Excerpt from my Book: Wounded Women of the Bible

A Widow’s Wound

"Zarephath is a Sidonian or Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast. Sarafand, as it is called today, is located in Lebanon about 13 miles north of Tyre. At the time the widow lived, there was a great famine. The Bible doesn’t speak of what happened to the widow’s husband, but we can assume that her husband died in the famine. The widow was now left to care for herself, as well as their son. With no possibility of producing crops, and animals moving to greener pastures, food became scarce. Suddenly, the widow’s dire circumstances placed her in a terrible situation--creating an unbearable wound.  

Heavy laden and burdened, she bent over to pick up a piece of dead wood. Her eyes swept across the barren, cracked land to find another. It had not rained for over three years. As she took several more steps on the hard earth, dust rose and clung to her dirty feet. Her weak body turned, and she grabbed at another twig. Because her thoughts lay elsewhere, she did not notice the man walking toward the city gate.

 “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so that I might have a drink?” Elijah called out to her.

Weak and too depressed to say a word, she simply left to get the water.

“And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” He asked.

Stunned by his request, she turned and replied, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don’t have any bread–only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.”

With heartbreak etched on her face, she continued, “I am gathering sticks to take home and make a meal for me and my son, that we may eat it - - - and die.” (1 Kings 17: 10-12 NIV)

Was that her solution – death? In her suffering and desperate need, she couldn’t see that there might be any other way out of her circumstances. The reality was that she and her son would die, because they were about to eat the last of their food.

Elijah must have noticed her emotions. This man of God traveled through the wasteland. He understood the drought. He understood her place of complete and utter brokenness. He also understood that God sent him to her, and that God chose this woman to help him.

Thick emotion hung in the air.

Elijah, stepped closer to the widow. He, too, was tired and worn from his travels. Settled beneath the wings of his Lord, he gently spoke, “Don’t be afraid.” (vs. 13)

At those words, my emotions would have spilled over: “Don’t be afraid.” How many times in our distress have we longed for someone to speak that phrase to us? Elijah was a prophet of the Lord and could discern her fear and hopelessness.

The Bible doesn’t tell how she responded when Elijah expressed those words, but let us imagine. Was she in such despair she couldn’t cry? Or did long-buried emotions come flooding forth? Whatever her reaction, she stood in the stillness without whispering a word.“Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me, and then make something for yourself and your son.” (vs.13) Any normal mother would fight back or raise her voice against such an insane command. They would have guarded what little food they had left. But there was simply no fight left in her–she had given up. She didn’t know anything about this man who stumbled into her broken world, who now stood before her, asking her to prepare him a meal with the last of her food. 

A stillness must have settled on the two of them as Elijah gently said, “For 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.” (vs. 14) Without saying a word, the woman turned to obey Elijah’s request.

For each of us, there will be a moment God speaks--through his word or through someone else. He will send us help and hope. He will give us a choice to either move forward or stay sunken in our great despair. The woman chose to obey Elijah. Because of her obedience, there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family: “For 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.” (I Kings. 17:15-16 NIV)

There are wounds we will face due to our circumstances.  It may feel as if our circumstances will be the death of us, but they will not. We will feel like the widow of Zarephath--despairing and defeated. But hope is waiting. God is waiting."

If you are feeling despair during this season - don't lose hope. God will feed you - it may not be in the way you expect, but He will feed you if you let Him.

 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone