And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come to me to call mine iniquity to remembrance, and to slay my son?
The widow of Zarephath had watched her flour and oil outlast a famine. Then she watched her only son stop breathing. Her cry to Elijah pushes the prophet away and drags her own sin into the open. Commentators read both halves as God's own work in her.
She had already learned that God sustains life. Commentators say this second blow carried a different lesson — for Elijah as much as for her.
God would reveal Himself not only as the Sustainer of life, but as the Giver of life. To be equipped for the great day of Carmel, Elijah must know God as the God of resurrection. The widow needed to be settled in peaceful relations with God. For that she must know Him as the God of truth as well as the God of grace. So her conscience had to be awakened, her sin recalled, and her sin judged.
She says Elijah has come to bring her sin to remembrance. Months of daily bread had raised no such question. Death raised it at once.
A person can go on day after day in the ordinary routine of life, enjoying a jar of flour and a jug of oil that never run out, and never search his conscience deeply before God. That deeper searching only comes where someone walks closely with God, or where God's hand touches him in some special way. If the Lord had only met the poor widow's need from day to day, the question of "sin" might never have come up in her mind. But when death came in, her conscience began to work, for death is the wages of sin.
One writer turns the same pattern on the reader:
And perhaps God has some sin to bring back to your memory. While life runs smoothly you can go on. But when death comes in, and you lose your boy, your husband, your father or your mother, what comes up? Some long-forgotten sin rises up on the conscience. That is often the way God puts His finger on people's souls.
She ties her son's death to her own sin. One commentator calls that link correct, and the doorway to something she could not have learned any other way.
At the same time she admits what is true: death is the wages of iniquity… It is not enough to know that death is waiting and will catch up with us. We must also feel the real power that death has over us as sinners. The widow needed this experience to learn the full extent of the power of grace. If her son had not died, how could she have known the power of resurrection that delivers from death?
Even the name of the town fits what she was going through.
Zarephath means "smelting furnace," and the woman was now feeling its heat. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego lost nothing in the fire but the ropes that tied them. In the same way, this woman came out of the trouble a happier soul, with a fuller knowledge of God. There was clearly something in her past, or in her heart at that very moment, that she was trying to cover up. God, in His goodness to her, brought it out into the light in His own way.
She calls Elijah "man of God" and blames him in the same breath. Commentators differ. Some read the blame as a wrong conclusion drawn in grief:
For some reason she connected his death with Elijah and felt that God was punishing her for her sins. But God was seeking the pure blessing of her soul.
Others note that Elijah did not dismiss the link she made:
Elijah felt the weight of it. He realized that his coming into the house had something to do with this blow.
She had held her son as the child born to her. She got him back on different terms.
Before, she held him on the shaky terms of the old creation, as the child of her own body. She gets him back on new creation terms, as the fruit of resurrection. And now both the man of God (a picture of Christ) and the word of the Lord stand settled before her soul.
The verse shows one half of a method that runs through all God's dealings.
There is a double action in everything God does with us: an action of truth, and an action of grace. Truth uncovers the evil; grace puts it away. Truth shows what man is; grace shows what God is… Both are needed: truth, to maintain God's glory; grace, to establish our blessing.
- Deeper, not harsher. She knew God as the One who sustains life. The blow came so she could know Him as the Giver of life, and as the God of truth, not only of grace.
- Deeper conscience. A full jar of flour raises no question of sin. God's hand in trouble does. That is often how a forgotten sin surfaces.
- Deeper confession. She was right to link death with her sin. Death is the wages of sin, and she had to feel its power on herself.
- Deeper furnace. Zarephath means "smelting furnace." She was covering something. God brought it into the light His own way, and she came out happier.
- Deeper hold. She had her son on the shaky terms of nature. She received him back on resurrection ground. Truth exposes the evil; grace puts it away.
And he said to her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
The widow's only son is dead. Elijah answers her grief with three words and an action. He takes the boy from her arms and carries him up to the room where he was staying. What does God mean to teach in that room?
Elijah could face down a king without flinching. Here he shows another side.
This stern man could face an angry king and a wicked nation, and announce God's judgement. Yet he felt deeply for this poor woman. He had come to know her, and her heart was now very sore. The prophet spoke to Jehovah twice... we note that both in verses 20 and 21 the Holy Spirit says "he cried to Jehovah." We should never skip over this word "cried" when we read Scripture, because it expresses intense longing.
Elijah lays the boy where he himself slept. What happens next is contact — living man on dead child.
Elijah took the boy and laid him on his own bed. Then he prayed earnestly to the Lord and stretched himself on the child three times. Direct contact with the one who had life resulted in life coming back to the child. The three times speaks of resurrection. So it is only by direct contact with the Lord Jesus raised from the dead that we find the blessing of resurrection life... So the widow learned that God was able not only to save from dying, but to restore life after death.
A jar of flour that never ran out had already kept her alive. God had more to teach her.
It is not enough to know that death waits for us and will catch up with us. We also need to feel the real power death has over us as sinners. The widow needed this experience to learn the full extent of the power of grace. How, if her son had not died, would she have been able to know the power of resurrection that delivers from death?
Others read the death as God pressing a claim. She had given up her last handful of flour. Now the claim reaches further.
Whenever we let anything block our path of simple obedience and devotion to Christ — parent or child, husband or wife, brother or sister — we can be sure that thing will be taken away. This widow had given her son a higher place in her thoughts than the Lord's prophet. So the son was taken from her, to teach her this: not only "the handful of meal" but also her dearest treasure on earth must be kept under the Lord's control and ready for Him.
The room upstairs taught Elijah as much as the widow. He does not act at once. He goes through something first.
The widow's son dies, and Elijah, though not without resource, goes through deep soul exercise before he takes hold of the grace that is in God to meet the need... Now he is led into the deepest of all mysteries — resurrection from among the dead. He had seen death stopped and its terrors eased. But now he meets sorrow at its depth, for a widow losing her only son, her last link to earth, is the sharpest picture of human grief. And God uses him to show His power and grace in overcoming death and bringing in new life.
Elijah does not stand back from the trouble. He goes down into it.
This whole scene speaks to us of Christ. Elijah is a picture of Him. In sympathy he entered into all the consequences of man's sin. Just as Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus, Elijah "cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, have You also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" Then he brought the dead child to life again, taking his place.
The mother gets her son back alive. Her verdict names two things — the man, and his message.
She had learned two things by the resurrection of her son: First, that God had come to manifest Himself here below in a man — "You are a man of God"... Before, God had shown Himself to her as the One who met her needs. Now He gives new life, resurrection life, in the very place where death came in through man's "iniquity". The second thing is that through resurrection she gained the assurance that the word of the Lord in Elijah's mouth was the truth. Resurrection proves that the word of grace is true.
- Given. "Give me your son" is the turning point. The prophet who thundered at a king now cries out to God over a dead child.
- Carried. He carries the boy up to his own room and his own bed — direct contact with the one who has life is what brings life back.
- Emptied. The flour jar taught her that God provides. Only losing her son could teach her death's real power over sinners, and how far grace reaches past it.
- Claimed. Commentators differ on why the child died. Was it to teach her the power of resurrection, or to claim her dearest treasure and not just her last meal?
- Proved. Resurrection is what settled both questions for her: this is a man of God, and the word in his mouth is truth.
And he cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
A grieving mother has just asked Elijah if he came to her house to bring her sin to mind and kill her son. He takes the boy upstairs and turns her question back on God Himself.
Elijah is a lodger in this house, and he senses the blow has something to do with him. The verse also does not say he spoke or asked. It says he cried — and the same word comes back in the next verse.
Elijah felt the position. He realized that his coming into the house had something to do with this blow. There is a hint of tender feeling in his prayer to God. This stern man could face an angry king and a wicked nation and pass sentence of judgement. Yet he felt deeply for this poor woman. He had come to know her, and her heart was now very sore... In both verse 20 and verse 21 the Holy Spirit says "he cried to the LORD." We should never pass lightly over this word "cried" when we read Scripture, for it expresses intense longing.
Elijah does not blame the illness. He lays the death at God's door, and that is where hope begins.
There is real beauty in the way he looks beyond the disease and the power of death and sees the hand of the living God in the evil that has come upon them. As he sees it, disease has not killed the child. Death has not struck him down. It is God who has slain the widow's son. If disease and death did this work, there is no hope. They could take the child away, but they cannot bring him back. But if God has slain the child, then God can call the child back to life.
Elijah's question gets no answer in the verse. The mother had her own answer, and it was the wrong one.
The widow had experienced the grace of God in saving her and her son from a dreadful end. But God had another lesson of vital importance to teach her, and it could only come through pain and sorrow... For some reason she connected his death with Elijah and felt that God was punishing her for her sins. But God was seeking the pure blessing of her soul.
Another writer finds mercy inside the loss itself.
The sword entered her soul, yet it came in mercy. Through it, in the sharpest pain of her grief, she learned what she was in the presence of God (v. 18). That prepared her for further blessing. Until we come to the end of self, we cannot take in what God is for us in grace.
Elijah does not stand outside this family's grief. He shares it, and the tears at Lazarus's tomb are not far away.
This whole scene speaks to us of Christ. Elijah is a picture of Him. In sympathy he entered into all the consequences of man's sin. Just as Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus, Elijah "cried to the LORD, 'O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?'" (v. 20). Then he brought the dead child back to life, taking his place.
Elijah prays as a man with nothing of his own to offer. What he does with his body says the same thing.
Elijah recognizes that in himself he has no power... His act of stretching himself on the child may show this; the margin reads that he "measured" himself. He fully identifies himself with the dead child. He takes his measure and realizes that, like the dead child, he has no strength. Elijah is powerless in the presence of death. But if the child is dead, God is living. If Elijah has no power, Elijah can pray... by the act of prayer he puts himself in touch with the mighty power of the living God.
The flour and oil had taught her that God sustains life. The empty bed taught her something more.
The widow responded to God's claim on her handful of meal; and what follows? He sustains her and her house for years! Again the Lord lays His hand upon her son; and what follows? God raises her son from the dead by His mighty power. So He teaches her that the Lord could not only sustain life, but give it... she receives her son now, as she had received her supplies before, straight from the hand of the Lord God of Israel.
- Cried — Elijah did not simply speak to God. The word used in verses 20 and 21 carries intense longing. The same tenderness marks a man who could face a king without flinching.
- Traced — He looked past the illness to God's own hand. Disease can take a child away and never give him back. The God who takes can give back.
- Emptied — He stretched himself on the boy and measured himself against death. He found he had no strength either. What he had was prayer, and prayer reaches the living God.
- Taught — The mother read her loss as punishment for her sin. God was seeking the blessing of her soul. We grasp grace only once we come to the end of self.
- Raised — The flour and oil taught her that God sustains life. The death taught her that He can give it back. She received her son straight from His hand, just as she had received her food.
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again!
Elijah carries the dead boy up to his own room. He lays himself on the body three times and asks God for something Scripture had never yet recorded. The verse holds two things together: a man who admits he has no power, and a prayer that expects the impossible.
One commentator treats the strange physical act as a confession, not a technique. He points to the margin reading, where the word means "measured".
Elijah recognizes that in himself he has no power. That may be the meaning of stretching himself on the child — or, as the margin reads, he "measured" himself. He fully identifies himself with the dead child. He takes his own measure and sees that, like the dead child, he has no strength. Elijah is powerless in the presence of death. But if the child is dead, God is living. If Elijah has no power, Elijah can pray. By stretching himself out he identifies with the child's powerlessness. By praying he puts himself in touch with the mighty power of the living God.
Commentators differ on the "three times". Some tie it to Elijah's own weakness. Another links it to resurrection: "it is only by direct contact with the Lord Jesus raised from the dead that we find the blessing of resurrection life" (Leslie M. Grant).
The verse does not say Elijah spoke or asked. Twice in this passage the text says he cried out.
This stern man could face an angry king and a wicked nation and pronounce judgement on them. Yet his heart went out to this poor woman whom he had come to know, whose heart was now very sore… In both verse 20 and verse 21 the Holy Spirit says, "he cried to the LORD." We should never pass over this word "cried" lightly, because it expresses intense longing.
The prayer is short. The way Elijah addresses God shows a relationship already known and tested.
He is in conscious relationship with God, whom he knows and has proved, so he can say with great confidence, "My God." His faith knows that the living God has power to raise the dead child. With greater faith still, he prays that it will happen. Did any man, before or since, ask God for more in words so simple and a prayer so short? It is plain that earnest, effective prayer is neither elaborate nor long.
That brevity becomes a practical test of our own praying:
Notice that Elijah's prayer was short and definite. Shall we not learn a lesson from this? Do we go to our prayer meetings with something definite in mind? Or do we come out of sheer habit — a good habit, of course — with minds that are not engaged and not prepared?
Nobody had ever come back from the dead in the record up to this point. Elijah asked anyway.
Scripture has no earlier record of any person — Jew or Gentile, old or young — ever returning from the dead. Yet the prophet prayed like this! His faith went beyond Abraham's on Mount Moriah, where he laid Isaac on the altar, counting that God was able to raise him from the dead, and in a figure did receive him back (Heb. 11:19). Both Abraham and Elijah believed that nothing was impossible with God, and that death was no difficulty to Him. But it was one thing for Abraham to reckon that God could raise a boy from the dead. It was another for Elijah to ask outright that this great miracle be done.
Elijah asks that the child's life "come into him again". Older translations read "soul" here. One writer takes up that word and compares Paul over Eutychus, the young man who fell from a window and seemed dead.
The separation had not yet taken place; he was stunned by the fall… Life had not yet gone out of the body. But in the case of the child raised by Elijah (1 Kings 17:21-22), the soul had already left the body and then returned to it. From these cases, as everywhere else, we see that the soul is quite distinct from the body. In our present state the soul works through the body, yet the body is only the house it lives in.
The answer to this prayer taught the mother something new about God.
The moment she had learned the lesson about herself, God came in. Through Elijah, and in answer to his prayer, He raised the widow's son to life again… So the Lord revealed Himself to her soul as the God of resurrection. This established her in the truth and confirmed her faith, resting her on a foundation that lies beyond death and can never change.
- Measured — Elijah lay on the child to take his own measure — with no more strength than the dead child under him.
- Powerless — the man with no power still had prayer, and prayer put him in touch with the living God.
- Cried — twice the text says he cried, a word marking intense longing, not routine words.
- Brief — one definite sentence, spoken to "my God". The greatest request ever asked, in the plainest words.
- Beyond — no one had ever returned from death, yet he asked. The widow learned God as the God of resurrection, a foundation beyond death.
And Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived.
Elijah has carried the dead boy up to his own room. He has stretched himself over him three times and cried out to God. Here the answer comes. The verse turns on two things: a prayer God listened to, and something that had left the child coming back. (The ESV calls it the child's "life"; older translations call it his "soul.")
No one in Scripture had asked for this before. One writer compares Elijah's faith here with Abraham's.
Such a prayer as Elijah uttered over the dead child had probably never gone up to heaven before: "O Jehovah my God, I pray You, let this child's soul come into him again." Wonderful! Scripture has no earlier record of anyone — Jew or Gentile, old or young — returning from the dead. Yet the prophet prayed like this! His faith went beyond Abraham's on Mount Moriah, when he laid Isaac on the altar, "considering that God was able even to raise him from the dead" (Heb. 11:19). Both Abraham and Elijah believed that nothing was impossible with God, and that even death would be no difficulty to Him. But it was one thing for Abraham to reckon that God could raise a boy from the dead. It was quite another for Elijah to ask outright for this great miracle.
The prayer was also short. Its power was not in its length.
As One with whom he is in conscious relationship, well known and proved, he can say with great confidence, "My God." ... Did any man, before or since, ask a greater request of God in language so simple and in a prayer so brief? It is very clear that the effective, fervent prayer is neither elaborate nor lengthy.
Before the prayer came the stretching. One writer reads that act as Elijah measuring himself against the dead boy.
Elijah recognises that in himself he has no power. Perhaps the act of stretching himself on the child shows this, or, as the margin reads, he "measured" himself. He fully identifies himself with the dead child. He takes his measure and sees that, like the dead child, he has no strength. Elijah is powerless in the presence of death. But if the child is dead, God is living. If Elijah has no power, Elijah can pray. By stretching himself out he identifies with the powerlessness of the child. By praying he puts himself in touch with the mighty power of the living God.
Something left the child and came back. Commentators take that as evidence that a person is more than a body. One writer sets the case beside a man others picked up for dead, whom Paul declared still alive.
The men picked him up as dead. Paul naturally breaks off his talk, goes down and throws himself on him, saying that life is still in him. The separation had not yet taken place... In the case of the child restored to life by Elijah (1 Kings 17:21-22) the soul had already left the body, and returned to it. From these cases, as always elsewhere, we see that the soul is entirely distinct from the body. In our present state the soul works through the body, but the body is only its dwelling. Life in this world is the activity of the soul through the functions of the body.
The way the miracle happened matters. Commentators contrast Elijah's manner with the Lord's own way of raising the dead.
On this occasion the Lord acted simply and with dignity. That stands in striking contrast with the Old Testament prophets doing similar miracles. The Lord spoke and acted in His own right. The prophets had to look up with deep earnestness for power to raise the dead, because that power was not in themselves.
The boy's mother learned something from this, and she was not the last.
The three times speaks of resurrection... The Lord answered the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned. So the widow learned that God was able not only to save from dying, but to restore life after death. Mary and Martha learned this lesson in John 11. They had only hoped the Lord would come to them in time to keep Lazarus from dying... But the Lord had a more important lesson to teach them, that He can bring life out of death.
The miracle also did something for Elijah himself. It backed up the words he spoke.
It was resurrection that made Elijah known as a man of God, and the word of God in his mouth as the truth. So nothing else will make the word of God in our mouth known as truth in any adequate sense, or approve us as men of God.
- Powerless — Elijah measures himself against a corpse and finds he has no more strength than it. That emptiness is where the miracle starts.
- Prayer — Short, definite, addressed to "my God." He asks for something no one in Scripture had received before. God listens to his voice.
- Return — What came back had truly left. The soul is distinct from the body; the body is only its home.
- Contrast — Elijah must look upward for power he does not own; Christ raises the dead by His own word. The prophet borrows the power; the Lord already has it.
- Proof — Resurrection showed the widow that God gives life after death. It also proved true the word in Elijah's mouth.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, See, thy son lives.
Elijah carries the boy down from the upper room and puts him back into his mother's arms alive. The whole chapter has been building to this moment, and it leaves one question: why did God let the child die at all before giving him back?
The widow had already learned to take her daily food from God. Now she takes back her son on the same terms.
The widow responded to God's claim on her handful of flour; and what follows? God sustains her and her household for years! Again the Lord lays His hand upon her son; and what follows? The mighty power of God raises her son from the dead, so teaching her that the Lord could not only sustain life, but give it. Resurrection power comes to bear on her circumstances, and she receives her son now, as she had received her supplies before, straight from the hand of the Lord God of Israel.
The boy's death was no accident. It was the one experience that could teach her what grace can do.
This poor widow came to know the divine resources for a dying soul. Now God calls her into deeper and more blessed experience still. Her son dies, and she has to deal with the reality of death. At the same time she admits what is right: death is the wages of iniquity… It is not enough to know that death awaits us and will overtake us. We must also feel the actual power of death over us as sinners. The widow needed this experience to learn the full extent of the power of grace. If her son had not died, how could she have known the power of resurrection that delivers from death?
Elijah hands back a child he had no power to raise himself. First he stretched himself out on the body.
Elijah recognizes that in himself he has no power. Stretching himself on the child may signify this — or, as an alternative reading has it, he "measured" himself. He identifies himself completely with the dead child. He takes his measure and sees that, like the dead child, he has no strength. But if the child is dead, God is living. If Elijah has no power, Elijah can pray. By stretching himself out he identifies with the powerlessness of the child. By praying he puts himself in touch with the mighty power of the living God.
The prophet keeps nothing for himself:
Elijah, laying no claim to the risen child, delivers him back to the mother.
The miracle taught the mother two things: who Elijah was, and whether his message could be trusted.
She had learned two things by the resurrection of her son. First, that God had come to show Himself here below in a man — "You are a man of God." And so Christ was "marked out" — much more than a man of God — "Son of God in power… by resurrection of the dead."… Second, that through resurrection she gained the assurance that the word of the Lord in Elijah's mouth was the truth. Resurrection proves the truth of the word of grace.
Heaven was shut over Israel at the time. The widow Elijah was sent to lived outside it.
In the case of Elijah, God shut heaven over His rebellious people. Yet He takes care of the remnant according to grace, and here He even oversteps the limits of the covenant of law. He sent Elijah past all the widows of Israel to a widow in Sidon, who listened to the voice of God's testimony and by faith acted on it in a case that required self-denial; and her life is preserved. That grace reveals itself in power equal to the need, and the dead is restored to life.
What the widow learned about the messenger, we learn about Christ.
Elijah restored the boy to his mother, saying, "See, your son lives"… In the same way, when we have learned that the Lord Jesus has the power of resurrection life, we know He is not only a man of God but the eternal Son of God. His resurrection takes from us the fear of death.
- Sustainer, then Giver. First she learned that God keeps life going in the flour jar. Then she learned that He gives life back where death has already won.
- Death opened the lesson. Her son's death woke her conscience to sin, and only real loss let her measure the real reach of grace.
- Prayer, not power. Elijah measured himself against the dead boy and found he was just as helpless. So he prayed. That was all he had to give.
- Given, not earned. The prophet claimed nothing. The mother took her son straight from God's hand, just as she had taken her daily food.
- Resurrection proves the word. "See, your son lives" drew out her confession: the messenger was God's, and his message was true. The same proof marks out Christ as Son of God.
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth.
The chapter ends with the widow speaking, not Elijah. God had already fed her through a famine, so why did only her son's return from death make her sure of the prophet and his word?
Her words have two halves. One writer reads them as two discoveries: one about the man in front of her, one about his message.
She had learned two things by the resurrection of her son: First, that God had come to manifest Himself here below in a man — "You are a man of God." And so Christ was "marked out" — much more than a man of God — "Son of God in power … by his resurrection from the dead." Before this, God had shown Himself to her as the One who provided for her needs. Now He showed Himself as the One who gives new life, resurrection life, in the very place where death had come in through the "iniquity" of man. The second thing is that through resurrection she gained the assurance that the word of the Lord in Elijah's mouth was the truth. The truth of the word of grace is proven by resurrection.
Ravens had already fed Elijah. A handful of flour had kept a whole household alive. Yet only the last miracle draws her confession.
What is it that makes the man of God specially known to her, and gives his testimony the character of truth? It is this: not merely that he knows the living God, but that he knows and has had to do with the God of resurrection. Death visits the house of the widow of Zarephath. God has taken away her son. Death confronts not the widow alone, but Elijah himself. The woman's conscience knows that this death is the fruit of sin — as our conscience knows it too, if it is awake at all.
Two experiences in that one house taught her two different lessons.
God's dealings with the widow of Zarephath would not have been complete if they had not drawn from her the confession in the last verse of our chapter... She had learnt grace in the marvellous supply of her need; she learnt truth in the death of her son.
The same writer applies this to the reader.
While we see our jar of flour and jug of oil kept full, conscience tends to sleep. But when the Lord knocks at the door of our hearts by some correcting dealing, it wakes up at once and sets to work with energy on the fitting task of self-judgement.
The title is hers, not a claim Elijah made for himself. A commentator names what stood behind it.
Elijah, laying no claim to the risen child, delivers him back to the mother. The woman at once discerns that he is a "Man of God." We know also that Elijah was a "man with a nature like ours." And the man with a nature like ours was transformed into a man of God because he was a "man of prayer."
Her confession came only after the miracle. Another writer compares her with a woman who later welcomed a different prophet.
The Shunammite woman stood on higher spiritual ground than this widow of Zarephath. She saw that her visitor was a man of God before any miracle happened, while the widow needed a miracle to bring her to that conclusion. Yet God places both women in His gallery of witnesses in the words, "through faith … women received back their dead by resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35).
Death had come into her house and been undone. A commentator shows what that gave her to stand on.
So the Lord revealed Himself to her soul as the God of resurrection. In this way He established her in the truth and confirmed her faith, by causing her to rest on a foundation that lies beyond death and therefore never changes. The effect was to prove, beyond all doubt, that Elijah was a man of God, and that the word of the Lord he spoke was certain.
One writer carries the same logic forward to Christ.
In the same way, when we have learned that the Lord Jesus has the power of resurrection life, we know He is not only a man of God but the eternal Son of God. His resurrection takes from us the fear of death.
- Grace first. The flour and oil showed her God as the One who supplies need — real kindness, but not yet the whole of what she had to learn.
- Then truth. Her son's death woke her conscience. One writer ties that death to sin: a full jar lets conscience sleep, loss wakes it.
- Then resurrection. The living God is also the God who gives life back, and that is what turned her gratitude into certainty.
- Two certainties. She ends knowing the messenger and the message. He is a man of God, made so, one writer says, by prayer, and his word of grace is proven true by resurrection.
- A foundation beyond death. What she came to rest on could not be touched by the grave; One writer sees the same pattern in Christ, whose resurrection removes the fear of death.