (1 Kings 17:17)? But God tells His people to not lean on their own understanding but to Trust Him (Proverbs 3:5).
God also says to submit to Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:6). Biblical faith, biblical trust is backed up with real action. Elijah and the widow dared to trust God and that was proven by their actions. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone (James 2:24 NIV). God told Elijah to go east of the Jordan and he went (1 Kings 17:5). God told Elijah to go to Sidon and he went (1 Kings 17:10). The widow went and did what Elijah told her (1 Kings 17:15). And when the widow’s son died, Elijah boldly went before the Lord and asked Him to restore the boy’s life, and God did.
Trusting in God does not mean a lack of suffering anymore than it means complete understanding. All of us, at different times throughout our lives, are challenged to not be afraid but to trust in God and live according to that trust. We are repeatedly called to dare to trust God. But your trust will sometimes be tested. From Job trusting through his suffering and loss to Peter walking on the water, we must dare to trust God. How much faith do you have? Will you dare to trust God with your life, even when life does not make sense? Will you dare to trust God in wicked times, like we live in today? Elijah trusted in the living God during the most wicked days of Israel. We should follow his example.
I dare you today to trust God. Trust in His promises. Trust in His eternal promises. The raising of that widow’s son was an amazing thing for that family, but it foreshadowed something far, far, greater. It foreshadowed the conquering of death with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus died, was buried, but rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He walked out of that tomb with the ultimate victory and those who are united with Him, those who are in Christ have been given this victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). We don’t need to fear anything this world throws at us, including physical death, because Jesus Christ overcame all of that. Trust in what Christ has done for you and then go out and live like you’ve won.