Bible Studies
A Widow’s Son Raised (1 Kings 17:17ff)
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. In the days of Israel’s king Ahab Elijah was God’s prophet. 2. Perplexed by the evil of Baal worship Elijah prayed to God that it might not rain on the earth for three years and six months.a. Elijah’s appeal to God was motivated by his desire for Israel’s repentance.
b. Baal was an agricultural deity, considered the god who controlled rain. The thunderbolt was his trademark.
c. Elijah sought to prove that Jehovah was the one and only God and that along with everything else he controlled he controlled the rain.
3. During the drought Elijah stayed with a widow in the Canaanitish town of Zarephath, who had a young son who must have brought her great comfort. 4. The episode that we are about to read took place during Elijah’s stay with this widow. I would like to read the account in your hearing and make some observations about some principles suggested by the text.Discussion:
I. Remembrance of sin results in death (vs. 17-18, 20).A. Some people have the idea that if some calamity befalls them it is a result of some sin they have committed.
1. The widow in this account has some similar view. While it seems that she does not have any particular sin in mind, she thinks that her son’s death is related to her violations. Elijah may have a similar view. Note his prayer in vs. 20.
2. Here is a woman who is a Canaanite who has a knowledge of sin and identifies death as a consequence.
3. In her thinking a man of God in your presence reminds God of your sins. Typical human thinking—“Don’t curse in front of the preacher.”
4. We know that calamity is not necessarily punishment from God for sins committed (Lk. 13:1-5). But we also know that God is fully aware of our sins. No sin escapes his eye.
B. God’s remembrance of our sin does draw the death penalty (spiritually). See Rom. 6:23.
1. Rom. 4:5-8: “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
2. God said that under the new covenant “I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12; 10:17).
C. If God did punish people’s sins by the death of someone they love, who would get sick and die for your sins? Would their sickness bring you to God’s prophet?
II. God is merciful. He gives life to the dead; and restores sons to sinners (vs. 19-22).A. Elijah recognized that God is in control not only of the rain, but of life itself. He goes to God with the dead son. His appeal is reasonable if God is a God of compassion, useless if He is not.
B. Elijah is confident not only in God’s power, but in God’s character. Thus his prayer for the child’s life to return to him.
C. Throughout Scripture God’s life giving power is evidenced.
1. Breathed into man the breath of life at the creation (Gen. 2:7).
2. Rom. 4:17 says He “gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”
3. Paul reasoned that God “gives to all life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25).
4. Numerous accounts of others raised from the dead by God, including the greatest of all, Jesus.
D. If one of your loved one’s died for your sin would you then appeal to God as the one who gives life?
1. Would imply that you believe God is merciful.
2. Would imply that you believe God is powerful.
III. Miracles authenticate the word of truth (23-24).A. The Canaanitish woman was no fool. She drew the logical common sense conclusion from what she had witnessed: “I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
B. Miracles do two things:
1. Authenticate the messenger: “Now I know you are a man of God.”
2. Authenticate the message: “The word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
C. Like so many miracles in the N.T. I think this is a miracle demonstrating the compassion of God.
1. Nothing is explicitly mentioned in the text to this effect, but it seems to be underlying Elijah’s appeal to God.
2. A widow bereaved of her husband and now bereaved of her son. Is God compassionate? Elijah was. His God was too.
3. An important point to be understood. How could anyone serve a God who was not compassionate to the widow’s circumstance?
4. God’s response proved Elijah a man of God and his words the words of God.
D. God’s message to us is authenticated by miracles.
1. Mk. 16:17-20.
2. Heb. 2:2-4.
E. The greatest miracle of all is the resurrection of Jesus.
Conclusion:
1. Many of us would be shocked to think that someone that we loved and cherished died as a result of our sin. 2. We would be shocked out of our complacency if something so traumatic happened to us. We would pray to God for that person’s life. Perhaps we would be softened to the point of repenting of our sins and begging God’s forgiveness. 3. And yet, that is exactly what has happened. An only son has died for our sins and through the greatest miracle of all, his resurrection, God has authenticated that He is a God of compassion and a God of power. 4. God’s loves sinful widows and has brought to life the son of their comfort.
