The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” (1 Kings 17:24, NIV 1984).
My Musings – Elijah was one of the most famous prophets of Israel, if not the most famous. His nemesis was king Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel and his wife Jezebel. “In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah [one of the eight good kings], Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab…did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam [the first king of Israel], but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.” (1 Kings 16:29-33, NIV 1984).
Elijah had told Ahab that “there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” (1 Kings 17:1, NIV 1984). During that time, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath to live and be fed. “When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’ ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die. Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid… The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'” (1 Kings 17:10-14, NIV 1984). And it did not.
As spectacular as that was, it paled in comparison to what happened next. “Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 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?’ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!’ The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.” (Luke 17:17-18, 21-22, NIV 1984).
Yet these were merely a prelude to what would happen later on in an encounter with Ahab and Jezebel.
My Advice – Don’t sell the Lord short. He can and often will do amazing things in your life. Perhaps (likely) not as amazing as what occurred with Elijah and the widow, but “if you remain in me [Jesus] and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7, NIV 1984.). But this is not carte blanche. Remaining in Him and His words in you are key to understanding this verse. For, whenever this is the case, the things you wish for will be remarkably aligned with His will. This was certainly the case with Elijah.
The Brew Is A Musing 