Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 15-17.

The story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath contains a wonderful lesson for us about how God will provide for our needs.  I usually seek something else in this passage to write about because this story is talked about so often.    Of course, this story contains a powerful lesson on how God provides, which is the reason it gets talked about so much.  And today, the power of this story struck me to write about it.  The story illustrates both Elijah’s faith and the widow’s faith.  When Elijah arrived in Zarephath, the widow was about to make one last meal for her son and for herself.  Yet when Elijah asked her to make him some bread, with the promise that if she did her oil and flour would not run out, she took him at his word and did so.  The power of this story really hit me when I read this phrase “For 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.”

Which brings us to Elijah’s faith, he had the faith to make that promise to the widow, believing that God could and would make it true.  Now Elijah had reason to have that faith, having just spent some period of time in the Kerith Ravine being supplied with food by ravens.  Nevertheless, that was just between him and God, now he needed to take the risk of telling someone else that they could rely on God.  Not really much of a risk, but isn’t it one which we often find hard to take?  So, we often focus on the widow’s faith and God rewarding her for it.  She was willing to give of the last little bit she had to someone in need, and , as a result, God provided for her.  But think about Elijah, he had to ask for help from someone in almost as desperate need, if not more desperate need, than himself, and he had to trust that God would provide for them because he certainly was unable to do so.  Think about this, the widow was provided for because Elijah asked her to give him some assistance.  Do we have the faith to ask someone to help us?  Do we have the faith to believe that God will provide for the needs of someone because they helped us?  Please note that the widow from whom Elijah requested aid was not even one of the people of God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.