Elijah: A Woman’s Dilemma

Synopsis     1Kings 17:2-14     5/29/2019 

The prophet Elijah emerged on the scene. He was a true prophet of the God of Israel. And he had prophesied against the evil king, Ahab. Specifically, he told King Ahab that God was withholding both dew and rain because of his evil. 

After delivering this message, God told Elijah to hide himself in a distant ravine as the region experienced a great famine. So, Elijah went the Wadi Cherith, just as God had instructed. While he hid there, he drank from the wadi. And ravens delivered food for him to eat every day, in both the morning and in the evening. 

After this, God directed Elijah to go to Sidon – Jezebel’s hometown. Once there, he found a widow who was destitute. Elijah met her at the water well outside the city. In accordance with God’s instructions, he asked the widow for food. But she let him know that she had only enough flour and oil for a single last meal for herself and her son.

Elijah assured the widow that neither she nor her son would starve to death if she shared her food with him. 

The Widow’s Dilemma 

It’s interesting. The widow wasn’t seeking an opportunity to demonstrate faith. She was hopeless and despondent. She had no money. And famine ravaged the entire region.  

There was no way of escape. There was nothing she could do. And so, she had resigned herself to her own imminent death. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a prophet showed up. Of course, he wanted food. And, of course, he’s wasn’t offering to pay. Instead, he simply promised that God would take care of her if she was generous with him.

She and her son were going to die. So, on the one hand, what did she have to lose by giving the food to the prophet? 

But, on the other hand, it’s counterintuitive for any human being caught in a famine to give up a final meal. We all naturally cling to life. She was in a dilemma. 

She could eat a final meal with her son and then simply wait to die. Or, she could give her final meal to an unknown man who claimed to be a prophet with the promise of life and survival. She had no way of knowing whether he was really a prophet. She had no way of knowing whether or not he was just another man trying to save himself at her expense. 

For whatever reason, she chose to believe Elijah. She made him a cake of bread. And she lived. 

My Dilemma 

There’s a modern expression concerning business startup: If you want to be successful in business, then work in the same way as a man whose hair is on fire works to put it out.  

What’s my dilemma? 

Believe Jesus. Or, don’t believe Jesus.  Live or die. Succeed or fail.

How desperate do I need be to believe enough to abandon everything? 

“And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.” Luke 4:25-26