She knew this day would eventually come. She just hadn’t expected it to come so soon. She had watched the land dry up as day after day there was no rain. She had watched her food supplies dwindle with each of these rainless days. The day she realized that the food remaining would soon not be enough for her and her son to survive on, she began to ration the food supplies little by little, hoping he son wouldn’t notice.
However, he had noticed weeks ago when he had to start going to sleep at night on an empty stomach. It was so hard for her to watch her son slowly starve to death. While she greatly missed her husband and daily wished he had not died at so young an age, she was glad that he was not around to watch his family’s last day.
That morning she opened the flour jar and there was only a handful left. There was just enough oil to make one last cake of meal for her and her son. After that, there was nothing left. She and her son would die together.
She quietly left the house so as not to wake her sleeping son. She needed some bits of wood to make the fire for their last meal. Every bit of wood inside the city of Zarephath had been used. She would have to look for wood outside the city gates. She didn’t feel safe outside the gates, but then, what would it matter. She and her son would be dead soon anyway. With a heavy heart, she headed outside the city.
She was so focused on her task of gathering enough sticks for the fire that she hadn’t heard the man approaching on the main road.
“[H]e called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.’” (1 Kings 17:10)
She paused for a moment. Because of the severe drought had not only dried up all their food supplies, it had also dried up the well. There was very little water left in her cistern. She wanted to save that for their last meal. As she stood there, she could hear her mother’s voice in her head asking “Where are your manners child?” She smiled to herself at the thought. She may be getting ready to die, but she couldn’t be rude to a stranger. She told the man she would be pleased to get him some water.
“And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’” (1 Kings 17:11)
She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned back toward the stranger. She could tell he was a Jew by the way he dressed and spoke. If she wasn’t going to die soon, she would have loved to sit with this man and ask him the questions that were burning in her heart. She had heard of the God of the Jews and the power their God had. She had felt a strange desire to know this God, but she had never been given the opportunity. And now the opportunity had come to her, only it was too late.
“So she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’” (1 Kings 17:12)
There. She had said it out loud. The grief and the fear came tumbling out of her eyes and down her cheeks. She had expected the stranger to turn away and leave. Instead he kept standing there, smiling. Why was he smiling?
“And Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: “The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.”’” (1 Kings 17:13-14)
She stood there amazed. The God of Israel had sent word directly to her. He knew who she was! He knew her circumstances. She was not lost and forgotten after all. She chose in that moment to believe the Word of the God of Israel. A peace flooded her soul that she had never experienced before. She would now have the chance to learn about Israel’s God.
“So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:15-16)
The widow of Zarephath trusted in the Word of God that day even when her circumstances looked absolutely hopeless. As a result, not only did she and her son live, but she had the opportunity to learn directly from the prophet Elijah about the God she had only previously heard of. Her life was completely changed because she trusted in the power of the Word.
“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” (2 Samuel 22:31)
This is why Binding Broken Hearts is passionate about getting God’s Word into prisons and into the hands of inmates who so desperately need that Word so that the power of the Word can completely change their lives and bring them into a close, personal relationship with their Savior. Because these are men and women who need Jesus most.
Perhaps you want to help spread the power of His Word to an inmate who desperately needs its power. If so, please consider becoming a financial partner with us. Click here to see how you can help.