were known for having prophets of Yahweh hunted and killed; Elijah was no exception. At one point, Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah saying she is coming for his neck:“ By this time tomorrow you’ ll be as dead as any one of those prophets”( 1 Kings 19:2 MSG).
It’ s in this same passage that Elijah runs for his life, collapses by a broom tree, and tells God he is suicidal. He wants out. He’ s exhausted and done. He doesn’ t want to keep going. Elijah’ s complaint isn’ t faithless; it is human. God meets him there, not with rebuke but with bread. He miraculously provides Elijah with a nap and some bread delivered by an angel, and when Elijah wakes up after his second nap and his second snack, he’ s ready to go again. God provides supernatural rest through simple means, and Elijah gets back up to do the work of the Lord.
I became very interested in this passage a few years ago. I found myself continually teaching it, and I wanted to understand the full scope of Elijah’ s story. It was then that I started really paying attention to the events preceding this story, and that’ s when the Lord began to stir my heart regarding 1 Kings 17. Let’ s head there now. Elijah is sent by God to go stay with a widow in Zarephath, a town that is firmly in enemy headquarters and just near Jezebel’ s hometown. It’ s important to know that this particular town was known for their worship of Baal, who was thought to control rain. But Elijah declares a drought as a punishment for their idolatry. His job is extra complicated, though, because he doesn’ t just declare the drought— he has to live through it himself. It is during this drought that God sends Elijah to the widow’ s house, where He miraculously provides for her, her son, and Elijah. What happens after that miracle is what is most interesting to me.
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah,“ What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
“ Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord,“ Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord,“ Lord my God, let this boy’ s life return to him!”
The Lord heard Elijah’ s cry, and the boy’ s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said,“ Look, your son is alive!”
Then the woman said to Elijah,“ Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”( vv. 17 – 24)
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