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, your 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 son given back from God's hand
The widow had already learned to take her daily food from God. Now she takes back her son on the same terms.
C. H. MackintoshThe 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.
Why the boy had to die first
The boy's death was no accident. It was the one experience that could teach her what grace can do.
H. L. RossierThis 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?
A powerless man who prays
Elijah hands back a child he had no power to raise himself. First he stretched himself out on the body.
Hamilton SmithElijah 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:
Hamilton SmithElijah, laying no claim to the risen child, delivers him back to the mother.
Two things the mother learned
The miracle taught the mother two things: who Elijah was, and whether his message could be trusted.
H. L. RossierShe 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.
Grace that crossed the border
Heaven was shut over Israel at the time. The widow Elijah was sent to lived outside it.
J. N. DarbyIn 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 it means for us
What the widow learned about the messenger, we learn about Christ.
Leslie M. GrantElijah 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.
Summary
- 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.