And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your 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?
What she learned by the raising
Her words have two halves. One writer reads them as two discoveries: one about the man in front of her, one about his message.
H. L. RossierShe 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.
Why resurrection was the proof
Ravens had already fed Elijah. A handful of flour had kept a whole household alive. Yet only the last miracle draws her confession.
Frederick W GrantWhat 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.
Grace in the jar, truth in the grave
Two experiences in that one house taught her two different lessons.
C. H. MackintoshGod'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.
C. H. MackintoshWhile 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 she gives him
The title is hers, not a claim Elijah made for himself. A commentator names what stood behind it.
Hamilton SmithElijah, 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."
Faith with a miracle, faith without one
Her confession came only after the miracle. Another writer compares her with a woman who later welcomed a different prophet.
W. W. FeredayThe 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).
Standing on ground death cannot reach
Death had come into her house and been undone. A commentator shows what that gave her to stand on.
The Christian's FriendSo 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.
Leslie M. GrantIn 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
- 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.