Enter Elijah, whom many of us have studied in Sunday school and referenced when referring to God’s great miracles. In this short chapter alone, we see at least three miracles. First, God feeds Elijah through ravens during a time of great drought and famine in Israel. Then He supplies the widow with bread and oil each day so that she, her son and Elijah have enough to eat. Finally, we witness the miracle of the widow’s son being brought back to life. We don’t even know who Elijah is at this point. This chapter introduces him for the first time. All we know is that he was from Gilead, and we can see from the text that He has great faith in God, which probably was a rarity during this time. However, we see also that Elijah wasn’t the only one who still had faith. The widow, too, stood on the foundation that God had established in Israel. Although this chapter seems a little random and out of place compared to the last few chapters that outlined the reign of kings, it does show us in the first paragraph why this story is so important. The first sentence points out that Elijah told Ahab, who we learned in the last chapter was a bad king, that God would bring drought to all of Israel. It also says that God remains the God of Israel and that Elijah still holds fast to His promises. We get a picture of the faithful remnants that remain in Israel through Elijah and the widow, and I suspect the boy’s healing will be a reminder to him that the Lord, the God of Israel, is always with him. His miraculous recovery will serve God in the generations to come.
Writing prompt: here and now
Write about something you have witnessed or experienced that can give hope and strengthen faith in generations to come.
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