In the midst of the excesses of kings, a widow's story
1 Kings 17:13 (verse 37 of 145)
Elijah said to her, “Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said. But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here. Then go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son.”
The above verse moves us solidly into the middle of 1 Kings. The Message translates Elijah’s words to the widow, which in other versions of the Bible appear as “Do not be afraid,” to “Don’t worry about a thing.” Worry is another way fear shows up in our lives. Elijah sees her worry, and then sort of airily dismisses it.
But this widow has a lot to worry about. A great famine is over Israel. She has only enough flour and oil to make a small, final meal for her and her son, and then she expects they will die. So when she encounters Elijah outside her village (he is on the run from King Ahab who wants him dead for prophesying the famine), and he asks her to share with him, the first miracle is that she listens to him. He tells her her oil and flour will never run out. She takes the last of her food and shares it. And Elijah’s words come true. Every day there is enough oil and flour to make a meal.
In his preface to First and Second Kings, Eugene Peterson explains that beginning with Saul, Israel had 500 years of kings, and less than a handful could be considered “good” and even they failed in shepherding God’s people. He writes:
The books of Kings . . . are a relentless exposition of failure—a relentless five-hundred-year documentation proving that the Hebrew demand of God to “have a king” was about the worst thing they could have asked for.
But through the centuries, readers of this text have commonly realized something else: In the midst of the incredible mess these kings are making of God’s purposes, God continues to work his purposes and uses them in the work—doesn’t discard them, doesn’t detour around them; he uses them. They are part of his [God’s] sovereign rule, whether they want to be or not, whether they know it or not. . . . The books of Kings provide a premier witness to the sovereignty of God carried out among some of the most unlikely and uncooperative people who have ever lived (422-423).1
The way God chooses to work God’s plan of salvation for the world is always unexpected. Elijah and the widow and her son survive the three-year famine one day at a time. There is no huge stockpile of food they draw from. Instead, the text suggests that each day the widow prepares a meal, and there is simply enough. They have to wake each day not knowing for sure. I wonder if the widow gingerly lifted the jar each morning testing its weight. Did she peek inside the flour container just to be sure? They get through that terrifying time of famine, drought, and death moment by moment, and they get through it together.
In the first seventeen chapters of 1 Kings, we hear about the exploits and excesses of the kings of Israel, and then suddenly we get the daily routine of a widow, on whose hospitality and faithfulness Elijah depends. Her life is hidden, seemingly insignificant, and yet she is absolutely essential to God’s plan of salvation, for Elijah will emerge to end the drought, to confront King Ahab again, and embarrass the prophets of Baal. What can this widow teach us about facing fear in the midst of a deeply uncertain future? Hospitality to the stranger. Generosity. A willingness to trust God will show up to meet us every single day.
daily bread...
136265
One day at a time!👍