These past many days of experiencing God’s faithful providing of meal and oil for the three of them were likely ones of peace and contentment, against the broader backdrop of the drought and famine in Palestine and Phoenicia. As we’ve discussed earlier, the life of a widow was typically one of privation and deprivation, so it’s quite possible these days were an oasis of quiet and security, a break from what had likely been before a constant struggle for survival. Yet during this brief and pleasant time of respite came a calamity that pierced the poor widow to the very core of her heart.
After some unspecified time during Elijah’s stay with the widow, her son became severely ill and died. Critics claim that the boy lapsed into a coma or death-like torpor but really didn’t die, but it is unmistakably clear throughout this passage that the boy indeed died. It’s impossible to miss the significance of the text, which clearly states that there was no breath, or life, left in the young lad.
neshāmâ (nesh-aw-MAW): this feminine noun occurs around twenty-five times meaning “breath, wind, spirit.” The breath of humans is recognized as the source and center of life (Job 27:3). It is also understood that such breath originates with God, and He can withhold it, thereby withholding life from humanity (Gen 2:7; Job 34:14; Isa 42:5). Therefore, people's breath was also a symbol of their weakness and frailty (Isa 2:22).
With her only child dead, gone also was her only hope for the future and reason for living. The tie between a mother and an only son is, some consider, the closest and tenderest of all blood relationships; and it has been remarked that it is peculiarly strong and sacred in the East. “The only son of his mother and she was a widow” (Luke 7:12): who does not feel the pathos of these words! From a cultural standpoint, this was a double blow, as without a husband and a son to carry on the family name, there was no other reason for her to exist. There would be no one to care for her or to give her a reason to live. Her son could have one day worked and perhaps been successful enough to pull them out of their life of poverty and want. In him she had centered all her love and hope, and now with his death, even that very glimmer of hope was gone. There was nothing left for her. Before she had been destitute, but she had her son. Now even that had been taken from her. In this moment of extreme pain and anguish we see that there was something else going on within her as well, twisting and digging the knife ever deeper and more painfully into her mother’s heart.
17:18 “And she saith unto Elijah, ‘What--to me and to thee, O man of God? Thou hast come unto me to cause mine iniquity to be remembered, and to put my son to death’!” (YLT)
The widow confronts Elijah with the Hebrew idiom mah-lli walak, meaning “What do we have to do with each other?” This was a common Semitic way to express emphatic denial or differences of opinion between the persons involved (Judg 11:12; 2 Sam 16:10; 2 Kgs 3:13; John 2:4).
As this anguished mother was clutching the body of her dead child to her bosom, her next statement reveals the deep guilt and troubled conscience that she has been carrying for some time. In her agony, she cries out of some secret sin, for which she supposes that God was punishing her by killing her son. As God had shut up heaven upon a sinful land in consequence of the prophet, she was suffering on a similar account, with her only son the victim of her sin. She concludes Elijah had been sent to punish her. At first she and her son had benefited from his presence, but perhaps if he had not come, her son would have lived (forgetting, of course, that he would have starved). Prophets were often considered dangerous and having one around posed considerable risk. The gods could be harsh taskmasters as often as they could be generous benefactors, and the prophets represented them. Additionally, if the prophet were to become angered or offended at any little thing, he might, in an uncontrolled moment, pronounce some sort of curse that would inevitably come true.
There is something inherent within us that instinctively shrinks from the presence of the Divine. Whether an Adam and Eve in the garden hiding in fear from the presence of God (Gen 3:8-10), an Isaiah pronouncing doom upon himself in front of the throne (Isa 6:1-5), or a Peter begging Jesus to leave his sinful presence (Luke 5:8), the fierce bright light of God’s holiness cuts through our facades and bravado, bringing us face-to-face with our sinful state. On a far lower scale, how often do people even feel guilty when they realize they’re talking to a pastor or other spiritual leader?
The certainty in the widow’s mind that her son’s death was caused by her sins was reinforced by the culture of that day, which believed personal tragedy and suffering was brought upon oneself due to their sins. Recall the remonstrations from Job’s friends – surely he had sinned greatly to have suffered so terribly. Consider the disciples’ question to Jesus when they encountered the blind man: “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Today we might phrase the question, “What have I done to deserve this?” Yet the Bible does not teach an inevitable cause-and-effect connection between sin and suffering (or between righteousness and blessing), but leaves room for suffering which is undeserved and unexplained, from the human point of view. While clearly there are consequences for sin, not all suffering comes as a result of sin. That truth is evident in Job, and what was Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question? “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (John 9:3)
We live in a world where nothing is stable, and where life is full of strange twists and turns. As we discussed in the previous lesson, both Elijah and the widow had been faithful in their respective roles, and had been daily partaking in the fruit of their faith. Now, seemingly in spite of their faith and obedience, they experience a severe trial in the sudden death of the widow's son. Isn’t that so consistent with the way we think and feel entitled? Isn’t there a prevailing belief that if we live right, we should be exempt from suffering? Why else do people ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “People, somehow, are given to believe, either through wrong teaching or false preaching, that if they put their confidence in Christ; if they are obedient to His commands; if they act in forthright faith, all will be well for the rest of their days. They conclude somehow that they will automatically be exempted from the tragedy and turmoil of their times.” (Phillip Keller)
Yet what does the Bible teach? “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19). Yes, Virginia, there will be suffering, but we can be assured that the Lord is ever in control and will deliver us.
“Affliction is no more proof of wrath than is the farmer's plowing of his field. To him, with his eye upon the future harvest, it is only the needful preparation of the soil.” (J. Urquhart).
“Extra-ordinary afflictions are not always punishment for extra-ordinary evils but sometimes the trial of extra-ordinary graces.” (Matthew Henry).
“It often happens that God exercises His people with the heaviest trials when they have been the recipients of His richest blessings . . . Having tasted experimentally of the Lord's goodness, they are better fitted to meet adversity.” (Arthur Pink).
17:19 “He said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.” (NASB)
17:20 “Then he cried out to the Lord and said, ‘My Lord God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son’?” (HCSB)
Elijah’s response and actions provide a glimpse beyond the harsh exterior, exposing the very human side of him. He was obviously deeply moved. Notice how he doesn’t try to correct the widow’s errant theology, he doesn’t berate her for getting carried away in accusing him, and he doesn’t probe to determine what salacious details the widow has been keeping locked up within her. He doesn’t blame her or fault her. This was not the time for words or lessons. His response instead was to take part with her in her misery – to come alongside her.
Elijah took the little boy from her arms into his arms and carried him outside and up into the upper room, where he had been lodging. Many homes in Palestine at that time had rooms built on their roofs, which were accessible by a staircase outside of the house. The upper room was considered “the best apartment in an Eastern house” (Rawlinson), and it was typically a large, airy room, the choice location during the cool evening breezes when the sun was setting.
Obviously Elijah was not party to some punishment on the widow for her past sins. He clearly had no idea why this tragedy had struck. He couldn't believe that the Lord would miraculously provide food for the three of them and then allow the son to die. It just didn't make sense. His deep compassion for the widow leads him to intercede for her, bewildered and angry at this tragic loss. “Have You also” – in addition to the misery and suffering the widow had faced during the famine that he had himself brought upon the land. We see hear guilt and acknowledgement on Elijah’s part now, that it was because of him the widow had suffered previously. Elijah questions if the Lord had caused the son’s death. Note this is not a question of “why did You do this.” The why of God’s actions are not to be challenged by man. It is not for us to call into question His ways, which we would like not fully comprehend anyways. The meaning here is that he was pleading with God to relieve the widow of this latter, greater burden, which was a further layering of her trials.
His own heart-wrenching cry to the Lord evidences how this quiet, peaceful time with the widow and the young boy had impacted him so deeply. Day by day he had been the dispenser of God's goodness to the widow and her household, and had watched the unfolding of her faith. It must have been a time of strengthening and of joy to his heart. “Elijah had to learn compassion in the house of the widow of Sarepta, before he was sent to preach to his own people.” (St. Chrysostom)
17:21 “Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the Lord and said, “My Lord God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”
It’s not known why Elijah stretched himself out on top of the young lad. Some have taken this as an example of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, since in ancient times death was determined as having taken place when the person stopped breathing. But the full weight of a man on a child would be counterproductive to that procedure. A clue into Elijah’s thinking or method may come from ancient Mesopotamian incantation literature, where the touching of part to part was believed to be a means by which demons exercise power over their intended victims – it is the idiom of possession. In this belief, vitality or life force can be transferred from one body to the other by contact of each part. Therefore by imitating the procedure believed to be used by demons, the prophet is able, through the power of Yahweh (notice the prayer), to restore the boy's life. Regardless, his posture indicated total identification with the boy and his need (though an unclean act according to the Mosaic Law, Num 19:11), just as he had done downstairs with the widow. This is an important lesson for us in how we should identify and intercede for others.
Not so coincidentally, Elisha, Elijah’s disciple, did the same in order to restore the dead child of the Shunammite, 2 Kgs 4:34, and Paul appears to have stretched himself on Eutychus in order to restore him to life, Acts 20:10.
Consider Elijah’s simple, yet heart-felt prayer. Where did he get the idea to pray for the boy’s life to be restored? There was no precedent for such a request or miracle previously in the history of Israel. The boy was dead. End of story. Right? While this is the first death-to-life miracle recorded in the Bible, such a concept was not foreign to the ancient cultures. Recall that Baal was thought to die at the hands of Mot, his chief rival and sibling offspring of El, but was brought back to life by the intervening of his consort, Anat. Canaanite myths claimed that Baal could revive the dead, so if Yahweh was supreme over Baal, then it stands to reason that He would be able to conquer death as well.
Simple prayer, yes, but how bold and audacious! Great boldness is a combination of great faith in God and great esteem of God's power. If you truly believe God has infinite power, what can He not do? What can we possible think up that would be outside of His power? As Paul asked in front of Agrippa, “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). What is too difficult or impossible for Yahweh?
“Oh, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!” (Jer 32:17)
“Look, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jer 32:27)
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)
Our lack of bold prayers is not a function of God lacking power, it’s a function of our lack of faith and narrow thinking of the vastness of God. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that the age of miracles has ceased. Interestingly, people in parts of the world that aren’t as sophisticated and knowledgeable about this, are seeing miracles. Are we not seeing miracles because that age has passed, or are we not seeing miracles because we don’t have the faith to ask for miracles? After all, the Bible is pretty clear about how we can pray: “Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).
Touching on the unfortunate, some translations have used “soul” vs. “life” in this verse: “let this child's soul come into him again.” (KJV, ASV, NJB, AMP)
Some well-intentioned authors and preachers, largely referencing the KJV translation, have used this phrase as evidence for the existence of an immortal and immaterial spirit in man, and that the spirit can and does exist in a separate state from the body. They claim that these words are important for clearly establishing the very definite distinction which there is between the soul and the body, that the soul is distinct from the body, that it does not die with the body, that it exists in a separate state after the death of the body, and that none but God can restore it to its original habitat. While not arguing against the distinctions of soul and body, it is better to not claim this verse as support.
The term here in question is the Hebrew nepesh (NEH-fesh), which has been translated “soul, self, life, heart” etc. This is a very common term in both ancient and modern Semitic languages, occurring over 780 times in the Old Testament. The noun refers to the essence of life, the act of breathing, taking breath. In its primary sense the noun appears in its first occurrence in Gen 1:20: “the moving creature that hath life.” However, from that concrete concept, a number of more abstract meanings have developed, with a wide variety of meanings and contexts. In over 400 occurrences it is translated “soul.” While this serves to make sense in many of these passages, it is an unfortunate mistranslation of the term. The real difficulty of the term is seen in the inability of almost all English translations to find a consistent equivalent or even a small group of high-frequency equivalents for the term. In other words it is virtually untranslatable by any one English word or concept. The KJV alone uses over 28 different English terms for this one Hebrew word. The problem with the English term “soul” is that no actual equivalent of the term or the idea behind it is represented in the Hebrew language.
In Hebrew usage, this term is not to be understood merely as the spiritual nature of a human being in opposition to the physical, as it may indeed refer to the physical nature, as in Lev 17:11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood…” Needless to say, rendering “soul” would be meaningless in such a text. The Hebrew system of thought does not include the combination or opposition of the terms “body” and “soul,” which are really Greek and Latin in origin. The Hebrew contrasts two other concepts which are not found in the Greek and Latin tradition: “the inner self” and “the outer appearance” or, “what one is to oneself” as opposed to “what one appears to be to one's observers.” However, in the Hebrew, these are two separate terms, the inner person represented by nepesh, while the outer person, or reputation, is shēm, most commonly translated “name.”
17:22 “So the Lord listened to Elijah’s voice, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.” (HCSB)
Canaanite myths claimed that Baal could revive the dead, but here it was Yahweh, not Baal, who gave back the boy’s life. This conclusively demonstrated that the Lord was the only true God and Elijah was His prophet. Baal may be dead, but Yahweh is not, nor is the widow’s son. Yahweh demonstrates His power not only to sustain life, as the meal and oil never ran out, but now He also clearly shows His power to impart life as well. By restoring the boy's life, Yahweh is yet again showing His power in the realm considered to be Baal's home turf.
17:23 “Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, ‘Look, your son is alive’!” (NIV)
What joy must have filled Elijah’s heart as he witnessed the miraculous answer to his intercession! It is hard to imagine the tremendous joy and release which must have swept over the widow when Elijah brought her son back to her and said “your son is alive!” Consider the powerful impact this must have made on all three of them, an impact that would have been different for each, yet immense nevertheless.
17:24 “Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth’.” (NASB)
Note the extreme irony in the widow’s words. A Phoenician woman, lowest of the low, acknowledges that Elijah spoke the word of Yahweh, while the Israelite king, highest of the chosen, worshipping his Phoenician gods, refused to see the truth. Continuing the irony, Jesus cited the story of Elijah at Zarephath to support His comment that a prophet is not accepted in His own country, in His inaugural sermon in His homeland, the result being they tried to kill Him. (Luke 4:24-30).
The widow’s statement does not mean she had been in serious doubt about Elijah's identity. She had seen plenty of evidence in the daily miracle and in Elijah's lifestyle to show his identity as a man of God. This trial simply verified it and proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. God's purpose was now evident. Her sin was not at issue, but the testing had come in order that her newly found faith might be brought to settled maturity. Yahweh was not only the God of the Hebrews but of all those who believe: “is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also” (Rom 3:29).
Consider the love and faithfulness of God for and to this widow. This Gentile, destitute widow had nothing left, no one to rely on for support. Yet omnipotent Yahweh, Creator of the universe, looked down to notice this widow, and to rescue her. He sent Elijah to her, as a means to provide for him and prepare him further for ministry, but also to provide for the widow – both physically and spiritually, healing her and freeing her of the chains of guilt and sin. How amazing, and how like our God!
Do you claim to be a Christian? To the world it may be just so many words until they see how you act under the stress of trial. They may not openly challenge your claim to being a Christian, for they can see your different lifestyle. But trials can be the real proving grounds of our profession of faith. Anyone can act nice in good times; but when troubles come, it is a different story. This is where Christianity should really show up. We read in James 1:2 “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,” and when speaking to the early Christians about their trials, Peter tells them “don’t be surprised” and encourages them to “rejoice” (1 Peter 4: 12-13). This isn’t anything new to us, we’ve read these verses countless times. Yet how many of us are able to exhibit the faith that rejoices during trials? Admittedly, it takes a strong faith to see the joy in trials when the trials first descend upon a person. Our troubles often seem to take away completely any hope of future joy.
Furthermore, trials are a classroom of extraordinary value. Trials are not a waste; they are not a loss; they are not a mistake. They teach us important truths, and can produce some of the greatest blessings we can ever know: Psa 119:71 “My troubles turned out all for the best – they forced me to learn from your textbook.” (MSG)
Interestingly, the final word in this verse is the genesis for the theory held by some that the widow’s boy is the prophet Jonah. The term “truth” is the Hebrew ’emet (EH-meth), meaning “certainty, truth, trustworthiness.” Now there are just two verses in the Old Testament that provide us with a clue as to Jonah’s background:
2 Kings 14:25 “He [Jeroboam II] restored Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.
Jonah 1:1 “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai.”
Jonah’s father’s name, Amittai, is ’amittay (am-it-TAH-ee), which is derived from ’emet. Taking the widow’s confession as evidence her son is Jonah appears to be a considerable stretch, with no other information or backing to support this theory. Such a view is largely an attempt to paint the widow a Jewess and therefore argue her home and kitchen were levitically clean and kosher for Yahweh’s prophet. This would seem to be an unfortunate focus on legalism and missing the broader lessons contained in this important stage of God’s work through and in Elijah.
Table of the dead raised to life in the Bible, excepting Jesus
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