Chapter 10—The Voice of Stern Rebuke
This chapter is based on
1 Kings 17:8-24
;
18:1-19
.
For a time Elijah remained hidden in the mountains by the brook
Cherith. There for many months he was miraculously provided with
food. Later on, when, because of the continued drought, the brook be-
came dry, God bade His servant find refuge in a heathen land. “Arise,”
He bade him, “get thee to Zarephath, [known in New Testament times
as Sarepta], which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have
commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
This woman was not an Israelite. She had never had the privileges
and blessings that the chosen people of God had enjoyed; but she was
a believer in the true God and had walked in all the light that was
shining on her pathway. And now, when there was no safety for Elijah
in the land of Israel, God sent him to this woman to find an asylum in
her home.
“So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks:
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and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a
vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to
her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.”
In this poverty-stricken home the famine pressed sore, and the
pitifully meager fare seemed about to fail. The coming of Elijah on the
very day when the widow feared that she must give up the struggle to
sustain life tested to the utmost her faith in the power of the living God
to provide for her necessities. But even in her dire extremity she bore
witness to her faith by a compliance with the request of the stranger
who was asking her to share her last morsel with him.
In response to Elijah’s request for food and drink, the widow said,
“As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two
sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may
eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast
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