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Scott's Reference Library
November 9, 2003 | November 12, 2006 | November 8, 2009
1 Kings 17:8 through 1 Kings 17:16 (NIV)
8Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon
and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”
10So 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?” 11As she was going to get it, he called, “And
bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12“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 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.”
13Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But
first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me,
and then make something for yourself and your son. 14For 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 gives rain on the land.’”
15She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for
Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16For 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.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 8-16
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, and some, it is likely, would
have bidden him welcome to their houses; yet he is sent to honour and bless with
his presence a city of Sidon, a Gentile city, and so becomes the first prophet
of the Gentiles. Jezebel was Elijah’s greatest enemy; yet, to show her how
powerless was her malice, God will find a hiding-place for him even in her own
country. The person appointed to entertain Elijah is not one of the rich or
great men of Sidon; but a poor widow woman, in want, and desolate, is made both
able and willing to sustain him. It is God’s way, and it is his glory, to make
use of, and put honour upon, the weak and foolish things of the world. O woman,
great was thy faith; one has not found the like, no not in Israel. She took the
prophet’s word, that she should not lose by it. Those who can venture upon the
promise of God, will make no difficulty to expose and empty themselves in his
service, by giving him his part first. Surely the increase of this widow’s
faith, so as to enable her thus readily to deny herself, and to depend upon the
Divine promise, was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace, as the increase
of her meal and oil in the kingdom of providence. Happy are all who can thus,
against hope, believe and obey in hope. One poor meal’s meat this poor widow
gave the prophet; in recompence of it, she and her son did eat above two years,
in a time of famine. To have food from God’s special favour, and in such good
company as Elijah, made it more than doubly sweet. It is promised to those who
trust in God, that they shall not be ashamed in evil time; in days of famine
they shall be satisfied.