This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 126, “Moms in the Bible–Two Faith-Filled Women”, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/moms-in-the-bible-two-faith-filled-widows
There are two short stories that I want us to look at today, both involving widows and both involving one of God’s prophets. The first is found in 1 Kings 17, during the time of the prophet Elijah. Reading from verse 8:
“Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” 10 So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” 11 As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I don’t have anything baked—only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”
13 Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, 14 for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.’”
15 So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. 16 The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through Elijah.”
This widow of Zarephath assumed she was going to die. That is how destitute she was. As a widow, life would have been difficult already, but there was also a famine in the land making everything much worse. It is interesting to me that she was still preparing that last meal. Surely, if you were going to die of starvation, one more meal wouldn’t make a difference. Yet there she was, providing all that she could for her child to the very end. Elijah enters her town, at the instruction of the Lord, seeking what he believes to be provision for himself alone, and she finds herself provided for as well.
There’s more to her story, if you continue to read the next few verses, but Lord willing we will look at those in January. For now, I want us to focus on the divine provision of oil and flour.
Now, if you remember you flannel graph Sunday School stories, you may recall that Elijah trained up and was succeeded by the prophet Elisha. He had a similar encounter with a widow which we read about in 2 Kings 4, beginning in verse 1:
“One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”
2 Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” 5 So she left.
After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. 6 When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”
But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.””
Here we find another widow, this one in a mountain of debt. The creditors have decided that the slavery of her two children will wipe the balance sheet clean. And she just can’t accept that. She turns to the prophet Elisha, and as the widow from Zarephath was, she is miraculously provided for.
Aren’t their stories amazing?! Their faith is what stands out to me the most. Here is what I mean. In both stories, the widows are facing something truly grave. And the way to their provision is through their own actions.
The widow Zarephath was told to prepare Elijah his food before preparing her own. Elijah promised that this would just be the first of many meals to come as the flour and oil would not run out until the rain returned to the land. You know she was hungry as she was collecting the sticks for the fire. She had probably been rationing their food for quite awhile, what little they did have, and it is likely she had given more to her son than to herself. As moms, our children often eat before we do, if we ever get to our own food, on a good day! How much more so would we ensure that our children have food when we are fighting to keep them alive?! And here this man is, whom she has never met before, making this crazy promise. She just has to feed him first. She has to risk her child’s last meal in the hope that what this man said will actually happen.
When Elijah first asks her for a piece of bread she begins by saying, “As the Lord your God lives” or as some translations put it, “As surely as the Lord your God lives.” That is such an interesting statement to me. The truth was that she did not in fact have bread. And she is saying that fact is as true as God living. She believes in God. What makes it so interesting is that Zarephath is not a part of Israel. It is actually Jezebel’s home territory…and if you remember anything about that queen, you probably remember her fierce stance against the God of Israel and her equally fierce worship of Baal. But here this widow says that the God of Israel lives. Elijah responds to her in kind when he promises the flour and oil. “For this is what the Lord God of Israel says.” Basically he’s saying, “this promise isn’t from me! I’m just the messenger. And if your statement is as true as God being alive, then so is mine.”
She believes it. She takes a step of faith and prepares Elijah his meal first. Then she watches in amazement at the miraculous provision of the Lord for her family.
Now the prophet’s wife was also asked to do something. First, she was asked to identify if anything in her possession could be useful. She’s wanting help with her sons. She wants to spare them a life of slavery. And Elisha wants to know if she is willing to give what she has for the cause.
She is, but all she has is a little oil. The Lord can work with a little. Oil was a precious commodity. It was used to make bread as we saw with the widow Zarephath, or for cooking in general. Elisha sees potential here. But he needs something else…more jars.
The prophet’s wife and her sons were put in the position of asking for help. It is a humbling thing to do that. She had already sought the help of Elisha. Now she is told to seek the help of her community. Not just a few people. But a whole bunch! Imagine those conversations. “Hi! The prophet Elisha told me to collect jars. Can I have yours?!”
Then comes another step of faith. She was to pour out her oil so that it could multiply. Tucked inside their home, with the doors closed, so that only they were witnesses to the miracle, the widow and her sons poured in faith that the Lord would provide. And he did! Jar after jar after jar was filled until no empty jars remained. They were able to sell those jars, pay off their debts, and live on the rest. What provision! But it required faith and a bit of work.
I am guilty of seeking the Lord’s help, of bringing a problem before him, and wanting him to fix it all without my involvement. Help me find a job but don’t make me send out all the resumes and cover letters. Bring healing to my body but don’t make me change my diet or lifestyle. Restore the relationship but don’t make me apologize. We want to see God move but we aren’t willing to let him use what we have. We are scared to step out in faith.
Elijah told the widow Zarephath, “Don’t be afraid” and I think she would turn around and say the same thing to us. “It’s worth it,” their stories say. “God is worth it.” We can step into what he has called us to with confidence that he will do what he has said he will do. What has he said? Search the Scriptures and you will find promises of his presence, of his protection, of his healing, of his provision, and so much more. Because he loves us. He cares about us. We matter to him just as these two women did. Each story that we have studied of the moms in the Bible speaks to this as well. Go back and listen to the previous episodes. Study their stories in Scripture. Ask God to reveal himself to you through them.
Image from John Heseltine / Pam Masco / FreeBibleimages.org.
Lyssa Stoyko 