The Widow Encounters God

Synopsis     1Kings 17:15-24     6/3/2019 

Elijah and the Sidonian widow survived the famine together. And neither her flour jar or her oil jar went empty.  

But then, after she had served Elijah for a long time, her son became ill and died. She told Elijah what had happened. And so, Elijah took the boy’s lifeless body and prayed. Specifically, he prayed for the child’s life-breath to return. After this, the boy began to breathe again. And then, Elijah returned the boy to his mother.

In the end, she exulted in her son’s salvation. But more remarkably, she acknowledged that God had saved him through the prayers of Elijah. 

Elijah’s Widow Encountered God 

For the widow, everything was different since the time Elijah had arrived. She ate bread every day in the midst of a famine. And she knew that this was a miracle.  

But when she brought her dead child’s body to Elijah, she lamented. And she even rebuked Elijah for somehow sharing in responsibility for his death. Still, Elijah took no offense. 

Instead, he prayed fervently for the child. And God healed the boy.  

It was only then that the widow exalted and said, “Now indeed I know that you are a man of God…” She recognized that people were dying all around her because of the famine. And yet, her child was spared specifically because of the prayers of the prophet.  

And this brought her to a new level of awareness. It permanently altered her worldview. After this, she would never interpret the circumstances of her life in the same way.

Encountering God Changes Everything 

Sometimes I feel like the Sidonian widow. Everything I have, I receive from God on a daily basis. I know God as my provider.  

But when God does something still more extraordinary, it naturally takes me deeper in my relationship with Him. Like her, I am inclined to say, “Now I really know you”. And like Jesus said, “Believe the works…” In other words, He seems to be saying, “Believe in the actual experiences you have with Me.” 

However, this doesn’t mean I have to wait for some over-the-top miraculous sign before I experience God more deeply. My ever-deepening experience of God might be as simple, and as available, as spending twenty minutes each morning listening to His voice.  

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” John 10:37