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Commentary On: 1 Kings 17:8-16The story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath brings to us yet again that central biblical word that God's gift of life will not allow death to prevail. ContextThis story is part of the larger cycle of Elijah stories which stretches from 1 Kings 17--2 Kings 2. Chapter seventeen introduces us to Elijah with three stories that show God as the power to life in the midst of death and Elijah the prophet as the mediator of that divine power. The chapter begins with Elijah's announcement of a terrible drought which casts its mantle of death over the land and is the underlying crisis in all these stories. The three stories are interrelated by themes of life and death and are to be read together. In verses 2-7 Elijah takes refuge in the desert and is fed by ravens and sustained by water in the wadi even during a drought. In our story (vv. 8-16) life comes through Elijah's mediation of God's word and the graceful hospitality of the widow in sharing the very last of her food. In the final story (vv. 17-24) the widow's son dies, and Elijah dramatically invokes God's power to life to restore the widow's son. There is a progression here of Elijah's role. In the first he trustfully receives God's gift of life; in the second he announces the action of God's word to bring life in the face of the widow's need; in the last story Elijah is the active agent summoning God's power to bring life. The movement is from passive to active and prepares us for the role Elijah is to play in the great contest on Mt. Carmel where the issue once again is that of life or death, and who is in control of life and death, Yahweh or Baal. The stories of chapter seventeen serve to establish Elijah's authority for the great encounter to come in chapter eighteen. Since Baal was the God of the rain storm and of fertility, the drought itself is a challenge to Baal's power, and each of the stories in chapter seventeen represents an implicit victory over Baal through the ability of God's prophet to bring life in the midst of death. The contest on Carmel in chapter eighteen brings the conflict with Baal into the public arena. Elements of the StoryThe setting for this story is established by God's surprising command to go to Zarephath which belongs to the great Phoenician city of Sidon. This is the heart of Baal's territory and is the city from which Jezebel herself comes (16:31). It is ironic in the land of the fertility God to find drought so severe that the villagers of Zarephath are near death. In this droughtstricken landscape Elijah is directed by God to the household of a widow who will feed him (v. 9). When he encounters her the prospects do not seem very hopeful. She is gathering sticks, and Elijah asks her for water and for food (vv. 10-11). Her response begins with an oath invoking Yahweh (surprising in this land of Baal) and quickly makes clear the deathly condition of this place. She tells Elijah she has only one small handful of meal and a little oil left in a jug. Succinctly she uses a sequence of verbs that are ominous in effect. She will gather wood, go home, prepare food, eat it and die. Here also she mentions her son who becomes so central in the next story. She understands this to be the last meal for her and her son, yet she is willing to extend hospitality even for this last small fare. Elijah responds with the reassurance formula associated with announcements of God's salvation, "Fear not" (v. 13). He asks again that she prepare the food but goes on to announce that the jar of meal and the jug of oil will not fail until the drought is ended. The announcement is prefaced with the prophetic messenger formula for the proclaiming of God's word, "Thus says the LORD the God of Israel" (v. 14). When the story reports that they ate for many days and the meal and oil were not exhausted this is announced as "according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah (v. 16). The power to life in this deathly scene is the word of God and Elijah is its prophetic messenger. The widow carries out Elijah's word and in turn God's word is accomplished. In an undramatic but unmistakable fashion the widow herself is portrayed as a woman of steadfast faith. She does not hesitate to respond to Elijah's needs and to share what she has although it is everything she has. It should not surprise us to find this story paired in the lectionary gospel reading with the story in Mark 12:41-44 of the widow who puts into the treasury two small coins and is praised by Jesus as the giver of the greatest gift since she gave all that she had. Her sacrificial trust is a contrast to the ostentation of the Pharisees (vv. 38-40) among whose sins are listed the "devouring of widows' houses." It is frequent in the Bible that the surprising instruments of God's grace are those regarded in the world as powerless and insignificant. Theological MeaningThe central theme of this story and of all three stories in 1 Kings seventeen is that God has the power of life and death, but it is God's gift of life which will prevail. In situations where death seems to have spoken the final word and there seems no future, God's word makes new life possible. This is nothing less than the central salvation word of Old and New Testament, Exodus and Resurrection. This surprising gift of God's life-giving grace comes where the world least expects it, to slaves in Egypt, to a widow in a foreign land in the midst of a drought, to a man suffering a criminal's death by crucifixion. Although a simple story, this tale of Elijah and the widow touches on the most central of biblical themes, and in so doing we are reminded of the trust required of us both in proclaiming God's word and receiving it in the confidence that God's word can bring life. Bruce C. Birch
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