Word of Encouragement (05/16/2024)
And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. (1 Kings 17:20-22)
After Elijah told Ahab that there would be no rain in Israel for years to come, the LORD told him to hide at the brook Cherith. After some time, the LORD told him to go to Zeraphath in the country of Sidon and stay with a widow there. Elijah told the widow, who was about to have her last meal with her son, to make a morsel of bread for him, and she did with the very last portion of flour and oil she had. As a reward for her obedience, the LORD filled every jar of her household with flour and every jug with oil through all the days of the famine. That God showed such mercy to a Gentile woman was a biting indictment against the people of Israel.
Sometime after Eljah got there, the son of the widow got sick and died. The widow accused Elijah of this misfortune, forgetting all about the fact that she and her son were about to die, and she had been supplied with flour and oil all this time for the hospitality she showed Elijah. He asked for the corpse of her son, took him up to his room, and prayed this prayer we have in today’s passage.
Elijah made his displeasure known to God in no uncertain terms: “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son” (v. 20)? This prayer shows Elijah’s faith in God’s sovereignty. He did not see the death of the widow’s son as a mere accident. He had no doubt that God killed him because He is the Lord of life and death; no one can be born or die without His sovereign decree.
This is an example of how people misappropriate and misuse the doctrine of divine sovereignty. They readily use it to blame God for whatever evil they experience in life. But they have no interest in acknowledging God’s sovereignty over their lives in humble submission to His law. Even Elijah made the mistake of blaming God for the death of the boy but forgot to remember the benevolent administration of God’s sovereign will in the world.
Shocked and overwhelmed by the tragedy right in front of his eyes, Elijah failed to acknowledge the near-sightedness of his perception. Instead of humbly asking what God’s will was, he resorted to complaining. We can see why God might have allowed this to happen. The first was to magnify His name as the Lord of life and death, who can raise the dead to life. The second was to exalt Elijah in the eyes of the widow as His servant. We hear the widow saying at the conclusion of this episode, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (v. 24). Let us not forget this, especially when trials come. If we belong to Him, He will cause all things to work together for good (Rom. 8:28).