1 Kings 17:17-18:19

1 Kings 17:17-18:19

After seeing God’s amazing provision, the widow that Elijah had ministered to experienced great tragedy. Her son became quite ill and that illness led to his death. The woman was obviously upset, as she thought that God was going to take care of them. He had given them food that never ran out so that they could survive the drought that had ravaged the land, but now He had taken her son away from her. So she questioned Elijah as to why her son passed away. Is this not a common question today? It is still hard to understand why bad things happen to those who follow God. We think that life should go along smoothly and without trouble for those who are God’s children. But the truth is that we experience heartache just like everyone else. It is at those times that we must remember to turn to God for strength and for answers, and that is exactly what Elijah did. He carried the young man to a bed and immediately went to God for answers. He prayed, asking God to allow this child to live again. He knew that God could give this boy his life back if He wanted to. So Elijah boldly prayed to God asking Him to raise this boy from the dead. God heard Elijah’s prayers, and restored the boy to his mother. This miracle helped the widow to believe and showed what great faith Elijah had in his God, a faith that we should have as well. Sometimes God answers our prayers in the way we want, and sometimes He does not. Whatever the case, we must never lose faith in Him. He sees the larger picture, and He knows what He is doing. He knows what is best for our lives as He sees how everything fits together. So we have to learn to trust Him, that He knows what is best.


Elijah’s faith was about to be tested even more in 1 Kings 18. God wanted Elijah to return to Ahab to set up preparations for what was about to be another great miracle. God was getting ready to reveal Himself in another mighty way, and He was going to use Elijah to do so. The land had gone for years without rain, and the drought had become quite severe in parts of Israel. It was so bad that Ahab was sending men out all across the land to find the small patches of grass around the wells to feed their animals, hoping that they did not lose much more of their livestock. One of the men Ahab enlisted was a prophet by the name of Obadiah who had aided several other prophets when Jezebel went on her rampage of killing off God’s prophets. Now he was searching the land for what was little grass was left, and in the process he ran into Elijah. Elijah was on his way back to speak with Ahab, to tell him that rain would soon come. But when Elijah asked Obadiah to announce his coming to Ahab, Obadiah feared for his life. Ahab hated Elijah, and Obadiah did not want to be the one to bring the bad news to the king. Elijah assured Obadiah that he would come quickly so that the king would not take his anger out on Obadiah.

When Elijah arrived in Israel, Ahab was extremely upset with him, blaming him for the drought. Elijah reminded him that it was because of his disobedience to God that no rain had fallen over the last several years. Elijah was getting ready to show Ahab who His God really was. The gods that Ahab had been worshipping were nothing but creations in the minds of me, and Elijah was ready to prove that fact to Ahab. So he had Ahab gather up all his prophets (who were actually false prophets) for what was going to be a showdown on Mount Carmel. Elijah was about to show Ahab God’s power.

Matt