1 Kings 17:1–18:2
Like a bolt of lightning that splits the night sky — that is how Elijah appears on the stage, in the royal palace of Ahab, and begins his ministry.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” (1 Kings 17:1)
Who is Elijah? We are told nothing about him except that he is a man of Gilead, from Tishbe. It is as though the narrator is following the words of Jesus: “By their fruit you will recognize them.” He does not tell us in advance who and what Elijah is; instead he leaves us to draw our own conclusions about his character as he recounts his deeds. By the end of this chapter we already understand who Elijah is — a man of God and a prophet who speaks the word of the Lord faithfully. In verse 24, after the resurrection of her son, the widow of Sidon says to him: “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” That is why I call this chapter “the calling card of the prophet Elijah.” In it we get acquainted with Elijah and understand that he is a prophet of God, even though King Ahab and the rest of the Israelites do not believe him at first. The name Elijah means “God is Yahweh,” and this is the truth he fights to establish.
What can we learn about God from “Elijah’s calling card”? What is God like? What can He do? What is His attitude toward us? These are the questions we can find answered in this chapter.
WHY DOES A “DROUGHT” COME INTO OUR LIVES?
Up to this point Elijah is unknown. We know nothing about him. And yet he stands before the king of Israel and authoritatively informs him that from now on whether or not it rains will depend on his command.
As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. (1 Kings 17:1)
This is not a dialogue but a declaration on Elijah’s part, one that expects no answer. Elijah makes a very strong statement concerning precipitation — rain and dew. For the coming — notice, not days but years — not a drop will fall from the sky.
This was an incredible and merciless drought. Why a drought? We find the answer at the end of the preceding chapter 16 (verses 28–33).
Omri rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king. In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. (1 Kings 16:28–29)
Ahab was the name of the king before whom the prophet Elijah appeared. What kind of king was he? He was the worst king Israel ever had. In addition to the worship of the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Dan and Bethel, under the influence of his wife Jezebel, who was a pagan, Ahab also introduced the idol worship of Baal.
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him. (1 Kings 16:30–33)
King Ahab had abandoned the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and had begun to worship Baal. And Baal was a god of rain and fertility. Now, however, Elijah comes and says that he is shutting up the heavens and that Baal will no longer be able to give rain. By this he demonstrates that rain does not come from Baal but from Yahweh, the God of Israel.
This was something that had been foretold in God’s Law. In Deuteronomy 11:13–17 we read:
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. (Deuteronomy 11:13–15)
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. (Deuteronomy 11:16–17)
This drought is described in Deuteronomy 28:23–24 like this:
The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:23–24)
When does a “drought” come into our lives? When we turn away from God and begin to serve other gods — gods that are not gods but have taken first place in our lives. Then God, in His jealousy, withdraws and hides His face from us. And that is the worst thing that can happen to us. God is love, but He is also “a consuming fire” — a jealous God. In Exodus 34:14 it says:
Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14)
God’s jealousy is not something merely Old Testament. In the New Testament the apostle James says (James 4:4–5):
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? (James 4:4–5)
Does not the apostle Paul say the same thing (1 Corinthians 10:21–22)?
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:21–22)
If a “drought” comes into our lives, if we feel weak and worn out, if we have no desire for anything, what must we do so that God will end this drought? We must repent and turn to Him with all our heart. If you feel worn out, repent of your sins, turn back to God with all your will, and begin to seek Him! Declare a fast. If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (James 4:8–10)! In Isaiah 58:8–9 it says that if you fast the way that is pleasing to God:
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. (Isaiah 58:8–9)
May God help us. May we not fall into idolatry. May we not think that the blessings in our lives come from somewhere else, when in fact God is our source. We must know that God is a jealous God, who is grieved when we leave Him, and who often uses “drastic measures” to bring us back to Himself.
WHAT DO WE DO WHEN “OUR BROOK DRIES UP”?
Can you imagine how furious Ahab and Jezebel were with Elijah for shutting up the heavens so that no dew or rain would fall? They immediately begin to hunt for Elijah in order to punish him, but God hides him.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. (1 Kings 17:2–5)
In the next chapter, chapter 18, Ahab’s palace administrator, whose name is Obadiah, says to Elijah (verse 10):
As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. (1 Kings 18:10)
God, however, had hidden His servant so that no one could find him. Elijah stayed alone by the Kerith Ravine, and no one knew where he was.
The fact that Elijah hid from the people seemed to symbolize the fact that God had turned His back on His people and hidden His face from them because of their idolatry.
So Elijah lived in solitude beside the Kerith Ravine.
The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. (1 Kings 17:6)
Ravens are included in the list of unclean birds (Leviticus 11:15). They are birds that feed on carrion. When they land on the carcass of a dead animal or person, the first thing they peck out is the eyes. Interesting, then, that God commanded precisely these creatures to bring Elijah not just bread, but bread and meat, twice a day. This was a great miracle. Can you imagine how sad the ravens were? Contrary to their nature, instead of eating the bread and meat they found, they carried it to Elijah and served it to him.
And Elijah was doing well — he ate regularly of bread and meat and drank water from the brook. But one morning, when he woke up, he ran into an unpleasant surprise. To put it in modern terms, he “went to brush his teeth, and the water had been shut off.”
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. (1 Kings 17:7)
The drying up of the brook is a sign of the severity of the drought. By now a good deal of time must have passed since the drought began, and the famine had set in with full force.
Sometimes in our own lives it is as though our brook dries up. We have been sent by God to a certain place, and God has promised that He will supply our needs there, but then it is as though the brook dries up. What must we do then? Does the fact that the brook has dried up mean that God did not send us to this place? Does the fact that the brook has dried up mean that God has stopped caring for us? No. The fact that the brook has dried up means that we must go again to God and ask Him for new and fresh guidance for our lives.
So if you feel thirsty, do not moan and complain, but instead begin to pray for guidance and ask God where to head, so that you may fulfill His will for your life! He will answer you, just as He answered Elijah.
WILL YOU HONOR GOD FIRST, OR WILL YOU DIE?
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” (1 Kings 17:8–9)
It is as though God waits for the crisis to arrive in full force in order to display His power over Baal. Why does God send Elijah precisely to Zarephath? Zarephath is a Phoenician Mediterranean port. Today the place is called Sarafand, and it is a village on the hills along the coast. But why Zarephath? It lies right between Tyre and Sidon — in the very center of the cult of Baal. Jezebel herself was from Sidon — she was the “daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians” (1 Kings 16:31). There, where Baal is expected to supply oil and flour, they are lacking; yet God provides for Elijah precisely there.
Why to the widow in particular? Perhaps because God is glorified when the powerless and weak experience His miracles and their needs are met.
So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” (1 Kings 17:10–11)
“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” (1 Kings 17:12)
Can you imagine what would have happened if God had not sent Elijah to this woman so that she might feed him? She would have prepared the last meal for her family and then would have died of hunger. God, however, did not want this to happen.
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. (1 Kings 17:13)
This was a very serious test for the poor widow. She was placed before a choice. Would she trust a man she had never met, or would she turn her back on him? Would she believe in a God she had never known, or would she simply pass by? Would she honor God by caring first for His servant, or would she eat her handful of flour and die? That little loaf that Elijah asked her to knead first for him was like a grain offering before the Lord — a sacrifice that demonstrated worship of the God of Israel.
For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ (1 Kings 17:14)
Here Elijah prophesies for the second time, and the prophecy is again connected to the drought. Until the end of the drought, God says, “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry.”
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. (1 Kings 17:15–16)
God performed an incredible miracle of provision for the widow of Sidon. But it also involved her participation. She had to honor Him first with the little that was left to her. When Elijah asked her for a small loaf first for himself, she did not hesitate. She was quick to obey — and she experienced the miracle. This is what is asked of us too, if we want to taste God’s miracle-working power — not to philosophize, but to be quick to honor God — not only with our mouth, but also with our possessions. In Proverbs 3:5–10 it says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Proverbs 3:5–10)
IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LIVING GOD?
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. (1 Kings 17:17)
Does not the same thing happen to us? Sometimes, when everything is going well, suddenly something inexplicable happens that seems to topple our faith in God. Even while they were still eating from God’s flour and oil, something bad and inexplicable happened. The widow’s son fell ill, and the illness was so severe that it took his life.
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?” (1 Kings 17:18)
For some reason the widow of Sidon thought that Elijah was practically to blame for the death of her son. Elijah, however, did not answer her; instead he laid the situation before God. Perhaps this is exactly what we too should do when we run into tragic situations — not to look for who is to blame, but to pray.
“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. (1 Kings 17:19)
Here we have the privilege of hearing one of Elijah’s prayers. Elijah is utterly sincere and direct in his address to God.
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?” (1 Kings 17:20)
The question that was put to him, Elijah passes on to God. In this prayer Elijah seems to reproach God for what has happened. But God did not become angry with him. He is never angry with us when we pour out the grief of our soul before Him.
After he finished with his reproach, Elijah demanded the boy’s life back.
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!” (1 Kings 17:21)
This resurrection is unique, because it is the first instance in the Bible where the raising of a dead person is mentioned. Notice what happens at death. Death is not the end of our life. A person is not only a body; he also has a soul. And it is precisely the soul that gives life to the body.
God did not answer Elijah with words; He simply granted his request. The boy’s soul returned to him, and he came back to life.
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. (1 Kings 17:22)
Here we see that not only does Elijah listen to the word of the Lord and carry it out to the letter, but God also answers Elijah’s prayers. This can be a good encouragement for us. If we are obedient to God, then our prayers too will be heard.
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!” (1 Kings 17:23)
God is a merciful God. He is a living God. He listens to and answers prayers. Nothing is impossible for Him. Even if the very worst happens, in answer to prayer God can intervene and turn tragedy into celebration. The point, however, is that every situation for which we have no answer should be laid before Him, before God, “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not” (Romans 4:17).
When Elijah said to the woman of Sidon, “Look, your son is alive,” she answered with a simple confession of faith:
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.” (1 Kings 17:24)
Now, after she has tasted God not only in the miraculous preservation of the life of herself and her family, but also in the resurrection of her beloved child, she turns from Baal to Yahweh. Her words are like a foreshadowing of the people’s response when, later, God answers Elijah’s prayer with fire. Then the people fall on their faces in worship and cry out (1 Kings 18:39):
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” (1 Kings 18:39)
It is as though this whole chapter was written precisely for this — so that we too might understand who Elijah is and who the living God is.
After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1–2)
Once everyone already knew who Elijah was, and after three years of drought had passed, God sent His servant — now as an established prophet of God — to continue his ministry to the people once more. He was again on his way to appear before King Ahab. But if before no one knew anything about him, by this time Elijah had already performed three miracles that had become widely known:
- The shutting up of the heavens
- The multiplying of the flour and the oil
- The resurrection of the son of the widow of Sidon
Each one of these three miracles has its own deep meaning. The shutting up of the heavens demonstrates God’s wrath against idolatry and His love and jealousy for His people. If there is a “drought” in your life, then receive it as a call to repentance. Repent and turn to the Lord with all your heart!
The multiplying of the flour and the oil is a miracle of providence and provision, which shows that God cares for the poor and the socially weak, and if we place our trust in Him we will never be disappointed. If you want to taste God’s provision in your life — do not be wise in your own eyes — honor Him with what you have!
The resurrection of the boy of the widow of Sidon is a miracle that shows us that God answers prayers and that nothing is impossible for Him. He is a God who raises the dead. If there is something in your life to which you cannot find an answer — lay it before God — nothing is impossible for Him!
Yahweh, the God of Israel, He is the living God. He is worthy of our love and adoration. To Him alone be the glory!