Chapter 169. 1 Kings 17. Elijah the Prophet.
THE people God had chosen for His own, whom He had brought out of Egypt had become idolaters like the nations around them; they were even worse than these. Was there no one to warn them of their awful condition? No one to teach them and entreat them to return to the only true God? There were yet a few of His servants left. Elijah, the Tishbite, was one of them. He went to Ahab and told him there would be no rain in the clouds until he (Elijah) should say so. Israel had forgotten their kind and merciful God who gave them all their good things. They did not thank Him for His blessings. They did not ask Him for the food they needed. They were worshiping Baal, not God, and therefore God punished His ungrateful people by taking away their blessings. He taught them in this way that all good things come from Him alone, and that He could withhold them if He chose.
This was a sad time for Israel. No rain fell to water the ground, so the grass dried up and there was no food for the cattle; no corn nor fruits for the people to eat. A famine is a dreadful thing.
If Ahab and Jezebel had been able they would have killed Elijah, upon whom they looked as the author of the evil come upon the land. But God took care of His servant, and told him to go and hide by the side of a little brook called Cherith. There He would send the ravens to feed him, and he could drink of the water of the brook. Elijah did as God had told him, and while Ahab and Jezebel sought the prophets to kill them, Elijah was safely kept at the brook Cherith. Every morning and every evening the ravens came to Elijah. Some carried flesh, some carried bread. They did not eat the food themselves, although their nature would have led them to do so. They were commanded by the Lord to feed the prophet and they obeyed, for God can command anything He has created to do His will; even the sea and the waves do His bidding. This Almighty God. is our Father if Jesus is our Saviour. His love and His care are unceasing. Is there anything that can harm us? Do we need fear, or be troubled about anything? Our loving Father is never better pleased than when we trust Him fully and go to Him with all our cares and difficulties.
After a time the brook dried up because of the lack of rain. God told Elijah to go to a place called Zarephath; there a widow should feed him. So Elijah went, and when he came to the gate of the city, he saw a poor widow gathering sticks. He asked her for a drink of water. The poor widow was very kind; she was willing to do what she could, and went directly to fetch the water. But Elijah called after her, “Bring me, I pray thee, a little bread in thy hand.” She answered sadly that she had not a piece of bread, only a handful of flour and a little oil; and now she was gathering two sticks so she could bake a little cake for herself and her son; after this she expected the two would die of hunger. This was not a very promising lodging place for Elijah, and he might have doubted, had he not learned what a God was his. He did not pray for a great quantity of meal, but he said: Fear not; go and make a little cake for me first, and afterward make one for yourself and your son. For the Lord God of Israel says the barrel of meal shall not be empty nor the cruse of oil fail till the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.
The widow believed the word spoken by Elijah. She went and made the little cake for the prophet, then for herself and son. Strange to say, the meal and the oil were not all gone; there was as much as before. God did not fill the barrel, but wanted the poor widow to trust Him, too. Each day as she went to it, she found the handful, just enough for the meal, and the same went on for a long time. God was showing her how much He cared for her, how dependent she was upon Him. He likes to have His people look to Him for everything. Jesus told the disciples to pray, “Give us day by day our daily bread.” It keeps us from forgetting that He loves us; it makes us remember that He watches over us, that we cannot do without Him.
How happy this poor woman must have been with the man of God dwelling in her little house, and the assurance that the Lord would not let her die of hunger!
After a time, a new sorrow came into that little family. The child fell sick and died. The broken-hearted mother carried him to the prophet and told him her trouble. Elijah took the boy from her arms and took him to his little room in the loft. He had no power himself to raise the child, but he knew that God could if He chose. He laid the dead child upon his bed and threw himself upon him praying, “O Lord my Cod, hast Thou brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?.... O Lord, my God, I pray Thee, let this child’s soul some into him again.” God heard the prayer of His servant and He sent life again into the body. Elijah brought him down to his mother, saying, “See, thy son liveth.” The mother was surely happy now; she knew God as she did not before, as the resurrection and the life. She said to the prophet, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in Thy mouth is truth.”
ML 12/24/1916