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.”
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.
The Meaning of Stretching Himself
One commentator treats the strange physical act as a confession, not a technique. He points to the margin reading, where the word means "measured".
Hamilton SmithElijah 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 Word "Cried"
The verse does not say Elijah spoke or asked. Twice in this passage the text says he cried out.
W. W. FeredayThis 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.
"O LORD my God"
The prayer is short. The way Elijah addresses God shows a relationship already known and tested.
Hamilton SmithHe 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:
W. W. FeredayNotice 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?
Faith Without Precedent
Nobody had ever come back from the dead in the record up to this point. Elijah asked anyway.
W. W. FeredayScripture 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.
What the Prayer Assumes About the Soul
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.
J. N. DarbyThe 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.
What the Widow Gained
The answer to this prayer taught the mother something new about God.
The Christian's FriendThe 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.
Summary
- 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.